Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 7 - Skepticism is expressed over the usual explanations for the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Archaeologists explain that the pyramids were built over many years, with workers pulling large stone slabs with rope on rollers made of trees. Von Däniken has many problems with this account. First, the Nile Valley has such a small fertile area (only the banks of the Nile itself) that it could not possibly support the food needs of so many slaves and craftsmen. Second, the only wood that grows in the Nile Valley are palms, and Von Däniken supposes these palms could not have been used as rollers, as they provide nutritional dates to a starved population. Thus, wood would have had to been imported from elsewhere, but this would be next to impossible since the horse-and-cart was not seen in the region...