Civilization #18: The Great Pyramid as Ancient Egypt's Manhattan Project

The Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid was built about 2500 BC, that's 4,500 years ago, by a pharaoh named Khufu. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It's the only one that's still standing. From 2500 until 1400 CE, which is about 4,000 years, it was the tallest man-made building in the world. The Great Pyramid's direction is true north, meaning you can actually use the pyramids as a compass to tell the directions.

Let's look at the architecture of the Great Pyramid. The center is something called the King's Chamber. That's where the king's mummy rests in the sarcophagus. There's a Grand Gallery that gives you access to the King's Chamber, and then a slope, and then it's a pyramid structure. On the top of the pyramid is what is called a Benben, or the pyramidion.

It is extremely significant culturally and religiously in Egypt because in Egyptian mythology, the religion, the creator god Atum—he's known as Atum; he's also known as Ra, the sun god—first came into existence on the Benben. Imagine a large, dark ocean. There's nothing, and then suddenly emerges a mound called a Benben, and that's where comes the creator god Atum or Ra. That's one legend.

The other legend is, from the dark ocean of space comes down a Benben, and on top of it rests Atum. This idea of the pyramidion, the Benben, is central to the idea of creation in Egyptian mythology. This is an extremely powerful and beautiful monument to Egyptian culture.

Architecturally, Napoleon, who visited the Great Pyramid, calculated that if you took all the stones from the Great Pyramid, you could actually build a wall around the perimeter of France. There's more material in the Great Pyramid than in any other structure except for two. The first structure is the Great Wall of China. There's more stone in the Great Wall of China. There's more material in the Three Gorges Dam, also in China. It took them about 26 years to build this pyramid.

1. I'm going to look at three questions. The first question is, how did they build this? Because it's still with us today. You can actually go to Egypt and visit the Great Pyramid.
2. The second question is, why did they build this? What was the purpose?
3. The third question is, why did they stop building the pyramids?

Those are the three questions we're looking at: how was it built, why was it built, and why did the Egyptians stop building the pyramids?

How Was It Built?

How it was built is an extremely controversial question that has plagued historians, Egyptologists and archaeologists for hundreds of years. Originally a Greek historian, Herodotus, proposed the idea the pyramid was built in steps. It was first a step pyramid, and then using pulleys, they pulled the stones up. It was the accepted idea for the longest time because there's no better idea, but architecturally that has been disproven. It can't work that way.

Then about ten years ago there was a French architect named Jean-Pierre Houdin. He's an architect. He's never been in Egypt, doesn't speak Arabic, never studied Egypt. But his father and he were very interested in how the Great Pyramid was constructed, so he came up with this theory. They've run computer simulations and discovered this to be true. There's also a lot of physical evidence to suggest this theory is true.

1. This is how they built the Great Pyramid. What they did was they first constructed an external ramp in order to build a base. You now have the base.
2. Then from the base, what they did was they built two structures, and this is what they call counterweights. These counterweights are like pulleys, which allow them to pull the stones up high.
3. Then surrounding these two structures is what they call an internal spiral ramp to carry the stones up.

What they did was they basically built the pyramids from the inside out. Then once they built the structure, they covered it up with limestone so that it reflects in the sun. If you actually were living back then and you saw the pyramids from a distance, you would think it was a star that has come down on planet Earth. That's how they built the pyramid.

But then this raises another interesting question: how did they come up with this plan, and how were they able to do this without blueprints and without basically writing or modern engineering techniques? The answer is, if you think about it, what they did was they built a model right beside the pyramid, which allowed them to figure out how to build the larger pyramid.

But Egyptologists still believe this was not possible because they believe that Egyptians didn't have the intellectual capacity to imagine this to be true. I'll show you later on that they actually did, that we underestimate their imagination and their intellectual capacity. That answers the first question pretty easily, how it was built.

Why Was It Built?

A more controversial question is why it was built. For the longest time, the accepted theory is this was a tomb. The reason why is Egyptians believed in the afterlife, and so the theory is this pyramid is designed to ease the pharaoh's transition into the heavens, where he would become a star or a sun.

The common phrase is this is almost a resurrection machine, where the pharaoh goes up to the sky, and then after a few centuries he reincarnates inside the pyramid, and the structure is meant to accomplish this. Again, this is the generally accepted theory today. But there are three major problems with this theory which basically discount it.

