Prophets of Stone

It is a strange army that launches into a battle for life or death with a company of classical scholars and artists in its midst. Yet the army led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 that defeated Egyptian forces in view of the pyramids of Giza, and thus conquered Egypt for revolutionary France, was just that. In that company of 35,000 soldiers, Napoleon had brought about 175 scholars, artists, engineers, and other experts to survey, study, and record the great temples and works of the lost civilization of ancient Egypt. In the ferocious battle, these scholars were packed in the centers of the infantry squares that stood against the charges of the Egyptian forces.

One of the youngest of these ‘battle-tested’ scholars, only 21 years old, was Edme Francois Jomard. To him fell the assignment to investigate and measure the great monuments on the Giza plateau, including the three great pyramids and the Sphinx. He later wrote how stunned he was when he first approached the Great Pyramid, largest of the three. Like most who stand before it, he was awed by its immensity, raw beauty (like a masterpiece of art, he commented), and profound grandeur. Also he pondered the incredible amount of human effort that was involved in building it.

The Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of modern Cairo, is dominated by three massive pyramids. For most people these are the most well-known monuments from the ancient world. In ancient times one of these pyramids was sheathed in a skin of dazzling white limestone and two were clad partly in the white limestone and partly in a reddish or pink granite. The ancient Greek traveler Herodotus tells how spectacular these shining monuments were. Unfortunately for us, an earthquake in 1300 AD stripped away many of the casing stones, which were carted away by a local sultan for his own building projects in Cairo. Today we see only the core interior stones of the pyramids, except for small portions of the original casing stones. Also missing is the very top piece of the two largest of the pyramids; so the tops are now small, flat platforms. Inside each of the pyramids are passageways and chambers, with the Great Pyramid containing the most extensive and elaborate.

It is Herodotus, primarily, who gives us the dates of their construction. He recounts that during his visit of Egypt around 450 BC, the priests ascribed the Giza pyramids to three pharaohs–Khufu (Cheops in Greek), builder of the Great Pyramid, Khafre (Chephren in Greek) who built the nearby second largest, and Menkaure (Greek Mycerinus) the builder of the much smaller third pyramid farther away. This would place their construction somewhere between 2,550-2,400 BC, depending on whose dates you accept. There is little other compelling evidence for these dates or for the fact that these particular pharaohs were the builders. If the dates are correct, this would place construction relatively soon after the traditional date for the beginning of the Egyptian civilization, which is usually given as about 3,000 BC. (1)

Immediately upon seeing these pyramids, most people are rightly struck by the incredible engineering prowess that was required to build these structures. In fact, most engineers today are puzzled by how the ancient Egyptians were able to do it.

Equally as stunning is the precision of the builders. For example, we noted the sheath of white limestone of the exteriors. From the remaining portions of these outer casings we find that these stones were fitted together so finely that not even a sheet of paper can be slipped between them. Similarly, Jomard’s colleague, the astronomer Nouet, discovered that the pyramids are accurately aligned to true North, with a deviation of less than a twentieth of a degree. Again, specialists are puzzled at how the ancient builders were able to achieve such accuracy. Some speculate that the structures were sighted on a polar star or a combination of stars moving around the true North Pole at the time of the construction. (2) The slight deviation from true north of the pyramids is consistent for each one, so clearly this was not an error, but deliberate. The entrance passageway on the north side of the Great Pyramid is similarly aligned to true north. That tunnel, known as the Descending Passage, cuts down for about 150 feet through the interior stone of the Pyramid, with a deviation of 1/50 of an inch from perfectly straight. It then slices through the solid bedrock underneath the Pyramid for a total length of 345.2 feet from the opening. Yet at the end, the passageway is within 1/4 inch of perfectly straight from its opening. Throughout the interior and exterior, especially of the Great Pyramid, there is a degree of precision and accuracy that could not have been matched until modern times, and only rarely even today.

To this precision we must add the physical siting of the three pyramids. The second and third pyramids are located on rising ground higher than the Great Pyramid. And each of these is placed in a location that is poor for building such mammoth structures. For example, the southeast portion of the Khafre pyramid needed to be built up underneath with massive cut stones to support the pyramid. The Menkaure pyramid is similarly located in a poor spot for such a structure, on the very edge of the stone formation of the plateau. Yet perfectly excellent building sites were apparently available only short distances away. No, these locations were carefully and deliberately selected, in spite of the unnecessary engineering challenges. It is as if the builders were saying: Exactly here and nowhere else.

