Did you know the builder of the Great Pyramid is identified in the Bible?
WHO did build the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, Egypt? When and why was it built? Is there some supernatural revelation hidden in its mighty stones? Was the pyramid built to make the Bible clear and understandable? Are the speculations of the pyramidologists true?
And what about the "pyramid inch" — is it really equal to a year in prophecy as some assume? Can chronology be accurately determined only by the pyramid? Here are the surprising answers!
What We Found at Gizeh
Opposite Cairo, across the Nile River, lies the most famous architectural wonder of the world — the Great Pyramid at Gizeh. It is still the world's most massive building. For 3500 years it was also the world's tallest building. Only in this last generation has man built taller buildings than the Great Pyramid. Yet the Empire State Building in New York — the highest building on earth today — is only about 3/5 the volume of the Great Pyramid!
The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 1, page 281, declares of the Great Pyramid: ". . . its perfect building compels our admiration; its alignment [with the points of the compass] is mathematically correct; often one cannot insert a penknife between the joints of the stone."
"The Great Pyramid is so incredibly precise that compass errors can be checked against it," writes Leonard Cottrell in his recent book The Mountains of Pharaoh.
In 1957 Dr. Meredith and I visited the pyramids twice while in Egypt. We found the external appearance of the Great Pyramid ruined by the Arabs. For centuries they have carted away and used the polished white casing stones which once made the Pyramid gleam in the sun and moonlight.
But the interior of the Pyramid re-mains an architectural marvel. The stones within have not moved a hair's-breadth since the day the workmen fixed them in place. The flatness of the surfaces of the stones and the squareness of their corners are extraordinary. Literally acres of polished stone surfaces — equal to opticians' work of the present day — line the passages of the Great Pyramid.
But not all is perfect workmanship. Human imperfection is noticeable in the rough, unfinished masonry on the floor of one of the chambers. We found the floor of the "King's" chamber flagrantly out of level. All this speaks of remark‑
able HUMAN WORKMANSHIP — but does it speak of a divine revelation, as pyramidologists theorize? If this mighty architectural wonder is a divine revelation, where is the divine perfection?
Yet the Great Pyramid Is one of the wonders of the world. It is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world which still remains. Surely there is some significance in its endurance through the ages — especially since this Pyramid, missing its capstone, is found engraved on our money. Why should we Americans — the children of Joseph's son Manasseh — engrave this Egyptian Pyramid on our money? Who was actually responsible for the building of this marvel of the ages?
Secrets of the Pyramid Lost!
When the Arabs invaded Egypt over 1100 years ago, they found the secrets of the Great Pyramid totally lost. Even its entrance was unknown. The Arab Caliph Mamoon, in the 9th century after Christ, blindly cut into the Pyramid hoping to find buried treasure in it. He accidentally reached one of the interior passageways — but no buried treasure!
But Mamoon only REOPENED the Great Pyramid. In the days of Jesus Christ, the true entrance to the Great
Pyramid was open and regularly frequented by tourists. The entrance to it was forgotten in the days of the Catholic domination of Egypt — before the coming of the Moslem Arabs.
Strabo, the ancient Roman historian, expressly states that in his day the Great Pyramid was accessible to visitors: "It has on its side," he states, "a stone which can be moved. When it has been lifted up, a tortuous passage is seen which leads to the tomb" (bk. xvii, p. 808).
Dr. Meredith and I climbed up to this ancient entrance on the north side of the Pyramid. The entrance used today by tourists is, however, the forced entrance cut out by the Arabs. At the true entrance to the Great Pyramid we saw the hieroglyphic carving containing the name of the mighty builder of this architectural wonder of the ancient world. His name in Egyptian is spelled Khufu by modern writers. The Greeks spelled his name Cheops. That is why the Pyramid is often called the Pyramid of Cheops today.
Who was Cheops or Khufu? When and why did he build the pyramid?
Cheops NOT an Egyptian!
The Egyptians like to boast about their pyramids. Yet the greatest pyramid of all, they admit was not built by an Egyptian! And they admit that all their later copies of the Great Pyramid are quite inferior to the first one built by Khufu. The Egyptian historian Manetho, who lived in the third century before Christ, wrote that Khufu "was of a DIFFERENT RACE" from the Egyptians (Wathen's Arts and Antiquities of Egypt, p. 54).
