The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery

by Bob Brier, Jean-Pierre Houdin

Overview

The Secret of the Great Pyramid is a thrilling intellectual adventure story about the most exciting discovery in Egyptology in decades. Bob Brier, along with French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, tells the remarkable true story of Houdin’s obsession with Egypt’s Great Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the World: how, in an ancient agrarian society not long removed from the Stone Age, such a remarkable structure could have been envisioned and constructed. At once the story of Houdin’s determined search for answers to the puzzle that have eluded scientist and Egyptologists for centuries and a fascinating history of the planning and building of the magnificent edifice, The Secret of the Great Pyramid is an extraordinary work that puts the mystery to rest, once and for all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061655531
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/06/2009
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	184,642
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Bob Brier is a world-famous Egyptologist who has conducted research on pyramids and tombs in fifteen countries. A senior research fellow at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, he is the author of seven books, including The Murder of Tutankhamen, and hosted the Great Egyptian series for the Learning Channel.

Jean-Pierre Houdin left his Parisian architecture firm in 1999 to devote himself to solving the mystery of the Great Pyramid. He has been awarded the Montgolfier Prize for his research.

Read an Excerpt

The Secret of the Great Pyramid
How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery

Chapter One

The Man in Black

Almost all Egyptologists receive mail from strangers. Sometimes it is from reincarnated pharaohs; sometimes it is from prospective tourists who want to know if they can drink the water. (You can't.) Because my specialty is mummies, I receive hundreds of letters and e-mails from sixth graders who have been studying Egypt in school and want to mummify their recently deceased parakeets. About twice a year I receive offers from people who want to donate their bodies for mummification when they die. To these good folks I reply that I did that once, as a research project, and have now moved on.

No matter what our Egyptological specialty, we all receive communications from retired engineers with theories of how the pyramids were built. Usually there is an obvious flaw that even I can spot. On June 16, 2003 I received an e-mail from a French architect, Jean-Pierre Houdin, who had his own theory of how the Great Pyramid of Giza had been built. My friend Jack Josephson, an art historian who also has a degree in engineering, had suggested he contact me. Jack is a no-nonsense type of guy; I knew that if he told Houdin to contact me, it would be worthwhile to meet him. So I invited Jean-Pierre for dinner. Also coming was my friend Armand, an engineer who had been to Egypt, and his wife, as well as another friend, Jack Scaparro, who was working on a novel set in Egypt. My Egyptologist wife, Pat, rounded out a receptive audience of five.

Jean-Pierre arrived at precisely 4:00 P.M., assuggested. We wanted time to hear and discuss his theory before dinner at seven, but would soon discover that three hours was not nearly enough time. This was not your ordinary pyramid theory. Our guest was dressed all in black, including a fashionable black leather jacket—in New York in June. A well-manicured gray-haired man of fifty, he had a pleasant smile and spoke heavily accented but good English. We were soon gathered around the coffee table as Jean-Pierre set up his laptop. He explained that he had given up his architectural practice five years ago so he could devote himself to the puzzle of how the Great Pyramid was built. Working out of his Paris apartment, he spent six or seven hours a day creating elaborate 3-D computer simulations of the interior and exterior of the Great Pyramid. As his computer models progressed he became more and more obsessed with the Pyramid, until it was all he thought about.

Jean-Pierre's interest in the Great Pyramid began in 1999 when his father, an engineer, watched a television documentary on the pyramids and realized the program's presentation of how the Great Pyramid was built was all wrong. He had another idea of how the huge blocks were raised to the top, a revolutionary idea, different from anything anyone had ever proposed, so he called his son Jean-Pierre and laid it out.

The father-son team was ideal to tackle this mystery. Henri Houdin had earned a PhD in engineering from Paris's prestigious École des Arts et Métiers. In 1950, as a twenty-seven-year-old engineer, he was sent to Ivory Coast to build their infrastructure. When he arrived there were eight kilometers of paved roads; when he left there were highways, bridges, and power plants. For decades Jean-Pierre had designed houses and office buildings; he knew about planning big projects. The two were equipped to answer the question how the Great Pyramid was built, but it would not be easy. Eventually the search for the answer would take over both their lives.

