Joseph Davidovits
Davidovits, Joseph *
Joseph Davidovits (1935- ) is a French scientist who has worked on geopolymers since the 1970s. which can be used to create cement that is economically and ecologically superior to Portland cement.
In the late 1970s, Professor Davidovits shook the world of Egyptology with his claim that some of the blocks used to build the Great Pyramid had been cast rather than carved(a)(e)! This generated a debate that has rumbled on over the past four decades(c). Professor Michel Barsoum supports Davidovits(g), Professor Linn Hobbs of MIT is ambivalent(h), while geologist Dipayan Jana is strongly opposed(i).
Ioannis Liritzis is an archaeologist at the University of the Aegean, who, along with his team, challenged Joseph Davidovits’ theory in 2008. Liritzis pointed out that the material used to build Egypt’s most famous monuments “contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils” that are distributed throughout the blocks in a manner compatible with natural rock(l).
In 2020, Davidovits published a rebuttal of arguments put forward by Jena and others, ensuring the continuance of the controversy for some time to come(k).
Not content with upsetting Egyptologists Davidovits has now annoyed archaeologists at other sites with his more recent claims that casting and not carving had also been used at Tiwanaku and Puma Punku in Bolivia(b) as well as on Easter Island(d)! This proposed connection between the Easter Island moai and South America is explained in an interesting video from Davidovits(j).
I have always been cautiously sympathetic towards Davidovits’ geopolymer theories, However, when I read of his claim that the Easter Island statues were also made with artificial stone, my doubts grew. I consulted my well-thumbed paperback copy of Thor Heyerdahl‘s Aku-Aku [1938] and found images between pages 112 and 113 showing unfinished giant moai in a quarry still with the back part of the statues to be cut free from the rock. The stone tools used for the sculpting of the giants still lay nearby. I am now waiting for Davidovits to comment on Stonehenge!
Furthermore, the claim of casting rather than carving implies the use of moulds, something that I have never seen represented on the walls of any of the tombs or temples of Egypt nor have the physical remains of any such moulds been found. Compounding this is the fact that sites identified by Davidovits as having used artificial stone, particularly Egypt and Easter Island, suffered from a dearth of suitable timber for making moulds!
Davidovits has also published a short series of ebooks concerning the Bible and Egypt(f). Additionally, there are many other papers by Davidovits on the Researchgate website(m). relating to various aspects of his work.
(a) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/pyramids/are-pyramids-made-out-of-concrete-1/
(b) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/tiahuanaco-monuments-tiwanaku-pumapunku-bolivia/
(c) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/pyramids/deep-misleading-publications-by-geologists/
(d) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/
(e) https://www.geopolymer.org/shop/product/why-the-pharaohs-built-the-pyramids-with-fake-stones/
(f) https://www.geopolymer.org/shop/cat/archaeology/
(g) https://www.livescience.com/1554-surprising-truth-great-pyramids-built.html
(h) https://news.mit.edu/2008/gathering-concrete-evidence
(j) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/
(k) Archive 7474 | (atlantipedia.ie) *
(l) Pyramids packed with fossil shells › News in Science (ABC Science) (archive.org)
Pyramids
Pyramids are designed and built to be very stable structures. They were first encountered in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC, known as ziggurats. Unfortunately, they were built of sun-dried mud bricks and so, over time have crumbled. These early pyramids were stepped with between two and seven tiers. Their function was ceremonial.
In August 2023, the first pyramid ever identified in the Central Asian Steppes was reported. This stepped (no pun intended) feature has been dated to the 2nd millennium BC and situated near the city of Karganda in Kazakhstan. There is also evidence of a horse cult associated with the site(fz).
Pyramids around the World
Pyramidal structures are now to be found around the globe; whether this is a consequence of diffusion or independent design is uncertain, possibly both. For Ignatius Donnelly, the pyramids of Egypt and Central America were the results of a shared heritage originating in Atlantis. However, the millennia that separate their construction in the two regions would seem to militate against this idea. Nevertheless, in 1967 Egerton Sykes published a paper supporting diffusionism with particular reference to pyramid building on both sides of the Atlantic(fk).
Although most pyramids are four-sided, round pyramids, although fewer in number, have been identified in various parts of the world(fm).
The Mayan pyramid at Mirador in Northern Guatemala was thought to be the largest by volume in the world, at 2.8 million cubic metres, however, the Great Pyramid of Cholula is 4.45 million cubic metres(au)(bq). This is now rivalled by the Mayan pyramid at Toniná, Chiapas(bd). The Great Giza Pyramid is 2.5 million cubic metres in volume.
Even more spectacular was the 1996 discovery of pyramids on the southern Atlantic coast of Brazil dated as early as 3000 BC, predating the earliest Egyptian Pyramids by a few hundred years. However, two sites in Peru, Caral, and Sechin Bajo have claimed pyramid complexes with dates of 3500 BC(j). Very ancient pyramids have also been claimed for Crimea(af).
What is arguably the greatest concentration of pyramids in the world is to be found in the Lambayeque Valley of northern Peru, numbering 250, built of mud brick, and dated to circa 750-1100 AD. The late Philip Coppens referred to the valley in his book, The New Pyramid Age [0759] and it was also the subject of a BBC documentary(an).
Apart from Meso-America, pyramids have also been discovered as far apart as the Canaries (dx), Sicily(ga), Sardinia and Mauritius(k) as well as Ukraine(dw), and China(cp). Russia is claimed to have pyramids in the far east near Vladivostok(fc) and the Kola Peninsula(dc) in the west near Finland! A website by Gabriele Lukacs, dedicated to possible European pyramids is now available(g). The remains of three pyramids have also been identified on the Greek Peloponnese, one of which has been dated to 2720 BC ± 580 years. (dr)(ds)
In 2005, an ongoing debate was ignited when the Bosnian-American ‘archaeologist’ Semir Osmanagic announced that he had identified a gigantic manmade pyramid beside Visoko, 30km north of Sarajevo. Highly publicised excavations began in 2006. Readers should be aware that Osmanagic has expressed [0519] rather bizarre notions including a belief that the Maya were descendants of the Atlanteans who in turn arrived on Earth from the Pleiades!
Osmanagic has also published a fully illustrated paper on the Koh Ker pyramid in Northern Cambodia, which he claims to act as an energy amplifier(eb).
A French commentator, Douglas Moonstone, disagreed with Osmanagic’s suggested origin for the Atlanteans suggesting instead that they came from the constellation of Orion and that the “Neanderthals fled their bases on another near planet, probably a planet of Sirius B and a planet of Alnitak, as we have seen in previous volumes, and they have saved Hopis, Sapiens, in a space station in orbit.”(cc)
On one side, we had Philip Coppens offering support for Osmanagic(cl), while on the other, an on-site investigation by Robert Schoch concluded that the Visoko ‘pyramid’ was probably not man-made!(cm).
Osmanagic updated his claims in December 2011(o) and as recently as August 2016, He was still offering a spirited defence of his views(bi).
Gigantic pyramids have also been proposed for Germany by K. Walter Haug(ab). and demonstrated on his heavily illustrated website(aj).
Maxim Yakovenko was the founder of the world-pyramids.com website(bf). in 2008. It has a range of interesting articles that relate to pyramids around the globe. Unfortunately, the news section does not appear to have been updated over the past two years.
A recent (2010) site, lists(h). the eight largest pyramids in the world. Also, a wide range of free papers, in pdf format, relating to the Giza Pyramids is available online(l).
Perhaps even more dramatic is a recent claim(q) of a pyramid older and larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza, known as Mount Sadahurip in Garut, West Java, Indonesia. However, the proliferation of step pyramids is not very well known, but Dhani Irwanto has, at least, partially redressed this in a 2019 article on his website(ey).
July 2012 saw Linda Moulton Howe publish(r) a two-part illustrated article about an anomalous feature in Alaska which has been identified as a buried pyramid larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza. This feature was first identified twenty years ago, but the story appears to have been suppressed, according to a retired U.S. Counter-intelligence officer who contacted Howe. A comparable claim has also been made for pyramids in Antarctica and later shown to be a hoax(w).
Now for some further light relief, earlier in 2012, a nonsensical report(s) of an underwater glass pyramid in the Bermuda Triangle emerged. I’m sure it will be soon followed by a sighting of Elvis creating crop circles in Antarctica.
In September 2013, it was reported(y) that “researchers have discovered an underwater pyramid 60 meters high with an 8000 meters square base near the Bank De João de Castro, between the islands of Terceira and São Miguel” in the Azores. Shortly afterwards the Portuguese Navy denied the existence of any such structure.(aa) This claim has now spawned its own website(ad).
However, in August 2013, the Portuguese American Journal reported that the many step-pyramids on Pico, one of the Azores, are clear evidence of extensive human activity in the archipelago long before the arrival of the Portuguese(fw). As a consequence, some have suggested that the seafaring ability of these pyramid builders to reach the Azores from Europe opens the possibility that they went further and reached America!
Even more ridiculous was a report in the UK’s Daily Star which claimed that an underwater pyramid estimated to be between 3.5 and 11 miles across had been spotted on Google Earth, situated off the coast of Mexico in the Pacific(cd).
Finally, it appears that to satisfy the public interest in pyramids the meaning of the term itself has been extended to include a range of natural features as well as man-made structures. Robert Schoch is happy to see Newgrange as a type of pyramid, others see Silbury Hill as a pyramid(e). while some writers apply the term to mountains as is the case with Jeff Nisbet(f). who sees ‘pyramids’ in Scotland. Nisbet attempts to justify his view with a very unconvincing suggested link between ancient Egypt and Scotland incorporating freemasonry and Princess Scota(bh). Similar stories are widespread in Ireland where Scota is allegedly buried in Kerry in Gleann Scoithin, now known as Foley’s Glen. Scotia was another ancient name for Ireland. Andrew Power expands on the Scota story in his Ireland: Land of the Pharaohs [1026] as well as Ralph Ellis [1684] and Loraine Evans [1781].
This claim of an Egyptian link with Ireland has been recently repeated by Steve Preston in his Egyptians in Ireland [1183]. David Halpin, an Irish writer from Carlow, has also written a three-part paper on the connections between Egypt with Ireland(av).
Pyramids of Egypt
The actual number of Egyptian pyramids recorded is variously cited as 118 or as many as 138. However, the greatest number of pyramids is to be found in Sudan, with around twice as many as Egypt, but are far less spectacular(df).
August 2012 brought a report(u) that two possible new Egyptian pyramid complexes have been discovered using Google Earth. However, subsequent inspection on the ground showed them to be less interesting(v).
Egypt’s oldest pyramid is generally accepted as that of King Djoser (2687-2668 BC), a six-stepped structure at Saqqara(dh).
Giza
For anyone coming to the subjects of the pyramids and Sphinx at Giza for the first time should begin by reading Giza The Truth [1690] by Ian Lawton and Chris Ogilvie-Herald, which offers a unique overview of the place, the personalities and the politics involved in the 3 square kilometres of this amazing site.
Jason Colavito noted [1876.8] that with a height of 455 feet (139 metres) it was “the tallest building on Earth until it was finall surpassed in 1311” by Britain’s Lincoln Cathedral.
A site providing a wonderful 360º view of the Giza Plateau is now available(m). while another site offers a remarkable panoramic aerial view(t).
Another site offers a remarkable collection of old images of the pyramids dating back to the mid-nineteenth century(be). Also in the 19th century, a book by Dr Everett W. Fish can give modern readers a flavour of ideas regarding the pyramids to be found in the 1880s(du).
