PYRAMIDS AND GEOPOLYMERS
BOOK: THE PYRAMIDS AN ENIGMA SOLVED
Prof. Joseph Davidovits
Chapter 4
The False Proofs of Egyptology
Even though the traditional explanation of pyramid construction is illogical and remains unproved, it has been accepted as a matter of faith, reinforced and protected by the sheer weight of scholarly opinion.What proof has Egyptology offered to support the accepted theory? Logistical studies are generally used as proof even though they are highly speculative and prove nothing. The great ef- forts made over a long time to explain construction problems in no way mean that basic theoretical assumptions are cor- rect, especially since problems remain unresolved, despite the numerous studies, and important facts remain unconsidered. Despite the efforts of experts, the construction method is still a matter of legitimate debate.
If logistical reports are used as proof of construction, they constitute false proofs. There are six additional false proofs. The rest of this chapter explains why each one is either erroneous or open to interpretation.
1. Quarried Blocks
There are a few remains in a trench on the north side of the Second Pyramid of Giza, and Egyptologists use them as evidence to support the traditional carving and hoisting theory. The northern vertical face of this quarry bears ins- criptions and a large cartouche containing the name of the New Kingdom pharaoh, Ramses II (1298-1235 BC), who demolished numerous monuments to obtain ready-made blocks for his own constructions. The inscriptions honor Mey a chief architect of Ramses II, who, according to the inscrip- tions, removed casing blocks from the Second Pyramid and dismantled a temple of the complex. This occurred 1,400 years after the pyramid was built. There are no other inscriptions by which to date the quarry (see more details in the Circuit at Giza, Appendix II).
Ramses II and other pharaohs took a number of ready- made blocks from various pyramids, but they were incapa- ble of producing a monument or any combination of monu- ments equivalent in volume to the Great Pyramid. This holds true even though Ramses II used enormous wealth and manpower endlessly to rob ready-made blocks from existing monuments over his sixty-five year reign.
The pattern of chisel marks also in the trench near the pyramid has been dated to the time of Ramses II. It is rele- vant to consider what has been determined historically about Egypt’s quarry methods.Klemm and his wife made a complete dating of the sandstone quarries of Gebel el-Silsila and presented a paper at the Second International Congress of Egyptologists in 1979. Their study dated the various quarry methods used historically in Egypt. The following is an abstract of their paper [27]:
“ Most quarries were dated to well-defined historical periods with the aid of chisel marks, block technique, inscriptions, and pottery shreds. The most anciently quarried areas are at the northern edges of Gebel el-Silsila. These were quarried prior to the New Kingdom, perhaps in the Middle Kingdom. The chisel marks of this period are irregularly oriented (Fig.7) .The northern part of Gebel el-Silsila was exploited during the New Kingdom, in about the Eighteenth Dynasty, and chisel marks form a herringbone pattern. In the Nineteenth Dynasty, Ramses II introduced a fine parallel pattern that still prevailed when the Ptolemies exploited large quarries at the site. At the southern end of Gebel el-Silsila are the Roman quarry sites. No chisel marks of the previous types are found, but only wedge marks made by wooden dowels. ”
Figure 7: Datation of the quarry marks at Silsilis, adapted from D. Klemm et al. [27]
On the southern end of Gebel el-Silsila, only the traces of wooden dowels appear. Dowels were inserted into the quarry and wetted with water, so that when the wood swelled, the stone cracked. This method is frequently shown in books depicting pyramid construction, but the Klemms’ dating shows that this primitive method was never used by the Egyptians. It was exclusively a Roman technique dating to the Roman occupation of Egypt.
If this crude Roman method had been used for pyramid construction, as is advocated, the amount of general debris at Giza would be staggering, including countless mil- lions of unusable cracked blocks. Before the Klemms’ presentation, it was assumed that because doweling is a primi- tive quarrying method it is also the oldest. One sees that the remains of quarrying in the trench near the Second Pyramid of Giza cannot be used as evidence to support the accepted theory.