1. The first major problem is there are about a hundred pyramids in Egypt, a hundred or more. We don't know. We have not found a mummy or a body inside any sarcophagus inside the pyramids. This is a problem. If this is a tomb, why is there no body? We can't find the body. That's one problem.
2. The second problem is this: for this to be a tomb, this implies that the pharaoh, because the pharaohs are divine, they are basically the emanation of God on Earth, when they come to planet Earth and they become the pharaoh, their priority is to build their own tomb. Does that make any sense? They come to Earth, and they're like, "I'm going to die, so I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Let's build that tomb right now."
   
   The problem is that this would imply that the pharaoh sees the Egyptian people as his slaves. "You exist in order for me to live." But the problem is that in Egyptian mythology, gods are considered benefactors of the human race. For example, Atum is the one who gave life to the world, but then his descendant Osiris, another god, gave civilization to Egypt. Then Horus, the son of Osiris, gave the institution of kingship to Egypt. These gods come to Earth in order to help the human race develop in some capacity.
   
   It doesn't make any sense that the pharaoh's primary purpose when he's on Earth is to create a tomb because that's a very selfish reason.
3. The third problem with this is just pure logic. If you're a pharaoh, and your primary concern is the afterlife, resurrecting yourself, and the pyramid is a primary means of accomplishing this, and it takes about 26 years or 30 years to build a pyramid, how can you be sure that you won't die before the pyramid is built? That's a problem. These are three logical problems, but again Egyptologists insist that it is a tomb, primarily because of the way that Egyptians understand the afterlife.

Here's some evidence to suggest it is a tomb. This is considered a writing of a pharaoh to his son about what the pyramid represents. This is what he says:

Make your grave well-furnished, and prepare thy place in the West.

The West is where they go off to die.

Look, death counts little for us.

We can conquer death.

Look, life is valued highly by us.

We want to become immortal.

“The House of the Dead”—meaning the tomb—“is for life.” The pyramid is what will make us immortal. This is again highly debated today. Logically speaking, it doesn't make sense that the pyramids are a tomb, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest it is a tomb. Because of this debate, different theories have been proposed as to the purpose of the pyramid, and there are lots of really strange theories out there, lots of really strange theories.

The Energy Theory

One really interesting theory was proposed by a man named Nikola Tesla, the creator of electricity basically. His idea was this: he studied the architecture of the pyramid, and he proposed the pyramid was a battery system in order to create free, clean energy. The theory is this.

• First of all, if you look at the King's Chamber, the sound frequency in it is F-sharp, and F-sharp is also the frequency of planet Earth. It seems like the pyramid is attuned to planet Earth.
• Second of all, if you look at where the pyramids are geographically, it's true north. It's put in a place that matches the directions of the Earth. The theory is the direction of the pyramid is capturing the energy from the electromagnetic field that the Earth generates.
• The third explanation is inside the pyramid are granite stones, and outside are limestones, and this is the perfect way to trap and store energy. Think of a solar panel where the sun and the moon reflect light onto the pyramids, and the energy is stored inside the pyramid.

This is a great theory, and again there are lots of people who believe in this because this is actually much more plausible than the tomb theory. But the problem with this, of course, is it doesn't work scientifically. Also, you have the question of, if they produce all this free, clean energy, what are they using it for?

Egypt's Manhattan Project

This leaves us with a big question. Why did they build the Great Pyramid? I want to propose another solution. My belief is the Great Pyramid was designed as Egypt's Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project, as you know, was a World War II project in order to build the nuclear bomb. You can argue the nuclear bomb is humanity's greatest invention ever. It took about 130,000 people over five to six years working in the United States, in Canada, in the UK, and these are the best scientists in the world at this time, working collectively in order to create the nuclear bomb.

You can also make the argument that there are many working on the project who believed the Manhattan Project was about bringing peace to Earth, eternal peace. It was ultimately about mastering the secrets of the universe, channeling the power of God in order to create eternal peace, to bring God on Earth. You could also argue that because we've had no major war after World War II, fingers crossed, they were right.

That's my argument: the Egyptians conceptualized and created the Great Pyramid in order to harness the power of God, in order to create eternal peace on Earth, to bring an end to history, to bring an end to pain, suffering and death.

Before I provide the evidence, let me explain this theory in general. Again, this is my theory. It's speculation. It's imagination. But I think it makes sense. Let me explain the theory to you. The trick is the body of the pharaoh, the mummy. If the pharaoh was divine, and the Egyptians believed he was divine, then after his death the body would be sacred and divine.

