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Al-Ahram Weekly
15 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Vietnam President Cuong visits Grand Egyptian Museum and Giza Pyramids - Tourism
Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, along with his accompanying delegation, visited the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) and the Giza Pyramids area as part of his official visit to Egypt. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, GEM CEO Ahmed Ghoneim accompanied the Vietnamese president and his delegation through the main hall, the grand staircase, and the main galleries, offering a detailed overview of the museum's history and exceptional collections. Highlights included the treasures of the Golden Pharaoh Tutankhamun, which will be fully displayed at the museum's official opening on 1 November. On Wednesday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced that the GEM's opening day will be 1 November instead of the original date scheduled for 3 July. The government postponed the event on 21 June due to the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran. The GEM launched a soft opening in November 2023 and a trial run in October 2024, unfurling its gardens and cafes, the hanging obelisk, the atrium, the grand staircase, and the main galleries, including 12 exhibition halls, to the public. During the tour, President Cuong gifted the museum a bronze replica of the Vietnamese Ngoc Lu Drum, a significant cultural symbol of Vietnam. For his part, Ghoneim expressed his appreciation for that gesture. The Vietnamese president also praised the museum's architectural design and archaeological treasures, according to the statement. The delegation then toured the Giza Pyramids, starting with the Great Pyramid of King Khufu — the only remaining wonder of the ancient world. They also proceeded to the Great Sphinx, learned about its history and the Dream Stele, and took commemorative photographs. The visit concluded at the panorama area with views of King Khafre, King Menkaure, and the queens' pyramids. Situated near the newly inaugurated Sphinx International Airport and overlooking the iconic Pyramids of Giza, the GEM is set to become the largest museum worldwide dedicated to a single civilization — ancient Egypt. The museum spans an impressive 500,000 square metres, twice the area of the Louvre Museum and two and a half times the area of the British Museum. It houses monuments from ancient Egypt, spanning from prehistory to the early Roman period. Among the items to be displayed are King Tutankhamun's unique treasures, some of which will see the light for the first time. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Nowhere on Earth feels more connected to the ancient world than here
On the desert outskirts of Cairo, new and old stare each other down. From atop their lofty plateau, Giza's pyramids peer over what's being billed as the world's largest archaeological museum. Twice the size of the Louvre and New York's Metropolitan Museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum will harbour 100,000 artefacts when the doors to its full 12 galleries officially open to international and domestic visitors by year's end. But you needn't even set foot in a museum in Egypt to sense history on the grandest of scales. Nowhere on Earth have I felt the ancient world as real and all-encompassing as on a journey through this country, with this my first visit. In its millennia-old temples, tombs and pyramids, ambition and accomplishment remain on vivid display, but even as I travelled between its ancient wonders on a 16-day visit with Bunnik Tours, new wonders materialised, with Egypt's vast modern ambitions and aspirations on full show. In one of the world's greatest ancient civilisations, what's old is new. The greatness of Giza Car horns chatter, the call to prayer sounds across the city and there are the constant cries and shouts of roadside exchanges. It's the everyday cacophony of a single city – the largest in Africa – with a population almost that of Australia. From the windows of our tour coach, the rooftops of Cairo's apartment blocks sprout satellite dishes like fields of metal mushrooms. Minarets rise like the hands of drowning swimmers. It's a sensation as much as a city, and yet it all ends so suddenly and reverently beneath the Giza Plateau. Where modern Cairo finishes, antiquity begins. Atop this limestone mantelpiece, a trio of pyramids – burial tombs for Egypt's pharaohs – has come to embody the ingenuity of the ancient world. Tallest among them is the Great Pyramid, rising almost 140 metres above our heads. For about 4000 years, this was the world's tallest building, puzzled together from 2.3 million limestone blocks during the lifetime of the pharaoh Khufu, who would be buried within. Despite my Egypt first-timer status, it all feels so familiar that there's almost a sense of deja vu. Camels lollop across the sands, tourists riding high on their backs, and souvenir vendors chirp their soon familiar, cryptic greetings: 'Welcome to Alaska' (yes, Alaska…), 