Pyramids of Giza, El Giza, Egypt

Great Pyramid of Giza (aka Pyramid of Khufu) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in Giza Necropolis, Egypt. It was the tallest man-made structure (480.6 ft) in the world for over 3,800 years (since 2560 BC). Its height was superceded by the Washington Monument at 555 ft (1884 to 1889). At 1889 World's Fair, the Eiffel Tower was unveiled with height of 894 feet, making it the tallest man-made structure, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in NYC was finished in 1930 at 1046 feet. Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. It's interesting that the tallest world's man-made structures are all shaped like Platonic Lambda Λ at the top (Soul Soaring to Heaven?).

Great Pyramic of Giza Height: 481 feet Tallest: 2560 BC-1884

Washington Monument Height: 555 feet Tallest: 1884-1889

Eiffel Tower Height: 894 feet Tallest: 1889-1930

Chrysler Building Height: 1046 feet Tallest: 1930-1931

Empire State Building Height: 1454 feet Tallest: 1931-1970

Postage Stamps Showing Great Pyramids of Giza

Egypt #8, 5 paras Sphinx and Pyramid (issued 1867)

Egypt #39, 5 paras Sphinx and Pyramid (issued 1879)

Egypt #53, 4 milliemes Giza Pyramids (issued 1-8-1914)

Egypt #542, 10 mills Sphinx & Pyramid (issued 12-27-1961)

Egypt #230, 20 mills Giza Pyramids & Colossus of Thebes (issued 2-1-1938)	Egypt #C5, 1 mill Airplane over Giza Pyramids (issued 1933)	Egypt #C91, 5 mills Pyramids of Giza (issued 1959)
Egypt #C148, 110 mills Giza Pyramids & Plane (issued 11-22-1972)	Egypt #C171A, 60 mills Giza Pyramids & Airplane (issued 1-15-1982)	Egypt #C182, 30 piastres Pyramids of Giza (issued 5-1-1985)

Egypt #900, 55 mills Sphinx & Pyramid (issued 1974)

Egypt #1343, 15 piastres Pyramid & Crescent Moon (issued 6-17-1987)

Egypt #1360, 15 piastres Pharoahs and Pyramids (issued 1-2-1988)

France #1353 Egyptian Expedition (issued 11-11-1972)

Mali C131, 80 francs Sphinx & Pyramid (issued 12-13=1971)

Japan 3524, 80 yen Pyramids of Giza (issued 3-14=2013)

Hungary 2637, 5 forints Pyramids of Giza (issued 2-29-1980)

Note: The above stamps from Egypt were located in my 1975 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Volume II. With catalogue #s, found them in Google Images, & downloaded from the web. Some perforations were enhanced in Photoshop. Last 9 stamps found in 2019 Scott Stamp Catalogues, Vols. 2-4. Click on stamps for image sources.

Books on the Pyramids of Giza

Ronald H. Fritze, Egyptomania: A History of Fascination, Obsession and Fantasy, Reaktion Books, London, 2016 Fourth Dynasty (2613-2494 BC) marked high point of pyramid building... Sneferu was first king of the new dynasty, reigned for 48 years (2613-2589 BC). His activities as a pyramid builder attest to Egypt's wealth & the power of its kings at that time. He built three pyramids that survive to this day. Sneferu was the first pharoah to build a pyramid with smooth sides rather than steps. Khufu was the son of Sneferu. He was builder of the Great Pyramid, largest of the three Giza pyramids. This pyramid was unique in having its burial chamber located within structure's core rather than beneath it. Herodotus considered Khufu to be a harsh despot who commanded 100,000 of his subjects to excavate and haul stone blocks from the quarries of the Eastern Desert. Once ferried acros the Nile, another 100,000 laborouers hauled the stones to the Giza plateau to build the pyramid. The process

of quarrying & hauling took 10 years, while building of Great Pyramid took 20 years (pp. 35-37). Pliny the Elder described the pyramid's size, stating it took 360,000 men 20 years to build the Great Pyramid, while all three of the Giza Pyramids were built in 88 years and four months. An influential example of Roman Egyptomania was the pyramid-shaped tomb of Gaius Cestius Epulo erected in 12 BC (18th century Italian engraving by Giuseppe Vasi at right). Its sides were built at a much steeper angle than the real pyramids in Egypt. It became the model, albeit an inaccurate one, of what the pyramids of Egypt looked liked. (pp. 88-89, 134)

