Customer Reviews

Riddle of the Pyramids

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A physician tries to pay back a debt: he could graduate (1933) thanks to a smart "redirection" of money from archaeology to physics in his university. He analyzes the whole process of the building of the great pyramids in Giza, Dashur and, above all, Meidum, to demonstrate several facts. Among them: 1. Ancient Egyptian did not wait for a pyramid to be completed to start the next one 2. The IV dinasty pharaos used this activity to unifiy a tribe-organized Egypt to a powerful big nation. I won't tell you the whole story: you'll discover it. (sorry for my english: I'm italian!)

I am not sure how I came to own this book because I have had it for a long time before getting a chance to read it. It was probably due to its discussion of the Meidum pyramid. I agree with his premise that the Meidum pyramid did not collapse due to stone robbing and I think he makes a decent case of refuting that premise. The strongest evidence given for the stone robbing is some ancient graffiti stating how wonderful the pyramid was, but this is easily neutralized in the book as a standard statement made by visitors when visiting such a monument. I suppose they had manners back then, no need to expound the fact the emperor has no clothes! There is a lot more about Egyptian culture than needed for the analysis on the collapse, although I did learn one of two things about ancient Egyptians in the process. Some calculations may not be exactly correct and I will be double checking them. I think the material could have been covered in about half the book. The pictures are probably worth it. In the end, I was a little disappointed in the "proof" since I essentially agree with the conclusions.

The author takes a reasoned and well
researched approach to the enigma of
the pyramids. We follow the
evolution of buiding techniques
begining with small mastaba tombs,
to the magnificence of the Great
Pyramid. The purpose of the
pyramids was moreover, a method of
organizing the people and
establishing a common goal. The
resultant civilization that evolved
around the pyramids was due to
the organizational and logistical
skills of the ruling class. After
the IV Dynasty, without strong
leadership, Egypt descends into the
First Intermediate Period, with
widespread chaos and lack of
leadership. The Great Age of the
Pyramids is over...although they are
built by succeeding Pharoahs for yet
another millenia, they pale in
comparison to the originals.

This book was a sensation in its time, and it was a wonderful catalyst for informed study -- it got a lot of people thinking, which is a rare and wonderful thing. So I hate to give it a bad review, but I just overheard a few misinformed people discussing it as if it were gospel, and I feel obligated to point out that it's time has passed.

In fact, serious scholars (Egyptologists and engineers, et al.) have totally debunked the author's theories. One example: the pyramid at Meidum did not collapse while being built. It collapsed during the Middle Ages (or later) when stone was removed to be reused. Many people do not realize that most medieval to fairly recent stone buildings you see in Egypt today were built reusing stones from pyramids (and their accompanying temples and causeways) as well as other tombs and temples. In fact, this practice was common from ancient Egyptian times well into the 20th Century. For one ancient example: The 20th Dynasty king Merenptah reused stones from the 18th Dynasty mortuary temple of Amenhotep III to build his own mortuary temple.

In the 20th Century, J.H. Breasted of the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute was motivated to organize the Epigraphic Survey in part because a temple that he had briefly sketched, intending to study further when time permitted, was demolished to create a government office building.

Furthermore, limestone was burned to create fertilizer, resulting in the loss of many buildings.

The temples of Re and Ptah, probably the two largest temple complexes built in Egypt, are virtually gone because they were in the Cairo area. The Karnak complex remains in large part because the Luxor area was less populated, and because the mortuary temples on the West Bank provided a more convenient "quarry."

Although it is true that there are only theories and no evidence as to why Sneferu had multiple pyramids, there is no reason to believe that the Egyptians went around building pyramids one after another just to build pyramids! In fact, the evidence is quite to the contrary. Most kings were unable to finish their own complexes, let alone start another.

Furthermore, again, most people don't realize that although it is true that pyramids after the 4th Dynasty were smaller in size, that does not mean that many later building projects were any less ambitious. In fact, some later kings built more temples and very elaborate complexes, putting "money," time and energy into other outlets. Consider the pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three 4th Dynasty "super pyramids" at Giza --although it was smaller, it was planned with a granite casing that would have been much more costly and time consuming than limestone. To compare the size of Khufu's limestone pyramid (the "Great Pyramid") to the pyramid of Menkaure is simply not valid.

There also was a change in social structure after the 4th Dynasty, with the king sharing the glory (and the stone buildings) with the gods; just look at the sun temples of the 5th Dynasty. Surely some of the great builders of the New Kingdom (Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, for instance) were responsible for multiple building projects that combined to at least equal the Great Pyramid.

And Egypt certainly did not "descend into the First Intermediate Period, with widespread chaos and lack of leadership" after the 4th Dynasty, as stated by another reviewer. That did not happen until a few hundred years later and cannot be related to pyramid-building.