Priceless Polyhedrons

The pyramids- the fascinating polyhedrons. They are buildings with triangular surfaces which converge at the top. As soon as the word pyramid is mentioned our minds go to Egypt. Have we ever thought of other pyramids in this world? What about the south American pyramidal temples, pyramids of Greece, France, Rome? Forget all those… What about our own Indian temple gopuras? Are they not pyramids too?

The Great Pyramid, Egypt

Brihadeesvarar Temple, India

Mayan Pyramid, Mexico

I do not know, but I am a bit curious how could all these important historic buildings be of the same shape? They are all geographically spread widely, thousands of miles away from each other. How did these marvelous engineers of the past get the same ideas, that too living in completely different continents and cultures? There was literally no mode of communication in those times. How did the ideas get shared? Mind boggling!

Now the next question- simple but unanswered- How was it possible to build these? How was it possible to move the massive blocks of stones over such phenomenal heights? There is no recorded history in any form which gives an account how the pyramids were built. There are various hypothetical methods suggested, but till date our so called modern civilization has no clue how it was built. The Egyptian ancestors did not have any heavy machinery. Forget machinery, even iron was not available those days. The first ever iron smelting was done around 1800-1200 BC in some part of India. The only materials available were stone and wood! Indian history is very rich. Nonetheless, just look at this Egyptian culture, after so many years of scientific research we are not able to figure out their civilization! There are scientists who study their civilization as a profession! They are called Egyptologists! No other civilization has this sort of an enigma around it.

Let us take the case of the great pyramid of Giza. The first thing and the crudest thing that comes to our mind when we think of mounting such huge quarries should be the pulley. But the pulley was invented by Archimedes who was born in 287 A.D. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2560 B.C, meaning it was built 2200 years before the pulley was even thought of. So what other method did they use? Our modern engineers, with a bit of help from the historians’ records keep spiraling towards the same theory of ramps and levers being used to build the pyramids. With 160,000 men working on the project every day, the Egyptians could finish it in 20 years. Is it possible to have used the traditional “heave-ho” method to push up quarries over ramps in such short time? A Japanese corporation conducted an experiment and proved that 18 men could drag blocks weighing 2.5 tons over an inclined ramp at the rate of 18 meters per minute. Moreover, the pyramids have blocks weighing 15-70 tons too! What is the answer for this? So the mystery remains.

One interesting theory comes to my mind while talking about this. Erich Von Daniken in one of his books gives another theory. It may not be taken seriously but the thought process is appreciable. Take the case of earth, with its gravitational force. A person weighing average 60 kg is able to stand on the ground. Take the case of moon. Say its gravitational force is 20 times lesser than earth, meaning a man has to weigh 20 times more to stay put on the ground. That is around 1200 Kgs. What if there were men from far away planets having 100 times lesser gravitational force? They’ll weigh 100 times more than earthlings! Imagine a 6000 or 60,000 Kg man! With huge limbs! Wont he easily carry the stone quarries and build the pyramid if he was on earth?

As we all have been told by our history teachers in school, the pyramids were just tombs for the rulers. Are we so naïve to believe that a building with so many intricacies in it was just a burial ground? There are hundreds of mysteries surrounding these structures. One thing which fascinates me is that how did the king select the location of the great pyramid? Leave aside questions like how did he lay the foundation on fine sand? How did he level such a vast land area? They will remain mysteries forever. But the great pyramid lies exactly on the face of the earth- on the centre of gravity, dividing the entire land area into equal halves!

Want another interesting snippet? These are the dimensions of the great pyramid

Height- 146.515 m

Base – 230.363 m

Slant height – 186.369 m

Now divide the slant height by half of the base i.e 186.369/115.182. What do you get? 1.6180! The Golden Ratio! (remember reading about Phidias in history or something called "Phi" (φ) in mathematics? φ=1.6180) Gosh, each mystery takes us into further mysteries! To write about golden ratio I would need another blog. Anyway to give an idea golden ratio is a mathematical constant which has been a mystery for the past 2400 years, something like our very own Pi. Some people say certain parts of our body are in the proportion of golden ratio. There are hundreds of historical buildings and paintings which mysteriously incorporate the golden ratio in them.

Do not think I am leading you nowhere with all these facts, I was just trying to hit a correlation between the pyramids placement, its structure with the golden ratio. An experiment conducted years back proved that perishable items kept inside a pyramidal shape is resistant to spoilage. So if we connect the fact that some part of our body is in golden ratio, the great pyramid’s structure is in golden ratio, do we get an answer to the Egyptian mummies? Dead bodies rolled in linen kept fresh for over 2 millennia!

In effect, the great pyramid lies on the face of the earth challenging the so called intelligent man of the 21st century to understand it! It is not just the pyramid. The pyramid was just an example. But there are hundreds of facts of the past to be unearthed and understood. Like I asked how was the pyramid built? How did civilizations across the world get the same shape done with no means of communication? Was there someone above us controlling everything? Who gave the undeveloped civilizations know-how when we at present with heavy machinery and technology are not able to figure it out? Who guided the constructions? Does it mean there was someone with much advanced knowledge 3000 years back which we still do not possess? Are these people even from earth? Who knows even Daniken’s weird theory might be true!

Questions, questions and more questions. No answers but! Let us see if we figure it out. After all history is not just a study of the past. They are the gateway to the future right?