Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock (1996) have both suggested that the "ground plan" of the three main Egyptian pyramids was physically established , but that the pyramids were built around 2,500 BC. This theory was based on their initial claims regarding the alignment of the Giza pyramids with OrionHancock, Graham, Fingerprints of the Gods, 1995, p. 375. "...the three pyramids were a terrestrial map of the three stars of Orion's belt" are later joined with speculation about the age of the Great Sphinx.Hancock and Bauval, Keeper of Genesis, published 1996, and in 1997 in the U.S. as The Message of the Sphinx)