'Walk like an Egyptian', or the seemingly promising entreaty, 'Only $1', though, of course, what they're selling is never only $1. But even as I ponder the scale of everything around me – the pyramids, the desert, the expanse of history – I realise that a member of the party is missing: the Great Sphinx. To find this celebrated stone creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion, we must head down, for it's set shyly into a hollow, seemingly guarding now against encroachment from the city that's grown to almost reach to its paws. Once, the Sphinx would have loomed large from the desert but today it feels so much less prominent than I've imagined all my life. Over its 4500-year battle-scarred life, it has lost its nose and, at times, it has been buried up to its neck in sand. It's a survivor, and in this narrow space between the city edge and the pyramids, it's a kind of bridge between antiquity and modernity, like Egypt itself. A town called Alex Egypt is 95 per cent desert, but you wouldn't know it on the so-called Desert Road from Cairo to Alexandria. Once a grey line through a dun-coloured landscape, the road is today a strip turned green. A fertile facade of wheat, peanuts, grapes, oranges and tomatoes flicker past the coach window as we drive through an irrigated corridor from Cairo to the coast. Running beside the road for a time also are the supports for one of Egypt's newest infrastructure projects: the world's longest driverless monorail, a 53-kilometre line that will connect Cairo to the prosaically named New Administrative Capital. Inaugurated as Egypt's capital city in 2024, NAC is one of 24 new cities built in Egypt over the past 15 years to ease congestion in metropolises such as Cairo. Travel the country and you see them rising like sci-fi settlements in places such as El Alamein and New Qena, just outside of Luxor. Behind its outer skin of industry, Alexandria is a city where you can almost feel the formation of language. The Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, gave the Greeks the word 'pharos' for lighthouse, while the Mouseion of Alexandria, built in the 3rd century BC, was the origin for the word 'museum'. Suitably in this city of words, it's a library that commands centre stage. On the shores of the Mediterranean, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is one of Africa's most striking buildings and proof that not all of Egypt's grandest constructions are ancient. Opened in 2002, the library is a giant, angled disc, resembling a sun rising from the Mediterranean and covered in eye-shaped windows (complete with eyelids) that flood the world's largest reading room with natural light. It's as far in appearance from Egypt's temples and tombs as it's possible to get, but despite the modern design, the Bibliotheca is, in effect, a cultural replica of one of the world's most impressive ancient libraries. The Great Library of Alexandria was one of the largest cultural centres of its time, holding up to 400,000 scrolls, and it is said to have gone into decline only after being accidentally burned by Julius Caesar in 48 BC. Today, the Bibliotheca holds 2.1 million items, including half a million books and a replica of the only surviving scroll from the Great Library, held in one of its four museums. Step outside the library, and it appears like the Mediterranean's northern shores, with Alexandria more architecturally reminiscent of Italy or Greece than Cairo or Luxor. 'I've been to Turin [in Italy] twice, and I felt like I fitted right in,' says Hassan Abdelrazik, our Bunnik tour guide, archaeologist and Egyptologist It feels fitting for a city with European origins, having been founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. Hunt further within the city and a 26.5-metre Roman column known as Pompey's Pillar spears up from between apartment blocks. Burrow beneath the city and the 30-metre-deep Roman-era Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, rediscovered in 1900 when a donkey fell through the earth, reveal themselves. They're sights worthy of Rome or Athens, but in Egypt they're like tales from modern history. Of temples, tombs and Tutankhamun After a night back in Cairo, it's an hour by plane to Luxor, flying over a blank sheet of desert marked only by the long green squiggle of the Nile River. Egypt's capital for 1500 years, Luxor was the city of Tutankhamun, Ramses II and Nefertiti, and yet this city of 420,000 people feels more like a town grown large. Horse-drawn carriages wheel visitors around its riverside streets, and at dawn the sky fills with hot air balloons – I count 50 hovering overhead one morning. The Nile River is Luxor's defining line. On its east bank, the ancient Egyptians built their colossal temples, and on its west bank they buried their regal dead in tombs that line the suitably barren landscape of the Valley of the Kings like houses on a dusty street. Luxor is claimed as one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, though it's still a 900-year step forward in time from the Giza pyramids when you