But not only that, if you think about it, after the pharaoh dies, he would ascend to the heavens to become a star or a sun. The body then becomes a portal or a mechanism for you to communicate with the pharaoh while he's in the heavens. You can also argue the body, the mummy, could be a mechanism for you to channel the pharaoh's powers on Earth.

Imagine this: you have the sarcophagus. The mummy is inside. Then you have the Grand Gallery, and inside the Grand Gallery, what are people doing? They are there praying and worshipping the pharaoh, which then draws the energy from the stars onto the Earth. Then because of the limestone, this energy is reflected across Egypt so the entire nation can bask in the divine energy of the pharaoh.

Nikola Tesla said that this was a battery in order to channel free, clean energy to power Egypt. What if we change this to divine energy instead? The pyramid was a battery to channel divine energy in order to power Egypt.

• If you are a worshipper in the Grand Gallery, what are you experiencing? First of all, you're experiencing the collision, the nexus of life and death because the pharaoh is dead, but he's still alive through your faith. Even though you're mortal, you're now in communication with God. This is a nexus of life and death.
• This Grand Gallery, if you actually have a chance to visit it in Egypt, you'll recognize that this almost looks like a womb. It's almost like you're inside a dark space that's taking you back to the point of your birth. But it can also be seen as a tomb, a place where you're being buried. This is also another collision, conflation or nexus of being born and dying.
• If you were outside and you just saw the pyramid, again you would think of it as a star that has landed on Earth. This is a conflation, a nexus of heaven and Earth.
• It's a collision, a nexus of myth and reality.

You can also make the argument that through divine worship, what you're really doing is you're reversing the Big Bang. You're reversing the Big Bang. You're bringing everything into this one space, and you are creating oneness, wholeness and completeness. You have achieved the union and the unity of all things through your faith in the pharaoh, which gives you divine energy to be born anew, cleansed of your sins and to cleanse others of their sins, to create a moral Egypt. That's the theory.

Eternal Peace

1. Let me explain the idea of eternal peace. Why would the pyramid create the idea of eternal peace? The first reason is even though Egypt was an empire, dynasty at this point, it was still divided culturally. There were at least four different cultures scattered around Egypt, and they all had their own mythologies. They had all their own religious practices. They had their own faiths.
   
   The point of this pyramid was to unite all these faiths into one singular object in the worship of the pharaoh. If you were an Egyptian citizen, if you were in Egypt and you looked at the pyramids, you cannot help but think, "This is God on Earth." This centers your faith, and it forces your obedience and your submission to a higher authority, which is the pharaoh. That's the first reason, unity.
2. Second is the idea of awe. Let's just say you're a powerful army, and you're an enemy, and you want to conquer Egypt. You send your scouts to Egypt, and they see the Great Pyramid. What are they seeing? They're seeing God on Earth. You're not going to attack God on Earth. You're going to run away. It creates a sense of awe around the world.
3. The last thing is the domination of nature. Through divine inspiration, Egyptians are able to summon the Great Pyramid, and it shows the god's ability to control nature. Why is this important? Because the source of Egyptian wealth and power is the Nile River. It's the Nile River that's made Egypt the wealthiest country in the world for thousands of years.
   
   The thing about the Nile is, if it's in a good mood, you live a very good life because the Nile just floods its banks and leaves this rich soil. Then you just throw some seeds in it, and you can grow all these crops very easily. It's a very easy life, and you can become very wealthy that way. If it's in a good mood, then you are a very happy person. But if it's in a bad mood, for example it doesn't flood or it floods too much, you could die of starvation or of drowning.
   
   It's very important for you to be able to control the moods of the gods, and that's what the pyramid is meant to do. The Egyptian word for Egypt is Kemet, which basically means black earth, so the source of all life in Egypt is the soil, the black earth.

Let's go back to this quotation, and now we can actually understand it in a different way.

Make your grave well-furnished, and prepare thy place in the West.

That's fine.

Look, death counts little for us.

We're gods. We're pharaohs. We will never die, so we don't worry about death. We don't have to worry about dying.

Look, life is valued highly by us.

What is life? Life is humans, the Egyptian people. Our concern as pharaohs is for the well-being of the Egyptian people, so that's our primary responsibility.

“The House of the Dead”—the pyramid—“is for life.” The pyramid is our legacy to the Egyptian people. It is our benevolence. It is our generosity. It is how we will make Egypt eternal and stable and prosperous.

That's my theory of what the pyramid is. It is really the Manhattan Project, an attempt by the pharaohs to bring eternal peace.

