Science is hard. You have to read a lot of stuff and you also have to use your brain to understand it. This pseudocumentary is one of the most prominent examples how mental laziness combined with the devastating impact of (a)social media can turn historical science into conspiracy banter. The Ph. D. holders in this world stand little chance to weather an avalanche of BS, but the willingness of so many people to subscribe to outlandish theories forces as many clarifications as patience can muster.
The film's premise is that the tools of 4500 years ago would not have allowed Ancient Egyptians to build on such a magnificent scale, and that the pyramids - and other major ancient constructions - serve an astronomical rather than a religious or funerary purpose. The jumpy conclusion is that they must be remnants of a civilization that came before us, and that they intend us to warn about the consequences of climate change. To make that last point, artifacts from a time span of over 4000 years are haphazardly combined, from the pyramids to the Moai on Rapa Nui.
All of this can be easily debunked. The Ancient Egyptians developed an understanding of Geometry early on because the tide of the Nile was paramount for harvesting and taxation. Architects such as the first Pharaoh's chancellor Imhotep were revered (in his case deified), and construction was viewed as supreme art. Astronomy was one of the earliest scientific endeavors because the stars were the only source of light apart from the sun, which was identified as the source of vegetation and therefore life early on. The combination of ritualistic and scientific purposes makes complete sense in such an environment. Ancient Egypt was a totalitarian monarchy, so the entire population could be obliged - perhaps even willingly so - to participate in the construction of a monument to not just their ruler, but their society as a whole, which would explain their relatively short construction period.
Why then do so many people believe that this is just not possible? The most likely response would be racism. Mathematics and Geometry are commonly ascribed to Caucasian Greeks of the 6th/5th century BC, although it's obvious that they learned it from Egyptians during the Minoan Age. There's just no solid proof for this because of thousands of years of warfare. Especially Frenchmen like the "informer" of this film Jacques Grimault (who is involved in lots of litigation by the way) have come up with intellectual constructs to declare non-Caucasian civilizations incapable of scientific achievement. The inventor of race theory, Arthur de Gobineau, was French after all. That doesn't mean the Ancient Egyptians were black, they were bronze-colored, but African nevertheless - and so are their achievements.
While I am generally not in favor of critical race theory (complex problems are not solved with general theories), this film is actually a fairly good example why it's necessary. The real mystery is not how the pyramids were built, but why so many people regard our civilization as the pinnacle of human existence.
The film's premise is that the tools of 4500 years ago would not have allowed Ancient Egyptians to build on such a magnificent scale, and that the pyramids - and other major ancient constructions - serve an astronomical rather than a religious or funerary purpose. The jumpy conclusion is that they must be remnants of a civilization that came before us, and that they intend us to warn about the consequences of climate change. To make that last point, artifacts from a time span of over 4000 years are haphazardly combined, from the pyramids to the Moai on Rapa Nui.
All of this can be easily debunked. The Ancient Egyptians developed an understanding of Geometry early on because the tide of the Nile was paramount for harvesting and taxation. Architects such as the first Pharaoh's chancellor Imhotep were revered (in his case deified), and construction was viewed as supreme art. Astronomy was one of the earliest scientific endeavors because the stars were the only source of light apart from the sun, which was identified as the source of vegetation and therefore life early on. The combination of ritualistic and scientific purposes makes complete sense in such an environment. Ancient Egypt was a totalitarian monarchy, so the entire population could be obliged - perhaps even willingly so - to participate in the construction of a monument to not just their ruler, but their society as a whole, which would explain their relatively short construction period.
Why then do so many people believe that this is just not possible? The most likely response would be racism. Mathematics and Geometry are commonly ascribed to Caucasian Greeks of the 6th/5th century BC, although it's obvious that they learned it from Egyptians during the Minoan Age. There's just no solid proof for this because of thousands of years of warfare. Especially Frenchmen like the "informer" of this film Jacques Grimault (who is involved in lots of litigation by the way) have come up with intellectual constructs to declare non-Caucasian civilizations incapable of scientific achievement. The inventor of race theory, Arthur de Gobineau, was French after all. That doesn't mean the Ancient Egyptians were black, they were bronze-colored, but African nevertheless - and so are their achievements.
While I am generally not in favor of critical race theory (complex problems are not solved with general theories), this film is actually a fairly good example why it's necessary. The real mystery is not how the pyramids were built, but why so many people regard our civilization as the pinnacle of human existence.