Customer Reviews

Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery

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A very important extension of previous analysis of megalithic sites. Makes a solid case that the ancient measuring system was an integrated system for lengths, weights, volumes, and even temperatures, and was based not only on the circumference of the earth but also its mass, as well as basic properties of our moon and, most surprisingly, the ratio of distances (366:300) between the three stars of the Belt of Orion. This study on megalithic measures, and the comparison between Thornborough Henge in England and the Giza Pyramids of Egypt represents the long-sought "smoking gun" of the so-called Atlantean culture of pre-historic times.

The construction of Thornborough around 3,500 BC was the high-water mark of megalithic construction in England. It is also the carbon date of Khufu's boats found buried beside the Great Pyramid at Giza. In 3,500 BC, the ocean levels were the highest they have ever been since the end of the last Ice Age, and were 14 feet higher than they are today (according to the brand new book, "The Complete Ice Age", Brian Fagan, editor).

The authors' discovery that Megalithic standard units were used extensively to form the "sacred architecture" of Washington DC proves that the founding fathers looked to the distant past in order to distance themselves from the oppressive dominance of royal rule and inspire progress in the New World. This discovery also makes for a timely companion to Dan Brown's latest thriller, The Lost Symbol.

-Charles Pope
[...]

After reading the first few chapters of "Before the Pyramids", it dawned on me that, after all these years of me studying archeoastronomy/megalithic mysteries, the ability to determine the Earth's circumference is so easy "a caveman can do it"! These awesome henges, monuments, pyramids, etc., were places of learning as much as they were representative structures. Their easy-going, brotherly, narrative style of sharing this knowledge is great! I am an admitted fool when it comes to science, engineering, mechanics or logic. I need to work on my car with a wrench in one hand and a manual in the other. But I have kept trying to understand all these kind of thing, from ancient history to quantum physics. This time, it paid off. I want to go out into some field and determine the Earth's circumference right away- not to mention star patterns, Venus interactions, solar and lunar cycles, precession, and maybe even obliquity of the ecliptic! The heavens have been an open book to humans all along.

Christopher Dunn's terrific book, "Giza Power Plant", where he goes into an engineer's explanation of some of the arcane aspects of the Great Pyramid is a book whose message has lasted for me. Zachariah Sitchin's idea, in one of his books, that Tiwanaku and other South American places were tin smelters for the Bronze Age, also stays with me. Richard Firestone's absolutely awesome, and exhaustively researched (but ridiculously-named and covered) book, "Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes", is totally foundational to understanding anything in this genre. And, of course, I cannot forget to note Thomas Pawlicki's classic, "How To Build a Flying Saucer", the best non-levitation book about how megaliths were built I have yet seen (althought he does get into levitation in a totally fascinating, yet- to me- incomprehensible way). Now I can confidently be assured that "Before the Pyramids" is right there with these, my top-shelf references to the past. It is on these personally meaningful, somewhat relativistic terms, that I make this review, rather than use a more traditional, impersonal book report style. Perhaps, in time, I can come back and synthesize my insights a little more clearly, and with greater discipline. But for now, I just want to say this book rocks.

I did find about a dozen typos, and would like the authors to know that I am available as a proofreader for their next manuscript.

Thanks to the authors, I could get warm and comfy and buy "Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought It Was", Knight's and Butler's earlier work; or instead, I could save the money, find a broomstick and head out to the prairie to check it out for myself. At any rate, it's nice to have been empowered through their clear writing to make the choice.

Before The Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler has much scientific data about a Megalithic Yard that can be traced back to the pyramids and beyond. While one can get lost in the technical descriptions, they do provide validation to these ideas that might otherwise be just interesting.

Perhaps the authors go too far when they suggest that all major sites in Washington, DC are linked by a web measured in the Megalithic Yard, bringing the Freemasonry mystique to the United States. The authors suggest the possibility "that Washington DC is a continuation of knowledge held by an advanced culture from the extreme past. And there is still an elite group of people who fully understand this" (208).

They claim that the Sphinx and other Egyptian standing structures "prove beyond doubt that the emergence of civilization...took place long before orthodox history has ever considered" (209). And they suggest that now is the time to "look again at ideas of the past" (211). Are their conclusions correct? I don't believe there is enough information available. But their findings pose questions of a past far more exciting than any fiction, and I do believe that the best is yet to come.

I was looking for an 'outside the norm' type of book about early civilizations when I found this book. It is a mixed bag of ideas and analysis, leading to one plausible conclusion about the building of England's Henges and some highly speculative extrapolations to the Egyptian pyramids and Washington DC's street layout.

