mch

CHAPTER 3
The Secret of
the Pyramid
so MANY BOOKS HAVE been written about the Great Pyramid of
Cheops at Giza that it seems impossible today to write anything
new about the subject. This statement is not quite true, however,
since there is
always some previously overlooked angle that can
bring out new facts.
The majority of men specializing in exploring and mapping of
the Great Pyramid agree today that the length of its base was
440 Egyptian cubits, one such cubit being one and a half millionth
part of the territorial length of Egypt. That makes the
Egyptian cubit equal to 0.524148 meters and gives the pyramid a
base length of 230.625 meters. This is slightly different from certain
measurements made in inches, but the value of an inch in
antiquity is
not clearly defined and nobody can really say how
long the base of the pyramid was because its
entire outer layer
has been removed and used to build the mosques and palaces of
Cairo. Also more than one earth tremor has shaken the pyramid
during its 5,000 years of existence, one of the most severe being
an earthquake whose epicenter was the Aegean island of Thera,
which is thought by some to have destroyed the Cretan civihzation
in 1521 B.C.
The main point of disagi*eement about the Great Pyramid of
Cheops is its height. It can not be measured today any more because
the whole top part has been carried away and destroyed