Jomard valiantly tried to measure everything he could on the Giza Plateau. He was able to get reasonably accurate measurements of the heights of the pyramids and much else. Unfortunately, the piles of sand and debris around the bases of the pyramids prevented truly precise measurements around the perimeters.

In December of 1880, the twenty-six year old English surveyor William Flinders Petrie arrived at the Plateau with excellent surveying instruments and set up ‘house’ in one of the tombs. He too set about to measure everything worth measuring at the pyramids, including the elaborate interiors. And, as with his predecessors, Petrie was astonished at the precision of the builders. Concerning the casing stones of the Great Pyramid, he said: “Merely to place such stones in exact contact would be careful work, but to do so with cement in the joint seems almost impossible; it is to be compared to the finest opticians’ work on a scale of acres.” (3) He commented on the precision of the Descending Passage. From 1880 to 1882, Petrie took careful measurements of the monuments and the angles and distances between them and all else on the Plateau, including the interior passageways and chambers. But again, accurate measurement of the bases was frustrated by the debris. Petrie later would be widely considered to be the founder of modern scientific archeology.

Finally, in 1925 the Egyptian government had the debris around the Great Pyramid cleared away, and thus freed the government engineer J.H. Cole to attempt accurate measurements of the base. Even then, Cole was able only to estimate, to the best degree possible with modern surveying instruments and technique, the original dimensions of the Pyramid. That is because he could only extrapolate, using the few remaining casing stones, what the Pyramid measured when the stones were in place. He concluded that the original perimeter of the base of the Great Pyramid was 3,023.153 feet. However, he himself said that the survey could be off somewhat because of the missing stones. (4)

The problem of the measurement of the perimeter is made even worse by the fact that each side of the Great Pyramid is slightly indented, with the indentation on the north face equal to 37 inches, as Petrie discovered. We don’t know whether the casing stones followed this indentation. If so, the question would be whether the measurement should follow the exact line of the base with indentation, or simply a straight line from corner to corner. Additionally, at each corner of the pyramid a socket stone was originally set linking the bulk of the pyramid with the surrounding pavement. These stones extended out from the base. Should the perimeter be measured out around them?

Curious Claims

Why should such details interest us? Because Peter Tompkins in his popular book Secrets of the Great Pyramid and other writers following him assert that Jomard, based on research of ‘several Greek authors,’ claimed that the perimeter of the base of the Great Pyramid was intended to be one half of a minute of the circumference of the Earth at the equator. (5)

The equator of the Earth is not a perfect circle, nor is the Earth a perfect sphere. Rather, it is squashed at the poles like a beach ball pressed down. It bulges at the middle. Thus the distance of the circumference at the middle, the equator, is greater than the circumference around the poles. Incidentally, the first modern person to predict this was Sir Isaac Newton, a man almost never wrong. But the equator is still measured in 360 degrees, with each degree consisting of 60 minutes and each minute having 60 seconds.

Unlike popular belief, early civilizations knew that the Earth was ‘round,’ at least from around 500 BC. (6) And at least from Plato’s time in 395 BC (and probably from 600 BC), the existence of the North American continent on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean was common knowledge. (7) The Greek Eratosthenes is credited with the first calculation of the circumference of the Earth at the equator, around 200 BC. However, if Tompkins and Jomard are right, the Egyptians had done this (and more accurately) more than 2,000 years before!

Professor Livio Stecchini, professor of ancient history at Paterson State Teachers College (now William Paterson University), in New Jersey, stated that key measurements of the Great Pyramid were meant to relate to the Earth’s true dimensions. Specifically, he said:

I have analyzed all other ancient authors who provide information about the dimensions of the Pyramid. By a careful collation of their words and phrases, I have established that they all draw, directly or indirectly, on a single source. These authors wrote in Greek or in Latin during the first century of the Roman Empire. They are the historian Diodorus of Sicily (1, 63), the geographer Strabo (XVII, 1, 33), the encyclopedist Pliny the Elder (XXVI, 12, 78-80), and the engineer Philon of Byzantium (Wonders of the World, II). Their common source is the Greek grammarian Agatharchides of Cnidus, who toward the end of the second century B.C. was the guardian to one of the Ptolemy kings of Egypt. Quotations from Agatharchides’ lost works indicate that he wrote extensively on the geography of Egypt, with particular emphasis on natural science. . . .

