Salon - - giza pyramid intrigue

paulette conlan · #1 09-16-2002, 03:44 PM

There will be a live program on tv tonight that should prove of interest to anyone who has an interest in egyptology.An attempt will be made to enter a door at the end of a shaft in the queen's chamber of the great pyramid with state of the art tv equiptment to find out what lurks behind it. They will be using the same type of sensor equiptment that they used last year in the world trade center recovery effort. It will be a National Geographic special and in my area it's being carried live by the FOX network 8-10PM ET. Anyway here's the link if anyone wants more information...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...3_egypt_1.html

Paulette

winwintoo · #2 09-16-2002, 04:19 PM

Thanks for the reminder Paulette - I'm always interesting in that kind of thing.

Margaret

G. Couch · #3 09-16-2002, 05:17 PM

FOX is airing this?...In that case, I fully expect them to find a large alien spacecraft inside the pyramid!

Maybe they can get Geraldo to host the show...he can make up for that whole "Al Capone's Vault" debacle.

G. Couch · #4 09-16-2002, 07:51 PM

So...what was in it? (I do not have a TV

)

winwintoo · #5 09-16-2002, 08:06 PM

I only saw the last half of the program but I found it very interesting. I was especially interested in the finds at the "city" where the workers seemed to have lived - debunks the theory that the pyramids were build by slaves.

Paulette - I think we should leave Greg in suspense - what do you say?

Margaret

G. Couch · #6 09-16-2002, 08:55 PM

ahhh!!!

Mike Needham · #7 09-17-2002, 02:28 AM

According to the news they should of broken through by now. Any news on the findings so far?

G. Couch · #8 09-17-2002, 02:34 AM

They found....
...

...

...

...

...another door! FOX just knows how to milk a good thing when they see it!

tobycatt · #9 09-17-2002, 02:48 AM

Two hours! Ugh.

I am a pyramidiot tho. One of those silly people who refuses to believe that gazillion ton cubes of granite were rolled on palm tree trunks from the quarry to the building site and various other things that don't seem quite right.

Claudia

paulette conlan · #10 09-17-2002, 01:03 PM

The outcome of the show was as incredulous in my opinon as the numbers 911 coming up in the NY lottery last week. I really do believe in synchronicity and coincidences but unfortunately I'm also becoming increasingly cynical about alot of things in the media. My faith will be restored if they just go across the Nile to Home Depot or wherever they go in Cairo and get one of those super long bits that electricians use and drill through the second door. I would imagine that they should be as curious as anyone over what lies beyond the door....what's most interesting about the great pyramid is that whoever built it went from literally heaping piles of stones to something as technologically difficult as constructing the great pyramid in a very brief period of time. Anyway if Geraldo were there, I bet HE would have been on their case. Most likely he 's probably either on tour with the American Idol Troupe or establishing a beachead in Iraq-never around where you want him!
Paulette

CJ Swartz · #11 09-17-2002, 04:45 PM

I only watched part of the last half also. I am fascinated by Egypt's ancient culture, but not by primetime TV's efforts to garner audiences. I just didn't really think they'd wait to find out what was there until we all were sitting in front of the TV with our popcorn in hand. The "next door" is both exasperating and intriguing to me -- I hope they don't wait for another "Special" to find out what's behind it, but do as Paulette suggests -- go to Home Depot and get a longer bit and drill through that sucker now! Then let us know what they found.

Margaret -- I didn't see the part that explained that it wasn't slaves -- can you tell me more, or I'll look it up somewhere on the net.

Tobycatt -- who do you think made the pyramids, or how were they built?

winwintoo · #12 09-17-2002, 05:00 PM

Hi CJ, throughout the show, they were showing an excavation at a townsite that was close to the pyramid and they were expostulating (there's a $50 word

) that the townsite was there to support the building of the pyramid. They uncovered enough cattle bones to feed enough people to build the thing for many years. They also uncovered a huge bakery etc.

The Egyptian archeologist that opened the sarcophagus on the show said that all the information about the townsite and the way some of the workers were buried led him to believe that it was built by paid labor.

He also said something like "the pyramids couldn't have been built by slaves, they had to be built by love" He also talked about the "teams" of workers (he didn't call them teams - he used a different word, but I forget what he said)

Also there was an Egyptian woman archeologist who was showing some recovered bones - in one case the bones had been surgically amputated. They surmised that a slave would not have been treated to such good care.

Anyway, it's all speculation, but I love hearing about it. In my next life, I'm coming back as an archeologist. I can see myself sitting there with a soft brush uncovering pot shards.

When I see things like that show last night - or some of the Discovery Channel shows about ancient civilizations, my imagination goes wild!

Take care, Margaret

CJ Swartz · #13 09-17-2002, 07:19 PM

Thanks for the added information, Margaret. I minored in Anthropology, and had one friend who married an archeologist. She's currently working at a museum in the States. I just found her again via Classmates.com (We hadn't talked in years) and I don't know whether she ever got to work on sites or not. I used to fantasize about finding a rare find while brushing away the silt. Then I remembered that I don't even like to dust my furniture, and realized that it wasn't really my calling...

My awe of the pyramids was reduced by the previous theory that slaves were used, so I'm happy to hear that paid workers created such awesome structures.

Bob Walden · #14 09-17-2002, 08:39 PM

I thought it was very interesting. Too many commercials (expected from Fox) but still informative. I didn't realize the Egyptians were such big beer drinkers. I can relate to that!

Bob

winwintoo · #15 09-17-2002, 09:41 PM

Tonight on Discovery Channel, I watched a show about a "mummy" that was discovered in Pakistan. The mummy came to light when someone tried to sell it and someone else squealed on them.

The mummy was taken to a museum where it was examined etc. It was in an elaborately carved wooden box, wrapped in gold, the whole nine yards. It was thought that the mummy was a Persian princess - how the mummy came to be in Pakistan was a mystery.

After much research, it was learned that the "mummy" was an elaborate fake and the body incased in all that gold was a woman who appears to have been murdered (her back was broken) in 1994!!

They didn't go into the following investigation to find out who she was or how she met her death. And, since that one came to light, there have been others offered for sale as well.

Makes you wonder what other fakes are out there,

Margaret