The Author's Publications

 

Select Works by Paul B. Thompson

 

Note: This list does not include material written for online publication.

 

Non-Fiction Books:

Joan of Arc Warrior Saint of France. Enslow Publications, 2007.

Billy the Kid: It Was a Game of Two. Enslow Publications, 2010.

Short Non-Fiction:

 "Henderson Luelling." The Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

"The Remarkable Experiments of Andrew Crosse." Beyond Reality, October 1980.

"The Broomfield Experiments of Andrew Crosse." Pursuit, XIII-4, 1980.

"Rupert T. Gould: A Retrospective Evaluation." INFO Journal, VIII-4, 1980

"The Medusa Cell." Pursuit, XIV-4, 1981.

"Can Science Create Life?" Fate, XXXVI-1, January 1983.

"The High and Dry Wateree." U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, CIX-8, August 1983.

"The Magic Spark." Pursuit, XVII-1, 1984.

"The Unknown Mummy." Pursuit, XVII-4, 1984.

"New Maps of Bohemia." (ed.) Forbidden Lines #4, April-May 1991.

"The First Lady of Horror." Forbidden Lines #6, Sept-Oct 1991.

"Raising Hell in High Point." [with Charles Overbeck] Forbidden Lines #7, Nov-Dec 1991.

"Philip Klass Interview." [with Bob Burchette] Forbidden Lines #11, July-Aug 1992.

"Only Begotten Doubter: James Morrow." Forbidden Lines #12, Fall 1992.

"Where We Were Going." Forbidden Lines #14, Summer 1993.

"Flight to Oblivion." Fate, L-7, July 1997.

Plus miscellaneous reviews, editorials, etc.

Fiction: Short Stories

"The Exiles," [with Tonya R. Carter] in Love and War, TSR, Inc., 1987.

"Sodalis," in Forbidden Lines #2 Dec/Jan 1991; #3 Feb/Mar 1991; #4 Apr/May 1991. Serialized novella.

"Pink Bells, Tattered Skies," in Forbidden Lines #10, May/June 1992.

"The Voyage of the Sunchaser," [with Tonya R. Carter] in The Cataclysm, TSR, Inc., 1992.                      

"Solid Gold Asteroid," in Shattered, West End Books, 1994.

"The Summoners," in Relics and Omens, Wizards of the Coast, 1998.

"Noblesse Oblige," in Heroes and Fools, Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

"Versipellis," in The Colors of Magic, Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

"The Compleat Catapult," in Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home II, Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

"Divination Among the Que-Shu," in Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home II, Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

"Freedom's Pride," in Rebels and Tyrants, Wizards, 2000.

"Blue Moon," in The Myths of Magic, Wizards, 2000.

"Deathwings," in The Dragons of Magic, Wizards, 2001.

"Go with the Floe," in The Search for Magic, Wizards, 2002.

"For Want of Ink," in Secrets of Magic, Wizards, 2002.

"Enter, a Ghost," in The Players of Gilean, Wizards, 2003.

"The Last Command," Magic the Gathering anthology 2003.

"The Box," in The Search for Power, Wizards, 2004.

"No Name for Victory," in The Dragons of Time, Wizards of the Coast, 2007.

  

Fiction: Novels

 

Sundipper.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.  Science fiction novel.

Red Sands.  [with Tonya R. Carter] Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, Inc., 1988. Fantasy novel.

Thorn and Needle.  Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, Inc., 1992.  Science fiction novel.

Red Lion, White Bird, Amazon eBook, 2012. Occult novel.

 

"Dragonlance" novels, co-written by Tonya Carter Cook:

Darkness and Light.  TSR, Inc., 1989.

Riverwind the Plainsman.  TSR, Inc., 1990.

Firstborn.  TSR, Inc., 1991.

The Qualinesti.  TSR, Inc., 1991.

The Dargonesti. TSR, Inc., 1995.

 

The Barbarians Trilogy:

Children of the Plains, Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

Brother of the Dragon, Wizards of the Coast, 2001.

