The Giza pyramid complex, home to three of the most famous pyramids, the Sphinx, and
a collection of smaller pyramids. When we think of pyramids we think of the pyramids of Egypt.
But what was their actual purpose? This is something archaeologists have
been debating for centuries, with the most popular theory being that they were essentially massive
tributes to deceased Pharaohs - burial tombs combined with temples. This theory is helped by
the fact that the two largest pyramids are known to be built as tributes to two famous kings -
Khafre and Khufu. Many of the other pyramids also have remnants of bygone monarchs stored somewhere
inside them. But because many of the pyramids are dense buildings with only a few narrow
passageways, they are not easy to explore - and many have large areas that we are yet to see. This
has led to some bizarre alternative theories. One of the most popular theories is that the
pyramids weren’t tombs at all, but fulfilled a far more practical purpose - grain storage facilities.
Farming was a key part of Ancient Egyptian culture due to the arid climate of the country.
Brutal sandstorms could come in at any time and wipe out all of your crop.
So keeping a large store of grain would be a smart move for any leader - and given how big the
Egyptian empire was at its peak, they would need to find a pretty large place to hide that grain.
This theory is particularly popular among Christians, who sometimes attribute the design
of the pyramid granaries to the Biblical figure Joseph. A line in the Old Testament
refers to Joseph storing up mass quantities of grain in granaries and saving the kingdom from
famine. The theory gained new popularity when Presidential candidate Ben Carson cited it.
But is there any truth to this theory? It’s one of the less outlandish theories about
the pyramids - but it also doesn’t make much sense when examined. For one thing, Egyptian granaries
have been found. These were dome-shaped buildings that opened at the top, usually found near cities.
They were much simpler structures and much easier to build than a massive pyramid. While grain has
been found in pyramids, it’s only in small amounts designed to serve as food for the resident of the
nearby sarcophagus. Additionally, granaries are usually very simple structures, designed to serve
as a giant vat. The pyramids aren’t hollow, with only narrow passageways for visitors to
make their way through, so it wouldn’t make much sense to use the pyramids as a storage facility.
But that’s nothing compared to this theory. The pyramids are extremely heavy and are believed
to have been put together through painstaking work by skilled labourers
using a complex and dangerous system of pulleys - and likely took many years to complete.
They haven’t moved from their current location in a very long time and likely never will - at least
as long as you don’t ask some creative individuals who believe they weren’t built in Egypt. Rather,
they simply settled there - after cruising the seven seas as Noah’s Ark during the great flood!
How did this strange theory get started? For one thing, Christian texts indicate that Noah’s ark
must have been very large. After all, it essentially was the world’s largest zoo,
and realistically no standard boat could have handled carrying two of
every animal. The Bible claims that the Ark was built with the assistance of giants, which would
explain how it could be as bizarrely large and heavy as it was. And if the ship was tossed around
by the waves until the flood receded, it could have been built anywhere - and land anywhere,
which would explain how it moved across several countries. The theory comes from a translation
in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which refers to the Ark as pyramid-shaped - which might
just refer to its roof, but has gotten many people’s creative minds working.
So, what’s wrong with this theory? Quite a lot, actually.
For one thing…rocks don’t float. There is no way that the pyramids could have been a boat,
because they would sink to the bottom of the sea. The way the pyramids were constructed,
with them having little internal space, also means that this theory is quite unlikely. However,
some theorists argue that the pyramids might have a unique link to the core of the Noah’s Ark
story - if they were already built at the time there was a major flood in the region,
it’s possible that people could have survived by taking refuge in the massive buildings,
which could cause an association between the two. But if there ever was a Noah who sailed
across a flooded world, he definitely didn’t do it aboard the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Some people are less concerned with how the pyramids were built. They focus on
the message they’re trying to tell us. Do the pyramids have a hidden message buried
within? If you asked Scottish Astronomer Charles Piazzi Smith in the mid-1800s, he would tell you
they had a big one. Inspired by the work of John Taylor - one of the big proponents of the Noah’s
Ark theory - he came up with his own theory - and wrote a 600-page tome about it.
He claimed that when the pyramids are measured using a system known as pyramid inches,
the architecture itself starts to present coded messages. These messages tell the
complete story of the history of Earth - the past, the present, and the future.
And when he says everything, he means everything.
He cited a passage of thirty-three pyramid inches as representing the birth, life, and death of
Jesus. When the path was followed to the end of the Grand Gallery, he claimed that the pyramid
inches between Jesus’ death and the terminus were the number of years before the resurrection
and the end of the world. The description was incredibly detailed and became a key text in the
development of Christian apocalyptic lore. There’s just one problem with this theory.