Although the Klemms did not date limestone quarries, a general dating of quarrying in Egypt is established nevertheless. The implications are profound. From 27 BC to AD 379, the Romans quarried stone with wooden dowels. From 332 to 1250 BC, fine, parallel chisel strokes were used in Egyptian quarries. In 1400 BC Egyptians were making herringbone chisel patterns when cutting. During 1600 BC, they cut stone using random strokes, and before that time, there is no trace of block quarrying at all in the sandstone quarries at Gebel-el-Silisila. How did the Egyptians remove stone in more ancient times for pyramid construction?
2. The Transport of the Statue of Djehutihotep.
A Twelfth Dynasty (1800 BC) bas-relief from the tomb of Djehutihotep depicts the transport of the colossal statue of this ruler of Hermopolis (Fig.8). It was produced about 800 years after the construction of the Great Pyramid, yet it is used as evidence to support the traditional theory of pyramid construction.
The colossus no longer exists, but it stood 6.50 meters (21.32 feet) high and weighed about sixty tons according to what can be determined from inscriptions. The bas-relief depicts the colossus being hauled on a sledge to which it was solidly attached with thick cords. Protective bands can be seen under cables at the corners of the statue. In four lines, 172 men are pulling the colossus. Three workers carrying a liquid, presumably water, are shown. A worker is pouring the liquid in front of the sledge to ease its movement over the surface of Nile silt. Adams remarked about the bas-relief [28]:
“ The existence of a document of this order (and there exist others both in Egypt and Mesopotamia) allows us to throw into the wastepaper basket, without hesitation, all of the fantastic propositions too often made about the transport of the ancient Egyptian megaliths.
Is this method applicable for constructing the Great Pyramid? We know that sixty tons can easily be hauled over a flat terrain. An experiment carried out by Henri Chevrier, a French architect, showed that 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of force are exerted to pull 150 kilograms (330 pounds), indicating that 400 men were required to pull the colossus (60 tons or 132,000 pounds divided by 330 pounds). In other words, each man would be required to pull only one-sixth of the load (150/25 = 6). Using the system for an average six-ton block from the Great Pyramid on flat ground would require only forty men. But the same operation on a ramp would be extremely complex.
Figure 8: Detail from tomb of Djehutihotep depicts transport of a colossal statue (Faucher Godin).
According to Herodotus’s account, 2.6 million blocks were transported to the foot of the Great Pyramid during a twenty-year period, which is the approximate length of Khufu’s (Kheops or Cheops) reign. The number of blocks moved per year would have been 130,000. This means that an average of 1,400 blocks would have been hauled per day. This would have required 250,000 men making one journey per day, if we allow for a 150-man team per block (1,400 x 150). If the team made two journeys per day, 105,000 men would have been required. Four journeys per day per team would required 52,500 men working together at one time. Yet, it would have been impossible to get the job done. This enormous number of men would have been squeezed together shoulder to shoulder at the work site, an area about the size of a large sports arena.
3. The Clay Ramps
The principle of this wet-silt track could not apply to ramps for pyramid construction. It would create a ridiculous scenario, 52,500 men working in an area the size of a sports complex, with many treading and sliding in mud while hazardously maneuvering extremely heavy blocks at great heights.
This is not to say that ramps were never used at all. Because pulleys were not known in Egypt until Roman times, the only option archaeological evidence provides for raising blocks is ramps. For the Great Pyramid, it is estimated that any straight-slope ramp would have been a mile long, containing an enormous amount of material. Its great breadth and length would have covered the quarry. Helicoidal ramps have been suggested, but many Egyptologists offer several well-founded arguments against their actual use, including the fact that no wrap-around ramp has ever been found.
At Saqqara, a mud ramp was found in situ at the pyramid usually attributed to Pharaoh Semkhemkhet of the Third Dynasty but this small pyramid is not composed of large blocks. Carrying small blocks up a ramp was the most sensible and obvious way of producing this type of pyramid, affording a scenario very different from the one just described. Whereas there are remains of ramps at Giza, the tremendous amount of material called for by the standard theory does not exist, and while it might be expected that an earthen material would degrade, a small amount of remains nevertheless suggests the use of small ramps of the size useful for climbing the pyramids.