enter the Valley of the Kings. And lessons had been learned. Pyramids had proved easy targets for tomb raiders, so Luxor's rulers elected to be buried underground in this valley opposite the city. To date, the tombs of 64 royals and nobles have been discovered in the Valley of the Kings, but there are likely to be more hidden within. A new tomb was discovered as recently as 2006 (and other nearby tombs have been unearthed even this year) and tombs for Ramses VIII, Nefertiti and Tutankhamun's wife, Ankhesenamun, have never been found. Entry tickets grant access to any three tombs in the valley, and while the tomb of Tutankhamun, containing the 19-year-old's sarcophagus and, rather ingloriously, his withered mummified body, is the resoundingly popular choice, it's the painted tombs of Ramses III and Ramses IV that are most memorable. As I step inside these tombs, the colourless desert is replaced by brightly painted walls and ceilings – scenes of kings interacting with gods, wartime heroics and ceilings bedazzled with stars. They are 3000-year-old creations, and yet at times it looks almost as if somebody ducked out to the hardware store for paint just a few months ago. I feel as if I'm standing in a Sistine Chapel from antiquity. Back across the river, it's temples rather than tombs that dominate Luxor's cityscape in a scene often described as the world's greatest open-air museum. At one end of the city, Karnak Temple was the world's largest religious complex, sprawling across 5000 square metres. It might also have been the longest construction project: its multitude of structures were built across 2000 years. It's akin to a construction job starting around the time of Christ and finishing up only now. Inside, Karnak is a forest of columns and obelisks, including the tallest obelisk found in Egypt and the incredible Great Hypostyle Hall, with its 134 columns standing as tall as 21 metres. It's a complex so large it somehow makes the city's other great temple, Luxor Temple, look like a chapel in comparison, and yet the latter is also one of the ancient world's grandest buildings. At the end of a 2.5-kilometre-long avenue lined with 1050 sphinxes that connected the two temples, the entrance to Luxor Temple is framed by towering 14-metre statues of a seated Ramses II and a lone obelisk. A matching obelisk, gifted to France in the 19th century, now stands in Paris's Place de la Concorde. Like Karnak, it's the column-lined Great Colonnade Hall that seems to define Luxor Temple, though look at any wall in the complex and there are carvings, hieroglyphics and reliefs telling historic tales, including additions from Alexander the Great's followers and the Romans. 'They're like the National Geographic of the day,' Hassan says, bouncing with enthusiasm as he details the stone stories of gods and kings. 'Each one is a chapter.' It's late afternoon as we wander through the temple, watching the columns and architraves turn to gold in the day's last light. We're staying this night on a Nile river cruiser docked immediately across the road, and at dawn I return to the temple, somehow compelled to view it one more time, as if to affirm that something this magnificent is real. From feluccas to fancy liners The romance of long felucca journeys on the Nile might have been almost consigned to history, but the world's longest river is still the highway of choice between Luxor and Aswan. Today, three-level ships with comfortable cabins, buffet restaurants, rooftop bars and swimming pools make the voyage, travelling almost in convoy up and down the river. Loading As we set sail, the sky is hazy under the 40-degree heat, with Luxor soon fading into the smudge like a Turner watercolour. Buffaloes and donkeys graze the riverbanks, and villagers wrangle fishing nets from dugout-style boats, as Egypt morphs from a swirl of tourism to rural simplicity. Only 240 kilometres separates Luxor from Aswan, a distance that could easily be covered in a couple of days, but sailings stretch over four days, with boats rising and falling through locks and pausing to visit Egypt's second-largest temple in Edfu and a temple to the crocodile god Sobek in Kom Ombo, where about 300 mummified crocodiles have been found. Most fascinating is the moment, on the approach to Kom Ombo, when the boat squeezes through Gebel Silsila, a 350-metre-wide gorge that forms the Nile's narrowest point in Egypt. Desert dunes roll back from the edges of its low cliffs, stretching for thousands of kilometres across north Africa, and it feels like an origin story: the gorge's sandstone was quarried to build the temples in Luxor, Edfu and beyond. Thousands of years on, that work is still visible. The cliffs are shaped into blocks, resembling something built from Lego bricks. Life on the Nile 'Luxor is about monuments; Aswan is about the Nile,' Hassan says as we sail into Egypt's most southerly city. At dusk, motorless feluccas drift about the river in such numbers as to resemble the start of a Sydney-Hobart yacht race, and the hotel in which Agatha Christie penned Death on the Nile famously