Unit of Measure

      Metrology, the very difficult study of the history of measurement, traces nearly all the units of linear and capacity measurements used today back through history to a geodetic origin. So, as unlikely as it might seem, the British inch was the unit of measure that was used in designing and building the Great Pyramid, as the origin of what we call the British inch was an ancient geodetic measurement, a 250 millionth part of the earth’s radius, just as the meter is a modern attempt at being a 40 millionth part of the earth’s circumference.

      There is a school of thought that believes the Great Pyramid’s unit of measure was an inch that is 1.00106 less than the British inch in order to fit it exactly 250 million times into the present measurement of the earth’s equatorial radius. The model for this “pyramid inch” is a boss ( a knob like protuberance left on a stone to aid in the lifting and positioning ) on the granite leaf in the Anti Chamber that supposedly defines this unit of measure. In spite of Flinders Petrie’s statement in “The Pyramids and Temples of Gizah, the gold standard of the pyramid’s measurement), statement “that it (the boss)is so irregular that anything more absurdly unsuited for a standard would be hard to find”, they reduced all pyramid measurements by 1.00106. Excepting for one measurement, the days of the earth’s yearly journey around the sun times 100, which is the object of the reduction, the reduction of all numbers resulted in hundreds of meaningless numbers.

      The earth, however, is not a perfect sphere but rather an evolving, living, breathing, highly irregular spheroid, 26 plus miles fatter at the equator than the poles, with a different radius measure at every spot it is computed for, and accurate only for that spot, on that day, and at a hypothetical sea level.

      It must be remembered that our contemporary British inch is a twelfth part of the Roman foot, which in turn came from Greek measure, which came from Babylonian measure and so on until it is lost in the fog of history. And although the British codified it, original inch would be a more suitable term.

      That this precursor of the British inch was the Great Pyramid’s unit of measure is demonstrably proved by the overwhelming quantity of meaningful inch measurements presented here, each mathematical in nature and each reinforcing the others. Had there been just one or two measurements that indicated the use of the inch, then coincidence would be the operating explanation. But coincidence cannot account for the hundreds of specific geometric related numbers defined by the British inch in both the exterior and interior structure of the Great Pyramid, and the meaningful and organized field of thought that can be extrapolated using number as language.

      And since this inch, or any inch, does not appear in Egypt during the time period Egyptologists date the Great Pyramid’s construction (2600B.C.), it is hard to believe that the largest and most complicated man made geometric structure on earth would be designed and constructed with a unit of measure that no one had any experience using. One possible explanations is that it was built much earlier by people we know nothing about and whose only trace of existence is the Great Pyramid complex they left behind which the Egyptian civilization inherited and which became the foundation from which all ensuing ancient units of measure were taken.

      Backing up this argument is the recent dating of the Sphinx, which is very much a part of the overall plan of the geometry of the Giza complex, by Professor Schock of M.I.T. who proved that the Sphinx’s erosion was from water and not wind or sand. The closest time period with enough rainfall to cause the erosion was around 10,000 B.C., and the similar dating of the Great Pyramid by Bauval and Gilbert which the arrived at by coordinating computer regressed star charts with the astronomical targets of the sealed “air ducts” from the King’s and Queen’s chambers, back up the likelihood that an unknown previous civilization was responsible for the Great Pyramid complex at Giza. Factor into the argument that there is only mention of repairing the Great Pyramid, not building it, contemporary to its standard dating of 2600B.C., and there are no hieroglyphics or wall paintings depicting the construction of the Great Pyramid.

      On the other side of this argument, and a true paradox, is the fact that hieroglyphics were found in the sealed upper relieving chambers above the King’s Chamber when they were opened. William Fix, who found that the socket’s circumference  defined a half degree of Longitude, and that the Great Pyramid is a model of the earth divided by 43200, has an excellent chapter in his “Pyramid Odyssey”, the ambiguity of the Relieving Chamber’s hieroglyphics.

      And then there are the collection of writing found in tombs which have been miss - named in modern times as The Egyptian Book of the Dead but which Normandi Ellis in her beautiful translation of it, ‘Awakening Osiris’, says that ‘The Book of Coming Forth by Day’ is more accurate. It has a completely different set of names for the passages and chambers.  Marshal Adams, in his “The Book of Master of the Hidden Places”, makes a very good case, using the original Book of the Dead names for the chambers and passageways, that the pyramid was used for initiation into the higher consciousness.

      So, although the modern names are used here for practicality, the original Book of the Dead names for them will be stated as well, at the beginning of each of their chapters.

      With only a few exceptions, all the numbers used in this presentation are well within the listed margins of error given by Petrie and Cole. Although many sources were consulted, Petrie’s interior measurements were taken as the most accurate. One has only to read the chapters on instruments, methods, and tolerances in his “The Pyramids and Temples of Giza” to ascertain the thoroughness and attention to detail he brought to his examination.

      Since all of the measurements turn out to be geometric ratios, and dovetail to make a unified whole, it is logical to assume that each number was used for a purpose. And since everything in the physical universe can be reduced to number, making number the most basic form of language, it can be concluded that the pyramid was designed to communicate, or rather simply state, a specific thought using number as a language in a centuries lasting limestone and granite book. And since the architect went to great trouble to design a centuries lasting geometric stone book to give voice to that thought, using the inch, the foot, a cubit, and quite possibly an early form of meter, then that thought ought to be found, read, and understood. And it all starts with the height.

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