Posted on 07/17/2005 12:50:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Discovery of mysterious doors suggests possibility of hidden treasures
For years scholars have believed that the pyramid of King Khufu, largest of the three "great" pyramids at Giza, had been plundered in antiquity and everything of value, including the body of Khufu himself, had been removed.
Now, Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and director of the Giza Plateau, suspects that might not be the case.
"I really personally believe," he recently told a sold-out lecture hall in the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, "that the secret chamber of Khufu is hidden inside the pyramid."
What changed his mind was the discovery of a set of previously unknown doors, hidden in the shafts of the so-called "queen's chamber" of the Great Pyramid. Located beneath the "grand gallery," the queen's chamber never housed a queen, and in fact, its exact purpose remains unknown. There is some speculation that it was an abandoned burial chamber, or possibly held offerings for the deceased.
In 1872 an archaeologist named Waynmann Dixon discovered a pair of what were thought to be ventilation shafts in this chamber hidden behind concealed stones. They were about 20 centimeters square and remained largely unexplored until 1993 when Rudolf Gantenbrink, an archaeologist with the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, sent a robot up the south shaft.
The robot was stopped after 64 meters by what appeared to be a sold block of stone with copper handles. However, Hawass became intrigued when sonar readings showed that the "block" was only 7.6 centimeters thick. In 2002, Hawass and a team of archaeologists drilled through the door during a live broadcast sponsored by the National Geographic Association.
"We did it [live] because we wanted to show that we had nothing to hide," said Hawass. In the past, although he regularly invited people to test out their bizarre theories, pseudo-scientists have accused Hawass of hiding or covering up secrets of the pyramids, of even building a secret passage from his office bathroom to the Great Pyramid.
Behind the door, Hawass and a live global audience found not answers, but more mystery: a second door only 24 centimeters beyond the first, which once again blocked the way.
The next day, off camera, Hawass and the team sent the robot up the northern shaft. This shaft made a series of abrupt bends, left, and right, and left again, before running into a third door also with two copper handles.
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Both shafts terminate somewhere within the structure as there are no holes in the outside of the pyramid. In the past, scholars have speculated that because of their alignment with the North Star and constellation Orion, these shafts could be symbolic exits for King Khufu's ka, or soul. Many archaeologists today find this unlikely because these small openings are unique to this pyramid. At the time of Khufu's reign, false doors served as symbolic gateways to the afterlife. As to whether the shafts terminate in larger rooms or not are still anybody's guess.
The doors' copper handles are of much interest to scholars. "If you go to the Cairo museum," points out Hawass, "you'll find the canopic jars of King Tutankhamen, they have two copper handles - just like these. Those are for ropes, so the jars could be pulled. Maybe these doors were pulled into place."
In October 2005, a robot built by the University of Singapore will return to the queen's chamber to see what lies behind the second and third doors. This drilling, Hawass says, will not be broadcast live, but rather the results will be announced afterwards in a press release.
"If something interesting is discovered," Hawass says, "we're going to show it to people all over the world."
At the same time, a team from Birmingham in the United Kingdom will perform non-intrusive radar mapping on areas in and around the pyramids.
While it is possible these shafts actually lead to an undiscovered burial chamber, Hawass will not be upset or surprised if they turn out to lead nowhere.
"There may be nothing inside the pyramid. What's important is the adventure of archaeology, and to show this adventure to the people," he says
One thing is certain: There will be answers - and more questions - in Cairo come October.
Kyle Cassidy is a scholar affiliated with the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). This article is published with the cooperation of ASOR.
ping
bttt
They were about 20 centimeters square and remained largely unexplored until 1993 …
I do have to compliment Mr. Hawass. He has done more to bring Egyptology to the worldwide public consciousness than anyone since Vivant Denon and Flinders Petrie."
Where does Mr. Hawass stand on looking into the indications that there are chambers under the front of the Sphinx? IIRC someone nixed digging there.
Those pyramids are a VERY interesting subject on many, many levels. I don't think they were ever anyone's tomb, or were ever meant as such.
It's the hatch to the Stargate!
He's dead, Jim.
AFAIK, as far as anyone knows, no pharaoh was ever cremated.
I agree wholeheartedly, 8" square would be a bit small.
I disagree about Zahi "Zowie" Hawass -- he's a phony, and has done less to bring interest in the Egyptian past to the public eye than the late Howard Carter, or the Luxor terrorists who massacred all those tourists, or some of the fringe writers.
