The Great Pyramid is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. It is one of the oldest structures on the face of the earth and arguably the best built. Its mortar joints are consistently 1/50 of an inch, which is incredible craftsmanship, considering that of the over two million stones that make up the Pyramid, there is no stone weighing less than a ton, most weighing about two and a half, and some as much as 20 tons! The Pyramid covers over 13 acres and is solid masonry, not hollow or earth-filled like the Central American pyramids.

The Great Pyramid here demonstrates the remarkable character of its placement on the face of the Earth. Joseph Seiss and others have demonstrated that the Pyramid lies in the center of gravity of the continents. It also lies in the exact center of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth's land mass into approximately equal quarters. The north-south axis (31 degrees east of Greenwich) is the longest land meridian, and the east-west axis (30 degrees north) is the longest land parallel on the globe. There is obviously only one place that these longest land-lines of the terrestrial earth can cross, and it is at the Great Pyramid! This is incredible, one of the scores of features of this mighty structure which begs for a better explanation.

While being the oldest structure on the face of the earth, the Great Pyramid is the most accurately oriented, being laid out almost exactly due north, south, east, and west. Modern man's best effort, the Paris Observatory, is six minutes of a degree off true north. The Great Pyramid is only three minutes deviant and E. Raymond Capt¹ claims that is due mainly to subsidence. Many architects and engineers who have studied the Pyramid's structure contend that, with all our vaunted technological prowess, we could not build the structure today. Does the theory of evolution run in reverse?

TWO SCHOOLS OF PYRAMIDOLOGY

There has been a running controversy between two groups of serious students of the Great Pyramid since Herodotus, the "father of ancient history" revived its study two thousand years after it was built. The first group believes that the Pyramid is a divine revelation, and the second group doesn't. While this latter group might be willing to conjecture that the apparent geometric marvels of the Pyramid are the result of knowledge lost with Atlantis² or other highly advanced but now destroyed civilization, they will not accept the possibility that God used prophets to direct the building of the Great Pyramid in the way that God directed Noah to build the ark.

Proponents of the divine inspiration school have included John Greaves³ , apparently Sir Isaac Newton⁴ , John Taylor⁵ , Scotland's Astronomer Royal C. Piazzi Smyth⁶ , Joseph Seiss⁷ , J. Ralston Skinner⁸ , David Davidson⁹ , and James and Adam Rutherford¹⁰ , Those who have been skeptical of this perspective, but avid students of some form of Great Pyramidology include William Flinders Petrie¹¹ , Sir J. Norman Lockyer¹² , the "pyramid power" people including Antoine Bovis, Karl Drbal, G. Patrick Flanagan, and most modern tabloid and/or high glossy treatments of the mystery of the Pyramid including Time-Life's Mystic Places, the work of Erich von Daniken, and Humphrey Evans¹³ , William Fix¹⁴ , Kurt Mendelssohn¹⁵ , Max Toth¹⁶ and Peter Tompkins¹⁷ . The present work is confident that the Great Pyramid's Architect was the Creator and that its builder was the Egyptian pharaoh Cheops, also called Khufu. Cheops was directed by shepherd-prophets who, like the biblical prophets, were men who received a special calling and anointing from God.

SHEPHERD-PROPHETS

Consider these facts. The Pyramid was built in Egypt, notorious for its idolatry and polytheism. Yet Pharaoh Cheops became "arrogant towards the gods" during his reign and shut up the temples, cast out the images, and compelled even the priests to labor in the quarries. Herodotus says that the Pyramid was thirty years in building, the first ten years building prepatory works, with crews of 100,000 working on three-month shifts, and that after this thirty year period Cheops reverted to worship of the Egyptian gods. What strange power could cause such a radical thirty year break in the polytheistic habits of the Egyptians?

