Elon Musk has shared some pretty controversial opinions over the years. And just like the ones before, the latest one he posted on Twitter wasn’t received well by many.
Controversial Tweet
Last July, the Tesla CEO posted a series of tweets about pyramids beginning with: ‘Aliens built the pyramids obv’. Since then, his tweet has garnered over 500,000 likes and more than 27,000 replies both from people who agreed and disagreed with his controversial opinion.
He also followed with a link to an article by the BBC, which talked about the lives of those who built the ancient structures. Musk said that it gave a ‘sensible summary’ of how the pyramids were created.
This opinionated tweet comes almost two years after he got in trouble with the law for implying that he wanted to take Tesla private on Twitter. The fiasco ended with Musk and his company being fined $40 million.
It also entailed that the CEO’s tweets would be reviewed before being posted.
An Invitation
Whether or not Musk’s pyramid tweets were approved for posting, they still resulted in negative feedback, especially from Egyptians and scholars.
The North African country’s minister of international cooperation, Rania al-Mashat, even invited him to come and visit the pyramids to learn more about them. She ended her tweet saying that they would be waiting for the billionaire
Meanwhile, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass didn’t mince words at all. The expert, who found the tombs of the people who built the pyramids, called Musk’s theory a ‘complete hallucination’.
Hawass’ discovery reportedly proved that the builders were Egyptians and not slaves as some scholars believed before.
The Ancient-Astronauts Theory
Unfortunately, Musk is only one of many who believe the same unfounded belief. Called the ‘ancient-astronauts theory’, it claims that ancient landmarks like the pyramids were created by extraterrestrial creatures who visited our planet and made contact with ancient humans during prehistoric times.
Proponents of this belief system say that modern technologies and cultures were influenced by the coming of ancient aliens on Earth. These beliefs are not acknowledged by most academics and are not supported by any peer-reviewed studies.
Still, the theory remains popular among certain groups of people particularly those in the conspiracy theory community. The same topic is also explored in the popular, long-running History channel show ‘Ancient Aliens’.