From the authors who drew on Agatharchides we gather that he said that the perimeter [of the Great Pyramid] is 5 stadia, that is, 1/2 minute of degree. . . .

One would have expected the perimeter of the Pyramid to have been calculated by the length of the degree of longitude at the equator, but the builders instead calculated by the degree of latitude. . . .

Agatharchides wanted also to emphasize that the dimensions of the Pyramid were related to the length of the degree of latitude.
The basic idea of the Great Pyramid was that it should be a representation of the northern hemisphere, a hemisphere projected on flat surfaces, as is done in mapmaking. . . . The Great Pyramid was a projection on four triangular surfaces. The apex represented the pole and the perimeter represented the equator. This is the reason why the perimeter is in relation 2 pi with the height. The Great
Pyramid represents the northern hemisphere in a scale 1:43,200; this scale was chosen because there are 86,400 seconds in 24 hours. (8)

Questions

But there is a problem. Peter Tompkins does not provide in his Secrets any citation to a source for his assertions about Jomard’s findings concerning the perimeter of the Great Pyramid being related to the equator. When the scholars, known as the French Commission on the Sciences and Arts of Egypt, returned to France from Egypt they produced a monumental, multi-volume work included plates, maps, essays, and index. This huge effort was released piecemeal beginning in 1809 and proved to be such a success that a second edition was published in 1821 after the restoration of the monarchy. Jomard wrote at least half of it. (9) In the portion dedicated to the Giza monuments (10), he presented his findings, measurements, observations, analysis, and personal reflections on the Giza pyramids. In that section, Jomard does cite Pliny, Diodorus, and Herodotus in several places, but he never mentions anything about the perimeter of the Great Pyramid having a relation to the equator, nor of the Great Pyramid being in some way a scale model of the northern hemisphere of the Earth. In his bibliography, Tompkins does cite a piece by Jomard in the same year, ‘Remarque sur les pyramides,’ but this is not found in the Description of Egypt of the French Commission.

In contrast, Professor Stecchini does provide specific citations to his sources, as noted above. Unfortunately, if one consults those sources, there is no such mention in any of them of the Great Pyramid being a scale model of the northern hemisphere, or having a perimeter that equaled ½ minute of arc of the equator. Diodorus produced a great work which he titled Bibliotheca historica (The Library of History) which comprised 40 books of which 1-5 and 11-20 have survived to our day. Diodorus does indeed cite Agatharchides in several instances, and with strong approval, such as in Book I, Chapter 41, 4 and Book III, Chapter 11, 1. But there is nothing about this proposition on the Great Pyramid. Nor is there in the portion of his work specifically dealing with the great pyramids of Giza. Loeb Classical Library edition, 1933.

As for Philon of Byzantium, he was dead by about 220 BC. Since Agatharchides was serving in the Ptolemy court around 145 BC, when he would have learned of the curious measurements of the Great Pyramid, he could not have served as a source for Philon.
As for Agatharchides himself, his great work was On the Erythraean Sea, published around 113 BC. There is nothing in that work concerning these propositions on the Great Pyramid. Furthermore there is no such reference in the surviving texts referenced by other classical writers, as collected in the Attalus website. Finally, the leading expert on Agatharchides and translator of On the Erythraean Sea, Professor Stanley Burstein, confirms that Agatharchides never made such an assertion concerning the Great Pyramid as somehow being a scale model of the northern hemishphere. (11)

Let us ignore for the moment the confusion about degrees of longitude and latitude; for if the Great Pyramid was intended to be a scale model of the northern hemisphere, then its perimeter must represent the equator, period. The degrees would measure distances along the equator.

Stecchini’s assertion that the perimeter was also meant to represent 1/2 of a day is also puzzling. Either the perimeter was built to scale of the equator, or it was built to a scale representing 1/2 of a day. It is highly unlikely that the two numbers would be the same. In fact, the correct scale, using modern calculation of the equatorial circumference and Cole’s measurement of the perimeter would be 1:43,491.08 (rounded). (12) The difference between this and 1/2 the seconds in a day, 43,200 is 291.08 (seconds). That is close, but not identical. But again, we do not know how the builders measured the perimeter of the pyramid, nor do we know how accurately they calculated the equator. Nor do we know how Stecchini arrived at his number.

