Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs

Christopher Dunn strikes again with this great book on Ancient Egyptian engineering and technology. While this book can come across technical at time, the material inside can not be ignored. Dunn has slowly chipped away at ancient Egyptian architecture and engineering to uncover the secrets to their marvelous feats of engineering. Having read Dunn's previous book The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt , it prepared me well for this book. Dunn's writing style is very simple, yet can be just as detailed as an engineering textbook. This blend of intrigue and engineering makes for a great read that strikes on all the right chords. The effort put forth by the author is quite obvious in the first few chapters, only backed up by the high quality of pictures used. With all these pieces in hand Dunn meticulously chips away at the puzzle to show evidence that Ancient Egyptians possessed technology and engineering know-how that was far superior than previously thought of. This book contains 12 chapters, each building a layer of evidence towards his final conclusion. With each new layer Dunn carefully guides you through the evidence and explains the engineering behind his logic. A magnificent selection of pictures accompany you throughout the book, and serve as examples for his theory. Dotted lines, circles, angles, focal points etc all are drawn over the images so help the reader see Dunn's words take physical description. There is a perfect blend of intrigue and engineering here, compounded by strong research that makes his work a fascinating read. With all the good that comes from each chapter I will admit that for the average reader the material might seem very 'heavy' at times. While Dunn attempts to cover every angle with the engineering and science behind his work, it gets lost in translation sometimes. While my background in Electrical Engineering helps me understand some of his descriptions with ease; The same description might be very complex for someone without a heavy science background. This is probably the only part of the book which falls flat, in my opinion. The material is solid and it is clear Dunn made sure he triple and quadruple checked his work, but sometimes it may come across very complicated for the everyday reader. I found a similar problem in his previous book as well. However, OVERALL Do not let the math or science scare you. The few parts that might be confusing, or difficult to follow, will end up making sense when a less technical example is used. With the quality research, and the fantastic use of examples and photography, Dunn builds a powerful case towards proof that Ancient Egyptians were more advanced than we may of once believed. The marvels of engineering they created are only made grander by this book. An Excellent Book!!

Dunn uses his exceptional knowledge of both precision engineering and the ancient sites to raise some very serious questions about how a number of artifacts, from stone bowls to the Great Pyramid were constructed. Traditionalists will state that these questions are not worth asking and that they have all the answers, and can point to youtube videos to illustrate their points. I would like to see learned Egyptologists use recovered tools and make the sarcophagus of the Kings Chamber in the Great Pyramid, or perhaps the granite boxes at Saquara. I would also like to have the ability to build a structure as precise as the Great Pyramid without measuring tools of equal precision. It amazes me that the phenomenal precision of that building has been know and recognized by the academic community since Flinders Petrie did his work over 100 years ago and yet it seems to generate absolutely no formal discussion. Dunn is not an archaeologist, he is a precision machinist by training and trade. Just as Petrie suggested in his original survey of Giza (get a copy of The Pyramids And Temples Of Gizeh and see what Petrie has to say). Dunn sees the possibility that the very hard stones of the area were shaped using machine tools. Traditionalists suggest reading what experts say about the subject, but the experts do not really talk about the precision of the surfaces. They don't talk about the measuring devices that must have existed but have never been discovered. It isn't just a question of moving a large number of really large blocks, its a question of aligning them precisely with each other and with the cardinal compass points. Its a question of repetition and accuracy and symmetry in the worked objects. Dunn asks many questions and provides some answers, but not all. Its an excellent work and rewarding to read.

