# 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:** 95
**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, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1882 "2015-05-16T02:14:56Z")
Tell me anything at all you think you know and I can find something in their own writing that contradicts it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1883 "2015-05-16T02:34:38Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Tell me anything at all you think you know and I can find something in their own writing that contradicts it. I just looked in their writing and found “geysers? who suggested we use geysers? thats dumb.” Prove I didn’t. ---
**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 16, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1884 "2015-05-16T04:29:54Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Then you can tell Egyptologists what the “eye of horus” is. They’ve been puzzling over this forever What about Eye of Horus is unknown? The ancient texts say that Horus’ eyes were the Sun and the Moon. The glyph often represents the Sun. Why is it drawn that way? Horus had a falcon’s head. The lines around the eye of Horus represent markings around a falcon’s eye. A legend tells of the sun/ eye being broken into pieces, and then reassembled. Following this, the Egyptians used parts of the symbol to represent fractional values. All this is known. What about it do you think puzzles the Egyptologists? ---
**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 16, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1885 "2015-05-16T06:03:36Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > 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. And _I’ll_ say again that I’m not interested in what you _believe_. I want to see some _objective_ evidence that all ancient humans spoke the same language, that the language corresponded directly to reality, that some “Tower of Babel” event fractured this language, that the vocabulary stayed identical but the grammar changed overnight to such an extent as to render the older unreadable - all claims that you have made in this thread, and none of which you have been able to back up. That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. > [@XT](#): > > That would be a ‘no’ then. So, since you’ve admitted you have nothing, we should just push on. We should, but every time the King makes some bullshit claim about mystical ancient language, I’m going to call him on it. I don’t know enough about engineering or physics or chemistry to challenge him there; besides, you and **Human Action** and **GIGObuster** have those pretty well covered. I don’t know a whole lot more about language, either, but enough to see that I know more than the King. And I’m not going to let his linguistic woo pass unchallenged. ---
**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 16, 2015, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1886 "2015-05-16T06:07:45Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I never claimed to be anything but human. I know. I was just pointing out the evidence for that fact. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1887 "2015-05-16T06:29:55Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Tell me anything at all you think you know and I can find something in their own writing that contradicts it. Your turn. Why don’t you tell us about the eye of Horus then. I would especially like to know what exactly the connection is with Wadjet, Hathor, and Bes. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1888 "2015-05-16T14:34:07Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > 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. 869a All day I’ve faced 869b The barren waste 869c Without the taste 870 Of water 871a Cool, clear water 871b (Water!) ---
**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, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1889 "2015-05-16T15:06:31Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > Your turn. > Why don’t you tell us about the eye of Horus then. > I would especially like to know what exactly the connection is with Wadjet, Hathor, and Bes. “The eye of horus” is the colloquial term for the opening through which the water sprayed. “Iusaas” is the scientific term. A feminine form of the 'phallus of atum" would be the vulgar term but I don’t recall it actually appearing anywhere (perhaps a grammatical rule prevented its usage). Iusaas is the “consort of atum” who was the first god who created himself. The eye of horus was simply the hole through the primeval mound and the ben ben atop it through which nun (natural phenomenon of the waters of the abyss) saw zep tepi and the birth of shu (up) and tefnut (down). The wadjet was a specific type of serpent (a fluidic flow from a natural source represented by a cobra) which represented protection for the king. Horus (the elder) sprang from between the thighs of the ennead at zep tepi and was the son of atum. Horus (the younger) was the stone of which horus the elder (phenomenon of the land of rainbows) was composed. Horus the younger was probably should be thought of as a colloquial term as well and “tayet” (the quarry) as the scientific term. Hathor literally sprang from the eye of horus and was the beauty (and power) of the inundation as manifested by set (phenomenon of physical water). Hathor was at ground level and when the upper eye of horus was invented it was sekhmet who took over her role on the pyramid top. Sekhmet was chiefly about power since water at altitude has more power than water on the ground. Bast is poorly attested in the PT and I have no reason to doubt that Egyptological interpretation of “her” is correct in a left handed sort of way. I can not put her firmly into the pantheon (ordered knowledge) with the scant clues available. I know only a few things about her characteristics which is insufficient to narrow the definition to a single point. Her definition is amorphous at this time. ---
**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 16, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1890 "2015-05-16T15:11:54Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > What about Eye of Horus is unknown? … What about it do you think puzzles the Egyptologists? Any answers? ---
**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, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1891 "2015-05-16T15:12:33Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > 869a All day I’ve faced > 869b The barren waste > 869c Without the taste > 870 Of water > 871a Cool, clear water > 871b (Water!) 871c Sometime’s I feel like a tiny island floating in the sea 872a Palm trees don’t get in the way, it’s a tropical ease 872b And everywhere that I keep my silence, no sound returns to me 872c Just endless waves at the end of our days, the sighing of the seas ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1892 "2015-05-16T15:18:28Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > “The eye of horus” is the colloquial term for the opening through which the water sprayed. No, it is not. You _cannot_ say something is a “colloquial term” if you are the one and only person in the world using it in that manner. > [@cladking](#): > > “Iusaas” is the scientific term. Wrong. She is an Egyptian goddess. > [@cladking](#): > > A feminine form of the 'phallus of atum" would be the vulgar term but I don’t recall it actually appearing anywhere (perhaps a grammatical rule prevented its usage). If it hasn’t appeared anywhere at all it isn’t a term at all, let alone a vulgar term. ---
**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, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1893 "2015-05-16T15:21:52Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Any answers? Everything about it is unknown as it relates to the great pyramid builders. They have a fairly good handle on what it means to their descendents but nary a clue what it meant originally or how it fit into the thinking. This means when they read a line like “the inundation that brings green to the eye ion the midst of the field” they don’t know what it means or that the meaning was literal. The definition used by Egyptologists is the exact same confused rendition that the descendents had. This is only “natural” because of the way meaning is sought in modern language. We are trying to understand the same untranslatable language that their descendents tried to understand and we are naturally misunderstanding it the exact same way. Their descendents then took this incorrect meaning and used it in their day to day lives for many centuries allowing the meaning to evolve and change further. Modern languages drift, the ancient one did not. It evolved but old versions were still comprehensible. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1894 "2015-05-16T15:34:43Z")
If it is untranslatable, then you don’t know what it says. Correct? ---
