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The Relationship Between
The Great Pyramid
and
The Book of the Dead
It has been proposed that the Great Pyramid of Giza is the Egyptian
“Book of the Dead” symbolized in stone.
Marsham Adams first proposed
this in 1895. He said that the Egyptian Book of the Dead refers to
an “ideal structure and to the passages and chambers therein, and
that these passages and chambers followed precisely the order and
description of those of the Great Pyramid”
“The intimate connection between the secret doctrine of Egypt’s most
venerated books, and the secret significance of her most venerable
monument, seems impossible to separate, and each form illustrates
and interpenetrates the other. As we peruse the dark utterances and
recognize the mystic allusions of the Book, we seem to stand amid
the profound darkness enwrapping the whole interior of the
building... Dimly before our eyes, age after age, the sacred
procession of the Egyptian dead moves silently along as they pass to
the tribunal of Osiris.
In vain do we attempt to trace their
footsteps till we enter with them into the Hidden Places and
penetrate the secret of the House of Light (compare the ancient
Egyptian name for the Great Pyramid - “Khut,” or “Light”). But no
sooner do we tread the chambers of the mysterious Pyramid than the
teaching of the Sacred Books seems lit up as with a tongue of
flame”.
Marsham Adams proposed that the unique system of passages and
chambers (particularly the Grand Gallery, obviously unnecessary in a
tomb) has an allegorical significance only explained by reference to
the Egyptian “Book of the Dead”. The famous Egyptologist, Sir Gaston Maspero endorsed his thesis and added,
“The Pyramids and the Book of
the Dead reproduce the same original, the one in words, the other in
stone.”
Can we find meaning and answers to the mystery of the Great
Pyramid by studying the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” and its
relationship to the Great Pyramid?
What is the Egyptian “Book of the Dead”? It was believed by the
ancient Egyptians that “Thoth” wrote the “Book of the Dead”. He was
the scribe to the gods and was the one responsible for speaking the
words of creation and putting it into effect. Its name is not a
correct description of it. It should be named the “Chapters of the
Coming Forth by Day”. It is mainly concerned with the state of the
departed soul and its trials and existences in the afterlife.
According to one of the world’s experts on the “Book of the Dead”,
Sir Wallis Budge, it was not of Egyptian origin but its ideas were
brought to Egypt by a different culture and people.
Scholars
speculate that these people were in existence prior to the first
dynasty. There has been much speculation of who these people were
but the bottom line is that no one knows. We do know that the
changes in Egypt at that time were sudden and highly radical. The
building of the Great Pyramid is a good example. It appeared out of
nowhere from a primitive stone and flint culture, the sudden
flowering of a culture that has never been repeated. Also it appears
since iron has been found in the Great Pyramid and was part of the
original structure, this invading culture brought the Iron Age to
Egypt at least 2000 years earlier than scholars date it.
As mentioned above, the singular most conspicuous correspondence
between the Great Pyramid and Book of the Dead is that the ancient
Egyptian name for the Great Pyramid is “Khut” which means “Light”
and the various stages traversed by the dead, according to the “Book
of the Dead”, are of the deceased going from the light of the earth
to the light of eternal day. It appears that the author, or author’s
of the “Book of the Dead” believed this book was the Greatest of
Mysteries and did not feel that everyone should have access to it.
There is a statement in the Book of the Dead, that reads,
“This is a
composition of exceedingly great mystery. Let not the eye of any man
whatsoever see it, for it is an abominable thing for (every man) to
know it: therefore hide it.”
It seems that the teachings were not
only to teach about the nature of the Creator and his relation to
the creature, but also to teach how the creature is admitted to
participate in the mysteries of the Creator.