In May 2024, a paper by Eman Ghoneim et al, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment announced that “The largest pyramid field in Egypt is clustered along a narrow desert strip, yet no convincing explanation as to why these pyramids are concentrated in this specific locality has been given so far. Here we use radar satellite imagery, in conjunction with geophysical data and deep soil coring, to investigate the subsurface structure and sedimentology in the Nile Valley next to these pyramids. We identify segments of a major extinct Nile branch, which we name The Ahramat Branch, running at the foothills of the Western Desert Plateau, where the majority of the pyramids lie. Many of the pyramids, dating to the Old and Middle Kingdoms, have causeways that lead to the branch and terminate with Valley Temples which may have acted as river harbors along it in the past. We suggest that The Ahramat Branch played a role in the monuments’ construction and that it was simultaneously active and used as a transportation waterway for workmen and building materials to the pyramids’ sites.”(gc).
Wim Verhart has written a paper in which he argues the pyramids on the Giza Plateau were designed with an overall mathematical plan in mind(dz).
Another matter that has caused continual controversy is the layout of the three Giza pyramids. Robert Bauval is probably best known as the original promoter of the Orion Correlation Theory, which claims that the layout of the three principal Giza pyramids mirrors ‘Orion’s Belt’ in that constellation. This received widespread coverage when it was outlined in The Orion Mystery [1707]. written by Bauval and Adrian Gilbert and in Keeper of Genesis [1050]. written with Graham Hancock, published two years later. In fact, Bauval first published his theory in 1989 in Discussions in Egyptology(cw).
In a paper(ft) published on Graham Hancock’s website in 2022, Freddy Silva proposed an additional OCT – in Scotland. He suggested that the Pyramids of Giza, and by extension, Orion’s Belt matched the layout of the three stone circles of Stenness, Brodgar and Bookan. In the same paper, he goes further identifying other megalithic monuments in Scotland with counterparts in Sardinia and Armenia!
However, Andrew Collins has disputed the OCT and has instead offered evidence that the alignment of the three principal Giza pyramids matches more closely the ‘wing’ stars of the Cygnus constellation than the ‘belt’ of Orion!(dg).
Early 2020 brought a claim by amateur historian Matt Sibson that there had been a fourth large pyramid at Giza. His contention is based on a sketch by a Danish sea captain, Frederik Ludvig Norden, in 1737, that appears to show this fourth edifice. The only explanation offered for its disappearance is that it was dismantled in the 1700s to build the city of Cairo! I would have thought that considering the effort required to dismantle a pyramid from the top down would have been much greater than quarrying new blocks. The larger pyramid blocks would need to be cut anyway. Then you would expect that at least the base or its location would still be identifiable today! This is just another incredible attention-seeking effort by Sibson(eo).
Manu Seyfzadeh wrote a lengthy paper(di). on the orientation of one particular minor stepped pyramid on Elephantine Island on the Nile. He concluded that it was associated with Sirius, which was so important to the ancient Egyptians as the heliacal rising of Sirius coincided with the summer solstice which heralded the next flooding of the Nile.
While the theory of Bauval & Gilbert is very well known, a more elaborate claim was proposed by Scott Creighton in his The Giza Oracle [1817], in which he suggests that 11 pyramids in the Giza complex along “with the Great Sphinx forms a grand ‘Precession Wheel’, indicating key dates from humankind’s remote past – and indeed, its future”!(cy)
Hans Jelitto has put forward the idea that the three pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure at Giza were intended to represent the three inner planets of our Solar System, Mercury, Venus and Earth(fl)!
John Patrick Hill, an independent researcher, claims that “Barringer Crater, Stonehenge and Giza are all related to one another.” He tells us that the distance between the outside corners of the main Giza pyramids is 0.72 miles which is the exact diameter of the Barringer Crater! As Michael Caine would say “Not many people know that” (dv). Hill had this paper published on the Academia.edu website, but it has now been removed. I have saved a copy, without images, as Archive 6555. He has also managed to produce a paper(fu) combining catastrophism and Roman Catholicism!!!
Further alignment claims and debate relating to two shafts that some believe were originally directed at particular stars(cx).
Age of the Egyptian Pyramids
The Pyramids of Egypt are generally accepted today to have been constructed in the third millennium BC in the period 2700 – 2150 BC. However, some investigators have inferred much greater antiquity for some of these remarkable structures particularly the Great Pyramid (G.P.) at Giza. They believe that pushing back the date for the construction of the Great Pyramid and/or Sphinx endorses the possibility that Plato’s early date of 9600 BC for the Atlantean War is factual.
Jason Colavito [1876.95] has noted that some of the Muslim scholars of the Middle Ages attributed an early date to the construction of the pyramids, possibly before Noah’s Deluge!
Hossam Aboulfotouh calculated the date of the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza as 3055 BC, which he claims was also the time of the Deluge or what he refers to as the “tsunami of the Mediterranean”.(da)(db)
Perhaps related to the Deluge is the claim from archaeologist Sherif el Morsi that he has evidence that indicates that the Great Pyramid had been covered by seawater(em)(en).
David Rohl in his introduction to Andrew Collins‘ Gateway to Atlantis [072] refers to the work of Egyptologist Kate Spence who “demonstrated that the north alignment of all the Old Kingdom pyramids shifted through time in the relative position of the circumpolar stars. This tracking of the north celestial pole (relative to the stars) plots the known wobble in the earth’s axis of rotation (referred to as precession), which can be dated using astronomical retrocalculations.” Spence concluded that the Great Pyramid had been built c.2470 BC(ej). Archaeastronomer Giulio Magli has taken issues with some of Spence’s claims(ek).
Ralph Ellis, a British researcher, has investigated the erosion to be seen at Giza, Meidum, and Dashur and concluded [0517] that there is evidence for 8000 BC or an even earlier date for the construction of these structures(a). Ellis also has an article on the internet outlining his evidence for an earlier date for the construction of the Great Pyramid. More recently Robert Schoch announced the discovery of evidence of erosion INSIDE the Great Pyramid suggesting that a more ancient core had been exposed to the elements for a long period before being built upon to give us the structure we have today.
Edgar Cayce ‘revealed’ in 1932 that the Great Pyramid was built over a hundred years from 10,490 to 10,390 BC(ap). At the other end of the time spectrum, Huang Heqing, a professor in the Department of Art & Archaeology at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, amused the world with the claim that the Egyptian pyramids were built in the 19th century, he goes further and maintains “that all the achievements of ancient Western cultures were fabricated in the nineteenth century”, including the Parthenon, the Temple of Zeus in Athens and the ruins of Persepolis in Iran(cu).
The late Joseph Jochmans related [0518] how it was recorded that the outer casing stones showed water marks halfway up the height of the Pyramid before the Arabs removed them. Geologists have found evidence of a final catastrophic flooding event in Egypt circa 10,000 BC. Furthermore, radiocarbon dating of organic inclusions in a fourteen-foot layer of silt around the base of the Great Pyramid offered a date of around 9600 BC.
This suggested extended age for the pyramids has been incorporated into the argument to prove the possible existence of other advanced ancient civilisations that were concurrent with the 9600 BC date given by Solon for the antiquity of Atlantis.
Understandably, these revolutionary ideas have been met with fierce opposition by established archaeologists. This is a debate that will run for some time yet.
The earliest historical references to the pyramids can be found in early Egyptian and Greek documents(ch). However, the oldest known papyri, discovered at the Egyptian site of Wadi el-Jarf offer evidence supporting a date of about 2500 BC for the construction of the Great Pyramid, which reinforces conventional dating theories. One of the documents, written by Merer an overseer, records details of the construction of the final stages of the G.P.(ce). This, of course, seriously undermines the extended antiquity of the pyramids by proponents such as Graham Hancock.
Zecharia Sitchin, the controversial ‘alternative’ historian, entered the fray in 1980, with the claim that the only concrete evidence that the Great Pyramid had been built by Khufu, was an inscription forged by Colonel Richard Howard-Vyse(d). (see below). Philip Coppens has also written an article(cq). about Sitchin’s claim. The Howard-Vyse forgery debate has been stirred up again by a researcher, Scott Creighton, who produced copies of Howard-Vyse’s papers to support the claim of fraud(ah). If true, this would lend some support to a redating of the structure.
He expanded on this in The Great Pyramid Hoax [2088] and in a 2024 article on Graham Hancock’s website(gb). Creighton concluded that “Here in 2024, many years after this investigation first began, supporting evidence of the Vyse Hoax Hypothesis continues to surface and has been doing so now for several decades. All of which is indicative that the hoax hypothesis is more likely to be true than false. If the opposite were the case i.e. the painted markings were authentic, then it is unlikely that so many anomalies would have been uncovered, nor that they would continue to be uncovered decades later.”
2014 began with a report that two Germans, Dominique Goerlitz and Stefan Erdmann, had chiselled off part of the ‘Vyse’ cartouche from inside the Great Pyramid, which led to an international incident. They claim that the objective of their foolhardy act was to demonstrate that the Pyramid is older than generally accepted and was a remnant of the Atlantean empire(z). A March 2015 statement issued by Dr Goerlitz offers a quite different view of the episode(ei). I have published an English translation as Archive 6944. The initial claim seems to have originated with Zahi Hawass in an attack on Robert Bauval(fn).
At the opposite end of the speculation spectrum is a recent book by Emmet Sweeney, The Pyramid Age [0520], in which he claims that the pyramids were in fact far more recent and bravely suggests a date of around 800 BC for their construction. In this regard, it is to be recorded that the Bible makes not the vaguest reference to one of the greatest wonders of the ancient world. It has been erroneously stated that Herodotus, a prolific recorder of trivia who claims to have travelled as far south as Elephantine, failed to mention the pyramids. This is not true, as can be seen in Book II of his Histories 124-134. However, it is possible that it was meant to say that Herodotus did not refer to the Sphinx! It has been claimed that he was describing the pyramids at Dashur and not Giza(ao)!
>>In May 2013, Peter James, a Welsh structural engineer, who has spent many years repairing Egypt’s pyramids, published a new theory on why the building of pyramids ceased(x). Regarding the construction methods used, he says, from what he has seen working deep inside the pyramids(gg), he believes they were built from the inside out, with large stones on the outside and small material inside – a bit like a modern builder would construct a stone wall(gf). He published his conclusions in a 2018 book Saving Pyramids [2096].<<
The Pyramid Builders
For a long time, it was thought that the pyramids had been built by slaves, possibly Israelites. Recent years have seen this idea debunked(at)(fd). and reinforced by papyri put on display for the first time in July 2016, which indicates that the pyramid builders were paid and were not slaves (or extraterrestrials)(be)(dy). However, a 2017 paper by Damien Mackey has reverted to claiming that the Jews were slaves who contributed to the building of the pyramids(fs).
A more sober review of the development of pyramid building and the technology involved was offered by Owen Jarus in June 2016(bo).
Unfortunately, there are some commentators such as von Däniken [1333.95], who have attributed the construction of the Great Pyramid to extraterrestrials, who cannot accept that the Egyptians built the pyramids, in desperation have interpreted the existence of the pyramids as ‘evidence’ of extraterrestrial visitations!(ae).
One such proponent is Peter Lemesurier who identifies the Elohim of the Old Testament as the designers of the GP and that they came from the star Sirius [1798]. He claims that they left prophetic messages in the structure of the GP for humanity.
