4,600-year-old step pyramid uncovered in Egypt

Archaeologists working near the ancient settlement of Edfu, in southern Egypt, have uncovered a step pyramid that dates back about 4,600 years, predating the Great Pyramid of Giza by at least a few decades.

The step pyramid, which once stood as high as 43 feet, is one of seven so-called "provincial" pyramids built by either the pharaoh Huni (reign ca. 2635-2610 B.C.) or Snefru (reign ca. 2610-2590 B.C.). Over time, the step pyramid's stone blocks were pillaged, and the monument was exposed to weathering, so today, it's only about 16 feet tall.

More at Source (foxnews)

Yay another pyramid yay

Something something

maybe you people care about this one

I believe the pyramids date back to much older than what they say. To around 12000 BC. One day they will find out the truth of this and it will transform history.

reply to post by Indigent


You beat my thread by about ten minutes.

reply to post by Indigent

Anyone who doesn't care is obviously not paying attention ...S&F Sorry I don't have anything to add at this time, but I am here to listen ,learn and share ..peace

So how did they do the dating on this 1?

And:

The archaeologists found that by the time of the reign of Khufu (the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid), ca. 2590-2563 B.C., the pyramid at Edfu had been abandoned, and offerings were no longer being made. This occurred less than 50 years after its construction, Marouard said.

How do they know this?

reply to post by watchitburn


Yours is better

reply to post by Indigent


While predating the Great Pyramids by only a few decades is not that big of a WOW factor, I would love to see what else they uncover in the area. These had to have been built for a long time in order to perfect the technique so I would not be surprised if many, much older pyramids of the same type are found. I am sure there are plenty buried deep in the sand out there.

Cool, but this seems to often more often than we might realize. In 2011/12, Satellite infra-red helped uncover 17 previously unknown pyramids, as well as 1,000 unknown tombs and 3,000 unknown settlements. I believe that was just in Egypt alone. Satellites in fact recently helped uncover a nearly "lost" civilization lurking in the Sahara, Google: '"Lost" Fortresses of Sahara Revealed by Satellites'.

reply to post by Indigent


OK, Time to jump in and stir the pot.

First off

Great find OP. I saw the other threads pop up and had to find yours to reply. [Great work MODS]
Secondly and more importantly this pyramid or what we may know doesn't seem to jive with other known pyramids being constructed supposedly around the same period. I mean quite frankly, I question it's dating in reference to the others of the period of the time. Supposedly they were already moving on from 'Step Pyramids' and attempting what we all now know as smooth true pyramid shapes.

Bent Pyramid

The Bent Pyramid is an ancient Egyptian pyramid located at the royal necropolis of Dahshur, approximately 40 kilometres south of Cairo, built under the Old Kingdom Pharaoh Sneferu (c. 2600 BC). A unique example of early pyramid development in Egypt, this was the second pyramid built by Sneferu.

The lower part of the pyramid rises from the desert at a 54-degree inclination, but the top section is built at the shallower angle of 43 degrees, lending the pyramid its very obvious "bent" appearance.

The red pyramid in Egypt. It is the first true pyramid, and was built by the Pharaoh Sneferu.

Red Pyramid

It was the third pyramid built by Old Kingdom Pharaoh Sneferu, and is located approximately one kilometer to the north of the Bent Pyramid. It is built at the same shallow 43 degree angle as the upper section of the Bent Pyramid, which gives it a noticeably squat appearance compared to other Egyptian pyramids of comparable scale. Construction is believed to have begun during the thirtieth year of Sneferu's reign. Egyptologists disagree on the length of time it took to construct. Based on quarry marks found at various phases of construction, Rainer Stadelmann estimates the time of completion to be approximately 17 years while John Romer, based on this same graffiti, suggests it took only ten years and seven months to build.

Archaeologists speculate its design may be an outcome of engineering crises experienced during the construction of Sneferu's two earlier pyramids. The first of these, the Pyramid at Meidum, collapsed in antiquity, while the second — the Bent Pyramid — had the angle of its inclination dramatically altered — from 54 to 43 degrees — part-way through construction.

Now, Sneferu was getting around eh? I don't question the date of this new find if anything Again I question the date of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Why would they be building large true pyramids *Or Attempting them* then build a small step type pyramid here? Another thing to consider, How long did it really take to build the great Pyramid? Some believe 20 years? I question this amount of time myself. I think it took longer.

The time of construction estimate was given to the Greeks a full 2,000 years after the Great Pyramid was constructed. No telling how accurate they were after the fact. So, Let's do the math here. Let's say all these Pyramids, The Red, The Bent, The Great Pyramid and now this one. They were all supposedly were built within 80 +/- years or so.

Did Egypt even have this much manpower to be building *In the case of the Bent Pyramid attempting to build a real Pyramid* and the Red Pyramid and the Great Pyramid [And a few others by the way now including this one] all within the lifetime of only two [Father and Son] Pharaohs?

SLAYER69









Archaeologists speculate its design may be an outcome of engineering crises experienced during the construction of Sneferu's two earlier pyramids. The first of these, the Pyramid at Meidum, collapsed in antiquity, while the second — the Bent Pyramid —
Did Egypt even have this much manpower to be building *In the case of the Bent Pyramid attempting to build a real Pyramid* and the Red Pyramid, The Great Pyramid [And a few others by the way now including this one] all within the lifetime of only two [Father and Son] Pharaohs?

edit on 3-2-2014 by SLAYER69 because: (no reason given)

I don't know what the population of Egypt was, but I do know that because of the shape of a pyramid the further along in construction that each project would become, the more workers that would be freed up for other projects. The higher you go, the less you have to do.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Next time I find something I'll just send a pm to you

Please dear readers stop giving f&s to the poor op job

reply to post by SLAYER69


You raise good questions....and I have one or two myself.