sits atop riverside cliffs. For all that, Aswan is still a city dominated by a distant temple and its remarkable survival story. When the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s to create Lake Nasser, the world's sixth-largest artificial lake, more than 100,000 people were displaced and resettled, but even more challenging was the threat the dam posed to one of Egypt's greatest temples. With its iconic 20-metre-high rock reliefs of the seated Ramses II, Abu Simbel was the original Mount Rushmore. Unlike Egypt's other temples, built from stone, Abu Simbel's two temples were carved into the slopes of a mountain. When the dam was built, the temples were doomed to flood, until the world banded together to raise them to higher ground. As Lake Nasser filled, thousands of engineers and workers cut the main temple into 807 blocks, each weighing about six or seven tonnes, piecing them back together 65 vertical metres higher up the slopes and reconstructing their interiors with their walls and ceilings filled with painted tales of Ramses II's war exploits. Dozens of buses now leave Aswan before dawn each day for the three-hour drive to Abu Simbel, and to reach this ancient wonder, you pass more new wonders. Close to Aswan, one of the world's largest solar-power plants, visible from space, opened in 2019, while the road to Abu Simbel cuts through a band of desert greenery – a vast and ever-growing area of circular, pivot-irrigated crops planted to secure Egypt's food security in response to the war in Ukraine. See it from the air and the desert looks pixellated. Back where we began In the imagination, Egypt's pyramids often start and end in Giza, but there are more than 115 pyramids across the country, including 14 alone near Sakkara and Dahshur, 20 kilometres beyond Giza. On arriving back in Cairo, our final day in Egypt is a glimpse beyond the Great Pyramid to this cluster of pyramids, which have their own distinct stories and characteristics. The six-tier Djoser Step Pyramid is the world's oldest pyramid, built a century before the Great Pyramid, while the strangely lopsided Bent Pyramid seems to fold in on itself as it rises. Loading As structures, they're overshadowed by Giza's pyramids, but that somehow only enhances their effect. 'This is my favourite pyramid,' Hassan says of the Bent Pyramid, a view that resonates across the travel group as we wander among these stepped, bent and coloured pyramids. For me, the culminating moment comes at the Red Pyramid, two kilometres across the sands from the Bent Pyramid. In their attempt to foil tomb raiders, the pyramid's makers built its entrance 28 metres above the ground. Climbing to the entrance is like ascending an unnatural mountain, with the desert falling away beneath me and other more distant pyramids rising into view. The pyramid is entered through a low, sloping corridor, its ceiling polished smooth by hats and heads to reveal the red colour in the rock. In the corridor, I make a crouching descent, almost crawling to emerge into a trio of chambers 30 metres below the Earth's surface. With their high, church-like ceilings, each chamber is like a pyramid within a pyramid. Tiers stripe the ceilings in almost mesmerising patterns that could easily be architectural features from a modern design home, and yet they were crafted 4500 years ago. If this is history, I'm a convert. Know before you go: Five dos and don'ts for Egypt Cover up There is no lack of midriffs and other body bits on display among visitors to Egypt's monuments, but this is a conservative country, so all genders, please cover up accordingly as a simple gesture of respect. The hustle Whether at monuments or in markets, you will be pestered to buy trinkets. Be polite in your refusal and try to enjoy the interaction. … but then again One of my most memorable encounters was with a felucca skipper in Luxor who followed me along the riverbank trying to entice me into a sailing, but who soon settled into a chat about our homes and families. Hands off I lost count of the number of people touching and leaning against the walls or columns of Egypt's temples and tombs. Sure, they're stone and solid, but human touch is still corrosive, and it'd be nice to think these monuments will survive tourism to still be around in another 3000 years. Mind your manners When eating in Egypt, it's considered a compliment (to the sheer abundance of food in this country) for the guest to leave a small portion on his or her plate, while it's also a compliment to accept a second serve. The details Loading Tour a-based Egypt specialist Bunnik Tours runs a 16-day Egyptian Discovery escorted journey with a maximum group size of 20. The itinerary includes visits to Cairo, Alexandria, El Alamein, Luxor and Aswan, staying in four to five-star hotels, with four nights aboard a luxury Nile river ship. Tours start at $12,295 a person twin share, with airfares included as well as gratuities. See Enter Tourist visas for a visit of 30 days can be obtained online, but it's also a simple task to organise on arrival at Cairo airport. See Fly Emirates operates direct daily flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide to Dubai, with connections to Cairo, a four-hour flight from Dubai. See
