inch,” which was derived from John Greaves’ original work with the sacred cubit. Subsequent pyramidologists and even anti-pyramidologists, such as Petrie, affirmed that the 25-inch sacred cubit was clearly used in the construction of the Great Pyramid.
For David Davidson this use of the sacred cubit in the construction of the edifice was clear evidence that the measuring units did not originate in Egypt and that another more ancient culture using an oral tradition and meeting a cataclysmic end brought the wisdom to Egypt. Here’s Davidson: “The fact that these systems were derived from the scale of the Sacred Cubit of 25 P. inches again confirms that the Egyptian units of measure were not formulated in Egypt. The sacred system and its derived Egyptian Units all clearly belong to the period of the former civilization . . . ” (12, p. 70) To support his position Davidson points that the major ancient cultures all have a legend of a prior culture which met its end in a manner that was devastating. He writes: “In ancient Egypt, the tradition exists as ‘The Destruction of Mankind,’ in ancient Mexico and Peru as ‘The Destruction of the World,’ and in Babylonia and Assyria, and in China, as ‘The Deluge.’ These traditional accounts, when compared, indicate they are various versions of the Noachian [Noah] Deluge narrative in the Hebrew Book of Genesis.” (12, p. 39) Davidson clarifies his comments in a footnote stating, “It must always be remembered, however, that in all stages and periods of civilization the highest forms exist alongside the primitive and barbarous. Even the best authorities permit themselves to forget this.” (12, p. 39)
The length of a pyramid inch is not only a portion of the sacred cubit but is also the space on the underside of a stone relief in the antechamber to the King’s Chamber, known as the “boss mark” (see illustration 5). The boss mark is in the shape of a solar disk setting on the horizon; therefore the bottom portion of its circle is under the horizon, and the flat bottom of this solar disk is a depth of one “pyramid inch”—the flat space between the base of the slab upon which the boss mark appears and the outer surface of this projected solar disk.
There are critics of this measurement, such as the famous Sir William Flinders Petrie (best known as Flinders Petrie), who wrote in 1883, “This boss on the leaf is very ill-defined, being anything between 4.7 and 5.2 [inches] wide, and between 3.3 and 3.5 high on its outer face.” Petrie felt that “this boss, of which so much has been made by theorists, is merely a rough projection, like innumerable others that may be seen; left originally for the purpose of lifting the blocks.” (30, p. 78) Despite Petrie’s opinion, the slab and the boss relief are more than a lifting mechanism. The slab is in one of three specialized grooves in the antechamber to the King’s Chamber and appears to be the only surviving remnant of what were once three slabs. And the rising solar disk is not likely a lifting device since, as reported by John and Morton Edgar in their expedition from 1904-1909 in Great Pyramid Passages: Part II, Letters from Egypt and Palestine, “The granite leaf appears to be an inch narrower than its corresponding grooves in the wainscots . . . Close examination shows that this difference is made up by narrow one-inch projections or rebates on the north face of the leaf, which make it fit tightly into its grooves. With the exception of these rebates (which are evidence of special design), the whole of the north face of the leaf has been dressed or planed down one inch, in order that one little part in the middle might appear in relief.” (13, p. 302) It is an intentional relief, a glyph containing a precise measurement for discovering the architects’ fundamental measuring unit, as well as the prophecy hidden in the pyramid.
One should also keep in mind that Flinders Petrie’s father William (1821–1908, the son of Captain Matthews Flinders, the explorer and cartographer of Australia—its runs in the family) was a pyramidologist! This possibly motivated Flinders to show his father how science and evolution were the better truth and that pyramidology, with its religious and messianic undertones, was a delusion of the religiously inclined. Curiously, many of Flinders’ exactingly accurate measurements served to support the themes of pyramidology (using steel tapes and special chains 1200 inches long, Flinders Petrie measured the pyramid with amazing accuracy).
David Davidson believed the pyramid inch measurement (which he also called the “primitive inch”) was supported by many more features in, on, and above the Great Pyramid than the boss mark, stating that the obvious connection between a unit of measurement and a chronograph is the astronomical cycles associated with the Great Pyramid’s exterior. He writes, “There is the cycle of the Precessions of the Equinoxes, associated in the pyramid’s geometry with a standard period of reference of 25,826.54 Solar years. And there is the cycle of the revolution of the Autumnal Equinox from perihelion to perihelion. There is also the cycle defining the variations in the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit.” (12, p. 140) He goes on with many more examples of how the pyramid is associated with time and the passage of time.
From passages in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, pyramidologists concluded that the pyramid inch not only correlates to a measure of space in the stone structure but also to a measure of prophetic time. The measurement equals one year in time, from the original entrance to the Great Pyramid, through the descending and ascending passageways until reaching the “Great Step” at the top of the Grand Gallery. From that point on, the inch equals one month in time rather than one year. Time speeds up—the same amount of activities happen in one-twelfth of the time they used to take.
According to this model and its biblical connections, the pyramid timeline covers a period beginning with the descent of human souls as “the morning stars” spoken of in the biblical book of Job 38:7 (“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”) to a resurrection period when all the souls ascend to the heavens from whence they came (“And no one has ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven.” John 3:13) passing through metaphysical gates, passageways, and chambers of tests and developmental activities. Like this biblical passage of “morning stars,” the ancient Egyptians believe that each human had a Star-body and a Star-being deep within him. (More on this in chapter 4.)
The last date in the pyramid timeline is 2038, indicating the end of the prophecy as it is recorded in the Great Pyramid.
But all of this information—the correlation between the Egyptian Book of Dead and features inside the Great Pyramid, the boss mark measuring device, and the prophetic timeline—became entangled with the collection of religious and biblical associations under the banner of Pyramidology. Eventually, degreed archaeologists as well as serious researchers divided themselves into two main groups: (1) the scientific group that saw nothing more than ancient remnants of a culture obsessed with surviving death, and in the context the theory of evolution, these ancient ones had primitive superstitions and mythological tales; and (2) a mystical group of modern researchers who believed that God had a hand in building the Great Pyramid, that the Bible spoke of the Great Pyramid, that the Egyptian Book of the Dead was an allegorical record related to places inside the Great Pyramid, and that the timeline draws a parallel to events in world history now and in the future.
They quickly broke into two hard-and-fast positions wherein the scientific group gained the upper hand and the accepted view of ancient Egypt.
Before we leave this, let’s review a little more about the development of pyramidology.
We know that Professor Smyth’s correspondence with John Taylor (1781-1864) influenced his research significantly. John Taylor was a partner in a London publishing firm, and in 1859 he published his own book, The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built? And Who Built It? Taylor never visited the pyramid, but the more he studied its structure, the more he became convinced that its architect was an Israelite acting under God’s guidance, not an Egyptian. John Taylor was an influential man, and two biographies were written about him. He was also the publisher of the works of the famous English romantic poet John Keats.
Taylor claimed that the measurements in and around the Great Pyramid indicated that the ancients
