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Tonight, impressive and mysterious,

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they are among the wonders of the ancient world.

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These are the monuments that define innovation

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and technology that were meant to last forever.

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But to this day, no one fully understands

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how they were built or why.

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Despite how much we've learned from the writings on the pyramid,

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it's not always very complete or specific.

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Now we are going to look at the history of the world

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Now we explore the top theories surrounding these

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4,600-year-old puzzles.

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The pyramids really have nothing to do with the afterlife at all.

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Are these markers left for aliens arriving to Earth from space?

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The pyramids could have been built to provide a road map to paradise.

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Can we ever decipher the true purpose of Egypt's astonishing pyramids?

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Tooud

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their

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O'K Scottish

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a pyramid.

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We can't definitively say which was the very first Egyptian pyramid,

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but JOSERS is certainly one of the first.

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It's 205 feet tall with a base of 358 feet by 397 feet,

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the size of two football fields side by side,

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and it's an amazing feat of engineering and technology.

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Many others are built in the same area.

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There are probably even more,

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but we know of at least 118 Egyptian pyramids

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that still exist today with extensive ruins.

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Most of them have been intact,

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almost perfectly preserved over the millennia.

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Including the largest ever built,

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the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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The Great Pyramid is equivalent to the Empire State Building of its day.

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It reaches 480 feet tall,

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and for about 4,000 years,

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it is the tallest man-made structure on the planet

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till it's finally dethroned by England's Lincoln Cathedral in the year 1311.

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It's composed of an estimated 2.3 million blocks of stones,

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weighing an estimated 6 million tons.

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And some of these stones individually are 50 to 80 tons each.

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The workforce that was needed to lift these stones must have been massive.

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According to ancient Greek and Roman historians,

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it is suggested that it was a labor workforce of around 100,000 enslaved people.

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And it's not just the size that's impressive.

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The Great Pyramid is probably one of the most unique

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and most precise buildings that has ever been built.

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It is aligned to true north within one twentieth of a degree.

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That is remarkable when you consider the time period when the Great Pyramid was built.

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The entire base of the Great Pyramid is nearly a perfect square,

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with the western side being only 5.5 inches longer than the eastern side.

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This is 0.01% difference.

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This is an amazing amount of accuracy for a structure this big this long ago.

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The Great Pyramid dates back to the year 2570 BC.

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Within a span of 100 years,

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ancient Egyptians have gone from the seemingly modest pyramid of Jozer

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to this stunning masterpiece.

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But soon after, the period of pyramid building in ancient Egypt

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just stops right around 2500 BC.

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And we're not sure really why that is.

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Eventually, the knowledge of how these buildings were built is lost.

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Also lost, the reason why they were built.

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Starting thousands of years ago,

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people were already trying to find out the purpose of the pyramids.

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You can imagine the first explorers crawling in by torchlight.

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The first thing they would see in these narrow chambers

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would be these thousands of lines of hieroglyphic inscriptions carved into the stone.

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Can you imagine?

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You go in to solve the mystery and all of a sudden

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you're given a brand new mystery that you have to work on.

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What is all of this?

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At this point, no one understands what these hieroglyphics mean,

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but there's more than just writing inside.

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There are these sarcophagus-shaped stones that are cut right into the central chambers.

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And they're also the right size to hold a human body.

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Now, the bodies are not there.

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And that's because maybe they were stolen at a certain point in time.

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We do know that this evidence has been found by the 5th century BC

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because it's at this time that we get the very first written theory about the pyramids.

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Because in the 5th century BC, Greek historian Herodotus describes

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the sarcophagi and he writes that the pyramids are burial chambers.

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Other pyramids provide more clues.

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Herodotus visits Egypt and speaks with many of the local guides

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who have been taking people to the pyramids for years.

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And they describe seeing mummified remains, sarcophagi, wooden coffins,

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enough evidence to support the theories of Herodotus that these are tombs.

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For centuries, this remains the accepted theory on why the pyramids were built.

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But without understanding what the hieroglyphics say,

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this is all somewhat speculative because they might describe these buildings as something totally different.