Sister of the Sword, Wizards of the Coast, 2002.

 

The Ergoth Trilogy:

A Warrior's Journey, Wizards of the Coast, 2003.

The Wizard's Fate, Wizards of the Coast, 2004.

A Hero's Justice, Wizards of the Coast, 2004.

 

The Elven Exiles Trilogy:

Sanctuary, Wizards of the Coast, 2005.

Alliance, Wizards of the Coast, 2006.

Destiny, Wizards of the Coast, 2007.

 

"Dragonlance" novels by Paul B. Thompson:

Middle of Nowhere, Wizards of the Coast, 2003.

The Forest King, Wizards of the Coast, 2009.

 

"Magic: The Gathering" novels:

Nemesis. Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

 

Historical Novels for young readers:

Liberty’s Son (The Boston Tea Party) Enslow Publications, 2009.

The Devil's Door (The Salem Witchcraft Trials) Enslow Publications, 2010.

 

The Brightstone Trilogy: (YA fantasy)

The Brightworking, Enslow Publications, 2012.

The Fortune Teller, Enslow, 2012.

Battle for the Brightstone, Enslow, 2013.

 

The Hy-Brasil Series: (YA science fiction)

Lost Republic, Enslow, 2014

 

 

Fiction: Plays

"Forget-Me-Not," [with Tonya Carter Cook] Performed at the Mid-Pines Resort, Southern Pines, N.C., January 1987. Interactive mystery-drama.

 

Fiction: Editing

Bertrem's Guide to the Age of Mortals, co-edited with Nancy Berberick and Stan Brown.

Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

 

Television:

Appearances: on-camera commentator for "Scary Tales" (Workaholic Productions), 3Net cable network, 4 episodes (October-December 2011).

Scripts:

"Marked By the Mob," TV series, 3Net Network, 2013

3 episodes: "Bosses," "Iced," "Turf Wars."

"America: Facts vs. Fiction," TV series, The Military Channel,

"The New World," 2013

"The Real West," 2017

The Military Channel changed its named to The American Heroes Channel in 2014.

 

 

Education

Master of Arts Teaching, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1983

Bachelor of Arts in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1980

From ParaScope: "Flight to Oblivion" [The Strange Death of Coach "Bo" Rein]

This article first appeared in the July 1997 issue of FATE magazine. It recounts the strange events surrounding the death of football coach Robert "Bo" Rein and his pilot, Louis Benscotter. Since 1980 several other incidents like this have occurred, such as the loss of pro golfer Payne Stewart in 1999. Hypoxia is almost certainly the cause of the pilots' loss of control (and eventual crash), but in the Rein case the question remains, what caused the loss of pressurization in the Cessna Conquest?

After this article was published in FATE, I received an email from the BBC (yes, the BBC) who wanted to know more about my sources and more details of the incident. I tracked down Jack Barker of the Atlanta FAA office (by then retired), and he confirmed that the agency withheld tapes of cockpit transmissions from independent investigator Frank McDermott. He had no idea why, as this was not standard procedure at all. I asked him if he was willing to talk to the BBC for whatever documentary they were preparing, and he agreed.

As far as I know, it never happened. I never heard from the BBC again, and I don't know if the story was ever used. 

Wikipedia's article on Rein contains information on the case that surfaced after my article was written.

The article as it appeared on ParaScope can be found here. Modern comments below have been added in red.

A Cessna Conquest (stock photo)

Flight to Oblivion

by Paul B. Thompson
Nebula Editor
[Out of date email address removed]

Thursday, January 10, 1980:
A twin-engine private plane taxied onto the runway of the Shreveport, Louisiana, municipal airport. At the controls was Louis Benscotter, 47. Benscotter, a veteran pilot with 31 years of experience, was preparing to fly to Baton Rouge, a 40-minute hop across the state. When he filed his flight plan with the Federal Aviation Administration, Benscotter indicated he would have two passengers. But when he left the ground he had only one: Robert E. "Bo" Rein, head football coach of Louisiana State University.

