20 Reasons Why The Egypt Pyramids Terrify Scientists
The year is currently 2023, and given where we are with technology and other fields of science,
you would think that we'd have most of the mysteries of the world pretty much solved, right?
Except, that's not the case at all. There are plenty of wonders in our world that are being
discovered nearly every day, and there are mysteries from ancient times that have still
gone unsolved or even unproven in terms of how we think that they were completed.
Easily one of the biggest ones is that of the Egyptian Pyramids.
They stand as testaments to human ingenuity, but what do we really know about them?
Join us as we have a look at 20 reasons why the Egypt Pyramids terrify scientists.
20. Granite Clues
When it comes to the pyramids, especially those of Giza, it's important to remember that we not
only have to look at what's within the stone structures, but what's on the outside of them.
Yes, it's true that the tombs of the pharaohs or others that were put in these structures are
surrounded by treasures, but that doesn't explain how the pyramids were built in the first place.
If you were to look at the outside of them, you'd notice that some of the pyramid's building
materials might not be what you would expect. For example, in the third pyramid especially,
you'll find the outer parts of the pyramid having granite. Granite, the most durable and expensive
construction material in antiquity, is one of the best ways to judge the value and practices
of ancient cultures because of the high cost of its use. It's true that back when they wanted
things to last, they might have used something that was more durable despite the cost. Yet,
other pyramids in Egypt didn't have that built into them, so why were the pyramids of Giza so
different? That's what many want to find out, and many even have said that these secret clues
are being ignored by others due to the more treasure-ridden aspects of Egyptology.
But at the very least, someone is looking at the outside of the pyramids and seeing what
clues they hold. Remember, for things such as pyramids, they weren't meant to be wonders of
the world per se. They were meant to be important in the now, so every clue that we find out about
them is equally important, no matter how small or what material it's made from.
And now, it's time for the fancy topic. But in a twist, I'm going to go a little more basic
and talk about the fact that despite everyone studying the pyramids for decades, we still know
very little about them in terms of the Giza pyramids and the ones that we're still discovering
today. That's right, a millennia after they were built, we're still finding pyramids in Egypt.
That's because the desert sands have buried them over the course of time, and they've gone to be
rediscovered. That furthers the statement that we don't know everything possible about these
structures. You could even argue that we have a lot to learn about the pyramids around the world,
let alone the ones in Egypt. But that alone brings people to the table to try and study them.
There's something about these structures that fills people with awe and wonder,
and they just want to know more about them so that everyone can learn more about Ancient Egypt
and possibly other cultures as well. So while some of you may think that there's nothing important
to learn about these things anymore, you would be surprised. Especially since some people have
claimed that various things happen with the pyramids every year, which includes apparently
parts of the pyramids floating in the air. You know, like on the back of United States currency.
As always, let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below using the hashtag
Fancy Topic. 19. How They're Built
Without a doubt, the greatest mystery that honestly terrifies people in the scientific
community is how the Ancient Egyptians were able to build not just the pyramids of Giza,
but all of the pyramids they ever made. Remember, this was Ancient Egypt, so they didn't have
things like heavy machinery, conveyor belts, or certain safety equipment. They had to do
this with nothing more than basic tools and people power. And that's why the mystery around
the pyramids has lasted for so long. Because the biggest pyramid in Giza is 481 feet high
and over 750 feet wide. That's a whole lot of heavy stones to bring to the spot and slowly
stack up over a period of time. It allegedly only took 60 years to make the pyramids of Giza,
which boggles everyone's minds when they think about the effort that it would take to do that.
Thankfully, there are some small clues as to how the Egyptians were able to perform the task.
Not surprisingly, it was based on a find that proved simple construction methods. Simply put,
they found ramps on paths that led to the pyramids, and these ramps were enough to help
to push the stone blocks up and into a position near them. So if they could do that on the ground,
why couldn't they do that around the pyramid? Well, they could. If you think about it being
a giant platform that was sloped and would allow the stones to be pushed into position,
that would mitigate the risk to the workers and ensure that they weren't exhausting themselves
trying to get the stones up to where they needed to be. There's also a long-standing theory that
building materials were floated down the Nile River and special waterways were built to take
them from the river to the construction site. Granted, it doesn't explain everything,
but it does paint a more clear picture of what may have happened.
18. Then and Now
Here's something that you likely never thought about when it comes to the pyramids. Picture them
based on what you've seen on television and in pictures. Do you have a clear image in your head?