While his laptop booted up, Jean-Pierre explained how his computer graphics helped him understand the interior and exterior of the Great Pyramid. With new, sophisticated software developed for architects, he created 3-D images of the chambers inside the Great Pyramid. Then, on his computer screen, he could rotate the images to see the spatial relationships between the rooms—what features were on the same level, what parts had to have been built first, where the largest stones in the Pyramid were placed.

As he clicked the keypad, beautiful diagrams of the Pyramid appeared and we realized we were in the presence of a man who knew the Great Pyramid intimately. He explained why some blocks in the Pyramid were limestone and others granite; why the patterns of stone in some walls were different from others. I have friends who are pyramid experts, but I had never heard anything from them as detailed as Jean-Pierre's explanation. I was astounded by the quality of his graphics. Little figures hauled blocks up inclined ramps and put them in place with ingenious lifting devices. He even had topographical maps of the Giza Plateau to show how the architects of the Great Pyramid took advantage of the natural contours of the land to move huge blocks of stone. The images weren't just informative, they were beautiful. I had just completed a high-budget documentary for The Learning Channel on pyramids around the world. We'd spent thousands and thousands of dollars on our graphics, and Jean-Pierre's were better!

Jean-Pierre explained the difficulties with the two competing theories of how the blocks in the Pyramid were raised to the top. The single ramp theory, so often shown in television documentaries, could be easily discredited. The basic idea is that blocks were hauled up a long ramp constructed against one of the sides of the Pyramid. As the Pyramid grew, the ramp was raised and extended. The problem is that to keep the slope gentle enough so men could haul blocks, the ramp would have to be a mile long. If the Pyramid were being built on the site of New York's Empire State Building, the ramp would extend all the way into Central Park, about twenty-five city blocks. Building just the ramp would have taken thousands of men decades. Also, there would have been a tremendous amount of debris from such a ramp, and rubble doesn't just disintegrate in the desert; but huge piles of rubble have never been found. Perhaps most damaging to the single ramp theory is the fact that there is practically no place to put such a long ramp on the Giza Plateau.

The Secret of the Great Pyramid
How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery. Copyright © by Bob Brier. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

The Man in Black 1

Birth of the Pyramid 7

Meeting with the Master 19

Imhotep builds the Step Pyramid 23

Sneferu: King of the Pyramids 29

An Architect Is Born 37

Architect Adrift 43

A Troubled Bridge? 47

Hemienu Plans the Great Pyramid 49

The Underground Burial Chamber 79

Modern Tomb Raiders: The Search for Hidden Chambers 85

The Grand Gallery 93

The Burial Chamber 107

Hemienu's Solution 113

First Plans 125

Anomaly Rising 133

The Notch 137

The Internal Ramp 139

The Capstone 145

The Difficult Years 151

The Internal Ramp Goes Public 155

The Time Machine to Hemienu 167

The Search for the Internal Ramp 171

What's Next? 185

Appendices

Appendix I The Search for Imhotep 191

Appendix II The Lost Pyramid 194

Appendix III The Case of the Missing Queen 196

Appendix IV Making Khufu's Sarcophagus 199

Appendix V The Pyramid's Angle 201

Endnotes 203

Bibliography 209

Photography Credits 215

Index 217

What People are Saying About This

Barbara Mertz

” Great fun for Egyptophiles.”

Peter Der Manuelian

“A serious attempt at a new explanation for one of the oldest Egyptological mysteries.”

Editorial Reviews

Houdin’s theory solves many mysteries about the huge structure.

Scientific American

A serious attempt at a new explanation for one of the oldest Egyptological mysteries.

Peter Der Manuelian

” Great fun for Egyptophiles.

