Passage. Yet the plundering of the western chamber is not part of Brier’s tale, and he hastens to introduce a new subject (unexplored sources of fresh air) at the most crucial point in his tour. Meanwhile, there goes another one of Mendelssohn’s missing sarcophaguses!  The fact that a royal burial took place in the western burial chamber is strongly supported by the hollowed out wall to allow sarcophagus passage , and the observation by J. S. Peering, who studied the structure of the Bent Pyramid in 1839, that a portcullis stone sealing the western corridor was plastered shut on its western side when the western entrance to the pyramid was closed.  (The fact that this stone also was plastered shut on its eastern side can readily be explained as having occurred at the time the tomb was plundered or during later restorations.)

Although Egyptologists disagree whether Seneferu was buried in his Bent Pyramid or the Red (Northern) Pyramid at Dahshur, almost all Egyptologists who have studied the construction of Khufu’s Great Pyramid  agree on one central point:  about half way into Khufu’s reign, the location of the burial site was changed from a subterranean crypt to a position in the heart of the Pyramid’s superstructure (See Figure 1), only to be changed again to a higher elevation in the center of the Pyramid at a later date.  Why did Khufu make these changes?  Interestingly, at about the same time, Khufu changed viziers:  Kanofer, Seneferu’s oldest son and last vizier, was replaced by Hemiunu, another son of Seneferu by a different queen.  Reisner believed that Kanofer had fallen from Khufu’s grace, possibly because the tomb of Khufu’s mother Hetepheres apparently had been violated.  Moreover, even though Kanofer owned a tomb at Giza (G 1203), he was buried back at Dahshur (Mastaba 28).

However, none of the classical explanations of this series of events makes enough sense to leave the reader feeling very satisfied.  This is especially true if one agrees with Mark Lehner’s conclusions that Hetepheres was first buried at Giza and not at Dahshur, and that her initial Giza tomb was merely a temporary burial place until her final tomb was ready²².

I believe that major  pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are beginning to fit together very nicely, but that the picture they present is bizarre, indeed:

¨ About 35 years after Huni was buried in Mastaba 17, his tomb was penetrated by grave robbers.

¨ Upon learning this news, Khufu became convinced that his own planned burial site located in Subterranean Chamber at the end of a 300-foot Descending Passage was insecure.

¨ Work on Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza was consuming vast amounts of wealth; it might

37

not be possible to complete the Pyramid on time with the available resources.

¨ Khufu’s mother Hetepheres died about a dozen years after Seneferu.

¨ Khufu made several bold decisions:  he would change the location of his crypt to the heart of the Pyramid; bury his mother and re-bury his father close by; and use the wealth stored in Seneferu’s tomb to complete the Great Pyramid.

¨ Kanofer, a loyal son of Seneferu, however, refused to endorse the plan because it involved violating his father’s sanctity and burial goods.

¨ Kanofer was dismissed (or worse) and Hemiunu became vizier.

¨ Hemiunu plundered Seneferu’s tomb in the western burial chamber of the Bent Pyramid and reburied Seneferu and Hetepheres in a sealed enclosure near Khufu’s new burial chamber in the heart of the Great Pyramid.

Later Hemiunu convinced Khufu that the second burial chamber also was unsafe because too many knew its location and that engineering techniques were now available that will allow Khufu to be securely buried higher up in the heart of the Pyramid using cunning security measures that would protect the sanctity of his burial chamber regardless of who knew its location.

The conclusion that Khufu decided to reopen his father’s own tomb is so radical that it requires considerable justification to be believable.  However, there is little question about one element of the claim; Khufu needed all the additional wealth he could secure.  Herodotus, for example, tells of the enormous wealth required to build the Great Pyramid and that, when he spent all his treasures and wanted more, Khufu committed a vile act involving a member of his immediate family²³.  Because the route to the northern burial chamber of the Bent Pyramid required highly detailed, accurate, and recent information for a theft to occur and because this chamber was indeed plundered, the victim had to be a high ranking Dynasty IV dignitary.  On the other hand, there is no evidence that the Red Pyramid ever was the burial location of a Dynasty IV dignitary. 

