posted on Jan, 7 2006 @ 12:44 PM
Originally posted by BlackGuardXIII
Maybe I am wrong, and the Giza pyramid was built by the 4th dynasty as generally accepted. I have too many unanswered questions and my view is that
the pharoahs of that era likely restored, repaired, and cleaned up the complex, and added to it.
Again, have you looked at pictures of the temples and so forth they erected in the earlier dynasties? They were not a bunch of flint-knappers living
in brush huts and chasing goats down for food. They had been living in cities and constructing buildings of stone long before 3000 BC.
Building houses and temples of stone means a good deal of sophistication in engineering and architecture. Buildings have to be square or oblong (we
didn't learn to make domes until this past century) and if using local construction material (rocks and wood), the designs of the houses have to be
modified according to the strength of the building material.
I feel that the sphinx, mortuary temple, and great pyramid, at least, are far older.
Scholars disagree on the date of the sphynx (I found a good article that suggested the sphynx was the oldest and the pyramids were placed there
because of that monument. I think that concept makes a lot of sense.) However, the mortuary temple can be definately dated by the inscriptions all
over the inside (these haven't been "corrected" like the "helicopter" one at Abydos, where Ramses the Impertinent came in and covered up his
father's name and put his own name in, instead.)
The bones in the workers' cemetaries are also fairly easily dated, not only by radiocarbon method but also by funeral goods ("Rhamanicus died in the
13th year of the reign of Pharoah Snefu") and jewelry/artifact styles.
There are many details incorporated in the great pyramid which I have yet to find an explanation for.
...such as...? (honest curiosity. I'm not being snarky, here.)
I may be wrong, but I can't see how or why the challenging aspects of the pyramid, such as the differing tier heights, block widths, and
precision to square, etc. were achieved by 4th dynasty means.
Take a close look at the pictures of the temples of the earlier dynasties -- and the old step pyramid of Djoser as well. You'll see the same pattern
there. It also occurs in the first primitive pyramid designs -- the mastabas.
And, in fact, you can see this same kind of stonework in other ancient civilizations that never built monumental pyramids... like the Sumerians and
the various Hindu civilizations of the same time period.
...anyway... I'm enjoying the discussion (I realize skeptics can be annoying sometimes) and I'm learning from it (I had never before actually
thought to consider the stonework of the first buildings from each civilization to see how their architecture developed and what types of construction
might be possible and how large their standard building material "block" was. And, in fact, that's not something you're taught in any of the
classes I took at any school, college, or university (however, I haven't taken any materials engineering or architecture classes.))