Building A Pyramid With Dinosaurs
If you’re like me, dinosaurs are one of your favorite things. Giant, lizard like, pre-birds that ruled this planet millions of years before we figured out how to stand upright are difficult not to get excited about. Dinosaurs are the perfect tool for capturing the imagination in works like The Flintstones and Jurassic Park because they exist at the intersection of what we know and what we don’t know. While we have a few bones, footprints, and a smattering of other artifacts, nobody actually knows what these creatures were like. They roamed the planet for millions of years in a variety of forms, but no human was around to see it, let alone document it. That is, unless you consult one Egyptologist who has a more Flintstones view of the past than you might expect.
While North America has some of the best locations for fossil hunting, there have been many fruitful expeditions in and around the Nile Valley. Since at least 1935, paleontologists have found a wealth of ancient specimens, some estimated to be in the neighborhood of 94-million-years-old. In addition to three different T. Rex sized carnivores, the area claims the Paralititan, (Tidal Giant) a 90-100 foot long, 80 ton, long-necked, long-tailed, herbivore. Researches are finding such an abundance of large dinosaur remains that they are calling Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis dinosaur heaven.
Noted Egyptologist, Nabir Al-Sammud ran with this idea after uncovering a number of stone palettes and papyri detailing the construction of the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu from about 2,500 B.C.E. According to Professor Al-Sammud, the tablets describe the training and use of Ra Nt-Ka, (God Beasts) to carry the stones for the pyramid. While researchers originally thought the Ra Nt-Ka might be some type of whale, the tablets describe the animals of “great stature” both on land and in the water. The papyri claims the creatures ate the Nile grass, had necks that reached to the sky, and tails that could “kill an army of men.” I’m not saying that dinosaurs helped build the pyramids, but one of the most eminent Egyptologists in the world is.
Were there dinosaurs walking side by side with the ancient Egyptians? Did the ancient Egyptians train and use dinosaurs in their construction? Were dinosaurs the inspiration for the Sphinx and other fantastical creature that dot Egyptian hieroglyphs? Did ancient Egyptian workers end their day at the pyramids by shouting “yabba dabba doo!” and sliding down the backs of their Paralititan? Probably not. In fact, almost definitely not.
The pyramids are great fodder for wild theories and as I mentioned above, dinosaurs are a great tool because there is enough that we don’t know to make up whatever we need. It’s not like the dinosaurs are going to complain about it. It’s the same reason aliens building the pyramids is such a popular theory. Or the biblical Joseph building them for grain. The theories allow us to fill in gaps in our knowledge with the fantastical.
It’s boring once you know that very few pharaohs built pyramids. It’s dull to know that we generally know what the pyramids were built for and that in no small part, it was commerce. Building roads and shipping routes for the material is part of what made Egypt an empire. It runs against our preconceived images of slaves dragging stone for miles when you read that Egypt actually had an advanced canal system rivaling Venice to transport the bricks.
The Egyptian pyramids are still a marvel of ancient engineering and they have plenty of wonder to offer. Dinosaurs probably weren’t part of it though.