Furthermore, the 24 hour day that Stecchini uses is a modern, somewhat artificial, construct. It represents an ‘average’ solar day, that is the time it takes for the earth to make one complete revolution around its axis, as noted by the time it takes for the sun to appear at the same spot in the sky as the day previously. On a sundial it would be the time for the sun’s shadow to mark the same spot twice in a row. However, in reality the days in a year (time to travel one cycle around the sun) differ by up to almost 30 seconds, and because a series of these longer or shorter days is cumulative, the time for one day can be up to 16 minutes from the average, depending on the season. This variance is caused by numerous factors including the fact that between one day and the next the earth has moved about one degree in its elliptical journey around the sun (365 days and 360 degrees of the ellipse). And this distance itself varies because the earth moves at different speeds in its course around the sun (faster when it is closest to the sun).

But as Stecchini himself notes (Secrets, page 347), the ancients did not primarily use this solar day in their time calculations. Instead they used what’s called a sidereal day, which uses a distant star instead of the sun as the reference point for one full rotation. Because the star is at an incredible distance from the earth, it appears more fixed than the sun. A sidereal day is shorter than a solar day and has 23.9344696 solar hours or 86,164.09056 seconds. Therefore, ½ day is 43,082.04528 seconds.
Because of this host of difficulties and peculiarities, we would be naturally inclined to walk away entirely from the proposition we have been investigating. Except for one thing: the number 20.

One half a minute of arc of the equator, by modern calculation, is 3,043.525 feet. (13) The difference between this number and Cole’s calculation of the perimeter is 20.372. A roughly twenty foot deviation from 1/2 minute of arc at the equator. That is too close to be an accident. It is a variance of only 0.67% from the actual modern measure. Two-thirds of one percent. We are compelled to go further.

Three Pyramids

If the Great Pyramid is meant to represent the northern hemisphere of the Earth, what would the other two Giza pyramids represent? Remember, one is slightly smaller than the Great Pyramid and fairly close. The other is much smaller and quite a bit farther away. Again, stated differently, if the Great Pyramid is the planet Earth (or ½ of it), what are the other two?

They would be Venus and Mercury.

How could we know for sure?

Scale

First, we have established a ratio for the size of the Great Pyramid relative to the equator of the Earth: 1:43,491.08. If the other two pyramids are meant to represent Venus and Mercury, we would expect them to be built to the same scale. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it would be logical and expected.

Could ancient peoples have made these calculations about other planets? They could and they did. We know, for example, that Aristarchus of Samos (lived about 310-230 BC) concluded that the Earth and the other planets revolved around the sun (a minority view in his day), and he calculated the distances of the Earth to the sun and moon. His method was correct, but his calculations were off because he lacked adequate optical measuring tools (like a telescope). He also stated that the stars were incredibly distant from the Earth.

The mean circumference of Venus (as given by NASA) is 23,627.4 miles, or 124,729,440 feet. The Khafre pyramid perimeter at the base is about 2816 feet. This is an estimate, since we have no careful measurement of this pyramid such as Cole’s of the Great Pyramid. Also, Venus as seen from the Earth could be slightly larger than the NASA figures, because the planet has a dense atmosphere, which could appear to be the planet itself as viewed from Earth. (14) But using the NASA figures, the circumference of Venus divided by the (estimated) pyramid base is 44,293.125. This is a difference of only 802.045, which is only a 1.8% deviation from the scale in the Great Pyramid. And again, the measurements of both the Khafre perimeter and the circumference of Venus are subject to many variables. This is simply too close to be coincidental.

With regard to the Menkaure pyramid, the same measurement limitations apply to the perimeter, but not to any possible atmospheric distortion, since Mercury has virtually none. The pyramid’s base perimeter is estimated to be 1382 feet. According to NASA, the mean circumference of Mercury is 9,525.1 miles, or 50,292,528 feet. This gives us a scale of 1: 36,391.12. In this case, the Menkaure pyramid is 16% too large compared to the scale in the Great Pyramid. (15) That would seem to be close, but not close enough. We will return to this later.

