Chapter 1

Recently discovered tidal erosion patterns on Great Pyramid blocks threaten to rewrite all of ancient history

In October of 2010 long time Egyptian pyramid researcher Sherif El Morsi published photographs showing tidal erosion patterns on Great Pyramid casing blocks and neighboring temple structures. He knew his discovery could only mean one thing. Once upon a time there were waves breaking on the pyramids of the Giza Plateau.

“For tafoni [type of tidal erosion] to reach these sizes we are talking about several thousand years that could exceed 10,000 and more,” said Morsi. “This can be calculated by the depth of the pitting,” as well as other factors such as block material loss.

This tafoni pitting pattern is a result of the constant ebb and flow of the tides which carries with it sand, small stones, and sea-spray. Together they bombard and erode the weaker parts of the material first.

Over time this action produces unique patterns of smooth spherical holes, cavities, and protrusions. It is most often found in either limestone or sandstone along the shores of coastal areas.

“Tafoni of these types can only be found in nature,” said Morsi. “So to find it on a human hewn stone means that Giza is truly very ancient.”

Since this discovery Morsi has also found tafoni pitting on adjacent pyramid structures, structures the builders cut out from the plateau, as well as on nearby pyramid temple blocks.

After analyzing all the locations where tidal erosion was present, in addition to analyzing the patterns of block material loss, and block dispersal, he began to see the bigger picture.

An ancient shoreline once surpassed the 2nd Great Pyramid. The incoming tide moved over, down, and within its hewn enclosure walls, encircling the pyramid.

This mass of water then broke over, and eventually through, the northern and southern walls of the 2nd Great Pyramid temple. This dispersed huge blocks both within and outside the temple. Its dispersal pattern can still be seen today.

The sea then came up to and over the walls of the 3rd Great Pyramid’s temple complex; again dislodging and dispersing huge blocks across the plateau.

This tide would then recede once a day back to the north. When it did, Morsi said the southern faces of these walls in both temples acted like wedges.

When the water receded it coursed along these southern wall faces toward the east until it could find the first available northerly exit route.

This path not only follows the natural slope of the plateau, it also follows the natural slope of the local terrain. This is the same reason the Nile River still flows south to north today.

Over time this cut huge horizontal curved notches down the entire lengths of all exposed southern block wall faces, said Morsi. Needless to say, this also caused a massive amount of block material loss.

What is most interesting is the block material loss always gets progressively more intense toward the east. This is the case in both the 2nd and 3rd Great Pyramid temple complexes.

This evidence clearly supports Morsi’s theory that the walls acted like wedges during an ancient northerly receding tide. When the tide came in all blocks were affected equally. But when the tide let back out, the eastern most blocks were always the last to stop eroding.

According to Morsi, this would have been a very active 6 foot deep intertidal basin, which would have risen to a height of 225 feet above the current sea level.

He believes the depths of the tafoni pitting as well as the amount of block material loss is key to understanding how long this tidal basin was active.

In some cases more than half of the blocks mass had been lost to wave mechanics, sea-spray, and marine habitation.

According to Morsi, 25 centimeters of lost surface limestone from this type of erosion could be calculated to be in the tens of thousands of years.

During the eventual regression of the sea a different kind of erosion emerged. More of an addition than erosion, its evidence can be found on the upper most blocks of the Valley Temple.

Alluvial sediments, which had been originally deposited on the tops of these blocks by the sea, then began to ooze over and down their sides, said Morsi.

These sediments then petrified into strange honeycomb-like patterns, which disfigured the blocks even more.

With the water now in full retreat the last form of tidal erosion began to take hold. It’s called deep salt water saturation.

After the regression of the sea, “the sun exposed rock starts flaking due to the salt reacting chemically in the porous areas,” said Morsi.

This type of erosion is often found right where you would expect to find it; on the lowest exposed blocks. For example, some low lying wall blocks have cracked and decayed where blocks found higher up have not.

However, according to Morsi most of the damage from deep salt water saturation lay in the lowest areas of the plateau; along the eastern slope which runs downhill toward the Nile River.

Today the pyramids sit 200 feet above sea level and reside more than 100 miles away from the raging torrents of the Mediterranean Sea. Nevertheless, all the evidence suggests it was once a very different story – once upon a time.

Find the rest of this story and accompanying photographic evidence in, What Egyptologists don’t want you to see! Vol: 1

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