“From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.” Amazed Napoleon Bonaparte said astonishingly.
Egyptologists and scientists are plagued by a number of questions about Egypt and its ancient times. One of the most perplexing of them is how were the pyramids built? And another controversial query is; who built them?
Although a number of scientific theories were concluded to explain the processes of building those huge landmarks and linking these techniques accurately with the ancient Egyptians, countless contradicting claims were raised by different people claiming that those large milestones were built by aliens, Jewish Hebrews, Gypsies, Negroids, Scandinavian Nordics, and Semitic Qaum ‘aad!
The importance and the significance of the pyramids, and more specifically the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), is drawn from the fact of being the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the World, and also being the only one remaining largely intact. Not only that, but this tremendous Egyptian landmark (initially 146.5 meters) was also the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Nothing surpassed its glory throughout this lengthy period.
AboutIslam’s official Facebook page questioned its readers on the dispute in a Facebook post.
With 141 likes, 24 shares, and 15 comments, discussing this topic with our readers came up with some of the following views:
Yasir Nara said, “The ‘Faroh’ did it using their slaves which were Jews.”
One of the fake pictures of the internet hoax claiming giant skeletons of Qaum Aad.
Refutations by National Geographic, and other analysts. |
Manuelo Ruffin Al-Ikhlas Ali, made a mix saying: “They always stated black Africans did, but the earliest blacks were Jews.”
An Egyptian reader, Dina Rabea, said: “The Pharaohs! Not Jews or other groups! Old Pharaohs built the pyramids via seasonally-jobless peasants.”
Shumaila Saeed said, “Marvelous job, whoever did it.”
Saadat Ali told AboutIslam: “Jews claim they built it, on the other side of the fence, the Egyptians say they built it to commemorate their kings. I think the jury is still out on this.”
Another OI fan Shelly Mruk, said: “The reason they built them for one person is because that person was their god.., so Aliens did it.”
Claim of Semitic Qaum ‘aad
According to historic heritage chronicles of Medieval historians; Qaum ‘aad skeletons were unscientifically claimed to vary between 20 and 30 meters tall in average. This anthropometrically means their arms were close to eight meters long and their hand palms ranged between 125 centimeters and two meters. This also means that their feet were about two and a half meter long, and of a one meter width.
Taking these parameters in comparison with the measurements and proportions of all the chambers and corridors in the pyramids, in addition to the ladders and the tools excavated in the tombs of workers and builders surrounding the pyramids, we realize that nothing not even the palms of those claimed-giant human beings of Qaum ‘aad can pass in any corridor or chamber inside the pyramids.
The Holy Qur’an mentioned Qaum ‘aad saying in the verse number 21 in Surat Al-Ahqaf the 46th chapter of the Qur’an: “And mention, [O Muhammad], the brother of ‘Aad, when he warned his people in the [region of] al-Ahqaf – and warners had already passed on before him and after him – [saying], “Do not worship except Allah . Indeed, I fear for you the punishment of a terrible day.” Al-Ahqaf means an arid sandy desert region which is not one of the characteristics of Egypt in the Qur’anic contexts which mention the country in all its verses as land of farms & crops.
Another Surah also stated Qaum ‘aad saying: “Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Aad -. [With] Iram – who had lofty pillars, The likes of whom had never been created in the land?” (Surat Al-Fajr: 89:6-7-8). Allah mentions in this verse that Qaum ‘aad inhabit a site called Iram.
This city is thought by archaeologists to be located in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
This remote geographical location in south Arabia makes Qaum ‘aad extremely far away from the Ancient Egyptian Empire and its cities.
Not to mention that Allah when He mentioned Qaum ‘aad in the Holy Qur’an, He differentiated between them and ‘al Firaun, thus it’s grammatically obvious in Arabic Language that Qaum ‘aad were not an Egyptian group of people and didn’t live in Egypt.
Some Arabs claim that the verse “The likes of whom had never been created in the land” is a proof of the ultimate magnificence of ‘aad which only matches with the splendor of the pyramids solely. However, the verse shows through it Arabic vocabulary that Iram of ‘aad is gloriously unique and splendidly distinctive among the globe’s landmarks, but no synonym in the verse assert that it was the top achievement of all human civilizations as some argue.
The archaeologist George Raisner discovered the tomb of the Egyptian King Khufu’s mother, Queen Hetep Heres I, to the east of the Great Pyramid while no sole tomb for any single bone of Qaum ‘aad was found in entire Egypt.
Claim of Aliens
The statue of the Egyptian engineer Hemiunu who built the Great Pyramid of Giza for the Egyptian King Khufu, at the Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim, Germany. Hemiunu lived during the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt at around 2570 BC, while the first traces of Hebrews entered Egypt after nearly 1,000 years of finishing his miraculous structure.
