1) Noone can be allowed to know the design of the pyramids, but...
2) the pyramid can't be looted (in the films words) without deconstructing the pyramid?
So why the big deal over killing the designer? People are afraid he can return and dismantle a pyramid single-handedly while no-one is looking?
Why does it take the guy to state something like that at the end? I was thinking it half hour into the movie. It's the major plotpoint.
The Pharoah didn't want the workers to know their way around because they would know where the treasure was going to be kept. It was a way of preventing thieves from breaking in. And there are a number of pyramids in Egypt that were over time broken into by thieves. If you know the way around inside and where the bobby traps are than it would be easy to steal the treasure.
shareWhy not kill the architect. Remember some of the other parts? Human life was cheap and many died at the whim of Pharroh. In the scene where lesser designers presented their ideas, Pharroh was displeased but let them go with with their lives because he was in a good mood.
I don't have to show you any stinking badges!
Spoilers spoilers spoilers
I think that is why they let the architect and son go in the end. The Pharaoh's friend realizes this even though pharaoh wanted anyone who knew anything buried with him. Remember he cites several tombs of elaborate design that were looted.
I enjoy this film, and Nelifer's demise is cringe-worthy. Whew! However, I've, also, been a little bothered by the fact that during those 20 years it took to build the pyramid(!), no one, especially the scheduled victims, ever mentions the fact that since the pyramid would end a solid mass of stone with no labyrinth at all, the "secret " of the labyrinth would become irrelevent (why build a labyrinth in the first place?). Hence -- "Hey, why not let us go home with our pals?!" . . . Seems kind of a late revelation -- surprising everyone. Still, lots of fun and a big effort on the part of both the builders and the film's producers.
shareMore Spoilers
I really like this film too, but the "disappearing labyrinth" concept always mystified me.
Okay, the stones drop down into the passageways and block them. But what happens to the spaces left over after the stones drop down to the passageways proper? Don't these newly-created spaces simply form a new "passageway" of sorts? Or does a set of blocks drop down into each new space, one after the other, so that ultimately all the stones drop down one level and fill all the spaces -- in other words, that the entire pyramind undergoes a sort of controlled shrinkage, as each layer of stones drops down to fill the space left below?
Something is amiss here.
Another observation. First, the sand pours out of small holes into the passageways. So how could the stones lowering into the passageways fit together tightly with piles of sand blocking them? Even such large stones wouldn't be able to squeeze perfectly or evenly into the passages with so much sand piling into them. (An explanation: the blocks lowered into the passageways could be designed to come down on either side of the sand funnels, leaving small spaces between them where the sand can accumulate freely and not disrupt the lowering of the stones. Maybe.)
Second, it appears that a few spaces -- such as the "sword pit" to catch workers who might lift their blindfolds, plus a few other such "utility" areas -- don't have stones lowered into them but remain isolated, open spaces within the pyramid. This is not a problem, but it does show that the pyramid could be built so that some areas would remain open, allowing sand, swords, the sarcophagus storage room, and of course Nellifer's last brothel to remain open. But it still doesn't explain how one set of blocks could simply drop down and yet somehow leave behind a "sealed" pyramid.
This "kinda" sand hydraulics system is interesting and has a real dramatic impact in the film. I love watching the first demonstration and the ecstatic response of Khufu on seeing the sarcophagus lid descend. You can't enjoy the movie as much if you think too much about how the Great Pyramid was actually built (nobody knows for sure, of course, but there are scholarly theories that make sense and which offer literary and archaeological evidence to support their veracity. It wasn't, however, built the way LOTP teases us that it was (some of the problems you suggest, among others -- the alignment of the stones, their slope, and their ability to carry the weight overhead, etc.). But, the Egyptians did use sand a great deal in both stone placement and movement (wonderful example of this in the raising of the obelisk scene in "The Ten Commandments"('56), which is authentic per H. Noerdlinger in "Moses and Egypt", the research documentation for the DeMille picture, and drawn from Engelbach's "Problem of the Obelisks").
If you're interested in the history of pyramid building -- religious prerogatives, building methods, engineering, art, labor issues, remaining mysteries, etc., I'd recommend I.E.S. Edwards' "The Pyramids of Egypt" (revised many times); still, I think, the definitive work on the subject. A little dry and rough going at times unless you're really interested.
Even for the scholar (I am not one), Nelifer's dramatic comeupance is worth a little extra "suspension of disbelief", imo, to let the thrills and chills work on your mind, so to speak!
True enough about the Egyptians' use of sand, but as you say, that doesn't address the lowering of the blocks into the passageways, as though that results in a totally sealed structure. The blocks had to leave some space behind.
As to how the pyramids were built, this was settled years ago with definitive proof that aliens from Kolob teleported the stones into place for celestial navigation aids so they could find Mexico without maps. I mean, really, cwente, you should know better.
Rats! I did forget that! See what's in store for you down life's road, hob? It's that damned ageless age stuff again!!!
shareI've long planned to keep all my stuff with me in my own pyramid after my wife murders me. That way, when the tomb is robbed 5000 years from now, they'll find my DVD of LOTP and understand the reasons for my inspiration. But I suspect my cat may object to being mummified.
shareTry catnip -- a WHOLE LOT of catnip first... Calms 'em down some.
share