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Then a visit to Egypt by a famous emperor changes that.

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In a way, we have Napoleon Bonaparte to thank for our current knowledge of the pyramids.

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The emperor has a great appreciation for art and culture.

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During his campaign in Egypt, he orders a team of scholars to take possession

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of key artifacts for the glory of France.

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In 1799, you've got Napoleon soldiers that are digging out the foundation of a fort

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near the Egyptian town of Rosetta.

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And they come across this four-foot-long black stone that's just embedded right into the wall.

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It's completely smooth on one side and covered with three different languages.

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Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian Demotic Script and Hieroglyphics.

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But this time we have two accompanying languages telling the same story.

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The Greek and Demotic texts are the same.

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Translations of a royal decree from Egyptian king Ptolemy V in 196 BC.

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The message is essentially royal propaganda and it's declaring how wonderful and how generous

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the newly coronated king was.

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But that's not the real importance.

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What is important is that we have the same story written in three different languages.

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All of a sudden, after thousands of years of wondering,

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we finally have the ability to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.

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We can use the ancient Greek inscription to finally understand what they had to say.

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It is not an overstatement to say that this is probably one of the most important historical

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finds of all time.

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The Rosetta Stone, as it's called, becomes the key to unlocking ancient Egypt and perhaps

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the secrets of the pyramids.

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Jean-François Champollion is able to crack the code hidden within the hieroglyphs

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and it took him 20 years to decipher what the Rosetta Stone actually said.

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Champollion published his findings in 1822 and he had actually created a decoder ring for

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Egyptian hieroglyphics.

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According to the hieroglyphic texts, the pyramids are indeed tombs.

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But we get a lot more insight into the nature of the tombs.

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Finally, for the first time, we know who the tombs were built for.

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As the hieroglyphics describe, these buildings are meant to be much more than just a burial place.

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They're massive monuments built to the power of the Egyptian kings.

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The hieroglyphics identify each one of the pyramids with the pharaoh who commissioned it.

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And according to these hieroglyphics, each pyramid is given a boastful name like,

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enduring are the places of Nicaeri, great is Kafre, or Minkare is Divide.

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These were designed to be big boastful monuments to each of the pharaoh's power and permanence.

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But could there be more to the pyramids?

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Despite how much we've learned from the writings on the pyramids,

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it's not always very complete or specific.

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That's the reason why some suspect we don't really have the full picture.

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This has been suspected since long before hieroglyphics were translated.

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In fact, during the 10th century, AD, the Arab historian Al-Masudi

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theorizes that these pyramids are more than likely tombs.

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However, he also posits that they could contain a wealth of scientific,

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mathematical, and astrological knowledge.

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One of the greatest minds of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Sir Isaac Newton,

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also believes that the pyramids had additional secrets hidden within.

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Newton was really only speculating in his day, but thanks to modern research and technological

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advances we now have available, we're still uncovering new information about these incredible

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buildings. And as it turns out, Newton may have been right.

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There's in fact a lot more to the pyramids than meets the eye.

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When hieroglyphics are first translated in the 1820s, it unlocks a trove of new information

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about the pyramids of Egypt and why they were built.

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They were long suspected to be tombs for pharaohs, and the hieroglyphics confirm this,

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but as more of these hieroglyphics are translated, we find out that maybe these pyramids had another

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function as well. There's a group of hieroglyphics that line the subterranean chambers of the

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pyramids at Sakara, and these dates are around 23 or 2400 BC, and they've become known as the

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pyramid texts. They're written in vertical lines, and they cover the walls of almost every single

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room of these pyramids. Most Egyptian hieroglyphics, even the ones inside the pyramids, they're

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offering you names, they're offering you dates, they're offering you legacies of the pharaohs,

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who the rulers were, they're talking about the afterlife a little bit, but in terms of

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why these pyramids were built, we don't seem to have that information.

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But these particular texts are different. These hieroglyphics suggest a potential purpose for

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the pyramids, and it starts with a fundamental ancient Egyptian belief. Like many other world

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traditions, these texts reveal that they believe in an eternal soul, which the Egyptians call the Ka.

