The Giza Invitation: Egypt 1 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 33, "Cardinal Points" describes early morning at a hotel in Egypt where Hancock and Santha enter a white Fiat at 3:30. Ali drives and promises safe entry to the Great Pyramid at Giza where he bribes guards to ignore the author and photographer for a couple hours while they investigate the site. Great Pyramid faces are aligned perfectly, within three minutes of arc for the structure built in 4500 BC. Costs to reach this degree of engineering accuracy seem to far exceed any benefit gained. The author climbs the pyramid at night to avoid detection. They measure its lengths and corner angles that are unusually accurate like its alignment. Two pits at its base contain boats of a quality that exceeds the presumed need to transport a dead king to heaven.

Hancock describes climbing the 450 foot high...