GIZA PLATEAU

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The Giza Plateau in Egypt has added an extra dimension to the story of a lost civilisation, suggesting that there was, indeed, an advanced society far earlier than archaeologists and historians are prepared to accept.
The Giza Plateau is best known for its line of three pyramids guarded by the magnificent Sphinx. The largest of the pyramids is known as the Great Pyramid of Giza, built around 2500BC by the pharoah Khufu, or Cheops in Greek.
The only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World, some 2,300,000 blocks are used in its construction, which would have taken 100,000 labourers twenty years to complete. Its four corners have been confirmed to align with the four points of the compass and its height in relation to its base suggests that the builders knew the value of pi.
Inside the pyramid are the King’s and Queen’s Chambers, each of which have a northern and southern shaft leading to the extremities of the construction. In March 1993, German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink brought his small robotic video-camera, Upuant 2 to Giza.
Upuaut 2 was sent up the southern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber. It managed to travel just sixty metres before it found its path blocked by a limestone door with two copper handles. Since then, another door has been found behind the first.
Speculations have arisen from the work of writers Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval. They noticed that one of the southern shafts pointed directly to the star, Sirius, whilst the other southern shaft pointed to the lowest of three stars in the belt of Orion.
Intrigued by this precision, Bauval went on to notice that the three stars in the belt of Orion are not perfectly aligned, but the smaller star is off-set. Looking to the lay-out of the three pyramids at Giza, he noticed that the third pyramid was equally off-set. It was thus argued that in the pyramids, the ancient Egyptians were attempting to replicate the heavens upon Earth. However, the story was not as simple as that.
The pyramids are out of line with the belt of Orion. However, using computer technology, they showed that the pyramids would have been perfectly aligned in 10,500BC, long before the accepted genesis of Egyptian culture. So whilst it is correct to assume that the pyramids were built around 2500BC, the site had been first used 8,000 years earlier.
Further controversy has arisen from a new understanding of the Sphinx. This huge half man, half lion structure is thought to have been built at the same time as the pyramids. However, the American self-styled Egyptologist John Anthony West disagrees.
The Sphinx has a number of vertical fissures which, claimed West, can only be explained by water erosion. As significant rainfall capable of creating this effect has not occurred in Egypt since 6000BC, then the Sphinx must be at least 8,000 years old.
Geologist Dr Robert Schoch of Boston went on to confirm such damage as due to water erosion. West then brought in seismography specialist Dr Thomas Dobecki from Houston in an attempt to find out exactly when the Sphinx was carved. Dobecki went on to prove that the structure had been built in distinct stages over at least 3,000 years.

(c) Anthony North, December 2006