Posted on 12/31/2001 12:33:44 PM PST by John Farson
Like millions of tourists, from the Ancient Greeks on, the Blairs may have been victims of one of the world's oldest confidence tricks when they walked round the Pyramids on the Prime Minister's holiday trip to Egypt.To the uninitiated eye, the 2.3 million blocks of stones rising to a 146-metre peak on the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid near Cairo look as solid as pure granite. But French architects and scientists believe they are nothing more than weathered concrete blocks, moulded on the spot, stone by stone and layer by layer, from the ground upwards.
The theory, being explored by scientists at Montpellier University, has thrown Egyptology into turmoil. It could destroy thousands of years of speculation on the greatest of all riddles of the sands, one that has fascinated Hollywood and made fortunes for novelists such as Christian Jacq. Researchers believe that only the reluctance of the Egyptian authorities to allow more samples to be examined stands between them and final proof.
Joël Bertho, an architect and specialist in trompe-l'oeil, used his expert knowledge of reconstituted stone to explain how easy it was to pass off concrete and mortar for real carved stone. 'It needs a trained specialist to identify the basic material,' he said.
'The Egyptians had mastered many techniques of plaster and mortar and knew all about making bricks. There is no reason why they could not reconstitute stone into blocks weighing two or three tonnes layer by layer rather than try to heave huge weights up several hundred feet without even the benefit of crude cranes. I have even been able to identify frame marks left by some moulds.'
The theory, set out in a book called La Pyramide Reconsti tuée (Unic), is largely based on the precision of the joints between the stones. 'Joints are invisible and it would be impossible to pass a cigarette paper between them. To carve blocks of solid stone to tolerances of hardly a millimetre would need incredible skill without the benefit of machine tools.'
Montpellier was drawn into the research because Bertho is designing a scientific park in the city. At its Laboratoire de Tectonophysique, Suzanne Raynaud has cut samples of stone from the Great Pyramid into thin slices to examine under a microscope. 'I went from surprise to surprise,' she said. 'The arrangement of micro-fossils had been disturbed, which could be explained by the manipulation of reconstituted stone. The components of what appears to be solid stone could have been crushed or passed through a sieve before being put into moulds.'
Other tests are under way but another top scientist, Claude Gril, said they were unlikely to be conclusive without comparisons between the blocks of stone in the pyramid walls and material from quarries where they are found. 'Unfortunately, the Egyptian Antiquities office is opposed to more detailed research, which we are carrying out with a Belgian nuclear laboratory, and will not allow more samples to be gathered for comparison,' he said.
As a result, a hunt has started among Egyptology collections in Europe, including a Rouen museum which has a rock from the Great Pyramid in its reserve. A Paris laboratory has declared that the stone is a form of mortar, but there have been protests from several Egyptologists who say Bertho's theory is nonsense.
If the claim is proved, it would destroy pages of speculation on how the pyramids were built. But until the mould theory is proved or shattered, the dominant opinion will remain Cecil B. De Mille's images of slaves and whips.
Ever been to a tile gallery?
When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, the Pharaoh denied them straw to make their bricks. This historal fact is told in Exodus 5:10. The Israelites were forced to gather stubble for their bricks instead.
It is possible for the steel that we use today could have had straw, or some other fiber used instead. It would seem, however, that straw would leave unmistakable telltale signs.
Isn't that a seizure?
The only differance would be the satisfaction of solving a riddle... geez...
THEIR GOD, IS GOD!
Pharaoh
(Seriously speaking, you're probably right.)
We assume we are operating a FULL capacity and with that as our base line for reason it is hard to understand that there could be a more intelligent early generation. Using mans wisdom we think we are the most intelligent era yet.....but yet we are unable to unravel something as simple as how were the pyramids built. There are examples all over the globe of current man's inability to explain early structures etc...yet we are soooo smart.......
Happy New Year!!!!
I must not have written clearly about the wisdom thing. I never intended to say that wisdom is all we lost, only that wisdom is the most important thing we lost.
I don't like to see the 10% brain capacity thing used in order to say we've lost 90% of what we used to have. It's just not so, but there's no way to figure quantitatively what the loss was.
That's all. HTH.
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