38

INSIDE THE GREAT PYRAMID

There’s something about the pyramids here at Giza that inspires people to be very passionate about all kinds of different theories about what they hide, how they were built, what they mean.  I have maps showing whole subway systems underneath the Giza plateau, hidden chambers and tunnels, great charts of circles and intersecting lines showing the mathematical relationships of these pyramids to each other, to the Sphinx, to the stars, to Bethlehem, to Manhattan.  There are just files and files and files of these ideas.  But the bottom line on all these ideas, including those of Egyptologists, is that they have to stand the test of bedrock reality.                      Dr. Mark Lehner¹

On September 9, 1986, a remarkable article appeared in the Style Section of the Washington Post²; it reported, in part, that:

A Franco-Egyptian team of architects and archaeologists hoping to drill into hidden chambers inside the largest of Giza’s Great Pyramids packed up its high-tech instruments today and went home to rethink its strategy.  The team had unearthed more questions than answers, and the ancient mysteries of the Pyramid of Cheops appeared only more profound.

Even after 4,500 years!  Amazing!  Not even modern science could unlock the secrets of the Great Pyramid!  Two French architects, Jean-Patrice Goidin and Gilles Dormion, intrigued by the construction of the passageway leading into the Queen’s Chamber of the Pyramid (See Figure 1) postulated the existence of hidden chambers behind the passageway wall.  Their speculations gained credence when technicians from the Geophysical Prospecting Company of France used a state-of-the-art instrument called a microgravimeter to discover “density voids” at the locations predicted by Goidin and Dormion.  Egyptian authorities were sufficiently impressed to allow the French team to drill four exploratory holes into the passageway masonry³.

What they found, after drilling through more than two meters of hard rock, were pockets of sand . . .  “This is very strange,” said Egyptian archeologist Wafaa Saddiq, after handfuls of fine, crystalline sand had emerged from the first hole.  “Maybe it’s used to protect something behind it,” . . .

39

That idea was on other people’s minds, but the high-tech equipment being used “wasn’t good for drilling in sand” and, after two more holes and two more cavities of sand, members of the French team were scheduled to return home.  Both the French and officials of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization decided it was best to reassess their data before proceeding.

In science, the phrase “reassess the data before proceeding” can mean “quit for good;” more than ten years later the three core borings just above the base of the western wall of the passageway leading to the Queen’s Chamber remain tightly capped.  In 1986, Goidin and Dormion authored the book⁴ Kheops: Nouvelle Anxiety speculating about huge undiscovered rooms and passageways in the Great Pyramid that rival the Pyramid’s known features.

The outcry from the established archeological circles was loud and bitter.  The well-known German archeologist, Rainer Stadelmann sarcastically declared in part in his book⁵:

. . .  The rationale for their investigation lay in the old, naive idea that such a magnificent structure had to contain more chambers than those that were known and especially much greater treasure.  This idea of the treasure-trove is, in reality, a throwback to the Arabian Middle Ages when stories of hidden treasures induced the Khalif Al Mámun into re-opening the old grave robber passages with great expense and effort in a vain search for the secrets and valuables of the legendary pre-flood king Saurid.  But it really is indicative of our modern times that the theosophical and even the purely mathematical-astronomical attempts at an explanation (for pyramid building) take a backseat to treasure hunting.  The golden hoard of Tutankhamun surely has produced and nurtured these fantastic ideas.

To Stadelmann, the French research effort never should have occurred in the first place.  He dismissed its importance by attempting to show that nothing new or of value had been discovered.  In doing so, Stadelmann produced a diagram⁶ (See Figure 4) indicating the manner in which he believed the roof of the horizontal passageway into the Queen’s Chamber was constructed; he made the following basic assumptions about the passageway’s construction⁷:

¨ the roof of the passageway leading to the Queen’s Chamber contained gabled blocks of stone in contact with the core masonry of the pyramid to help relieve the immense downward pressure from the upper courses of pyramid blocks,

40

¨ the roof slabs spanning the horizontal passageway (and the gabled blocks?) were lowered in place by removing sand from beneath the slabs/blocks,

¨ sand became trapped in .25 meter wide pockets and was left in place, and

¨ the fine, crystalline sand left behind after construction apparently was not native to the Giza Plateau but “had been blown in during the construction period by prevailing northerly winds” from Abu Roash five miles away!