John Romer, The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2007 The Great Pyramid is composed of mortar, limestone and granite: 5.5 million tons of limestone, 8000 tons of granite and half a million tons of mortar (p. 157). The broken statue base of King Djoser has hieroglyphics inscription naming Imhotep as a royal courtier and priest and supervisor of the royal workshops, a happenstance that has led to the hailing of this man as the architect and inventor of the Egyptian pyramid (p. 245). The three Giza Pyramids— Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu— have all been set along a single line. Then, if you extend that line upon a modern map, across the Nile and over Cairo and its suburbs and out towards the Eastern Desert and the sunrise, you will see that this same line passes through the site of ancient Heliopolis, the city where the lost archaic temple of the sun god Re is to have stood. However, there's little evidence that Giza's pyramid-builders aligned their

monuments to mark the place of sunset. A similarly unfounded notion is that Giza's pyramids were grouped together on the plateau in imitation of heavenly constellationsas they appear on modern star charts; that they were built to represent a scientific diagram! (p. 305)

Mark Lehner & Zahi Hawass, Giza and the Pyramids, Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, UK, 2017 The authors spent 42 years writing this humongous book (560 pages weighing 7 pounds), longer than it took to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. Lehner published The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries in 1997. Hawass was made Minister of Egyptian Antiquities (2002-2012). They have spent over four decades excavating and studying the site at Giza. New Age theories connect the Giza Sphinx and pyramids to everything from Atlantis and lost tribes, to extraterrestrials and features of Martian landscapes. More read and believe such alternative ancient histories of Giza than the accounts that archaelolgists and Egyptologists write from the evidence. Guided tours in 'alternative Egyptology' and New Age ideas have been done for many years (p. 25). Great Pyramid once served as an energy capacitor, a huge hydraulic pump or an astronomical observatory. The pyramid

stands on an upside-down pyramid of pure crystal & equal size [Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (2003)]. Designs locate the legendary Hall of Records (Lost Civilization's time capsule) in, under or around the Sphinx [Edgar Cayce], or under the Giza Plateau. Maps of Giza's alleged tunnel networks rival the London Underground. Ley lines connect the Sphinx to the pyramids, Bethlehem and sacred sites all over the world... Graham Hancock is an apocalyptic thinker who sees in various monuments around the world hints of an extensive global civilization in times far more remote than any archaic civilizationss archaeologists reconstruct from excavated material evidence. (pp. 26-27). The ka life force, while residing in every person, was characterized by its tranferability & commonaity, The upraised arms of the ka hieroglyph represent an embrace, which the Egyptian believed transferred vital force between two people, or between gods and king (p. 113). Both Benben and pyramid may have symbolized the sun's rays shining through a break in a cloudy sky. In the Pyramid Texts the sun's rays are said to be a ramp by which the king mounts up to the sun. The Benben stone at Heliopolis is cone-shaped; the pyramid is the easiest way to mimic this form in monument architectire. The pyramid is a giant reflector, a stone model of immaterial sunlight. (pp. 136-137).

Recent News Stories on the Pyramids of Giza

Scientists scan Great Pyramid with cosmic rays, find hidden chamber (by Philip Perry, Big Think, November 2, 2017) The Great Pyramid itself, built by the Pharaoh Khufu (or Cheops) is one of the oldest monuments standing. It's 456 ft. high & thought to be around 4,500 years old. This is largest of all the ancient pyramids and one of the most impressive structures ever built by human hands. Great Pyramid contains several spaces with connecting corridors including a King's Chamber, Queen's Chamber, & Grand Gallery— essentially an enormous passageway 153 ft. long and 26 ft. high. It terminates in the pharaoh's chamber. Scientists found a space sitting atop Grand Gallery that's 98 ft. long and perhaps longer. Kunihiro Morishima of Nagoya University launched this project by placing muon detectors in Queen's Chamber in Dec. 2015. Muons can travel through rock, depending on the type & density. Knowing this, scientists were surprised when many more muons were received by sensors than expected, meaning they were passing through a large void.

Scientists discover Great Pyramid of Giza can focus electromagnetic energy through its hidden chambers (Cheyenne MacDonald, Daily Mail, UK, July 30, 2018) The remarkable electromagnetic properties of the Great Pyramid of Giza could soon inspire nanoparticle designs for highly-efficient sensors & solar cells. Scientists have discovered the famous pyramid concentrates electric & magnetic energy into its internal chambers & below its base, creating pockets of higher energy. If this concentrating effect is able to be recreated on a nanoscale size, it may lead to new, more efficient sensors & solar cells. While the 481-foot pyramid built thousands of years ago for Pharaoh Khufu has long drawn intrigue for its purported mythical qualities, the study is attempting to finally get to bottom of its physical properties. There may be hiding a secret chamber that had yet to be discovered.