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The hieroglyphics suggest that the Egyptians believe that the pharaoh's Ka travels to the

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starry heavens, where he'll live in eternity amongst the gods. To some, that means the pyramids

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could have been built to provide a roadmap to paradise. In 1994, Belgian engineer Robert Baval

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and British historian Adrian Gilbert published their book The Orion Mystery, which becomes an

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international bestseller. The central crux of the book is what is known as the Orion Correlation

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theory. The authors propose that the pyramids of Giza are designed to match a star alignment in

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the belt constellation of Orion. If you look at an overlay of the Giza pyramids and line them up with

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stars in Orion's belt, they almost line up. It's uncanny. According to Baval and Gilbert,

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this alignment isn't accidental. It could also help answer a long running question about the

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pyramid's design. Inside the great pyramid of Giza, there are four long narrow shafts that

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lead out from the kings and the queens chambers up towards the sky. Now, that's a strange design

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element supposedly for ventilation. But why would the tomb need ventilation? If that was the goal,

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there are much easier ways to achieve it. These shafts required a much more intricate construction

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and engineering techniques. The Egyptians went to a lot of extra trouble to build them.

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Baval, Gilbert, and a few other authors proposed the idea that these aren't ventilation shafts at

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all and instead that they're windows that align specifically with the stars in Orion's belt.

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Sirius, El Natak, and Kocha. According to references in ancient Egyptian texts, those stars are where

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the pharaoh's Ka is supposed to join the father of the gods known as Sa in the afterlife. In addition

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to being the home for the gods and for the pharaohs that make it to the afterlife, Orion's

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appearance in the night sky serves another very important purpose for Egyptians. Every year,

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when the stars of Orion would appear in the sky, the Nile River would overflow,

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bringing life-renewing irrigation to the crops. So through the hieroglyphics, we actually have a

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written record that the Egyptians believe their pharaoh is traveling to Orion after his death.

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And then we also have a potential correlation between a pyramid's design

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and the stars in that constellation. So it's as if the pyramid was specifically built to

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aim to that region in the night sky. However, some think it's more than just souls that travel.

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In 2012, Belgian author Philip Coppens takes the idea of the Orion Correlation Theory

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and expands on it. He supports the idea that the builders of the pyramids may have

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aimed their pyramid shafts directly at Orion. But rather than transport the Ka of the pharaoh to the

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heavens, he suggests that they could have actually been transporting the physical bodies.

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I mean, it's a pretty fantastical interpretation. How do the bodies levitate and stay up there in

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the sky? Coppens doesn't explain that, but he does cite what he claims is evidence that the

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pharaoh's bodies were somehow transported. As Coppens describes, a great many of the sarcophagi

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inside the pyramids are found empty. This is true, and Egyptologists generally attribute that to

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grave robbers. But Coppens cites multiple examples of completely untouched burial chambers inside

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pyramids. No grave robbers have accessed them, and yet when modern archaeologists finally open

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these chambers, bodies are nowhere to be found. Coppens states that after the pharaohs are laid

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to rest, their sarcophagi and burial chambers are sealed up, and then the pyramid somehow

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moves their actual bodies, and you're left with an empty tomb. Coppens also points to another

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ancient Egyptian burial practice as further proof. As we've seen inside many pyramids,

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along with the pharaoh's body, the ancient Egyptians often left thousands of physical

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objects as well. Egyptian burial chambers are large because they need to be able to hold quite a

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few things. Inside of these chambers, we have found all of the things that a pharaoh would need to be

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happy in the afterlife. His pets were often mummified. His slaves were often killed and mummified

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along with him because he's going to need servants in the afterlife. It's not uncommon to find large

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quantities of beer and bread so that the pharaoh could have something to eat and drink in the afterlife

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as well. Coppens asks, if the journey to the afterlife is only a metaphorical trip by one's

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soul, then why pack up all this stuff? You know, why leave it there to be wasted? Again, to him,

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this could prove that the Egyptians intended the voyage to be literal.