It has been proposed that pyramid blocks were hauled on sledges with wooden rollers attached. No evidence exists to support this hypothesis. The wheel was introduced as a transportation means by the Hyksos when they brought cha- riots to Egypt during their takeover at the end of the Middle Kingdom. The oldest surviving document implying the use of the wheel for hauling stone is a bas-relief from the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, now in the British Museum. It dates to 750 BC or 2,000 years after the Great Pyramid was built. The Great Pyramid, the most impressive monument of the ancient world, was built before the introduction of the wheel as a means of transportation.
4. The Tura Stele
A stele discovered in the Tura quarries is attributed to the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Amosis (1580-1558 BC) [29]. The stele itself disappeared during the nineteenth century, and only a sketch remains (Fig.9). The sketch shows a stone block placed on a sledge being pulled by oxen. Although the wheel had been introduced in Egypt by this time, this bas-relief indicates that it was still not being used for hauling stone.
Figure 9: Tura detail adapted from Vize-Perring
The Tura stele and the other documents used to sup- port the traditional theory are the product of a society fostering different technology from that of its ancestors.Any long and successful civilization is bound to have emerging and declining technologies. Although archaeologists refrain from wild conjecture, there are vague admissions that some advanced technique was known to the builders of the Great Pyramids. According to Edwards [30]:
“ Cheops (Khufu), who may have been a megalomaniac, could never, during a reign of about twenty-three years, have erected a building of the size and durability of the Great Pyramid if technical advances had not enabled his masons to handle stones of very considerable weight and dimensions. ”
Edwards implies that a clever method was used, but historians, with few exceptions, view ancient civilizations as though they were technologically inferior to our own in every respect. Many factors contributed to the general destruction of Egyptian technological information. During periods of anarchy, the Egyptians destroyed much of it themselves, and, too, Egypt suffered invasion by the Ethiopians, Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Nubians, and Mohammedans. The information lost when fire completely destroyed the great library of Alexandria by the end of the third century was also devastating. The Mohammedans viewed Egypt’s wondrous architectural achievements as deeds of the devil and exploited blocks for their own buildings, ravaging tombs in search of treasure wherever possible. The Napoleonic expedition inspired a frenzy of interest by antique dealers, and many precious artifacts were removed during the 1800s. An untold number of relics were damaged or destroyed during their exploits as gunpowder and battering rams were used to open tombs. Numerous written records became rubble and sta- tues were fragmented, their remains divided among different museums.
All contribute to the fact that scientific knowledge has not been transmitted flawlessly from antiquity to our time. One has only to read Herodotus’s Melpomene to realize that it was proved long before this historian’s time that the earth is round.Yet this fact had to be painstakingly rediscovered in more modern times.
A modern superiority complex prevails in scholarly literature despite the weight of evidence of a great forgotten technology used for pyramid construction. This ancient science is explored in the coming chapters and highlights the technological differences between the Old and New Kingdoms.
5.The Bas-Relief of Rekhmire
The wall paintings in the New Kingdom tomb of the official Rekhmire (1400 BC) are famous for their illustrations of the period’s technology One painting shows blocks being carved with bronze tools. This painting was produced 1,300 years after the construction of the Great Pyramid, and, therefore, is not relevant.
6. The Bas-Relief of Unas
A bas-relief on the wall of the causeway approaching the pyramid of pharaoh Unas (2356 - 2323 BC) of the Fifth Dynasty is the last of the false proofs. The bas-relief depicts the fact that Unas dismantled a temple in the pyramid complex of this predecessor, Djedkara-Isesi, and reused the blocks for his own pyramid. The has-relief shows a boat transporting huge temple columns along the Nile River to the Unas pyramid complex (Fig.10). About two miles separate the two pyramids. I observed these columns among the ruins. Instead of being monolithic as depicted in the bas-relief, they consist of units held together by tongue and groove joints, and the units weigh no more than a half-ton each.