How would they be described? You'd probably touch on their shape, of course. But then you'd get to
their coloration and texture, and that's where things get interesting. Today, they're brownish
and have all sorts of indentions in them. You can see the wear and tear from being exposed to the
sun, the wind, and the sands of Egypt for over 4,500 years. But when they were first completed,
it was an entirely different story. Now remember, the pyramids were built for a purpose well beyond
what we see them as now, i.e. tourist attractions and places of study. So when the Egyptians made
them, they made them so that they were perfectly smooth and shined in the sun. That's right,
they had an outer layer of limestone that caused them to shimmer. They could be seen for miles
around, and the sun would likely have blinded people who looked directly upon them based on
its light. But sadly, that's not how we see them today. The wear and tear is quite obvious on the
stone structures, and that's a pity. Because could you even imagine if they were still in
their peak form right now? And how even more marvelous they would have been to have seen up
close? It's true that you could argue that their weathered sheen adds to their mystique. But you
almost want to see them shining in their original form at least once, just to see how the Egyptians
witnessed it when they first constructed them. Plus, just think of the time and effort they put
into making them smooth and shiny. They would probably be horrified today to see how they've
become. 17. Precision Building
Another element to the construction of the pyramids that people love to discuss is the
precision that was used in its construction. These are perfectly erected pyramids, and they're not
just something you make and hope you get right. The Egyptians made sure that everything was as
perfectly in place as possible. For example, with the pyramids of Giza, they are near perfectly
aligned to the four cardinal directions. If you were to go to the pyramids, you would know pretty
much which direction was north, south, east, and west. The one problem is that those directions
didn't even exist in the ways we think of them now. So how did they know to place the pyramids
perfectly on those points? Simply put, they used the stars above. It's believed that the ancient
Egyptians used the fall equinox to help align everything so that it was near perfect to the
cardinal directions. There was even a massive test that was done to see if said equinox could
allow for such precision with placement. It turns out that it can work, and since the equinox is a
universal constant and thus would have been back in ancient times, the Egyptians might have used
it for their construction purposes. Now we all know that they did something along those lines
as all three pyramids are placed in the exact same way. However, while this theory is promising,
it cannot definitively be proven. Easily one of the most frightening things about the pyramids
and Egypt itself is that despite having meticulous records about certain parts of
the history, they didn't leave behind blueprints on how they constructed the pyramids.
It's ironic, and that's why people are trying to dissect them from top to bottom so that they can
learn every little thing possible about them so that they can get into the minds of the Egyptians.
As you may guess, it's still a work in progress, but who knows where we'll be in the future.
16. Who Did The Hard Labor? Another key problem with there not being
definitive proof about how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids is that many myths and legends
have popped up about them without much logic or evidence to back them up. Case in point,
there's been longstanding myths that the main reason the pyramids of Giza were built in the
time period that they were was because of slave labor. Now we do know that Egyptians had slaves
over the years, that much is true, but the question of whether it was slaves who did the
construction of the pyramids has been heavily debated over the decades. One piece of proof
that seemed to disprove the theory were tombs of the construction workers. The modest 9 feet deep
shafts that were found held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry sand
along with jars of beer and bread for the afterlife. You might be thinking, well,
what does that prove? Well, think about it like this, if these were slaves and were treated like
dirt by the ancient Egyptians, why would they be buried so precisely in the ground and given
certain things for the afterlife? Remember, in Egyptian culture, it was very important how things
were buried and preserved in order to ensure safe passage into the life beyond. To be clear,
they weren't mummified, they weren't important enough for that, but there was care that was put
into their burials and preservation. So, why would that happen if they were slaves?
Now, make no mistake, it wasn't easy building those pyramids. But that's why newer theories
would suggest that workers were cycled in over time and paid well for their labor. But then again,
nobody knows for sure. 15. Cutting the Stone
Now we'll get back to actual materials that were used to build the pyramids. There's no doubt that
ancient Egyptians got the stones to look and be what they wanted them to be to construct them. But
how did they get the stones in the shape they wanted? For example, with the Great Pyramids
of Giza, it's composed of over two million limestone and granite blocks, with the average
stone over two tons. So how did they cut that rock that's known for being difficult to cut?
Now look, I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens. I'm joking of course,
there are honestly real answers to this. Looking at parts of the pyramids and the areas around them,
you can see staging areas where the original stones were brought in and taken down to size.
Some of the clues come from scratch marks that were used by blades. Others would note that
special waters and other liquids were used to wither the stone in order to shape it into what
they wanted. Now, if you do that long enough and get the results you want, it's not hard to see
that you can get a bunch of stones into a consistent shape and then build a pyramid.
14. The Voids If I told you that cosmic rays were used to
scan the pyramids, you'd likely wonder that I'm talking about aliens again. And the answer would
be yes. No, not really. But there have been certain scans done on the Great Pyramids of
Giza using special cosmic rays. That's what they're actually called. And they've shown
some interesting things that we didn't know about before. Mainly, in the pyramids of Giza,
there are a couple of hidden chambers that apparently have never been touched. The largest
of the two voids is located just above the Grand Gallery, a passageway that leads to what may be
the chamber of the pharaoh Khufu and is about 98 feet long and about 20 feet high. That's a big
gap in a pyramid. The other one is smaller but no less significant because it's unclear why it's
there. Some would think that these could be extra burial chambers or even treasure rooms.