Marsham Adams proposed an interesting idea in 1895 and later by
Basil Stewart in the 1929 publication of the Mystery of the Great
Pyramid. He suggested that a very, very ancient “common source” (a
person, group, culture, etc.) before the Egyptian culture was
responsible for the building of the Great Pyramid. The purpose of
building the Great Pyramid was to enshrine their knowledge and
understanding of the mysteries they knew for future generations. The
structure like the Great Pyramid was chosen since it would remain
unchanged and uncorrupted over the generations. It would withstand
environmental disturbances like earthquakes, floods, etc. and not be
able to be tampered with by man. Written and oral records would not
be satisfactory since they can be changed and edited very easily
over time. It would be more difficult to corrupt a large brick
structure. The Great Pyramid is probably an excellent choice to meet
these requirements. Just look at it today. Man has worked away on
it, blasted it, etc. but for the most part it is still intact. Thus
the Great Pyramid may enshrine the earliest known knowledge of man.
There has been much speculation about who this “original culture”
was. It is also possible that this original culture may have left a
written document of their teachings, which has come to us today as
the “Book of the Dead”, but it has been corrupted throughout the
years. Like any ancient work, it would be subject to editors
throughout time changing and adding to meet their beliefs and ideas.
Stewart states,
“The allegory contained in the Egyptian “Book of the
Dead” is merely a corrupt survival of the allegory enshrined in the
Great Pyramid itself”.
He feels that it was paganized by the ancient
Egyptians and applied to their god. Thus, “The Book of the Dead”,
which is a representation of the Great Pyramid, has been corrupted
over the years.
That does not mean the Book of the Dead is
meaningless. It may be possible to siphon out the original teaching
from the later additions and changes, also we can also correlate the
“Book of the Dead” with the Great Pyramid and see where they
correspond. The ultimate goal would be to discover the original
teachings of this “common source” and maybe try to identify who they
were. It is possible that the knowledge encoded in the Great Pyramid
of Giza may be the oldest that man possesses.
It is extremely important to note that we are not assuming that this
“original teaching” is correct or indeed is the truth. It may just
be very ancient myths, ideas, superstitions, rituals, paganisms,
etc. that these ancient people thought were true and just wanted to
preserve. This heritage of information would be interesting to us
from a historical, archeological and sociological view.
A very interesting exercise would be to read the “Book of the Dead”
with the structure of the Great Pyramid in mind and look for
correspondences.
The Relationship Between the Ark of the Covenant and the King’s
Coffer
Many pyramid researchers in the 19th century pointed out an amazing
correlation. The volume or cubic capacity of the Coffer in the
King’s chamber is exactly the same volume as the Ark of the
Covenant, as described in the Bible. Could there be some common
measurement that was used that goes back to antiquity? Could there
be some common builders involved? It has also been shown that the
“pyramid inch” (a measurement used in the Great Pyramid), is the
same unit of measurement that was used to build “Noah’s Ark,
“Solomon’s Temple”, and likely the “Ark of the Covenant”.
In chapter 1 we talked about the Arab who got the shock of his life
on the summit of the Great Pyramid. Is there some kind of
electrostatic phenomena on the top of the Great Pyramid? If we go
back to ancient legends about the Ark of the Covenant, we find some
interesting statements. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the
most Holy of Holies, and could only be approached once a year by the
High Priest. It was considered so sacred that it was believed that
if the High Priest or anyone who came near it and had any impure
thoughts, they would be struck dead with a bolt of lightning. Here
is a little known fact.
What the Israelites would do was to tie a
rope to the leg of the High Priest when he went in to the Holy of
Holies in case he was struck dead with lightning. If that happened,
they could just pull him out with the rope and therefore not risk
someone else being killed by going in. Do you remember in the
Indiana Jones movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, when the Nazi’s
approached the Ark and were all struck dead with a bolt of
lightning? This was based on actual legend. Also in the Bible there
was an instance when someone touched the Ark in order to prevent it
from falling and they were also struck dead instantly. Is this just
mythology or is there some basis in these occurrences?