The pyramids of Giza in Egypt are not a mysterious thing with puzzling symbols as thought by some North Americans. A multitude of scientific researches all through the past two centuries found that the Giza pyramids belong to the well-known Egyptian kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure from the Fourth Dynasty to be used as royal burial places for eternity. This accurately matches with the Ancient Egyptian literature and writings which talk about the belief of ancient Egyptians in eternity and afterlife.
Most of the 138 pyramids found in Egypt till 2008 including Giza Pyramids are not sole towering buildings; they are part of structural complexes connected to each other. The complexes of Giza Pyramids include the pyramids themselves, the funerary temple, the side pyramids, solar boat pits, the ramp and the valley temple. These complexes clearly appear for any visitor to the site.
One of the most recent archaeological evidences which assures the results and outcomes of the numerous old archeological excavations and studies conducted on the site of Giza Plateau and its ancient Egyptian burial complex was the discovery carried out in 2012 by the archaeologist Pierre Tallet in a rock cave at Wadi Al-Jarff area, two kilometers south of Zaafarana town on the Red Sea coast of Egypt.
Via radiometric dating technique, the team found a collection of papyri dated to the reign of the Egyptian King Khufu mentioning in ancient Egyptian Language the number of workers, artisans, and boats that were used to transport the pyramid’s blocks to the Giza plateau to the northwest.
According to studies carried out by the French mission, these papyri were part of the diary of an ancient Egyptian engineer who was involved in the construction of the Great Pyramid. The papyri also show the Egyptian engineer’s working plan and a description of the way the ancient Egyptians transported the blocks.
Another archaeologist Rudolf Cooper also uncovered graffiti in the Western Desert at the Dakhla oasis revealing that the Egyptian King Khufu and his son Djedef Re sent missions to import colors and oxides for decorating the Pyramid’s inner walls.
The tools excavated show that it is similar and close to other building tools used and found in other human civilization on planet Earth. No mentioning of any aliens or extraterrestrial creatures joining these constructional plans!
Claim of Jewish Hebrew Slaves
Cross section of Khufu’s Great Pyramid.
Archeological and bio-anthropological evidences are located a few meters beside the pyramid in the necropolis of the Egyptian builders of the pyramid which was found at the eastern rock of the Giza Plateau.
Each tomb contains details in ancient Egyptian Language about the tomb’s owner and his job description, as well as his or her skeleton and funerary collection.
At the entrance of Khufu’s solar boat pit, visitors can see cartouches in red which were scrawled by the Egyptian builders of the Great Pyramid in the 17th year of the Egyptian King Khufu’s reign.
The language written by them is obviously the ancient Egyptian Language and those ancient Egyptian workers used to write on the walls of the structures they built in order to assert their belonging to an individual or king.
That’s while no single Hebrew letter or sign or symbol was found in any place in Giza Plateau neither on the workers’ and builders’ belongings nor on any rock.
With 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt. No single pyramid was built by national or foreign slaves. Incalculable notable landmarks and not only the pyramids were built in Egypt since the time of the First Dynasty till the 30th Dynasty; why would the ancient Egyptians use foreign slaves for the task of building the Great pyramid solely!
Via carbon-dating of many materials found at the site of Giza Plateau and its burial complex, the site appears to be related to the time period of the Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egyptian rulers.
This while the individuals of Jewish Hebrew ancestry who traveled to Egypt lived in the country for some decades during the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egyptian History’s timeline or the beginning of the New Kingdom. This means Jewish Hebrews didn’t enter Egypt except after the 14th Dynasty.
This reveals that there are at least 10 Dynasties between the time of building Giza pyramids and the entrance of Jewish Hebrews to the country; this translates to about 1,000 years difference!
Ancient Egypt depended on seasonal agriculture, a system which left hundreds of thousands of ancient Egyptian farmers unemployed during the flooding season.
About 10,000 of those unemployed national farmers in addition to Egyptian artisans, local craftsmen, native artists, indigenous architecture engineers, and citizens who weren’t able to pay taxes to the regional administrations were grouped in 3-month working shifts to work at Giza Plateau, and were paid on daily bases in the form of goods and services since the banknote system wasn’t known in those ancient times.
Claim of Gypsies, Negroids, and Scandinavians
Cemetery of the Egyptian pyramid builders. (Image credit: Dr. Zahi Hawwas 1990).
Some groups of Gypsies who live in the west of the Balkans Peninsula in southeastern Europe claim that they are an Egyptian ethnic group who built the pyramids then immigrated to live in Europe. On the other hand, some African Negroids and racist fanatic Black American groups started to claim that ancient Egyptians were Negroid Black African people who traveled to Egypt from Kenya or Mali and built the pyramids.
On the other side, a group of Scandinavians claim that the ancient Egyptians were Nordic people who travelled to Egypt from Scandinavia and built the pyramids.
These claims are highly questionable if faced with genetic studies which show that ancient Egyptians are called “Egyptian ethnic group” that descends from the Eastern Hamitic ethnic branch which comes from the Hamitic Family which descends from the Mediterranean Race that subdivides from the Caucasoid Human Race.
