Facts Disputing Von Daniken’s Theory on Egypt
Erich von Daniken tries to support his theory that Earth was visited by ancient extraterrestrial beings using the early Egyptian civilization. Von Daniken claims that the Egyptian civilization rose suddenly out of nowhere as a fully formed, technological advanced society (Von Daniken, n.d). Von Daniken’s claims are not valid because the Egyptian civilization is well documented showing how they learnt and built from their mistakes. Egyptian ingenuity began in 3000 B.C when they built the world’s first dam. The dam was 50 feet high and its construction was overseen by Egypt’s first Pharaoh, Menes, who had a passion for building (Corsica, 2014). This dam built by Menes is what inspired the following generations of Egyptian Pharaohs to attempt to build greater engineering fetes. During this time, the Egyptians also built man-made canals to irrigate barren land and used as a means of transport between to connect distant places.
The building of pyramids was also not done in a single day; the building of pyramids was inspired by the first pyramid that was built for Pharaoh Djoser in 2668 B.C. The design of the first step pyramid evolved from the initial tombs that were made of mud and bricks (Feder, n.d). This first pyramid was built by Imhotep, who decided to use stone instead of mud and bricks. Although the pyramid was an improvement from the initial one-tier tombs, it was poorly built. The stones used were small and curved irregularly, and the steps were unstable.
Construction Errors that Prove Pyramids were built by Men
Sneferu was an Egyptian Pharaoh who ruled many years the death of Pharaoh Djoser. He was very interested in pyramids and tried to find ways to make them even more magnificent. Sneferu’s first project was at the ruins of a partially collapsed eight-step pyramid. Sneferu wanted to give the pyramid smooth sides and ordered is builders to fill the step with packing stones and cover it with limestone. At first, everything seemed fine, but there was no friction to hold the materials in place. The added materials started falling, and the pyramid deformed.
Sneferu did not give up and set out to build another pyramid from the ground up. This time the pyramid was built on unstable bedrock, and there were some structural problems. Cracks started showing from inside the pyramid when it was almost halfway done .
Thoughts on the Materials
It is said that it took 10,000 men and almost two decades to build Djoser’s pyramid that was not perfect (Corsica, 2014). This information is important because it is a reasonable time frame for people working without machines to build a 20 story structure that they have never seen before.
An impressive fact is how the Egyptians managed to cut huge slabs weighing tonnes from rocks and transport them across the rough desert terrain. This seems like a very hard task, especially when using only manual tools and labor. Other impressive facts are how they managed to make the pyramid surface smooth without any modern tools, and how they figured out to use ramps, water, and mud to get the stones up the pyramids.
Finally, the interesting fact is how nobody can explain how the Egyptians got the heavy slabs on the steps of the pyramid. Some say they used one straight ramp placed on one side of the pyramid. Others say they used a spiral ramp that went around the pyramid. While others say, it was a combination of both. Nobody knows for sure because no evidence has been found at the site of the pyramid.
References
Feder, K. L. (n.d.). Mysterious Egypt. In Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology (8th ed.) (pp. 245–259). Central Connecticut State University: McGraw Hill.
P. Corsica (2014, May 9). Egypt: Engineering an empire Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44F6G5Ehsls
Von Daniken, E. (n.d.). The Sphere the Ideal Shape for Spacecrafts. In God’s From Outer Space: Return to the Stars or Evidence of the Impossible (pp. 70–91). New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
