There is no real archaeological evidence to support the idea that aliens, or the citizens of Atlantis, or anyone other than the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. If this was the case, one would expect the archaeological record to show the pyramids arising suddenly and inexplicably, with no evidence of the development and use of technology by the Egyptians in order to build them, nor written accounts of their construction. There would also presumably be accounts of the visits of the aliens and/or Atlanteans- surely a memorable occasion.

Of course, this is not what the archaeological record actually shows. The building of the pyramids, while certainly impressive, does not require aliens to explain. Ancient Egypt was a civilization full of highly skilled and knowledgeable people; in no way were they too “primitive” to achieve advanced feats of engineering and architecture. Besides, it took time for the art of pyramid-building to develop, just like every technology ever invented in human history did. It is possible to see the evolution of their structure over time, as less successful early attempts (such as the Bent Pyramid) are followed by the large and impressive pyramids that we still admire today.

Nor is there any lack of evidence of the pyramids’ entirely human-led construction. The archaeological record includes tools used to cut the stone blocks, sites where workers lived, and written records kept during the building process. What we do not have is any record of extraterrestrial or Atlantean involvement, unless you believe pseudoarchaeologists’ dubious claims that certain hieroglyphs depict creatures with antenna or flying machines.

The idea that Atlantis existed and that the Mayans and Egyptians diffused from their super-advanced society is equally dubious. In order for this claim to be credible, there would first have to be some sort of archaeological evidence for the existence of Atlantis. Presumably, this would mean finding the remains of an ancient yet technologically advanced civilization at the bottom of the ocean. In spite of the hype, this has yet to actually happen. As for the Mayans and Egyptians, if their civilizations really originated from a single source, one could only hope to prove this by finding extreme similarities between them. Unfortunately, the fact that they both built vaguely triangular structures does not make it any less likely that they were simply two distinct civilizations that arose in different regions of the world and happened to both become quite “advanced.”