Pyramids of the World

[trekkor]

I've always found them interesting.

What do you know?
Got any cool stories or pictures?


I'd like to visit the ones in Egypt someday when world conditions improve.
I don't really feel safe traveling over there.




KT

[Rikao4]

BTDT..as well as the ones in Copan, Honduras..
courtesy Uncle Sam..
have some pics on the other Comp..
well get to those tonight...
meantime..

Rika

[Crowbob]

My grandfather had a first edition anthropological/paleantological/Egyptological textbook about the Great Pyramid at Gizeh with VERY early photos, diagrams, cut-away drawings and unbelievable text. Apparently, there are openings that run from deep within the center of the primary tomb straight (and I mean straight like a laser) out the face of the Great Pyramid that point directly at certain stars at certain times of the calendar year which were believed to be communication conduits to the gods. These portals are precise square tubes only inches in width that do not vary or waver from perfectly straight. One theory is that the blocks that the pyramids are made from are not stone but rather some kind of poured, concrete-like substance that mirrors actual stone. The facets of the pyramids were originally covered with a veneer of impeccably white stone such that they glowed at night with the least bit of light and could be seen for miles on even the darkest of nights. The pyramids relate to each other in some mysterious geometric formation that is clearly not random but, IIRC, their meaning has not yet been deciphered. The slope of the facets of the pyramids is precisley equal to the slope generated by grains of sand through the hourglass, thus adding to their stability...

[sammyg2]

"According to science" mankind has been around for 200,000 years, but i can't help but wonder why they waitied until just 5000 years ago to start building stuff and why they started building the same giant stuff all over the world?
Curious ....... very curious

World's oldest pyramids are discovered
David Keys Archaeology Correspondent
Tuesday, 19 November 1996

Archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest pyramids - on the Atlantic coast of southern Brazil. Like the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, the South American ones seem to have been built for religious purposes. Some contain hundreds of human burials, complete with spectacular grave goods - including stone plaques, shell breast plates and beautifully made stone birds, fish, whales and other animals.

But although the functions of the Brazilian and Egyptian pyramids were to some extent the same, there was certainly no contact between ancient Egypt and Brazil, and the concept of building pyramids was invented quite independently in both places.

Dating from 3000BC, the oldest of the Brazilian pyramids predate the earliest Egyptian example by several hundred years. The construction techniques were also markedly different, each Egyptian pyramid being built in one operation, while the Brazilian ones were each built in several phases, possibly over many decades or even centuries.
World's oldest pyramids are discovered - News - The Independent

[sammyg2]

Before the First Pyramids

The mysterious era preceding the ancient pyramids
(4th edition - February 2008) by A.O. Kime

The centuries immediately preceding the building of the ancient pyramids in Egypt and China is a time of great curiosity… 10,000 BC until 5,000 BC. It was a time when the human race was undergoing its most radical transformation since the beginning. People began to leave behind isolationism, their world of small independent clans and tribes, and headed down a path towards a world of networking associations… later to be known as ‘kingdoms’ and ‘countries’ and this transformation led to the building of massive structures never before seen. It was the beginnings of civilization.

Claims to a territory would have occurred much earlier however… perhaps tens of thousands of years earlier. Just as bears or mountain lions inherently believe they have the exclusive right to an expanse of territory, so did man have this inherent belief. Except that long ago man wasn’t preparing to build monumental structures.

While it would be interesting to know when man first began to defend an expanse of territory which he considered his, nameless expanses, the boundaries of which he only visualized, this could have occurred even 200,000-300,000 years ago... but that time period is actually less a mystery. The most profound and mystifying time period were those centuries immediately preceding man’s building aspirations. The mighty questions are… what in the world caused man to want to build? And… how was it possible his first projects were such engineering marvels? Or were the stone pyramids really his first?

While there are older surviving structures, the oldest (8,000 BC) being the stone tower in Jericho, they weren't nearly as massive as the later pyramids. Yet, this 25 foot high tower deserves mention since it demonstrates, as Amihai Mazar puts it: "the existence of social organization and central authority which could recruit, for the first time in human history, the necessary means and manpower for such building operations." (quote from the book Archaeology of the Land of the Bible by Amihai Mazar)

The ancient pyramids of Egypt, China, Mexico and... Greece?
Since the Egyptians were the first to devise a calendar in 4,236 BC enabling them to date events, we know the oldest Egyptian pyramid was built during the reign of Netjenkhet Djoser, the 2nd King of Egypt's 3rd Dynasty (2687-2668 BC). However, some believe the oldest pyramids exist in China... alleging the oldest of the approximately 100 pyramids were built around 4,500-5,000 BC. Then there are the pyramids in Mexico… but its pyramid-building era didn’t debut until thousands of years later; construction on the largest pyramid in Mexico (Teotihuacán) didn’t begin until about 200 AD.

