I
t’s one of the most amazing
unexplained phenomena:
Around the globe, almost
precisely between 20 and
40 degrees north latitude, is a
belt of pyramids. The structures
builtbytheancientEgyptians
and Mayans are world famous.
Buttherearehalfadozenother
civilized peoples who also built
pyramids.Historiansassumeto
this day that these civilizations
knew nothing of one another. So
what’stheanswertothisriddle?DoesasecretBAND
OF PYRAMIDS
connect the first
advanced civilizations?
ANCIENT
NETWORK
Were pharaohs
in contact with
the peoples of
South America?
Not only does the
architecture of
the pyramids
suggest this,
South American
produce has also
been found in
Egyptian tombs.In 1970, archaeologist Thor
Heyerdahl proved that it would
have been possible to sail in
Egyptian papyrus boats all the
way from the land of the Nile to
the Canary Islands, or even to
Mexico. But the evidence that
such journeys took place is still
missing. So did the Egyptians
discover America 1,500 years
before Columbus? This idea is
not absurd—after all, historians
now know that Vikings visited
America long before Columbushad set foot in the Caribbean.
But what if the architectural
knowledge of the Egyptians
reached Central America and
Asia via entirely other routes?
The most essential insight of
the ancient Egyptian architects
was that no other shape allows
for a building made of stone to
be built as high as a pyramid,
if only rudimentary knowledge
of structural engineering and
simple construction techniques
are available. A cuboid of the
same height would collapse.
Cultural historians presume
this notion had traveled like a
whispered message in a game
of telephone. It was transmitted
by laborers, architects, sailors,
and merchants—always being
passed on from one person to
the next. Thus a kind of global
knowledge transfer emerged
thousands of years ago—and
this transfer casts new light on
the history of science. And so,THE GEO CODE: 20°40°N