The "Secret" to the Building of the Pyramids...

I was riding on my favorite bike trail when I heard "huffing" coming from behind me...

Since I was not expecting anyone to join me, I didn't look back...

I figured that the other rider would either drop back or pass me...so I pulled to the right-side of the trail and rode a consistent speed...

He pulled up beside me and I looked over and saw that it was him!

"Give an old man a break and slow down to a human pace," he pleaded...


"Where are you headed?"

"Just around my regular loop," I replied...

"That's 25 more miles!"  he complained, "You are insane!"

"Do you want to stop and rest at the next set of benches?"

"If you would be so kind, I would truely appreciate it"

We rode for about a mile, stopped and shared the water that was strapped to my bike...

"I had to ride like an idiot to catch up with you!"  "I thought that I would catch you before you left...I hate being late!"

Did you have something important that you wanted to talk about?

"No...I just wanted to ride with you today...heck, you go fishing with me and you play golf with me...and you drink my rum with me...the least that I could do is something you like..."

What makes you think that I do not like those things?

"Those are things that you only do with me...you never do them when I am not around...so I assume that you do them because of me...not because you like them..."

"Do you remember some advice that you gave me once?  NEVER say NEVER and NEVER say ALWAYS...you'll always be proven wrong..."

"Well you just did it!"

"I do not do things that I do not like!  If I didn't like doing them or thought that they went against some higher ideal...I wouldn't do them!  I fish and golf and drink rum without you...it's not as fun...but I still do it..."

"That's my boy...and that is all I needed to hear! AND yes...you caught me!  I did say NEVER!"

"Do you want a real drink?" 

He pulled out a HUGE flask and handed it to me...

I laughed and obliged him!

"So what do you want to discuss?"

"I was thinking about "great things" last night...not the what! part of them...but the how?"

"I came across an insight that I just had to share with you..."

"Cool...share it...share it...share it...stop the suspense building!"

"The 7 wonders of the ancient world and the pyramids in particular...that was what I was thinking about..."


"They are an interesting anomoly...."

"The legacy of them lives today!"


"The riddle of the pyramids are more difficult than that of the Sphinx!"


"Do you remember the riddle of the Sphinx?"

With that he went into his reflective stance...

"Long ago...Hera sent the Sphinx from Ethiopia to Thebes in Greece where she asked all passersby the most famous riddle in history: "


“It went something like this...Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?”

"To add to the challenge...she strangled and ate anyone unable to answer."

"Oedipus was the first to solve the riddle.  His solution was...Man — who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then walks with a cane in old age."


"I do not know if you are aware of it but, there was a second riddle:"


"There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first."

"I know the answer," I replied, "Day and Night—both words are feminine in Greek..."

"VERY GOOD...I thought I would catch you on that one..."

With that he pulled back out of his reflective posture.

"Those are tough riddles but not as difficult as trying to figure out how the pyramids were built!"

"You know the best riddles are self-evident...actually the ones with the most difficult answers are those which point to the self evident ones!"

"Mankind has struggled with the riddle of how the pyramids were built for centuries!"


"The real struggle is brought about by their paradigms and perspectives, rather than the answer itself!"


"Here is what is happening...The Egyptians had no advanced technology...when we think about it...we can not do it with our current technology...how could they?"

"Many have theorized that extra-terrestorial creatures helps them or that they had access to some kind of technology that we did not...That is pretty arogant...don't you think?"

"They actually had the same tool at their disposal as we do...the one that mattered...to their building of those great monuments..."

"You know what is interesting?  You could build a pyramid of the same immense magnitude..."

"I could too..."

"Do you know what the secret tool is?"

The lever?  The wheel?

"No...and it is not some lost technology...although the secret is lost to many..."

"You have it right here with you now..."

"My bicycle?" I laughed...

"It is not your bicycle or magic...even though many people still blame many people's amazing accomplishments upon it..."

"The bicycle or magic?  I know magic!"  I laughed..

I could see that he was not appreciating my humor...

"Stop it already and cut to the chase," I pleaded...

"The secret of how the pyramids were built is..."

"...hard work, persistence and passion..."

"...lots of hard work and lots of passionate people..."

"AND...the secret tool is your mind...and the capacity that it has for creativity, adaptiveness and ingenuity..."

"There is no stopping people who work hard and are passionate about what they are doing!"

"I can see those ancient conversations now..."


"Let's build a huge pyramid..."

"A monument that will stand for thousands of years and that will baffle generations to come!"

"The reply...OK...that would be really neat...we do not have the technology to do it!  All we have are these little rock hammers...and these ropes..."


"WOW!  That is all we need!  Let's get to work and figure out the rest as we go on!"

"And they did!  They did not make the first mistake of not starting..."

"They immediately came upon issues...but they figured them out...and persisted"

"At that point, the secret tool was their mind!  When they came up against an obstacle...they figured it out...then they went on to the next one and the next one and the next one..."

"40 ton block by 40 ton block...obstacle after obstacle...they built legacies...that stand today...the pyramids have outlasted history...and generations..."

"I just read that an atomic bomb couldn't flatten them!  That is an enduring monument..."

"The Romans destroyed many temples and buildings of many cultures, including the Temple of Solomon...but could not scratch the pyramids...that legacy lives!"

"All that strength can only be attributed to hard work...passion and ingenuity..."

"Not some alien culture who came down here in space ships and helped..."

"That legacy was built by endurance and ingenuity and an unwillingness to give up..."

"Not some far-fetched, sensationalized, conspiracy theory!"

"Our society is ever so wrought with paradigms..."

"One of the secrets that they possessed was that entitlement was reserved to one person...the Pharaoh...it was not an all pervasive right for everyone in that society"  The recognized the destructiveness of entitlement and isolated it to one person...BRILLIANT!"

"Back then...people did not believe that they had a God given right to work less and get paid more..."

"The Egyptians believed quite like the Founding Fathers of America...that we had a right to work...and make a living as long as it didn't infringe on the right of others to do the same..." 

"DO not get me wrong...they believed in entitilement...but it was much different and our society has ruined the real concept of entitlement..."

"All in all...It is our arrogance that stands in the way of our true understanding...if we could only wipe those paradigms out and become as little children...the kingdom could be ours!"

"When I really think about it...we could do the same...but we have become lazy society...and we attribute that same defect to our predecessors..."


"They were not lazy...they were passionate and creative...and adaptive"


"They were not afraid to work..."


"They were driven by passion and fervor!"


"Those individuals who possess those tools, today, (and there are few) build enduring legacies too..."

"With the right amount of vision and creativity...the legacies that they build will stand as long as the pyramids...unless of course one sets the goal to make them endure longer"

"Enduring monuments, legacies...are not built upon success...they are built by overcoming obstacle after obstacle...through a strength of will...using the tools at hand...and not blaming failure upon the lack of technology or the absence of alien help..."

"The secret of the pyramids is hard work...and it is glaring us right in the face!"

"With that he said...We have 24 more miles to ride today...and then we have a pyramid to build...I have a feeling that our legacy is going to have some major obstacles to overcome...but there is one thing that the Romans can not tear apart...OUR LEGACIES!"

"Let's go do something that endures..."