Figure 10: A bas-relief engraved on wall of causeway of the pyramid of Unas dates to about 2350 BC, adapted from J.P. Lauer.
This bas-relief is used to make a sweeping generalization about pyramid construction. It is used to explain that casing blocks were transported from across the Nile and that granite blocks came from 400 miles downstream from Aswan. It will become clear that this bas-relief was made during a period which was critical for the technology used to build the Great Pyramids. The fact that Unas reused pyramid blocks has nothing to do with how those blocks were originally produced and placed in Djedkara-Isesi’s pyramid. The false proofs of Egyptology will soon appear as transpa- rent as Egyptian royal linen.
Egyptian history is viewed by scholars mostly from a New Kingdom-Theban perspective as a result of the numerous documents that have survived from the New Kingdom capital of Thebes. The more ancient capital of Memphis has not been excavated effectively, limiting information about the most important urban center of the ancient world before the prominence of Thebes.
Scholars have sufficient information only to speculate about the culture of the Pyramid Age. Scientific data and archaeological evidence can be compared to empty urns into which scholars pour the elixir of their own theories, attitu- des, and beliefs. Although an interpretation of test results and data may be required, scientists and historians have the responsibility of maintaining a critical spirit when encountering irreconcilable flaws of theory. Certainly, the lingering problems associated with the construction of the Great Pyramids and other incredible ancient feats of engi- neering are too great to ignore. In recent years the enigmas have given rise to fantastic theories. Adams commented on some of the most popular [31]:
“ On the chronology of monumental art one sees, throughout the planet, that the first examples of architecture are often megalithic edifices, or even isolated megaliths. Then, with the appearance of iron, this megalithism disappears suddenly with few exceptions.... The occultists conclude from this that in bygone epochs, a mysterious knowledge based on a very advanced science, but known only to a few initiates, allowed the extraction, transport, and placement of huge stones. Generally, such propositions are accompanied by a notorious “aging” of the edifice under consideration. Sometimes the Atlanteans and their teaching tradition are of definitive help, but the most effective aid in all circumstances is extraterrestrial....Another proposition,or even affirmation,has recently been added to the others: it is the simplest, the most naive, and also the oldest: giants. ”
Though these various theories are amusing and intriguing, they offer no definitive solution. The secret science speculated upon is never specifically identified, and baffling ultramodern technology, such as antigravity machines and antediluvian Atlantian crystal generators, never address all of the anomalies we have explored. The fantasy theories are based on conjecture as opposed to actual archaeological evidence, and both the fanciful and traditional theories will continue to thrive until the actual solution being presented here is firmly established. Let us now explore Egypt’s fabulous Stone Age science used to build the Great Pyramids-lost but now recovered.
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Chapter 5
The Solution
The great pyramids reflect a technology of the ancient world that yielded a sophisticated product or result but has no relationship to what we think of today as advanced or high technology. To visit the Pyramid Age would be to enter a world in which our objective, secular view of science does not exist. Anciently in Egypt, science and reli- gion were part of one body of knowledge, and the priests were responsible for fostering and preserving that knowledge. Particular arts and sciences were attributed to particular gods. Ptah was the god of craftsmen, and Khnum, the Divine Potter, was a god worshipped by the pharaohs of the Pyramid Age. As will be further discussed, it was Khnum to whom the technology in question was attributed. Thoth was the god of writing, and the knowledge of Khnum was written in the Books of Thoth.
We know that the ancient priest-scientists of Heliopolis fostered the sciences of engineering, mathematics, and astronomy, and that all played a role in pyramid construc- tion, but the science most germane to pyramid construction is overlooked. The mystery science has nothing to do with the classical physics of electricity, heat, optics, or mechanics, or anything in common with quantum physics-atomic, nuclear, or solid state. The science that made pyramids pos- sible was chemistry or, more precisely, its forerunner, alchemy. Just how were stone monuments built with ancient chemistry?
