In this book, Professor Joseph Davidovits explains the intriguing theory that made him famous. He shows how the Pyramids were built by using re-agglomerated stone (a natural limestone treated like a concrete), and not with huge carved blocks, hauled on fragile ramps. Archaeology bears him out, as well as hieroglyphic texts, scientific analysis, religious and historical facts. Several independant scientific studies reveal the ultimate proofs that the pyramids blocks are not natural. You may find various papers or opinions challenging the theory, but all prefer ignoring these analysis. Believing or not in the artificial stone theory is now simply irrelevant. It is a fact, a truth that is still fought by some people for irrational purposes. Here we finally have the first complete presentation on how and why the Egyptian pyramids were built. We discover its brilliant creator, the great scribe and architect, Imhotep. Joseph Davidovits sweeps aside the conventional image which cripples Egyptology and delivers a captivating and surprising view of Egyptian civilisation. He charts the rise of this technology, its apogee with the Pyramids at Giza, and the decline. Everything is logical and brilliant, everything fits into place. Chapter by chapter, the revelations are sensational, especially when Joseph Davidovits explains why the pharaohs stopped building great pyramids because of an over-exploitation of raw materials and a likely environmental disaster. We understand why Cheops and Ramses II represent two Egyptian civilisations completely different in their beliefs. On the one hand, the God Khnum mandates Cheops to build his pyramid in agglomerated stone, while on the other hand, the God Amun orders Ramses to carve stone for the temples of Luxor and Karnak. 30 years after the best seller book: The Pyramids: an enigma solved, after 30 years of new research, and new discoveries, you will understand why the theory is more alive than ever, why more and more scientists and archaeologists agree, simply because it is the truth.

Joseph Davidovits explains the intriguing theory that made him famous. He shows how the Pyramids were built by using re-agglomerated stone (a natural limestone treated like a concrete), and not with huge carved blocks, hauled on fragile ramps. Archaeology bears him out, as well as hieroglyphic texts, scientific analysis, religious and historical facts. The author sweeps aside the conventional image which cripples Egyptology and delivers a captivating and surprising view of this civilisation; the first complete presentation on how the pyramids were built. The revelations are sensational, especially when he explains why the pharaohs stopped building great pyramids because of an over-exploitation of raw materials and a likely environmental disaster. He charts the rise of this technology, its apogee at Giza, and the decline. Everything is logical, everything fits into place.

The pyramids of Egypt have remained one of the oldest and most puzzling mysteries of mankind. Until now, no one, Egyptologists included, has satisfactorily explained how the pyramids were built. The traditional theory explaining that long lines of workers hoisted and dragged massive blocks up enormous ramps does not adequately address the hazards and complexities that make such an operation highly unlikely, especially since hundreds of the largest blocks in the pyramids are situated at great heights. The uncanny fit of blocks, as close as 1/500th of an inch, puzzles Egyptologists. Hard metals, such as iron and bronze, were not yet developed to produce good stone-cutting tools. Logistical problems of constructing the Great Pyramid are staggering and have never been reconciled; the scale and perfection is too grand. During the 20-year reign of the pharaoh who built it, about 2 1/2 million blocks were produced and perfectly assembled. As scientific methods of investigation become more sophisticated, the list of enigmas lengthens and more questions are raised than answered. Dr. Joseph Davidovits, research chemist and founder of the chemistry of geopolymerization, has solved the mystery. He has recovered the great, forgotten technology used to build the pyramids. His discovery is so dramatic and far reaching in scope that major aspects of ancient history will require rethinking. This technology and proof of its use in ancient Egypt are vividly and convincingly presented in the Pyramids: An Enigma Solved. Our concept of ancient Egypt will never be the same! -- Dust jacket.

What do the pyramids of Egypt really represent? What could have driven so many to so great, and often so dangerous, an effort? Was the motivation religious or practical? Illustrated with more than 300 photographs and drawings, this book presents an original approach to the subject of pyramid building. It reveals the connection between devices that served both a practical need for survival and a spiritual belief in gods and goddesses. It examines Egyptian technologies and techniques from the origins of pyramid development to the step-by-step details of how the ground was leveled, how the site was oriented, and how the stone was raised and placed to meet at a distant point in the sky. Here the author also asks and answers questions virtually ignored for the last century. He discloses, for example, the ancient use of shadows, now denigrated to the ornamental back-yard sundial, but once an important tool for telling the height of an object, geographical directions, the seasons of the year, and the time of day. He also reinterprets the ancient "stretching of the cord" ceremony, which once was thought to have only religious significance but here is shown as the means of establishing the sides of a pyramid.

Going beyond even the expertise of archaeologists and historians, world-class engineer Craig B. Smith explores the planning and engineering behind the incredible Great Pyramid of Giza. How would the ancient Egyptians have developed their building plans, devised work schedules, managed laborers, solved specific design and engineering problems, or even improvised on the job? The answers are here, along with dazzling, one-of-a-kind color photographs and beautiful hand-drawn illustrations of tools, materials, and building techniques the ancient masters used. In his foreword to the book, Egypt's Undersecretary of State for the Giza Monuments Zahi Hawass explains the importance of understanding the Great Pyramid as a straightforward construction project.

This book examines the architectural achievements of the Egyptian pyramid builders and how they may have accomplished those deeds. Many of their building techniques we today cannot explain. The baffling puzzle of how the stones were raised is one of these. The big puzzle aside, many minor mysteries are for the first time explained. Egyptologists agree that those performing the heavy labor were conscripted citizens, not slaves. The builders were inventive, motivated, daring, and superbly organized. They made mistakes, the price of innovation. Still, they persevered, and created some of the most impressive monuments in history. This book should help the reader understand the problems the builders faced, and instill admiration of their work.

Presents conclusive evidence that ancient Egypt was originally the remnant of an earlier, highly sophisticated civilization • Supports earlier speculations based on myth and esoteric sources with scientific proof from the fields of genetics, engineering, and geology • Provides further proof of the connection between the Mayans and ancient Egyptians • Links the mystery of Cro-Magnon man to the rise and fall of this ancient civilization In the late nineteenth century, French explorer Augustus Le Plongeon, after years of research in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, concluded that the Mayan and Egyptian civilizations were related--as remnants of a once greater and highly sophisticated culture. The discoveries of modern researchers over the last two decades now support this once derided speculation with evidence revealing that the Sphinx is thousands of years older than Egyptologists have claimed, that the pyramids were not tombs but geomechanical power plants, and that the megaliths of the Nabta Playa reveal complex astronomical star maps that existed 4,000 years before conventional historians deemed such knowledge possible. Much of the past support for prehistoric civilization has relied on esoteric traditions and mythic narrative. Using hard scientific evidence from the fields of archaeology, genetics, engineering, and geology, as well as sacred and religious texts, Malkowski shows that these mythic narratives are based on actual events and that a highly sophisticated civilization did once exist prior to those of Egypt and Sumer. Tying its cataclysmic fall to the mysterious disappearance of Cro-Magnon culture, Before the Pharaohs offers a compelling new view of humanity’s past.