Although Stadelmann’s text is full of basic assertions, few are backed-up with supporting evidence.  The horizontal passage leading to the Queen’s Chamber, for example, begins as one enters into the Grand Gallery and lies directly under the Grand Gallery for approximately 30 meters of its 35- meter length.  As a result, the roof of the passageway must support relatively little weight, mostly that of the blocks of the center section of the floor of the Grand Gallery ascending above it.  Where are the “gabled blocks of stone” supporting the passageway roof that Stadelmann so cavalierly postulates?  Certainly not at the intersection of the horizontal passage with the Grand Gallery.  Here the architectural support structure is obvious; two stone slabs open the 1.75 meter width of the

41

passageway⁸  (See Figure 5).  Does this support structure change to gabled blocks?  If so, where?  And above all, why?  Are gabled blocks really needed for the horizontal passageway?  Do they  produce more support than stone slabs spanning a 1.75 meter distance?

Stadelmann’s second assumption that sand was used to lower these  “gabbled blocks of stone” into position appears equally weak.  From his diagram reproduced as Figure 4, it can be seen that Stadelmann also envisions a stone slab to span the 1.75 meter width of the horizontal passage.  The portions of the Figure representing sand really aren’t necessary for lowering the spanning slabs into place.  This can be accomplished by overfilling the 1.75 by 1.75 meter passage with sand, placing the slabs on top of the sand, and then removing the sand from the passageway.  If this procedure is accomplished properly, the slabs spanning the 1.75 meter width of the passage can easily be lowered to rest on top of the tunnel.  In fact, based on Figure 4 as drawn by Stadelmann, it is not clear how the gabbled blocks of stone could be lowered into place by allowing sand into the cavities after the roof slabs are securely in place.  In short, the sand cavities shown in Figure 4 appear to have no useful purpose.

42

Stadelmann also assumes that the sand merely is a remnant of the construction process.  He appears oblivious to the possibility that it could have some functional purpose other than in pyramid construction.  For example, he quips⁹: “Japanese archeologists from Waseda University had a typical Japanese explanation that suits the particular geological circumstances of the island:  the sand was brought in for safety precautions against earthquakes.”

But Stadelmann’s most incredible lack of insight is to believe that a sandstorm could transport sand unadulterated over a five-mile distance and deposit it homogeneously atop a pyramid eight stories high (65 feet) at precisely the time such sand was required for pyramid construction.  We know that Egyptian magicians were regarded very highly in antiquity, but really . . .  !!

Mark Lehner states that theories about what lies inside the Great Pyramid have to stand the test of bedrock reality¹⁰.  Agreed.  But is it not also true that evidence cited by professional Egyptologists/archeologists to refute such theories also must meet the bedrock reality check?  Certainly, Stadelmann’s explanation that the mysterious white, crystalline  sand not native to the Giza Plateau was blown into the Pyramid during its construction by the prevailing north wind from Abu Roash five miles away is beyond belief.

So where did the mysterious sand originate and why was it brought to the Giza Plateau?  Presumably, Stadelmann has some evidence that it came from Abu Roash; perhaps he had access to the report(s) about its origin and composition in the files currently being held by Dr. Zahi Hawass in his office on the Giza Plateau.  On December 2, 1998, after his lecture¹¹ at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to ask Dr. Hawass for a copy of the report analyzing the mysterious sand found by the French in 1986.  He assured me that he would send me a copy upon his return to Egypt.  To date, however, I have received no such copy in response to my request.

On my trip to Egypt in March 1992, John Anthony West introduced me to Ahmed Fayed, a doctoral student in Egyptology serving as a tour guide on Nile cruises.  Mr. Fayed, a descendant of the well-known  Fayed family who assisted George Reisner in excavating the Giza Plateau, informed me that the sand taken from the Pyramid during the French drillings in 1986 was radioactive.  To date, I have been unable to determine that this was the case, although I have found an article in Science Frontiers¹² that states in part:

43

Japanese and French experts are investigating a new mystery at the 4,000-year-old pyramids----why the pharaohs built geometric cavities inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops and filled them with mineral-enriched sifted sand.

From the outside, the pyramid appears to be built of solid blocks of limestone.  But two French architects, Giles Dormion and Jean Patrice Goidin, discovered cavities which could total 15 to 20 percent of the structure.

The French team used an instrument which measures differences in gravity to find the internal spaces.  They then drilled small holes through the 1.0-metre blocks and found sand---but not ordinary sand from the nearby desert.

Laboratory tests showed it came from another part of Egypt and was sifted and enriched with minerals before being placed inside the pyramid by the ancient architects.