Many and varied are the claims regarding the pyramid builders and their methods, including that they were built by refugees from Atlantis(bl). In October 2017 Gerry Cannon & Malcolm Hutton claimed (bx). that the Great Pyramid was built by an advanced civilisation, which may have been Atlantis! Graham Hancock holds similar views.
Gernot L. Geise offers the following comment, “In order not to have to trouble some extraterrestrials for the construction of the pyramids, an early human high culture can certainly be assumed. The available periods of time for the development of such cultures are completely sufficient after Cremo & Thompson proved that “modern man” is already millions of years older than conventional science would have us believe.
The pyramids of Giza present me with the following picture: The builders of the pyramids – whoever they were, wherever they got their knowledge from and wherever they came from – possessed a high level of technology that was far superior to ours today. This is an inevitable fact, because the pyramids prove it: we cannot (yet) rebuild them with our current technology. However, Pharaoh Cheops (if he existed) would probably have laughed out loud if he had been told at the time that future archaeologists would have interpreted his little temples around the pyramid as a sign that he had built the gigantic structure…”(fj)
Even more entertaining is a claim by two Irishmen, Francis J. and Francis P. Ward, that druids from Ireland, which they consider to have been Atlantis, built the pyramids at Giza!(bt)
Rico Paganini is the creator of the Giza Legacy website that offers some interesting titbits of background information relating to the Giza structures(eg). Much of the content consists of excerpts from his book of the same name. However, when he came to discuss a possible Atlantean connection he completely fell off the cliff of reality as the excerpt below reveals!
“According to the ancient tales, the Atlanteans lived according to the role model of the Lemurians. There were three Atlantean cycles or three periods when civilization flourished in the Atlantic era. People there are said to have had mental skills including telepathy (which remained active among the Aborigines in Australia until the 20th century), telekinesis, teleportation and similar powers. This made them seem like gods to other cultures to the east and west of Atlantis. The Atlanteans were technically adept and built megalithic structures, such as the great pyramids in Giza. However, in the later period the people in Atlantis had begun to place their own wills above that of their kings, and priests and even above the will of the gods, until, as happened before when Lemuria flourished, they were attacked from outer space.” Consequently, I suggest that you treat anything that he has written with great caution.
The Great Pyramid Building Methods
It has been suggested that the course of the Nile was different at the time of the pyramid building, which together with canals enabled the building materials to be brought closer to the Giza Plateau, saving time and effort(fh).
The idea that a gently sloping ramp was used has been a popular idea for a long time, but weaknesses in the concept were soon apparent. For example, the material required to build some of the proposed ramps, with the required incline, would have been greater than the pyramid itself. Franz Löhner developed what he calls a ‘rope roll’ to demonstrate that simple technology available to the Egyptians could have been used to lift the pyramid’s blocks into place. Löhner has worked in a quarry and consequently has an intimate knowledge of the practicalities involved. He has co-authored a book (German only) [1590], with Dr Heribert Illig which expands on his idea, and has developed an interesting website(cg), in English and German, with further information.
The most persistent question relating to the pyramids and in fact all megalithic structures is “how did they manage to build them using such large heavy rocks and blocks”? Many ingenious solutions are on offer but perhaps the most remarkable is that proposed by W. T. Wallington who has demonstrated(n) that using basic materials, which were available to the Egyptians, one individual can manipulate a 4500kg stone block. His website includes a remarkable video clip of his method. A review(bu) of this video is worth a read. More recently a collaboration between Matter Design and CEMEX Global R&D has demonstrated that irregularly shaped cement objects weighing many tons can be moved easily by hand, suggesting that the manpower required to build many ancient monuments was far less than is generally assumed today. The conclusion is that technique is the key to how many of the ‘impossible’ structures of the past were constructed(ci). Ashley Cowie has written an article in which he looks at how these techniques may have been applied to the construction of the megalithic walls of Cuzco in Peru, the ancient capital of the Inca(cj). Cowie also holds that a huge earthquake caused a major change in Inca construction methods(ck).
Two suggestions that still have considerable support are that (A) many of the stone blocks were ‘cast’ in situ as proposed by Joseph Davidovits(bm) and (B) that an internal ramp within the pyramid was used as claimed by Jean-Pierre Houdin(bn).
Antoine Gigal has drawn attention to another proposal of some years ago from Hasan Sayid Ahmed, who claims that the ascending and descending passages were used as ramps(el).
In 2006, Dr Michel Barsoum of Drexel University of Philadelphia claimed to have proof that the Egyptians had used lime-based cement in the building of the pyramids(cz).
What may be relevant was what was found at Giza(bk) and described as ‘melted limestone’, which led Robert Schoch to consider it the result of a ‘plasma event’.
Margaret Morris offers a comprehensive account of the features of the Great Pyramid and possible construction methods on her website(bb) and in three books [683][1200][1201]. Morris is a supporter of Joseph Davidovits who proposed the controversial idea that the building blocks of the Pyramid were cast in situ.
In 2007, petrographer, Dipayan Jana, refuted Davidovits’ theory and as far as I’m aware, no rebuttal has been forthcoming from either Davidovits or Morris. Later in 2008, Ioannis Liritzis and his team also challenged the theory of Davidovits, when they pointed out that the material used to build Egypt’s most famous monuments “contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils” that are distributed throughout the rock in a manner compatible with natural rock(dd).
However, it struck me that if Davidovits was correct, this ‘rock’ might instead be some of his liquid geopolymer that had been spilt and hardened in the sun!
In 2019, Fehmi Krasniqi produced a three-and-a-half-hour video(cv) on the building of the Egyptian pyramids, primarily based on Davidovits’ claim that the Egyptians used a form of concrete to make the building blocks in situ. However, Krasniqi ventures beyond Egypt, suggesting that the ancient Egyptians travelled to America, stopping off for supplies in Atlantis, now the Azores.
Davidovits has also gone beyond Egypt for evidence of artificial stone being used to create some ancient monuments, in Tiwanaku, Puma Punku and Easter Island(ff). While it is beyond my competence to argue with Davidovits’ chemistry, there are a number of details that still trouble me. In Egypt, the proposal that pyramid blocks were cast rather than carved, there are no images in any of the tombs and temples portraying such a practice. Secondly, casting implies the use of moulds, of which no remains have been found and finally a study of the Great Pyramid reveals that the blocks are of many different sizes, which would require a multiplicity of different moulds in a country where timber is in very short supply.
The catchpenny.org website agrees that “the theory is very nice and well-described. Unfortunately, it totally ignores a huge body of evidence. Davidovits works hard to explain away the existing quarries, the abundance of tools found during the Third and Fourth Dynasties, and the decrease in pyramid quality after the Fourth Dynasty.” (dq)
A 2014 study(ag) revealed that the Egyptians were able to move the pyramid building blocks over wet sand. “By using the right quantity of water they could halve the number of workers needed.” This is comparable with the documented method employed by the Chinese to transport 200/300-ton blocks used in the construction of their ‘Forbidden City’(ai). In October 2018 it was revealed that the remains of a ramp flanked by two staircases with postholes were discovered at an ancient quarry at Hatnub in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. “Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more.”(cf). While this may explain how blocks could have been moved, with relative ease, to pyramid-building sites, it does not tell us how the pyramids were actually constructed.
Mario Pincherle in his book, La Grande Piramide [1835], offers a radical explanation of how the Egyptians raised the huge granite slabs used to roof the King’s Chamber and the relieving chambers above it. Pincherle studied Herodotus’ references to the pyramids (Book 2.124-125) and concluded that an ingenious process of wetting and then drying wooden blocks, slowly forced the slabs up the slope of the Great Gallery(dk).
Twenty years ago Chris Dunn wrote an interesting article for Atlantis Rising magazine(es) in which he discussed the possible reasons for constructing the relieving chambers in the manner that the Egyptians did, concluding that they did so because the granite beams above the King’s chamber were an essential and integral part of making this pyramid machine……hum!!!! Subsequent editions of AR brought further comments from readers on the subject(et).
In an article(ew) by Steven Mehler, he wrote that “Chris Dunn suggests that there is evidence that the Great Pyramid may have experienced a cataclysmic event, an explosion, some time in its distant past which ended its role as an active power plant, a machine, which Dunn proposes was its primary function. I further advanced Dunn’s hypothesis of an explosion in the pyramid in my book, The Land of Osiris.”
Australian Paul Hai has now offered an ingenious suggestion for the construction of the pyramids using an unusual pulley system. He arrived at this theory based on components that are still available and decoding of chapter one of the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel combined with some comments from Herodotus. He offers all this in an extensive and fully illustrated website(fg) as well as a book Raising Stone 1 [1941].
By way of complete contrast is the opinion of Gernot L. Geise, who, as a guest author offered a controversial paper on the Atlantisforschung.de website with the self-explanatory title of ‘The Giza pyramids were not built by ancient Egyptians’(dl). He maintains that the Egyptians lacked the technology to build the pyramids, but instead, were constructed by a much older and more advanced civilisation.
Naturally. there are those among us, who will never be happy with conventional explanations and the mystery of the Egyptian pyramid-building methods has provided an ideal opportunity to serve up exotic solutions. One of the most commonly offered is that some form of levitation was employed; a claim usually based on an account by Al-Masudi, who reported that a ‘magic papyrus’ was used(dn). Others have claimed the use of sound to achieve levitation. However, although this is theoretically possible it has been shown to be impractical(do). This idea of acoustics being used in some obscure manner was introduced in a theory that claimed the use of ‘tuning forks’(fr).
Nick Redfern, best known for his books on UFOs, alien abductions and conspiracy theories, has now published How Antigravity Built the Pyramids[2061], a title that tells you all you need to know(fy).
[I should mention that William Bramley also published a book entitled The Gods of Eden in 1989 [1942]+]
Lawton & Ogilvie-Herald discuss the possible use of sonic levitation in the building of the pyramids in Giza the Truth [1690.203]. However, They were at the receiving end of criticism from the late John Anthony West in 2000, when West published an article in Atlantis Rising magazine that ended with a scornful “The point is that the facile assurances given by Ogilvie-Herald/Lawton endorsing the orthodox view are illegitimate, their exclusion of contrary, genuinely informed opinion is typical of their selective bogus scholarship, and their long-winded acoustic levitation hypothesis is pure speculation and self-contradictory besides. We still don’t know how the pyramids were built/ Period. Full stop.”(er)
Alan Alford discussed the acoustics of the Great Pyramid in Pyramid of Secrets [010] and in a paper in Atlantis Rising magazine #50(ez).
Nevertheless, a paper entitled ORMUS and Pyramids by Barry Carter refers extensively to the work of Dr Philip Callahan (see: Smutny, Pavel | (atlantipedia.ie) who has associated paramagnetism and the Great Pyramid(dt).
Mike Molyneaux offers a study of the building techniques of the ancient Egyptians and their application to the construction of the pyramids and the raising of obelisks(dp).
In a paper by Domenic A. Narducci III entitled In Control of the Pyramids in which he outlines the need for Geometric Control (GC) that must have been employed in the building of the pyramids. He defines GC as “a system of procedures that establishes and then maintains the geometry of a structure during the course of the construction process.” He offers a detailed description of the procedures used by the Egyptians(ec).
Great Pyramid’s Function
Edward Malkowski supports(ax) the ideas of Edward Kunkel(ay) and John Cadman(az), who believed that the Great Pyramid was designed to function as a water pump. However, Malkowski goes further, suggesting that this pump was used to generate subtle electrical fields that were used to assist plant growth, which seems unnecessary, considering the fertility of the Nile Valley was renewed naturally by the annual flooding of the river.
