Millions of people visit the Pyramids in Egypt – gaze on their sheer size and scale – and pose the question: who really built these? Was it the Ancient Egyptians? Which is the view of mainstream historians. Was it aliens? As claimed by a legion of conspiracy theorists. Or, was it a a much older civilisation that has disappeared into the mists of time? As suggested by writers like Graham Hancock.
The aliens theory drives historians mad and some allege it has racist overtones. This is because of the implicit assumption that the ancestors of modern Egyptians were incapable of such technical and engineering brilliance. They must have been assisted by extra-terrestrials.
Aliens and the Pyramids
The person who did the most to popularise the aliens theory in the 1960s was the Swiss-born author Erich von Däniken in his blockbuster book, Chariot of the Gods. Von Däniken claims that extraterrestrials have visited Earth periodically throughout our history imparting their wisdom. In return, our ancestors revered these intergalactic visitors as gods – and even worshipped them.
By way of evidence for his theory, Von Däniken cites the complex equations and technology required to build the pyramids. He is dismissive about the Ancient Egyptian ability to have thrown up such marvels without external help. The answer is obvious: ancient astronauts were the true architects and planners. Only they could move the great blocks into the required position with such amazing precision.
In short, our ancestors were incapable of these engineering feats. The presence of aliens is depicted in cave paintings and primitive art – as well as being hinted at in legends and folklore. They may even have bred with humans and played a part in an alleged ancient nuclear explosion that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He argues that Lot’s wife was vaporised by the blast.
So, did aliens build the pyramids? Not according to 99% of Egyptologists. As one sceptic in the 1970s put it, why would aliens travel across the galaxy to build large paperweights in the desert? Unless of course they were huge electricity power generators – another theory that has done the rounds in recent years.
Water that flows under the Great Pyramid creates sound waves that generates piezoelectricity in the quartz-rich rose granite that makes up the interior of the pyramid releasing energy that shoots up through the inner chambers (which are not tombs) and powers nearby temples via obelisks, that are part of this ancient alien power grid. Make of that what you will.
FIND OUT MORE: Alien contact with humans – fact or myth?
God-like people built the Pyramids
For thirty years, writer Graham Hancock has published a stream of books centring on the theory that far back in the past – some twelve thousand or more years ago – a super-advanced civilisation was responsible for creating our greatest ancient monuments. These almost god-like people were capable of an incredible level of sophistication. The evidence for their activity, Hancock argues, is abundantly clear yet ignored by mainstream historians and archaeologists.
Who were these people? In Hancock’s view, the builders of the Great Pyramid of Egypt were most certainly not the so-called Ancient Egyptians of around 2,500BC. In his view, they lacked the necessary skills on several fronts including engineering, cosmology, mathematics, etc. Therefore the Great Pyramid has to be the work of a much older, long-forgotten civilisation with knowledge far ahead of its time. And its reach was global hence the prevalence of structures from Latin America to the Far East that resemble each other.
This theory echoes a long-established view that the people of Atlantis were the first civilised race in world history. The original proponent of this was an American politician and author, Ignatius L. Donnelly, in his book: Atlantis – The Antediluvian World, published in 1882. He gave talks for years trying to convince audiences that the mountain peaks of the Azores islands were all that was left of mighty Atlantis, once home to tens of millions of highly advanced people. Others have developed the theory further with refugees from Atlantis turning up in Egypt to build the pyramids.
DISCOVER: Shoot out with aliens!
When it comes to the Great Pyramid, Hancock argues that its dimensions correspond to the size of planet Earth. The number 43,200 is key to his argument. Take the height of the pyramid and multiply by 43,200 and you get the polar radius of the Earth. Measure the sides of the pyramid at its base and multiply by 43,200 and you have the Earth’s circumference. The number relates to the Earth’s “axial precession”, which is basically the degree to which our planet wobbles on its axis.
A blog post is insufficient to tackle this in great depth. But basically – in 2,500BC – the people of Egypt were not capable of making such an accurate calculation about the planet’s dimensions. Somebody else was behind the pyramids. Another civilisation much further back in time.