The plane, a Cessna Conquest, took off at 9:22 p.m. Four minutes after takeoff, Fort Worth, Texas, Air Traffic Control advised Benscotter of heavy thunderstorms in the Baton Rouge area and suggested he bypass them. The pilot asked for permission to divert east, toward Jackson, Mississippi. Fort Worth cleared Benscotter to go east and climb from 23,000 to 25,000 feet. Benscotter acknowledged his new flight plan. That was the last voice contact anyone would have with Cessna N441NC.

At 9:38, FAA radar showed the Conquest climbing above its assigned altitude and veering to the northeast. The FAA called the plane, but received no answer. Fort Worth ATC then contacted a Pan Am flight near the wandering Cessna and asked the airliner to warn Benscotter to check his en route radio frequency. The Pan Am pilot heard Benscotter trying to respond to Fort Worth, but the transmission was weak. The Cessna pilot did not respond to air-to-air calls from the Pan Am plane, nor did he answer calls from an Eastern Airlines jet in the vicinity.

By now Rein and Benscotter had climbed to 33,000 feet, the operational ceiling of the Cessna. Their course was almost due east. The FAA continued trying to reach the wayward plane. Air traffic centers in Memphis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., joined in. None of them succeeded. N441NC flew on, sometimes climbing as high as 40,500 feet. As the plane neared the North Carolina state line, the Air National Guard at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, was notified. Two F-4 Phantom fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the Cessna. The National Guard pilots were ordered to close on the private plane and try to assess the problem. Why was Benscotter so far off course? Why did he not answer radio calls? Why was he so far above normal flying altitude for his model aircraft?

The Phantoms scrambled. Within minutes after take-off, they would intercept the Cessna somewhere in the sky over Raleigh, North Carolina. 

                                                                          #

Bo Rein was a comer. At 30 he became the youngest head football coach at an American college, and everyone agreed his career held great promise. Born July 20, 1945, Rein attended Ohio University and received a Bachelor's degree in 1968. A talented athlete, he played minor league baseball in 1967 for the Cleveland Indians' organization. He played three seasons of baseball, and he might have gone to the majors had he not suffered an Achilles' tendon injury. Rein was also a football All-American in college, and was drafted by the Baltimore Colts of the NFL in 1968. Rein's destiny did lie on the gridiron, but not in uniform. Injuries convinced him to coach rather than play.

In the early 1970s Rein honed his coaching skills as an assistant coach at a number of schools: Ohio State, William and Mary, Purdue, North Carolina State, and Arkansas. His time at Raleigh's North Carolina State was particularly productive, as Rein worked under colorful head coach Lou Holtz. Holtz left N.C. State in 1976 for a brief stint as head coach of the NFL's New York Jets. The university chose Bo Rein to replace him.

In three seasons at N.C. State, Rein did so well he attracted the attention of other, larger college football programs. In November 1979 he left Raleigh to assume the top spot at Louisiana State.

Bo Rein was much admired by his players and respected by his coaching opponents. His energy was legendary. One fellow coach described Rein as "aggressive, tireless, persistent." In 1969, for example, Rein flew from Ohio to Las Vegas to play in a Continental League football game. As soon as the game was over he flew right back to Ohio. Rein enjoyed flying and never avoided it -- even a short trip like Shreveport to Baton Rouge.

                                                                            #

Two National Guard Phantoms closed on the lonely Cessna. In the darkness the jet pilots could see no interior lights in the plane. No one seemed to be at the controls. Repeated close-range radio calls brought no response. The Guardsmen even tried wagging their wings, hoping to attract attention. The Conquest flew on with no more reaction than a radio-controlled model.

The east coast was below them now, and the Phantoms had to break off the chase because their fuel was running low. The Air Force took up the pursuit, rousing an F-106 fighter out of Langley Air Force Base in southern Virginia. By the time the F-106 pilot, Captain Daniel Zoerb, found the Cessna, it was flying along at 40,600 feet, eastward over the sea. Zoerb followed, and N441NC began a gradual descent to 25,000 feet. The Air Force pilot closed in and saw no signs of life aboard, only a red glow in the cabin that probably came from the Cessna's instrument panel.