Frank Joseph also referred to Kunkel’s theories in an Atlantis Rising article in edition #56(fa). Two issues later, Joseph returned to this idea of the Great Pyramid having an electrical function. The title of the article was Atlantis and the Great Pyramid, so to justify the inclusion of Atlantis he added The citadel of Atlantis, where the holy-of-holies was enshrined, as defined by Plato, was the same diameter (seven hundred fifty-eight feet) as the base side of the Great Pyramid. This revelation becomes clear only after the dimensions of the citadel, as given in Greek stadia for Plato’s account, are transposed into an original Egyptian unit of measurement, known as the aroura.” His fertile imagination did not bring him to explain what the other two huge pyramids at Giza were for!(fb)
>>A somewhat different association of the pyramids with hydraulics was outlined in a study published in PLOS One in August 2024 in which it was proposed “that ancient people may have relied on water to build the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt. They suspect a hydraulic system may have helped lift stones from the center of the pyramid” (ge).<<
The American scientist Philip Callahan, like Malkowski, proposed that the electromagnetic properties of the pyramid were used to enhance agricultural production and added “I am firmly convinced that the pyramids, both Egyptian and Central American, were huge antigravity structures for levitating the priests. The pyramid acted like a huge “enlarger-type” condensing lens which concentrated the cosmic energy into the hollow resonant stone tower, which in turn was filled with the IR-paramagnetic, organic breath of chanting priests.”(fv)
Hermann Waldhauser has also proposed that a hydraulic system was used in the Great Pyramid as explained in a series of articles by Stefan Erdmann(fi).
Steven Myers has written two books(ba) on the subject of ancient Egyptian hydraulics.
In 2001, Joseph P. Farrell published The Giza Death Star [1917*], in which he claimed that the Great Pyramid had been designed as a weapon of mass destruction! His website has a number of papers relating to the pyramids(eu).
In 2009, Dean Talboys published his theory(co). which suggests that the remarkable internal features of the GP, including the King’s Chamber and the Grand Gallery, were part of a device that used seawater to generate enough torque to drive an electric dynamo. Talboys suddenly ends his dissertation with the unexpected admission that “we are still left with the problem of what to do with the electricity it generates we could, at least, be a little closer to understanding why someone went to all that trouble”!
Nearly half a century ago, Kurt Mendelssohn (1906-1980), a physics professor put forward the idea in The Riddle of the Pyramids [1885] that “what mattered was not the pyramid – it was the building of it. The pyramid does not represent an aim in itself but the means to achieve an aim: the creation of a new form of society. These huge heaps of stone mark the place where man invented the state.”
Many and varied are the theories that have been put forward regarding the intended function of the Great Pyramid. A most recent (Jan.2021) has been offered by Konstantin Borisov, who suggested that the purpose of the Great Pyramid of Giza was to emit free electrons to the Ionosphere, to create light on the planet! This capability was enhanced by Giza’s location near the maximum geographical centre of Earth and the use of nummulitic limestone in the construction of the Great Pyramid! Further details are revealed in an article published on the Ancient Origins website(ct).
Donald E. Jennings has speculated that the Great Pyramid and its polished, and possibly painted casing stones, could have sent sunlight from the pyramids to other important locations.(dj) Today, only remnants of the original layer of casing stones remain. This is often explained as the result of being removed to be used as a building material for the expanding nearby Cairo. Another explanation on offer is that the casing stones were shed by earthquakes. Some years ago, Will Hart published an article in Atlantis Rising #42-43(ex) in which he questioned both of these theories.
2014 also saw the publication of Pyramid Gravity Force(ac) by John Shaughnessy in which he claims that “The pyramids were built to prevent and/or control tectonic plate movement, volcanic activity, tidal waves, major earthquakes, land movements and the magnetic field movements on Earth.” I suggest that all the Amazon reviews be read before purchasing.
It was recently revealed(ar). that, Ben Carson, a former Republican candidate for the US presidency, once proposed to an assembly of students at Andrews University that the Egyptian pyramids were built to store grain! This idea has been traced back to the sixth century when there was a belief that the pyramids had been the granaries of Joseph, as Julius Honorius (Cosmographia, c. 500 CE), Antoninus of Piacenza (Itinerary 43, c. 570 CE), and Geoffrey of Tours (History of the Franks 1.10, 594 CE), among others, all testify! This theory was later popularized by works such as ‘The Book of John Mandeville’, a hugely popular 14th-century travelogue.”(bs). Jason Colavito has pointed out [1876.63] that this silly idea was debunked in 1646 by Professor John Greaves.
In early 2021, Konstantin Borisov published his hi-tech explanation for the purpose of the GP which he proposed “was to emit free electrons to the Ionosphere, to create light on the planet . The hydrogen gas produced in the subterranean chamber was used as a source of electrons needed for the process.” (ef).
John DeSalvo has gathered a collection of old theories, many dating from the 19th century, regarding the purpose of the pyramids. They range from interesting to amusing(fo).
Perfection of the Great Pyramid!
Among the numerous mysteries related to the Great Pyramid is the fact that each side of the structure is actually slightly concave, making it the only known eight-sided pyramid (pedants would probably claim nine sides, including the base). This feature was first photographed in 1940(al). Jean-Paul Bauval has written a paper on this concavity, arguing that it was a design feature and not a construction error. He goes further and proposes “that the geometry generated by the concavity on the overall shape of the monument shows a clear relationship, whether intended or by accident, between the Egyptian Royal Cubit (RC) to the meter unit (m). Finally, this geometrical design has the peculiarity of creating a ‘virtual space’ at the top of the monument on which might have been placed a spherical object”(cr).
The assumed accuracy of the orientation and dimensions of the Great Pyramid was recently called into question by Mark Lehner and Glen Dash(bj).
Apart from the disputed question of the age of the Great Pyramid, its very structure has prompted its own share of debate with persistent claims that its location, dimensions, and orientation have significance in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, and geography. Lists of these connections are available online(p).
A June 2016 report revealed(bc). that the builders of the Great Pyramid had made a very minor miscalculation resulting in the west side being around 5 inches longer than the east side. The research team, led by Dash and Lehner, also noted that the pyramid is not oriented as precisely with the cardinal points as we have been led to believe since “The pyramid’s north-south axis (or meridian) runs 3 minutes 54 seconds west of due north while its east-west axis runs 3 minutes 51 seconds north of due east, he told Live Science. The east-west axis also runs through the center of a temple built on the east side of the pyramid. These measurements mean that the Great Pyramid is oriented just slightly away from the cardinal directions, the degree of error from north-south and east-west being almost the same.” However, these very minor defects cannot detract in any way from the magnificence of the structure constructed so long ago.
In a 2018 paper(ca), Glen Dash returned to the very slight misalignment of the Great Pyramid with the cardinal points.“The builders of the Great Pyramid of Khufu aligned the great monument to the cardinal points with an accuracy of better than four minutes of arc or one-fifteenth of one degree.” Dash claims that the engineers who designed the plans for the Great Pyramid used the fall equinox to seamlessly align this pyramid to the cardinal points. “He also claims that all three major Giza pyramids exhibit the same degree of error in that they are rotated slightly counter-clockwise from the cardinal points.”(fe). In fact, all three of the largest Egyptian pyramids – two at Giza and one at Dahshur – are remarkably aligned, in a way you wouldn’t expect to see from an era without drones, blueprints, and computers.
Manfred Greifzu has also written a fairly forensic study of the orientation of the Giza pyramids for the atlantisforschung.de website(dm).
November 2017 began with an exciting claim published in Nature magazine(bv). that a huge cavity had been identified above the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Giza. This discovery was made using non-invasive technology, which suggests that physical verification will require some degree of interference with the structure of the pyramid, which may not be allowed by the Egyptian authorities. The initial announcement was quickly followed by a refutation of the claim of a void over the Grand Gallery by Zahi Hawass(bw). Nevertheless, further investigation now (2019) seems to have confirmed the existence of this void(cn).
Not long after, it was reported in the UK’s Daily Mail that an Italian archaeoastronomer, Giulio Magli, believes that the void at the centre of the Great Pyramid houses a throne made from meteorites, used to help the pharaoh in the afterlife(bz). Magli has previously received public notice with a paper that explored the possibility that Göbekli Tepe had been constructed to “celebrate and successively follow the appearance of a new, extremely brilliant star in the southern skies: Sirius.”(ca).
Moving forward to March 2023 we had the dramatic announcement that a 30 feet-long and over 6-foot wide corridor had been identified inside the north side of the Great Pyramid. This was the result of investigations by the ‘Scanpyramids‘ project carried out since 2016(fp)(fq).
Recent images showing the top of the Great Pyramid taken by a drone show the top layer of the structure to be far from perfection and if anything somewhat loosely positioned(gd). A comment on the Quora website noted that at present “the pyramid ends with a platform of approximately 11 m on each side. At Pliny’s time this platform measured 4.88 m on each side, a value confirmed by Lambert (1630) at 4.80. It is certain that the Great Pyramid was never finished at the tip and surmounted by a peak similar to those of Sesostris and the Ammenemes of the 12th dynasty. It was a solar temple and as such it had to be surmounted by a small obelisk or perhaps, a sphere.”
PYRAMIDIOCY
In 2020, some notes of Isaac Newton’s from the 1680s were auctioned, which revealed Newton’s interest in the pyramids. It seems that “Newton was trying to uncover the unit of measurement used by those constructing the pyramids. He thought it was likely that the ancient Egyptians had been able to measure the Earth and that, by unlocking the cubit of the Great Pyramid, he too would be able to measure the circumference of the Earth.” (cs).
The pseudoscience of pyramidology took off in the 19th century, with a range of outlandish claims(aq), based on external and/or internal dimensions of the Great Pyramid, supporting anything from the British Israelites or the early Jehovah’s Witnesses to being a source of divine prophecy!
In the 20th century, Adam Rutherford, a British Israelite, founded The Institute of Pyrmidology in 1940. Between 1957 and 1974, Rutherford published a set of four books on the subject, although a fifth volume was planned [1772]. When Adam died, his son James took over the Institute, but following his death in a car accident, the Institute ended.
Also in the mid-20th century, we had crazy pyramid ideas being offered by John O. Kinnaman including a report that “Dr Kinnaman said that during their 1924 investigation of the Great Pyramid they (Kinnaman & Petrie) located a hidden vault which contained amazing technical objects, including what appeared to be an anti-gravity machine or parts of such a machine, and thousands of crystal prisms which they speculated may all have been brought from Atlantis.”(ed). Unsurprisingly, no evidence was produced.
Richard W. Noone is the author of 5/5/2000: The Ultimate Disaster which seems to have achieved near cult status. J. Douglas Kenyon wrote a favourable review of Noone and his book in Issue 14 (1999) of Atlantis Rising magazine (AR). Noone published a further article in AR #22 supporting his doomsday claim(eq).
“Noone studied the mysterious mathematics of the Great Pyramid and calculated its cosmic calendar. He concluded that the end of history was pinpointed on May 5, 2000, and he correlated the doomsday date to a cataclysmic melting of the polar ice caps.” However, when Noone’s date for the promised catastrophe passed without any major event occurring, comments became more critical(ep).