How strange that the sand was reported to have been sifted and enriched with minerals before being placed inside the Pyramid.  If the minerals are found to be radioactive when the results of the earlier testing becomes available, then we would have further confirmation that a royal burial/reburial took place in or near the chamber found by the French.  During the early years of Dynasty IV, the practice of mummification had not yet been perfected, and alternative techniques for preserving dead bodies were being attempted.  One may have been packing the body cavities and surrounding spaces with a certain kind of fine, crystalline sand that is known to help preserve flesh from decaying by emitting gamma rays that kill microorganisms that cause decay.  Such sand, for example, is known to exist along the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria as well as along the west coast of India, where natives use it to preserve the fish they catch.  The sand is rich in the radioactive mineral, thorium.  Formerly, the natives had no idea  how the sand prevented decay, only that it seemed to have magical powers.  The presence of sand originating at a distance from the Great Pyramid is a much better indicator that it was used during the burial process than during the construction process, where ordinary desert sand would have sufficed.

Whether the sand is radioactive or not, Egyptologists agree that it is not native to the Giza Plateau.  Therefore, it would appear to warrant additional attention, instead of being ignored as some out-of-place artifact.  Vacuuming out enough sand through the existing core bores to allow experts to peer inside the chamber(s) with fiber-optic cables, is a relatively easy operation.  Certainly, it would not jeopardize the structural integrity of the Pyramid.  When this occurs, I predict that wondrous objects will be observed inside.  It even appears likely to me that the French located the site of Khufu’s reburial of his parents.

44

When we began our investigation into the mysteries of the Great Pyramid, we never expected to uncover anything as exciting as the likelihood of the reburial of a Dynasty IV king and his queen.  That, however, is one of the major conclusions of our analyses.  Our original goal was to attempt to learn why pyramids were built.  With regard to Khufu’s Great Pyramid, this meant explaining the rational for such controversial architectural features as the Grand Gallery, the Air Vents, the Well Shaft, and the Grotto.  Prior to visiting Egypt in March 1992, I made good progress in determining the apparent purpose of each of these innovations, and my research since then into the genealogy of Dynasty IV has tended to confirm my earlier observations.

What thought processes did I use in attacking the mysteries surrounding these Pyramid features?  The first was to attempt to identify the basic purposes for which they could have been built; doing so resulted in four principal explanations:

¨ architectural (to speed construction, to reduce materials, to improve strength, etc.),

¨ functional (improve security, act as observatory, etc.),

¨ artistic (enhance beauty, display new ideas/styles, etc.), and

¨ religious (link to afterlife, comfort in afterlife, center for initiation, etc.).

For each of these kinds of potential purposes, I attempted to produce elaborations that fit.  This was especially difficult to do for the architectural considerations.  The Grand Gallery, for example, was much more difficult to build than solid masonry would have been; the same is true for the Air Vents.  Moreover, both required weakening the structural integrity of the Pyramid and thousands of hours of additional labor to cut and polish the stones composing the walls of the Grand Gallery and the sides of the Air Vents.

Moving along to functional considerations, at first glance it may seem difficult to associate the Grand Gallery, the Air Vents, or the Well Shaft with improved security.   Just the opposite is true.  I can still recall lying on my bed at home developing mind experiments (Gedenkenexperimenten)¹³  trying to visualize how the Grand Gallery could improve Pyramid security.  How could this immense open area 153 feet long rising at an angle of 26⁰ through the very heart of the Pyramid stop tomb robbers from reaching the king’s burial chamber near its top?  Pause.  What if the Grand Gallery were completely full of water?  That certainly would slow them down, but Why wouldn’t  the water

45

evaporate or at least flow out of the Pyramid when the robbers entered the Gallery?  OK, try again.  Aha!   What if the Grand Gallery were completely full of sand?  Well, that certainly would stop the tomb robbers and the sand would not evaporate, but How could the Grand Gallery have been filled with sand after Khufu was buried?  Through the Air Vents, of course.  OK, but if the purpose of the Air Vents was to allow sand to be brought from the ramps outside the Pyramid to its center to fill the Grand Gallery, Wouldn’t some workers literally have been buried alive between Khufu’s burial chamber (where the sand arrived) and the Grand Gallery (where it was dumped)? Yes, but only a dozen or so workmen were needed.  That was a relatively small number compared to the 300 retainers King Djer of Dynasty I had buried with him at the time of his death or the thousands of  Pyramid workmen that Dr. Zahi Hawass is digging up from ancient cemeteries on the Giza Plateau.