As you pointed out.....this was one busy pharaoh.

First, it's speculated that the pyramid at Meidum, was started by him. and suffered a catastrophic collapse, which is why it was never finished.

So then we have the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur, also given to of belonging to Snerferu. That the reason it's slope was changed from 54 degrees to 43 degrees (giving it the "bent" appearance), was due to the catastrophic collapse of they pyramid of Meidum.

Okay, screech to a halt here.

The above means: Snerferu was building two pyramids at the same time then.

Why?

Last I looked, this is suppose to be his tomb. Why would he need two? These are not kiddy projects either. The Meidum pyramid had a base of 144 meters, and the Bent pyramid a base of 188 meters.

Those are big and time consuming to build.

Now I guess it could have been that the Bent pyramid is actually started AFTER the collapse of the Meidum pyramid, and it may have been thought that simply giving it a larger base would prevent another collapse, until somewhere down the road, someone figured out that the slope was too steep, and another collapse would be likely.

Okay.....so along comes the Red Pyramid with that gentler slope of 43 degrees........

Wait......hang on. If they figured it out....then why even bother finishing the Bent pyramid?

Okay, I mean it could have been that Snerferu told them to go ahead and finish it, then took one look and decided: Nope. No way am I going to be buried in that thing!

Or maybe it had something to do with the money and construction: it's already paid for, so we're going to finish it.

Or maybe it was: let us finish it at this slope, and if it holds, we know we have a good angle for the slopes (I'm leaning towards this one).

So.....now he has the Red pyramid built. It was huge. The tallest building of it's day, with a base at 220 meters!

Yet for some reason.....that wasn't good enough. Instead, he has an even bigger pyramid built. The Great Pyramid of Giza, standing 40 meters taller than the Red Pyramid, with a base of 230 meters, and a slope around 49 degrees.

okay....my first thought is: talk about wasteful government spending!!!

But seriously....that is a LOT of man power and resources alone....to build 4 pyramids (and now they want to add another? yes much smaller, but still), just to get to the one that he thought was "Just Right".

mmirror
I believe the pyramids date back to much older than what they say. To around 12000 BC. One day they will find out the truth of this and it will transform history.

I am sure they already know but to let out that kind of information then what would happen to the Christian religion. I say God created everything... meaning the heavens which is the galaxies and other planets and I am sure he seeded those as well

I wonder if this pyramid had writing in it or if it is void of any glyphs like the Great pyramid.

Stari

reply to post by Indigent

Yay another pyramid yay

Hey, even small things like this is worth something, it might not be the all mighty clue to everything but still interesting.

Thanks for posting


Does anyone know if it might be related to these Pyramids, that i posted some time ago?

Lost Egyption Pyramids found

On a closer inspection of Google Earth about the question above, i see that they are not even close to be in the same area, so not related.

reply to post by Stari

I absolutely love these threads.
We wonder and we guess and many have very plausible explanations.
But will we ever know?
I believe they are much older, than what is claimed, as well
And guess what..........I am a Christian.
Why do you think that if it came to light that the pyramids were 12k years old it would impact Christianity?

reply to post by Stari


Yes I think also that they hide a lot of information. They do not want us to know for the fact that it would stir up a lot of religious beliefs. But the more they dig up the more it changes our history and the viewpoint that we have been here much longer than first thought. Also that our technology was more advanced in the past than we think. I wait for the day that they dig up some technology that is not yet being used today. They would not want to share the truth, because it would change the way we view things. They would most definitely hid such things from us.

reply to post by Quadrivium

Why do you think that if it came to light that the pyramids were 12k years old it would impact Christianity?

According to some, earth timeline can be traced in the bible to around 6k years from the creation in genesis, that's why older structures would be a problem to that line of reasoning

reply to post by Indigent


Hey, you have done a great job, ATS is about discussion and your thread has opened up an interesting one, so great job.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I think you hit it on the head when you made the point about how much actual man-power did Egypt have to spare on pyramid building? Fine you can include slaves etc etc but when you consider Egypt's role in that area, its outposts and empire, trading, feeding itself, wars and all the daily happenings I suspect you would hit a problem.

I think that its often forgotten that other nations built pyramids, sure they differ in style etc etc but there seemed to be a general knowledge of how to utilise stone, move huge slabs and construct buildings and monuments that would stand the test of time all over the world - unlike many of today's architectural creations that blight our landscapes.

Also the further away from the centres of power and people etc the more likelihood of having to either put up with incursions and people literally messing with your pyramid or simply having to grab the manpower for something else or simple plagues etc. Lots of quite simple explanations.

Its strange that they had the knowledge of perfecting their pyramid construction at the same time or within memory as some weirdly wrong constructions. We can't even be sure that each pyramid was ordered to be built by the Pharoah, surely some of his Governors could have decided they fancied a small one? In truth we just don't know, but it seems that official opinion looks at the pyramid age through a very tiny window which doesn't supply us with enough information.