Nevertheless, pyramidology was given a new twist in November 2015 when a Spanish architect, Miquel Pérez-Sánchez, added the old alphanumeric system of gematria to the mix and claimed that he had identified the name ‘Atlantis’ when ‘translating’ some of the dimensions in the structure of the Great Pyramid(by). Scott Onstott is also a modern advocate of the existence of Mathematical Encoding in the Great Pyramid.(as)
For those interested in the possible significance of numbers and the Great Pyramid, there are three related papers available on Keith M. Hunter’s website(aw). However, readers should be aware that “fringe pyramidologists persist in their claims despite a 1992 effort to debunk them by Dutch astrophysicist Cornelis de Jager, who demonstrated the dimensions of any object can be manipulated to yield a desired outcome; he derived the speed of light and the distance between the Earth and Sun from his measurements of a bicycle.”(fx)
Ralph Ellis, mentioned above, is a controversial English revisionist of biblical and ancient Egyptian history, who bravely argues(b) that Mount Sinai, of Ten Commandments fame, was in fact the Great Pyramid of Giza [656]! John Taylor (1781-1864) claimed in 1859 that Noah was the builder of the Great Pyramid [1451]. Even more imaginative was the claim by C.E. Getsinger in the 1920s that Noah’s Ark was in fact the Great Pyramid(bp)!
[1942]+ https://www.academia.edu/27402718/Bramley_William_The_Gods_of_Eden
(a) Archive2925
(b) Archive 2926
(d) Archive 2494
(e) http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=207802
(f) Jeff Nisbet’s Mythomorph — Myth, History, and the Quest for Truth (archive.org)
(g) EUROPEAN-PYRAMIDS – AMAZING DISCOVERIES IN EUROPE (archive.org)
(h) http://www.touropia.com/largest-pyramids-in-the-world/
(i) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/worlds-oldest-pyramids-are-discovered-1353095.html
(j) Archive 2138
(k) http://www.gigalresearch.com/uk/pyramides-maurice.php
(l) (99+) (PDF) dating civilizations Jonathan Gray | NoStarPanel TruthSeeker – Academia.edu
(m) http://www.360cities.net/image/pyramid-of-khafre#105.63,0.00,96.0
(p) Archive 3620
(q) http://realitysandwich.com/132648/great_pyramid_garut/
(t) http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Egypt-Cairo-Pyramids
(u) https://www.seeker.com/lost-egyptian-pyramids-found-1765918313.html
(w) https://web.archive.org/web/20150905142440/http://www.mountainguides.com/report_2006.shtml (See Last Image)
(z) Why did two German ‘hobbyists’ deface a cartouche of Khufu inside the Great Pyramid and what does it have to do with Atlantis? (archive.org)
(aa) http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=255178&st=75
(ac) https://web.archive.org/web/20200225142822/http://www.pyramidgravityforce.com/
(ad) https://web.archive.org/web/20190604070011/https://www.azores-pyramid.org/
(ae) http://robertjrgraham.com/?s=Pyramids (link broken)
(af) Archive 3619
(ag) http://phys.org/news/2014-04-ancient-egyptians-pyramid-stones-sand.html
(ah) Archive 2806
(aj) megalith-pyramiden.de (archive.org)
(al) http://www.catchpenny.org/concave.html
(am) See: Archive 2564
(an) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00792v2
(ao) See: Archive 2818
(ap) The Stars Above, the Great Pyramid Below: 10,400 BCE | Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. (archive.org)
(aq) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidology
(ar) Ben Carson: Egyptian Pyramids Built For Grain Storage, Not By Aliens Or As Tombs (archive.org)
(at) http://www.jpost.com/Features/War-of-the-pyramid-theorists
(aw) Lost Age Secrets, World Mysteries & Forbidden Knowledge (archive.org)
(ax) http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.ie/2012/01/new-theory-for-great-pyramid.html
(ay) https://web.archive.org/web/20191118024438/http://www.linux-host.org:80/energy/ebuilt.html
(az) https://web.archive.org/web/20200318074200/http://sentinelkennels.com/Research_Article_V41.html
(bb) Archive 3057
(bc) http://www.livescience.com/55118-great-pyramid-giza-is-slightly-lopsided.html
(bf) https://web.archive.org/web/20180723084725/http://world-pyramids.com/en/
(bj) http://www.archaeology.org/issues/227-1609/trenches/4738-trenches-egypt-pyramid-measurement
(bm) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/pyramids/are-pyramids-made-out-of-concrete-1/
(bn) Archive 3631
(bo) http://www.livescience.com/32616-how-were-the-egyptian-pyramids-built-.html
(bp) The Thomson Review, Thomson, Illinois, July 19th, 1922 – p.3
(bq) http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/04/mexico-is-hiding-the-world-s-largest-pyramid.html
(br) https://web.archive.org/web/20200218000652/http://gizapyramid.com/oldphotos1.htm
(bs) 10 Bizarre Theories About The Pyramids That DON’T Involve Aliens (archive.org)
(bv) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaap/ncurrent/full/nature24647.html
(bw) https://phys.org/news/2017-11-egypt-archaeologist-criticises-pyramid-void.html
(bx) Archive 3618
(by) http://www.lavanguardia.com/lacontra/20151031/54437578233/la-contra-miquel-perez-sanchez-pla.html
(bz) https://nypost.com/2018/01/15/great-pyramid-may-have-throne-carved-from-ancient-meteorite/
(cc) https://earthistheaim.wordpress.com/
(cf) https://www.livescience.com/63978-great-pyramid-ramp-discovered.html
(cg) Contact Franz Löhner (archive.org) *
(ch) https://web.archive.org/web/20190105210122/http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/ghizahistoricaccounts.htm
(cj) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/ancient-megalithic-structures-0011761
(ck) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/machu-picchu-earthquake-0011195
(cl) https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/nap_art4/
(co) https://old.world-mysteries.com/dtalboys_gp1.htm
(cp) https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/nap_art8/
(cq) https://web.archive.org/web/20190128150937/https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/nap_art9/
(cs) Revealed: Isaac Newton’s attempts to unlock secret code of pyramids | Isaac Newton | The Guardian
(cu) Art History Professor in China Claims Egyptian Pyramids Are Modern Fakes – JASON COLAVITO
(cv) The Movie Great Pyramid K 2019 – Director Fehmi Krasniqi – Bing video
(cw) Discussions in Egyptology, volume 13, 1989, pp. 7-18
(cx) https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/are-the-egyptian-pyramids-aligned-with-the-stars
(cz) Solving the Mysteries of the Pyramids | Drexel Engineering (archive.org)
(dc) https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/nap_art10/
(dd) Pyramids packed with fossil shells › News in Science (ABC Science) (archive.org)
(de) Zangkunchong : Ancient Art Homepage (archive.org)
(df) In The Reign Of The Black Pharaohs (freerepublic.com)
(dg) (99+) (PDF) Orion: The Eternal Rise of the Sky Hunter | Andrew Collins – Academia.edu
(dh) https://www.ancient.eu/article/862/the-step-pyramid-of-djoser-at-saqqara/
(di) https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=79265
(dk) http://www.gizapyramid.com/pincherle.htm
(dl) Die Pyramiden von Gizeh wurden nicht von Altägyptern erbaut – Atlantisforschung.de (Ger)
See: Archive 6401 | (atlantipedia.ie) (Eng)
(dm) Pyramid Puzzles – Atlantisforschung.de (German)
(dn) Understanding the Ancient Art of Levitation (liveabout.com)
(dp) http://www.catchpenny.org/mmbuild.html
(dq) http://www.catchpenny.org/theories.html
(dr) https://eaglesanddragonspublishing.com/the-pyramids-of-ancient-greece/
(ds) Diamantis Koutoulas – Elliniki Agogi. Dec. 2001 p 1823
(dt) http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/pyramids.htm
(du) https://archive.org/details/egyptianpyramids00fish/page/n1/mode/2up?q=hyksos
(dv) Archive 6555 | (atlantipedia.ie)
(dw) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/07/ukraine.tomparfitt
(dx) https://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=8693.0
(dy) https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/who-built-the-pyramids/
(dz) https://www.academia.edu/51260091/The_Mathematical_Layout_of_the_Giza_Plateau_RESUME
(ea) https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chinese-pyramids-of-xian
(ec) In Control at the Pyramids – World Mysteries Blog (world-mysteries.com)
(ed) http://thesecondsight.blogspot.com/2006/12/great-pyramid-of-lunacy.html
(eg) https://evol-forum.ch/giza-en/?noredirect=en_US
(eh) Prehistorical History – GIZA-LEGACY (archive.org)
(ei) Press Release by Dr. Dominique Goerlitz & Stefan Erdmann – Atlantisforschung.de
(ek) https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0307/0307100.pdf
(el) Who Solves The Mystery Of The Great Pyramid Building ? (gigalresearch.com)
(em) The Menkara petrified shallow marine creature (gigalresearch.com)
(en) https://curiosmos.com/fossil-discovery-suggests-the-pyramids-and-sphinx-were-submerged-under-water/
(eo) Missing Fourth Great Pyramid of Giza may Finally Have Been Found (thevintagenews.com)
(eq) Atlantis Rising magazine #22 https://media.oiipdf.com/pdf/8cc846c3-42b2-4ec1-b499-50cb1008e2c0.pdf
(er) Atlantis Rising magazine #23 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(es) Atlantis Rising magazine #29 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(et) Atlantis Rising magazine #31 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(eu) https://gizadeathstar.com/?s=great+pyramid
(ev)Atlantis Rising magazine #35 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(ew)Atlantis Rising magazine #39 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(ex) Atlantis Rising magazine #42/43 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(ey) Pyramids Building | Atlantis in the Java Sea (atlantisjavasea.com)
(ez) Atlantis Rising magazine #50 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(fa) Atlantis Rising magazine #56 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(fb) Atlantis Rising magazine #58 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(fc) https://culturacolectiva.com/travel/russia-pyramids-kola-peninsula-discovery-older-egypt/
(fe) The Secret of The Pyramids’ Perfect Alignment Might Be Explained After All (sciencealert.com)
(ff) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/
(fh) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/pyramid-builders-0017205
(fi) Hermann Waldhauser’s Theory of the Great Pyramid Stefan Erdman (erdmann–forschung-de.translate.goog) (English)
(fl) Hans Jelitto – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)
(fm) Round pyramids – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)
(fn) URGENT URGENT! BREAKING NEWS: EGYPT – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)
(fo) THEORIES ON WHY THE GREAT PYRAMID WAS BUILT (gizapyramid.com)
(fp) New discovery in Great Pyramid of Giza: A 30-foot hidden corridor (usatoday.com)
(fr) Mystery Of Tools Used To Build Giza Pyramids: What If They Were Never Lost? (howandwhys.com)
(ft) Scotland’s Hidden Sacred Past – Graham Hancock Official Website
(fv) https://malagabay.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/philip-callahan-and-the-round-towers/ *
(fx) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/no-really-there-is-no-secret-code-in-the-pyramids-17662247/
(fy) Acoustic Levitation Today – Graham Hancock Official Website
(fz) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/pyramid-kazakhstan-0019062
(ga) Archive 2006 | (atlantipedia.ie)
(gb) Signs of the Crime: The Great Pyramid Hoax – Graham Hancock Official Website
(gd) A Drone’s View of the Great Pyramid of Giza (kottke.org)
(ge) Ancient Egyptians May Have Used Hydraulic Lift to Build Pyramid (msn.com) *
(gf) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-25412540 *
(gg) Egyptian Pyramids and Peter James – Travel To Eat by Kurt Buzard MD *
Liritzis, Ioannis
Ioannis Liritzis, is an archaeologist at the University of the Aegean who has proposed that the ancient Greeks journeyed across the Atlantic far as Canada in the 1st century AD. Liritzis presents his argument in a paper, co-authored with astronomer Panagiota Preka-Papadema, philosopher Konstantinos Kalachanis, meteorologist Chris G. Tzanis, and information technology consultant Panagiotis Antonopoulos(a).
