An investigative historian cracks Ancient Egypt's Cosmic Code
Tony McMahon, an expert contributor on 'Bradley Walsh: Egypt's Cosmic Code', tries to decipher the past by looking at various theories to do with the Great Pyramids.
Image: Tony McMahon is an expert investigative historian, author and journalist
In this guest article, investigative historian, author and journalist Tony McMahon explores some of the more eccentric theories that claim to explain how and why the pyramids were built. Tony also lends his expertise as a contributor on Bradley Walsh: Egypt's Cosmic Code, which will be available from Tuesday, 18th March on Sky HISTORY.
Ancient Egypt has left a stunning legacy of monuments that still take our breath away today. More than any other civilisation, there is something about the people who built the pyramids that enthrals us. The arresting imagery, their strange beliefs, but more than anything else – the sheer age of their huge constructions. It’s led many to pose the question: could they have achieved these marvels without external assistance?
This is what the team set out to investigate in Egypt’s Cosmic Code, presented by Bradley Walsh. Over four decades, I’ve been a journalist, TV historian and published author covering a huge range of topics, making complex issues relatable to mass audiences. Most importantly, I’ve brought a forensic and investigative approach to some of our greatest mysteries. Trying to decipher the past is a huge challenge and identifying the builders of the Great Pyramid presents a big problem. The issue divides opinions bitterly as we discovered.
Most mainstream historians argue that the Great Pyramid of Giza dates to around 2,600 BC. It consists of about 2.3 million large blocks of stone and took at least two decades to complete. The Greek historian Herodotus, writing 2,000 years after the pyramids were built, estimated 100,000 workers or slaves must have been involved. Modern historians think it was a much smaller number. This jumbo project happened at the very dawn of civilisation when, in Britain, Stonehenge was erected around the same time, in what was the late Neolithic period. Put another way, humanity was only just emerging from the Stone Age.
Little wonder that commentators have found it difficult to believe that the Great Pyramid was made using just wooden mallets and stone hammers. How could people at the very start of the Bronze Age have created the tallest man-made structure, only surpassed by Lincoln Cathedral in the medieval period, nearly four thousand years later? And that was before the cathedral’s spire collapsed in 1548 leaving the Great Pyramid once more as the highest building.
If there were ramps and hoists involved, none of the experts have managed to agree on how that was done. It just seems to defy credulity that the ancient Egyptians managed such a gargantuan feat without access to very sophisticated knowledge. But where would this wisdom have come from? Well, there are some interesting theories out there.
In 1968, the Swiss author Erich von Däniken wrote the highly controversial bestselling book, Chariots of the Gods?. He argues that our ancestors, thousands of years ago, were visited by extraterrestrials who shared highly advanced science and technology. This book has spawned a very popular ‘ancient alien’ movement. Believers in cosmic intervention believe the pyramids had a specific use for the aliens who came to our planet – for example, being used as landing markers for their spaceships.
Even the dimensions of the pyramids point to an awareness of the Earth’s measurements that the ancients could not have possessed. The author and broadcaster Graham Hancock points out that if you take the height of the pyramid and multiply it by 43,200, you get the polar radius of the Earth. Then if you measure the base and multiply by the same figure, you get the circumference of our planet. The significance of that number has to do with the Earth wobbling on its axis and would take a while to explain here. Basically, the gist of the argument is that there is no way the ancient Egyptians could have figured this out without help from superior beings.
With his theory, Hancock is less focussed on aliens. He thinks the ancient Egyptians got a helping hand from the survivors of a hyper-advanced civilisation that had been wiped out by a comet strike during the last Ice Age. These superhumans spread their know-how to the Egyptians and other early civilisations around 10,000 BC. Together with Robert Bauval, he states that the pyramids and the Sphinx are nearly 8,000 years older than is usually stated. To further bolster their argument, they claim these monuments were aligned to the stars above, which only fit with the night sky as it appeared during the Spring Equinox in around 10,500 BC.
All of which leaves us wondering – what was the point of the Great Pyramid? Assembling over 2,000,000 blocks of heavy stones in a very precise manner to create a series of internal chambers is a lot of effort. So, it must have been for a purpose. The legendary 20th-century inventor Nikola Tesla thought he knew the answer. The Great Pyramid was a gigantic, wireless transmitter of energy. He sincerely believed it could have stored enough energy to light up a city.
Others have developed this idea further explaining in detail how the pyramids were made of granite with a high concentration of quartz – the exact same crystals that power your mobile phones, computers, and wristwatches. It all involves a complex reaction starting at the base of the pyramid, sending sound waves through the structure that then directed electrical power into a grid that included obelisks and temples.
But what about the pharaohs of Egypt – were the rulers of this civilisation from out of this world? Well, one curious pharaoh who ruled a thousand years after the pyramids were built (if we still accept 2,600 BC) is viewed as a possible alien being who governed Egypt during the New Kingdom period.
Akhenaten was the father of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun. His queen was the beautiful Nefertiti whose exquisite bust can be seen in Berlin today. But what really attracts attention about this ancient Egyptian is the way he was depicted. His weirdly elongated skull, very long face, and spindly limbs have led some to wonder if he was human. Sceptics counter that the poor man was a victim of a medical condition: Marfan’s Syndrome.
Cracking the code of Ancient Egypt is not for the faint-hearted. How to make sense of the whole look and feel of this enigmatic civilisation? The half-human/half-animal gods. The mysteries of mummification. The haunting temples. The Book of the Dead. The Greeks and Romans were fascinated by Egypt, which was already ancient by the time they came along. In museums today, visitors gaze in awe at images of Horus, Osiris, Ramses, and Hatshepsut. Luckier souls get to visit Egypt and clamber into the Great Pyramid to be confronted by its jaw-dropping internal spaces.
Are the Ancient Egyptians trying to speak to us? Is there a secret they wish to impart? Or maybe their identity, alien or not, has been lost in the mists of time.
Bradley Walsh: Egypt's Cosmic Code will be available from Tuesday, 18th March on Sky HISTORY. Find out more about Tony McMahon's work by visiting his website.
