The Pyramids of the Cold - Table of Contents

Diagram of the Great Pyramid of Giza in operation, for evaporative cold production.

The constant high humidity rate resulting of the evaporative cooling created in the horizontal passage and the Queen's chamber is explaining the presence of very thick and hard incrustation of salt in both of these parts of the Great Pyramid (read more on that subject in Section 1).

Salt encrustation is the signature of the evaporative cooling, even today.

 

 

0.02  The inclined well representation in KV11

Most of the time, Ancient Egyptians used to represent everything they accomplished in many metaphors, like the pressurization of the waters of the well (the Sycamore tree putting its weight upon Apep), but sometimes they also represented pretty accurate parts, and that is precisely what they did in this detail of a relief from Ramesses III KV11 tomb, where the inclined well is pretty accurately represented with its girdle stones reinforced lower part, as well as the water of the flooded upper part and the ejection of the pressurized water (snake = water).

Detail of an image from the ARCE, American Research Center in Egypt in partnership with the American University in Cairo Egyptology Department. KV 11: Rameses III, Side chamber Cc, rear wall. Valley of the Kings, East Valley, West Bank, Luxor. Image #21076 by Matjaz Kacicnik, taken on December 2005 : https://thebanmappingproject.com/images/21076jpg

 

 

0.03  The Pyramids of the Cold - Table of contents

Section 1 • The Evaporative Cooling Passage, Nefertem and the khepeshes

Section 2 • The Evaporative Cooling : the Dendera Light

Section 3 • The Evaporative Cooling : the Amun, Geb, Shu, Nut and Tefnut glorifying metaphors

Section 4 • The Inclined Well layout : the Girdle Stones and the interlocked blocks

Section 5 • The Inclined Well waters : the Great Snake Apep metaphor of the pressurized waters

Section 6 • The Inclined Well : the Taweret Lady of the Well block

Section 7 • The Inclined Well : the Bes wedging block and the Māori ceremonial Haka

Section 8 • The Inclined Well : the draining of the well

Section 9 • The Inclined Well : the Was Scepter, the Sa Symbol and the Isis Knot

Section 10 • The Impactor

Section 11 • The Grand Gallery : the Hidden Hauling Cavern of the Underworld

​Section 12 • The Grand Gallery : the Hauling Beetle designed for 8+2 crewmembers

​​Section 13 • The Grand Gallery : the Scarab Amulets

​Section 14 • Solvay process (natron manufacturing) : the Red Pyramid

​Section 15 • Solvay process (natron manufacturing) : the Disc of Sabu

​Section 16 • Solvay process : the cooling of the Eye of Horus

Section 17 • The Ankh symbol and the changes made by Akhenaten & Nefertiti

Section 18 • The Sarcophagus of the Great Pyramid

Section 19 • The Churning of the Ocean of Milk Hindu myth

Section 20 • The Weighing of the Heart and the peeing Baboon

Section 21 • Osiris and the Tibetan Prayer Wheels' Too Lazy Naga snakes

Section 22 • Thor and the mist of cold from the Well of Hvergelmir

Section 23 • The Sun God Ra impactor and the squeaky Hauling rope

Section 24 • The Osiris' seed and Horus' Opening of the Mouth

 

This engraving shows Dutch mathematician and physicist Jean Henri van Swinden (1746–1823) demonstrating the generation of electricity to the Felix Meritis Society in Amsterdam. The Felix Meritis Society was founded in the late 18th century to promote the arts and sciences (Felix Meritis translates as "Happiness through Merit"). Barbiers, Pieter Pietersz., and Jacques Kuyper. Courtesy of Science History Institute in Philadelphia : https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/zg64tm573

The astronomical ceiling at the Pronaos, outer hypostyle hall in the Temple of Hathor in the Dendera Temple complex, near Dendera, Egypt. : detail of the first Band west from the centre, showing the full "healed moon on a pillar" depicted as "Wadjet" the Eye of Horus healed by Thoth, who is portrayed at the right. Thanks to Kairoinfo4U : https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/9295311496

Jim Hutton as detective Ellery Queen, posing with a magnifying glass courtesy of NBC Television.

 

0.04  The real secret of ancient Egyptian pharaohs was scientific knowledge : physics and chemistry were perceived as magical proof that they were having the legitimacy to reign from the gods

The most advanced technological program developed by ancient Egyptians was the chemical manufacturing of natron using scientific knowledge in physics and chemistry.

At the time of the pharaohs, they didn't use the modern term "sodium carbonate" : it was called natron and it was the  mummification salt. Today, we don't use the word natron anymore but we are still producing it : that is sodium carbonate, a chemical produced with sodium bicarbonate using an ammonia-soda Solvay process.

