This beautifully illustrated book presents the thousand-year drama which has centered on the mysteries of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

In a strong, suspenseful narrative Peter Tompkins recreates the adventures and explorations of the archeologists, treasure-hunters, soldiers, scientists, and eccentrics who have tunnelled into and studied the Pyramid over many centuries. He analyzes the various theories as to how and why the Pyramid was built; its relation to other structures of antiquity, including Stonehenge, the ziggurats of Babylon, and other pyramids; and its influence on the fields of astronomy, astrology and the occult, geodesy, and history.

The culmination is his fascinating presentation of the controversial theory that the Great Pyramid was constructed as a highly sophisticated scientific instrument, an exact scale model of the Northern Hemisphere, by an Egyptian culture far more advanced than is generally believed to have existed. This theory demonstrates, in addition, that the Pyramid incorporated the basic formulae of the universe, and was designed to help man orient himself in the cosmos and to apply finite measurements to time, space, and the seasons.

There is an appendix by Professor Livio Catullo Stecchini entitled "Notes on the Relations of Ancient Measures to the Great Pyramid," and a Glossary, Bibliography, and Index.

Bin#drt-007.