All of it was completely made up! The entire concept of the pyramid inch was created by British
Egyptologists in the centuries before Smith’s book and the system is now largely considered to be the
product of Eurocentrism. That didn’t stop it from spreading, and for several hundred years theorists
based their findings on these flawed concepts. No one took it further than Smith, though, using it
as the foundation for his entire apocalyptic lore. By the end of the 1800s, Egyptologists were moving
away from the idea of using Western measurements to analyze ancient Egyptian structures, and
Smith’s predictions faded into crypto-history. But it wasn’t the only strange theory that
speculated about the pyramids hiding a coded message.
Were the pyramids an early attempt to map the stars? The answer is yes…and no. It’s all but
certain that early astronomy played a key role in their design, as the Great Pyramid contains
four shafts clearly aimed at specific points in the sky. It’s believed this was a way to guide
the dead Pharaoh’s spirit towards their final destination in the stars - and the Egyptians,
like many early cultures, associated the stars with specific Gods and may have believed these
stars provided a connection with their deities. But one modern writer took it further.
Most of the strangest Egyptology theories date back hundreds of years - but Robert Bauval only
wrote The Orion Mystery in the 1990s. It claimed that the three main constellations of the complex
weren’t just pointing towards the stars - they were built to represent the exact location and
pattern of the three stars of Orion’s belt, one of the most famous constellations.
However, it didn’t take long for prominent astronomers to dig into the theory and find out
that it would have been possible for the stars and the pyramids to align like Bauval theorized,
but only if they were built about 8,000 years earlier than they were actually built.
But these are far from the strangest theories about the pyramids.
Were the pyramids built by aliens? How about Atlantis? Or Satan himself?
These popular theories keep making the rounds, but they’ve all been quickly debunked.
Supporters point to the presence of other similar pyramids around the world, but that’s explained
by the fact that the pyramid is one of the most stable structures an early civilization could
build, and many different ancient cultures likely found this out at some point in their history.
Most of the theories that claim some other secret force built the pyramids usually imply that the
Ancient Egyptians weren’t advanced enough to build something so impressive – something that
has been disproved time and time again. But what if they were even more advanced
than we’ve previously thought? The pyramids have long been given
mystical powers in the minds of some fans, with people claiming that they can feel a unique energy
when they approach them. The first example of this came in the 1930s when a French author,
Antoine Bovis, claimed that he had been inside the pyramids and saw a garbage can full of food
and dead animals - that wasn’t rotting! The pyramid’s structure had somehow preserved them,
and he believed that recreating the structure on a small level could preserve food from decay.
20 years later, a man from Czechoslovakia claimed that storing your razor blades in a pyramid
would harness magnetic energy in such a way that would prevent them from getting dull. This strange
theory came to be known as “pyramid power”. But is there any actual evidence to support this?
It’s true that some things within the pyramids are preserved extremely well.
However, when these theories were created, we didn’t know nearly as much about Egyptian
history as we do now. The well-preserved mummies found within the pyramids were not preserved
due to some magical pyramid construction – they were found in this near-perfect condition
due to how carefully the bodies were drained of anything that could rot before being buried.
The closed-off nature of the pyramids also protected many things within from the elements,
preserving them far more than would otherwise be possible.
But some theorists claimed to have found a very different power within.
It was the height of the Cold War, and the US and USSR were constantly fighting to get an
edge on each other in the great game of spycraft. They had agents all around the world - especially
in countries that had only recently regained their independence, like Egypt. The KGB’s spy
activities in Egypt were largely unknown until the Russian intelligence archives were declassified
in recent years, but one file captured the attention of Egyptology buffs everywhere,
detailing a visit to the Great Pyramid - where the spies claimed to find something extraordinary.
Is there really a mysterious force lurking within the Great Pyramid?
The agents reported feeling a magnetic force coming from the walls outside the
pyramid - repelling them like the same poles of a magnet repel each other. While they were unable to
find any clear explanation to this phenomenon from the outside, and accessing much of the inside of
the pyramid is impossible, that didn’t stop people from speculating. Combined with the presence of
a mysterious void within the pyramid that no one could explain, people came up with the theory that
a massive energy power plant was present within the pyramid that could power much of ancient
Egypt - as well as possibly even transfer energy to the other pyramids around the world. It was a
wild theory - and one that has never been proven in any capacity, since no researcher has ever
found evidence of the energy that the KGB agents reported. Maybe they just needed something to put
in their report to keep them from being demoted. Want to know more about the dark secrets of
Ancient Egypt? Watch “Horrifying Secrets From Egyptian Book of the
Dead”, or check out “What Killed People Who Opened King Tut’s Tomb” instead!