Nexus - 0210 - New Times Magazine-pages

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then. “Why, the great pyramids of Shensi. Haven't | mentioned then. them to you?" “You mean burial mounds?" Schréder will have been one of the very few people from the "Not burial mounds. These are mountains as high as the western world to have sighted the Chinese pyramid complex, sky. They are not ordinary earthen burial mounds, though and it's hoped that in the not too distant future the authorities emperors and empresses may be buried in them." will relax the security screen placed on them so that outside “How many are there?” investigators can have a closer look. "Seven." The main thing that interested me, of course, was the geo- “Where are they?” graphic positions of the pyramids. From the U.S. Airforce map “In Shensi Province, near our road. I haven't seen them, it was possible to plot very accurate coordinates for each pyra- but I know that they lie near the old city of Sian-Fu". = et ee a ee ee Sian-Fu is an ancient walled city, which existed long pyramids ane thats ee Aber of the Nile. Amin This before the city of Peking, and used to be the capital of hinted as the possibility that the same ancient technicians had a * China. -_ hand in their construction. I had a hunch that each one had a After several days of hard riding they eventually saw special function, and that a geometric connection could be something looming over the horizon that first appeared to found between pairs of pyramids in different parts of the world. be a mountain, uniil closer scrutiny showed that the sides were regularly slop-‘, ing, and its top was flat. Schréder was awed at the sight of the largest man- made object he had ever seen. It amazed him that men with the knowledge to construct an edifice such as this, and the ability to carry it out, had disap- peared so completely from The obvious way to check this was to calculate the dis- placements in latitude and longitude, and great circle distances between individual sites. I spent a very interest- ing few days feeding the coordinates into my Texas59 calculator. I could pro- gramme this for great circle tracks between points and get read-outs in minutes of arc. As can be seen on map (6) ” — = a showing the rough positions oa eS oa The giant Pyramid of Shensi of the pyramids along the fa Jonped pyramids. g y ensi. Photographed by the Nile river, a great many com- luoting from the article oy 5 . binations of pyramid pairs Schréder: United States Airforce in 1947 from about 1,000 foot altitude. can ee ath as the “... We were coming at Cairo and Shensi areas. them at an angle from the east and could see that the north- Unfortunately the only accurate positions I have of the Egyptian ern group comprised three giants, and the rest decreased in set are those of the three on the Giza Plateau, but this was size to a small one far in the south. They were spread for enough to begin the probe. six or eight miles across the plain, rising from cultivated The position of the Great Pyramid in Egypt: land sprinkled with villages. It was more eerie than if we Latitude 29° 58’ 51” north/Longitude 31° 08'57.3" east. had found them in the wilderness. Here they had been under the nose of the world, but unknown to western coun- The position of the pyramids in the Shensi area: 1, 34° 26' 42" N / 108° 56' 25" E ids ... ... The big pyramid is about 1,000 feet high (other 2, 34° 26' 39" N / 108° 56' 00" E descriptions estimate 1,000 to 1,200 feet high) and roughly 3. 34° 26' 00" N / 108° 52' 36" E 1,500 feet at the base, which makes it twice as large as any 4, 34° 26°05" N / 108° 52' 12" E pyramid in Egypt. The four faces of the structure are ori- 5. 34° 25' 18" N/ 108° 50' 12" E entated with the compass points. At some early period in 6. 34° 23' 25" N/ 108° 44' 12" E the history of the country, colours were assigned to the four 7. 34° 24' 00" N/ 108° 42' 30" E directions. Black was for the north, blue-green for the east, red for the south, and white for the west. The flat top 8. 34° 22° 28" N/ 108° 41' 35" E was spread with yellow earth. 9. 34° 21' 40" N/ 108° 38 10" E Once these pyramids had been cased part of the way to 10. 34° 20' 15" N/ 108° 34' 00" E the top, but the rock has fallen, or been buried by the 11, 34° 10°45" N/109°01' 12"E debris falling from above. The casing lies exposed at the 12. 34° 10'41"N/ 109° 01'25" E base, however, and is made of ordinary cut field stone 13. 34° 10'37" N/ 109° 01' 38" E about three feet square. The pyramid itself appears to be 14, 34° 14° 15" N/ 109° 05' 42" E made of the pounded earth still commonly used for con- 15. 34° 14°05" N/ 109° 07' 00" E struction in China. Huge gullies, the size of canyons on a in eens: mountain, had opened in the pyramid's side. These had 16. 34 23 00" N/ 109 15 00" E ; spewed out rock and debris. Trees and undergrowth grew Many different combinations between pairs were calculated about its sides, obscuring its outlines and giving the added using coordinates on the earth's surface where I suspected the impression that it was a natural mountain. The stupendous muins of ancient pyramids to be found, as well as the coordinates dimensions of it almost took my breath away. We rode on the Giza plateau and Shensi. A number of promising har- around it looking for stairways or doors but saw none..." monic values were indicated which will be used in further When Schréder asked Bogdo how old the pyramids were research. _ _ _ he answered more than 5,000 years. When asked why he Although Mr. Williamson had indicated in his letter to me thought this he said that their oldest books date from about that the Shensi Pyramid number (4) on the map was the most 5,000 years ago, and they mentioned the pyramids as old likely construction to be the one shown on the photograph taken The giant Pyramid of Shensi. Photographed by the NEXUS¢33 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 1992