From Pyramids to Plastic
By Don Harold, Host of DayTradeShow.com and FutureMoneyTrends.com Contributor
The number of stones used to build the “Great” Pyramid in Egypt is estimated between 2.3 Million and 4 Million individual, cut blocks. EgyptOrigins.com says, “…we can safely conclude that the number of stones in the Great Pyramid is far greater than the 2.3 million assumed throughout the Egyptology community, and probably is more than 3.5 million.”
The Great Pyramid of Giza
Conventional thought says, it took 20 years to build. Wikipedia states, “It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and was constructed over a 20 year period. Khufu’s vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid.”
If you assume the numbers on the low end of the scale (2.3 million stones), and the 20-year timeline, you find there would be 115,000 stones placed per year, or 315 stones cut, shaped, shipped, and fit into place, per day. No days off. The work done in all weather conditions. Day and night. Non stop.
Without mistake, the labor would have to continue. Any stoppage would mean – if you assume the very conservative numbers – it would take longer than 20 years, or less stones would be used. Neither conclusion is borne out in any of the most conservative of reports.
All that work for what? To build “tombs” or monuments? The “Great” Pyramid stands as a memorial to a time frozen in the baked-heat of the Egyptian desert.
And, there are another 137 known pyramids in Egypt! Wikipedia reports “There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt as of 2008. Most were built as tombs for the country’s Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.”
Think of the time, energy, and money it took to create those pyramids. Then, realize the efforts in Egypt are matched in the Americas, and Asia. The number of pyramids around the world are in the thousands.
The pyramids of the world were built by disparate peoples. Their places in history are also different. From geography to culture, the societies that are remembered for their elaborate stone megaliths seem to have very few things in common, outside their penchant for the creation of their pyramids.
Yet, there is one thing that ties all the major pyramid-builders over the expanse of human history. Their cultures all ended without much fanfare, and in many cases without explanation.
I believe I have a part of the answer to what happened to many of the pyramid-builders: They spent their time, energy, and money on things which outlasted them. While they poured millions of man-hours into the erection of time-defying edifices, they squandered opportunities to build in other ways.
Instead of stone pyramids as memorials to a few elite, what if the people used the same stones to build living quarters for citizens? What if they spent the energy on learning new agriculture techniques, science, or health?
It seems possible, if not probable, if the energy used to build pyramids for the elite was placed into projects for the “greater good,” we might all speak ancient-Egyptian now.
yet, the same pattern of wasteful energy, time, and money use exists today. While we work to maintain the lifestyles of an elite class of bankers and ultra-rich, how much less do the rest of us have to hand to generations after us?
Imagine a world where the Federal Reserve gave $17 Trillion to small businesses, scientists in the quest to cure disease, or housing developments? Just start with those three ideas. How much better off would we all be today, tomorrow, and beyond?
And, I write here of only one aspect of modern-day pyramid-builders and their misuse of our money and energy. Because of the complex nature of our society, it is incalculable to know how far back we are set due to current monument-building for elites.
To put this in perspective, consider how long it took to simply discover, and implement electricity and mass-scale running water – things which even now are not mainstays of all the world’s population centers.
What if those in power 4000 years ago in Egypt realized how short-sided it was to spend millions of man hours, unknown time, and underutilized resources, all in the creation of what amount to giant piles of rock?
If you consider the genius it took to build the pyramids, and you consider where the genius could have been used, it should cause you to think about the legacy our society leaves now.