Herodotus, the famous Greek historian of the 5th century before Christ, states that the builders of the Great Pyramid were SHEPHERDS (Euterpe §128). But the Egyptians were not shepherds! Notice Genesis 46:31-34: "And Joseph said unto his brethren . . . I will go up, and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my father's house . . . are come unto me; and the men are shepherds . . .And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle . . . FOR EVERY SHEPHERD IS AN ABOMINATION UNTO THE EGYPTIANS."
The Egyptians were not shepherds. They employed others to tend their cattle. Yet Khufu, or Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid, was a shepherd!
Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote that the Egyptians set the Israelites "to build pyramids" (Antiquities of the Jews, bk. II, ch. ix, §1). But the pyramids which the Israelites built during their enslavement were hastily constructed, inferior duplicates of the first mighty Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops. Who was Cheops the shepherd who built the first Pyramid before the enslavement of the Israelites?
Cheops NOT an Idolater
Cheops was not a polytheist. He was a worshipper of the One God. "Cheops closed the temples and prohibited the Egyptians from offering sacrifices," wrote Herodotus in book II of his History, §124. The God whom Cheops served was named "Amen" in the older Egyptian spelling. And — strange though it may be — one of the names of Jesus Christ, from the Hebrew, is "Amen" (Rev. 3:14).
The Pharaoh of Upper Egypt, under whom Joseph served, was named Amenemhet III. "Amen" was a common name among the Pharaohs in Joseph's day. The Pharaoh must have been strongly influenced by the religion of Cheops. But this is not all! Pharaoh Amenemhet gave Joseph "to wife Asenath the daughter of Potiphera priest of ON" (Genesis 41:45).
Who was the God "On"? Is it significant that "On" is but another name (in Greek) for the God "Amen" — Jesus Christ, the LORD of the Old Testament! In Revelation 1:8, Christ speaks of Himself as the "One who is" — the "existing One." In the original inspired text of this verse, the Greek word Christ used was "On"! — the "existing one"!
The Egyptian rulers knew of the Creator in the days of Joseph! Not until nearly the days of Moses did gross idolatry spread throughout Egypt!
When Did Cheops Build Pyramid?
When did Cheops live? According to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, he lived 4700 B.C. — which would make him live 700 years before Adam! Such a date is preposterous! More recent conservative scholars place him 2600 B.C. — 250 years before the flood in Noah's day! But the flood, according to the Egyptian records, occurred centuries before Cheops lived! Cheops lived after the flood! This date is wrong, too!
Obviously modern scholars do not know when Cheops lived. But they could know if they only believed the Bible record!
Some pyramidologists try to date the pyramid by astronomy. They assume that when built, the North Pole star, Alpha Draconis, could be seen from the entrance passage of the Great Pyramid. But the idea is purely an assumption. There is no proof!
Furthermore, the North Pole star would have been visible for only a few minutes from the descending passage BECAUSE THE PASSAGE NEVER DID POINT DIRECTLY TO THE NORTH POLE STAR! Some adherents of the "British Israel World Federation" would try to deny this, but any history book demonstrates the idea false.
The facts of history are that Cheops (1726-1663 B.C.) was a young contemporary of King Zoser of Egypt. Zoser ( 1737-1718 B.C.) built the "step pyramid" shortly before Cheops built the Great Pyramid (Budge, A History of Egypt, vol. II, p. 9).
Now the surprise of history is that king Zoser ruled part of Lower Egypt at the same time Joseph was Prime Minister under Pharaoh Amenemhet III,king of Upper Egypt. Ancient Egypt, remember, was a confederation of small city states. Amenemhet III (1741-1692 B.C.) was king of Upper Egypt and Pharaoh of all Egypt. But under him were lesser kings, among whom was Zoser. Cheops was a foreign King whose domain extended into the Delta of Egypt.
King Zoser recorded the seven years' drought in Joseph's time. "My heart is in great anxiety," said Zoser, "for in my time the Nile has not overflowed for a period of SEVEN YEARS" (Cambridge Ancient History, p. 309-310, vol. I).
The Bible reveals the seven years of famine extended from 1727 to 1720 B.C.
Here is clear evidence that Cheops, a contemporary of Zoser, must have built the Great Pyramid during the beginning of the sojourn (1726-1487 B.C.) of Israel in Egypt and about the time of the seven years of famine!