At 25,000 feet the Conquest dropped a wing and fell into a spin. Zoerb watched it spiral down a hundred miles off the coast of Norfolk. N441NC never recovered from its spin and plunged into the sea. Local weather was poor, visibility no more than 15 miles, and waves were running two to three feet high. Water temperature was only 40 degrees. The crash occurred shortly before 1 a.m. on January 11.

Seventy miles from the scene of the crash, the Coast Guard cutter Taney was on patrol. Word of the downed plane reached the cutter, which immediately put its helm over. An area 40 by 75 miles was assigned to be searched. A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft joined the operation.

At 6:30 a.m., the cutter Cherokee took over the rescue operation and kept it up all day. Some debris was sighted but not recovered: a wheel thought to be the Cessna's and some orange trim from the fuselage. That was all.

The Conquest had been a troublesome plane for Cessna. The model was grounded twice by the Federal Aviation Administration, in 1977 and 1979, because of failures in the tail structure. After the second grounding, all existing planes were modified to correct the fault. The FAA recertified Cessna Conquests as safe to fly in September 1979. The history of tail structure failures does not seem to have had anything to do with what happened to Benscotter and Rein.

The twin turboprop wasn't just a "grasshopper." It was a million-dollar executive transport. On top of his 31 years of flying experience, Benscotter had passed a two-week training course on flying the Conquest. Shortly before its final flight, N441NC had made a round trip to Houston without incident. So what happened?

Suspicion immediately centered on pilot incapacitation. Wandering off course, flying to extreme altitudes, and the failure to answer the radio all pointed to Benscotter and Rein being unable to respond to these problems. Whatever happened must have happened to both men at the same time. Had Benscotter alone been stricken (say, by a heart attack), Rein should have been able to call for help.

Carbon monoxide from the engines' exhaust might have overcome two men in a light plane, but it seems unlikely in this case. Instead of a single engine in the nose, the Cessna Conquest had two wing-mounted turboprops. In flight, the slipstream would tend to wash away any exhaust fumes long before they penetrated the fuselage.

The National Transportation Safety Board zeroed in on oxygen deprivation as the most probable cause of the strange last flight of Cessna N441NC. Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, is a common threat to anyone flying above 10,000 feet. The Conquest's cabin was pressurized, like a civilian airliner's. An 11-cubic-foot oxygen tank was provided, and an elaborate safety system was built into the plane to prevent the pilot or passengers being deprived of vital oxygen.

For example, if the pressurization system was not turned on during the pre-flight check, a red warning light would come on [Is this the light Captain Zoerb saw?] when the plane reached 10,650 feet. Normal, healthy adults would be conscious at this altitude and couldn't fail to notice the warning. If they did, at 14,500 feet emergency oxygen masks would pop out, just like the masks on commercial airliners. It takes 20 minutes of low pressure before hypoxia sets in, and between two men, one of them should have been able to take emergency measures.

As a final safety check, the heating and cooling systems in the Conquest would not function at any altitude if the cabin pressurization was left off. 

Though hypoxia seems like the best explanation for what happened to Benscotter and Rein, there are notable objections to the theory. The first is the fact that the trouble began only minutes after takeoff, when the Cessna was not yet at high altitude. Failure to actuate the plane's oxygen system seems improbable for a pilot of Benscotter's experience. Mechanical failure isn't likely, either. The Cessna passed all its safety checks in Shreveport before the flight. N441NC was a relatively new plane, not worn out or rickety. Before its last flight the airframe had only 38 hours flying time on it.

Why did none of the jet pilots chasing the Cessna see anyone on board? If Benscotter had passed out at the controls, his body should have been visible, strapped in his seat. The slowly climbing attitude of the plane was probably the result of the pilot trimming it to climb as per his instructions from Fort Worth ATC, early in the flight. Then for some unknown reason Benscotter left his seat; he must have, else the weight of his inert feet and legs on the foot pedals would have seriously affected the plane's course.

