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On his last full day in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Terry Virts at last captured a truly iconic shot of one of the “Seven Wonders of the World” – the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Virts snapped the exquisitely sharp view of the Egyptian pyramids at Giza on June 10 looking out from the stations windows, just hours before entering the Soyuz return spaceship and closing the hatches behind him for his planned plummet back to Earth. He proudly posted the spectacular photo on his twitter social media account from space while serving as...

On his last full day in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Terry Virts at last captured a truly iconic shot of one of the “Seven Wonders of the World” – the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Virts snapped the exquisitely sharp view of the Egyptian pyramids at Giza on June 10 looking out from the stations windows, just hours before entering the Soyuz return spaceship and closing the hatches behind him for his planned plummet back to Earth. He proudly posted the spectacular photo on his twitter social media account from space while serving as...

Egypt ruler moved to pull down Cheops Pyramid of noble motives Cairo, 13:30 An Albanian with Macedonian origin, Muhammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, Syria and Arabia in 19th century, had ordered his French engineer Linan to pull down the Cheops Pyramid. The Great Pyramid of Cheops had been rescued with two piastres, the then Egyptian currency. This information was documented in archive paperwork kept in Revolution Museum depots. Media in Egypt cited extracts of these documents. According to documents, the then Egypt ruler Muhammad Ali wanted to remove stone blocks from their pyramid in order to build a dam...

Scientists from around the world have tried to understand how the Egyptians erected their giant pyramids. Now, an architect and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says he has the answer to this ancient, unsolved puzzle. Researchers have been so preoccupied by the weight of the stones that they tend to overlook two major problems: How did the Egyptians know exactly where to put the enormously heavy building blocks? And how was the master architect able to communicate detailed, highly precise plans to a workforce of 10,000 illiterate men? A 7-million-ton structure These were among the...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Calls to Destroy Egypt’s Great Pyramids BeginPosted By Raymond Ibrahim On July 10, 2012 @ 12:35 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 20 Comments According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax.    Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids...

Following are excerpts from a show featuring Egyptian Salafi Sheikh Murgan Salem, which aired on Dream 2 TV, on November 10 and 13, 2012. Murgan Salem: They must pay the jizya poll tax. They cannot be exempted. TV host Wael Al-Abrashi: You mean the Christians...? Murgan Salem: I'll tell you, just bear with me. Yes, this should be one of the sources of income of the state. The Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians are welcome to live in the Abode of Islam, as long as they pay the jizya poll tax, and abide by the terms set by the Emir of...

Experts say among the manuscripts lost are maps of Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in 1798, as well as a map used in the 1989 Israeli withdrawal from Taba. Hundreds of rare manuscripts and maps, including the maps used in 1989 Israeli withdrawal from Taba, were destroyed this week, as rioters set fire to a library in the Cairo's Scientific Complex in the fourth day of renewed clashes between protesters and security forces... Mamdouh al-Masry, an Egyptian archaeology professor also speaking with Al-Arabiya said the country's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was responsible for the destruction, criticizing for failing to...

A Kuwaiti Islamic preacher has raised many eyebrows by echoing the calls made by extremist group Isis to destroy the ancient Egyptian Sphinx and pyramids — one of the seven wonders of the world that has captured the imaginations of people for centuries. The preacher recognised by an Egyptian newspaper as Ibrahim Al Kandari reportedly said that just because early Muslims did not dare destroy them, it did not mean all present-day Muslims must follow them. "The fact that early Muslims who were among Prophet Mohammed's followers did not destroy the pharaoh's monuments upon entering the Egyptian soil, does not mean...

An Islamist preacher from Kuwait called for the demolition of the Giza pyramids and Sphinx "to put an end to idolatry and the worship of such pagan constructions." "The fact that early Muslims did not destroy the pharaohs' legacy upon the Arab conquest of Egypt does not mean that we shouldn't do it now," preacher Ibrahim al-Kandari was quoted by the Kuwaiti Al-Watan daily newspaper Tuesday. The call echoes that of leader of Islamic State (IS) group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who described the destruction of the historic monuments and archaeological sites as a "religious duty," Al-Ahram reported. The alleged call...

An online magazine has offered translations to Arabic news sources that purportedly indicate that Egypt's Salafi party has come forth with plans to demolish Egypt's Great Pyramids in an effort to bring down what it calls "symbols of paganism." Bahrain's "Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs" and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, has reportedly urged Egypt's new president, Muhammad Morsi, to "destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what Amr bin al-As could not," according to conservative political publication FrontPage Magazine. Al-Mahmoud's comments relate to Amr bin al-As, a companion of the Islam's founder Muhammad, who invaded Egypt in 641 and began...