Barbara Mertz

Since its construction 4,500 years ago for Pharaoh Khufu, the Great Pyramid of Giza has remained an engineering mystery. According to Egyptologist Brier (The Murder of Tutankhamen) and architect Houdin, the monument was designed by Khufu's brother Hemienu, an architectural genius, and built in two decades by 25,000 paid Egyptian construction workers. Having studied the structure minutely and using computer graphics to visualize every aspect of the pyramid and its construction, Houdin offers a radical proposal of how the huge limestone and granite blocks were raised: the pyramid was built from the inside out around a mile-long ramp corkscrewed up to the top, which remains in the pyramid's walls. The authors' prose is lucid, aided by drawings and photos, and the theories are intriguing but inconclusive until permission can be obtained from Egyptian authorities to thermally photograph the pyramid and determine its internal structure. The highly technical nature of some of the architectural and engineering material makes this book more suitable for experts in archeology and architecture than for buffs. (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Well-known Egyptologists Brier (senior research fellow, Long Island Univ., C.W. Post campus; The Encyclopedia of Mummies) and Houdin (Khufu), a professional architect, here provide an up-to-date scientific exposition on the most relevant theory and understanding of construction techniques of the pyramid of Khufu. They apply 3-D modeling to illustrate graphically such internal architectural features as burial chambers, passageways, and the Grand Gallery. The same techniques are employed to illustrate the theory that the Great Pyramid was constructed essentially from the inside via a specially constructed ramp that corkscrewed up the interior of the pyramid. Internal construction features such as wall-bonding patterns are used to elucidate the authors' findings. Comparisons with other Egyptian pyramids and temples and to Egyptian cultural chronology provide a regional perspective to their theory, soundly and logically conveyed. A welcome addition to Egyptology and monumental architecture scholarship; suitable for all public libraries, academic libraries, and specialized research collections.
—John E. Dockall

Library Journal

Modern scientific engineering tackles the enduring mystery contained within the greatest monument ever built. Egyptologist Brier (Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians, 1999, etc.) joins French architect Houdin to offer a theory about how the Great Pyramid of the necropolis of Giza was really built. What, precisely, were the methods, lost for eons, that brilliant chief engineer Hemienu might have devised 4,500 years ago to construct the tomb of his Pharaoh, Khufu? In a brief review of pyramidology, this accessible text uncovers the work of the ancient pioneers of mortuary skills, of the artists and artisans, engineers, bureaucrats and the multitude of laborers housed in the Lost City near the worksite who carved history in stone those long millennia ago. Various theories have been posited regarding the building of Khufu's massive portal to eternity, a place he may never have occupied. Some have supposed the use of counterweights to haul and lift the hewn blocks of stone. Others posited a huge ramp, possibly a mile long, which would have required more mass than the pyramid itself. In this account, technology assists archeology. With the aid of georadar and microgravimetry, the monument, with its internal passages and chambers, can be built again on a computer monitor using sophisticated 3-D computer modeling. According to Brier, who wrote the text, and Houdin, who reverse-engineered at the computer, the best way to construct Khufu's big memorial was with a ramp that spiraled inside the structure as it rose to the capstone over the years. It's a plausible theory, well-illustrated, and makes a useful addition to the always seductive study of pyramids. An intriguing new twist to an old enigma.

Kirkus Reviews

Houdin’s theory solves many mysteries about the huge structure.” — Scientific American

“ The authors’ prose is lucid, aided by drawings and photos, and the theories are intriguing.” — Publishers Weekly

“It’s a plausible theory, well-illustrated, and makes a useful addition to the always seductive study of pyramids…An intriguing new twist to an old enigma.” — Kirkus Reviews

” Great fun for Egyptophiles.” — Barbara Mertz, author of Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphics

“A serious attempt at a new explanation for one of the oldest Egyptological mysteries.” — Peter Der Manuelian, Giza Archives Project Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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