Alchemy evokes images of medieval pursuits in mysticism and magic. Old alchemical notebooks depict vain searches for the ever-illusive Philosopher’s Stone, reputed to be empowered to transform base metals into gold and provide an elixir of eternal youth. As will be discussed, the legendary Philosopher’s Stone represents the last misinterpreted vesti- ges of the alchemical science that flourished during the Pyramid Age and was known in Egypt more than 6,000 years ago.
When the Egyptian alchemists developed glassmaking during the New Kingdom, it was to carry on the old religious tradition of making synthetic stones. This age-old tradition reveals the very heart of the remarkable alchemical inven- tion central to the riddle of pyramid construction: the priests of Khnum had long been adept at the art of making extraordinary cements. Cement found in various parts of the courses of the Great Pyramid is about 4,500 years old, yet it is still in good condition. This ancient mortar is far superior to cements used in construction today. The modern Portland cement used to repair ancient Egyptian monuments has cracked and degraded after only about fifty years (see Chapter 8, The Proof at Giza, Fig. 26).
If the ancient Egyptians had the ability to produce exceptionally high-quality cement, what prevented them from adding natural aggregates such as fossil shells to their cement to produce high-quality limestone concrete? The answer is that nothing prevented them. I will demonstrate that the pyramid blocks are not hewn stone; the blocks are actually high-quality reconstituted limestone cast directly in place.
The blocks consist of about:
- ninety to ninety-five percent natural limestone rubble (fossil shells),
- and five to ten percent geological glue (geopolymeric cement).
They are reagglomerated natural limestone, made in the age-old religious tradition of alchemical stonemaking. No stone cutting or heavy hauling or hoisting was ever required for pyramid construction. This type of fossil-shell limestone concrete would have been cast or packed into molds. Egyptian workmen went to outcrops of relatively soft limestone, disaggregated it with water, then mixed the muddy limestone (including the fossil-shells) with lime and zeolite- forming materials such as kaolin clay, silt, and the Egyptian salt natron (sodium carbonate). The limestone mud was carried up by the bucketful and then poured, packed or rammed into molds (made of wood, stone, clay or brick) placed on the pyramid sides. This re-agglomerated limestone, bonded by geochemical reaction, thus hardened into resistant blocks.
Advanced technology plays no part in the alchemical stonemaking. This is the most basic prerequisite if the theory is to be feasible.An individual of the Stone Age could produce re-agglomerated stone if they astutely applied the knowledge that comes from intelligent, repeated observation and experimentation with substances found in the environment. Only theoretical knowledge about mineral elements, how to distinguish them and how they can be chemically manipulated, must be acquired.
Although medieval alchemy was accompanied by esoteric teachings, because it derived from an era that united science and religion, technically, alchemy encompasses historical chemical developments. The word alchemy is the source of the modern word chemistry, the latter appearing about 250 years ago. There were great alchemical achievements during antiquity.
One can appreciate the ingenuity of the researchers of antiquity who first extracted copper from an ore of mala- chite, malachite having no metallic appearance whatsoever. This great alchemical discovery elevated Stone Age man to the Chalcolithic period. For some time historians thought that the melting point of copper, 1,083°C [1,981°F], was reached with great difficulty by using a hand bellows. Then it became apparent that the task was probably accomplished in an easier way, through chemistry.
Temperatures can be raised with energy released during exothermic (heat-producing) chemical reactions. Copper and lead are commonly located in close proximity, and lead played a fundamental role in primeval copper ex- traction. Lead can be oxidized easily with the aid of a hand bellows. A mixture of copper ore (malachite) and lead ore (galena) heated in a hearth to only 700°C (1,290°F) automatically reaches a temperature, through a heat- producing chemical reaction, that is close to that required for extracting copper. The addition of a flux, which in Egypt was a native salt called natron (sodium carbonate), lowered the fusion point sufficiently for copper extraction. Silver can be smelted similarly.
Egyptian alchemists developed vibrant blue enamel in pre-historic times at about 3800 BC. The discovery was a by- product of copper smelting. Appendix I discusses the fact that, contrary to popular belief, enamel production was no accident. Instead, an experimenter mixed a powder of chrysocolla with natron and applied a flame. The result was hard, glossy blue enamel that was then melted and applied to beads and pebbles.