Evidence for the Theory

The first piece of evidence is again Egyptian mythology. In Egyptian mythology, and it's very different from other mythologies like that of Mesopotamia, the gods give everything to the people. The people don't really do anything. Ra gives life. Osiris gives civilization. Horus provides the kingship. The Egyptian understanding of the relationship with the gods is basically, if they worship the gods well enough, the gods will always reward them.

The idea that the gods will make the people build tombs doesn't really make any sense. It makes more sense the pharaoh is helping the Egyptians achieve eternal peace by inspiring them to build the pyramid.

The second thing is the architectural quality of the pyramid. There is a misconception, a myth: the pyramids were built by slaves. They had slaves. They used slaves, but they never used slaves for religious purposes because you can't really trust slaves. It was tens of thousands of laborers who built the pyramid together, and it's a complete mystery to people how they're able to achieve such a miraculous building.

The answer is this: for the past thousand years, the most impressive buildings in the world are usually churches, temples, mosques. That just demonstrates the power of religious devotion in the act of creation. If the Egyptians saw the pyramids as the ultimate temple, as bringing God on Earth, you can imagine every one of them would work very hard in order to do their best.

The third is the idea of the cult of the skull. Around this time and throughout the world, people practiced ancestor worship. The way they did that usually is, maybe they have an ancestor who was well-regarded. They would keep a skull around. They would decorate it with clay and ochre, and they would use this skull as maybe a portal into the outer world, to the spirit world, in order to draw inspiration, to draw good luck from this. The idea that they would use the pharaoh's body as a portal into the heavens would be a very common idea at that time.

Then you have cave paintings. We looked at Ice Age cave paintings inside caves, and we discussed these paintings were a means of religious worship, of bringing the spirit world into our world, connecting the two, in order to celebrate life and hunting.

Then you have a place like Göbekli Tepe, which is considered one of the earliest temples. Remember, it is a religious monument on top of a hill, which would be also another way for you to connect our world with the heavens and through your worship draw divine energy from the heavens.

In other words, there's a pattern of humans trying to connect the spirit world with our world through religious worship, and the pyramid represents the ultimate temple. The pyramid is a continuation of this sort of religious devotion and worship and religious practice.

Why Did They Stop Building Pyramids?

There's a very good reason why they stopped building the pyramid because, remember, this pyramid was about creating eternal peace, pleasing the gods, unifying the world. That's the theory. The problem is this theory doesn't work because in about 2200 BCE, the 4.2-kiloyear event happened.

Think of this as a mini ice age where for about a hundred years there's a drought in Egypt. That's a problem because the entire point of the pyramid, why people sacrificed themselves so hard to work on the pyramid, was to prevent a drought in Egypt. It was to control the Nile, and they failed.

1. This creates first of all a crisis of faith. Many now are forced to reject their faith in the pharaoh, and now you see the rise of the priesthood and other gods as well. The first major reason why they stopped building the pyramids is a question of faith.
2. The second problem is, in order to build the pyramids, you need a pyramid economy. What the pyramid economy represents is centralized planning, centralization. The pharaoh and his palace are able to coordinate all the resources of the state in order to create the pyramids. We know that when you have centralization, you have three problems.
   
   The first is inequality. If you're part of this planned economy, you do very well for yourself. But if you're not, then you become poorer. Inequality is a huge issue, but you also have a problem of corruption, where people in the system want to steal because it's just easier to do. The third problem is just waste. It's not very efficient. Basically the pyramid economy is just a complete waste of resources.
3. The third problem is this, and this is a huge problem, this idea of a nihilistic religious belief. What this religious belief is saying is life doesn't matter. It's death that matters. It's death that allows us to be like gods, to be eternal. In order to ensure our ascent into godhood, one, we have to be close to the pharaoh. We have to be loyal to the pharaoh. But two, we have to ensure we obtain a lot of wealth in our life.
   
   Basically what Egypt was doing during the pyramid economy was taking all its grain, all its resources and then selling it overseas in order to bring back precious metals that they could put in their graves so that they could take these precious metals, jewelry, into the afterlife with them.
   
   Basically they were just taking all this tremendous wealth of Egypt, almost unlimited wealth of Egypt, and just squandering it, gambling it away basically on the promise of an eternal afterlife. They didn't care about the here and now. They didn't care about building a great nation. They really weren't concerned about ensuring everyone was well-off and prosperous and happy in a nation. You had an elite who was concerned about abusing power in order to steal as much money as possible, in order to ensure a good afterlife.

