The Great Pyramid Monument

12/11/2022

A Book Review of Solution 9: The Great Pyramid Book

Great Pyramid Monument of Berlin Explained and The Great Pyramid Book is reviewed.

“Germany’s pyramid would be 10 times larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt.”
Friends of the Great Pyramid

Solution 9: The Great Pyramid (Sternberg Press / Solution) Paperback Book
No ebook is available The book is called Solution 9 because it is part of series of books of “solutions” for different things.

According to Wikipedia: The Great Pyramid Monument is a German proposal for a mausoleum, patterned after the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

I wanted to know more about the Great Pyramid Monument because I felt the Wikipedia page did not adequately explain the Project. I bought the book Solution 9: The Great Pyramid Book on eBay. The book is a small paperback and it’s a series of essays about the Great Pyramid Project. The Great Pyramid Monument was never actually built, so it’s only a plan or an idea. The idea was replace a traditional graveyard with a large pyramid. The pyramid was to be made of blocks. The blocks were to be made of concreate and hollowed out. Inside each block would be the cremated remains of a deceased person. The blocks would have engravings like tombstones to say the name of the person and other information. As the pyramid grew bigger the older blocks would be covered up with newer blocks. That means visitors would not be able to see the older blocks, but the author of the plan and the book Ingo Niermann writes that loved ones would still want to visit the pyramid anyway, and that the town in which the pyramid was located would get tourist business. A town was selected near Berlin and a symbolic laying of a cornerstone was placed in a cultural artistic event or festival in 2007. Jens Thiel, an economist is the books cowriter. The project looks monetary affordable for the average consumer with each block costing about $1,300 dollars and not the $960 reported by CNN.

The project never got off the ground for some unknown reason which the book fails to address. Maybe it was not possible to find a location in which the proper permits could be taken out for burials. Maybe there was no location in which the land owners would allow the pyramid to be built? Maybe the whole project was a joke to begin with?

The one issue I could foresee arising would be the necessity of hiring a structural engineer to sign off on the safety of the project. The book says a concrete block can take a lot of pressure, but if the blocks are hollowed out to contain remains that could weaken the structure and eventually creating a collapse. There was also a plan to construct other smaller satellite pyramids in other places. These smaller pyramids would continue to be built even after the original Pyramid was completed.

When the Great Pyramid was finished it was suggested in the book that the outside be covered with a layer of decorative stones and or sealed off with some kind of protective paint or varnish. I don’t know why concrete was selected instead of stones because concreate leeches a lot of lime and eventually becomes porous if subjected to moisture such as rainfall. Natural stone may increase the strength and certainly would increase the attractiveness of the monument. But the hollowing out of the blocks would likely would make the Pyramid structurally unsound even if the Pyramid was economically sound. The book has many illustrations and some of them are in color.

Anyone is allowed to be buried in the Pyramid unless they are Muslim. The book is not saying they will exclude Muslims, but points out that Muslim are not allowed to be cremated according their religion. If a Muslim person agreed to cremation I assume they could be buried in the Pyramid but that question was left unanswered in the book. The business model was to be for profit. The book includes a list of names of people who accepted an invitation to make a non-bidding free reservation and these people are also listed here on the Great Pyramid Monument website. The book may be out of print, and they only way to get it is buy a used copy. The Great Pyramid Monument website does not have the book for sale or any other merchandize at this time.

Considering the short time we have left on the planet earth before climate change renders a greatly reduced circumstances to all people does building such a thing make sense? Who would see it after we are all gone? Should those resources be put to better use in fighting climate change? Would people want their loved ones names to be covered up and not visible, as the Pyramid grows ? Is this not just the same as not having any type of grave plot at all? This is the Paradox of the Great Pyramid Monument. The Monument lasts forever, but the names are quickly covered up and disappear behind newer names. The Great Pyramid Monument is a metaphor for life itself.