Hypoxia can lead to euphoria, but no suggestion was found that Rein or Benscotter left the plane while in flight. Small civilian planes don't carry parachutes.

From the start, the FAA took the investigation of the loss of Cessna N441NC very seriously. In May 1980 a spokesman announced that some 20 possible causes of the incident were being studied, ranging from failure of the Conquest's oxygen system to sudden cabin depressurization from a mid-air collision with a bird. (Neither Captain Zoerb nor the Air National Guard pilots mentioned seeing any external damage to the Cessna.) The FAA refused to endorse any specific theory as long as their investigation continued.

Others involved in the mystery were not so patient. In March 1980, the Nichols Construction Company, owners of the plane and employer of Louis Benscotter, filed suit against the FAA and their own insurance company, Insurance Company of America. Nichols had hired a private investigator, Frank McDermott of McLean, Virginia, to conduct a parallel inquiry into the incident. McDermott specialized in aircraft accidents and had many previous investigations to his credit. Nichols decided to sue the FAA because FAA Washington headquarters refused to allow McDermott to hear or copy the tape recordings of air traffic controllers' conversations with Louis Benscotter.

The FAA specifically ordered its regional offices not to give McDermott access to the tapes, even though they had always allowed private investigators such access in the past. The ostensible reason for this stonewalling was that the official inquiry wasn't yet over. Jack Barker, of the FAA's Atlanta office, told the press he couldn't understand why the tapes were being withheld from McDermott. After all, the only conversation between Benscotter and Fort Worth ATC consisted of ordinary takeoff clearances and requests to change altitude, or so the FAA reported. Nichols wanted to collect the insurance on the million-dollar aircraft and could not do so until the FAA investigation was concluded.

No wreckage or remains were ever recovered. The area of ocean where the Cessna crashed is more than 1,100 feet deep, making salvage impractical. In April 1980, Judge E. Maurice Braswell declared Rein and Benscotter legally dead so that their estates could be settled. It was not until December 10, 1980, that the NTSB issued its official report on the loss of Cessna N441NC. After almost a year of theorizing and wrangling, a spokesperson for the Board said, "The Board was unable to determine a cause because it was unable to find any wreckage. This is the end, unless some new evidence is offered and the case reopened."

All that remains is the mystery. Something happened to Rein and Benscotter within minutes of their take-off from Shreveport. Something rendered both men helpless, yet allowed the Conquest to fly on its own for more than a thousand miles. Auto pilot could do that, but that presumes Benscotter was able to activate it. The plane climbed to heights greater than it was designed for, and it most likely crashed because it ran out of fuel.

There have been many aviation mysteries over the years, from the disappearances of the French dirigible Dixmude in 1923 [exploded in midair over the Mediterranean], flying ace Charles Nungesser in 1927, to the crew of Navy blimp L-8, the Star Tiger, the Star Ariel, and many more.

But all these machines, their pilots and passengers, vanished over featureless seas, without any witnesses to record their fates. The last flight of Louis Benscotter and Bo Rein is an entire other dimension of mystery. It was tracked across well-populated and well-monitored countryside, chased by military jets, investigated by federal and private experts -- and yet there are no answers.

Somehow this incident is all the more unsettling for having happened under such close observation. It shakes our faith in our omnipresent technology, much as a public tragedy like the Challenger disaster did. In that case answers were found, but the empty sky and deep Atlantic yield no answers to the disappearance of Coach Bo Rein, no matter how long we ponder them.


Text copyright (c) 1997. Revised 2024, with additional material by the author.

 

RED SANDS Now Available as a Kindle eBook!

I'm pleased to announce that an early novel written by Tonya Cook and I, RED SANDS, is now available from Amazon in a new Kindle edition. First published in 1988 and long out of print, RED SANDS was nominated for the World Fantasy award that year (didn't win, alas). This newly digitized edition also features an afterword by me describing the origins of the novel and how it was working with TSR in those early days. In the near future, I hope to make RED SANDS available as an audio book through Audible.