The National
6 days ago
- The National
Grand Egyptian Museum: Six things to look forward to when doors open on November 1
Creating the Grand Egyptian Museum has become a seemingly Sisyphean task, with years of delays suggesting it would be eternally on the verge of opening. These setbacks are understandable. Egypt has undergone revolution, political uncertainty and economic crises since the museum was announced in 2002 – when a foundation stone was laid at the site, two kilometres away from the Giza pyramids. The museum held a soft launch in October 2024, partially opening to the public, but even then an official launch date seemed elusive. The museum was then scheduled for a July 3 opening, which was pushed back following the Israel-Iran conflict. Now, the museum has a new opening date: November 1. With the hilltop in sight and 700,000 years of history waiting inside, here are six things to look forward to at the Grand Egyptian Museum. Architecture Under construction for 21 years, the museum took almost as long to build as its ancient neighbours. Architecturally, it is no less impressive. Designed by Heneghan Peng Architects, a Dublin firm, the museum draws on Pharaonic styles. The structure is shaped like a chamfered pyramid. Its north and south walls are aligned with the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Menkaure. Its entrance features translucent alabaster stone. The complex is decorated with triangles, some more apparent than others, so the entire site will resemble a conglomeration of pyramids. A diorama of the museum is on display inside, by the window that overlooks the Great Pyramids. This is one of the best views of the tombs – provided you visit during the day. Hanging obelisk The first of the museum's attractions is outside its entrance. The hanging obelisk was created in the name of King Ramesses II. It was discovered in two pieces at Tanis in the eastern Nile Delta. After a meticulous restoration process, the obelisk now stands on a platform that allows visitors to walk underneath the towering structure and admire its base. Statue of King Ramesses II Walking into the museum, visitors immediately see a lofty statue of Ramesses II. The 11-metre statue is made of red granite, weighs 83 tonnes and is more than 3,000 years old. The statue was discovered in the early 19th century in the village of Mit Rahina, near the ancient city of Memphis. It was split into six pieces. Initial attempts at restoring the statue failed until 1955, when the fragments were moved to Cairo's Bab Al Hadid Square. The statue was put back together and the square became known as Ramses Square. It was transported to Giza in 2006 and finally made it to the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2018. Journey to Eternity The entrance to the museum's galleries is in itself a remarkable experience. Statues of deities, sarcophagi, columns, sphinxes and obelisks are arranged on the steps. There are pharaohs such as Ramesses II, Merneptah, Amenhotep III and Senwosret I; deities including the falcon-headed Horus; Sekhmet, mother of lion-headed war god Maahes; and Serapis, the Graeco-Egyptian god who is believed to have been a merging of Osiris, god of the afterlife and the sacred bull Apis. Visitors can either climb the wide steps and take their time admiring each piece, or they can briskly head up via a travelator. Called Journey to Eternity, this area aims to reflect the burial rituals of ancient Egypt, specifically of a royal's soul travelling to Heaven to become a star. Curation Curating hundreds of thousands of years of historical artefacts is no straightforward task. Chronological curation is the most obvious approach and, while the museum does that, there are also thematic divisions to the collection. The galleries are arranged in three spaces. Each is dedicated to a specific time period, beginning with the Prehistoric Period, Predynastic Period and Old Kingdom, before transitioning to the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and finally the Late Period and Graeco-Roman Period. Each gallery is then segmented into three spaces, which touch upon everyday society, the royal class and belief systems. Every artefact is an important historical piece. You will find Pharaonic busts in marble, baboons carved into limestone, colossal statues of kings and queens, granite stela marking key moments and, of course, funerary items. Tutankhamun's tomb The boy king is arguably the star of the museum, and artefacts found in his tomb are being kept under wraps until the official opening. King Tutankhamun is one of Ancient Egypt's most famous rulers. He ruled from just nine years old until his death at about 19. His short reign was during one of Ancient Egypt's wealthier periods and made a profound impact. He was instrumental in promoting traditional Egyptian religion and art, restoring tombs and statues dedicated to the old deities. His penchant for art is reflected in the items found in his tomb that will be on display. These include the famous gold mask to protect him in the afterlife. His golden throne, chariots and golden shrines will also be exhibited.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Great Pyramid timeline shattered as new clues point to older origins
