Hardly any ancient structures have been graffitied with more false historical claims than Egypt's

great pyramids.

Usually of the form that we don't know how ancient people could have done this or that,

therefore they must have had some mysterious help.

But we actually know a great deal about the pyramids, and today we're going to start

our two-part journey to wash away some of the popular beliefs with real history.

That's coming up right now, Unskeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

How the pyramids were and were not built, part one.

Few questions divide the world of science from the world of metaphysics as dramatically

as that of the origin of Egypt's great pyramids.

On the one side we have the Egyptologists, an international army of academics and cross-disciplinary

scientists who have lived and worked at the site for centuries, who find that the pyramids

were built by the ancient Egyptians.

And on the other side, we have a small number of very vocal and popular, alternative historians,

who prefer a narrative of intervention by some advanced race.

Perhaps from the mythical Atlantis, perhaps from an alien planet, or some other whimsical

place.

Today we're going to look at what we know, and more importantly, how we know about what

is arguably the human race's most monumental achievement.

Because this subject has garnered so much popular mind-share over the years, this is going

...