What is a cubit — and how’s it linked to the Great Pyramid? Cambria scientist can explain
In my decades as a journalist, I’ve interviewed lots of scarily smart people. I get a good jolt of pride any time I’m able to keep up with what they’re telling me, although it usually has to be on a simplified level.
Once in a while, however, I come across someone whose field of expertise is so far beyond my comprehension, it’s like trying to follow the musings of a rocket scientist.
That’s what happened during my most recent conversations with retired physicist D. Arthur “Darrell” Gusner of Cambria, a blind Cal Poly graduate who specialized in submarine warfare — designing and developing what he describes as “the world’s first successful submarine systems integrated performance analysis capability.”
Maybe he’s not a rocket scientist, but by golly, he’s close enough.
I first met and interviewed Darrell Gusner in 2003, when he and his marine research and exploration company were searching for historical shipwrecks off the Florida coast in a treasure-hunting venture,
We’ve chatted intermittently since, talking mostly about the two guide dogs he’d loved and relied upon for 20-plus years. After the death of his most recent companion, Gusner was told, inexplicably, that he’s no longer qualified to have one.
That has kept the scientist essentially housebound beyond the restrictions of COVID-19 guidelines.
In a way, though, that isolation produced a silver lining,
When I talked to Gusner in late December, he was hyper excited. He’d called to tell me in detail about his latest discovery, why it’s important and what he’s sure it will mean to historians and scientists.
The discovery links the Egyptian royal cubit with the Great Pyramid of Giza.
In his enthusiasm for and deep understanding of his topic, Gusner lost me at about the second paragraph of his explanation.
I asked him to write it out, hoping that maybe then it would all make more sense to me.
When that didn’t work, I asked him to simplify his description for people like me who aren’t retired physicists — people who just want to know what a cubit is, besides a varying unit of measurement, and how it affected the construction of the pyramid.
This is what Darrell sent me:
He wrote, “My discovery of the source of the Egyptian royal cubit represents a significant breakthrough — undoubtedly over time it will promote additional historical research and the reevaluation of humanity’s early history.”
“There were at least seven wonders constructed in the ancient world,” he noted, “the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and — perhaps the greatest wonder of them all — the Great Pyramid of Giza.
“The pyramid is the only surviving ancient wonder.
“For many reasons, for more than 4,000 years, the complex and massive precise construction of the Great Pyramid has perplexed historians and scientists (including Sir Isaac Newton).
“How were the builders able to create that massive structure so well, so long ago … a giant jigsaw puzzle in cut stone, whose fundamental unit of length is the Egyptian royal cubit measure?
“Regretfully, the builders of the Great Pyramid didn’t share the mysterious source of that precise unit of length.”
Gusner believes he has discovered that mysterious source.
“As you might expect,” he continued, “the discovery is precise and complex … and rewarding.
“Discovering the source of the royal cubit revealed the underlying, previously obscured, design of the architecture of the Great Pyramid.
“But, and significantly, the discovery also revealed that the builders of the pyramid possessed a high level of technology and scientific knowledge; while verifiable, that extraordinary fact is currently inexplicable.
“After the significance of the discovery is generally understood (and the shock wears off), I anticipate that many people around the world will be intrigued, curious, fascinated and choose to participate in unfolding future historical research.”
Gusner’s lengthy white paper describing the connection btween the Egyptian royal cubit and the Great Pyramid is available for free on a website that sells his series of intergalactic military science fiction novels, set 500 years in the future.
Just go to GalaxyQuestBooks.com and scroll to the bottom to find the link to the cubit/Pyramid explainer.
I’m heading there next, to see if I can finally keep up with someone who’s just as smart as a rocket scientist. Wish me luck!