Following are excerpts from a show featuring Egyptian Salafi sheikh Murgan Salem; the show aired on Dream 2 TV, on November 10 and 13, 2012.Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV. "Jews, Christians, And Zoroastrians Are Welcome To Live In The Abode Of Islam, As Long As They Pay The Jizya" Murgan Salem: "They must pay the jizya poll tax. They cannot be exempted."TV host Wael Al-Abrashi: "You mean the Christians...?"Murgan Salem: "I'll tell you, just bear with me. Yes, this should be one of the sources of income of the state. The Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians are welcome...

Does Religious Law Permit Visiting Egyptian Pyramids? Saudi religious authorities have recently been probing the issue of whether a Muslim is permitted to visit the Egyptian pyramids - a tourist site favored by the Saudis - or any other tombs of infidels. Fatwas have been issued permitting visiting the pyramids only for the sake of learning a moral lesson (pertaining to death and the world to come) based on the Prophet's words in the hadith: "Visit tombs, for they remind you of the world to come." Other religious authorities, however, have prohibited visiting the pyramids because they are tombs of...

The Egyptian archaeological community is in a tizzy. They are accusing foreign Egyptologists of being Israeli agents hell bent on altering their history. It seems Israel's ultimate goal is to reclaim the Pyramids. This charge was recently laid by Amir Gamal of the "Non-Stop Robberies" movement. It was published in Egypt's Elaph newspaper... Some of this is funny, and some of this is not. When I filmed archaeology in Egypt in 2004 for a documentary film on the biblical Exodus, the Egyptians were watching us like hawks. In Egypt, the bible is current history. Even though the Qur'an says that...

In April 2013, the three Germans -- two amateur archaeologists and a film-making accomplice -- crept inside the inner sanctum of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the last the seven wonders of the ancient world to remain relatively intact. The trio, conspiracy theorists Dominique Gorlitz, Stefan Erdmann and Peter Hoefer, wanted to show that the pyramid was not the final resting place of the pharaoh Khufu, as has long been accepted, but was in fact a relic of an even older empire. In an attempt to prove this, they scraped off part of the pyramid's cartouche -- the insignia that...

Saqqara, in Egypt, is the oldest stone complex ever built by humans—and within it sits the oldest pyramid in Egypt. It’s a piece of irreplaceable history that’s been crumbling for 4,600 years. But according to one local report, it’s currently being destroyed by the company hired to “restore” it. In fact, the company hired by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities may have even committed a crime in its restoration. According to the Egypt Independent, preservation laws require that any new construction be less than 5 percent of the preserved structure. Instead, the company—which has reportedly never worked on a preservation project...

Uncovering the secrets of the Great Pyramid August 29 2004 at 01:18PM By Annick Benoist Paris - Two French amateur archaelogists this week published a book in which they claim to have located the secret burial chamber of the Pyramid of Cheops near Cairo, the largest pyramid ever built. According to the study of the Great Pyramid, a fourth, undiscovered room lies underneath its so-called Queen's chamber, and is likely to have been the burial chamber for Cheops, an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from 2560 to 2532 BC. Cheops' final resting place has never been found despite decades of investigation...

Jean-Pierre Houdin -- who was rebuffed three years ago by Egypt in his appeal for a probe into how the Pyramid was built -- said 3-D simulation and data from a U.S. egyptologist, Bob Brier, pointed to two secret chambers in the heart of the structure. The rooms would have housed furniture for use in the afterlife by the pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops in Greek, he told a press conference. "I am convinced there are antechambers in this pyramid. What I want is to find them," he said. In March 2007, Houdin advanced the theory that the Great...

All of the current theories -- a long, straight ramp, a ramp that corkscrewed around the outside of the pyramid, or cranelike shadoufs (used in Egypt until recently for irrigating fields) -- have serious flaws... architect Jean-Pierre Houdin and I presented a radical new theory: that blocks of stone were raised to the very top of the pyramid on an internal ramp. We gave what we felt was strong evidence for the theory, which explains a French team's microgravemetric survey in the 1980s that recorded variations in the density of the pyramid... an image from the survey may show a...

Using cutting edge technology, Egyptologist Bob Brier of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University delved into the only standing wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid, and uncovered the mystery behind cracks in the massive Egyptian structure, unearthing a new room along the way. Brier, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin and a team of software specialists from Dassault Systems in Paris used 3-D modeling software to determine that the burial chamber's stone support beams cracked as final construction of the Giza wonder was near completion 4,500 years ago. The team discovered that the cracks occurred when three...

A French architect said on Friday he had cracked a 4,500-year-old mystery surrounding Egypt's Great Pyramid, saying it was built from the inside out. Previous theories have suggested Pharaoh Khufu's tomb, the last surviving example of the seven great wonders of antiquity, was built using either a vast frontal ramp or a ramp in a corkscrew shape around the exterior to haul up the stonework. But flouting previous wisdom, Jean-Pierre Houdin said advanced 3D technology had shown the main ramp which was used to haul the massive stones to the apex was contained 10-15 meters beneath the outer skin, tracing...