The ancient Egyptians are well known for using minerals such as chrysocolla and lapis lazuli to produce enamels, which for them were imitations of these minerals or stones. They had a word for such products: ari-kat, meaning man-made or synthetic (see Chapter 11, It is written in Hieroglyphs). They sought to imitate stones because the highest spiritual influence was attributed to stone. The early priests learned to identify rocks and minerals and classified them according to the spiritual beliefs. In Egyptian mythology carnelian and other red stones represented the blood of Isis, a goddess of fertility. Lapis lazuli was associated with daybreak. Chrysocolla was associated with what was called the “ First Time ” event of Creation. It is not surprising to find that minerals and rocks had divine properties in a world where all of nature was revered.
All available stones, both nonprecious and semiprecious, possessed sacred, eternal qualities. It must have been known from ancestral lore that even though all living things perish, even trees, the imposing rocks and cliffs stood eternally. Almost everything was depicted symbolically and stone was symbolic of the eternal realm. Knowing this, one can understand why stone materials were devoted exclusively to religious monuments and sacred funerary paraphernalia. These were intended to survive for eternity, whereas earthly dwellings, even royal palaces, were composed of perishable sun-dried mud brick that needed to last only a lifetime.
So that there will be no doubt about what gives me the authority to make this rather astounding claim, I will explain my background as it relates to this research. I am a research scientist specializing in low-temperature mineral synthesis and geosynthesis. In 1972 I founded the private research company CORDI (Coordination and Development of Inno- vation), and, in 1979, the Geopolymer Institute, both based in France. At the Geopolymer Institute I founded a new branch of chemistry that I named geopolymerization for polymerization resulting from geosynthesis and applied geology. Since 1972, my partners and myself have filed several dozen international patents for geopolymeric products and processes. My products are made in the United States and Europe by large manufacturers. The products have many di- verse applications (see more details in the Geopolymer Institute Internet WEB site) [32].
Geopolymeric products range from advanced materials to simple, yet highly sophisticated cements. The geopolymeric cements are made with inorganic chemical reactions involving clays and silicates in which alumina and silica materials are integrated to form synthetic zeolites, secondary rock-forming minerals. There is no way of distinguishing a synthetic zeolite from a natural one. And geopolymeric cements are chemically comparable to the natural cements that bind such stones as sandstone, puddingstone, and also fossil-shell limestone, the later being the main material constituting the pyramids blocks.
Geopolymers are revolutionary for the concrete industry.Any type of rock aggregate can be used,and concrete made with the geopolymeric binder is practically indistinguishable from natural stone. Geologists unfamiliar with the technical possibilities afforded by geopolymerization have scrutinized geopolymeric concrete and have mistaken it for hewn stone. Geologists do not recognize any geopolymeric stone because their method of analysis is based on investigating the bulk of the crystalline materials. They generally classify the 5-10% by weight of geopolymer as being impurities! Only modern methods of analysis, not used by geologists but developed by chemists, provide insight into the geopolymer matrix. This is unprecedented technology; no tremendous heat or pressure is required to produce this synthetic stone. Geopolymeric concrete sets rapidly at room temperatures to form synthetic stone, beautiful in appearance and abundant with unprecedented properties.Archaeologists and egyptologists misunderstood the meaning of synthetic stone when it was brought up to their attention. Partial criti- que of the concrete (cast-stone) theory made by egyptologists generally reads as follows: “ ... Davidovits argues that geopolymer (ie. synthetic stone) would explain how the Egyptians were able to move and shape stone. But I don’t believe he has ever said or proved that Giza stone really is geopolymer. In fact, the limestone blocks at Giza have intact fossil remains, which proves that they are not synthetic stone or geopolymers but are natural stone... ” This sentence shows how hard and frustrating it is to bring new ideas to the archaeological community. I presented several lectures at international archaeological and egyptological conferences, had papers published in scientific, technical and archaeological journals, in vain! The reader will find some important references to my scientific work in Chapter 7, The Hard Scientific Proof, as well as in Appendix II, The Circuit at Giza.