The fundamental postulate is that the builders of England's Thornborough Henges used a uniform unit of measurement, called the Megalithic yard (MY),to design this and other Henges. According to this book,the MY is based on astronomical observations of star transits and a division of a circle into 366 units, resulting in a distance unit that could be repeated anywhere in the country. They also demonstrate how this unit could have been derived using materials available to Neolithic peoples. The concept and methodology are plausible and match the henge dimensions closely. So far, so good.

What follows is speculative to say the least. They claim that the Egyptians visited Thornborough and took what they learned back to design and locate the three primary Giza pyramids (a 1000 years after the Henge was built). They present no real evidence other than that the dimensions of the pyramids can be measured in MYs & that the layout, like that of Thornborough, matches Orion's Belt in scaled dimensions and orientation.

They then surmise that the street plan for Washington, DC's principle circles are based on MYs & triangles centered on the Ellipse in front of the White House. This is highly unlikely. Their conclusion is based on their measurements showing that many of the distances involved are in multiples of 366 MYs. It so happens that 366 MYs is very close to 1000 feet. Since the designers and builders of Washington used the foot as a basic measurement unit, and that multiples of 1000 feet show up repeatedly, it is purely coincidental that distances in MYs are so close. Incidentally, nowhere do they indicate the potential error in the MY or in their actual measurements.

There are some other speculative aspects to this book, too, which aren't worth mentioning.

If the authors had stopped with their findings about Henge dimensions and the use of a common unit of measurement they would have rated a much higher rating. The speculative nature of the rest is such as to greatly reduce their credibility.

I have already posted this review on Amazon.co.uk; "Before the Pyramids" is another pioneering work by authors who dare to defy the established concepts of our past historians,Who's writings are accepted by the authorities without question. By publishing their work, these brave authors, regardless of the negative comments and sarcasm their work attracts from these experts are informing us well. These authoritarians stop any positive progress in our search for the truth, being bogged down by the accepted word of the outdated people of the past who lacked the modern techniques we have today at our command. Here, in this book is the evidence of their attitude, as the author's have revived and brought back into consideration the work of Prof Alexander Thom, who discovered the megalithic yard used by our ancestors.
The author's also expose the accepted history of England, written by the notorious Italian, Julius Caesar, who said the Brit's were savages, so we have to accept his word without question. But don't forget, the Romans invaded us so who were the savages?
Just as I, in my book "We are our ancestors" challenge the written history of the building of the pyramids, written, not by an Egyptian, but by a Greek historian Herodotus, who's writings by the way, were compiled many years after the presumed building of these ancient monuments took place and on which our historical records are based and the Egyptologists accepted gospel. We have only their written word for this history, which is suspect under these circumstances. So now with the use of modern science, much of their work has come into question.
I was so please how the author's linked Thorn borough henge with the Giza Pyramids and Orion's belt. However, the book then drifted towards Freemasonry and the part Freemasonry took in preserving the ancient measure and the proof it is still in use today and is superior to our modern measures of today. This theme carried on for the rest of the book and although the Freemasons had a very important role to play and there were some very profound discoveries made, I was a little disappointed that the book never returned to the Thornborough henge and the Giza Pyramids, as this was shown to be the theme portrayed in the title.
I would like to think, the reason our ancestors chose Orion's belt is because it is directly on the celestial equator and can be seen from both hemispheres (north & south) and is opposite to the center of our Galaxy when viewing it from the Earth, this proves our ancestors were very wise people indeed and may have used this as a time clock for some future event.
And for all those searching for answers out there a question arises through this book, "why does Thornborough henge take a northwest /southeast line and the Giza Pyramids take a northeast/ southwest line?" and "why is the offset star of the belt of Orion, to the north of Thornborough henge and at Giza to the south of the pyramids?" And then a fascinating observation is made, that if you place a picture of the Thorn borough Henge above a picture of the Giza Pyramids and then fold the top picture down over the pyramids or turn the top picture a quarter turn anti-clockwise, they come together as a match, "why"? And then other questions arise "was the Great Pyramid built on the Equator as a marker for measuring longitudes/latitudes as the builders chose to build it right on the center of the Earths landmass, making naught degrees longitude and naught degrees latitude, this would have been when the north pole was near where the city of Anchorage in Alaska is now?" madness you may say, but so is calling them tombs. It makes sense to the intelligent people who built them and to the intelligent people here now. And can the authorities disprove this? Maybe the Pyramids are much older than you ever thought possible? The authors used the Egyptologists recognized date of their construction, but they only had this date for their reference. Christopher Knight and Alan Butler should be highly commended for the rediscovery of the megalithic yard and of their discovery, that Thornborough Henge, is another example of Orion's belt on the earth. This book is of major importance and I recommend you get their book and maybe mine too. Richard F Weaver.