Mass

Out of curiosity, what are the relative masses of the Khafre and Menkaure pyramids to the Great Pyramid? Mass could be significantly different than just size. For example, the Khafre and Great pyramids have different angles of their sides–they are constructed differently. Also, the interiors of the two pyramids are significantly different, with the Great Pyramid having much more ‘empty’ interior space of corridors and chambers. And the stones used are different. The Great Pyramid interior has stones that are significantly more massive than the other pyramids.

The mass of the Great Pyramid is estimated to be 5.9 million tons. (16)

The mass of the Khafre pyramid is estimated to be ‘about 4,880,000 tons.’ (17) This then provides a rough estimate of 0.827 as the relative mass of the Khafre pyramid to the Great Pyramid. NASA gives the mass of Venus relative to the Earth as 0.815. The National Earth Science Teachers Association gives it as 0.82 of Earth’s mass. Too close to be coincidence.

There is no comparable authoritative figure for the mass of the Menkaure pyramid. A number of estimates merely say it could be 10 % of the Great Pyramid or less. NASA gives the relative mass of Mercury to the Earth as 0.055. Less than 10 %. Of course we must divide all figures by 2, since they are only ½ of their respective planets.

Positions on the Giza Plateau

As we noted earlier, the Khafre pyramid is located higher on the plateau than the Great Pyramid (by about 33 feet and 2 inches or 33.167 feet). The Menkaure pyramid is 8 feet and 5 inches higher still, or 41 feet and 7 inches (41.483 feet) higher than the Great Pyramid. If these pyramids are meant to represent Venus and Mercury, then these positions must be able to correspond to positions in their respective orbits. The orbit of the Earth around the sun inscribes a plane known as the ‘ecliptic’ (like a record spinning about the spindle in the center, the sun). In terms of the Great Pyramid, that would correspond to a plane extending out from the base of the pyramid. For Khafre and Menkaure to represent Venus and Mercury would thus require that the Venus and Mercury orbits at some point take them above the plane of Earth’s orbit, the ecliptic. Do they? Yes they do. The plane of Venus’ orbit is inclined 3.39 degrees (3 degrees 23 minutes, 40 seconds) to the ecliptic, and takes it above Earth’s ecliptic when Venus and Earth are near to each other on the same side of the sun. Mercury’s orbit is inclined about 7 degrees to the ecliptic (7degree, 0 minutes, 16 seconds) and similarly carries Mercury above the ecliptic when it is close to Earth on the same side of the sun. In other words, the positions of the two pyramids would have corresponding locations in the orbits of Venus and Mercury in relation to Earth. The angle from the center of the base of the Great Pyramid to the center of the base of the Khafre pyramid is 1.19 degrees. The similar angle for the Menkaure pyramid is 0.78 degrees. (18) That would mean that Venus and Mercury would be very close above the points where their paths cross Earth’s ecliptic on the near side of the sun, since all three planets orbit the sun in the same direction (counterclockwise looking down above the sun and the planets).

Scale of Distances

If the second and third pyramids are meant to be Venus and Mercury, respectively, we would expect that the distances between the Great Pyramid and each of them would be in the same scale as the distances from Earth to Venus and Mercury. Of course the three planets vary immensely in the distances between them, depending on where in their respective orbits they are at any moment. The distance from Earth to Venus can vary from 162 million miles when they are farthest away from each other, to about 25 million miles at their normal closest. No planet gets closer to the Earth than Venus.

Because of the positions of the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau, if Khafre represents Venus and Menkaure represents Mercury, then they are meant to be in positions in their orbits that are closest or very close to the Earth on the same side of the sun. In order to test whether the distances from the Great Pyramid to the other two are in the same scale as the distance from Earth to Venus and Mercury, we will use the points in the orbits when Venus and Earth are closest and when Mercury and Earth are closest.

Our best measurements of the distances between the pyramids comes from Petrie, who surveyed from the top center of the Great Pyramid to the top centers of Khafre and Menkaure. Petrie’s calculation from the Great Pyramid to Khafre was 19,168.4 inches or 1597.37 feet. The normal minimum distance from Earth to Venus is 25 million miles. If we divide 19,168.4 by 25, we get 766.74 rounded.