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This of course fails to account for all the many mummies that we have found inside the pyramids.

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Is it likely that physical bodies were actually being shot up to the stars? Probably not. But what

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we can see though is that these pyramids were designed with the afterlife in mind, specifically

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a journey to the afterlife. Whether it's the Ka or something else entirely, the Egyptians believed

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in the pharaoh's ability to make it to their place in the heavens with the help of these buildings.

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For thousands of years, scholars have debated why the pyramids were built.

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But few questioned how they were built. Assuming vast numbers of slaves were forced to construct them.

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The ancient Greeks estimated that the Egyptians had used a labor force of 100,000 slaves to build

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the Great Pyramid. Then in the late 1990s, a surprising archaeological find upends that notion.

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Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Halas, is responsible for countless amazing discoveries in

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the country. But starting in 1990, he embarks on a 20-year-long dig at the Great Pyramid.

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He makes an incredible discovery that makes us rethink how the pyramids were constructed.

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He locates the tombs of the people who built the Great Pyramid and he learns two things. First,

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they weren't enslaved people. And secondly, it wasn't 100,000 people, it was more around 10,000.

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The evidence he finds is that these men were buried according to Egyptian religious burial

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customs, meaning that the men who built the pyramids were from working-class Egyptian families.

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The tombs are built right next to the King's pyramid. Now, the workers are buried more modestly,

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but they are entombed with beer and bread for the afterlife and on or not provided to slaves.

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The tombs also have graffiti on their walls, calling them Friends of Kufu, the Pharaoh.

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According to Hawass, there's no way that would have happened if these were slaves.

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Hawass also finds evidence of how well these people lived. They were given a great quantity

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of food and luxurious food, like meat. So here we have a labor force that is skilled,

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they're well taken care of, they're not enslaved, and there's only 10,000 of them.

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How does this make any sense? How exactly do 2.3 million gargantuan stone blocks get cut,

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moved, and fit together so precisely that it's literally impossible to slide even a credit

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card between them, all by 10,000 people? Did the Egyptians use ramps? That seems implausible,

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since a ramp with a low enough slope would have to be over a mile long. It would be bigger than

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the great pyramid itself. Had the Egyptians built canals capable of raising water levels high enough

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to allow some of these massive stones to float to the top, again at the very least, that would take

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many more than 10,000 individuals. According to author Eric von Daniken, there's only one possible

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explanation. In his best-selling 1968 book, Cherry to the Gods, Eric von Daniken writes that the

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Egyptians didn't build the pyramids all on their own. They might have had help from extraterrestrials.

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So if we can't figure out how 100,000 Egyptians built the pyramids, then we certainly have an

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issue with trying to figure out how 10,000 could have done it. In that regard, maybe von Daniken

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has a point. He calls it the ancient astronaut hypothesis. It states that extraterrestrials

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came to Earth in ancient times and helped human beings build these various architectural marvels.

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In this case, they taught advanced engineering techniques to the ancient Egyptians

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and instructed them on how to build the pyramids. According to this theory, the pyramids were built

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as a navigational tool, not to help the pharaohs reach heaven, but to help extraterrestrials reach

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Earth. With the help of modern photography from satellites and the International Space Station,

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we know that the pyramids of Giza are indeed visible from space. And if you look at the pyramids from

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that vantage point, I mean, you can't help but wonder if that's how they were intended to be seen.

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Could they be markers for aliens visiting from outer space? This could also explain why the

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pyramids may be aligned with certain stars. It's the final stop of a landmark-based navigational

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system, helping aliens reach our planet from their homeworld somewhere beyond the constellation of Orion.

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These theorists also point to alleged evidence of alien encounters.

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According to Von Daniken and many other authors who follow this hypothesis,

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at the time of their arrival, extraterrestrial beings would have been considered gods by the

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ancient Egyptians. This notion actually mirrors what we see in the ancient hieroglyphic texts.

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Many hieroglyphic inscriptions do tell us that the ancient Egyptians believed that their gods came from the stars.