See https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4Y7G44F/ref=sr_1_1...

The original 1989 cover by Clyde Caldwell.

From ParaScope: Secrets of the Pyramids (1996)

Here's another article from the now defunct online magazine PARASCOPE, once part of America Online's Greenhouse Project. This piece I wrote for Donald Trull's department "Enigma," which dealt with various Fortean and ostensibly paranormal phenomena. Modern comments are in red.

Secrets of the Pyramids

by Paul B. Thompson
Nebula Editor
[Obsolete email address deleted]

Few monuments of the ancient world exude as much mystery, wonder and romance as the pyramids of Egypt. For centuries after the tongues of the ancient Egyptians were stilled, travelers spoke in awe of the silent mounds of stone that dot the western shore of the Nile. Prior to the decipherment of hieroglyphics in the early nineteenth century, very little authentic information could be had about the pyramids. Much of what the world knew came from sources like the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC), who described the pyramids of Giza as the tombs of the Pharaohs Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus. [These were Greek forms of the Egyptian Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.]

He was right as far as that went, but other details Herodotus certainly got wrong -- that the pyramids were built using wooden cranes, that Cheops' daughter prostituted herself in order to obtain stone for her own pyramid (one block per customer... ), or that a subterranean canal conducted water from the Nile to the Great Pyramid, creating an underground island on which Cheops was buried, etc. These tales, like those heard today at any tourist trap, were likely made up to impress travelers by sharp local guides eager for baksheesh.

The fact is, today we know a great deal about the pyramids, who built them, and how. Some details remain murky -- understandable after 4,700 years -- but the religious, cultural, and engineering development of the Egyptian pyramid is well understood after two centuries of scientific study.

In the first two dynasties of unified rule, Egypt's royalty were buried under large mud brick structures known as mastabas (Arabic for "bench"). Mastabas were rectangular mounds whose walls sloped slightly inward. As the deceased pharaoh was as divine dead as he had been when living, shrines were built adjoining the mastaba for worship of the dead god-king. This practice would continue after the Egyptians ceased building royal mastabas and began building pyramid tombs; every finished pyramid has an associated funerary temple, which in ancient times was often considered as impressive as the pyramid itself.

By the dawn of the IIIrd Dynasty (circa 2700 BC), Egypt was sufficiently advanced and prosperous to support ever larger building projects. King Zoser, first monarch of the IIIrd Dynasty, decided to show off his wealth and success by constructing for himself the most imposing mastaba yet. He was fortunate to have as his architect Imhotep, one of the first identifiable geniuses of history. Imhotep designed an impressive mastaba for Zoser, but it wasn't grand enough for his royal master. While it was being enlarged, Imhotep had a design breakthrough: he decided to pile other, slightly smaller mastabas atop the original one. Moreover, Zoser's tomb would be wrought in stone, not mud brick. Zoser must have been delighted, for study of his tomb shows it was recast once more with six ascending levels instead of four. The result was the first pyramid in Egypt, known as the Step Pyramid. (The name is purely informational; Zoser's tomb resembles a set of steps.) In its final form the Step Pyramid dwarfed all previous royal tombs, as it was 140 meters long, 118 meters wide, and sixty meters high. An elaborate walled enclosure encompassed the pyramid and mortuary temple into a sacred precinct where Zoser could be revered for all time.

Is the pyramid shape significant, other than as the inspiration of architect Imhotep? Whatever their advances, the Egyptians were limited in what they could build, both by the materials they possessed and the technology they understood. They did not know how to build domes or arches, as the Greeks and Romans used later in their monuments. The pyramid is a simple geometric solid, the only shape other than rectangles the Egyptians could build with the materials and methods they knew.

On the other hand, the pyramid did acquire religious significance. The royal cult was closely linked to worship of the sun god Re. A hieroglyph developed at the dawn of Egyptian history depicts the sun as a phoenix perched atop a pyramid-shaped object called a benben. This benben has been taken to represent the sun's rays spreading to the earth, so a definite symbolic link can be found between the solar cult and the tombs of the pharaohs, the sun god's son on earth.