The distance from the center top of the Great Pyramid to the center top of Menkaure, according to Petrie, was 36,857.7 inches, or 3,071.48 feet. The minimum distance from Earth to Mercury is 48 million miles. If we divide 36,857.7 by 48, we get 767.87.

So the two distances from the Great Pyramid to the Khafre and Menkaure pyramids are almost exactly to the same scale as the distances from Earth to Venus and Mercury.

So What?

Earth, Venus, and Mercury. Three planets in constant, and different, motion around the sun. If the Great Pyramid represents the Earth and Khafre is Venus and Menkaure is Mercury, then the three pyramids are the three planets frozen for eternity at a specific place, in a specific configuration in their constant movements about the sun.

In other words, they mark an exact moment in time.

Since the effort required to build these monuments was enormous, it must be a very important moment (or possibly moments) in time. But when? Do they mark the moment of a past catastrophe, such as the cataclysm noted by Plato (a great flood)? Or do they warn of something for the future? Clearly the builders expected that the civilization that would decode their message would be highly sophisticated, such as our own.

There are programs that will give the position of these planets when a particular day is entered (going back and forward for thousands of years). But there seems to be no program that will tell us what day is represented by the specific configuration of the pyramids/planets.

We must also deal with the anomaly noted above of Menkaure’s pyramid being about 16% too large for Mercury. The size of the pyramid would obviously be based on observations from Earth. And we know that Mercury as viewed from Earth can appear in a range of sizes. For example, NASA notes that the apparent size of Mercury when viewed from Earth during the planet’s infrequent transits across the face of the sun can vary by up to 21.2%. (19) Also the brightness of Mercury can range from -2.3 to 5.7 in apparent magnitude. So the size of the pyramid may itself be an indicator of an exact date.

Herodotus tells a strange story. He said that the Egyptian priests told him that the pharaoh Menkaure was given an oracle that he would live only six more years and would die in the seventh. In response, he arranged for his abode to be lit up with lamps at night and thus turned his nights into days. By this means he extended his life from the allotted 6 years to 12. (20) This story is obviously ridiculous. Often Herodotus will tell such a story in his history, followed by: But I don’t believe it. He didn’t in this case.

When the Egyptians tell strange stories like this, they very often have a deeper astronomical or spiritual meaning. It is given to the hearer as a kind of riddle. It is thus possible that the story contains a hint of when the pyramid’s date might be: some time when the brightness or size of Mercury is extended beyond the normal, perhaps doubled in time.

I do not know this all-important date. The Egyptians knew it, and they moved heaven and earth to mark it on the ground for all eternity. At Giza.

Notes

(1) See, for example, Toby Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, Random House Publishing Group, New York, 2010.

(2) See, for example, Dr. Kate Spence, Cambridge University, UK, Mystic Places.

(3) Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 1971, p. 105.

(4) J.H. Cole, ‘Determination of the Exact Size and Orientation of the Great Pyramid, Survey of Egypt Paper #39,’ published by Government Press, Cairo, 1925. Cole’s survey of the four sides was as follows: North side: 9.065.1 inches (755.425 feet); South side: 9,073.0 inches (756.083 feet); East side: 9,070.5 inches (755.875 feet); and West side: 9,069.2 inches (755.77 feet).

(5) Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, pages 46-47 and 202.

(6) See, for example, Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, Book I, Chapter 40, 5.

(7) Writing about 395 BC (although some say about 360 BC), Plato in the “Timaeus” recounts a story told by his friend, Critias, that he received from his grandfather. Critias told a small group of friends that included Socrates and Plato himself of an account given to his great grandfather by the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon after Solon’s journey to Egypt. Solon’s visit to Egypt would have been about 600 BC. There, Solon was told by the Egyptian priests of a civilization called Atlantis that was destroyed in a great cataclysm, along with the civilizations of the Mediterranean at the time.