Pharaoh's Sneferu, Khufu's father, built 3 pyramids to master the production of this pure mineral form of the salt he was gonna use to access to immortality. If my theory is correct, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, would be the achievement of his father's quest for immortality.

Scientific knowledge involving Physics and Chemistry was the real secret of the ancient Egyptians, probably for many generations before Sneferu ; and the demonstration of this knowledge would have been an important piece of the political balance between the people and their kings. 

People would probably only see magic in physics and chemistry. Scientific knowledge was the proof that their rulers had the legitimacy to reign.

Physics and Chemistry were coming from the gods. Science was coming from the gods.

Sneferu was probably the most revolutionary pharaoh of all times, and he decided to deploy chemistry technology like never before. He didn't hesitate to build 3 pyramids and who knows how many smaller structures, to achieve the production of pure natron. The Great Pyramid of Giza should be seen, so to speak, as the fourth pyramid of Sneferu, the culmination of many years of hard work.

The pure natron produced inside the pyramids by Sneferu, had many advantages: they didn't have to rely on quarrying and purifying rocks, but I think the most important reason to do it, is that chemistry was probably seen at that time as magic.

 

Please note that on the 2 above images, both have the exact same meaning : they are both talking about science, observation and analysis.

Pharaoh's showing off their ability to master the chemistry crafts, was probably the cornerstone of their legitimacy to rule their kingdom. It was certainly assumed that the gods were giving that magical chemistry art directly to the pharaoh.

It is absolutely exhilarating to imagine what could have been that ancient Egyptian society, where most probably nobody had the right to even try to do any kind of chemistry, because it would have been perceived as an attempt to mimic the pharaoh's power and privileges.

Still, humans being what they are, some would have tried, and they would have been extremely severely punished for that.

The sacred and magic chemistry craft was the real secret and the real treasure of Ancient Egypt.

 

Ancient Egyptians represented snakes everywhere in countless occasions, but they were nothing but water metaphors referring to their scientific accomplishments in physics and chemistry (Section 5). Snakes = water. 

 

0.05  The Great Pyramid of Khufu was a profound Change of Civilization Event

When operating, the Great Pyramid would have appeared like a living beast : a lot of noises, fumes and smoke would get out of it. 4,500 years ago, no wonder such a sight changed forever the identity of the Egyptian people and was at the origin of many symbolic or mythological scenes, figures, gods and artifacts.

One of the ramifications of my theory about Sneferu's pyramids, is that many aspects of ancient Egyptian religion and artifacts, maybe even most of them, are based on the operating of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Everything starts with Sneferu's reign and is quest for the sodium carbonate manufacturing: Sneferu wanted pure "magical" man made natron for his mummification, and probably other purposes, like chemical "magical" demonstrations to the people.

 

If there is no doubt that the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza was designed to create cold in the horizontal passage, using the power of evaporated water, its usage is purely hypothetical, and only based on the analysis of the Red Pyramid and the fact that the so called burial chamber was actually a limestone kiln. That kiln and the very strong ammonia smell are suggesting that ancient Egyptians developed in that pyramid the chemical manufacturing of sodium carbonate (also called natron, the salt used for the mummification of the pharaohs) and sodium bicarbonate. Ancient Egyptians were the ones who invented the Solvay process in the first place.

My opinion is that they developed the evaporative cold in the Great Pyramid to master the process : in the Red Pyramid, the accumulation of ammonia indicates that they didn't control the chemical reaction temperatures at that time. If this assumption is right, then, on top of the Grand Gallery is set the Solvay reaction chambers with discs of Sabu inside.

Dendera Light, thanks to Kairoinfo4U: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/14525094039/in/photostream/

 

It is important to understand that during the entire operation of the Great Pyramid, hence the creation of the evaporative cold, the bottom of the inclined well was what is now known as the upper granite plug. That crucial block has been deified into the goddess Taweret and was like suspended in mid-air, blocked by a smaller granite block set in the floor of the ascending passage : the wedging block that was deified into the deity Bes. Sections 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Hatshepsut’s birth scene, from Édouard Naville "The Temple of Deir el Bahari" (London, 1896), vol. 2, pl. 50. Image courtesy of the University Library Heidelberg : The Ebony shrine, northern half of the middle platform. https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/naville1896bd2/0050

 

The hidden meaning of goddess of childbirth Taweret is all about water : it is about the draining of the inclined well of the Great Pyramid. Taweret is represented as an hippopotamus because she was the glorifying personification of the granite block that sealed the bottom of the inclined well. Like an hippopotamus does, Taweret spent all her time at the bottom of the well, under water all day long.

