The reading of messages that are implicit in the structure of the great pyramids of Egypt and, latterly, attributing magical influences to pyramid shaped objects.
The idea that the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed according to a very precise quantitative plan and that its measurements encode messages about future events for posterity has been a popular point of discussion among pyramidologists for more than a century. The Great Pyramid is featured in several medieval and Renaissance religious cults and in such occult sects as the Rosicrucians. Modern interest in pyramidology originated with John G. TAYLOR in The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built? And Who Built It? (1959). He believed that the pyramid had been built by the Israelites, possibly by Noah, and he discovered significance in many of its dimensions: the mathematical constant pi, the biblical cubit, a relationship to Earth’s radius, and so on. He also read hidden references to the pyramid in many passages in the Bible. The idea had been seized on and developed earlier by others, notably Charles Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal of Scotland. Toward the end of the 19th century, a group based in Ohio urged the adoption of a system of pyramid-based measures as a counter to the evil French metric system, insisting that this would be the Lord’s wish. It became a cornerstone of the creed of Jehovah’s Witnesses from the end of the 19th century until 1928 when, many of its prophecies having failed to materialize, it was disowned. But many groups and individuals persisted and still persist with some version of pyramidology An important contribution was made by an engineer from Leeds, England, David Davidson, who published a massive work. The Great Pyramid: Its Divine Message (1924) on which several later works are based. Madame Blavatsky and the theosophists subscribed to their own version of pyramidology.