There are also 16 small stone pyramids in Greece and mentionable because they were built about a century before the first Egyptian pyramid. While much smaller, about the size of a house, archaeologists have determined the Hellenikon pyramid in Greece predates the Djoser pyramid by about 100 years. Perhaps the Egyptians got the idea of pyramid-building from the Greeks? There are also claims of another, perhaps older, Greek pyramid... a so-called a ‘sculptured pyramid’ said to exist at Taygetus mountain. It remains scientifically unknown whether it is manmade or a natural formation however.

It is believed these small Greek pyramids served either as memorials or observation-communication towers but only a few have been studied. Even though they are much smaller, the Greek pyramids seemed to have served a practical purpose whereas the larger Egyptian and Chinese pyramids didn’t. The building of a monstrous structure for burial purposes doesn't seem a practical undertaking. Those in Mexico, on the other hand, were multipurpose.

Aside from having the same architectural design (pyramidal), there exists another similarity between the pyramids in Egypt, Mexico and China… their monumental size. In Egypt the Great Pyramid of Giza is 481 feet high, Mexico's Teotihuacán is 187 feet and most of those in China are about 300 feet high. China’s largest is the 1,000' Great White Pyramid which is the tomb of Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty except it isn't a 'real' pyramid, instead it was once a small mountain re-shaped into a pyramid (sculptured pyramid). It is not especially old however, constructed around 700 AD.

Since hugeness was obviously important in all three regions, perhaps there was some religious significance. If so, then it was curiously universal. While a pyramid is the sturdiest of structures, a monstrosity goes beyond reason... but in defying logic so boldly it must have been a powerful reason. Of course, incorporating religious concepts into architecture invariably the results appear illogical.

[IROC]

I climbed halfway up Chichen Itza and the freaked out and climbed back down. Those stairs are scary steep.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

"According to science" mankind has been around for 200,000 years, but i can't help but wonder why they waitied until just 5000 years ago to start building stuff and why they started building the same giant stuff all over the world?
Curious ....... very curious

I understand your curiosity, but look at what man has accomplished in the last 100 years or so compared to the amount of time of since the pyramids were built. Some guy will be standing around 2000 years from now and say, "Why didn't they put men on the moon sooner?"...

[trekkor]

look at what man has accomplished in the last 100 years or so compared to the amount of time of since the pyramids were built.

Is it true that man still does not fully understand how they were built, nor can he reproduce them with the same precision?



KT

[trekkor]

Why is there a pyramid on the back of the US dollar?



KT

[tabs]

The Egyptian Pyramids are aligned like Orions belt..and that is where the tubes in the Great Pyrmid are aimed. The white stone covering on the pyramids was later stripped off and used in I believe in Muslim construction. Also the Egyptian Pyramids were at the top covered in Gold. There seems to have been a fourth pyramid that was leveled for its stones to be used in other construction in Roman times.

Napoleon in his invasion of Egypt in 1799 toured the Great Pyramid and spent some time alone in the Burial Chamber. When coming out he was shaken and pale, and said never to mention that again. Towards the end of his life he almost revealed what happened but changed his mind and said it wouldn't be believable.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by trekkor

Why is there a pyramid on the back of the US dollar?



KT

Free Masons

[Crowbob]

I made it all the way up the Temple (Castillo-Castle) at Chicken Itches. Spectacular view. Supposedly, the Yucatan Penninsula is naturally flat and chances are every mound (which you can see for miles and miles in every direction if you climb to the summit of the Temple of the Magician at Uxmal) is a buried structure of some sort. Uxmal is in the jungle. Tulum is spectacular: observatories built waaay up on promontories overlooking the gulf.

[Rikao4]

why Pyramid..
symbol for 'strength and duration..
unfinished..'our work is not done yet'..

Rika

[tabs]

Man fears time, time fears the pyramids (Egyptian)

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by IROC

I climbed halfway up Chichen Itza and the freaked out and climbed back down. Those stairs are scary steep.

Chicken Itza rocks, but the large pyramid at Coba is actually steeper.

angela

[kach22i]

Climate change drove people out of the once lush Sahara into the Nile Valley which made building the Egyptian pyramids possible. Or so I've seen on certain TV specials.

Sahara Desert Was Once Lush and Populated | LiveScience

A timeline of Sahara occupation [See Map]:

* 22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.

* 10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers.

* 9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.

* 7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Climate change drove people out of the once lush Sahara into the Nile Valley which made building the Egyptian pyramids possible. Or so I've seen on certain TV specials.

Sahara Desert Was Once Lush and Populated | LiveScience

Did they drive SUVs back then too?

[bell]

Originally Posted by IROC

I climbed halfway up Chichen Itza and the freaked out and climbed back down. Those stairs are scary steep.

i sprinted up that......then chilled up top for about an hour LOL

[look 171]

Originally Posted by IROC

I climbed halfway up Chichen Itza and the freaked out and climbed back down. Those stairs are scary steep.

Our guide would run up and down it several time while we were there. I was really fit then (road bike racing) and decided to have a go with him. Nothing like getting your dinner handed to you at someone's home court. Beautiful up there.

[trekkor]

Any links to pyramid stuff that are worth looking at.

Virtual tours, pics, facts, theories, etc?


KT