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The story sounds a lot like what Von Daniken is writing about. According to Egyptian mythology,

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the gods lived among them on Earth and had a great impact on their daily life. Then after a time,

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the gods left Earth. Where did they go? The hieroglyphics are pretty clear. They went back beyond the stars.

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Some also believe this Egyptian encounter wasn't an isolated incident.

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It may have been one of the first visits from aliens, but it wouldn't be the last.

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Because ancient astronauts theorists believe this has happened all over our planet.

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Now, to date, you have 118 pyramids that have been found all across Egypt. But you can double

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that number for Sudan. They've been found all across China, the Middle East, and the Americas

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contain more pyramids than all other parts of the world combined. There's another great pyramid

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complex at Teotihuacan in Mexico. Just like at Giza, these pyramids are astronomically aligned to

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certain stars. There are three main temples. You've got the pyramid of the Sun, the pyramid of the Moon,

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and the pyramid of Quetzalcoatl. Just like at Giza, these pyramids appear to align with the stars

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in Orion's belt. And here again, just like Giza, the smallest temple, the pyramid of Quetzalcoatl,

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is offset from the others and aligned with Mentaca, the faintest star in Orion's belt.

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They're mapped according to the very same principles and display the same astronomical

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message. So it's easy to wonder, were these pyramids designed by the same beings,

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the same alien civilization based somewhere around the constellation Orion?

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If these structures were designed by extraterrestrials, and of course I'm not saying that they were,

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but if so, it's easy to see the parallels. And you could see how some people might believe they're

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connected. Most Egyptologists, however, reject this theory. There's simply no real proof. It is all

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speculation. See, for me, the alien theory detracts from something that's way more inspiring. The

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ability of human beings, especially at such an early time in our history, to come together and to

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design and to build these architectural marvels is a wonder.

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When it comes to solving the mysteries of the pyramids, the biggest challenge is the lack of

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recorded evidence. But in 1947, new writings are discovered that suggest a surprising purpose.

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There are two primary sources of information about the pyramids. First, there are the Greeks.

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But when you read their histories, you can see that they're just as mystified as we are.

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They're mostly guessing. Then we have the hieroglyphics, which have taught us a tremendous amount about the

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ancient Egyptian cosmology and their myths. But there's nothing in these inscriptions, nowhere,

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that says why they had to build the biggest and most durable structures anywhere on the planet.

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There is, however, one ancient text that may provide an explanation.

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In the spring of 1947, an amazing trove of Hebrew scrolls is discovered on the northwest shore

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of the Dead Sea. A Bedouin shepherd boy is out tending his sheep, and one of his sheep walks up

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into a cave, and he's trying to get his sheep out of the cave so he throws a rock. And instead of

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his sheep coming out, he hears a crash. The noise scares him and he runs away. But later, he comes

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back with a friend and both of them enter the cave. They find a number of long, clay jars,

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but then they look inside and they see this dark object. They bring the jars out into the light,

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and they see that the objects are wrapped in a layer of fine linen, and they're covered in wax.

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And when they start enrolling them, they find long pieces of parchment covered in writing

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that have been sewn together. They have just stumbled upon the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Dating back to the third century BC, they're the oldest surviving biblical texts.

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It's an archaeological and religious revelation beyond compare. Some would even say it's the most

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important archaeological find in history. The Dead Sea Scrolls expand our knowledge of the

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ancient world in countless ways. One of those ways has to do with Egypt.

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Among these scrolls is a very old version of the book of Genesis. This ends up, of course,

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being the first book of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible. And in it is the story of Jacob

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and his son Joseph. According to Genesis, Jacob has 12 sons, whose descendants eventually become

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the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob favors his most beloved son Joseph, which causes tremendous

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friction with his brothers. In a fit of jealousy, they sell him into slavery. Where is he taken?

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To Egypt. There in Egypt, Joseph is able to turn his luck around by interpreting a dream for the

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Pharaoh about an approaching famine. And Joseph warns the Pharaoh to start stockpiling grain as

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soon as possible. Some biblical scholars believe that this grain ends up being stored in the pyramids.