Traditionally, Egyptologists believe that Khufu’s Pyramid was sealed quite differently.  Almost all  agree that after Khufu’s body was placed in his sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber, workmen eased huge blocks of stone, starting with the three granite plugs first encountered by Al Mamun’s Arab band in 820 A.D., from the floor of the Grand Gallery down the Ascending Corridor to the Descending Corridor intersection to block this approach completely.  Having accomplished this task, our versions now diverge.  Classical Egyptologists believe that the workmen then exited the Pyramid via the Well Shaft that had been dug earlier to allow their escape.

I. E. S. Edwards describes the situation as follows¹³:

From the moment the first plug was introduced into the upper end of the Ascending Corridor, the workmen who were charged with the task of transferring the plugs to their final position would have been unable to leave the Pyramid by the normal way.  They had, however, provided themselves with a means of escape down the shaft which leads from the gap at the upper end of the Ascending Corridor to the Descending Corridor (i.e., down the Well Shaft).  It is idle to speculate whether this shaft was constructed with or without the knowledge of Cheops, but the burial of living persons was certainly not practiced by the Egyptians of the Pyramid Age.  The shaft would have been completely concealed at the time of the funeral by the slabs of stone bridging the gap and by the lowest stone in the western ramp, which is now missing.  The removal of these stones would have presented no difficulty to the workmen when the time came for making their descent.  After the last of the workmen had reached the bottom of the shaft, the opening in the west wall of the Descending Corridor would have been covered with a slab of stone so that it would have been indistinguishable from the remainder of the corridor.

According to our version, the upper 60-foot portion of the Well Shaft had not yet been dug at the time

46

of the Pyramid sealing and, therefore, there was no escape for the workmen trapped inside.  Indeed, they still had an enormously important task to accomplish, namely, to fill the Grand Gallery with so many tons of sand that it would constitute an impenetrable barrier should any tomb robbers ever reach the base of the Grand Gallery by removing the virtually solid string of plug stones in the Ascending Passage.  Then, having filled the Grand Gallery with sand dumped into the Pyramid from its outer surface, what became of our brave band, who may have volunteered to help Khufu ensure immortality in the afterlife?  One can speculate that they retired to the open spaces above the King’s Chamber though the  hole in the wall, which can still be entered, at the top left corner of the Grand Gallery to rejoice in their accomplishments.

According to Edwards¹⁴, Khufu may have been a megalomaniac.  Why then does Edwards believe that the lives of several dedicated workmen would have warranted a means of escape?  On the contrary, Khufu and his architects had solved the fatal flaw associated with pyramid-building; pyramids could be sealed from within by sacrificing a few lives much more effectively that from the outside.  That is one of the design features of the Great Pyramid; except for plunder by an immediate successor who knew its interior construction in great detail, the Great Pyramid was built to be perfectly safe for eternity.  And if tomb robbers did find the Ascending Corridor (or the Grand Gallery), there was so much stone (and then sand) to be removed that the robbers would have to dispose of the debris outside the Pyramid; there simply was not enough room inside. And any outside operations of that magnitude would be easy to detect, even by a handful of funerary priests.

Our Gedenkenexperiment led us to the conclusion that the Grand Gallery had a dual purpose, namely  to serve as the storage location for plug blocks to seal the Ascending Corridor and then to hold an impenetrable mountain of sand to prevent tomb robbers from reaching the king’s burial chamber. The Air Vents were, in reality, sand chutes to convey the sand required into the King’s Chamber and then to allow the Grand Gallery to be filled.  If the Grand Gallery had simply been meant to store plug blocks, a far less elaborate structure would have been required.

But, is there any archeological evidence that the Grand  Gallery ever was filled with sand?  Indeed, there is very convincing evidence!  In his book, Secrets of the Great Pyramid¹⁵, Peter Tomkins reports that:

¨ in 1765 the British official, Nathaniel Davison, lowered a lamp into the “well”, tied a rope around his waist, and had himself carefully lowered into its ominous darkness --- only to find the bottom blocked with sand and rubbish.  To Davison it appeared strange that anyone should go to such an enormous amount of effort to dig a shaft almost 200 feet into the heart of the Pyramid and simply come to a dead end.  But there was nothing more he

47

could do.  It was extremely close and filthy at the bottom of the “well”, and his candle soon burnt up what little air was available.     

