Pyramids Might Not Be Grain Storages, But Ben Carson May Be Onto Something   

Politics is not something I’m deeply interested in nowadays.  I don’t follow any recent political debates, but we all know these political debates are heating up since President Obama’s term is about to be over.  With all of that being said, CNN’s article “Carson’s theory: Egypt’s pyramids stored grain” caught my eyes and interest because common sense tells me that nobody, ancient or not, is stupid enough to build a luxurious tomb for a king or pharaoh in pyramid size and visibility.  Even if the pyramid was first built solely for storing a pharaoh’s mummified body, common sense tells me this would be a stupid idea nevertheless.

Pyramids were built so long ago, and so I think theories about the pyramids are at best just theories.  Thus, I can’t really outright think that Ben Carson is completely wrong.  Perhaps, Ben Carson could be wrong about the idea of the pyramids were used as grain storage for the ancient Egyptians, because we don’t truly know what purpose(s) the pyramids were built for.  Perhaps, we could be right all along in teaching schoolchildren the idea that the pyramids were built for the pharaohs, either for the purpose of storing the pharaoh’s mummified bodies or whatever else.  Clearly, though, I have looked everywhere on the Internet for the finding of a pharaoh’s mummified body in a pyramid, and the answer is that nobody has ever found a mummified pharaoh or any mummified body in any pyramid, ever.

Could we surmise that the pyramids were built for multiple purposes?  We could surmise that the pyramids were built as monuments for the pharaohs.  Furthermore, we could also surmise the pyramids were built not only as monuments for the pharaohs but these pyramids ancient Egyptian temples.  We could surmise that the pyramid texts, believed to be ancient Egyptian spells for the dead, were once freshly written on the pyramids’ walls for ancient Egyptian religious purposes.  Still, I don’t think we should jump to the conclusion and think that the pyramids were built as pharaoh monuments and temples because the pyramid texts alone cannot prove that the theory is 100% correct.  Basically, what can be seen may not always appear to be as it is.

In truth, we can only surmise and form theories on why the ancient Egyptians built pyramids, and turning theories into facts would be jumping to a conclusion at best.  According to the CNN article I’d listed in the first paragraph, Ben Carson believes that the bible told him pyramids were built for storing grains.  In my opinion, he could be way off the mark or he could be right on the target.  Nonetheless, I think Ben Carson is jumping to the conclusion as he is so certain that the pyramids were built to store grains.  I don’t think we can be certain about the true purposes that the ancient Egyptians had for their pyramids, because so many facts are contradicting the theories that we have about the pyramids.  One best example would be we have yet to find a mummified pharaoh in a pyramid.  We could surmise that the mummified pharaohs were robbed from the pyramids, but common sense tells me that the pharaohs must have been very arrogant or plain stupid if they had allowed themselves and their ancestors to be robbed from their tombs so easily.

Sources:

• http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/05/politics/ben-carson-pyramids-grain/ (link)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid (link)
• http://www.scottcreighton.co.uk/PDF-Files/Ten%20Facts%20that%20Contradict%20the%20Pyramid%20Tomb%20Theory.pdf (link)