A Timeless Cycle?

As bizarre it may sound, the other day, a friend and I were engaged in an animated conversation on the ancient world and the mysteries of that ancient era that have confounded modern man. 

My friend made an astounding statement - that the Pyramids of Egypt were actually power plants or nuclear reactors. 

Power plants? Nuclear reactors? That too thousands of years back?

I had to Google this and indeed there were numerous references on the internet of research that had been carried out to uncover this supposedly hidden side of these ancient Egyptian marvels.

That set me thinking - is there a link between the supposed Curse of the Pharoahs and the so-called nuclear aspects of the Pyramids?

Then yesterday, I Googled on one of ancient India's mysteries - the sudden decline and abandonment of the grand city of Mohenjo-Daro. A few references of the possible causes of the sudden decimation of the city was, yes, a nuclear blast!

A nuclear blast thousands of years back? 

Bizarre!

Another set of mysteries relating to the Nazca Lines in  Nazca Desert in southern Peru have led to a set of astounding theories. The Nazca Lines comprise of hundreds of individual figures that range in complexity from simple lines to hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish and lizards. These are visible only when viewed from above, say, when flying but not from the ground. There is stretch that resembles a table top runway in the Nazca Desert. Theories floating around are that Nazca was a landing base for "aliens"(!).

Is all this true?

I do not know, but yes, there certainly was a high degree of technological complexity in the civilizations that have predated the history as we know it. A good example is close home in Hindu mythology.

The Ramayan talks of flying machines - the legendary Pushpak Viman that carried Ravan all over the subcontinent. The Mahabharat talks of weapons of mass destruction or Bhramastras. I came across a verse from the Mahabharat which says:

“Gurkha, flying a swift and powerful vimana hurled a single projectile charged with the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand suns, rose with all its splendor.

It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke without apparent cause, and the birds turned white. …After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected…to escape from this fire the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment.” 

Was it a reference to an ancient nuclear blast?

These mysteries perhaps will never be solved. Perhaps there was a high degree of technological advancement in civilizations before us. That knowledge was lost, left for successive generations to recreate from scratch. 

Perhaps this is a timeless cycle that swings between knowledge and extreme ignorance.

Who knows, we can only guess today!