Considerable speculation has been made about how the Egyptians built their pyramids, from Herodotus's tales of cranes to modern claims of extraterrestrial aid or occult levitation. While interesting, these paranormal theories are unnecessary to explain the pyramids' construction. When we examine the existing pyramids, from Zoser's down to the last royal pyramid tombs of Dynasty XIII (nearly 1,000 years apart), we see different plans, different types of construction, and different materials used. But the pyramids of Dynasties III and IV -- the greatest ones of all -- were built of stone blocks. How did the Egyptians raise all those heavy stones to the heights of the pyramid's peak? What motive force did they use?

As it turns out, they used the simplest methods available: ramps and the muscles of many men. How do we know this? The Egyptians themselves left us the evidence.

Following the reign of the mighty Pharaoh Zoser came an ephemeral king named Sekhem-khet. Like his predecessor, Sekhem-khet resolved to erect a great step pyramid for himself at Saqqara. Unfortunately, Sekhem-khet's reign was brief (six years), and his pyramid wasn't finished. The site was abandoned and gradually covered by the desert. It was not until 1951 that archeologist Mohammed Zakaria Ghoneim found Sekhem-khet's "lost" pyramid. As Ghoneim cleared the site he discovered, to his delight, that long ramps of packed earth and rock were still in place along the sides of the unfinished tomb! Here, as plain as could be, was at least one version of how the Egyptians built their pyramids.

To move the stone blocks into place, the Egyptians used neither wheels nor draft animals, but sledges hauled by men. In some tomb paintings there are scenes of oxen drawing blocks from a quarry, but animals weren't precise enough to use on the pyramid itself. Fewer than a dozen men could manhandle a pyramid building block into place; this can be deduced from a famous scene from the tomb of XIIth Dynasty noble Dhutihotep, in which 172 men drag a colossal statue, many times larger than any pyramid block. The essential ingredient to building a pyramid therefore was steady, dedicated labor and a high degree of social planning. And money -- lots of money, in the form of food and shelter for the pyramid workers. [The pyramid workers were not oppressed slaves, but hired laborers who worked on monuments during the flood season, when their fields were inundated. A few were professional builders--pyramids were their life.]

From the tomb of Dhutihotep: how to move a 

colossus

As the Egyptians had their successes, so did they have their failures. Sekhem-khet's successor, Kha-ba, is believed to have built the so-called "Layer" pyramid at Zawiet el Aryan. Here the Egyptians tried a different form of construction, layering vertical piles of stone into a step pyramid shape. It didn't work, and the Layer pyramid today is a low mound of rubble, whereas Zoser's step pyramid still stands at Saqqara.

The Layer Pyramid; the Pyramid of Meydum

The last king of Zoser's line, Hu, began his tomb as another step pyramid. Apparently Hu died prematurely, for his pyramid at Meydum was finished by his successor, Snefru. Snefru was not of Hu's line, and is considered the founder of the IVth Dynasty, the greatest pyramid builders of all time. Snefru must have had a visionary architect of his own, because Hu's pyramid was finished not with stepped sides, but as a smooth solid, the first true pyramid. Hu's tomb at Meydum no longer looks like a classic pyramid, however. The lower courses have fallen away, revealing the core "steps." Hu's pyramid now resembles a square tower.

One claim often made by theorists who believe the Great Pyramid at Giza has powers and attributes beyond the mundane is that the angle of the pyramid's sides is of special mystical significance. Khufu, son of Snefru, built the Great Pyramid with sides angling up at 51 degrees, 52 minutes. Yet there is no standardization of slope angle among the other pyramids. If the angle of the Great Pyramid were of such cosmic significance, the Egyptians surely would have repeated it in subsequent pyramids -- but they didn't. Virtually every shade of angle from as shallow as 43 degrees to as steep as 65 degrees occurs on pyramids other than Khufu's.