We know from
the Bible the ark was made of acacia wood and lined
inside and out with gold. What we have here is two conductors
separated by an insulator. That is a capacitor. It has been
calculated that this Ark might have been able to act as a capacitor
and was able to produce an electric discharge of over 500 volts.
This could cause the type of phenomena mentioned in the Bible
associated with the Ark. Why did the Israelite army always march to
war with the Ark in the front? There is much interesting speculation
here. I recall hearing that the University of Chicago many years ago
built a copy of the Ark and it stored an impressive charge.
Why this is important to pyramid research is that the Great Pyramid
may have some interesting electro-static producing effects,
especially on the summit. Maybe there was some purpose to this and
not just an artifact of the structure. Joe Parr, whose research will
be discussed later, actually measured the electrostatic charges on
the top of the pyramid and found them to be quite high. Using
specific physical apparatus, our association would like to take
measurements and do experiments on the Great Pyramid, especially on
the summit. We would also like to carry out some experiments at the
point where the original pyramid with the capstone would have been.
Did the Great Pyramid somehow act as a capacitor and for what
purpose?
The Great Pyramid and the Value of PI
Textbooks on history and mathematics tell us that the Greeks
discovered the relationship of pi. Pi is the relationship between
the radius of a circle and its circumference. The mathematical
formula is
Circumference = 2 x π x radius (C = 2
π r)
That is in any size circle you draw, this relationship will always
hold true. Thus if you measure its radius and multiply it by 2 and
pi, this will always equal the circumference of that circle. It
appears that the value of pi was built into the Great Pyramid of Giza hundreds of years before the Greeks allegedly discovered it.
How was this value built into the great pyramid? The vertical height
of the pyramid holds the same relationship to the perimeter of its
base (distance around the pyramid) as the radius of a circle bears
to its circumference.
If we equate the height of the pyramid to the radius of a circle,
than the distance around the pyramid is equal to the circumference
of that circle.
Sir Isaac Newton’s Study of the Great Pyramid
Not many people know of an obscure work by the famous English
scientist Sir Isaac Newton entitled:
“A Dissertation upon the Sacred Cubit of the Jews and the Cubits of
several Nations: in which, from the Dimensions of the Greatest
Pyramid, as taken by Mr. John Greaves, the ancient Cubit of Memphis
is determined”.
Newton had an obsession for establishing the value of the “cubit” of
the ancient Egyptians. This was no mere curiosity. His Theory of
Gravitation was dependent on an accurate knowledge of the
circumference of the earth. The only figures he currently had were
the inaccurate calculations of Eratosthenes. With these figures his
theory did not work out.
Newton felt that if he could find the exact length of the Egyptian
“cubit”, this would allow him to find the exact length of their
“stadium”, reputed by others to bear a relation to a “geographical
degree”. This measurement, which he needed for his theory of
gravitation, he believed to be somehow enshrined in the proportions
of the Great Pyramid. Thus, he would have the necessary measurements
for his Theory of Gravitation.
He used the measurements of the base of the pyramid arrived by
Greaves and Burattini in his calculations. Since there was much
accumulated debris at the base of the pyramid, there figures were
inaccurate. Thus the false measurements of the base failed to give
Newton the answer he was looking for.
Newton did not work on his Theory of Gravitation for the next
several years. In 1671, a French astronomer, Jean Picard, accurately
measured a degree of latitude to be 69.1 English statute miles.
Using these figures, Newton was able to announce his theory of
gravitation.
In the 1800’s there was a revival in looking for astronomical and
geophysical values enshrined in the Great Pyramid of Giza, one which
visits us again today in the 21st century.
REFERENCES
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Secrets of the Great Pyramid, Peter Thompkins, 1972 The Book of the
Master of the Hidden Place, W. Marsham Adams,
Pyramidology -4 Volumes, Adam Rutherford,1957-1972
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The Book of the Dead, Sir Wallis Budge, 1994
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1933
History and Significance of the Great Pyramid, Basil Steward, 1935
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