**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 16, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1895 "2015-05-16T16:02:48Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > “The eye of horus” is the colloquial term for the opening through which the water sprayed. “Iusaas” is the scientific term. A feminine form of the 'phallus of atum" would be the vulgar term but I don’t recall it actually appearing anywhere (perhaps a grammatical rule prevented its usage). Iusaas is the “consort of atum” who was the first god who created himself. The eye of horus was simply the hole through the primeval mound and the ben ben atop it through which nun (natural phenomenon of the waters of the abyss) saw zep tepi and the birth of shu (up) and tefnut (down). The wadjet was a specific type of serpent (a fluidic flow from a natural source represented by a cobra) which represented protection for the king. > > Horus (the elder) sprang from between the thighs of the ennead at zep tepi and was the son of atum. Horus (the younger) was the stone of which horus the elder (phenomenon of the land of rainbows) was composed. Horus the younger was probably should be thought of as a colloquial term as well and “tayet” (the quarry) as the scientific term. > > Hathor literally sprang from the eye of horus and was the beauty (and power) of the inundation as manifested by set (phenomenon of physical water). Hathor was at ground level and when the upper eye of horus was invented it was sekhmet who took over her role on the pyramid top. Sekhmet was chiefly about power since water at altitude has more power than water on the ground. Bast is poorly attested in the PT and I have no reason to doubt that Egyptological interpretation of “her” is correct in a left handed sort of way. I can not put her firmly into the pantheon (ordered knowledge) with the scant clues available. I know only a few things about her characteristics which is insufficient to narrow the definition to a single point. Her definition is amorphous at this time. Besides the nonsense that others pointed out in your post here, in another post you also declared that: “The natron forced the eruption and it was the eruption (the inundation that tosses) that purified. “ You are actually making it worse, and that seemed to be impossible. Again, for embalming purposes the amount of natron mentioned in the PT is enough to purify and prepare the body. It is really an inadequate amount to neutralize the acid coming out of a cold water geyser. Now you are also adding that the Alka Seltzer in the giant jug is the reason for the water coming out of the geyser in the first place. Well, that is really a very dumb thing to propose, now besides a missing processing plant and tanks to properly treat the water coming out we have to add huge pressure pumps (with even more technology not acknowledged in ancient times) to force the natron into the ground, (no, dumping the water in a hole will not give you the same amount of water out, it will be much less because of very simple physics that include the loss of a very significant amount of water due to the ground absorbing a fair amount of it. To be effective you really need a pump to force more water underground) and with massive amounts of it too. Needless to say, no one that uses cold water geysers bothers to do that, the water and the materials for the reaction are already underground. It is clear that your pitiful explanation here is to explain how the geyser could be made to be reliable, it would be reliable all right, in the sense that it would not do anything as the amount of natron and water pumped underground would not be adequate to make a geyser that would do the specified job that you have in mind. As noted, you are only making things worse for your nonsensical idea. ---
**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 16, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1896 "2015-05-16T16:04:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If it is untranslatable, then you don’t know what it says. > Correct? He’s using some other form of logic that only he understands. Even the ancient Egyptians didn’t understand it but they did have a symbol of an owl with it’s head up it’s ass to describe it. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1897 "2015-05-16T16:08:32Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > “The eye of horus” is the colloquial term for the opening through which the water sprayed. What is the approximate diameter of the opening through which the water sprayed? ---
**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, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1898 "2015-05-16T16:17:36Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > 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. I was going to say something like ‘you seem to be getting confused’, but it’s clear that confusion is your personal Jedi way. To clarify, however, YOU were the one claiming special insight and mystical knowledge, not I. I make no such claims. It’s clear that YOUR claims of mystical sooper sekrit knowledge of language (that you got without bothering to study language) is only a real thing in your own mind. Repeatedly you’ve been challenged on this point by several posters who DO know more than the average person about the PT and about Egyptian hieroglyphs…something it’s equally clear you DON’T know much about, except your own twisted theories. ---
**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, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1899 "2015-05-16T16:21:25Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > What is the approximate diameter of the opening through which the water sprayed? To save you time looking back, he actually answered this earlier…he claimed (IIRC) the Egyptians drilled a hole into the ‘cold geyser’ and the diameter was 5". His assertion that this was the ‘Eye of Horus’ is, of course, HIS assertion, and is backed up by the same weight of overwhelming evidence he’s backed up all of his claims…he thinks it’s so based on his special knowledge and abilities. ---
**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 16, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1900 "2015-05-16T16:45:28Z")
I’ll take a break from derision now to point out that **cladking** has been very entertaining, he has a fertile imagination and he’s been a good sport about the criticism and ridicule. Too bad he can’t put that effort into making sense and intellectual honesty. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1901 "2015-05-16T16:59:29Z")
> [@XT](#): > > To save you time looking back, he actually answered this earlier…he claimed (IIRC) the Egyptians drilled a hole into the ‘cold geyser’ and the diameter was 5". I was inquiring about the so-called “upper eye of Horus” which received the water at the top of the geyser’s spray. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=94) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=96)