Some studies conducted on the DNA extracted from Egyptian mummies used a technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify specific segments of DNA.
Although, human DNA degrades relatively quickly in hot conditions, moreover, PCR method is susceptible to contamination with modern DNA, especially when amplifying genes from humans or bacteria that are likely to be present in the environment. Yet, the latest DNA sequencing techniques can instead amplify specific sequences, these modern methods read millions of small fragments and give a broad picture of the entire DNA present in a sample, making it easier to spot contamination.
The genetic studies conducted on ancient Egyptian mummies found that the gene frequencies, blood typing, and DNA sampling of ancient Egyptian mummies is similar to modern Egyptians and North African Mediterranean populations, forming a sibling group to ethnic groups like Amazigh, Nubians and Beja. Something which assures that the Egyptian pyramids builders were not Negroids, nor Dravid Gypsies, or Nordic.
“Combo Claim” Mixing between Hebrew Jews & Qaum ‘aad Semitics
Some people use the 38th verse of Surat Al-Qasas in the Holy Qur’an to claim that the pyramids were built by Firaun who was a Semitic king from Qaum ‘aad according to their claim and he used the Jewish Hebrews to do it. (And Pharaoh said, “O eminent ones, I have not known you to have a god other than me. Then ignite for me, O Haman, [a fire] upon the clay and make for me a tower that I may look at the God of Moses. And indeed, I do think he is among the liars.”)
The pyramids of Giza can be visited daily at anytime throughout the day and any visitor can clearly see that their rocks are formed of limestone and archeologist showed hundreds of years ago that the chemical composition of the rocks of the pyramids are of limestone delivered from elevations around the Nile valley.
Radiometric Dating Techniques have also assured that the pyramids were constructed in the ages of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, while the Jewish Hebrew Exodus from Egypt during the time of Firaun took place most probably during the New Kingdom; nearly 1,000 years after the building of the pyramids.
Researchers have confirmed a widely-accepted theory as to how the Egyptians built the pyramids and in particular, how they were able to transport such large blocks. Scientists have long been baffled about how they were able to transport such large blocks, on average 2.5 tons, with many theories contributing to the debate. The enormous stones were moved without the assistance of modern technology, moving material of this size and weight is a truly amazing feat.
“For the construction of the pyramids, the ancient Egyptians had to transport heavy blocks of stone and large statues across the desert,” researchers at the University of Amsterdam said. Scientists from the University of Amsterdam think that they have come up with a solution, which is simply “water”. Water led to wet sand which all comes down to decrease the amount of friction.
The Egyptians would place the large blocks and other heavy objects on a sledge which was then dragged by a large number of men. However, wetting the sand in front of the sledge greatly reduces friction and meant that the pulling force required was halved and thus half the amount of manpower than previously thought was needed.
If you try and transport something really heavy like those 2.5 ton-bricks, then the sled sinks into the ground and digs into the sand at the front of the sled. This sand would eventually build up, forming what is called a “berm,” and it would have to be regularly cleared away. Yet, wet sand does not buildup in the way that dry sand does. And herein lies the key.
If you get just the right amount of dampness, microdroplets of water will bind the grains of sand together, and capillary bridges (the water that binds them together) will form across the grains. Ultimately, this prevents the sand from berming (building up) in front of the sled. Amazingly, this process also cuts the amount of force required to drag the sled in half, which makes it possible to complete the project in the time we know that it took.
“The Egyptians moistened the sand over which the sledge moved. By using the right quantity of water, they could halve the number of workers needed,” says a statement released by the physicists. Wetting the sand also meant that it doesn’t accumulate at the front of the sledge as it is being dragged and wet sand is twice as stiff and firm as dry sand, making the pulling a lot easier.
The researchers set up a miniature replica of the technique in a laboratory and used precise methods of measuring. “The physicists placed a laboratory version of the Egyptian sledge in a tray of sand,” reveals the press release, “They determined both the required pulling force and the stiffness of the sand as a function of the quantity of water in the sand.
To determine the stiffness they used a Rheometer, which shows how much force is needed to deform a certain volume of sand.”
The results showed that the pulling force reduced proportionally to the stiffness of the sand. It seems that getting the correct proportion of water to sand was a key to finding the optimum conditions for easier pulling.
This seems to have confirmed a theory that was already part of the debate. A wall painting that is found in the tomb of “Djehuti Hotep” dating back to 1900 BC clearly shows a man on the sledge pouring water onto the sand in front. This historical evidence teamed with the research that the physicists have produced seems to confirm the method the Egyptians used to transport heavy objects.
It’s also worth mentioning that although this Egyptian technique seems fairly simple (and is one of the world’s oldest science based methods) it does have implications and uses in the modern world such as how to optimize the transport and processing of granular material, which at present accounts for about ten percent of the worldwide energy consumption.