¨ about 1817 the Italian adventurer, Captain Giovanni Battista Caviglia, set about analyzing the mystery of the “well”.  Lowering himself down the shaft, Caviglia got as far as 125 feet below the grotto only to find, as Davison had before him, that the air was so scarce his candle sputtered, making it difficult for him to breathe.----  However, as the bottom appeared to be mostly sand and loose rocks, Caviglia was determined to unplug it and see where it led.  For a while he managed to impress a gang of Arabs into raising basketfuls of the sand all the way up to the top of the well; but the shaft was so tight, the air so fetid with bat dung, and the dust so suffocating, that the Arabs began to faint and refused to work further.  Caviglia attempted to clear the air at the bottom of the well by burning chunks of sulfur, but it was still impossible to breathe that far down for any length of time, and the Arabs would not resume their digging. ----Caviglia decided to attack the problem from a different angle.  He would attempt to clear the main Descending Passage to the subterranean pit which had been filled since Al Mamun’s time with the refuse of the plugs they had broken out of the Ascending Passage.  Caviglia had the refuse carried up and out of the Pyramid, and was able to push his way on hands and knees down the passage for 150 feet; then the air became so impure and the heat so great that he wanted to spit up blood.  Still, he would not give up.  At the end of another 50 feet he made a discovery which seemed to indicate he might be on the right track.  On the west side of the passage he found a low doorway leading into a hole. As the Arabs began to dig upward into this hole, Caviglia noted a strong smell of sulfur.  It occurred to him that he might have hit upon the solution to his previous problem: the smell of sulfur might be coming from the bottom of the well, which must be very close. ---- Digging harder, the Arab workmen dislodged some loose earth.  A pile of dust and rubbish fell onto them, including a basket and ropes which had been left at the bottom of the well.  There was also a sudden gush of air up the tunnel, and those in the passage were able to breathe with ease.  Caviglia had discovered the end of the well.  But a greater mystery remained.  Why had it been dug there, when, and by whom? 

48

Where did all the sand at the bottom of the Well Shaft come from?  When Davison and Caviglia set foot into the sand at the bottom of the Well Shaft, they were standing on some 15-40 feet of sand and debris. Given that the “Well Shaft” was three feet in diameter at this point, as much as 90 cubic feet of solids remained.  Yet, the Well Shaft must have been open in antiquity because this was the only route available to the burial chamber at that time. It would appear that, after the Arabs cleared the Ascending Passage about 820 A.D., the Well Shaft became a dumping ground for sand that still cluttered the upper portions of the Pyramid.

Returning to Captain Caviglia’s concern:  Why was the Well shaft dug, when, and by whom?  It seems virtually certain that Captain Caviglia never learned the answers to these questions.  But then, very few others have either during the last 180 years.  Actually, the bottom 140 feet of the Well Shaft, from the  point where it enters the bedrock to its intersection with the western side of the Descending Corridor, was dug before the Pyramid was built, possibly as a test boring to check the quality of the limestone on which the Pyramid would stand.  We know this is the case because the Pyramid builders constructed ten courses of limestone blocks around the top of the shaft just before it emerged from the bedrock.  Such a refinement could not have been inserted in mid-tunnel because of a lack of air and maneuver room.  The remaining 60 feet started at the top of the bedrock, where the union with the Pyramid masonry is perfect, and ascended toward the Grand Gallery, missing it slightly to the west.  Moreover, it is clear that the top 60 feet of the Well Shaft were dug in an upwardly direction because the corners of some of the stone blocks that were encountered were left in place.

Construction of the last 60 feet of the Well Shaft was not begun until after the decision to plunder the Great Pyramid was made, a feat that could not have been accomplished successfully unless the robbers had detailed knowledge about the internal construction of the Pyramid.  Moreover, such knowledge probably was available only during the lifetime of Khufu’s contemporaries and at the highest levels of his court.  But inside information was not all that was required to plunder his tomb.  Using the Well Shaft to tunnel into the bottom of the Grand Gallery and removing all the sand it contained were formidable tasks in themselves, but in this case the key was having government approval (and support) to remove the sand from the Pyramid.  For all the sand to flow out the Grand Gallery and down the Well Shaft, many thousands of basketfuls had to be carried up the Descending Corridor to the northern entrance of the Pyramid and dumped outside.

