Discussion: Thermal Scan Of Egyptian Pyramids Finds 'Impressive' Anomaly

Discussion for article #242685

Lord, deliver us from all of the people who are going to be convinced this proves Ben Carson was right.

48 Likes

Clearly, the son of Snefru and founder of the fourth dynasty (2,575-2,465 BC) left the coffee pot onā€¦
But, as the articles states, the warmer limestone suggests a void behind the stone and ā€œvoidā€ will certainly be taken as a grain storage space by certain parties even if the void is ridiculously smallā€¦

33 Likes

ā€œGRAINS!ā€ /zombie voice

47 Likes

I think itā€™s pretty obvious that pyramids were the ā€œparty placesā€ for the locals, a good place to escape the heat and have a nice orgy, etc. Doors in most locked from the inside, etc.

Well, thatā€™s a more accurate theory than Carsonā€™s anyway.

9 Likes

Ben Carson knows what it is: The Grainery.

4 Likes

Fermenting grains give off heatā€¦

8 Likes

So do fermenting brains. Heatā€“not light.

7 Likes

CAIRO (AP) ā€” Egyptian antiquities officials on Monday scoffed at claims by Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson that Egyptā€™s ancient pyramids were not built as pharaonic tombs but used to store grain.

"Does he even deserve a response? He doesnā€™t," Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty told the Associated Press on the sidelines of a news conference about recent thermal scans of the pyramids that revealed some anomalies that could lead to new discoveries about their construction.

Carsonā€™s comments have received little attention in Egypt, where people are accustomed to accepted expert views about the 4,500-year-old structures, but have drawn interest in the United States where the retired neurosurgeon has jumped to the top of the crowded Republican presidential field.

Last week, Carson stood by his belief that Egyptā€™s great pyramids were built by the Biblical figure Joseph to store grain, an assertion dismissed by experts who say its accepted science that they were tombs for pharaohs.

Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Antiquities Ministr,y said Carsonā€™s comments are similar to other inaccurate theories about the pyramids, including that those that say they were built by Atlanteans from a mythical lost continent.

ā€œA lot of people are trying to prove that the pyramids werenā€™t built for burials,ā€ said Afifi. "Maybe theyā€™re comments used for publicity like that man whoā€™s not an archaeologist and says they stored grain, and I donā€™t know what that was based on."

16 Likes

I donā€™t know about you, but I always hide my spare grain from rodents with a ten-ton block of stone.

10 Likes

Lite beer of the Godsā€¦Logically (s/), it could also be that a parked UFOā€™s anti-matter containment field is collapsingā€¦

3 Likes

Camel Wheat Ale

5 Likes

Send in Geraldo Rivera: heā€™ll know how to uncover the secrets of a mysterious vaultā€¦

25 Likes

I hate when that happensā€¦

1 Like

Itā€™s hilarious that Republicans canā€™t wrap their heads around the idea that the ruling elite use their peopleā€™s resources to erect monuments to themselves.

Itā€™s what conservatives do.

17 Likes

This is just a theory, and I am in no way trying to create widespread panic, but I think that Ben Carson is an alien. Proof? Glad you asked. Who, other than an alien would grow up poor and black on the mean streets of Detroit in the desperate 60s and 70s and have BOTH a ā€˜camping knifeā€™ AND a friend named ā€˜Bobā€™?

16 Likes

Iā€™m pretty sure itā€™s grain. Lots and lots of grain.

2 Likes

That one will have flown right over the head of most visitors under the age of about 50. :blush:

2 Likes

Do they keep grain in Dubyaā€™s Presidential Library?

The TPM article is unfortunately light on details, but we are talking about a potential passageway which has been discovered (the anomalous readings show an area large enough for a person to pass through, but not immense ā€¦ ā€œimpressiveā€ to someone looking for these things doesnā€™t mean the same thing it will to the likes of Carson). Similar potential passageways have been discovered leading away from Tutā€™s tomb a while back. Also note that the description of ā€œa higher temperatureā€ is incredibly misleading. The study examined the temperature differences in the face going from night to day. Voids tend to heat and cool differently than solid stone. The areas on these three stones tended to have a greater difference (more of a heat fluctuation) than the other stones in the face, leading to the hypothesis that there might be a void present behind the stones which is causing them to heat/cool. Specifically, most of the face of the pyramids are very tightly-placed sandstone which is a great insulator in bulk; the temperature fluctuated about half a degree Celsius over the course of the day. These three stones, however, apparently fluctuated by six degrees between the coldest part of the night and the hottest part of the day, indicating less-than-perfect insulation. Again, that might indicate the walls are thinner and there is a non-temperature-controlled void behind them, or it might mean that there are simply fissures in the wall allowing movement of hotter/cooler external air to permeate the surface and heat/cool the stones beneath.

It is fortunate that the ridiculous Carson claims have made this discovery more widely-known to us Americans who generally would have no interest in ancient archaeology, but at the same time unfortunate that it means people might think more highly of those prima facie groundless claims (the pyramids were each built over a period longer than the seven years the Bible allocates to storing grain; if repurposed while under construction they would have required massive infrastructure which is not mentioned and for which we have no evidence; no contemporary evidence supports the Biblical myth). It will take many years before these anomalous readings (which may well indicate passageways but also may well just be a different source of sandstone for those three blocks, or a trauma to the face of the pyramid which introduced fissures in these stones, etc) are fully explored. We canā€™t afford to give Carson and his cadre of know-nothings credence in the intervening interval.

16 Likes