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What Created This ‘Melted Limestone’ Beside the Pyramids of Giza?

By Gregon

Everyone loves a good pyramid anomaly, and geologist Robert Schoch (best known for his involvement in the ‘redating the Great Sphinx’ controversy) has posted an interesting curiosity on his Facebook page. During a tour group visit to the Giza plateau, Dr Schoch took some time to look at a strange patch of limestone not far from the pyramids, which appears to have been ‘melted’ by some strong heat source.

Schoch’s interest – beyond pure curiosity – comes from his research into possible ‘plasma events’ in the ancient past, as discussed in his book Forgotten Civilisation: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future (he touches on the topic in this essay on his website as well).

In response to a commenter asking about the temperature needed to melt the rock, Schoch noted that it would require…

…around 1000 degrees C, depending on the specific composition and structure. A major plasma strike, lightning-like, could I believe cause what I saw — but it still needs more study (I did not post the video, although I do not mind that it was posted as it gets people thinking about this important subject). This is a topic that I am currently researching.

Any other geologists out there want to add their opinion? Is this ‘melted limestone’ an oddity? And if so, what might be the source: ancient smelter, modern construction works, lightning strike, plasma event? Heck, while we’re speculating (rather wildly), given the ancient Egyptians seem to have venerated meteorites, could it have been melted by a meteor strike?

Post your own theory in the comments….

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Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
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7 Comments

  1. My pet idea about the
    My pet idea about the pyramids is that they could be used as static electricity conductors and could store that energy capacitatively in a large quartz capstone. In sand storms beating against the sides of such massive structures there would be a huge amount of static charge created that could be conducted via copper cabling placed vertically on the pyramid sides and leading to the quartz capacitor capstone. Such a large capacitor could then be selectively discharged with sufficient energy to melt things or create all sorts of impressive electrical effects.
    The capacitor(s) wouldn’t have to be located at the apex though – they could be situated anywhere and still function, so the controversy over whether there ever was a capstone and what it might have been made of does not really impinge on the idea.

    During the Dust Bowl times in America automobiles had to drag grounding chains behind them when the dust was blowing heavy in order to prevent a charge buildup from shorting out their electrical wiring.

    http://odd-facts.blogspot.com/2009/06/dust.html
    “Another side effect was that “men avoided shaking hands with each other because the static electricity was so great it could knock a person down” Cars drug grounding-chains behind them as well.”

  2. Well…….
    There is also a theory out there that the stones for the pyramids were not cut and hauled long distances, but were cast in place. The limestone was brought in by barges/boats as rubble and placed in to large bins where it was dissolved by vinegar (or some similar acid).

    It was then poured into molds to create the blocks and when hardened, hauled into place. Vinegar can,in it’s normal solution you can buy at a store, easily dissolve limestone, as well as sea shells. However, a MUCH stronger vinegar is available commercially, and would have been easily made by the ancients, and this would dissolve limestone rather quickly.

    If you have a number of reducing bins and a number of molds, you could crank out blocks at a reasonably fast rate.

    Now, what I’m getting to, is that that patch of “melted/fused” limestone might also have been the result of a spill of either dissolving agent, or of dissolved limestone.

    Interesting to speculate, regardless.

    1. “Barsoum suggests that the
      “Barsoum suggests that the Egyptians used both man-made cast block along with limestone block quarried and hauled to the site in the way our traditional explanation proposes. Barsoum believes that only the exterior casing blocks and the blocks at the higher levels of the pyramids were cast geopolymer blocks.”

      Very likely that the ancient Egyptians knew all about geopolymerisation, but the extent of usage needs to be qualified.

      *******************************************
      “Mudbricks, of course were made throughout Egypt and were a common building material everywhere, in common homes and palaces and probably many city buildings. The better mudbricks were fired, or “burnt” in an oven, though it was not uncommon for mudbick not to be fired, and so not as durable. Unfortunately, most structures built of mudbrick have not weathered the ravages of time well. They were built using wooden forms and Nile mud mixed with various fillers.”

      Read more: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/material.htm#ixzz4HbVTkNfd

      So another possibility is that Schoch was looking at a partially vitrified limestone slab that had been laying underneath a mud brick firing kiln. I wonder if he was able to obtain a sample for lab analysis?

    2. Mostrando reasonable…
      Indeed Davidovits theory seems to be the most reasonable explanation and that “melted” rock looks like dried cement (dried limestone paste).

  4. Pottery Kiln
    Its thought copper smelting first occurred in pottery kilns as the temperature of over 1000C can be reached.

    The ancient Egyptians were gifted artisans and pottery was an art where they excelled. Egypt in the pre-dynastic period produced pottery of very high quality. Egypt made pottery before building the Pyramids (see where this is going?). This is evident from the presence of older hieroglyphic writing with characters which have images of earthen vessels.

    As Ancient Egyptians were able to make high quality pottery and smelt copper therefore if there was a pottery kiln there the temperature would also melt the limestone.

    Simple

    http://www.lakesidepottery.com/HTML%20Text/Tips/Tempruturerange.htm

    http://www.veniceclayartists.com/egyptian-pottery/

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