The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

TOMB OR OBSERVATORY?

the abutments of an arch, that portion of it rising above the fiftieth masonry course would inevitably collapse of its own weight.

Structural evidence also proves that the entire bulk of the Great Pyramid was built in ome continuous series of operations without any appreciable break between them, while Egyptological evidence, and the evidence of the mason’s inscriptions over the King’s Chamber (as already pointed out), prove that it was completed throughout within the reign of Khufu.

The fact that the Great Pyramid was erected in one continuous series of operations introduces another theory concerning its construction. This is the Accretion Theory of pyramid building, which was largely held by many during the last century, and was based on the successive enlargements of earlier (so-called) pyramids, such as the “false” pyramid of Meidoum, it being supposed that all pyramids were erected on this principle, a fresh layer being added with each year of the monarch’s reign, so that the size of a pyramid was an indication of the duration thereof.

Though this theory was disproved nearly fifty years ago by Sir Flinders Petrie, it is apparently still adhered to by some. Petrie showed conclusively that the arrangement of the passages and chambers in the Great Pyramid would lead to anomalies in its design and prove impracticable, if it had been constructed upon a base substantially less than its present one.

Briefly, this theory, which is fully explained and illustrated in our other volume, accounts for a pyramid as having been built originally as a small erection, and increased to its final dimensions by being absorbed into successive including pyramids. No true pyramid, however, and certainly not the Great Pyramid, has been constructed

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