"The pharaohs may have set the standard," the Telegraph reports, "but German entrepreneurs are hoping to challenge Egypt's pre-eminence in monumental self-indulgence by building the world's largest pyramid."
The Telegraph somewhat cynically continues, explaining that this "improbable plan is based on the belief that people will pay to have their ashes encased in the concrete blocks used to construct the monument." If that does turn out to be the case, however, then these German entrepreneurs "will be rich beyond the wildest dreams of even the most ambitious pharaoh."
- The blocks are expected to be up to one cubic metre in size and, given that the volume of the completed pyramid is likely to be in excess of 40 million cubic metres, it could ultimately bring in £13.2 billion.
In any case, the concrete structure itself – why not granite? let's please build huge structures out of stone again – would act as a "memorial site" for people "of all nationalities and religions."
You don't actually have to be buried there, meanwhile; you can "opt to have a memorial stone placed instead." Your stone can even be "designed with any number of colors" – instantly transforming the Great Pyramid into a badly weathered mountain of tinted concrete, cracked and stained more and more every winter as it stands in the heart of an east German floodplain.
Still, the entrepreneurs are optimistic:- The Great Pyramid will continue to grow with every stone placed, eventually forming the largest structure in the history of man.
The original plans called for "an overall height of some 1,600ft," the Independent reports, "but the proposal has already been dramatically scaled down. The revised plans are for a pyramid of some 492ft."
1) What does Michiel think of this? 2) Will it cause earthquakes?
(Thanks, John!)
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