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A Passion for Pyramids - Part I

© Jennifer Overhulse-King

But, The Great Pyramid’s measurements aren’t its only amazing feature. The pyramid also boasts an alignment with certain stars in the ancient sky. Many wonder how this precise alignment could have been achieved over 45 centuries ago. Others believe this is where the extraterrestrial element comes in.

Little Green Men?
Within the pyramid, in both the king’s chamber and the queen’s chamber, are shafts leading upward and reaching all the way to the exterior sides of the pyramid. The shafts are not large enough to have accommodated a person, so that lets out access tunnel as a possible function of these tunnels. Archaeologists have also proposed the idea that the shafts were for “ventilation”. But being that the function of this pyramid was a tomb, that notion has also been pretty much ruled out. Today, the most common theory promotes the idea that the shafts were intended to give the pharaoh and his queen better access to the stars as they rose from the dead and into the afterlife. The stars were often said to “guide” people into the afterlife, perhaps they served that purpose for Cheops and his queen.

Considering the alignment of the shafts with the stars, this seems the most likely theory. The southern shaft, leading from the king’s chamber, points to the location Orion’s Belt would have occupied in the ancient night sky. The southern shaft leading from the queen’s chamber lines up exactly with the position the star, Sirius, would have taken in the sky at the same time. Strange, but true. Somehow, the Egyptian builders were able to plan these shafts during construction of the pyramid to line up perfectly with important landmarks in their sky. Many argue this kind of precision would have been impossible for the Egyptians to carry off.

Additional experts argue that the arrangement of the pyramids on the Giza Plateau is another bit of evidence pointing to the involvement of little green men in the building of the pyramids. The position and arrangement of the pyramid on the Giza Plateau mimics the arrangement of the stars in Orion’s Belt. My but those Egyptian builders were really on their toes. Or were they??

Some people legitimately believe the alignment of the “ventilation” shafts with the stars in the ancient sky, the arrangement of the pyramids on the Giza Plateau, the precise measurements of every facet of the pyramids and the exactness of the pyramids’ placement in relation to the points on a compass are such that no earthly person at that time could have produced the advanced calculations and building skills necessary. (Did I neglect to mention the corners of the pyramids are perfectly aligned with the four cardinal points on the compass – north, south, east and west?) So, they muse. . .the pyramids must have been the work of little green men, or blue men, or whatever is fashionable for people to be seeing these days. Most people have to admit this theory is pretty far-fetched, especially when you consider other accomplishments in ancient history, like the Roman aqueduct system, Chinese astrology and the Easter Island moai, but it does have a certain measure of popularity.