Pyramids: Fact and Fiction

Writing my upcoming novel, Draxis, involved a lot of research into ancient cultures, and primarily the Egyptian and Olmec societies. That, of course, entailed a lot of research on pyramids.

Pyramids turned out to be a pretty fascinating subject. 

Ancient Pyramids were Bright and Shiny

The pyramids weren't always crumbling masses of dissolving limestone.

That's how the pyramids appear now, as immense pointed structures of jumbled sand-colored rock, but they were once smooth-sided, being adorned in polished limestone. These casing stones were individually cut to specific angles to seamlessly cover the structure, and were then sanded until they shone. In the ages since, this polished outer layer has been knocked loose by earthquakes or dismantled by more modern residents for buildings and other uses.

Sudan has More Pyramids than Egypt

Egypt is renown for its pyramids and has around 140 (that we know of to date), but there's another culture that has even more. To the south, in present-day Sudan, more than 200 pyramids have been found!

Until the mid-20th century, most archaeologists considered the Sudan pyramids as nothing more than extensions of Egypt, instead of the remnants of a unique culture. But the pyramids in Sudan, most located in Meroe, are structurally different. They are smaller, steeper, and surrounded by collections of chapels and monuments that are unique to Nubian culture.

Though Egyptian-type pyramids are found in a very large area, including Italy and Greece, there are many forms of pyramids that are located in widely diverse areas -- including deep underground.

The Americas Contain More Pyramids Than the Rest of the World Combined — And the Largest!

In ancient Mesoamerica, a region spanning from much of modern-day Mexico through most of Central America, peoples such as the Olmecs, Incas, Aztecs, and Mayan had their own brand of pyramid structures dating back to around 1000 BCE. In fact, they built vast numbers of them but unlike the Egyptians, they didn't use them exclusively as tombs.

The most well-known structures are in Teotihuacan (Tay oh TEE wah con), an ancient Aztec city near present-day Mexico City. The Pyramid of the Sun was the largest of these structures and was built by constructing retaining walls which were filled with rubble, then had an adobe retaining wall encompassing the structure that was cased in limestone. The nearby Pyramid of the Moon was built the same way. It was discovered that the Pyramid of the Sun hides a secret: another pyramid, accessible through a cave beneath the structure. These pyramids have been dated to 1 and 200 CE, but the pyramid inside the cave is much older.

The  Olmec civilization built their own brand of pyramids. The Great Pyramid in La Venta (near present-day Tabasco, Mexico) is different: It’s essentially a clay mountain. Later Olmec pyramids were also earth mounds, and they were only covered by stone steps to finish them.

The Great Pyramid of Cholula, or Tlachihualtepetl, in Mexico, is the largest pyramid on the planet -- but by volume not by height! It dates back to circa 200 BCE, and in essence, it's basically six pyramids stacked over each other. 

Later civilizations expanded this earlier work, taking care to preserve the older structure. The new layers are composed of adobe bricks. Over time, the pyramid eventually became covered by jungle foliage and was later abandoned. That may have been fortunate, because when the Spanish invaders swept through, led by Hernan Cortez, over 3,000 inhabitants were murdered and most of the infrastructure of their culture was destroyed. The Spanish apparently thought Tlachihualtepetl was just part of the natural topography because it survived the assault by the invaders who dismantled or destroyed many of their other buildings.

Discoveries are Still Being Made

The tallest of the Egyptian structures, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, has been under rigorous study for more than a thousand years. Yet, even today, we’re discovering more about what is inside, including vast new chambers that were previously sealed and unknown. Using cosmic ray technology, the Scan Pyramids project -- a collaboration between Egyptian, French, and Japanese research institutions began in 2015 -- is using updated technology for a non-invasive searches inside the structures.

To date, they’ve found two previously undiscovered areas: a corridor on the north face of the pyramid and a huge void above the Grand Gallery measuring at least 100 feet long. It appears to be a similar structure to the Grand Gallery that connects various areas of the pyramid, including the burial chamber.

A team of American researchers wants to use other technology to get a complete three-dimensional image of the void area to determine if it's just a structural facet or a previously unknown chamber. Once completed, this study could provide much information on exactly how the pyramids were built.

Pyramids According to Draxis

My work-in-progress (temporary title: "Draxis") puts a totally different spin on pyramids. In this fictional version, the heroine learns that the Egyptians didn't build the pyramids, they merely repurposed the structures (including the Sphinx) that were already there, and were far, far older than the Egyptian dynasties by at least 6,000 years -- and still standing, though crumbling. 

The Egyptians performed the mother or all fixer-uppers and repaired and re-coated the massive structures to be the bright and shining monuments their culture became known for. 

They re-carved the head of the giant Sphinx, once a massive lion believed to honor the constellation of Leo -- which was in a different position in the skies in that earlier time. The Sphinx structure had been built in that ancient past so it faced directly toward the constellation shaped like a lion. The Egyptians carved the head of the lion into the likeness of their Pharoah, leaving the head clearly out-of-proportion to the rest of the structure, as we can see today. 

The mysterious earlier civilization had build the pyramid structures as giant power-generating stations that drew energy from the natural world to supply their advanced society that had thrived until the Younger-Dryas event wiped out civilization, as well as technology, as they knew it. Millennia later when the Egyptians re-worked these structures they found a maze of passages and chambers inside that they didn't understand, but branded with their symbols and painted with their stains to appropriate them as their own. They then used them (possibly) to bury their venerated dead.

The civilization on the planet Draxis also uses pyramids for most of their primary structures, though they more resembled the pyramids of the Americas with stepped terraces and attached porticos. The Draxians use primarily pastel colors to finish them -- soft beiges, peaches, aquas and lavenders -- with elaborate geometric murals. They didn't build them for looks. They built them because they were the standard for structures in their hot, dry, sometimes harsh culture -- stable, cool and energy-generating.

Although their grand palace is not a pyramid, it does have twenty-seven towers topped with pyramidal structures to generate energy, just as Earth's variety are suspected of doing by some researchers. One of these towers is used by the royal physician for it's healing properties, and this is where the heroine, Katrina, awakes at the beginning of the story.

Who the Draxians are, and what their civilization represents is what Katrina will discover as the story unfolds. Draxis is a civilization in decline, and an ancient legend says that a person known as The Flame will either save them or plunge them into oblivion. The ruling monarch, King Alii'us (Ah LEE us) loves Katrina, and believes her to be The Flame. But can he convince her that both he and his planet need her desperately even though she demands to be returned to her former world, and her former life?

This is the opening of the story (prefaced by a brief prologue that sets the stage for Katrina's journey). 

If you enjoyed the premise of "Draxis" and you're curious about the upcoming book, here's a bonus for you. There's a free short story set in the world of Draxis available on this blog titled The Recruit. It's a quick read, but it's packed with mystery and action, and there's a character from the story you'll meet in the book. 

The premise of The Recruit is that it's a scene taken from the book, but turned inside out and presented from a different POV. It takes place in the ancient jungle known as the Green Death, which is another name for The Black Stand mentioned in Juggernaut. (Juggernaut takes place on the planet LaGuardia, which had it's name changed from Draxis centuries before.) Click this link to read The Recruit.