The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited 1st Edition

John Romer’s The Great Pyramid, Ancient Egypt Revisited promises a complete and detailed review of the world’s perhaps oldest and greatest monument. His book is lengthy at 557 pages excluding the index, and filled with illustrations – 234 of them – and numerous appendixes and footnotes. The book’s pages are large (9 ¾ by 7 ½ ) and make for excellent sized illustrations. The pages are high quality slick paper which allows the photographs and drawings to stand out sharply. As the reader probes the book he is rewarded with a fine detailed history of the exploration of the Great Pyramid and numerous facts that only the most knowledgeable person would presume to know, the importance of the Great Step in the pyramid’s construction for example, and the egg shell thin stone bowls found at other sites that display the skill of the era’s stoneworkers.

Romer is a good writer and makes his points clearly, even if periodically his wording bars the way to complete insight. After all, the book is a monumental work in itself and perfection in language isn’t easily achievable. Some annoying phrases appear many times, such as “the living rock”. Rocks do not live and finding this slogan used numerous times in nearly every chapter grinds on this reader.

To his credit the author prompts us to remember that our minds are not the minds of the ancient Egyptians and trying to look at their pyramid with a modern mind can quickly lead one astray. He reminds the reader that the amount of information concerning the Great Pyramid, outside of the structure itself, is almost non-existent. Romer takes great pains to include in his writing a complete survey of the Giza Plateau and how the Great Pyramid fits into the geography and geology of the area. This is a key element in understanding the wondrous building. Without knowing how the Great Pyramid fits into its surroundings we cannot hope to understand how it was constructed. The author gives us a good understanding of previous pyramids and their flaws, and how this perhaps influenced the builders of the Great Pyramid.

The book does have its negatives. The author never discusses the fact that the pyramid’s sides are concave. This is clearly shown from aerial photographs (See, Secrets of the Great Pyramid by Tompkins). His theories about how the ancient Egyptians used a theoretical double six square grid to guide them in the construction of their monument is dubious and takes up too much of the text, especially given the speculative nature of the double six square grid concept. The author also ignores the odd measurements of the major elements of the structure as the standard ancient cubit does not fit the pyramid with exactness and the interior measurements do not fit well with the external measurements. Romer’s ideas of about how the pyramid builders maintained the rigorous alignments will not work. Line of site measurements could not have been used. See Egyptian Pyramids by Chapman (e-book here on Amazon).

The concept that the Egyptians used long and somewhat steep ramps covered with a slick mixture of mud will not work either. The great blocks of stone may slide easily over the unctuous mixture, but how do the workers hauling the blocks up the long ramp maintain their footing? If the block slides easily so do the men pulling the block (or maybe pushing it); thus, the slippery ramp concept fails. He never discusses this or any of several other obvious construction problems.

Nearly all of Romer’s measurements come from Petrie and his predecessors. Petrie’s book, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, published in 1885, is available free on Open Library. His methods are very exacting and the results of his work stand today as the penultimate work on the Great Pyramid. Petrie’s work is probably superior to Romer’s, excepting new discoveries since the 19th century included by Romer and Romer’s stress on avoiding assumptions made in modern building techniques.

Overall, an excellent book somewhat damaged by excessive speculation and a bit of critical omission.

AD2

One of the most amazing books on Ancient Egypt that I have ever read. John Romer has done a superb job of hypothesizing how the Anceint Egyptians were able to do such a precise job of building such a huge structure as the Great Pyramid - and not an alien to be seen anywhere. Seriously - Romer takes the archaeological evidence and connects it all in original ways, which seem to ring true to simple common sense. Neophytes and amateurs alike can gain a great amount of insight into the civilization of Ancient Egypt in this volume.

Typical of John Romer. And that's a compliment.

wonderful

great

Extremely thorough description of the great pyramid and the technology leading up to its construction. I had hoped to learn more details about the way the stones were moved up the higher levels. Guess no one knows.

great

it is obvious the guy who wrote this is a lot smarter than me .. there is no way you can read this book and think " he did not cover EVERYTHING"