A growing body of controversial evidence is challenging the long-accepted timeline of the Great Pyramid, and raising new questions about who may have built it. British author Graham Hancock recently appeared on the American Alchemy podcast, where he claimed geological and astronomical clues suggest the monument was not built 4,500 years ago by Pharaoh Khufu, but by a lost civilization 12,500 years ago. 'There's no doubt that parts of the Great Pyramid were completed and finished by the ancient Egyptians,' Hancock told podcast host Jesse Michels. 'I don't seek to take it away from them, but I think they were inheriting a very ancient tradition and completing a monument that already stood in basic form on the Giza Plateau.' One of Hancock's central arguments centers on the erosion patterns of the nearby Great Sphinx , saying that only heavy rainfall over thousands of years could have caused such deep weathering. 'No such rains were on the Giza Plateau 4,500 years ago, but they certainly were at the end of the last Ice Age,' he said. However, renowned Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass has disputed these claims . He told the Daily Mail he had discovered workers' tombs dating to the 13th century BC and dismissed the erosion theory, attributing the Sphinx's damage to millennia of wind, not rain. 'If someone built this pyramid 12,000 years ago, aren't you going to leave any evidence at the site to prove that?' said Dr Hawass. 'Me and my colleague, Mark Lehner, have excavated Giza for the last 50 years. All that we discovered until now has to do with the Fourth Dynasty.' The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid, and was constructed by Pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. It is one of three within the Giza plateau, the other two include the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure, as well as the Great Sphinx. All shrouded in mystery due to their unclear construction methods, precise astronomical alignment and still-debated purpose. Dr Hawass shared further insights during a July appearance on the Matt Beall Limitless podcast, including details about a planned excavation inside the Great Pyramid to search for Khufu's lost tomb. Hancock, however, remains unconvinced that any burial ever took place inside. 'It's well known that no burial of any Pharaoh was ever found in the Great Pyramid or, for that matter, in any of the 100 pyramids in Egypt,' said Hancock, who is known for his controversial theories about ancient civilizations. 'It's well known that no burial of any Pharaoh was ever found in the Great Pyramid or, for that matter, in any of the 100 pyramids in Egypt,' said hancock. 'Some of that can be attributed to tomb robbery, but in the case of the Great Pyramid, it was completely closed and sealed until Arab raiders under Khalif Ma'mun broke in. 'They were expecting to find enormous treasures and wealth, but instead, they found a completely empty building with nothing inside.' Hancock also rejected the mainstream view that the Great Pyramid was built in just 23 years during Khufu's reign, calling that idea 'absurd.' Instead, he proposed that the structure may have taken hundreds, even thousands, of years to complete. Adding to his theory, Hancock pointed to the massive bedrock foundations beneath the three pyramids at Giza, naturally existing formations that were leveled before construction. While most archaeologists believe the foundations are natural, Hancock believes the platforms themselves are much older. He linked the structures to a lost epoch known in Egyptian lore as Zep Tepi, or 'The First Time,' citing astronomical alignments between the pyramid platforms and Orion's Belt as it appeared 12,500 years ago. 'At 4,500 years ago, the stars of Orion's Belt didn't match up,' he said. 'The Great Sphinx was looking at the sun rising against the background of Taurus. But in 12,500 BC, it aligned perfectly with Leo.' Dr Hawass, however, dismissed Hancock's claims as unfounded, emphasizing that the ancient Egyptians left behind detailed records of the Great Pyramid's construction. 'The Wadi El-Jarf Papyri is a diary from an overseer named Merer,' he said. 'He wrote, 'I am from the Delta. I was hired by Khufu and held the title of inspector, with 40 workmen under me.' The papyri also describe how Merer led crews to the Tura quarries to cut fine white limestone, which was then transported on wooden sledges to cargo boats. These vessels docked at harbors built in front of each pyramid. 'Egyptian history has no gaps that would justify dating the pyramids to 12,000 or 20,000 years ago,' Hawass added. 'That era, known as the Epipaleolithic period, marked the earliest stages of civilization, far too primitive for monuments of this scale.'
