AXIOM

One man’s wide-ranging approach to the mysteries of the pyramids.

Fleck’s debut focuses on alternative readings of ancient Egyptian history. Rather than accepting the pyramids as burial sites, the author thinks they have a deeper purpose—one that’s accessible only through certain calculations and very specific readings of key texts. He draws on a variety of sources, from ancient Egyptian fables in translation to the work of fairly obscure archaeologists, to show readers how he found the true meaning of the pyramids: “I will take you to an unmarked and unremembered place in the desert,” he writes. “Why this spot? What do I believe is buried there?...I have my own suspicions, and if or when you make it to the end, you will have yours.” Before he makes the revelation about that spot in the desert, though, Fleck takes readers through calculations that center on the number 432, which he sees as emblematic of the Great Pyramid in particular. The significance of this number is never fully explained, although Fleck writes, “Where did I get that number? A better question would be, when looking at the Great Pyramid, how do you not get that number?” Readers will find it easy to replicate Fleck’s calculations, reading list, and satellite-aided views of the Egyptian desert. They may find it more difficult to arrive at his specific conclusions. For example, Fleck believes that the pyramids were the design of a man called Tog, known in his own time as Imhotep, but he doesn’t explain what Tog meant to accomplish with them. He posits that Tog was a polymath in the style of Leonardo da Vinci but doesn’t clarify precisely what his accomplishments may have been, beyond pyramid construction and the dissemination of monotheism. Fleck apparently means for his book to spark further inquiry, as he closes the main portion of the work by writing, “unless someone digs up and preserves the library of knowledge that I believe is buried under or near Khufu’s Crook, we will never know exactly what transpired over 4,500 years ago.”

An obscure tour of facts and conjecture related to the pyramids at Giza.