Herodotus extensively interviewed an Egyptian priest about the building of the pyramid and he attested that a noted stranger abode in Egypt at the time of Cheops, a shepherd, to whom rather than to Cheops the Egyptians attribute this edifice. The Egyptians call him "Philition" or "Philitis." Josephus also quotes Manetho, an Egyptian priest and scribe, who says there was a period in the Egyptian past when, by peaceable means, some "shepherd kings" had the Egyptian rulers "in their hands." Manetho said that some say they were Arabs. Seiss, with characteristically sound scholarship and reasoning, makes a case that the biblical Job was the Arabian who directed the Pharaoh in the building of the Great Pyramid. Seiss points out that the image of a pyramid is "unquestionably" the subject when God addresses Job out of the whirlwind in Job 38:

"Then the LORD answered Job from the storm. He said: 2 "Who is this that makes my purpose unclear by saying things that are not true? 3 Be strong like a man! I will ask you questions, and you must answer me. 4 Where were you when I made the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off how big it should be? Surely you know! Who stretched a ruler across it? 6 What were the earth's foundations set on, or who put its cornerstone in place 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted with joy?"

Seiss says that since YHWH's object is to convince Job of his incompetency to judge of and understand Him, it is as if the Almighty is saying: You laid the foundations of the great structure in Egypt, but where were you when I laid the foundations of the far greater pyramid of the earth? You laid the measures of the pyramid in Egypt, but who laid the measures of the earth, and stretched the line upon it? You fastened down in sockets the foundations of the pyramid in Egypt, {the Great Pyramid is built on four sockets} but whereupon are the foundations of the earth fastened? You laid the pyramid's completing capstone amid songs and jubilations, but who laid the capstone of the earth when the celestial morning angels sand together, and all the heavenly sons of God shouted for joy?

In our day the idea of shepherds being special agents of God in the building of a monumental structure would be ludicrous in the extreme. Such is our age. The fault line of commentators referred to above is sharp, because the difference between faith and unbelief is the difference between light and darkness. The Bible says that God revealed to shepherds some of the most important information ever given to humankind:

Luke 2:8-15: That night, some shepherds were in the fields nearby watching their sheep. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord was shining around them, and they became very frightened. 10 The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news that will be a great joy to all the people. 11 Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord. 12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box." 13 Then a very large group of angels from heaven joined the first angel, praising God and saying: 14 "Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace among the people who please God." 15 When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about."

Abraham was also a shepherd, like Job, wealthy with flocks and herds. How is it that he was brought to the attention of the pharaoh of Egypt and the King of Gerar in his travels?¹⁸ Was it simply that Sarah, his wife, was so pretty? The Jewish records say that Abraham was learned in the science of astrology and with his elaborate knowledge of the heavens and their meanings he attracted the attention of these kings. We know from the biblical record that God communicated with the shepherd Abraham many times, several times using the "stars" as a teaching vehicle. YHWH Himself directed Abraham's eyes toward the heavens, indirectly corroborating the Jewish oral tradition that says Abraham was a gifted astrologer:¹⁹

Gen 15:5 "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them': and he said unto him, 'So shall thy seed be.'"

The eye of faith sees it as a real and distinct, not vain and imagined, possibility that the Pyramid was directed by shepherds guided by Divine wisdom. Such faith offers a sufficient explanation of what would otherwise be the dilemma posed by the advanced knowledge and technology exhibited by the Pyramid. It is with those who do not accept the Divine authorship of the Pyramid with whom the burden rests for a better explanation.

THE PLACE OF THE PYRAMID IN THE BIBLE

There is a biblical reference to the Great Pyramid which is instructive:

Isa 19:19-20 "At that time there will be an altar for the LORD in the middle of Egypt and a monument to the LORD at the border of Egypt. 20 This will be a sign and a witness to the LORD All-Powerful in the land of Egypt. When the people cry to the LORD for help, he will send someone to save and defend them. He will rescue them from those who hurt them."

Notice that there is a reference to an "altar" and a "monument" that will be in Egypt. The location of this "altar" and "monument" is sketched in terms which seem to be contradictory; it will be at the "border" of Egypt at the same time it will be in the "middle" of Egypt. The apparent contradiction offers a chance to pinpoint the identity of this "monument" since few candidates would be able to be both the "border" of something, and also its "middle."