This book gets into a lot of details that will be understandable mainly by engineers and people who work in machine shops. For example it's not very easy to create a granite box where the inside corners are very precise and perfectly aligned with each other. Dunn's experienced eye notices things like that and many other details that are embodied in Egyptian statues, pyramids, temples, etc.. He shows how the conventional theories about how all of this was done do not stand up to scientific scrutiny and engineering principles. As far as how it actually was done, Dunn doesn't know either. No advanced tools or machines capable of doing this have ever been discovered. But he has some ideas. Dunn's theories include the use of a gigantic saw that had a 37 foot wide saw blade which was used to cut stones. He thinks these saws were set up in the trenches that are found near the pyramids. This is possible I guess but then again who knows what this device really may have been. There's an interesting inscription carved into the bottom of an obelisk that says the obelisk was 'wrought from electrum'. There are theories also, as Dunn alludes to in 'The Giza Power Plant', that the ancient Egyptians had the ability to defeat and manipulate the force of gravity. They could make physical objects such as stones very light or very heavy. To me these types of questions are related to the broader issue of the evolution of 'technology' from ancient times. I subscribe to the statements of Edgar Cayce that the monuments at Giza were created in 10,500 BC to store the records about the doomed Atlantis. Cayce said that he himself as the Atlantean priest Ra Ta, together with Thoth and Horus, was involved with creating the Giza necropolis. Horus provided the sacred geometry. And only gods could have built the pyramids. As far as what types of machines may have existed in Egypt going back thousands of years, Dunn's 'Giza Power Plant' is one. There are theories also that the Ark Of The Covenant of biblical fame was an Atlantean device that was kept inside the pyramids until Moses took it during his famous Exodus journey. This was perhaps why the evil pharaoh dared to pursue the Hebrews after first agreeing to let them go. Moses was raised as an Egyptian and he was I believe initiated into that ancient and secret priesthood as was Abraham. The 'Order Of Melchizedek'. By their time the pharaohs had become corrupted. That priesthood traces its origins back to Atlantis and to other worlds really. I'm getting off the subject of this book to some extent but yet Dunn himself concedes in the last chapter that these types of questions are relevant to any discussion of Egyptian technology. Dunn appears on what I think is the first episode of the TV show Ancient Aliens called 'The Evidence' where he explains his Giza Power Plant theory. It's good that these types of theories are being shown on TV since I believe he is right. I guess this book was important to show how the conventional theories in Egyptology are not adequate to explain the mysterious legacy of Egypt. However I already believed this. Now I hope Dunn will spend his time coming up with another amazing discovery like his Giza Power Plant theory. My recommendation is not to spend any more time trying to convert people whose minds are closed. This is like preaching about the bible to atheists. Jeff Marzano Edgar Cayce's Story of the Origin and Destiny of Man Atlantis Edgar Cayce's Atlantis Edgar Cayce's Egypt: Psychic Revelations on the Most Fascinating Civilization Ever Known Initiation Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's Library of Mystical Classics) The Giza Death Star The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future Fingerprints of the Gods Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist: Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Esoteric Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work (Le Mystere Des Cathedrales ... of the Hermetic Symbols of Great Work)

Having spent around forty years in the computer and network industry after doing my bit for the American army as an artillery fire direction control calculator I am very impressed by the work Mr. Dunn has volunteered to do so we may glimpse our own history. To me his precise investigations speak of the highest standards of true science and add confidence to his theories based on that work. From the earliest times those who claim to be the vessels of truth and knowledge have almost unanimously tried to suppress any attempt to question what the anointed experts have claimed as truth. This may be human nature, to grow conservative and defensive with age, and at my age I can see some safety in questioning everything, demanding proof of any new attempt to explain that which we don't understand. Even the less admirable temptation to protect reputation, power, and position is to be expected, but surely scientists should be above all philosophers which means lovers of the truth. Every great university claims they are. I hope the true greats will want to help men like Dunn to learn and teach all of us the truth of our past. If there was another forgotten civilization at the end of the last ice age or even before and it was wiped out leaving only pockets of their technology to restart the survivors whether intentionally or accidentally, why would we not want to know that? There are too many unexplainable things like what Dunn is investigating, some mysteriously buried like time capsules apparently. Maybe Elon Musk is right to want humanity to hurry to become a multi planet civilization as an insurance against one day becoming perhaps the first, only, and last intelligent species nature ever stumbled on in her "throw it all at the wall and see what sticks" way. The universe is huge and cold and appears not to even care about life itself surviving, much less intelligent life. We should care what happened before us.

