Page 179 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

(10 inches x 2 x 3.14) and a circle with a radius of 7 inches will have a
circumference of 43.96 inches (7 inches x 2 x 3.14).
These formulae using the value of pi for calculating circumference from
either diameter or radius apply to all circles, no matter how large or how
small, and also, of course, to all spheres and hemispheres. They seem
relatively simple—with hindsight. Yet their discovery, which represented a
revolutionary breakthrough in mathematics, is thought to have been
made late in human history. The orthodox view is that Archimedes in the
third century BC was the first man to calculate pi correctly at 3.14.
8
Scholars do not accept that any of the mathematicians of the New World
ever got anywhere near pi before the arrival of the Europeans in the
sixteenth century. It is therefore disorienting to discover that the Great
Pyramid at Giza (built more than 2000 years before the birth of
Archimedes) and the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, which vastly
predates the conquest, both incorporate the value of pi. They do so,
moreover, in much the same way, and in a manner which leaves no doubt
that the ancient builders on both sides of the Atlantic were thoroughly
conversant with this transcendental number.
The principal factors involved in the geometry of any pyramid are (1)
the height of the summit above the ground, and (2) the perimeter of the
monument at ground level. Where the Great Pyramid is concerned, the
ratio between the original height (481.3949 feet ) and the perimeter
9
(3023.16 feet ) turns out to be the same as the ratio between the radius
10
and the circumference of a circle, i.e. 2pi. Thus, if we take the pyramid’s
11
height and multiply it by 2pi (as we would with a circle’s radius to
calculate its circumference) we get an accurate read-out of the
monument’s perimeter (481.3949 feet 2 x 3.14 = 3023.16 feet).
Alternatively, if we turn the equation around and start with the
circumference at ground level, we get an equally accurate read-out of the
height of the summit (3023.16 feet divided by 2 divided by 3.14 =
481.3949 feet).
Since it is almost inconceivable that such a precise mathematical
correlation could have come about by chance, we are obliged to conclude
that the builders of the Great Pyramid were indeed conversant with pi and
that they deliberately incorporated its value into the dimensions of their
monument.
Now let us consider the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. The angle of
its sides is 43.5° (as opposed to 52° in the case of the Great Pyramid ).
12
13
The Mexican monument has the gentler slope because the perimeter of

8 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9:415.
9 I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, Penguin, London, 1949, p. 87.
10 Ibid.
Ibid., p. 219.
11
12 Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids, p. 55.
13 The Pyramids of Egypt, pp. 87, 219.

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