Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid Cambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge Series

Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819?1900) was appointed to the post of Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy at Edinburgh University in 1846. He was respected for his practical work, and his Teneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment (1858) is also reissued in this series. However, this book, first published in 1864, is testimony to the author's interest in 'pyramidology', and although it was so popular in his own lifetime that it was reprinted five times, his eccentric interpretation of the data he had collected by measuring all aspects of the Great Pyramid of Giza damaged his scientific reputation. Smyth was convinced that the British measurement standard of an inch as a basic unit of length was associated with the sacred cubit of the Bible. This measure was supposedly incorporated in the Pyramid, which he claimed was built under divine guidance by the Ancient Israelites, and enshrined scientific information.

Preface; Part I. Geography and the Exterior: 1. Introductory statement; 2. Geometrical proportions; 3. Standard length of the Pyramid; 4. Figure of the earth; 5. Latitude indications. Table of dimensions of the Great Pyramid; Part II. History and the Interior: 1. Structural isolation of the Great Pyramid amongst pyramids; 2. The porphyry coffer; 3. Why of that size?; 4. Density and temperature; Part III. National Weights and Measures: 1. British metrology and the government of Great Britain; 2. Capacity measures of the Pyramid; 3. Weight measures; 4. Linear, squares, and cubic measure; 5. Heat; Part IV. More than Science: 1. The sacred cubit of the Jews; 2. Time measures in the Pyramid; 3. Moses and the wisdom of the Egyptians; 4. Mechanical data; Part V. Inevitable Conclusions: 1. Hierologists and chronologists; 2. Hyksos and Israelites; 3. Superior testimony; 4. Preparations for universal metrology; 5. General summation, secular and sacred; Index.