The hardest thing about writing a review of a very good book is to avoid the temptation to repeat everything the author wrote about... and this is one of those books. "Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt" is much more than one of those books filled with unproven hypothesis, ideas and theories. Christopher Dunn uses a truly scientific approach to create an unbiased prospective of what remarkable engineering was employed in ancient egypt (a time before steal and tooling for manufacturing existed) to build and manufacture artifacts found in Egypt. To wet your appetite (and without giving too much away), the author visits Aswan, the site where megalithic blocks were quarried. He recognized the curvature cutting of the Abu Roash stone and measures it. Comparing those measurements with characteristics of modern tools, Mr. Dunn realized that the curvature of the cut is part of a 37 foot diameter. The cuts incrementally step with precision across a 3 foot stone base just under 700 times, and the cuts are for all practical purposes identical. With the precision of so many cuts continuously replicated, Mr. Dunn shows that this is the feat of advanced technology, not something that could have possibly done by hand. This book is not intended to prove who built the pyramids or when. Neither does it speculate why they built them. The purpose of this book is to use pure scientific observation and measurements, and to determine the level of technology required to replicate the artifacts. This is a book for realest, people with curiosity of ancient manufacturing and machine tool precision. This is simply a book of facts. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in investigating a methodically collected body of evidence that has been analyzed by a seasoned engineer and many of his peers and colleges. I believe that the evidence provided in this book compels anyone to question the traditional theories of how the pyramids were built. This book will open your eyes and allow you to consider that there was an ancient civilization that did posses scientific and engineering techniques that not only were advanced, but were more advanced than the tools we have available to us today.

I was thrilled to discover this book on Amazon recently. I am sure that over time most enlightened readers must have certainly come to the realization that (in general) archaeologists are among the most intellectually challenged of the scientific and academic communities. The basic skills of excavation and recording can be learned in a few months—but few archaeologists are properly equipped to interpret what they find. Most archaeologists are barely able to knock out BA in history and this leads them to the MA and PhD in related subjects (such as a bucket of chert flakes) rather than more challenging fields. Despite this, most traditionally educated archaeologists are inculcated with the idea that a degree of any kind in archaeology actually qualifies them to pontificate on any subject under the sun. This is the culture and level of thinking that Dunn challenges with this excellent book. I have always had a great interest in Egypt and have long studied de Lubitz and West and others. Here in the US I have specialized in marine archaeology and also 19th century pottery. In both cases it made sense to me to build a few boats and learn to throw a few pots. This gave me some basic knowledge and a foundation to base my interpretations on. I find very few other archaeologists (none that I have heard of or met) will ever bother to do this. It takes an engineer to interpret the remains of ancient engineering—which is why I was delighted to find this book. While today’s archaeologists will continue to label these ideas as ‘new age’ and on the fringe, I believe the future will show that the author has made a very significant and valuable contribution to a yet to be realized full understanding of the technological sophistication of Egyptian craftsmen and builders. Dunn has produced a thorough and challenging work—just what I would expect of an engineer! Dunn makes comparisons with modern manufacturing and engineering practices and the works of ancient Egypt. In every case he (as have others) shows that even today's machines and technology cannot produce the astonishing feats of craftsmanship and engineering that is so clearly demonstrated by the remnants of this amazing culture.

