Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America

According to John Anthony West it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that "guerilla scholarship" became a noticeable, if uncoordinated force in modern science. Guerilla scholarship of course, refers to the alternative camp or those that challenge orthodox views in science, archeology, anthropology, etc. If this book doesn't fall into the guerilla scholarship or alternative camp category it comes really close.Author Dr. Robert Schoch is of course the archeologist who some years ago, along with John Anthony West, shocked the scientific community and infuriated Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Director of Antiquity, by claiming that the Sphinx's construction predated Khufu, its alleged builder, by 3,000 years or more. While the controversy surrounding those claims has resulted in numerous books, both, pro and con, with no real accepted conclusions, in this book Schoch tries to develop the hypothesis that all of the pyramids constructed around the world have a common origin in Sundaland, which was inundated under 250 feet of water after the last ice age. If somebody could come across a pyramid or two (2), that predated the great pyramid, under that 250 feet of water it would certainly help Schoch's case, but be that as it may, Schoch, while not proving his hypothesis, does present a pretty convincing argument in support of his speculation.Schoch begins with a discussion in review of the theories for the age of Giza and other pyramid type structures around the world. He then provides very convincing evidence for his claim that humans traversed both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans eons before Columbus's 1492 voyage, which is the orthodox view of the first contact with the new world. He discusses how early humans might have accomplished this as well as their possible motives for doing so. Schoch concludes with where they came from, arriving at the common roots in Sundaland 10,000 years ago.This book probably has some of the longest, impossible to pronounce names, of people and places of any book that I have ever read; and a few maps of various parts of the world, particularly Europe, the Middle and Far East, and South America, would have helped a great deal in developing a mental picture of what was being related. All that aside, the book challenges the mind and causes one to think. I was particularly intrigued by Schoch's explanation as to how Moses was able to convince the pharaoh to allow him and his followers to leave Egypt, as well as Schoch's perfectly plausible explanation of what parted the waters of the Red Sea and subsequently drowned the pharaoh's army when the waters rushed back in.While maybe not as convincing as Schoch's earlier work, "Voices of the Rocks", Schoch presents convincing arguments and if you are a "guerilla scholar" you're going to love this book.

The book is written by a professional who provides ideas and reasons about possibilities without being dogmatic.

Dr.Schoch did a great job to present a theory of formation of early global civilization. I find it is very possible for the spreading of this culture and people through sea traveling more than five thousand years ago. In China, a recent surprising archeological discovery shows drawings of big ships, penguins and kangaroos etc. dated at least five thousand years. It is hard to imagine they could "creat" these kinds of animals without traveling to Australia and Antarctica. I believe there was a very early civilization with higher level of technical and scientific knowledge than people originally thought.I also believe that the origin of this old civilization is probably from East or Southeast Asian area due to the fact that all the earlist civilizations are near the major rivers running into or near the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. None were alonged the Atlantic Ocean. I suspect that some of earlist settlers might have traveled along the coast to find more fertile lands closed to the major rivers. But I have reservation for the idea of existance of Sundaland.

Great book! Open your eyes sheep..... there is much more to this world that we know of. Authority figures have lied to us long enough..... do your own research. This book is a great example of what we were not taught in school! Well written.

At first glance, this book might be mistaken for "Chariots of the Gods" hokum -- it's about pyramids, it suggest prehistoric connections between widely scattered civilizations, and it has an entire chapter on planetary catastrophes. However, this is a very serious effort. Granted, it raises a lot more questions than it answers, and can be a little monotonous in spots. But as a former geology major, I didn't spot any pseudo-science (which is not surprising, given that the primary author has a Ph.D. in Geology from Yale) and I found much food for thought.Sure, if it turns out that the whole theory of cultural diffusion is wrong, (similarities in disparate civilizations are due to migration and interconnection rather than parallel developoment) this book will be little more than an amusing footnote in the history of science. But then, plate tectonics was once a crackpot theory. This is a serious book that deserves to be read.

Struggled to fully read this book till the end, mostly based on other peoples work which i have read before in other more interesting and better researched books, some interesting bits but not many, the main theses Ie., that pyramid builders came from the southern hemisphere is not backed by any solid evidence whatsoever its just pure conjecture, as to how it all came to an end Mr Schoch has yet another book out Forgotten Civilization with yet again a completely new and different conclusion as to the end of the last ice age which again i read and again is really nothing more than conjecture.

少なくとも、各分野の最新の研究を総合すると、こういう結論に達するのはそれほど無理があるとは感じなかった。作者自身、物的証拠が足りないことは認めていて、最終的な判断を下すのは、もっと調査・研究が進むのを待たなければならないが。だが、もしこれが限りなく真相に近いとしたら、私達の歴史観、世界観が一変することだけは確か。それだけの説得力と整合性は充分ある。とにかく、これまでの『定説』を覆すに足るだけの証拠は既に集まりつつある、といっていい。それにしても、定説って意外と根拠が薄かったりして。むしろ先入観とか予断とか偏見と呼ぶべきものかも。そういうものから自由になりたい人、眼から鱗を落としたい人には、特にお勧めの一冊。トンデモ本ではありません。念の為。

This book is an unchallenging amble through pyramid lore. What is a pyramid? Where are they found? What are they for? Are they connected? This last question, of course, is the big one; ıt’s the whole point of the book. It took a whole 77 pages to get there but after a nod in the direction of where the sensible money would go. “independent inventionalism,” the book just heads off to the standard diffusionist argument the various components of which consume the rest of the book. The authors try to suggest that the diffusion of language and language groups, whith their clear familial connections, around the planet has some relevance for pyramid buiding but they never actually say why we should take this argument as a workable paradigm for the appearance of pyramids, or at least the rough form of pyramids, around the globe. They do what diffusionists typically do, which is to shoot their arrow first, then go and draw the target ring around it. Of course, as modern humans spread out across the planet they took language with them. But as hunter gatherers on the margins of survival, they didn’t take high culture with them. This was a diffusion taking place long before civilisation and around the periphery it tended to be one way culminating, very often, in isolation.The authors spend a lot of time exploring mythology and different variations of the pyramid theme trying to guide the reader to the conclusion the title of the book demands. Momentarily they actually do touch on the reason humans might build pyramids. This is the apparantly shared human appreciation and affinity for elevation…high places do exert a fascination and pleasure. There is a basic practical point that this book does not consider here. Pyramids (and similar structures) are the product of the desire to build hıgh; to achieve elevation. Our view is distorted by our own fascination with Egypt’s great Pyramids, which are tombs, but most pyramids are in fact platforms. But whether we are talking about the great pyramids of the Americas, Mesopotamian ziggurats or more modest structures like Silbury Hıll in southern England, what we are talking about is a platform. İf your building technology is primitive and your building material is restricted and you want to build high then you must build off a large base. The result is invariably going to be a pyramid or a cone. A pyramid is demonstration of a primitive culture in technological terms no matter how clever or ingenious the construction methods became. These people were primitive not stupid. It isn’t evidence of diffusion in either technology or concept.; it isn’t evidence of a global culture; it isn’t evidence of high technology. The best efforts of pioneers like Thor Heyerdahl have produced no tangible evidence of any kind of link between the Old World and the New, either by land or sea before the modern era. Nor do putative puzzles like the Michigan copper mines. Common sense should tell you that the great distances between these cultures, both in terms of geography and particularly time, means there is no connection. Schoch and McNally don’t make a convincing case either.