I am an engineer with a life-long interest in science and more recently in quantum physics and spirituality. The work of Alexander Thom along with Alan Butler and Christopher Knight, and others including Thomas Brophy makes a huge amount of sense. The megalithic yard is a real testable measurement that can be repeated and confirmed at sites all over the world. The discoveries being made that relate to this are absolutely stunning - and they are still going on. Much of history needs to be examined and re-written.
Richard

Makes a solid case for where some of our units of measure came from. Every school teacher who teaches about our linear rise in technology from the "stone age" should be forced to read this book.

What so far might have been qualified as pure speculative numerology by those who are attached to a conventional view of history now becomes fact proved by numerous empirical data and incontrovertible evidence. Mind-blowing and world-shattering.

Sylvain Tristan, author of "The Golden Lines," Paris: Alphee 2005

These are some exciting times. When Erich von Daniken first published "Chariots of the Gods" in 1968, it was really just a collection of oddities under the 'Ancient Aliens' umbrella. He was proven wrong on some of the items but some still remain unexplained. Other researchers, with bigger guns, have taken that baton and run with it and it's starting to come to a more coherent whole.

"Before the Pyramids" takes the issue from a different and wholly more quantifiable angle. The authors use the 'Megalithic Yard' as the focal point. They are able prove, to any shadow of my doubt, that this unit of measure was used in several places throughout history. And that it was used in Britain about 800 years prior to its being used in Egypt. And they hint that there is evidence it was used in Africa some 18,000 years ago. If this is the case we will need to rewrite much of what we think we know of ancient history.

This is a heck of a read with good attention payed to detail. The authors are not throwing out conjecture. Much of the measuring they've done themselves and they tip their hats to other researchers, who are combing the same territory, to compare notes.

My only reservations in the book concern the math. It's not my strong suit and some of it was a bit more than I could understand. Was this their fault or mine? I couldn't say. And when they get to the last section concerning Washington D.C. they get into some areas for which they do not have enough evidence. Other than that I felt this was a solid piece of research. Another brick in the wall to shining light on the history of human kind on this planet.

It's hard finding a good book on the pyramids or structures of Britian. The field is full of bizarre titles that try to convince us (not very well) that aliens were involved or the pyramids were weapons/power plants/spaceportals. As of late there have been some better titles, like Beneath the Pyramids and The Sphinx Mystery. And there are classics like Stonehenge Complete and The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments. This book is greatfully not from the bizarre catagory of such books. We see familiar discussions of the pyramids' possible alignment to Orion and British henges likewise arranged. This is nothing new to many readers. The brilliant Orion was quite obvious and important to ancients from the mention in the Book of Job (the oldest biblical book, Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job) to southwestern cultures (The Orion Zone). This in itself doesn't connect these peoples. Here the authors go further and discuss their Megalitic Yard theory - a unit of measurement shared by ancient cultures. Did they arrive at it independently or was it from a common source or ancestor? The book's cover asserts that Eqypt got it from Britian. But the authors admit that it could have been the other way around. The only conclusion one can actually make here is that the ancients weren't dumb cavemen. They either received their knowledge from each other or a common ancestor.

Books like this have been suggesting the lost super-civilization theory that existed in deep antiquity. Not necessarily an Atlantis, though important city-states probably were around. By our standards there wouldn't be much super about these peoples, but against the currently accepted myth of man evolving from dumb brutes, many scoff at the idea of any smart ancients. However, archaeology continues to affirm what has formally been considered "fringe" - sophisticated ancients going further back in history. Also, the evolution model continues to falter (Who Was Adam?, Evolution: A Theory In Crisis). Through man's wars and natural catastrophe, the past has been largely destroyed. Man has had to rebuild himself repeatedly with slivers of past wisdom.

Books like these would probably would receive more study if they weren't located on "new age" shelves (thanks to how publishers and distributors catalog them). If you study ancient history you'll be at the other end of the store. Even on-line they are often cataloged different. Perhaps if such authors didn't occasionally delve into the revisionist history of new age/pagan revisionists, they would earn more respect. Even in this book, (pp. 24-25) the suggestion of Old Testament accounts being taken from elsewhere, Roman's changing aspects of Christianity, Paul being a follower of Mirtha (!), and so on. It doesn't take much research to find none of this to be true, but writers simply repeat again and again the same claims never testing them. The same goes for the virgin Mary being borrowed (pp. 177-178). Anyone who has studied these issues in depth wonder how in a book of other strong research can make such errors (see The Bible among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature?, Cities of God, [[ASIN:0310292018 The Case for the Real Jesus]).

Nevertheless, this book will be part of the growing canon rediscovering our past.