I was talking about this with Simons-Photography in another thread, and decided to see what your opinions were on the subject.

Here is a link to NOVA online that basically argues that the pyramids are young (3000 years-ish old)
NOVA Online/Pyramids/How Old Are the Pyramids?

I saw a documentary by J.J. Benitez about the pyramids which claimed that they must be a lot older as the ancient Egyptians had no technology that would have allowed them to build something so big and precise as a pyramid in such a short space of time.

What do you think?

Are the Pyramids 3000 years old or more ?

Were the Egyptians more clever than we believe or did aliens help them?

I just think that the Pyramids are a lot older, possibly built by a previous civilisation.

It looks like there really isn't any evidence of an older culture. I think it's rather closed-minded and arrogant of us to claim that the Egyptians were too stupid to build pyramids. Sure, they're impressive. Humans are creative and do remarkable things.

There is absolutely no evidence of a prior civilization. Just because you don't understand how they did it, that doesn't mean they could not have done it. How could the entire civilization have disappeared without a trace, but the pyramids remain well-preserved? Why do the pyramids date to around the time of the Egyptians? All the evidence points to the pyramids being built by the Egyptians, yet your argument is that the Egyptians were too stupid to build them?

I never said the eygyptians were to stupid to do it, now how were they dated to being the period of the egyptians ? what proof is there the age of the rock ? the rock is as old as the earth and of no help, yes the egyptians did use them but the question is did they really build them, the other alternative answer you are going to flame me for is they were help by civilizations from another planet, its a pitty books like von danekens no longer circualte because he shows us just how much of our past cannot be explained conventionally, can you explain how a tomb was found in the 18th century and was kept alight for thousands of years by some mysterious rock unfortunately in those days things were not documented proporley, when a lost town was rediscovered in the inca area covered with forest abandoned for hundreds of years (since we savagely drove them away) the street lighting was still functioning,

back to the pyramids, as you well know they are full of paintings, how were they painted without flame tourch light that would have blackened the walls ? why is it they found a battery in a pyramid and when filled with acid produced electricity what more have we over looked,

once again just how long would it take fow our own so called civilization to dissapere with earthquakes caused by underground bomb experiments and ever more destructive weather and floods in 10000 years what would really remain ?

Sure, there may be some remarkable technology in ancient civilizations. My point is this: if the U.S. was wiped out for some reason, there would be remains that lasted for a VERY long time. Or maybe something could completely and utterly destroy all evidence, but if that happened, do you really think the Empire State Building would still be standing, but everything else gone? It doesn't make any sense. The Egyptians may well have had technology we don't know about or don't understand.

As to the dating, check out RichBarna's Nova link.

The argument for the Egyptians building the pyramids: all the evidences suggests there was no one else to do it.

The argument against: we don't understand how they did it.

I don't know how they did it, but the simplest explanation is that they did. I can't completely rule out the possibility of extra-terrestrial life helping them (), but there's no evidence to suggest that. We've all got wild-ass conjectures. I've got my own. But I think you're reaching on this one.

well it is very far fetched that they did it all on their own with such simple methods because the archeologist went on and on about pottery etc but never mentioned remains of ramps cranes or anything else so what did they do go out there with picks and shovels ?, where did the rock come from eh ? did they transport it for thousands of miles from where ? we don't even know where the stone came from, an extraterestial civilization leaving could easily take away al evidence of its being there e say there is evidence of the egyptian because they left stuff around but some one wanting to remove their evidence could have done so

A sceptic guide to the pyramids (2 pages PDF)

Nearly all the equipment would have been picked up after completion and taken away.

Could have came from nearby, could have been ferried down the nile from elsewhere, could have been dragged overland from elsewhere too (like stonehenge's source)



Just because we dont know exactly how they did it, doesnt mean they didnt do it, hell they werent the only civilisation to create pyramids, lets see:

There was:

• Egyptian Pyramids
• Nubian Pyramids
• Mesopotamian Ziggurats
• Mesoamerican Pyramids
• Nth American mound pyramids
• A French Pyramid from the Roman Era
• 2 Roman Pyramids in Italy
• Chinese Flat-Top Pyramids
• Ancient Greek Pyramids

Now the Egyptian and Mesoamerican ones are the best known, but knowledge on how to make these in various styles were widespread and indeed available to all major Ancient Civilisations. Each with there own styles.

And finally you cant cite lack of ET evidence as supporting evidence of ET

Have you ever read about the Coral Castle? One guy did a lot of things that have baffled modern engineers:

Coral Castle

Edit: I wonder if they used water as a counter weight ... or something like that ... combined with leverage. Then they could add/remove the water gradually. I guess in the desert sand might make more sense.

Edit: Hmmm... I was reading more about it... pretty cool stuff:

from: Coral Castle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

precisely how funny pyramids all over the world civilizations that had never met all build pyramids, and as far as I recal the Aztec or one of those precolumbian civilizations have things in common with the Egyptians,

just because extraterrestrial intelligences knew about things doesn't necessarily mean that they would teach them, if you wanted to overpower someone would you go tell them all about your technology

Ok, here's another thing. Did the Egyptians just come up with these engineering feats of wonder all in one go? Where did they practice all these techniques first then?. Shouldn't Egypt be scattered with pyramids that collapsed because the chief engineer made a boo-boo?

