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To the north of Damascus lies the terrace of Baalbek—a platform built of stone blocks, some of which have sides over 65 ft long and weigh nearly 2,000 tons. Until now archaeologists have not been able to give a convincing explanation why, how and by whom the terrace of Baalbek was built. However, the Russian Professor Agrest considers it possible that the terrace is the remains of a gigantic airfield. If we meekly accept the neat package of knowledge that the Egyptologists serve to us, ancient Egypt appears suddenly and without transition with a fantastic ready-made civilisation. Great cities and enormous temples, colossal statues with tremendous expressive power, splendid streets flanked by magnificent sculptures, perfect drainage systems, luxurious tombs carved out of the rock, pyramids of overwhelming size—these and many other wonderful things shot out of the ground, so to speak. Genuine miracles in a country that is suddenly capable of such achievements without recognisable prehistory! Fertile agricultural land only exists in the Nile delta and on small strips to the left and right of the river. Yet experts now estimate the number of inhabitants at the time of the building of the Great Pyramid at 50 million. (A figure, incidentally, that flagrantly contradicts the 20 million considered to be the total population of the world in 3000 B.C.!) Chapter Seven - Ancient Marvels Or Space Travel Centres?