Nexus - 0601 - New Times Magazine-pages

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"By raising and lowering the water level, they could build enormous structures.” ed system of compounding gravity twice, compounding atmos- pheric pressure twice, and working with a huge volume of water SOLID LIMESTONE that they could raise and lower at will. As soon as they cut the two shafts and ran them together, they had the basic mechanics of Pair of 8 inch dhol a hydraulic ram pump. I would imagine that some of the larger alr oO incn roun oles temples in Egypt, like Karnak, were all built with impounded Hinged Check ye. water to mover larger weights. Valve S ©, ay "If you read Herodotus, the Greek historian, in 440 BC he ~~ Ground level described that the Great Pyramid had a wall around it and the ve whole construction site around the Pyramid was filled with water. pte Herodotus further mentioned that there were two large pyramids built in a lake, and that there was as much of the pyramids above the surface of the the lake as there was below. __ "The water Herodotus referred to originally came from Lake Lower — Moeris, formed by damming the river south of Memphis and diverting water through the Hawara Gap. It was a man-made lake, thought to be about 300 feet deep, filling the Qattara Depression, 434 feet below sea level, and, with around 450 miles Remains of granite valve seat A replacement of the ancient "flap-door" Strabo:- 63BC - "When it has been lifted up, of shoreline, about the size of Lake Erie. This would put it higher a tortuous passage is seen which leads to than the pavement of the Great Pyramid and would allow water to the tomb." flow by gravity to the well in front of the Great Pyramid." Noone cites much previous research. "In my book I show a Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) describes eight-inch round drawing from an 1839 book by Col. Howard Vyse— The holes here. Holes have been plastered over, masonry has been Pyramids of Gizeh. When they were still excavating the rubble removed, and the whole area covered with dark red gloss paint. around the base of the Great Pyramid, there was this huge well- (Source: From Pharaoh's Pump, © 1962 by Edward J. Kunkel) shaft in front of the original entrance that goes 100 feet into the ground. This was another part of the water pumping system. Noone: "To understand how they got these stones as smooth as "In the grotto they also had a check valve that opened and they are, I inquired at the Indiana Limestone Institute of America. closed. The door that's in the grotto had a hole drilled through it, They know more about quarrying and cutting limestone than any so when they dropped that huge amount of water out of the Grand _ other group on Earth. I worked with one of their technical direc- Gallery, it would come down, slam tors, Merle Booker. In my book I this door shut, and the flow of water reproduce a letter from Booker, stat- going through the hole would tend to ing that to quarry the amount of stone pull in enormous amounts of air. in the Great Pyramid, if they used all Because of that and the shape of the of their 33 separate quarries, each welt alt as the water fell down the "By raising and lowering the quany runnin three eight hour shifts shaft it would develop a spin, jus F per day, with all their modern equip- like a tornado. water level, they could build ment, it would take 27 years just to "If you look at the temple com- enormous structures." get the stone out. This idea of chis- pound constructions at Karnak, everything built there of any height originally had high walls around it so they could bring in the stones, float them up the canal and bring them than 27 years to do it that way. into the centre of the construction site "In the new edition of my book I at Karnak. By raising and lowering the water level, they could explain a method in which they could finish those stones of any elling with big wooden mallets and copper chisels, even though we now know they had iron, doesn't make any sense. It would take far, far longer build enormous structures." size with the greatest of ease. They may have used wood and To put this into perspective, Noone commented: "Kunkel was water to split the rocks at the quarry and get them into a block doing this research from the 1930s to his death from cancer in size. (Even granite will break when you put dry wooden wedges 1982. At that time, most history books espoused the theory that into drilled-out holes and then wet the inserted wood. The wood ancient man had an infantile mind and was not very smart. That —_ will expand and the next day you'll have begun to split that is a contradiction in terms because when you go back in history block.) After that, the blocks could be floated into a special cut- and look at the architectural accomplishments such as the Great ting pool. It would be like a very large, modern-day swimming Pyramid, and we can't figure out how it was built, it's clear that pool with a shallow and deep end. In the bottom of this special we don't have the story straight yet. cutting pool there would be diamond cutting members. If you "For the new edition of my book, I worked for months with wanted to cut a block just as smooth as a baby's bottom, you'd James M. Hagan who is known throughout the world as an archi- start draining the water out of the pool. The weight and the pull tect who specialises in building large projects. Hagan is a consul- of gravity would cause the block to start sliding down, repeatedly tant who is often sought after when architects have big problems. passing over many cutting members. When it finally reached the Amongst Hagan's architectural designs is the football stadium and bottom it would be cut as fine and smooth as the lens in your rail system in Atlanta, Georgia." glasses. Then it would be taken out of that cutting pool by a A controversial point about building the pyramids is the ques- barge and another stone brought in. You could cut it easily that tion of just how they cut and surfaced the stones. According to way in an assembly line process." SOLID LIMESTONE Pair of 8 inch round holes Valve A replacement of the ancient "flap-door" Strabo:- 63BC - "When it has been lifted up, a tortuous passage is seen which leads to the tomb." Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) describes eight-inch round holes here. Holes have been plastered over, masonry has been removed, and the whole area covered with dark red gloss paint. (Source: From Pharaoh's Pump, © 1962 by Edward J. Kunkel) NEXUS - 45 DECEMBER 1998 - JANUARY 1999 SOLID LIMESTONE