“The Mysterious Pyramids”: A Review of Pyramid Tech: The Physics, Chemistry, & Agro-Economics of the Ancients, by Ken Goudsward

 

 (Prince George, BC, Canada: Dimensionfold Publishing, 2025). ISBN: 978-1-998395-21-7

In my back cover blurb for this book, I stated, “Ken Goudsward, who is steadily earning a place among the most respected researchers offering heavily researched, technology-based reinterpretations of ancient history, offers a salient, sensible set of explanations for the who, when, why, and how of one of Earth’s most enduring mysteries—the pyramids. From the wrongly mundane, to the genuinely compelling, to the recently ridiculous, Goudsward takes on prior theories and offers us solid, scholarly insights and eye-opening new hypotheses.”

Having read this book a second time, I stand by this statement all the more. In 107 succinct, easy to understand pages, while providing abundant photos, diagrams of the interiors of several pyramids, and technical charts, Goudsward takes us through myriad mistaken information concerning pyramids around the world and offers his assessment of a handful of more viable theories.

Cracking the mystery of ancient pyramids has been a fascination for archaeologists, scientists, geologists, ancient alien theorists, sacred geometry researchers, and others for centuries. Were they tombs? Power plants? UFO landing stations? How old are they? This question of age is one that raises the hackles on the gatekeepers and guardians of a narrative where Homo sapiens and advanced civilizations are much younger than what folks like Graham Hancock and Ken Goudsward have been discovering.

With gatekeeping academics on one end and ancient astronaut kooks on the other, the lies, speculations, entertainment fabrications, and simple misunderstanding are legion. Recent AI images of underground networks and strange pillars have further skewed perceptions. As we move toward the center of the spectrum from either end, we encounter genuine efforts that often make sense upon first glance. Burial places, for instance. Most of us grew up on this explanation. But this assumption has more than a few pitfalls and problems, all of which are systematically illuminated by the author.

After an orientation tour of the major pyramid sites and complexes in Egypt, Africa, Mexico, Peru, and China, and the difficult to categorize Gunung Padang in Indonesia, Goudsward offers a page and quarter on the question of how, which is not the primary subject of the book.

As made clear by the title, Pyramid Tech: The Physics, Chemistry, & Agro-Economics of the Ancients is primarily concerned with the why.

Use as tombs is initially considered, with ancient pyramids grouped under four categories (was a tomb, never was a tomb, later use as a tomb, could not be used as a tomb). Examples are given as each of the categories are unpacked in separate sections. Goudsward then moves on to the idea that pyramids and pyramid sites are aligned to astrological configurations (Teotihuacan and Giza aligning with Orion’s belt being the most popular of these theories). Goudsward also mentions Sirius and Cygnus.

The meat of the matter for the why, however, is technology, beginning with hydraulic pumps (the desert was not always a desert, and the Nile flowed within proximity to the Giza pyramids). This is a theory that is roughly sixty years old.

A very popular theory in more recent decades is that of the pyramids serving as electrical power plants (there is a section in the book devoted to lightning). The text begins to increase in technical complexity at this point, although we are in capable, educative hands (the author is a “solutions architect, systems analyst, with expertise in industrial robotics, software engineering, and data design”). From piezoelectric effects to acoustic resonance (he’s also a musician), there’s an international survey of sites presented that might be candidates for this theory of why.

The most robust section, and perhaps the most intriguing, is the one concerning fertilizer factories. There are several researchers whose work Goudsward unpacks while offering his assessment and further considerations. According to one researcher, Geoffrey Drumm, three pyramids (the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, and the Bent Pyramid) might have been a “chemical production chain.” Having a father who managed a chemical plant that processed additives and preservatives for cosmetics, I could easily picture the necessity for dedicated sites requiring different technological configurations for each step in the process.

As with his advanced technology explorations of Sumerian texts, such as the Enuma Elish and Atrahasis Epic, Goudsward offers clear explanations and visuals to guide the reader who lacks a background in chemistry as to where these theories succeed and come up short. Along the way, there are some disturbing facts of archaeologists tagging these ancient structures with graffiti and other gestures of disrespect. We also meet the leading (although ultimately discarded) German chemical warfare specialist from World War I and inventor of chlorine gas, Fritz Haber (who also won a Nobel Prize for his invention of his self-named process for producing ammonia).

A fascinating set of sections goes into the details of pressurization and how the shape, weight, and interior architectural features of select pyramids, including the shafts that have given theorists fits given that they are too small and/or have angles that would disallow sarcophagi being carried through them into the open chambers within, were essential for fertilizer production.   

Threaded throughout the text and examined in some detail later in the book is the theory that some of the pyramids in Egypt, being much older than the gatekeepers and guardians claim, were constructed by an unknown civilization that predates the pharaonic dynasties and ancient Egyptian civilization as we have come to accept it. A point in favor of this theory is that there are no hieroglyphics in the pyramids and no mention of pyramids in any hieroglyphics—this from a civilization that otherwise kept very meticulous records. This question of who may never be answered, and Goudsward does not choose to tread that path in this text.

The final section of Pyramid Tech: The Physics, Chemistry, & Agro-Economics of the Ancients further elaborates the question of when the pyramids were built. Goudsward says that the traditional estimates of their being 6,000 years old or so is “fundamentally flawed,” based in part on the mistaken notion that they were built as tombs. Respected researchers such as Graham Hancock estimate the Giza pyramids to be more than 12,000 years old.

Once again, Ken Goudsward should be applauded (and supported by the purchase of his books) for applying his polymath expertise to ancient mysteries, giving us serious scientific theories to ponder instead of click-bait, unsupported statements, sexy conjecture, and outright lies.