These are the three major reasons why they stopped building the pyramids. One, because it's a question of faith. It doesn't really work. Second is the centralization creates inequality, corruption and waste. Third is the religious belief can only lead to the corruption of the state and tyranny.

Egypt After the Pyramids

You're absolutely right that even though they stopped building pyramids, this civilization would go on for another 2,000 years, and it was still for the majority of that a very prosperous, stable nation that was basically the hegemon of the Western world. This is the Old Kingdom. That's what the Old Kingdom focused on, building the pyramids. But the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom would also have a lot of glory as well.

I don't mean to denigrate their society. I'm just pointing out some logical flaws in their society that will lead to their eventual decay because, even though the Old Kingdom will collapse, the society is very resilient. As I said, the Old Kingdom will be replaced by the Middle Kingdom after a large civil war. Also, they will make changes to society that will make society much more stable.

The major change is to take all the centralized powers of the pharaoh and then devolve them into the priesthood, creating a priesthood bureaucracy, which is very much like the Confucian bureaucracy in China. They will also start importing new ideas from overseas. I apologize if I'm implying that this is the end of Egypt. It's not. After the Old Kingdom, after they stopped the pyramids, you will have a new flourishing of creativity and innovation in Egypt. But they stopped perceiving the pyramids as the end-all and be-all.

The point I want to make is, during the Old Kingdom they did perceive the pyramid as the Manhattan Project. They really thought, "If we build this thing, then there will be eternal peace." You can also make the argument the Israelites in the Bible make fun of them because there's the Tower of Babel story. The Tower of Babel story, where the humans are arrogantly trying to build a tower up to heaven to be with God. You can argue that that's what the pyramid is, and God laughs at them and mocks them, and they never succeed. Then God punishes them by making them speak different languages.

What Did the Egyptians Remember?

What do the Egyptians remember about the Great Pyramid? Herodotus was writing about 400 BC, and this is about 2,000 years after the Great Pyramid. Herodotus travels around Egypt, and he's basically a historian, he's a journalist. He wants to know how they built the Great Pyramid, and what he discovers is the Egyptians don't know. Not only do they not know, but they don't even know how to rebuild one. If you ask the Egyptian in 400 BC, "Can you build a pyramid?" they've lost the expertise.

• Let me elaborate on this. When I talk about the pyramid economy, I'm talking about three things. I'm talking about specialization, just massive specialization, including how to carve granite, how to move granite, how to do measurements. You have specialization going on.
• Then you have something called institutionalization, which is basically creating a memory of this knowledge. You do that by passing this on to your sons and your grandsons, maybe in a guild or workshop.
• Then you also have systematization, which is to say you have to bring all these pieces together.

The pyramid economy was extremely complex because you need all three things to happen at the same time, specialization, institutionalization and systematization. You can also argue the man who created the system, the pyramid economy, his name is Imhotep, and he's revered in Egypt as a divine figure. He was basically Grand Vizier to the pharaoh. He was royalty, but he was a man. But he was able to contribute so much to Egypt that they deified him basically.

You can argue his major contribution was in creating this pyramid economy, all three elements, specialization, institutionalization and systematization. Because it's actually very hard to put the pieces together. You need a writing system. You need a financial system. You need a lot of elements. I'm making this sound a lot easier than it really is. That's the first thing, very complex.

The second thing is, remember, for the Egyptians and for the pharaoh, the pyramids represented God on Earth. There has to be mystery and secrecy around the building of the pyramid. As I said, what makes the most sense is for them to build these models around the pyramid so that these working teams would know where to go at what time. But after they build the pyramids, it makes sense for them to destroy all records in order to maintain a sense of divinity and inspiration.

They're trying to create awe and fear and inspiration, so they would not want people to know how to build the pyramids. They would think, "This has to be a gift from God, from the pharaoh."

Where Was the Mummy?

Where was the mummy? In this theory, you have to understand what matters is not the pyramid. What matters is the body of the pharaoh because it's the pharaoh's body that's sacred and divine. If that's sacred and divine, then you need a priesthood, a cult of the pharaoh, to secure and take care of the body. In other words, there had to be a team taking care of the pharaoh's body, the mummy, to ensure first and foremost its safety.

The Great Pyramid was part of a complex called the Giza complex. There are actually two other pyramids, and then around the pyramids are these tombs of people who worked for the pharaoh, but who were not divine. You can make the argument what they're trying to do is create a constellation because when you look at the sky, stars don't travel by themselves. They travel in constellations. It makes sense for the son and the grandson to be buried alongside Khufu, but as lesser deities, in lesser pyramids, to show the Egyptian people the harmony, balance and order of the system.