>In a 2018 review of their paper by Rebecca Boyle on the Hakai website a number of interesting points were offered including a range highly critical comments from respected maritime experts. Additionally, Boyle’s article clarifies the objective of the Greek team’s paper(f).
“The Greek researchers acknowledge in their paper that there is no evidence that the Greek sailors actually made these trips; they only set out to show its plausibility, using interdisciplinary approaches and scientific evidence.
“That ancient Greeks made it to Scandinavia and the New World … is not supported by archaeology yet, but the potentiality of such a hypothesis has been modeled by arguments and the reaflrmation of astronomical, geographical, and oceanographical factors,” they write.”<
Although Liritzis does not link his theory with the story of Atlantis, he does express his views on Plato’s narrative in a later paper(c).
Some years earlier Liritzis was engaged in another controversial subject when a study by him and his team challenged the theory of Joseph Davidovits, who claimed that the building blocks of the Great Pyramid had been cast on-site. Liritzis pointed out that the material used to build Egypt’s most famous monuments “contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils” that are distributed throughout the rock in a manner compatible with natural rock(d).
I note that Liritzis has also extended his interest into the growing field of disaster archaeology(e).
(b) https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/did-ancient-greeks-sail-to-canada/
(d) Pyramids packed with fossil shells › News in Science (ABC Science) (archive.org)
(e) ResearchGate
Pumapunku
Pumapunku is a terraced earthen mound, faced with blocks and an important part of the Tiwanaku archaeological site on the Bolivian Altiplano. It has unique architectural features including the use of building blocks with up to 80 faces on them. The Tiwanaku site is pre-Inca and has given its earliest radiocarbon date as 536-600 AD and was in use until circa 1000 AD(a), which is a far cry from the flawed 12,000-15,000 BC date claimed by Posnansky(e)(f). Details of how these late dates were arrived at are available in a paper by Jason Yaeger and Alexei Vranich on the Academia.edu website(j).
As with so many other enigmatic ancient sites, various members of the ‘lunatic fringe’ have attributed the construction at this location to either ancient astronauts or Atlanteans or an exotic combination of both, based on either over-fertilised imaginations or flawed data or again, both. Jason Colavito has written a critique of some of the more silly suggestions(b).
Ancient astronaut advocate Von Däniken[1147.221] and Brien Foerster(d) among others have claimed that the stones of Pumapunku were composed of diorite, an exceptionally hard stone, which would have required a modern diamond-tipped drill to work it. The implication is that only Atlanteans with their advanced technology or extraterrestrials could have worked the stone with such precision.
>Brien Foerster also published a paper on the Academia.edu website in Feb. 2023 in which he decries “The extraction, wanton destruction, and recycling of much of the Puma Punku site that can be easily seen in the small nearby town also called Tiwanaku, where many of the buildings, including the church, contain the telltale grey andesite blocks, with smooth flat surfaces, which clearly came from Puma Punku.” He also points out that while Tiwanaku has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Puma Punku has received little attention(k).”<
However, Colavito and Michael Heiser(c) have pointed out that this identification is untrue and that they were composed of the softer andesite and red sandstone. Apart from this, the Code of Hammurabi was incised on diorite, without Atlantean or extraterrestrial assistance, 2,000 years before the development of Pumapunku!
Joseph Davidovits who controversially proposed that Giza’s Great Pyramid stones had been cast rather than carved has also claimed that other well-known structures had been created in a similar manner, such as at Tiwanaku and Puma Punku in Peru(g) and Easter Island(h).
Javier Escalante Moscoso is an architect with a degree in archaeology who has extensively excavated and surveyed the Tiwanaku monuments. (see map above).
A fully illustrated guide to the monuments of Tiwanaku/Puma Punku is an excellent introduction to the site including a map by Moscoso(i).
(a) https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4202
(b) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-in-search-of-aliens-s01e07-the-mystery-of-puma-punku
(c) See: https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-2803/
(d) https://hiddenincatours.com/posts/videos/#!/keyword_filter=Puma%20Punku
(e) The age of Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) Site, Bolivia (archive.org) *
(f) https://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg62910.html
(g) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/tiahuanaco-monuments-tiwanaku-pumapunku-bolivia/
(h) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/
(i) Tiwanaku, the mysterious pre-Inca capital – mapaymochila.es
(k) (99+) The Enduring Enigma Of Puma Punku in Bolivia | Brien Foerster – Academia.edu *
Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco)
Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) is an ancient city whose remains are located over two miles above sea level near the southern end of Lake Titicaca on the Altiplano of Bolivia. It was first encountered by Spanish conquistadors in 1549. Tiwanaku has all the features of a harbour, which has led some to describe it as the seaport of nearby Puma Punku another remarkable ancient site(o).
The ruins are scattered over a number of square miles through which the Guayqui-La Paz railway was constructed, which was responsible for the breaking up of many monuments to provide ballast. Before that, stone from the site was used in the construction of nearby homes and a church.
Belisario Díaz Romero believed that Tiwanaku had been built by a race of people he calls Homo atlanticus, who had come to America from Atlantis over a landbridge from the east, outlined in his 1906 book Tiahuanacu[1235]. Heather Pringle notes(t) that before Romero, “Francis de Castelnau (1810-1880), for example, proposed in the mid-19th century that Tiwanaku was the work of wandering Egyptian pharaohs, as opposed to the ‘imbecilic race that inhabits the country today’.”
The controversial Arthur Posnansky, who linked Tiahuanaco with Aztlan, the mythical “white” island homeland of the Aztecs investigated them in the early 20th century. The similarity of Aztlan with the name of Plato’s city has excited some straw-clutching Atlantis seekers into claiming a definite connection between the two.
Posnansky also noted that the expected alignments of structures at Tiwanaku were offset by an amount that suggested their construction at a time when they would have been correctly aligned to the cardinal points. He, after many years of study, was convinced that Tiahuanaco was the oldest civilisation on Earth [516] dating it to around 15,000 BC, which he later reduced to 10,000 BC.
In the 1920s, Edmund Kiss studied the ruins of Tiwanaku and concluded that it had been constructed by Nordic refugees from Atlantis which had been destroyed by a falling moon! His ideas were enthusiastically received back in Nazi Germany. A further expedition was planned but never materialised because of the start of World War II.(u)
Dr Graham Holton, an Australian commentator has written about the pseudo-science practised in the early 20th century at Tiwanaku by the likes of Posnansky and Kiss and endorsed by Hörbiger and Hans Bellamy(al)(am).
Although, as you can see below, Posnansky’s work and particularly his dating of Tiwanaku has been rejected by many, he still has supporters. In Graham Hancock‘s 1995 book Fingerprints of the Gods [275], he supported Posnansky’s date, referring to his work throughout the book. Ian Alex Blease, a devout sceptic took issue with this endorsement (aa). For my part, I note that Hancock was happy to support Posnansky in ‘Fingerprints’, but in America Before [1680], despite its title, he gives Posnansky’s date no mention, perhaps because it clashed with his new date for the destruction of his ‘Lost Civilisation’!
>>Hancock has been highly critical of Carbon-14 as a dating method, particularly for megalithic sites and specifically Tiwanaku. The late Garrett Fagan took issue with Hancock regarding the dating of Tiwanaku in a 2000 post on Hancock’s site(ar). Hancock responded with a challenge to Fagan that led to a further article from him(aq). The temperature rose with a further article from Hancock(as).<<
Charles Orser Jnr. debunked Posnansky’s dating in a 2001 article(k) as did Paul Heinrich(n).
Marin, Minella & Schievenin [972.97] “Between 1927 and 1930 several scientists, including Hans Ludendorf, at the time director of the Astronomical Observatory of Potsdam; astronomer Arnold Kohlshutter, University of Bonn; Dr Rolf Muller, University of Potsdam and Dr Friedrich Becker, Specula Vatican, meticulously checked the archaeological-astronomical research of Posnansky for accuracy. After three years of work these scientists corroborated his thesis.”
Before retirement, R. Cedric Leonard supported Posnansky’s early date for Tiwanaku citing a number of atronomers who endorsed his chronology. “Between 1927 and 1930 Prof. Posnansky’s conclusions were studied intensively by a number of authorities. Dr. Hans Ludendorff (Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Potsdam), Friedrich Becker of the Specula Vaticana, Prof. Arnold Kohlschutter (astronomer at Bonn University), and Rolf Müller (astronomer of the Institute of Astrophysics at Potsdam) verified the accuracy of Posnansky’s calculations and vouched for the reliability of his conclusions.
The conventional practice of dating Tiahuanacu as beginning c. 200 A.D. and collapsing c. 1000 A.D. started with Wendell Bennett’s excavations, which turned up numerous examples of pottery, small statues and other artifacts. Since it is common for later arrivals to be awed by massive ruins (sometimes attributing their origin to supernatural beings, thus replicating the “sacred” images on their own pottery and textiles), I think it is a mistake to fuse the two cultures into one, implying that the later arrivals were the same people who built the original ruins. I believe Bennett and his successors are all guilty of such an error.” (ap)
R. Cedric Leonard believed that Posnansky’s date addressed all of the mysteries associated with the site and “Thus I think it likely that Tiahuanaco was built at sea level c.15,000 B.C. as an Atlantean port.”(z)
The American archaeologist, Neil Steede, while reviewing Posnansky’s date, thought that a date of 7000-5000 BC was more appropriate(aj).
At the other end of the spectrum, Emmet Sweeney, an ardent chronology revisionist claimed that “most probably, Tiahuanaco was built around the same time as pharaoh Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Sakkara in Egypt. It can thus claim to be among the oldest of human monuments [700.208].” Tiwanaku is conventionally dated between 200 BC and 100 AD, while the Step Pyramid is thought to have been constructed around 2650 BC.
Some researchers, including Jim Allen, have studied Tiwanaku’s remarkable Gate of the Sun and identified the figures carved on it as a sophisticated calendar(v).
A paper from Marco Antonio Cabero regarding the ‘Gate’ throws a modicum of doubt on its possible use as a calendar. Instead, he focused on the other side of the monument where he claims there is evidence that the ancient people of Tiwanaku knew the ‘golden number’, phi.
“The composition of the front face of the Gate of the Sun in Tiwanaku presents, anthropometric, and bilateral symmetry. On the back side, there are also harmonic proportions but with less significance. These proportions were not found before because the study of the content of its engraving frieze was believed to be a calendar, an idea that has been so widely extended, that any other interpretations were ignored (however, the presence of these proportions does not exclude the possible existence of some type of calendar). The Gate of the Sun may not be part of a temple, but its content could also be considered as the expression of a monument in itself; a work that testifies to the importance of knowledge, art, and science “(ac).
Ashley Cowie has recently proposed that Tiwanaku was located on an ancient Prime Meridian(w).
Also eye-catching is the claim(l) by Roger Elefant that later construction at Tiwanaku was carried out by the Vikings!
However, a more recent, but catastrophic, explanation is offered by Stephen Smith(d) on the Thunderbolts.info website. Perhaps Smith’s ideas might be combined with the studies of George Dodwell to produce a more comprehensive hypothesis. Posnansky’s date is greatly at variance with conventional dating that puts the flourishing of Tiwanaku from 1200 BC until 1200 AD. The latter part of that period roughly coincides with the existence of the Wari Empire, a possible rival of Tiwanaku(e).