 

Scene from the astronomical ceiling of the Hypostyle Hall of the Dendera Temple of Hathor at Lunet (Lunet is the ancient Egyptian name of Dendera), showing 'goddess of the sky' Nut with her entire body made of water, as indicated by the very large blue water ripple signs on her body. Photograph thanks to Kairoinfo4U :  https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/9293995463/in/photostream/ 

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs : 'mHti mHt wrt' (My flood (is) the great flood). Source : Bibliotheca Alexandrina

 

 

Deities like Shu, Geb, Nut and Tefnut are referring to the basic fundamental physical laws that are explaining the evaporative cooling process. Shu is the representation of dry and warm air, Geb is the representation of water in liquid form, Nut is the representation of the evaporated water (water in the sky), and Tefnut is the representation of liquid water in form of microdroplets (that is spat water, as 'tf' means 'to spit').

Additionally to these "fundamental" gods, other gods were also directly referring to the practical application of these scientific concepts : they were the "experimental" gods, like Apep (the pressurized waters of the inclined well), Atum (the small amount of that pressurized water ejected towards the evaporative passage), Nefertem (the water supply pipe of the fog nozzle and the fog nozzle itself) and Amun, the "invisible" King of Gods that was representing the evaporative process strictly speaking and thus, creating the cold.

For more on ancient Egyptian gods as glorifying representations of the accomplishments of pharaoh's scientists and engineers, and the way they are referring to whether the theoretical or experimental point of view of that scientific knowledge, please read Section 3 and 17 for explanations on the Ankh symbol.

Drawing of Amun-Ra, post Amarna : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amun-Ra_post_Amarna_(azure_skin_color).svg

 

The Hauling Beetle of the Great Pyramid of Giza, for 8 crewmembers operating the wooden gantry inside the Grand Gallery. The Grand Gallery had been glorified into the famous "hauling cavern of the Underworld" of the Amduat, the Book of the Hidden Chamber. All the known chambers and passages of the Great Pyramid are representing the Underworld, and the Queen's chamber is the Hidden chamber itself, the most important chamber of the whole pyramid.

 

0.06  Most of ancient Egyptian gods and artifacts didn't exist at the time of Sneferu's reign

The first thing we should have in mind in regards to ancient Egyptian studies, is that pretty much everything we can think of nowadays with religious significance, didn't exist at the time when Sneferu was building his pyramids and planning for the Great Pyramid at Giza, that I believe will inherit his son, Khufu.

At the time of Sneferu and the Fourth Dynasty, the scarab amulets didn't exist ; gods Horus, Isis, Osiris, Nefertem, Ptah, Sokar, etc. didn't exist. The Eye of Horus didn't exist. The Four Sons of Horus didn't exist. The scarab beetle faced god Kephri-Ra didn't exist. The 8 Ogdoad primordial deities didn't exist. All these elements only start to appear progressively with the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty.

The question everyone should ask, is what the heck happened, that would explain that suddenly, in just a period of a few decades, scarab beetle amulets were crafted in vast numbers and all these new "gods" appear with so many unusual artifacts (the Khepeshes, the wooden base of figurines in the shape of a wooden beam, lotus flowers with copper pipes, etc.).

Pretty much everything we know about ancient Egyptian religion starts with the pyramid texts on the Fifth Dynasty: "The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranean walls and sarcophagi of pyramids at Saqqara from the end of the Fifth Dynasty, and throughout the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, and into the Eighth Dynasty of the First Intermediate Period" (source : Wikipedia).

 

Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator (222–204 BC) adoring Montu — in the "Place Of Truth" of Deir el-Medina : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montu#/media/File:Menthu_and_Ptolemy_IV.jpg

Right image : Doctor Syntax attending a scientific demonstration at the Royal Institution, London. Coloured aquatint by T. Rowlandson after W. Combe.

 

0.07  The temples of ancient Egypt

Do you really believe that the biggest "temples" were for worship?

Do you know that the biggest temples employed "tens of thousands of people" and that they had their own sailing ships to get materials abroad?

What do you think, let's say that 50.000 people were doing in these "temples" all year long?

These are some clues : scientific and technological university studies, research application centers, "religious" artists, physical training, etc.

"Temples were key centers of economic activity. The largest required prodigious resources and employed tens of thousands of priests, craftsmen, and laborers." Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_temple

Ancient Egyptian temples were the heart of the technological efforts for chemical manufacturing. It was in these temples that everything about this scientific program was elaborate. In these temples, the disc of Sabu was designed to achieve the most effective counterflow reactions, a Solvay-like process was developed and the evaporative cooling was mastered.