Showerthought: My kid's history book said the pyramids were tombs, but a podcast made me question it

I was listening to an archaeology podcast last night, and the host was talking about the Great Pyramid's air shafts. They said the shafts don't actually point to any important stars from when it was built, which is what the tomb theory often says. It made me stop and think about how we just accept some ideas as fact. Has anyone else read a recent study that looks at what those shafts might have been for instead?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy6281d ago

Wait, they don't point to the stars? That's the main thing I've always heard. Honestly that kind of blows my mind, I thought that was solid fact. What's the podcast saying they point to then?

annaw731d ago

Right wendy628, the podcast said they point to the north celestial pole, which is a spot in the sky near Polaris but not exactly at it. The whole "point to the stars" thing is a pretty common mix up. It's more about an axis in space than a specific bright light you can see. Kind of a letdown after all the mystery, really.

dianahayes1d ago

Yeah, it's more about the earth's spin axis.