Page 177 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

material. Its use to form layers underneath a floor, and thus completely
out of sight, seems especially bizarre when we remember that no other
ancient structure in the Americas, or anywhere else in the world, has
been found to contain a feature like this.
5
It is frustrating that we will never be able to establish the exact
position, let alone the purpose, of the large sheet that Bartres excavated
and removed from the Pyramid of the Sun in 1906. The two intact layers
in the Mica Temple, on the other hand, resting as they do in a place
where they had no decorative function, look as though they were
designed to do a particular job. Let us note in passing that mica
possesses characteristics which suit it especially well for a range of
technological applications. In modern industry, it is used in the
construction of capacitors and is valued as a thermal and electric
insulator. It is also opaque to fast neutrons and can act as a moderator in
nuclear reactions.

Erasing messages from the past

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan
Having climbed more than 200 feet up a series of flights of stone stairs I
reached the summit and looked towards the zenith. It was midday 19
May, and the sun was directly overhead, as it would be again on 25 July.
On these two dates, and not by accident, the west face of the pyramid
was oriented precisely to the position of the setting sun.
6
A more curious but equally deliberate effect could be observed on the
equinoxes, 20 March and 22 September. Then the passage of the sun’s
rays from south to north resulted at noon in the progressive obliteration
of a perfectly straight shadow that ran along one of the lower stages of
the western façade. The whole process, from complete shadow to
complete illumination, took exactly 66.6 seconds. It had done so without
fail, year-in year-out, ever since the pyramid had been built and would
continue to do so until the giant edifice crumbled into dust.
7
What this meant, of course, was that at least one of the many functions
of the pyramid had been to serve as a ‘perennial clock’, precisely
signalling the equinoxes and thus facilitating calendar corrections as and
when necessary for a people apparently obsessed, like the Maya, with the
elapse and measuring of time. Another implication was that the master-
builders of Teotihuacan must have possessed an enormous body of
astronomic and geodetic data and referred to this data to set the Sun
Pyramid at the precise orientation necessary to achieve the desired
equinoctial effects.

The Pyramids of Teotihuacan, p. 16.
5
6 Mexico: Rough Guide, p. 217.
7 Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids, p. 252.

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