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There are two versions of this theory. Some theorists believe that the pyramids were always

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meant to be used for grain storage. That was one of the reasons why they were designed.

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Others believe that they weren't built for that purpose at all, but got enlisted to store grain

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because of the impending famine. Religious historians have long proposed that the pyramids were built

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by Joseph as grain silos. In the fifth century, Julius Honorius, a renowned Christian grammar and

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rhetoric teacher, creates a geographical manual to help his students understand the world.

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His research is compiled into a book called the Cosmographia, and it explicitly references the

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pyramids of Egypt as the Orea Eosa for the Granaries of Joseph. In the sixth century, this theory

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pops up again. This time it's found in the work of Gregory of Tours. He's a historian who also

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becomes a saint in the Catholic Church. In the first volume of his masterwork, Decim Libri

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Historium, Gregory of Tours explains, quote, Joseph built granaries of wonderful workmanship

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made of square stones and cement. They're constructed in such a way that they are very

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broad at the base, but narrow at the top, so that corn could be poured into them through a small

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aperture. These granaries are still to be seen to this day. Gregory of Tours has to be talking

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about the pyramids. He's even referencing those enigmatic shafts that appear at the top of the

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Great Pyramid. Now, due to the degree of incline, it is plausible that these kernels of corn could

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have been poured in from above. You can see that this theory is represented visually in Christian

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artworks as well. The pyramids are very clearly depicted as grain silos in a prominent 12th

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century mosaic in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. What's more, the granary idea does not just exist

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in European circles. In fact, we find it both in Islamic and in Byzantine texts. The etymological

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magnum, the Byzantine Empire's largest encyclopedia, explicitly references the pyramids as royal

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granaries constructed by Joseph. As further proof of the alleged theory, some authors cite the fact

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that grain has been found inside Egyptian pyramids. Now, to an outside observer, you can kind of see

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how this theory makes sense. Think about it. The pyramids sort of have a shape similar to, like,

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the salt domes that you'll see on the side of the highway when you're driving, right? The idea is

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that these grains will be poured in from the top, and as they go in, they'll form, like, a mound-like

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shape structure similar to, like, sand in an hourglass. Modern Egyptologists, however, find a

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glaring flaw in this argument. If the pyramids were hollow inside, this theory would fit like a

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glove. But unfortunately, they're not. They're mostly solid rock, so there's very little storage

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room inside. But there is evidence that the pyramids were used to provide sustenance to the

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community, just in a different way. The Nile River couldn't always be relied on to flood and irrigate

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crops. As it says in the Book of Genesis, it references times of both feast and famine. In times of

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famine, Pharaoh doesn't want his subjects to starve, but he also wants to keep them busy because they're

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not working out in the fields. So in exchange for payment in the form of grain, he puts them to

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work on government projects, and one of these projects may have been building the pyramids.

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So the pyramids did provide grain, but in a different way than what early Christian theorists

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thought. The fact that a theory is widely believed doesn't mean it's actually feasible. We assume

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the Egyptians had many better options for storing their grain than the pyramids,

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which included actual grain silos.

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There is no more iconic representation of the might of ancient Egypt than its famed pyramids.

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The pyramids might be the most famous and remarkable aspect of the Kingdom of Egypt,

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but they were only being built for a relatively short time. You have a civilization that's around

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for about 2,000 years, yet they only spent about three to 400 years designing these magnificent

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structures. So among the many mysteries surrounding the pyramids, one important question is,

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why did they stop being built? In the late 90s and early 2000s, an all-new theory emerges that

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attempts to explain what might have happened. And according to this theory, the pyramids were built

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with a very specific purpose in mind. And once this purpose was fulfilled, the Egyptians didn't

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need to make any more. In 1998, engineer Christopher Dunn publishes a book, and in that book he posits

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that the pyramids really have nothing to do with the afterlife at all. They're there to serve the

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everyday life of the people of Egypt living throughout the Kingdom by providing electrical power.