Pyramid on Reverse of Great Seal of the United States

Reverse of Great Seal of the United States

The Great Seal of United States was first used publicly in 1782. The obverse show an eagle holding olive leaves (peace) and arrows (war), with the eagle's eye looking to olive leaves. On the reverse side, the Seal shows a pyramid with 13 rows symbolizing the 13 colonies. The Eye of God is in a triangle on top of the pyramid. Two mottos appear: signifies that Providence has "approved of (our) undertakings." Novus ordo seclorum, taken from Virgil's Ecologue IV, is Latin for "a new order of the ages". The Pyramid Seal appears on the back of the U.S. $1 bill. Benjamin Franklin was a Freemason, but he was not involved in the Seal's design. Of the four men whose ideas were adopted, neither Charles Thomson, Pierre Du Simitière nor William Barton were Masons and, while Francis Hopkinson has been alleged to have had Masonic connections, there is no evidence to support the claim. (Eye in triangle: Supper at Emmaus)

Pyramid Power

Pyramid Power refers to alleged supernatural or paranormal properties of the Egyptian pyramids & objects of similar shape. With this power, model pyramids are said to preserve foods, sharpen or maintain the sharpness of razor blades, improve health, function "as a thought-form incubator," & cause other dramatic effects. Debate continues over who coined the term "pyramid power". Author Max Toth has claimed he coined the phrase, as has Patrick Flanagan. Both authors released books entitled "Pyramid Power" in the 1970s. However, the term "pyramid power" in its current usage first appeared in print in Sheila Ostrander & Lynn Schroeder's 1970 book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. Ostrander & Schroeder claim that "Czechoslovakian researchers" coined the term in the 1960s. None has made connection of the pyramid's shape to the Platonic Lambda Λ, Soul of the Universe, which may explain its real power. Neurologist and skeptic Terence Hines has written that pyramid power is a pseudoscience and tests have failed to provide any evidence for its claims. In 2005, Mythbuster debunked Pyramid Power claims.

G. Patrick Flanagan Pyramid Power (1975)

Paul Brunton's A Search in Secret Egypt
	Paul Brunton wrote A Search in Secret Egypt (1935), describing his meetings with fakirs and adepts who initiated him into the ancient mysteries. PB also slept overnight inside the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid and had an out of the body experience (OBE): “Yes; I had risen into space, disentangled my soul from its mortal skein, separated myself into two parts, left the world which I had known so long. I experienced a sense of being etherealized, of intense lightness, in this duplicate body which I now inhabited. As I gazed down at the cold stone block upon which my body lay, a single realization overwhelmed me. It expressed itself to me in a few brief, silent words: 'This is the state of death. Now I know that I am a soul, that I can exist apart from the body. I shall always believe that, for I have proved it.'” (p. 74). In the Epilogue (pp. 285-287), PB went inside the dark passage of the Great Pyramid, and was led to "The Mistress of the Hidden Temple", who is none other than the Living Soul of Our Earth. She told him there are seven ways: "The Road that leadth to Many Houses and the
Track that Leadth into the Desert, the Street that Groweth Red Flowers; the Ascent of High Mountains and the Descent in Dark Caves, the Path of Ever-Wandering and the Way of Sitting Still." There are seven steps: "The first is Tears, the second Prayer, the third Work, the fourth Rest, the fifth Death, the sixth is Life and the last is Pity." And the seven lessons we must learn: "Pleasure is the first and easiest, Pain is the next, Hate is the third, Illusion the fourth, Truth the fifth, Love is sixth and Peace must be learnt at the end."

PB's Prayer Rug on wall of his bedroom

Just found the photo of Paul Brunton's Prayer Rug showing "Sphinx & Giza Pyramids". It was hanging on the wall of his bedroom in Corseaux, Switzerland. He graciously permitted me to take a photo of it, and inspired the poem "Sphinx Queries the Buddha" (8-31-1979). I learned much about wisdom & compassion in his presence during my 14 meetings with him, Wrote about my first meeting with PB in Montreux (8-30-1972) and at Corseaux in September 1979. It's fitting to end this chapter on a sacred note.

  — Peter Y. Chou
      Mountain View, 11-14-2018