Another explanation is that they were made to help keep the pyramid in a certain position.
The question also becomes that if this pyramid had these voids, do the others that we know
about do as well? The mystery continues and we're not even halfway done.
13. Energy Transmitters This one's going to sound like alien talk,
but there were some real people thinking about what this might be as a scientific breakthrough,
including Nikolai Tesla. And I'm being serious. Tesla believed that they served a higher purpose
and was investigating them throughout his life. And given all the things he created and thought
out before his tragic death, you just have to wonder what potential he saw within them.
In 1905, Tesla filed a patent in the United States titled,
The Art of Transmitting Electrical Energy Through the Natural Medium. This outline
designs for a series of generators around the world, which would tap the ionosphere
for energy collections. But what does that have to do with Egypt and its pyramids?
Well, the designs that Tesla thought up were like the pyramids. And what's more,
he believed that the pyramids were perfectly placed in Egypt, which we already know is partially true
as noted earlier, and to set out to make his own towers and pyramids line up with where he thought
the Egyptian pyramids were guiding him to go. While he never completed this goal, the end result
would have been a wireless transmission of energy, something that Tesla worked most of his life to
complete. 12. Ancient Tombs
Now let's step away from Giza for a moment and look at another pyramid of Egypt that got a lot
of attention. In 2020, an ancient burial ground with 27 coffins was discovered near the Step
Pyramid in Saqqara. They were buried over 2,500 years ago and were undisturbed when they were
found by archaeologists. The Saqqara area once had at least 11 pyramids, including the Step,
and it also held hundreds of tombs of ancient officials, ranging from the first dynasty to the
Coptic period. As for why this is interesting, you should already know the answer to that.
When it comes to Egyptology, one of the best finds you can have is discovering an ancient tomb,
coffin, sarcophagus, or even something in between. Every body and burial chamber is
its own look into the history of Egypt and all that it offered at one point in time.
You can learn a lot from who was left behind, and with 27 coffins to be looked into,
that's a whole lot of answers that could potentially get dropped. Even the team
was eager to see what secrets were ready to be found by them.
11. The Robot In 2020, archaeologists used a small robot
to work its way through a shaft in a pyramid to see what it was like inside of it. That shaft
would lead into the Queen's Chamber, and said shaft was honestly the only way through it as
it was tied to a false wall that had damaged the pyramid. Even the team behind the robot noted that
they had hard times making it do the job because of the tight parameters they had to work within.
When the robot made it to the end of the shaft, it used special cameras to record what was on
the other side. And to their surprise, it was a room with symbols painted everywhere.
It also found another stone that the team couldn't get past, and that meant that there's
even more mysteries to be discovered that we haven't been able to access yet. Clearly,
these pyramids are much more than anyone felt they would be, which is both great and terrifying.
10. Getting The Stones Moved As I briefly touched on before,
one of the biggest mysteries around the pyramids as a whole is how the Egyptians were able to get
the stones they wanted to the site they built on. But how did they get the stones out of the
ground? Well, that was apparently revealed by an obelisk that was found within the ground itself.
These were special areas dug within the spot where the stones were, and it allowed the Egyptians to
do something special. Well, you might have thought they'd used manpower to lift the
stones out of the ground, but with the special passageways they made in the rock quarries,
they could simply push the rocks along the ground and use things like ramps in order to
get them where they needed to go, using that engineering genius to their benefit all along.
9. Timeline I also noted earlier that the
belief about the timeline of the Pyramid of Giza was said to be about 60 years. However,
if you look at other sources, you may get some different answers. The reason for this is tied
to the mystery of the pyramids. There are no definitive records about when it was started
and finished. Now, we do know that it was made for the pharaoh known as Khufu, and later on,
two others that adorned the space were made. One for his son, and another one for his grandson.
So these pyramids were a family affair, as you can see, and it's only based on estimates that
we can say the first one was finished between 2560 BC and 2540 BC. But thanks to the lack of
records, it's hard to know for sure. We can't build a time machine fast enough in order to
figure these things out. 8. The Speed of Light
Now, I'm not going to make a joke about how the pyramids can travel at the speed of light.
That would be stupid, even for us. However, the pyramids do have a connection to the speed of
light. You see, some enthusiasts have noticed that the number of the coordinates of the Great
Pyramid of Giza matches up perfectly with the speed of light, and they say that it's just a
coincidence. However, we already know that the Egyptians were able to point their behemoth at
true north and align to the points to be cardinal directions, but how could they have perfectly
placed it to match the speed of light? Some would say that it's just a coincidence, but how can we
know for sure? Also, that would be one heck of a coincidence, wouldn't you agree?