In 2013, Jason Yaeger and Alexei Vranich published a detailed study of the chronological development of Tiwanaku and Puma Punku. This is now available on the Academia.edu website(ao). Anyone seeking support for ancient astronauts, giants or Atlantis will be greatly disappointed. The authors confirmed a starting date for monumental construction at the site of no earlier than 200 BC, which continued intermittently until the arrival of the Spanish invaders. Their report is the result of the ‘hard slog’ required by real archaeology.
Several claims attempting to link Tiahuanaco with Atlantis have been made, with one anonymous blog(y) insisting that it was the capital of Atlantis. James Bailey was an early advocate [149] of a Peruvian Atlantis with its capital at Tiwanaku or Chan Chan, which was probably the largest pre-Colombian city in South America.
The claim of a direct connection between Tiahuanaco and Atlantis is hard to accept on a number of grounds; for example, the idea of an army travelling from the west coast of South America to attack Greece in the east of the Mediterranean is not tenable. That there was an advanced culture in the Andes is undeniable but to link it to Plato’s story is stretching credibility to extremes. Lake Titicaca and Tiahuanaco have plenty of mysteries still to be explained. In 1980 the Bolivian scholar, Hugo Boero Rojo, aided by one of the local natives, Elias Mamani, located underwater ruins off the coast of Puerta Acosta[576]. His discoveries included megalithic temples, flights of stairs and stone roads.
More recently, Dave Truman has written about an alignment known as ‘The Way of Viracocha’ that runs from Cajamarca in the north, through Cuzco and Tiwanaku and finishing at Pukara Grande(p), oriented exactly 45° west of true north. Truman has built on the work of Maria Sholten d’Ebneth (1926-2007), who wrote of the La Ruta de Wiracocha[1236] in the 1970s(q). Others have expanded on her work, but usually in Spanish. Truman has speculated on whether “Viracocha, the great teacher and restorer of civilisation in the Andes, in some way embodied the scientific knowledge of a sophisticated, but long-forgotten high culture?” Truman
also discusses the ‘chakana’ or Andean stepped cross (see right) and its possible meaning.
It was reported in October 2013(g) (that a team of Belgian and Bolivian archaeologists had found an assortment of ceramics, gems and gold objects at an apparent ceremonial site beneath the waters of Lake Titicaca, which was sacred to the Incas and Tiwanakus. It was not until 2019 that images of some of the artefacts recovered from the lake were widely published(x).
We cannot leave the matter of mysterious Tiahuanaco without referring to the fact that some miles further south is Lake Poopó beside which Jim Allen is convinced that the city of Atlantis was located. Allen claims that the large plain to the west of the lake is the plain mentioned by Plato as being adjacent to the city of Atlantis. In a recent documentary “Atlantis in the Andes” broadcast by ‘Discovery Civilization’, Allen identified Tiahuanaco as one of the ten kingdoms of Atlantis. However, I cannot help noticing that while Tiwanaku, claimed to be 17,000 years old, provides us with an astonishing wealth of structures and finely dressed stone, Allen’s chosen Atlantis site, Pampa Aullagas, offers little more than rubble!
Another supporter of an Andean Atlantis is Sean Bambrough, who has been developing a theory since 1999 that identifies Tiwanaku as the city of Atlantis(h). He has now published his magnum opus on the academia.edu website(ae).
In February 2015, Marcelo Ozorio also suggested a link with Plato’s Atlantis and most interesting is the huge number of images included on his site(i). There is also a large collection of related images on a YouTube clip(m).
In 2022, Marco Vigato‘s book, Empires of Atlantis [1830] was published, which included Tiwanaku as part of the evidence for his hyperdiffusionist Atlantis(ab).
In 2008, David E. Flynn brought to public attention an astonishing series of satellite photos(a) that show a vast network of the remains apparently of man-made structures that extend for many miles around Lake Titicaca. These ‘geoglyphs’ encompass Tiahuanaco.
The most remarkable collection of early photos of the Tiwanaku site can be found on the Above Top Secret website(b). The accompanying text makes a strong case for treating the location as archaeologically contaminated and as a consequence that many of the dates proposed for the site should be considered suspect. Other mysteries are the fact that saltwater Lake Titicaca contains known sea life and that old waterlines are slanted(c).
In late March 2015, the Bolivian government announced(j) that ground-penetrating radar had identified what appeared to be a buried pyramid in the Tiwanaku complex as well as other ‘anomalies’ and that excavations may start in May or June.
A mixed Spanish and English website(f) offers a number of interesting papers including a chapter from Posnansky’s book Tiahuanaco: The Cradle of American Man.
Archaeology magazine has an interesting Q & A paper relating to the history and current state of preservation at the Tiwanaku site(s).
A May 2017 report(r) confirmed that the entire Tiwanaku complex is much more extensive than previously thought, covering an area of at least 650 hectares (1,675 acres).
Joseph Davidovits who controversially proposed that Giza’s Great Pyramid stones had been cast rather than carved has also claimed that other well-known structures had been created in a similar manner, such as at Tiwanaku and Puma Punku in Bolivia(ah) and Easter Island(ai). He offers scientific evidence to support this claim in a very interesting video(ak). My objection to his ‘cast rather than carved’ hypothesis, particularly in relation to Easter Island, is that partially finished statues are visible today in a quarry still attached at the back to the rock from which they were carved as well as some of the tools used for the job. Images of these can be seen in Thor Heyerdahl’s Aku-Aku [1938].
Brien Foerster is an American writer who now lives in Cuzco, the former Inca capital in Peru. He has studied the ancient cultures of the Andes and believes that many predated the Incas and had advanced technologies that permitted the precise drilling of stone(af), the quality of which he has compared with examples found in Egypt and like Chris Dunn concluded that their level of accuracy could not have been achieved without possession of a high technology, now lost(ag). He has expanded on this in his 2014 book, Lost Ancient Technology of Egypt [1487].
A fully illustrated guide to the intriguing monuments of Tiwanaku/Puma Punku is now available which is an excellent introduction to the site including a map by Javier Escalante Moscoso(an).
(a) https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1977971/posts
(b) https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread732575/pg1
(c) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2012/04/30/tiwanaku/
(d) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2013/04/03/tiwanaku-3/
(e) http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/science-wari-tiwanaku-rival-empire-01473.html
(f) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/esp_tiahuanaco5.htm
(h) https://2rbetterthan1.wordpress.com/atlantis-south-americatiahuanaco/
(i) Tiwanaku, pre-columbian archaeological and world heritage site at Bolivia (viagem.space)
(k) https://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg62910.html
(l) https://atlantide-mu.over-blog.com/2013/12/terre-creuse.html
(m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuoXm9uafI
(n) http://www.intersurf.com/~chalcedony/Tiwanaku.html
(o) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20170601230717/https://www.atlantisquest.com/prehistcity.html
(p) https://grahamhancock.com/trumand1/
(q) https://puri-aprendiendovida.blogspot.ie/2013/02/la-ruta-de-viracocha-camino-de.html
(s) https://interactive.archaeology.org/tiwanaku/qanda.html
(t) https://archive.archaeology.org/blog/the-fantasy-world-of-tiwanaku/
(u) https://theappendix.net/issues/2013/4/andean-atlantis-race-science-and-the-nazi-occult-in-bolivia
(v) https://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/the-gate-of-the-sun-calendar-from-ancient-tiwanacu/
(w) https://www.ancient-origins.net/events/unearthing-lost-meridian-tiwanaku-s-temple-builders-0010322
(y) https://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?1,1063585,1063585#msg-1063585
(z) https://web.archive.org/web/20161107001948/https://www.atlantisquest.com/prehistcity.html
(aa) https://www.oocities.org/debunkinglc/tiwanaku.html (link broken)
(ab) https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Atlantis-Civilizations-Traditions-throughout/dp/1591434335
(ad) (PDF) Mathematics in Tiwanaku-The gold number in the gate of the sun (researchgate.net)
(ae) https://www.academia.edu/61088843/Atlantis_Found_in_the_Andes_by_V_Sean_Bambrough
(af) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7of1Lkef0
(ag) https://ahotcupofjoe.net/
(ah) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/tiahuanaco-monuments-tiwanaku-pumapunku-bolivia/
(ai) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/
(aj) QC2K – Neil Steede (archive.org)
(ak) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/
(am) (99+) 2007 Chapter 3 Tiwanaku.doc | Graham Holton – Academia.edu
(an) Tiwanaku, the mysterious pre-Inca capital – mapaymochila.es
(ap) Tiahuanacu, The Mysterious City (archive.org)
(aq) https://www.hallofmaat.com/methodological/an-answer-to-graham-hancock/ *
Advanced Technology*
Advanced Technology is regularly claimed by ‘fringe’ writers to have existed in ancient, even prehistoric, times. These claims usually have one of two aims, either to support the idea that in ancient times there was a civilisation/s with highly advanced technology since lost, or that such technology was given to ancient societies by aliens from other planets and which was also lost over time. Both schools of thought offer the same ‘evidence’ to support their claims.
Technology can be defined as techniques, skills, methods and processes, usually intended to improve the human lifestyle. ‘Advanced’ is a relative term implying superiority over what had previously existed – wheeled vehicles were an improvement on sledges or bronze tools were better than copper ones.
When such writers refer to advanced technology, they really mean apparent anachronistic technology, which is frequently inferred from the existence of structures that cannot be duplicated with today’s technology. It is argued by proponents of ancient advanced technology that many ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge, Lixus, Baalbek or the Pyramids, could not have been built without some unknown power source, frequently attributing the existence of such technologies to extraterrestrials from the planet ‘Zog’.
Also from Egypt is the claim that there is compelling evidence of powered stone cutting ‘machinery’ there in antiquity. Similar evidence is also claimed to be found in South America. A one-hour Russian video with English dialogue, relating to this, is quite thought-provoking(g). While the evidence is strong, we cannot rule out the possible existence of long-forgotten techniques rather than mechanical technologies, of which nothing has been found. In the case of ancient Egypt, we have the remains of their primitive tools as well as tomb walls decorated with the same implements. If they had possessed some advanced technology, why did they need those simple tools, which are still available to us, or depict such technology on their tomb walls?
For me, it is also remarkable that cultures such as that of the Pueblo people of the American Southwest managed to “create architectural complexes using advanced geometry — with incredible mathematical accuracy”(o) despite having no written language or system of numerical notation.
Chris Dunn, famous for his belief that the Great Pyramid was in fact built as a power generator[1234], has also claimed that the ancient Egyptians were capable of advanced machining(k) . Margaret Morris, a respected Egyptologist, took issue with Dunn, challenging him to a debate, which, as far as I can ascertain, never materialised. Morris encapsulated her objections thus(l): “In short, Chris Dunn’s methodology is so poor that he has resorted to inventing a cataclysm that cannot be scientifically substantiated and he elevates the pyramid builders to the technological level of space travelers, with no physical evidence at all for either assertion.”
For my part, if the 2.9m high red granite head of Amenhotep III was carved by the Egyptians, without alien intervention, Dunn’s claims are pretty shallow. However, I think it is only fair that readers should have access to Dunn’s side of the dispute(m), which can be found in Atlantis Rising magazine #26(aa). The debate continued in issue #27 with further comments from Morris and Stephen Mehler joining the fray, generally in support of Dunn(ab).
However, I must point out that the late Dr Jose Alvarez Lopez was insistent that he had seen evidence of ancient machining on exhibits in the Cairo Museum that were later removed!(t).