Khufu's burial chamber was indeed the "King's Chamber". The sarcophagus is still there, minus the lid and mummy. There may be some small but servicable unknown chambers in the pyramid, but they don't have anything to do with the air shafts.
Keepers of Genesis
Bauval and Hancock
chapter 7
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/fusniak/robertbauval/articles/keepers_chapt7.html
In 1986, for example, two French architects, Gilles Dormion and Jean-Patrice Goidin, somehow managed to obtain a scientific licence to conduct a spectacular exploration inside the Great Pyramid. Dormion and Goidin had persuaded certain senior officials at the Egyptian Antiquities Organization that a `hidden chamber' could lie behind the west wall of the horizontal corridor leading to the Queen's Chamber. In a rare move, the EAO gave permission for the drilling of a series of small holes to test the theory. Apparently some evidence was found of a large `cavity' which was filled with unusually fine sand -- nothing more -- but this was enough to send the world media into a frenzy and to turn Dormion and Goidin into hot media property for a while. Egyptologists fumed on the quiet. The project was eventually stopped and Dormion and Goidin were never to resume their work in the Great Pyramid.(1)
The same thing happened again in 1988 when a Japanese scientific team from Waseda University took up the challenge. They were led by professor Sakuji Yoshimura. This time the Japanese used `non-destructive techniques' based on a high-tech system of electromagnetic waves and radar equipment. They, too, detected the existence of a `cavity' off the Queen's Chamber passageway, some three metres under the floor and, as it turned out, very close to where the French had drilled. They also detected a large cavity behind the north-west wall of the Queen's Chamber itself, and a `tunnel' outside and to the south of the Pyramid which appeared to run underneath the monument. Before any further exploration or drilling could be done, the Egyptian authorities intervened and halted the project. Yoshimura and his team were never to return to complete their work in the Queen's Chamber.(2)
Sand? Or "powder"? Specifically, was it a fine white powder? Too bad we don't have samples to test.
Those pyramids are a VERY interesting subject on many, many levels. I don't think they were ever anyone's tomb, or were ever meant as such.
I can think of no reason for Egypt to keep anything in the pyramids secret. The last I read on the use of the radar, sonar and even cosmic ray detection readings was that they came up with different findings on every scan. It seems that something was interfering with the equipment.
Bump!
"a fine white powder" to test... using a small drinking straw? ;')
Nationalism, pecking order, venality... those are among the reasons. When R. Gantenbrink announced his findings (the small door at the top of one of the shafts), the Egyptians flipped out, and banned him from research on the plateau. That had to do with not letting the Egyptians make the announcement.
That doesn’t seem to ring true – why not have the Egyptian rep standing with the team for a joint announcement? It wouldn’t be the first time.
Nevertheless, that is what happened.
Maybe so, but he seems to be a monumental media hog. Practically every article or TV show on Egyptian archaeology features him. Perhaps he has made this the price of access.
Perhaps he has made this the price of access.
You have an evil mind. I like that.
In this case, however, I was referring to the account of when workmen for Abdullah Al Mamun, the Arab ruler of Egypt, were boring a tunnel in 820 A.D. to access the interior of the pyramid. When they got through to the King's Chamber they supposedly found the granite sarcophagous empty, EXCEPT for a few inches of fine white powder, which has since disappeared. I was wondering if the "fine sand" referenced by Bauval could be the same.
In addition, I was alluding to a certain school of thought which espouses the idea that this "fine white powder" is actually monoatomic gold, the Biblical manna, and what the ancient Egyptians called the "Bread of Life". Remember, when Moses destroyed the golden calf at Mt. Sinai he didn't melt it down, he "burned it to a powder".
Building a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid to store sand doesn't make any sense, but building a hidden chamber to hold "the Bread of Life" makes a great deal of sense.
workmen for Abdullah Al Mamun, the Arab ruler of Egypt, were boring a tunnel in 820 A.D. to access the interior of the pyramid. When they got through to the King's Chamber they supposedly found the granite sarcophagous empty, EXCEPT for a few inches of fine white powder, which has since disappeared.Oooh... interesting... it wouldn't surprise me to learn that this powder has something to do with the plaster that used to cover all the internal surfaces of the pyramid's chambers. The pyramid is wet inside, despite having stood under the hot sun on the edge of a desert, and the plaster hasn't endured. [monoatomic gold]
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