This is a really interesting look into how the ancient Egyptians created such extraordinary works of art out of raw blocks of solid granite. Were they really able to create huge statues, temples and obelisks using only the primitive wooden, stone and copper tools that most Egyptologists and archaeologists claim? The author, an engineer and craftsman, spent years traveling throughout Egypt researching this subject. What he gives us here is a highly readable (although often quite technical) account of his findings. While there is no absolute answer to the question of whether or not the ancients had access to advanced tools, the author certainly makes a case for such a scenario. Included are many photographs - some of which show incredible close-ups of carvings - which seem to indicate machine marks. The author writes: "When pondering the theories proffered by Egyptologists, one gets the impression than an ancient Egyptian quarry worker was like a maestro playing a complete symphony on a violin made of a cigar box and a stick, and producing the quality of a Stradivarius". It just does not seem possible that these these stone masterpieces could have been created with simple tools. Read the book. Look at the illustrations. And then decide for yourself. A great read.

An ok read, more questions than answers to me. I was hoping for something other than speculation as to how the temples were engineered and built but not much.

As a construction professional of four decades myself, I read this book with a professional level of insight into, and personal experience of some of our present day's engineering, tooling and construction practices, and methodologies. The photographic evidence, examples, experiments and theories the author presents and explores in these pages in order to explore the subject matter, is all extremely well presented, well written and respectfully told in relation to not only the ancient builders of these precision built feats of construction and engineering, but also to those from other disciplines who have gone before him in an attempt to explain some of the mysteries surrounding ancient Egyptian engineering. I found the book extremely well written, thoroughly researched and presented in a straightforward, logical manner. As the author rightly states several times, until further archaeological evidence that better explains how some of these feats of engineering were completed to the fine tolerances that they were, it is not possible to say definitively that the theories he presents here are correct; but from looking at the evidence he presents through the eyes of my own experience, I have to say I think he's hit the nail firmly and squarely on the head. I have to concur that the narrative they were built using rock hammers and copper tooling, is not sufficient to explain away the tooling marks he references and explores. The metrology he presents is unequivocal. An enlightening read. I look forward to reading his other works with excitement.

This book stands out among a myriad of books on Egypt and especially its megalithic structures. It introduces the overwhelming evidence that the ancient Egyptians possessed technology that matches and sometimes exceeds our own. At times the book is quite technical, but it's worth the effort, and the reader will be rewarded by the insights it presents and the implications. The human interest aspects introduced throughout the book make the journey even more enjoyable. One could wish for higher-quality photographs and printing of them (perhaps in a future edition?) but what is there is adequate for the most part. Enthusiastically recommended!

Christopher Dunn kenne ich von seinem hervorragenden Vorläuferbuch. Leider sind diese Bücher nur auf englisch erschienen! Er ist nicht etwa Ägyptologe, sondern ein Ingenieur, der aus dem Baugewerbe stammt und Fachwissen mitbringt, das (leider) den Ägyptologen völlig abgeht. Deshalb betrachtet er die baulichen und figürlichen Hinterlassenschaften der alten Ägypter mit den Augen eines Fachmannes. Und was er dabei heraus findet, ist geradezu sensationell, wird jedoch von den Ägyptologen ignoriert. Denn, und das legt er geradezu detailliert dar, z.B. die Ramses-Figuren mit identischen Gesichtshälften, oder etwa die in sich völlig identischen Säulen im Hathor-Tempel in Dendera können nicht per Hand (und schon gar nicht mit den vorgegebenen Kupfer-Werkzeugen) in dieser Präzision hergestellt worden sein. Hinzu kommt natürlich noch, dass viele der Hinterlassenschaften aus dem überaus harten Granit hergestellt wurden. Nur, welche Geräte hier zum Einsatz kamen, und wohin sie verschwunden sind, das kann auch Dunn nicht beantworten. Man kann sich große Sägen vorstellen, denn Sägespuren findet man an vielen bearbeiteten Steinblöcken. Aber das war es schon. Es ist eine der großen Fragen der Ägyptologie: Die Ergebnisse sind vorhanden, aber niemand weiß, wer sie wie hergestellt hat. Wer englisch kann und sich für dieses Thema interessiert, dem sei dieses Buch wärmstens empfohlen!

Excellent!!!

More people should read and discover what he has to say.