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Great Pyramid timeline shattered as new 'evidence' reveals who really built them
A growing body of controversial evidence is challenging the long-accepted timeline of the Great Pyramid, and raising new questions about who may have built it. British author Graham Hancock recently appeared on the American Alchemy podcast, where he claimed geological and astronomical clues suggest the monument was not built 4,500 years ago by Pharaoh Khufu, but by a lost civilization 12,500 years ago. 'There's no doubt that parts of the Great Pyramid were completed and finished by the ancient Egyptians,' Hancock told podcast host Jesse Michels. 'I don't seek to take it away from them, but I think they were inheriting a very ancient tradition and completing a monument that already stood in basic form on the Giza Plateau.' One of Hancock's central arguments centers on the erosion patterns of the nearby Great Sphinx, saying that only heavy rainfall over thousands of years could have caused such deep weathering. 'No such rains were on the Giza Plateau 4,500 years ago, but they certainly were at the end of the last Ice Age,' he said. However, renowned Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass has disputed these claims. He told the Daily Mail he had discovered workers' tombs dating to the 13th century BC and dismissed the erosion theory, attributing the Sphinx's damage to millennia of wind, not rain. 'If someone built this pyramid 12,000 years ago, aren't you going to leave any evidence at the site to prove that?' said Dr Hawass. 'Me and my colleague, Mark Lehner, have excavated Giza for the last 50 years. All that we discovered until now has to do with the Fourth Dynasty.' The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid, and was constructed by Pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. It is one of three within the Giza plateau, the other two include the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure, as well as the Great Sphinx. All shrouded in mystery due to their unclear construction methods, precise astronomical alignment and still-debated purpose. Dr Hawass shared further insights during a July appearance on the Matt Beall Limitless podcast, including details about a planned excavation inside the Great Pyramid to search for Khufu's lost tomb. Hancock, however, remains unconvinced that any burial ever took place inside. 'It's well known that no burial of any Pharaoh was ever found in the Great Pyramid or, for that matter, in any of the 100 pyramids in Egypt,' said Hancock, who is known for his controversial theories about ancient civilizations. 'It's well known that no burial of any Pharaoh was ever found in the Great Pyramid or, for that matter, in any of the 100 pyramids in Egypt,' said Hna 'Some of that can be attributed to tomb robbery, but in the case of the Great Pyramid, it was completely closed and sealed until Arab raiders under Khalif Ma'mun broke in. 'They were expecting to find enormous treasures and wealth, but instead, they found a completely empty building with nothing inside.' Hancock also rejected the mainstream view that the Great Pyramid was built in just 23 years during Khufu's reign, calling that idea 'absurd.' Instead, he proposed that the structure may have taken hundreds, even thousands, of years to complete. Adding to his theory, Hancock pointed to the massive bedrock foundations beneath the three pyramids at Giza, naturally existing formations that were leveled before construction. While most archaeologists believe the foundations are natural, Hancock believes the platforms themselves are much older. He linked the structures to a lost epoch known in Egyptian lore as Zep Tepi, or 'The First Time,' citing astronomical alignments between the pyramid platforms and Orion's Belt as it appeared 12,500 years ago. 'At 4,500 years ago, the stars of Orion's Belt didn't match up,' he said. 'The Great Sphinx was looking at the sun rising against the background of Taurus. But in 12,500 BC, it aligned perfectly with Leo.' Dr Hawass, however, dismissed Hancock's claims as unfounded, emphasizing that the ancient Egyptians left behind detailed records of the Great Pyramid's construction. 'The Wadi El-Jarf Papyri is a diary from an overseer named Merer,' he said. 'He wrote, 'I am from the Delta. I was hired by Khufu and held the title of inspector, with 40 workmen under me.' The papyri also describe how Merer led crews to the Tura quarries to cut fine white limestone, which was then transported on wooden sledges to cargo boats. These vessels docked at harbors built in front of each pyramid. 'Egyptian history has no gaps that would justify dating the pyramids to 12,000 or 20,000 years ago,' Hawass added. 'That era, known as the Epipaleolithic period, marked the earliest stages of civilization, far too primitive for monuments of this scale.'
