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I'm watching ancient aliens and they were talking about how there are hundreds of pyramids spread throughout the world and not much is known about them including the HOW they were built, WHEN and the most important the WHY?
What I think is odd is that throughout the world there is no one that knows the answers to these questions.
In some case the peoples who built their pyramids are long gone but that is not the case in Egypt. One would think that there would have been something passed down through the centuries in either written or oral tradition.
The main pyramids in Giza have always been there looming over the city so one would think that a child would ask their grandparent what are those things and the story would be told and repeated over and over again through the centuries to today but somewhere the stories stopped.
My wife thinks that there was something evil about the pyramids so when the child asked they were told that we don't talk about those things and the story died.
Who knows but it does seem odd that given hundreds of pyramids all over the world that there isn't someone who kept the stories alive and passed them down through the generations.
I'm watching ancient aliens and they were talking about how there are hundreds of pyramids spread throughout the world and not much is known about them including the HOW they were built, WHEN and the most important the WHY?
What I think is odd is that throughout the world there is no one that knows the answers to these questions. In some case the peoples who built their pyramids are long gone but that is not the case in Egypt. One would think that there would have been something passed down through the centuries in either written or oral tradition.
The main pyramids in Giza have always been there looming over the city so one would think that a child would ask their grandparent what are those things and the story would be told and repeated over and over again through the centuries to today but somewhere the stories stopped.
My wife thinks that there was something evil about the pyramids so when the child asked they were told that we don't talk about those things and the story died.
Who knows but it does seem odd that given hundreds of pyramids all over the world that there isn't someone who kept the stories alive and passed them down through the generations.
Ideas ?
OP, you're falling for the show's hype. It captures viewers' imaginations, and hold their interest, by making things seem very mysterious, claiming that little is understood about early monumental architecture. In fact, everything is known about some of the pyramids around the world. The Aztec and Mayan pyramids, for example. They know why they were build, how they were built, and their stages of evolution from the pre-Classic period through to the European invasion. They know what the rituals were about, they have a complete understanding of the complex Mayan calendric system, the political scene from those times, etc.
Why would anyone think the Egyptian pyramids were evil? They're monuments to rulers; sophisticated burial mounds, in many cases. Status symbols.
Regarding the passing on of stories about the pyramids' construction: Herodotus in the 5th century BC wrote explicitly about the stories he had gathered regarding this. You can read what Herodotus said in this article -- he clearly knew 2500 years ago from his sources why they were built, how old they were, and how they were built - with ramps and levers.
Discovery of a diary kept by an overseer of one of the crews that moved the material shows that the limestone for construction was floated 800 miles to within yards of the construction site on boats via a series of canals constructed for the purpose:
Those are all just theories, it's not proven how the Great Pyramid was built or what the age of it is. It doesn't have to be aliens but we still don't know how they did it. The structure known as The Sphinx was never a Sphinx at all, it was recarved as you can tell by looking at how small its head is compared to the body. I'm very skeptical of this new finding we'll see how it holds up.
Last edited by wanderlust76; 09-27-2017 at 10:00 PM..
In some case the peoples who built their pyramids are long gone but that is not the case in Egypt. One would think that there would have been something passed down through the centuries in either written or oral tradition.
The main pyramids in Giza have always been there looming over the city so one would think that a child would ask their grandparent what are those things and the story would be told and repeated over and over again through the centuries to today but somewhere the stories stopped.
My wife thinks that there was something evil about the pyramids so when the child asked they were told that we don't talk about those things and the story died.
Who knows but it does seem odd that given hundreds of pyramids all over the world that there isn't someone who kept the stories alive and passed them down through the generations.
These are all good points. Repped!
I'm probably the least spiritual person in my social circle. But I do wonder. Why did people stop asking questions and telling stories, when the pyramids were right there in front of their faces? One possible theory for it is that when the hieroglyphic language was lost---later supplanted by Egyptian Arabic from arriving Muslims---nobody could understand the original stories anymore. Also, after the ancient empire fell, Egypt was quite poor; people were in "survival mode", and ancient stories were far from the top priority. But why else?
Speaking of which, I remember learning this factoid in art history in college. When looters entered King Tutankhamen's tomb, something immediately spooked them, and they ran out without taking anything. This is the main reason why Tutankhamen's tomb and mummy is so well-preserved today. Many other tombs were looted for valuables. But nobody knows what exactly spooked them. The looters didn't talk about it, and the scientists who entered the tomb later were probably fine.
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 09-28-2017 at 10:05 AM..
I'm watching ancient aliens and they were talking about how there are hundreds of pyramids spread throughout the world and not much is known about them including the HOW they were built, WHEN and the most important the WHY?
What I think is odd is that throughout the world there is no one that knows the answers to these questions.
In some case the peoples who built their pyramids are long gone but that is not the case in Egypt. One would think that there would have been something passed down through the centuries in either written or oral tradition.
The main pyramids in Giza have always been there looming over the city so one would think that a child would ask their grandparent what are those things and the story would be told and repeated over and over again through the centuries to today but somewhere the stories stopped.
My wife thinks that there was something evil about the pyramids so when the child asked they were told that we don't talk about those things and the story died.
Who knows but it does seem odd that given hundreds of pyramids all over the world that there isn't someone who kept the stories alive and passed them down through the generations.
Ideas ?
For each of the handful of pyramids that don't have records, there are dozens that do. A pyramid is the most basic structure, in some cases just 20 or 30 feet mounds of dirt, easy to construct by ancient man before the existence of written language, and civilizations come and go. The Egyptian pyramids by contrast, although extremely old, are sophisticated for that time, and thus well recorded in ancient documents and well studied basically from those ancient times to today. It's iconic. There really is no mystery about them, so I don't understand your comment about no stories in that case.
There is nothing evil about them, of course not. Don't fall into the "pyramidiot" thought process...it's a basic shape that happens to be easier to construct than a box shape. Simple as that.
. But I do wonder. Why did people stop asking questions and telling stories, when the pyramids were right there in front of their faces? One possible theory for it is that when the hieroglyphic language was lost---later supplanted by Egyptian Arabic from arriving Muslims---nobody could understand the original stories anymore.
Well, the Great Pyramids in Giza were always known, stories were told, histories were written on papyrus; even during the time of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire they were considered ancient and iconic. But remember the old ancient Egypt pretty much collapsed and was absorbed into the Hellenistic Empire. The former capital near what is now Cairo - Memphis, pretty much declined to nothing and was moved to Alexandria on the Med. No one really worried about the pyramids except to loot from them, and the pyramids and other ancient monuments were all looted badly from ancient times until today. The Muslims took it a step further by actually defacing some of the monuments.
Really the interest came back when the Europeans came in, starting with the French (Napoleon) in the late 18th century and continuing under British occupation.
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