In the last 1000 years we have gone from castles and wooden huts to skyscrapers and brick houses, hardly a major leap. Are we saying that the Egyptians in a thousand years went from mud-huts to pyramids ?(4000 bc).

Why is it that the lines that were cut for the blocks only deviate 0.5 of a millimetre from start to finish whereas Nasa have a laser guided cutter which deviates 0.11 of a millimeter. How did they get those lines so precise using stone and wooden impliments. (I think those figures are precise, I need to find the link).

I am just bothered by the time factor in all this, I just don't think that the Pyramids are as young as we believe. Even using ramps, pullies, Ice as a surface for sliding blocks being pulled by elephants etc, it just doesn't add up.

I need to find the link to some research performed by a mathematician who calculated the quantity, weight and size of the blocks in the Great Pyramid, and showed that each block would have had to be placed perfectly in position every 30 minutes or so to have been completed in the time span that the historians have quoted.

I will try to find the url's as I may be slightly off on some of the exact figures.

@RichBarna: Saying it took longer than we think is very different from saying an entirely different society built them. Maybe it did take a while... I don't know about that. But there isn't any evidence of a different society. If it existed, there would be evidence.

@simons-photography: Why don't you start a thread about extra-terrestrials? I'm curious to see what evidence you have for them, but if we post it all here it will get off-topic.

thats simple to answer, a pyramid is the mose stable shape for a large building, much more so than a totally vertical building, biggest at the bottom smallest at the top is a simple engineering principle, therefore it was common before there was modern technology such as steel frames for large buildings, thats why you dont see any ancient buildings with a 5x5 metres base and a 500x500 metre top, if they built one like THAT and it was still around then id be impressed.

as for how the pyramids are dated, usually by radiocarbon dating, the pyramids had lpieces of wooden furniture and wooden boats burried in them (for the journey to the valley of death) and we can carbon date that.
also they left many pappyrus scrolls with star readings, and by calculating how long ago it was that the stars position was there, we can get a thumb-guide of the date the scrolls were written too.

your missing the point you can't carbon date the stone, it could have been there long before the Egyptians we can only carbon date stuff they put in there not the pyramid themselves

as for a pyramid being easier well try it I bet if you get a set of small bricks you will fing it easier to make straight walls than a pyramid, because of the slope it would be hard to keep up being something similar to the arch its a care balancing of forces and in this case huge forces

the fact is that it was such a huge undertaking that could not be completed in the life time of the fahro and it is stated how the pyramid would be started at the fahro's birth, and why the change to the valley of the kings ? if I remember rightly tutan kamons tomb had to be done in a hurry becuae he died young and that was not a pyramid, the change from the pyramids to the valley of kings could have been for lack of help or that they simply used structures already there and then moved on to the valley of kings when they filled the pyramids

Ramps and cranes and other building aids would likely have been made out of wood, which would have decayed before long even if it was left next to the pyramid.

yes but seeing as the pyramids were sealed anything inside would have been put in when it was built, even so there have been pieces of food, (specifically garlic and radishes IIRC) that were found buried in cement, they can safely be assumed to be from when the pyramids were built.

A pyramid is a far more stable engineering structure than a vertical wall, thats a fact,i think you are wrongly assuming the pyramids are hollow, they are not, they can be modelled as a square layer of blocks with a smaller layer of blocks on top for each layer.

[quote]the fact is that it was such a huge undertaking that could not be completed in the life time of the fahro and it is stated how the pyramid would be started at the fahro's birth, and why the change to the valley of the kings ? if I remember rightly tutan kamons tomb had to be done in a hurry becuae he died young and that was not a pyramid, the change from the pyramids to the valley of kings could have been for lack of help or that they simply used structures already there and then moved on to the valley of kings when they filled the pyramids[quote]
saying it couldnt be done in a pharoahs lifetime simply doesnt match up with the facts, tutankamon wasnt the first to be buried in the valley of the kings, and they started doing so because many pyramids had been the victim of grave robbery when they wre so boldly on display to the many poor egyptians

if the pyramids are solid and not hollow (I admit I don't know) then there is truly a lot of stone there and still nobody has come up with a calculation for how many men would be needed to lift the blocks and how they did it, how did they have implements capable of such weight, funny isn't it the ancient civilizations used huge stones, all those that came after standard bricks like we still do why not use smaller bricks it would have been simpler, all those people that quaried and transported the blocks needed feeding not to mention building the so called ramps ecc and then hauling them up and positioning them it was not just a case of digging the stone and dragging it there they needed to be placed as well

There was an evolution of the shape. The ones dated earlier are small, piles of rocks. then they had stepped sides. They look pretty small and unimpressive. Then, they started building them at larger scales and adding more steps. until they created the largest ones in Giza. the basic design was modeled after a pile of sand, I think, or a mountain.