Below, an article from an unlinkable right wing tabloid, on a subject I pray to any existing divinity is neutral enough to dis without insulting anyone:
Who really built the great pyramids of Egypt?
In school, students are taught that the pharoahs used slave labor and existing technology to build tombs for themselves.
But is there more to the story?
How could the precise measurements have been calculated? How could massive stones be cut with such precision? How could they have been quarried and moved into place?
Rule 1: Intriguing subjects make the best ground for Conspiracy Theories (CTs). If the monkey mind of a human being will look twice at it, you too can weave an conspiracy about it. Here, the subject is one of the greatest achievements of ancient humanity, the Great Pyramids.
Rule 2: CTs will first repeat a vastly simplified Official Story. Bonus points are here awarded by framing the official story as the provence of schoolchildren. This implies that adults who can "think for themselves" may have a better perspective on the subject at hand.
Rule 3: CTsk then will ask the "unanswerable questions". The questions are asked on a specialized subject that most people don't have any idea about. Here, the questions are about construction questions of ancient times. The knowledge needed to answer these questions is found in a lifetime of study and communication with like-trained scholars. (However, having framed the "official story" as the work of school teachers, the darkweaver has neutralized the authority of people best suited to answer that question! How convienent!)
Producer Ken Klein has delivered one of the most compelling documentaries on the subject, making the case that the pharaohs were not responsible for the Giza plateau pyramids. It's called "The Lost Legend of the Great Pyramid: The Pillar of Enoch."
Rule 4: Darkweavers then present the alternate theory for the consideration of the target audience (people who don't know the answers to the "unanswerable questions". In most cases of darkweaving, there is a tape or a book to buy. This is sometimes saved for the end of the presentation, yet here it is used as a confirmation that more "evidence" is available to satisfy your reinforced need to understand how the pyramids were built. You too can get this evidence, right after you pony up the cash.
"It is a matter of archaeological fact that none of the fourth dynasty kings put their names on the pyramids supposedly constructed in their times, yet all other pyramids of Egypt had hundreds of official inscriptions, leaving us no doubt about which kings built them," he says.
Rule 5: Eye-popping evasions remain the best way to amaze the target audience. Since they don't know any different, they will be impressed by such erudition on display.
However, not just any eyepopping lie will do. The lie must be
a) be technically true in its terms,
b) be twistable to imply much more than the actual truth being used says,
c) provide a "briar patch" fallback that allows the darkweaver room to escape in a cloud of thunderous logic while quietly retreating from the original point.
Yes, it's true: no inscriptions are on the pyramids, as they now stand. However, we know that the pyramids were all covered with a limestone covering (part of one still remains on the apex of a pyramid). It's possible that inscriptions could have been found on this outer layer that now has been long plundered by later builders.
Furthermore,
plenty of inscriptions within the pyramidal funerary complex name the pharoah-builders.
First of all you have inscriptions that are written inside the tombs, the tombs that are located on the west side of the Great Pyramid for the officials, and the tombs that are located on the east side of the Great Pyramid for the nobles, the family of the King Khufu. And you have this lady, the daughter of Khufu. And this man was the vizier of the king. This one was the inspector of the pyramids, the chief inspector of the pyramids, the wife of the pyramid, the priest of the pyramid. You have the inscriptions and you have pottery dated to Dynasty 4. You have inscriptions that they found of someone who was the overseer of the side of the Pyramid of Khufu. And another one who was the overseer of the west side of the pyramid. You have tombs of the workmen who built the pyramids that we found, with at least 30 titles that have been found on them to connect the Great Pyramid of Khufu to Dynasty 4. You have the bakery that Mark Lehner found. And all the evidence that we excavate here.Ah, ha! says the darkweaver. Those inscriptions aren't on the pyramids themselves! They are on the accompanying tombs! They could have been official lies. Why, anyone can grab a chisel, even Khufu's men, and put up any inscription they wanted, claiming anything they did. Raameses II put his name all over former pharoah's names, didn't he? They all did...
Of course, when the darkweaver goes here, the darkweaver explicitly negates his first statement. If it's the case that inscriptions can be trusted because they are eyewitnesses...I mean, because anybody could write what they wanted on the side of the tomb, then what difference does it make whether the pyramids were inscribed or not? Any inscription that denies the CT will be discarded as another lying hieroglypic.
Even those archaeologists who still stubbornly subscribe to the "tomb theory" of the pyramid do not believe that a queen or anyone else was ever buried in the limestone chamber.
Rule 6: The CT also will find a way to develop and expose discrepancies in the "official story". You will see creationists who point to various schools of thought within evolutionary scientists, and play diversity of opinions off as internal contradictions. Here the use of the pyramid as a tomb is questioned by evidence that no one ever laid at rest there. However, there is evidence that bodies did lie in rest there - most notably Khufu's sarcophagus, which remains in the king's chamber.
This is a real problem with CTs - the "official story". Usually, there is no official story, as here. There are some generally agreed-upon facts, and narrative flows within these facts may gain some staying power. But CTs require an official story to fight against, and darkweavers find it necessary to invent one when none exists, and will do so using the most convienent positions for the CT to "debunk." Another example here is the various stories of disappearences in the Bermuda Triangle. Without apparent exception, the "official stories" used to weave the paranormal theories surrounding that area turn out to be completely wrong about the actual events - disappearances happen invariably in bad weather, for example.
This need to establish some kind of "official story" finds itself in flummox when an "official story" actually does come out! There is rhetoric involved here, rhetoric that has been reproduced in tape, DVD, or book form. Those units are still sitting on the shelf, waiting to be bought, and if the official story isn't what the darkweaver always claimed it to be, the official story must be marginalized, or at least only quoted in ways that support the original understanding of the "official story".
Rule 7: The CT will find a way to label the "official story" with a nickname. Here, it's "tomb theory". Note the stressed use of the word "theory". This helps play up the "internal contradictions" between scholars with different opinions.
Mysterious legends and records tell of watermarks that were clearly visible on the limestone casing stones of the Great Pyramids suggesting that the Great Pyramid existed before the pharaohs during the great flood of Noah's time.
Here, an isolated fact is once again given a mysterious context. The word "mysterious" is gratuitous editorializing. Plus reference to a clearly mythical event (the flood of Noah) gives us another clue as to the type of person this ad is trying to dupe.
Although much research remains to be done in these areas, legend, archaeology, mathematics and earth sciences seem to indicate that the Great Pyramid was a monumental device for gathering knowledge and information to be revealed and decoded at a latter time for the spiritual benefit of human beings.
Are you living in that latter time?
Get "The Lost Legend of the Great Pyramid: The Pillar of Enoch."
Rule 8: More often than not, the sales pitch will be a vital part of the CT. And this particular example has been nothing but a sales pitch. It identifies and reinforces a "felt need", it isolates the reader by appealing to vanity and slamming alternate routes to satisfy the need, it promises further information and hints at resolution, and then provides the link to get the DVD.
Any questions?