In 1988, the American egyptologist Mark Lehner used this very same argument to convince American TV producer NOVA that the cast-stone theory is bunk. Even as late as the filming of “ This Old Pyramid ” in 1991-1992 when Lehner and his colleagues on the NOVA staff were busily trying to discredit the cast-stone theory, they still did not understand the basis of the theory. Their lack of knowledge is demonstrated by the fact that when I went to the Giza quarry to examine the limestone samples I wanted to show in the film, I was driven to the spot by one of Lehner’s assistants.
This assistant turned to me as we were driving along and said:“ We know you are wrong. ”I replied by saying something like, “ Oh really? I have researched and studied for over 20 years and you know I am wrong. How is that? ” The assistant said “ Because there are fossil shells in the pyramid blocks, just as there are fossil shells in the quarries. ” I replied by saying something like; “ Well, where do you think the aggregates (fossil shells) for the pyramid-concrete-blocks came from, the Moon? No, the shells came from the quarries. ” The assistant’s eyes opened wide and he said nothing. The fossil shells would remain intact for the most part but would be jumbled in pyramids blocks (see Chapter 7, The Hard Scientific Proof, Fig. 15). Why would the pyramid builders make more work for themselves by crushing them?
To develop a new branch of chemistry is one thing, but to apply that chemistry to ancient history is quite another. How did I learn that the pyramid stone is also geopolymeric? Any theory must be feasible; then, there must be evidence; and ultimately, hard scientific proof is required. All mysteries associated with pyramid construction must be resolved.
I found that some suitable ingredients were available in quantities of millions of tons. The natron salt, which contains mainly sodium carbonate, is extraordinarily abundant in the deserts and salt lakes. Natron reacts with lime and water to produce caustic soda, the main ingredient for alchemically making stone.
Natron was a sacred product used not only for flux, but also for mummification and deification rites. The following excerpts from the Pyramid Texts, found on the walls of the burial chamber of the Fifth Dynasty pyramid of Unas, show the sacred value of natron:
Thou purifiest thyself, Horus is purified: One pastil of natron
Thou purifiest thyself, Seth is purified: One pastil of natron
Thou purifiest thyself; Thoth is purified: One pastil of natron
Thou purifiest thyself; God is purified: One pastil of natron Thou purifiest thyself; that thou rest thyself among them: One pastil of natron
Thy mouth is like that of the milk calf on the day of his birth: Five pastils of natron from the north, at Stpt.
The mouth of the newborn milk calf was considered to be clean because the calf had never eaten; and Stpt, a place where natron was gathered, is now called Wadi el-Natron.
Many of the same elements applicable for alchemical stone-making later played a role in glassmaking. By studying the ecology and the ancient products and documents of the Egyptians, I was able to trace the basic alchemical inventions that led to the development of the pyramid stone. These inventions are discussed chronologically in details in Appendix 1. An abundance of lime would have been available by calcining limestone in simple hearths. In ancient times, the Sinai mines were rich in deposits of turquoise and chrysocolla, needed for the production of synthetic zeolites. The mines also contained the arsenic minerals of olivenite and scorodite, needed to produce rapid setting and hardening.
But most important, Giza’s geological limestone would have provided the bulk of the materials. The ancient Egyptians found at Giza a limestone that was soft (not hard), easily quarried (not hewn) and disaggregated (not crushed) into loose aggregates and was rehardened (reconstituted) in large concrete blocks. Yet, above all, this particular limestone had to contain a certain amount of natural reactive geopolymeric ingredient, such as clay, needed for the in-situ fabrication of geopolymeric cement. The uniqueness of Giza’s geology is exemplified by the deteriorating body of the Sphinx, in opposition to its hard and unweathered head.A general overview of the limestone geology at Giza is described in some details in the following Chapter 6, The Feasibility of the Theory, and also in Appendix II: the Circuit at Giza.
A fascinating view of the pyramids never imagined in modern times emerges. These alchemical discoveries address an exotic facet of pyramid construction. Next, we will explore feasibility.
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