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Dunn's theory starts with one significant word. When you consider the word pyramid,

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you've got pie, which is a fire, and then mid, which is the middle. So when you bring the two

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together, you've got fire in the middle, and that is essentially what I'm proposing for the great

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pyramid, except that it's not a fire of combustion, but it's an energetic environment. With that in

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mind, modern-day engineers like Dunn start to examine the layout of the pyramid's internal structures.

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Inside of the Great Pyramid of Giza, you have three chambers. You have a subterranean chamber,

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you've got a chamber that's been named the Queen's Chamber, and one that's been called the King's

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Chamber. Traditional Egyptologists have been long focused on this building as a tomb, so they've

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taken the conventional view that the pharaoh's body was placed in the King's Chamber, and the other

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two could have been used if the pharaoh died before the pyramid was finished. However, no human

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remains or funerary objects have ever been found inside of the Great Pyramid of Giza, but that

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might be the point. When you look at these chambers through the eyes of an engineer, you see that

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they might be serving a different function. American engineer John Cadman also supports this

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theory. Cadman is looking into this problem at the same time as Dunn in the late 1990s,

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and he really seizes upon the idea that this building has a mechanical function

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as some kind of pump. Water would flow in via the tunnels from an ancient lake at a higher

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elevation. The water would then flow through a duct up into the Queen's Chamber and then exit

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through an outflow tunnel to the Nile River. The next question is, why a water pump?

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To find out, Cadman makes his own model of the pyramid's subterranean chambers.

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In the year 2000, Cadman uses a 500-pound block of cement to carve out a smaller replica of the

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Great Pyramid to study the fluid dynamics that were happening inside the chambers.

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Incredibly, when he runs water through, the block actually starts shaking with long and then short

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pulses. Now, if you scaled up this experiment to the full size of the pyramid, Cadman believes

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the system would have created a heartbeat-like vibration that shook the entire structure.

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Eventually, Dunn further expands on this idea. He outlines that the Great Pyramid is actually

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a coupled oscillator which transforms vibrations into energy, and that generates power. Dunn's

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hypothesis also could account for findings in the Queen's Chamber that have never been fully

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understood. Those twin shafts diagonally extending upwards from this chamber were once thought of

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as air ducts, and others have hypothesized that they target certain stars in the night sky.

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Now, Early Explorers reported that the walls and the ceilings of the Queen's Chamber were covered

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with up to about an inch of salt and that there was gypsum coming out of the cracks in the limestone.

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Nobody knew what to make of this at the time. According to Dunn, it's evidence that the Pyramid

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served as a chemical reactor. My theory on the Queen's Chamber is that chemicals were delivered

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to the chamber through shafts. Those solutions were dilute hydrochloric acid and a hydrated zinc

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solution. Those two chemicals brought together would boil off hydrogen. This hydrogen would cause a

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chemical reaction with the chamber's limestone, which would explain the presence of salt and gypsum.

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The hydrogen reaction compounds the pyramid's vibrations exponentially.

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It's now really moving and can generate a lot of power. Dunn believes all of these vibrations

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charge up the quartz and granite stones in the center of the pyramid. This is why they're putting

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these stones that weigh 50 to 80 tons in the center. They're almost like batteries. And with that,

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you have yourself an energy source. Just how would the Egyptians use that energy?

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According to a 1996 book by Austrian writers, Peter Krasa and Rainer Habek,

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the ancient Egyptians may have actually had electric lights.

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Their theory is based on a relief sculpture that was found in the 2000-year-old Temple of

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Hathor in Dendera, Egypt. It shows what they believe to be a massive light bulb with a socket,

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a cable, and a filament. These so-called light fixtures appear prominently in several other

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Egyptian artworks as well. Krasa and Habek also cite a 1982 experiment by Austrian engineer Walter

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Garn. He sees the so-called Dendera light and decides to test if such a device could have been

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built using the materials available to the ancient Egyptians. He was able to make a working model of

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the device, but his used traditional electricity, not pyramid power. Did the Egyptians actually have

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electricity? According to this theory, they did. And once they had built enough pyramids to light

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and power their civilization, they could stop. It's out there, but hey, it's a theory.