Sometimes the process is reversed and simple technology is discovered today, which could have been known in the past, but since lost, which might explain the megalithic structures that still fill us with awe. An example of this is the discovery by W.T. Wallington(j), which he calls a ‘rediscovery’, of a simple method using a lever and a couple of pivots, for moving concrete blocks weighing many thousands of pounds.
Another or comparable technology may have been used by Edward Leedskainin when he single-handedly built Coral Castle in Florida City(n). What is certain is that Leedskainin had no help from intergalactic visitors. In 2016, Jim Solley published an unnecessarily long paper(ab) claiming that Coral Castle had been built using artificial stone, poured or cast, rather than sculpted. This would have been similar to the building method proposed by Professor Joseph Davidovits that he claims was used for the building of the Egyptian pyramids, as well as other ancient structures!
While Wallington’s ‘rediscovery’ may not answer all the mysteries of the past it does raise the real possibility that future discoveries may provide unexpected explanations for some of today’s ‘mysteries’.
A recent article on the Ancient Origins website by Lia Mangolini(r) offers her view that crude chemistry, using plant extracts, provided the means of dissolving rock, which could explain how some quality artefacts as well as tight-fitting ancient masonry, such as found in Peru and Egypt, may have been achieved. This is certainly worth a read, but I would prefer to see a demonstration. She expanded on the use of this acid, known in the Middle East as ‘shamir’, in a separate paper(ae).
The idea that advanced technology existed in Atlantis has been regularly claimed by various writers since the latter part of the 19th century. However, I must emphasise that Plato offered no suggestion of the existence of any such technology.
In 1886, Frederick S. Oliver (1866-1899) wrote a channelled book entitled A Dweller on Two Planets[1014] in which he attributed a number of technologies to the Atlanteans including anti-gravity and flying machines. This book has been the source of much more recent New Age drivel. Edgar Cayce also spoke of Atlantis having flying machines, but more entertainingly, he had them made of elephant skins!
However, leaving all that speculative nonsense aside, is it not strange that this ‘technologically advanced’ civilisation was defeated by the Athenians and that such a culturally sophisticated society was referred to by Plato as barbarians? Even more important is the fact that Plato, who provided such a detailed description of Atlantis, never gave the slightest hint that the Atlanteans had anything more technologically advanced than the chariot.
Technology worldwide, circa 9600 BC, is generally accepted as having been greatly inferior to that described by Plato in Atlantis. The reconciliation of this conflict is the greatest challenge facing supporters of such an early date for Atlantis. Their stance is quite understandable given that Plato refers to the war with Atlantis occurring 9,000 years before Solon’s visit to Egypt around 600 BC and that Atlantis was destroyed ‘afterwards’.
Plato’s description is totally consistent with a Late Bronze Age society. Not only does Plato’s Atlantis appear to be technologically advanced, in Bronze Age terms, but also their military might imply the existence of equally powerful potential enemies supported by similar technology. Consequently, it is not sufficient to claim that Atlantis disappeared along with its superior skills. It would be reasonable to expect that archaeology would uncover comparable technologies in various locations that existed around the same time, particularly since imperial Atlantis is supposed to have occupied or at least heavily influenced both north and south of the Mediterranean as far as Tyrrhenia and Libya respectively.
Some authors in an effort to verify Solon’s date have highlighted a number of controversial instances of apparently anachronistic advanced technology to support the possibility of an early Atlantis date. Artefacts such as the Antikythera Mechanism, the Baghdad Battery(a) and even the Ark of the Covenant(b) have all been adduced to give credence to such an idea. Even more daring are the independent claims that both the lighthouses at Pharos in Egypt and Faro in Portugal were powered by electricity. The claim of ancient Egyptian electricity is regularly trotted out(f) and was the subject of a recent book[0948], edited by Larry Brian Radka. More recently, engineer Andrew Hall offers his evidence for claiming that the ancient Egyptians had used electricity in a YouTube video(ai). However interesting his ideas are they are still based on speculation and a subjective interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphs and wall paintings.
In all these instances hard proof is clearly lacking, with the sole exception of the Antikythera Mechanism, which was mechanical, not electrical, cannot be dated earlier than the 2nd century BC. The ingenuity of our ancestors was often underrated until something such as the Antikythera Mechanism was found and we were forced to modify our view of the past, but not necessarily abandon the accepted view that technology has evolved gradually, even if there are a few ‘missing links’ in the chain.
Even more worrying is the recurrent claim that atomic warfare was engaged in on the Indian subcontinent thousands of years ago(z). The late Philip Coppens wrote a short paper on this possibility in 2005(c). David Hatcher Childress has also endeavoured to cash in on the same claim in a number of his books [1355] and online(u). Childress also offers a list of his top-ten technologically advanced ancient civilisations(y). Nick Redfern has also entered this market with his Weapons of the Gods [1832].
Debunking such ideas is a free 25-page ebook published by Jason Colavito(v).
Equally persistent are claims of flying machines in ancient India(w) which were given impetus by the publication of Aeronautics, a Manuscript From the Prehistoric Past, a translation of the 3,000-year-old Vymanika Shastra by G.R.Joyser [1340].Some have gone so far as to claim that space flight had been achieved thousands of years ago in India(x).
Casey Terry notes[1542.36] that Pavel Smutny, a Slovakian researcher has proposed that “maybe it is unusual and surprising, but in ornaments in old carpets are woven-in schemes, and principle plans of advanced technologies, which come from vanished cultures and thousands-year-old civilizations. These residues are probably the last ones, which can help revive forgotten, very sophisticated technologies and methods for exploitation of natural electrostatic energy sources.”
Smutny goes on to claim that the layouts of Egyptian temples “to a person familiar with the basics of computer technologies or even better to a person experienced with the construction of microwave circuits in bands above 1 gigahertz (GHz), he will tell you that these plans (of the temples) are schemes of PCB’s (boards for electronic circuits).”
Commenting on the Maltese temples Smutny proposes in his book Atlantis Unveiled [1733], that the complexes “were used probably as generators of high-frequency acoustic waves. Purpose was (maybe) to arrange a communication channel between various islands.”
Although the idea of electricity in ancient Egypt is a recurrent speculation, the possibility of electricity in ancient India is only marginally more credible. However, James Hartman refers(p) to another Sanskrit text which supports this belief, telling us that “In another amazing Indian text, the Agastrya Samhita, gives the precise directions for constructing electrical batteries:
‘Place a well-cleaned copper plate in an earthenware vessel. Cover it first by copper sulfate and then moist sawdust. After that put a mercury-amalgamated-zinc sheet on top of an energy known by the twin name of Mitra-Varuna. Water will be split by this current into Pranavayu and Udanavayu. A chain of one hundred jars is said to give a very active and effective force.’ Agastya Samhita (Indian Princes’ Library)
By the way, MITRA-VARUNA is now called cathode-anode, and Pranavayu and Udanavayu are to us oxygen and hydrogen. This document again demonstrates the presence of electricity in the East, long, long ago. In the not-so-distant past strange events are recorded in Europe’s past.”
A sceptical view of these claims is presented by Jason Colavito(d)(e)(q) who points out that, according to some sources, the passage quoted above is not to be found in the original text!
My scepticism was reinforced when I looked at details presented in a paper(s) claiming to offer 17 artefacts that“suggest high-tech prehistoric civilizations existed.” Similar lists, frequently citing many of the items on the list below have been offered on various sites.
- Prehistoric Wall Near Bahamas? Explained(aj)
- 500,000-year-old spark plug? Debunked (ad)
- Million-year-old bridge? Debunked(ac)
- Prehistoric work site?
- 100-million-year-old hammer?
- Viking sword Ulfberht Explained
- The Iron Pillar of Delhi Explained
- 2.8-billion-year-old spheres?
- Drill bit in coal
- The Antikythera Mechanism
- 150,000-year-old pipes? (Explained)(ah)
- 2,000-year-old earthquake detector Invented by Zhang Heng – So what?
- Piri Reis Map (An ongoing controversy)
- 1.8-billion-year-old nuclear reactor. (a natural phenomenon)(af)
- Great Wall of Texas (An unusual but a natural geological formation)
- Ancient Egyptian light bulb? Debunked
- 2,000-year-old batteries (So-called Baghdad Battery – debunked)(ag)
- Columbian (Quimbaya) Gold aircraft – debunked(ak)
When a newcomer is first confronted with a list such as the above they are often overwhelmed. However, if you dig beneath the headlines the picture is less clear. For starters, a third of them are not prehistoric (6,7,10,12,13,17 & 18) and would appear to be deliberately included as ‘red herrings’ or just padding. Most of the remainder have been effectively debunked over the past century (1,2,3,11,&16), others are the result of misinterpretation and/or wild speculation (1,2,4,11), while others are natural features (1,3,8,11&14). If you look up ‘concretion’ in Wikipedia and the related images offered by Google you will see that nature has created some highly symmetrical concretions that could easily be thought to be manmade (2&8). Tara MacIsaac, the author of this list, in discussing (4) conceded that “as stated in the case of the hammer above (5), limestone has been known to form relatively quickly around modern tools. “
However, people believe what they want to believe, irrespective of any evidence to the contrary. Along with this, one should keep in mind Carl Sagan’s aphorism which demands that “extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence”. The list above does not provide ‘extraordinary evidence’.
(a) https://web.archive.org/web/20200927011940/http://www.unmuseum.org/bbattery.htm
(b) https://thothweb.com/article-print-3190.html
(c) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ancientatomicwar/esp_ancient_atomic_07.htm
(d) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/the-case-of-the-false-quotes.html
(f) https://www.theepochtimes.com/ancient-egypt-illuminated-by-electricity_996220.html
(g) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyxtFkjBWk8
(h) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20181226050814/https://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/trades/tools.htm
(k) https://www.gizapower.com/Advanced/Advanced%20Machining.html
(l) See: Archive 3113 & Archive 3118
(m) https://rense.com/general5/morris.htm
(n) https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/overcoming-gravity-enigma-coral-castle-005051
(p) https://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/ourpast.htm
(r) https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/ancient-stonework-0012197
(t) Dr. José Alvarez Lopez (y las Pirámides de Egipto) – Info en Taringa! (archive.org) *
(u) https://www.456fis.org/EVIDENCE_FOR_ANCIENT_ATOMIC_WARFARE.htm (link broken)
(v) http://www.jasoncolavito.com/ancient-atom-bombs.html
(w) Vimanas: Greater Understanding on a Hotly Debated Topic | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)
(y) Top Ten Civilizations With Advanced Technology (bibliotecapleyades.net)
(z) Ancient Atomic Warfare – Antiguas Guerras Atómicas (bibliotecapleyades.net)
(aa) Atlantis Rising magazine #26 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At Abbreviated version of (m)
(aa) Atlantis Rising magazine #27 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
(ab) Coral Castle – Proving Ancient Megalith Construction – WORLD MYSTERIES (archive.org)
(ac) https://ianchadwick.com/blog/debunking-the-adam-bridge/
(ad) http://www.hallofmaat.com/oops/the-coso-artifact-mystery-from-the-depths-of-time/
(ag) https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2020/03/08/debunking-the-so-called-baghdad-battery/
(ah) https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4181
(ai) Andrew Hall: Electricity in Ancient Egypt | Thunderbolts – YouTube
(aj) Bimini Road/Wall – Fake Archaeology (archive.org)
(ak) Tolima Fighter Jets – Ancient Aliens Debunked