Consider this statement of the Egyptian priest to Solon from the text: “There was an island opposite the strait which you call (so you say) the Pillars of Heracles . . . from it travelers could in those days reach the other islands, and from them the whole opposite continent which surrounds what can truly be called the ocean. For the sea within the strait we were talking about [the Mediterranean] is like a lake with a narrow entrance; the outer ocean is the real ocean and the land which entirely surrounds it is properly termed continent.” Penguin Classics, Desmond Lee, translator. The account continues concerning how Atlantis was swallowed up by the sea in a single day and night and disappeared. The Egyptian priests told Solon that the age of their civilization, according to their sacred records, was eight thousand years at that time (that is, going back to 8,600 BC) and the cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis occurred one thousand years before that (9,600 BC).
The Pillars of Heracles was the term the Greeks used for the Straits of Gibraltar. See, for example, Herodotus, The Histories, 2.33.3 (written about 450 BC) and Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Book IV, Chapter 18 (before 30 BC).

Note that in the Timaeus the fact of a continent on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean is not presented as some astounding new discovery. It was common knowledge among these friends.

(8) Livio Stecchini, “Notes on the Relation of Ancient Measures to the Great Pyramid” in Appendix to Secrets of the Great Pyramid by Peter Tompkins, pages 371-375, 378. Copyright to the Appendix is 1971.

(9) Description of Egypt: Antiquities, Descriptions, Volume Two: Or, Collection of Observations and Research Conducted in Egypt During the Expedition of the French Army.

(10) Chapter XVIII (Description General of Memphis and the Pyramids), Section III (Description of the Pyramids of the North, or Pyramids of Giza).

(11) Telephone interview with the author, March 6, 2012.

(12) The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles, which equals 131,480,184 feet. If you divide this number by Cole’s measurement of the perimeter of the Great Pyramid (3,023.153 feet), you get 43,491.08 (rounded).

(13) Each degree of arc at equator would be 131,480,184 feet divided by 360 (degrees in a circle), or 365222.73 feet. So 1 minute of a degree would be 365222.73 divided by 60 (60 minutes in a degree) or 6087.05 feet rounded. One half of that is 3043.525.

(14) The dense atmosphere of Venus extends to about 40 miles from the surface. If all of this was counted in a visual circumference as viewed from Earth, it would increase the diameter by 80 miles, for an estimated visual circumference of 23,878.6 miles or 126,079,008 feet. When divided by the (est.) perimeter of the Khafre pyramid, the result is 44,772.375.

(15) 43,491.08-36,391=7099.96. Divide this by 43,491.08 yields about 0.16, or 16% too large.

(16) Wikipedia, citing Janey Levy, The Great Pyramid of Giza: Measuring Length, Area, Volume, and Angles, Rosen Publishing Group (2005).

(17) This is provided on Answers.com to the question of how much the Khafre pyramid weighs. The respondent is given as only Emma xD.
(18) For the Khafre pyramid: The goal is to get the distance from the center of the Great Pyramid base to center of Khafre base and especially the angle between. All we have is the distance (Petrie) from top center of the Great Pyramid to the top center of Khafre. That will not be the same as distance between the 2 bases because the difference in heights of the 2 pyramids distorts that line. To correct: Take the height of the Khafre pyramid (471 feet) and add the higher elevation it sits on, 33.167 feet = 504.167 feet. Then subtract the height of the Great Pyramid, 481.417 feet to give 22.75 feet. Now using 1597.37 (distance from Petrie) as hypotenuse and 22.75 feet as the opposite side of the right triangle yields 1597.21 feet–this is the base of the triangle which is the same as the base for the triangle between the bases of the Great Pyramid and Khafre pyramid. Using that number and the height of the base of Khafre as the opposite side yields: angle at Great Pyramid is 1.19 degrees and the distance from GP center to K center (hypotenuse) is 1597.55 feet.

For the Menkaure pyramid: Height is 215 feet. Add height above Great Pyramid, which is 41.483 feet for a total of 256.483 feet. Subtract from height of the Great Pyramid (because Menkaure height plus higher position is lower than height of Great Pyramid): 481.417- 256.483 yields 224.934 feet. So the base of that triangle–also the base of the triangle between the 2 pyramids–is 3,063.23 feet. The opposite side is 41.483 feet (the difference in elevation). This gives the angle between the Great Pyramid and Menkaure as 0.78 degrees and the distance between the centers of the bases (hypotenuse) as 3,063.51 feet.
(19) National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Seven Century Catalog of Mercury Transits: 1601 CE to 2300 CE. NASA states that during May transits, Mercury appears to be 1/158 the size of the sun; whereas during November transits it appears to be 1/194 the size of the sun.

(20) Herodotus, The Histories, 2.133-134.

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