# How were the pyramids in Egypt built? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 7, 2014, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559 "2014-12-07T10:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 94
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1862 "2015-05-15T19:42:51Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Yes. Everything can be explained in other ways. We always have explained everything in other ways. I’m not saying we need a new way to explain things, I’m saying that there is a more accurate way to see almost everything. Your “more accurate way” so far shows that you are continuing to dismiss what cold water geysers actually do, that they are not reported to exist in Egypt, and that you are grossly wrong about the state of the current research in and around the pyramids. With no good evidence you can indeed go far, in circles and with no good support ever. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1863 "2015-05-15T19:49:25Z")
_Cold water_ doesn’t exist naturally in Egypt. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1864 "2015-05-15T20:08:46Z")
[QUOTE=cladking] I have no knowledge that he worked this site at all. I have seen first hand accounts that there were tools left inside shortly after he appeared in the cave on international television but to my knowledge the use of these tools and the reason for their prtesense has never been established. It is certainly possible that this was an official or semi-official operation. [/QUOTE] You say this as if it’s meaningful. It’s not. That YOU have no knowledge is less than useful. There certainly is such knowledge available, though it’s true that ZH hasn’t published anything that he did or didn’t find in there. Of course, reading through what was in there it doesn’t seem like there was much to find in any case, so that’s probably the main reason he hasn’t published anything about it. > [@](#): > > I seriously doubt there has been any activity since the gate was installed. 😛 You do realize that the gate can be opened, right? Or did you think that this gate would forever prevent anyone from ever going in there again? I doubt there has been any further activity in there either, since, again, from the accounts of folks who have been in there it doesn’t seem like there was or is much to actually see. No mystery here except the one that folks like you like to think there is. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1865 "2015-05-15T20:16:36Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I have no delusions. I just had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the visceral knowledge to know current opinion is a crock. I’ve asked this before but I don’t think you answered - what it “visceral knowledge”? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1866 "2015-05-15T20:18:50Z")
I’m pretty sure it’s the same as a gut feeling. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1867 "2015-05-15T20:19:15Z")
It sounds like another way of saying “gut feeling”, at the same time as trying to make it sound more grandiose. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1868 "2015-05-15T20:22:10Z")
In other contexts, it would be called “receiving a revelation”. And in still other contexts, it would be called “time for supper”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1869 "2015-05-15T20:44:29Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > I’ve asked this before but I don’t think you answered - what it “visceral knowledge”? I think it means he’s vaguely aware of Canopic Jars. ---
**Author:** ![Redshirt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@Redshirt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redshirt)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1870 "2015-05-15T21:49:38Z")
Visceral knowledge as **cladking** has used it seems to mean that gut feeling brought on by deep expertise. Yeah, it’s a hunch, but it’s the sort of hunch you go with. Expertise being the key term, of course. Without that, visceral knowledge is just a WAG. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1871 "2015-05-15T22:14:16Z")
> [@Redshirt](#): > > Visceral knowledge as **cladking** has used it seems to mean that gut feeling brought on by deep expertise. Yeah, it’s a hunch, but it’s the sort of hunch you go with. > > Expertise being the key term, of course. Without that, visceral knowledge is just a WAG. I believe no one really knows anything. This doesn’t mean people can’t manbipulate theory and arrive at proper predictions through mathematics or other means but that about as often as not the predictions won’t work because knowledge is misapplied. Of course there’s nothing magical about “visceral knowledge” because even if you have theory and a lot of experience you can still be mistaken. In a real way you could call what I mean by visceral knowledge as the result of the experience in applying knowledge to the real world. The more experience you have the more likely that you apply it properly. I used to call this knowing something in my bones but then learned that it has been called visceral knowledge by many very prominent philosophers. However you p[hrase it I’d rather trust my life to someone else’s visceral knowledge than to anything at all he read in a book. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1872 "2015-05-15T22:23:11Z")
> [@XT](#): > > You say this as if it’s meaningful. It’s not. That YOU have no knowledge is less than useful. There certainly is such knowledge available, though it’s true that ZH hasn’t published anything that he did or didn’t find in there. Of course, reading through what was in there it doesn’t seem like there was much to find in any case, so that’s probably the main reason he hasn’t published anything about it. Oh, no. There’s far too much work in there for a few men with a few shovels. If the guano has been there any lenght of time it will even take picks or pnuematic hammers to get it. There’s probably many many tons of it. There are safety concerns since this area might still fill with CO2 and the amonia from the guano might be an issue. There’s also the need to preserve or record finds in situ as they are made. There will probably be no finds until trhe bottom of the cave is explored but this depends on how long bats have been in residence. There might have been a couple feet of guano even in ancient times. I don’t really know anything but I do have a little experience with caves and the photos suggested there was a significant accumulation. Mebbe I’m wrong and the workmen left their tools and reported back to Hawass that there was nothing to shovel. But if the cave were properly explored and reported then we’d know a lot more. > [@](#): > > 😛 You do realize that the gate can be opened, right? Or did you think that this gate would forever prevent anyone from ever going in there again? I doubt there has been any further activity in there either, since, again, from the accounts of folks who have been in there it doesn’t seem like there was or is much to actually see. No mystery here except the one that folks like you like to think there is. You have to have a key and no one with a key is mapping or exploring it. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1873 "2015-05-15T22:54:21Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I’ll be fine. I just want my perspective seen. > > It’s this mad idea that sincerity might at least convince someone I’m not an AI program. No worries on that score, when you make posts like this: > [@cladking](#): > > I’m merely the first person to understand the ancient Egyptians and all ancient humans. This is all rediscovery and I’ve barely even started. This will transform science and everything we believe today. It will give us back our history and end our amnesia. It will lead to massive changes in language. > > I’m the first animal on the face of the earth to use two sciences. NeoPlatonism, mystic and unverifiable sources of knowledge, an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance, belief in the ineffable wisdom of ancient civilizations, now lost to deluded modernity - you’re following a path trodden by occultists, mystics, and hermeticists for centuries. You’re all too human, **cladking**. > [@cladking](#): > > The language became confused at whatever babel was and modern languages were born. The ancient language ceased to exist and we are left with the confused languages that arose at “babel”. I’ll ask again - do you have an objective cite for this nonsense? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1874 "2015-05-15T23:25:42Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I believe no one really knows anything. You are projecting again. I do believe you don’t really know anything, you’ve demonstrated that repeatedly. The rest of us aren’t like you. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1875 "2015-05-16T00:00:17Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Maybe they were both. > [@Telemark](#): > > Like the late Earl Warren? > [@Human\_Action](#): > > Earl Warren wasn’t a construction manual! Now who’s being naïve?! Ah, now the symmetry of the universe has been restored. That sense of wrongness that has been dogging me all day is gone. FTR, Zahi Hawass has still not replied to my email. No cookies for him! ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1876 "2015-05-16T01:37:16Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > _Cold water_ doesn’t exist naturally in Egypt. This is a point I’ve been trying to make for a very long time. No one seems to get it. The PT repeatedly refer to cool effervescent water. Even the libations are often called cool water. 151c. N. is enveloped by the Dȝ.t, pure and living, in the horizon. 151d. He is content because of them; he is cool because of them, The dead king is enveloped by the geyser; cool and content on the horizon. 868b. thy water, thy cool water-libation is the inundation of the Great One (who) which is come forth from thee. Osisis is the cool water in the libation. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1877 "2015-05-16T01:39:20Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > You are projecting again. I do believe you don’t really know anything, you’ve demonstrated that repeatedly. The rest of us aren’t like you. No, but you’re very close. I know I don’t know anything but most people do know something even though it’s a small fraction of what they think they know. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1878 "2015-05-16T01:44:01Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > NeoPlatonism, mystic and unverifiable sources of knowledge, an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance, belief in the ineffable wisdom of ancient civilizations, now lost to deluded modernity - you’re following a path trodden by occultists, mystics, and hermeticists for centuries. You’re all too human, **cladking**. I never claimed to be anything but human. I merely stumbled over this. This is the way a lot of great science comes about but it’s still just a misstep that led to it. It’s not my fault that when I grabbed the tail that it turned out to be a lion rather than a mouse. Sometimes it just works that way. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1879 "2015-05-16T01:46:05Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’ll ask again - do you have an objective cite for this nonsense? I’ll say again that the older writing isn’t understood. I believe the reason it isn’t understood is that it’s written in a language that can’t be translated. Every piece of gobbledty gook from ancient times is more support for the concept. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1880 "2015-05-16T02:03:17Z")
[QUOTE=cladking] You have to have a key and no one with a key is mapping or exploring it. [/QUOTE] Except that they did, of course. > [@](#): > > I don’t really know anything but I do have a little experience with caves and the photos suggested there was a significant accumulation. Mebbe I’m wrong and the workmen left their tools and reported back to Hawass that there was nothing to shovel. But if the cave were properly explored and reported then we’d know a lot more. Unless there was nothing there. Something you refuse to consider, obviously. > [@](#): > > Oh, no. There’s far too much work in there for a few men with a few shovels. If the guano has been there any lenght of time it will even take picks or pnuematic hammers to get it. There’s probably many many tons of it. There are safety concerns since this area might still fill with CO2 and the amonia from the guano might be an issue. There’s also the need to preserve or record finds in situ as they are made. There will probably be no finds until trhe bottom of the cave is explored but this depends on how long bats have been in residence. There might have been a couple feet of guano even in ancient times. Except you refuse to understand that it was ALREADY EXPLORED IN THE EARLY 19th CENTURY BY SALT…as I’ve already explained to you. And they found nothing of interest, which is why the site was abandoned. We have his notes…that’s how the site was rediscovered. As I said, this is a focus for internet crazies and CT types. > [@](#): > > I’ll say again that the older writing isn’t understood. I believe the reason it isn’t understood is that it’s written in a language that can’t be translated. That would be a ‘no’ then. So, since you’ve admitted you have nothing, we should just push on. > [@](#): > > Every piece of gobbledty gook from ancient times is more support for the concept. Only when YOU translate it with your magical innate knowledge. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1881 "2015-05-16T02:13:00Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Only when YOU translate it with your magical innate knowledge. 😛 Oh! Only you understand the PT. Then you can tell Egyptologists what the “eye of horus” is. They’ve been puzzling over this forever and you can’t understand the ancient culture without knowing it. How about telling them what the sceptres are too? How abouyt the hts-sceptre? Shm-sceptre? Dm-sceptre? W3s-sceptres? Well, heck, any of them at all since they don’t know what any were for. They don’t even know what the ankh was!!! This symbolized life itself so it’s impossible to understand anything if you don’t even understand the origin of the concept of life. Explain why there are so many errors in the original writing and why the PT contradicts itself over and over. If you understand then share it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=93) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=95)