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In the late 1990s, two American engineers make headlines when they suggest that the Egyptian

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pyramids were used to generate power. But they may not be the first to propose this.

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There are reports of a declassified KGB operation known as Project ISIS.

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It allegedly takes place in the 1960s, and the purpose was to take a look at these

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ancient Egyptian artifacts and knowledge to see if they would be of use to the Soviet Union

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militarily. One alleged KGB report from scientists on the Giza Plateau stated that during inspection

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of the wall segment, we noted an odd sensation. A magnetic repulsive force seemed to be emanating

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from the rock. We were unable to find any scientific explanation. In the 1960s, you have the Cuban

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Missile Crisis happening, and right around the same time, the KGB scientists are walking around Giza.

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In the late 1980s, as the Cold War rages on, the Russian Academy of Medical Scientists

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funds additional research into the power of the pyramids. These studies are performed by

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Ukrainian scientists and defense contractor Alexander Golod. According to his research,

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the pyramids do indeed have the ability to harness energy, but he doesn't think it's

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electrical power the Egyptians were trying to use. He thinks it was used for healing.

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As part of his research, Golod builds a series of pyramids across the Soviet Union.

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Golod builds over a dozen pyramids. Each one is bigger than the last,

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and inside he does various tests measuring their vibration frequencies

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and their ability to focus and direct energy. Golod finds that the shape and size of the

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pyramid dictates its energy field. He builds his 17th and largest pyramid 25 miles north of Moscow.

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It's a whopping 144 feet tall and weighs about 55 tons. Golod conducts a research experiment in

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conjunction with the Russian Air Force, which shows that the pyramid creates an energy field

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about a mile high, easily detected by the sensors on the aircraft. Golod next sets out to test the

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energy field's effect on humans. Golod brings all sorts of test subjects into his pyramids,

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but he's not yet sure why the Egyptians built theirs or what the pyramid energy is supposed to do.

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What he finds is that after spending time at the center of the pyramid,

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people will actually have a marked improvement on their health. So he publishes report after report

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about the pyramid's energy, promoting growth, health and longevity. He claims that the subject's

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blood tests prove that standing at the center of the pyramid would actually boost the immune system.

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Over the years, Golod shares his research with a select few. Russian athletes are known to visit

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these pyramids prior to major competitions to boost their energy and endurance. Russian cosmonauts

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are even reported to have brought water from Golod's pyramids up with them to the International

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Space Station to maintain their health. Golod's pyramids still regularly draw visitors from

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across the country who are eager to experience their alleged healing energy, and Golod is happy to

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provide access to pyramid-charged water or healing pyramid trinkets for a small fee.

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Could the very same health-inducing properties have also been sought by ancient Egypt's pharaohs?

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According to this theory, yes. Golod believes that the Egyptian pyramids were used for much of

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the same reason that he's using his pyramids today. In fact, he thinks they could have been used while

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the pharaohs were still alive. This could explain a few things like why each pyramid was built as

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soon as the pharaoh was crowned. Perhaps the building was meant to be used during his lifetime,

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even before it was finished, to help grant him health and longevity. It also potentially explains

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why there are a few other chambers in most pyramids. Like, why is there a queen's chamber while we

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don't actually have evidence that a queen was buried there? Maybe she was allowed to receive

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the pyramid's healing in her own chamber, but during her lifetime. But in death, all that power is

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reserved for the pharaoh himself. Everything focused on his mummified remains to protect and

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preserve him for all eternity. Ultimately, that's the one thing we know for sure the pyramids represent.

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Permanence, strength, whether they're actually sending immune-boosting energy or electrical power,

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whether they're storing grain or serving as alien landmarks. None of this can be proven at the moment,

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but what we can say confidently is that the pyramids were built to last the test of time, and that they have.

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Archaeologists in Egypt have no shortage of work ahead of them. Over a hundred active dig sites

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are currently being investigated with many more to come. As new evidence is pulled from the

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desert sands, new truths may be revealed. I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for watching

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History's Greatest Mysteries.