7. The Sphinx
Are you tired of this pyramid talk yet? Well, I'm going to give you a little detour to the
other great monument of Egypt, the Sphinx. This massive stone structure has withstood the test
of time and stands as another marvel of engineering. The statue was created out of
limestone on the Giza Plateau, which is on the west bank of the Nile in Giza. It's been widely
believed to be tied to Khafre, who, if you recall, is the son of the ruler who ordered the Pyramids
of Giza to be made. But here's the twist, the Sphinx is not its true name. No one really knows
what the true name is. Much like the Pyramids, there are very few records about the Sphinx
and its construction, so its name only came about 2,000 years ago. Forget the Misery Loves Company,
I think it should be Mysteries Love Company. 6. The Pyramid Texts
Easily one of the biggest discoveries from within the pyramids are that of the hieroglyphics that
revealed much of its history of the ancient kingdoms and those who were buried within.
These pyramid texts have been meticulously deciphered over the years and have painted
a more clear picture of what went on in ancient times. For example, some of what was written in
the burial chambers were spells that were designed to free the souls of the pharaohs
that were buried there. There were also stories of exploits of the ruler for when he passed on
so that the gods would know about what they did for the kingdom.
The gods are also mentioned in these texts. Over 200 of them have been found within. It's possible
that there are more of these texts hidden within the pyramids, which is why more people are eager
to see every nook and cranny of the spaces. 5. Cave System
Given that the pyramids are such a big deal, people often look on the outside and see the
structures to find the truth that is hidden. But what about below the pyramids and the region
that they're on? One British explorer would say that he had found a massive cave system
that was directly tied to the pyramids themselves, even claiming that they were the pharaoh's
underworld. He found these caves after reading the logs of a previous explorer
and finding a crack within a tomb that led to a cave system. These caves were never documented
outside of those logs, and thus they make quite a fascinating discovery. The explorer would write
about the caves in a book, and it just makes you wonder what else is in the area waiting to be
explored. 4. Sides
Here's a pop quiz. How many sides are on the Great Pyramids of Giza? Think carefully before you
answer. Did you say four? Because if you did, you'd be incorrect. Well, technically incorrect,
with as in all things, it's about a certain point of view. Because there have been many who have
noted that while the pyramids look perfectly flat on their bottom layer to give the presentation
of a four-sided entity, if you look at them from an angle or above, you'll notice that the pyramids
have a curvature to them that bends inward. And when you look at it from the right angle,
you'll see that the spots go to a point, and that point makes it to where the pyramids actually have
eight sides instead of four. So why is that so terrifying? Because it doubles the size of the
pyramids. 3. Lopsided
If you think I'm done with tiny details, well, the Great Pyramid of Giza is actually lopsided.
Now, it's true that it was designed to point true north, but apparently the builders made a mistake,
and it's ever so slightly lopsided. This west side of the pyramid is slightly longer than the east,
but what does it prove? Well, it doesn't really prove much of anything. Scientists take it as a
relief to our own engineering faults, because we've screwed up plenty of times in the modern
day with our construction, as we've noted many times on this channel. And it's wonderful to know
that the brilliance of the ancient Egyptians did have some weak points. Look, sometimes it's nice
to know that humanity consistently screws up, and it takes the pressure off of the rest of us.
2. Geometry Now, if you're bored at this point,
and if the entries are not satisfying enough for you, well, guess what? I'm taking you back to
school to talk about geometry, something even more boring. Specifically, I'm talking about the
geometry that was used to create the pyramids, because those who have studied it believe that
the ancient Egyptians used some special formulas and geometry to construct them for unknown reasons.
For example, you can find instances in the golden ratio and the pi sequence within the pyramids.
And when you add that to some of the other mathematical and scientific things that we've
talked about, you have to wonder just how much they tried to line things up to look a certain way.
1. Why? Given all the mysteries that have been left behind, you do have to wonder why the
Egyptians would build such a massive structure. The answer is one that we've talked about already,
that being the afterlife. The Egyptians absolutely believed in the afterlife,
and they wanted to make sure that they honored the dead, specifically the leaders of the nation,
and sent them off properly into the next phase of their life.
These structures were made likely to be perfect conduits to carry the souls of those within the
place beyond with the gods and those that had come before them. As history has shown time and again,
people will go to great lengths to honor their beliefs and traditions.
That's all from the realm of Egypt and its pyramids and how we still don't know everything
that's going on with them. Are you shocked that we still don't know the truth about them by now?
And do you think we'll ever know everything about the pyramids? Or is it our only hope
that Doctor Who shows up and takes us back in time? Let me know all about it in the comment
section down below. Be sure to check out the other cool things that are showing up on the screen,
and I'll see you next time!