We can even see evidence of miscalculation by the ancient architects as they attempted to build beyond their skills. Snefru's first pyramid at Dahshur, known as the "Bent" pyramid, has a compound angle because the builders changed it halfway through the job. The original angle was 54 degrees, 31 minutes had to be lessened to 43 degrees, 21 minutes when the architects realized the weight of the upper part of the building would crush the burial chamber of Snefru inside. Oops!

The Bent Pyramid

Another common objection voiced by those who don't believe the Giza pyramids were tombs is that their interiors are so plain and undecorated, with simple stone tubs instead of elaborate sarcophagi. In fact, before the VIth Dynasty (2340 BC) tombs were not heavily carved or decorated. The common vision of sumptuous funerary equipment stems from the treasures found in New Kingdom tombs, like Pharaoh Tutankhamen's. Fourteen hundred years separates Khufu from Tutankhamen, the same distance between Queen Elizabeth II and Emperor Justinian of Byzantium. Customs evolve, art changes, and economies shrink and grow considerably in fourteen centuries.

It's easy to observe a modern economic phenomenon at work in the history of pyramid building: inflation. Through the last of the Giza pyramids (that of Pharaoh Menkaure), the use of solid stone blocks in the substructure persisted. As the IVth Dynasty faded into the Vth, not even the god-kings of the Nile could afford to build so hugely in costly stone. Even long-lived, powerful pharaohs like Dedkare Isesi (Vth), Teti (VIth), and Merenre (VIth) had to settle for tombs made of stone shells filled with rock, rubble and sand. These hard-shell pyramids might have looked impressive when new, but once the fine stone casing broke, the pyramids collapsed like a broken hourglass. The burial chambers, cut into bedrock below the pyramids, survived. On the walls of VIth Dynasty tombs we first find the famous Pyramid Texts, poetic religious texts intended as guide and comfort to the soul of the dead monarch.

The "pyramid" of Merenre

Egypt fell into anarchy after the VIth Dynasty, and few had the power to build even shoddy pyramids. When Theban princes reunified the country under dynasties XI and XII (circa 2134 BC), pyramids tombs were built again.

The XIIth Dynasty pharaohs applied new techniques to pyramid construction. They could not afford solid stone monuments like Khufu's (inflation again), but they saw the ruin that could come to the hard-shell tombs of the VIth Dynasty. Their solution was to build stone or brick "skeletons" inside the pyramid to brace up the exterior casing. The spaces between the ribs were filled with mud brick -- cheap, but more stable than sand and rubble. The internal arrangements of XIIth Dynasty pyramids became more elaborate, and for sinister reasons. The mighty pyramids of previous eras had been plundered during the days of lawlessness. To protect the home of their eternal Ka, XIIth Dynasty pharaohs built tombs of a complexity to delight the fictional Indiana Jones -- false passages, trap doors, hidden chambers -- but no man-traps! The tomb of Amenemhet III at Hawara is the prize of this type of pyramid. Amenemhet's burial chamber was hewn from a single block of quartzite, hollowed into a rectangular box with exquisite precision and sunk into the core of the pyramid. A labyrinth of passages hides it, but even Amenemhet III's grave was eventually robbed.

Pyramid of Amenenhet III

This fact ultimately led to the end of pyramid building. No tomb, no matter how splendid, was of any use to the pharaoh if it was plundered and his mummy profaned. In the New Kingdom, monarchs turned to remote rock-cut tombs (like Tutankhamen's) to keep their burial secure. It was to no avail. Robbers, incited by the enormous treasure available, found every pharaoh but Tutankhamen, and stripped them of their riches.

Questions remain about the ownership of some pyramids. Money for research is the biggest single impediment to finding any answers.

The pyramids are still wonders, but there is no need to mystify them. Scientific Egyptology has found many answers to their mysteries, and not once has there been a need to involve aliens, Atlanteans, or any supernatural agency. The genius of the ancient Egyptians is manifest. Why should we deny them the treasures of their art and intellect?

(c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc.