Originally posted by outsider
Cool theory, but I think they pretty much know what they are all about - at least the main ones. Could be other uses besides tombs that we are not aware of, but just not enough room inside for a bomb shelter - unless it's just for a few people.

Totally agree. I didn't mean they were bomb shelters, i just think
the pyramids are the best design for a building. So stable!

you guys watched Stargate one too many times.

1.Time capsule hypothesis
2. Phrophecy in stone hypothesis
3.Observatory hypothesis
4. Machine or Power Plant hypothesis
5.The Weapon hypothesis

What about the theory that they are lavish tombs for great kings?

The only problem with the tomb theory is that no where in the pyramids do they say that they are a tomb and nothing written says so either.Also, the great pyramids are accredited to Cheops Khafre etc., but nothing other than the one graffitti like signature, which of course was fabricated, was found.Moving all of those stones in the period allowed from the distance they were moved and then shaped, is an impossiblity in itself.I think the purpose for them is far beyond us for right now.And any other assumptions on what there purpose is is meerley speculation.

[Edited on 11-3-2004 by jhova]

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
A direct hit, with a 10 KT tactical nuke , will blow away this so-called shelter. So it can't be a good theory. But I have to admit it , it's a cool dream.

A direct hit would blow away anything =p

Maybe it wasn't a nuclear weapon, I know the best way to get rid of a population is through so, but what if they weren't trying to get rid of the entire population but the majority of them. i really wish we knew more about these pyramids. maybe there's glass at the bottom of the sand where there was once a nuclear attack, and these pyramids are just the tip of something much taller. alright maybe i'm going a little over board, but it's interesting nonetheless to think about.

no. if there were alien threats, don't u think that the ancients would've recorded it in some way? besides, have u heard of that ufo explosion over new zealand? nothing that they built could've withstood that blast and its after effects.

I dont think it would happen because you would try and have a bomb shelter you couldent see and the pyramids kinda stick out a bit so would be noticed.

Regards to the comment about a 10KT nuke destroying everything with a "direct hit"...

1: A 10kt nuke is of a similar size to the one that screwed Hiroshima. This isnt very big, and most of Hiroshima was left entirely intact, it was only the industrial sector that got pasted, and even then most buildings where left standing anyway, with the only buildings completely smashed where the wooden ones. Most of the stone/brick buildings where intact. If lightweight buildings such as a Japanese courtroom or church could survive, I am pretty sure the pyramids could.
2:99% of the time, a nuke is detonated above the target, several thousand feet up, relying on the pressure wave to destroy the target, rather than the heat. It is conceivable that a pyramid could easily deflect a blast.
3:As for the so called backdraft effect, if you had openings on every side of the pyramid, the air pressure inside will be the same as that of the outside, and as the blastwave is fleeting, before being sucked back up into the mushroom cloud, the resulting vacuum would be minimal. Plus if any air was sucked out of the pyramid, it would be immediately replaced with air rushing back in (ie: air leaves one side of the pyramid, but is sucked back in from the other)
4: A small tactical nuke is very survivable even in the open, only about 1000ft from ground zero would you be in with a real chance of dying. Outside of this killzone, as long as you can get yourself in cover (ie a ditch etc), chances are you will still be alive.

Obviously larger bombs such as a 100MT hydrogen bomb are a different story, but a small weapon such as a tactical nuke would not stand a chance in destroying the pyramids.

And before anyone tries to argue the point with me, I work at the AWE in Aldermaston. For those that do not know what this is, its where the UK makes and designs its nukes.

Just like to point out I am not advocating that they where bomb shelters, just saying that they could be used for them.

Also, I do not lend credence to the fact that the Egyptians built them. If we where to follow what we are told, the egyptians went from crappy little bent pyramids, to a huge technological feet with no explanation on how they did it. I feel all the smaller pyramids etc amre mearly copies of the original, but bad copies at that

well it took them over a thousand years to perfect the technology

About 2630 BC: The Step Pyramid of Djoser designed by Imhotep is the first pyramid like structure completed, and is also the world's first known monumental stone building.

About 2575 BC: The Red Pyramid is built by Snofru as the first successful true pyramid, after a number of failures. It has smoothed, cased sides.

About 2551 BC: The Great Pyramid of Kufru is built, the largest pyramid ever constructed in Egypt, and may also be the first pyramid to have subsidiary queen's pyramids attached to the complex.

About 2465 BC: Userkaf's pyramid at Saqqara is the first pyramid with an entrance in the pavement of the pyramid's courtyard on the north side rather than on the face of the pyramid itself. Strangely, the mortuary temple in this pyramid is located on the south side, with only an offering hall on the east.

About 2375 BC: For the first time that we know of, we find pyramid text within the pyramid of Unas at Saqqara

About 2278 BC: The pyramid of Pepi II is the last to be built in the traditions of the Old Kingdom, as well as the last to build any monumental pyramid until the beginning of the 12th Dynasty and the Middle Kingdom.

About 1991 BC: Amenemhet I uses mudbrick to build his pyramid at Lisht. Now, not only is the complex named, but each component of the complex is also given a name.

About 1956 BC: Senusret I's pyramid at Lisht is built with more subsidiary pyramids then any complex built before, or after his time. 

About 1877 BC: With the pyramid of Senusret II at Lahun, the builders become more concerned with security then tradition, and for the first time locate the entrance to the pyramid not under the north chapel in the center of the pyramid's north wall like many earlier complexes, but rather hid the entry passage in the pavement of the pyramid courtyard near the east end of the pyramid's south side. He also incorporates a more complex substructure suggestive of a move towards the worship of Osiris, and away from the traditions of the sun cult, probably signaling the coming end to the pyramid builders.

About 1817 BC: Amenemhet III becomes the last, large scale successful pyramid builder with his structure at Hawara. Both it, and his pyramid at Dahshur are built with a monolithic Burial chamber block with niches for the sarcophagus and canompic jars. 

I had never heard of the ice age being caused by a nuclear war theory, so I googled it. I searched for "prehistoric Nuclear war" and got a interesting site. It claims that since dinosaur bones are ofton found near uranium... It was the Dinosaurs themselves that had the Nuclear wars. I highly doubt that one. Maybe with Humans, or some other kind of species like us. I can just picture some Rambo-like Raptor in a gilly-suit sneaking up on the T-rex's.

You never heard of the dino fossils with the "Ban the Bomb" sign?

More from Terry Pratchett!

Mmmm... Bunker... Do you think they could have made them any bigger? Maybe they also painted the top red, then red and blue all the way round, alternating every 3 steps down or so, with "+5" starting at the base of the pyramid up to "+50" right at the top...

[edit on 6-8-2004 by The Cockroach]

there's only 1 small room in a pyramid,if they were shelters they would be designed to shelter hundreds or thousands of poeple which is not possible with egyptian pyramids

Note that the ancient artifacts left were all made out of stone.They had to use something like a maser to cut granite,it was too hard for anything else.These look roughcut,like the red granite of the pyramid.
Limestone is much easier to work with,you can even fashion it by hand,although time consuming.But limestone does not last.It deteriorates over time and weathering.Even the giant blocks in the pyramid are not indestructable,for many are cracked through. But does that mean its purpose is over?
The Sphinx,another Deity with this time the head of a man with the body of a lion.Usually they had it the other way around.Ideas?
Mine is that there were not actually creatures with mixed apendages on them,as some of Edgar Cayce's reading said. They were spiritual entities,perhaps possessing humans for a while,endowing them with great wisdom.Could be man or animal,like the Visitors.
"I was told to say that out and have it dictated.Or else!" Edgar Cayce. Do not take any of his readings as gospell.

Note that the ancient artifacts left were all made out of stone.They had to use something like a maser to cut granite,it was too hard for anything else.

Man were you sleeping in class the day they explained how the ancients cut and dressed stone? It's a product of Human ingenuity and lots of blood sweat and tears.

I know an attempt was made to move an Easter Island statue.Took a week of work and the man in charge nearly had a stroke.And that was only a short distance.And they did not cut any stone carvings.

The pyramids? The natives said right from the start,
The stones moved under their own power."

The is a giant 2500 ton cut block of stone in the middle east somewhere.How on earth would they move that? Place it on a few logs?Have to lift it first to get it on a log.
Try lifting a small rock please,let's say knee-high.