Rating: 
Summary: Great fun and insight that will please everyone
Review: Ever really wonder what all the fuss about the Great Pyramid is about? This book will please everyone with beautiful illustrations and concise chapters on many [but not all] of the facets surrounding this most interesting of structures. Full of mystery and romance. A keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: Rounded View
Review: Great amount of knowledge and facts about the Great Pyramid. I think it is by far one of the best written on this subject and I find it presents a very all rounded view on this enigmatic subject. While presenting the more orthodox view of the pyramid being a tomb, it also gives other views of what was the purpose of erecting the Pyramid.One short coming was it did not actually dwell into great detail as to how the Pyramid was constructed.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Book - I am about to read it for the third time
Review: I am in full agreement with the other reviewers of this very fascinating book. I receive books as gifts on a regular basis and this one comes near the top of the list for reading enjoyment delivered. I have one observation to pass on to past and future readers: I have never seen reference made to the book, either favorable or unfavorable, in the many articles I've read about history and archeology of ancient Egypt. Does this imply that Mr. Tompkins' observations and speculations are outside the mainstream of "conventional wisdom" among Egyptologists? Or perhaps we have an example of the old "NIH" syndrome (Not Invented Here)? In any case, if you are considering the book - go to it. You will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Research Material, for those Seeking Light
Review: I grew-up reading the Hard-Cover version of this book, which I have inherited from my Grandfather and treasure along-side my Masonic books. There is so much information within the covers of Tompkin's book that is helpful to all students of The Mysteries, that should be read and filed in the mind for later reference. This book is also the first source of information I ever came-across about Akhenaten, the "Rebel" ruler of Egypt. I know that the Hard-Cover edition had many, many illustrations. This book also contains Mathematical break-downs and Geometry involved with The Pyramids, including a well-illustrated explanation of "The Golden Section."
Rating:
Summary: Best book on Cheops pyramid ever written
Review: I have read over a dozen titles about the pyramids, and no one is more comprehensive, documented and approached seriously and rigorously. A must read for anybody interested in the most mysterious landmark of mankind.
Rating:
Summary: The capstone of pyramidology books
Review: If you were to only read one book on the Great Pyramid this is it. Accept no immitations. Secrets of the Great Pyramid is the apex of work done by scientists and historians until the time of publication. Do not consider telling anyone you are interested in pyramids unless you have digested this book!
Rating:
Summary: Objective analysis of the origins of the great pyramid
Review: One of the better books I have read dealing with
the possible origins of the great pyramid. It
is ojective and candidly written, and covers the
many extant theories of the pyramid's origins
in good detail. Also good coverage of the probable
measures used by the original architect, with measured speculation on the possible encoded
meanings embodied in the various dimensions. Compelling
arguments for alternative uses of the pyramid
(e.g. as an astronomical observatory) during and after
its construction. This book has certainly fueled
my imagination to a greater extent than any other
book written about the great pyramid.
Rating:
Summary: Objective analysis of the origins of the great pyramid
Review: One of the better books I have read dealing withthe possible origins of the great pyramid. Itis ojective and candidly written, and covers the many extant theories of the pyramid's origins in good detail. Also good coverage of the probable measures used by the original architect, with measured speculation on the possible encoded meanings embodied in the various dimensions. Compelling arguments for alternative uses of the pyramid (e.g. as an astronomical observatory) during and after its construction. This book has certainly fueled my imagination to a greater extent than any other book written about the great pyramid.
Rating:
Summary: A masterwork of science
Review: Peter Thompkins, it seemed, set out to prove, in an Egyptological fashion the old truism that the truth is stranger- and more glorious- than fiction. He does so in a way unlike I have ever seen or read before. He makes it so clear that science, technology and the quest of man to understand his world and himself need not look the way it was taught to us in any schools we have attended- and in reality often isn't. In simply documenting the history and evolution of "Pyramidology", the science of studying the qualities, possible meanings and actual purposes of the great Pyramids of Giza, Thompkins allows the unfolding of the unpredicatble- and uncontrollable- nature of both scientific discovery and cultural transformation to become fully visible to us in ways the mainstream establishment in any of the traditional fields could never allow. At one point in the survey you will see the study of the Pyramids devolve into cults; all documented evidence becomes at one time or another a metaphor for a specific culture or sub-culture's socio-political agenda or quasi-religious beliefs. At other times, a prophet of science like the English astronomer Lockyer- and his antecedents- will show up and flip the world as you know it on its head. Traditional Egyptology will at times look even more cultish than the Pyramid watchers, with the revealing of its willful ignorance of obvious scientific evidence that not just obliterates but reveals the hidden psychology behind many of their long cherished theories. This seminal book, before you even get into the postscript section with Livio Stechini's theory of ancient mathematics, is a lesson in what it has been to be a citizen of Western culture as much as it is the most eye-opening and thorough study of both Pyramidology and the Pyramids I have ever read. I have already read it twice, and can never seem to stop getting more and more out of it. SECRETS OF THE GREAT PYRAMID is a far-reaching, important book of history and science that reads like a novel and never stops making you say "wow".
Rating:
Summary: A masterwork of science
Review: Peter Thompkins, it seemed, set out to prove, in an Egyptological fashion the old truism that the truth is stranger- and more glorious- than fiction. He does so in a way unlike I have ever seen or read before. He makes it so clear that science, technology and the quest of man to understand his world and himself need not look the way it was taught to us in any schools we have attended- and in reality often isn't. In simply documenting the history and evolution of "Pyramidology", the science of studying the qualities, possible meanings and actual purposes of the great Pyramids of Giza, Thompkins allows the unfolding of the unpredicatble- and uncontrollable- nature of both scientific discovery and cultural transformation to become fully visible to us in ways the mainstream establishment in any of the traditional fields could never allow. At one point in the survey you will see the study of the Pyramids devolve into cults; all documented evidence becomes at one time or another a metaphor for a specific culture or sub-culture's socio-political agenda or quasi-religious beliefs. At other times, a prophet of science like the English astronomer Lockyer- and his antecedents- will show up and flip the world as you know it on its head. Traditional Egyptology will at times look even more cultish than the Pyramid watchers, with the revealing of its willful ignorance of obvious scientific evidence that not just obliterates but reveals the hidden psychology behind many of their long cherished theories. This seminal book, before you even get into the postscript section with Livio Stechini's theory of ancient mathematics, is a lesson in what it has been to be a citizen of Western culture as much as it is the most eye-opening and thorough study of both Pyramidology and the Pyramids I have ever read. I have already read it twice, and can never seem to stop getting more and more out of it. SECRETS OF THE GREAT PYRAMID is a far-reaching, important book of history and science that reads like a novel and never stops making you say "wow".
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