What's great about the system is it ensures loyalty of people working for the pharaoh because, if you're loyal, you're granted a tomb around the pharaoh, which guarantees your ascension into the eternal afterlife so you could be eternally with the pharaoh. This is a system of morality basically.

This is fine because there's lots of protection for the pharaoh. He's surrounded by many different systems. But when the system was breaking down, it was clear that Egypt was breaking into civil war, then the cult of the pharaoh had a responsibility to take the body and place it somewhere that no one could find it.

What matters is the body. The body is what gives the pyramids energy and power, so they have to protect that body at all costs. The reason why we can't find the body is they made sure we could not find the body because the body is the mechanism, the portal by which the pharaoh will resurrect himself. If we have that, then we control the pharaoh. We control God. They must have secret caves or places where they put these bodies, and the purpose is to ensure they can never be found.

What's Inside the Pyramid?

What's inside the pyramid? First of all, the pyramids have been around for about 4,500 years, and tomb raiding was a huge problem. What was actually in the pyramids, we can't be sure about because of time, because of tomb raiding. We didn't find that much inside the pyramid. There were no pictures, artwork. There were very few hieroglyphics inside the Great Pyramid. There are hieroglyphics and paintings in other pyramids, but inside the Great Pyramid we haven't found that much, which I think gives even more credence to my theory that this was meant to be a temple of worship.

This is also why people believe it's a tomb because there's so little artwork. If it were a temple instead, you would imagine there would be a lot of artwork.

A Different Way of Thinking

I want to finish with a different question, which is, why is my interpretation so radically different from the mainstream academic interpretation? I want to propose the way that our minds work today is radically different from the way that the minds of people like the Egyptians worked, for three reasons. The Egyptian people had a pre-literate mind. They also had a pre-science mind, also pre-capitalistic.

1. Pre-literate is very simple. It just means they didn't read and write. They just spoke. We are taught the literate mind is more powerful than the oral mind, but that's not true. If you think about it, the oral mind works through imagination. The oral mind is capable of tremendous memory because back then, in order to do anything, you had to memorize a lot of information. Now we can just go online.
   
   Their minds, even though they were pre-literate, were much more imaginative than we are today, and their memories were stronger. That's why they were able to build the Great Pyramids because everyone was able to memorize the model and figure out his or her place inside the structure. They were also able to imagine in their heads the Great Pyramid. Remember Homer and Virgil. The way that children learn Homer and Virgil is by memorizing them. You can do that. There are people today who memorize the Quran and who memorize the Torah. It takes some time, but you're able to do that. Back then they were able to build the pyramid because they were able to visualize the pyramid in their minds, and you can do that with a pre-literate mind.
2. Second is the idea of pre-science. In today's world, science is our god. In school you're taught the scientific method, which is basically, you collect information, then you synthesize it, then you write your thesis. It's a step-by-step logical process. But if you have a pre-scientific mind, then where do you get your ideas from? You get your ideas through divine inspiration, through God.
   
   You can make the argument back then they were capable of these grand ideas that we're not capable of today because we're locked in by the discipline of science. The other problem with science is it's very materialistic, meaning we're focused on the here and now. We're focused on what we can see as opposed to what we feel or what we believe. When we look at the pyramid, we're always thinking about what was built instead of what they were feeling when they were building this. That's a huge difference.
3. The third difference is pre-capitalistic. Today we do things to make money. We come to school because we want to get a job because we want to make money to buy things. It's a very utilitarian mindset. But for most of human history, most civilizations were not capitalistic. They were religious. They were focused on community. They were focused on what they could contribute to the betterment of the people around them. They were concerned about their relationship with God. They were concerned about how to create peace in the world.
   
   They're asking big questions like, what is good and what is evil? What is justice? What is fairness? What is justice? They were much more focused on building a pyramid as a way to build community and peace and eternity on Earth.

In other words, what's interesting is, even though we are much more technologically advanced, we're much wealthier than the Egyptians, we don't have the imagination. We don't have the will to build something like the Great Pyramid again. That's why I think even today the Great Pyramid captures the imagination of so many people around the world because it's really beyond our own imagination. It really shows the limitations of our own imagination.

Let's all be intuitive and pre-science here. This begins the Bronze Age. This is part of the Bronze Age. Egypt is the greatest civilization of the Bronze Age. There are three great Bronze Age civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.