Even this degree of difficulty was insufficient to accomplish the greatest robbery of all time.  In addition to the other special features of the Great Pyramid that continue to confound the experts, we now must consider the function of the Grotto, a man-made cave dug south of the Well Shaft just before it emerges from the bedrock into the core masonry of the Pyramid (See Figures 1 and 5).  One explanation of the Grotto provided in Tompkins’ book Secrets of the Great Pyramid¹⁶ comes

49

reasonably close to the mark when it was postulated that the Grotto served as a staging area for workers to dig the final 60 feet to the Grand Gallery during a search for possible earthquake damage inside the Pyramid after the tomb had been sealed.    The first part of this explanation is plausible, but the second part lacks credibility. Who and why would someone breach the greatest royal tomb of all time looking for possible earthquake damage after the tomb already had been sealed.  Looking for known treasures sounds like a much more likely explanation!  Actually, I believe that  the Grotto was an important technical innovation that not only served as a staging area located at about 130 feet of the 200 feet required to reach the goal but that it had an even more basic purpose.  Both Davison and Caviglia (and their men) had considerable difficulty in breathing during the much easier task of digging downward while standing on the sand and rubble at the bottom of the Well  Shaft.  Burrowing upward through solid limestone was far more demanding.  There simply was not enough oxygen in the 200-foot shaft to supply individuals excavating at the upper end with an ample amount. The Grotto, in effect, served as the lungs of the operation by providing workers resting there with enough air to allow them to dig for several minutes at a time.  It made the Well Shaft route to the burial chamber feasible, a possibility that the Pyramid designers may have considered to be virtually impossible.

Thus,  the four most controversial features of the Great Pyramid, namely the Grand Gallery, Air Vents, Well Shaft, and Grotto are highly related functionally.  Khufu built the Grand Gallery and the Air Vents to be able to block the entrance to his burial chamber with an impenetrable pile of sand.  The Grotto and then the final 60 feet of the Well Shaft were dug to unblock his burial chamber by removing the sand pile.

Who committed the robbery of the ages?  The evidence is clear to the careful reader. The robbers knew many details about the internal construction of the Pyramid, including early data such as the availability of the Well Shaft to penetrate the soft underbelly of the Pyramid, its one Achilles heel.  Tons of sand had to be removed from inside the Pyramid, making the plundering impossible to conceal.  Two kings (Djedefhor and Khafre) became embroiled in a resource-consuming civil war in which multiple pyramids were under construction simultaneously.  One prince (Ankh-haf) rose from his demotion to become Khafre’s vizier, to build the largest mastaba in the cemetery east of Khufu’s Pyramid, and to promote his daughter to queen ship with Khafre.  Earlier Ankh-haf had lost both the throne of Egypt and his beloved wife, Hetepheres IA, to Khufu.  After waiting for over 30 painful years while Khufu and Djedefre walked the earth as gods, Prince Ankh-haf had his revenge.

50

AROUND AND ABOUT THE GREAT PYRAMID

I have heard the words of Imhotep and Djedefhor.
                        Their sayings are widely quoted.
                        Where are their places?
                        Their walls are abandoned.
                        Their places no longer exist, as if they never had been.
                        Nobody returns from there that he may tell of their state,
                        that he may tell of their things,
                        that he may calm their hearts,
                        until we go to the place that they have gone.

Have a good time.
                        Do not grow tired of it.
                        Look, there is nobody allowed to take his property with him.
                        Look, there is nobody who is gone and returns back.

These words from the Drinking Song¹ of King Yentef recorded in the New Kingdom document known as the Harris Papyrus disclose considerable skepticism about the Egyptian concept of the afterlife.  Even the Egyptian royalty could be skeptical at times--poking fun at well-established dogma!  

Like King Yentef’s Drinking Song, this book also has been skeptical at times--poking fun at well-established dogma about pyramid construction and New Age revisions leading to star-based solutions.   Simply stated, many of mysteries about the Great Pyramid and why it was built are sheer bunk.  Contrary to popular opinion, the Great Pyramid can be explained very nicely as having been built as a tomb alone. When one understands the relationships between various pieces of the puzzle such as the Grand Gallery, the Air Vents, the Well Shaft, and the Grotto and discovers how the seemingly out-of-place artifacts actually fit into the picture, then the purpose of the Great Pyramid is perfectly transparent. Recent revelations related to stargazing are sheer fabrications that lack substance.

51

Cont'd    Back