How DARE you question me, mortal!
Posted on 09/04/2004 10:50:57 AM PDT by wagglebee
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A pair of French Egyptologists who suspect they have found a previously unknown chamber in the Great Pyramid urged Egypt's antiquities chief to reconsider letting them test their theory by drilling new holes in the 4,600-year-old structure.
Jean Yves Verd'hurt and fellow Frenchman Gilles Dormion, who has studied pyramid construction for more than 20 years, are expected to raise their views during the ninth International Congress of Egyptologists in Grenoble, France, which starts Monday. They also published a book about their theory this week.
Standing in their way is Zahi Hawass, the director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, who heatedly rejected the theories during a Cairo press conference this week.
"There are 300 theories concerning hidden rooms and other things inside the pyramid, but if I let them all test their theories they will do untold damage to the pyramid, which was built with the blood of Egyptians," said Hawass. "I will not let Egyptian blood be damaged by amateurs."
He said earlier requests from the same pair were turned down in 1999 and 2003.
In their book, "The Room of Cheops," Dormion and Verd'hurt write that 1988 study of an area below the queen's burial chamber in the pyramid found what appeared to be an 11 1/2-foot "structure," according to the French magazine Science and Future.
"The study of this part of the pyramid was always neglected because there had been a grill to block access," they wrote. "While we were working on ventilation in 1988, we were able to penetrate into the depths and study briefly but not enough to state anything essential."
Verd'hurt laughed off Hawass'"amateur" tag, citing previous close relationships with Egyptian antiquities officials and work that he and Dormion had conducted in 1998 on the Meidum pyramid south of Cairo, which dates back more than 4,500 years to the 4th pharaonic dynasty.
The work at Medium, according to Verd'hurt, led to the discovery of two rooms and two passages that had been previously "undisturbed and unknown." They want to do similar work at the Great Pyramid, built by Khufu, a ruler also known as Cheops.
"To be sure of this process, we wanted to verify the result of our architectural works using a radar that confirmed the location of a passage and a system of closures. So I think that now we should at least take these results into account in order to go further in our work."
Verd'hurt said Egyptian opposition to his theory is a "shame." They are expected to raise the issue again with Hawass in Grenoble, but the Egyptian antiquities official said he will not speak to them.
Verd'hurt said he was disappointed by Hawass' refusal.
"It's true that Cheops arouses and attracts passions but, with regard to history, it's really too bad," he said. "I think it's too bad that he doesn't sit down with us to let us explain ourselves."
Oh la la! Zey are very large at the bottom and pointy on ze top!
.....he comes off as a pompous jerk....
I cut him some slack. He is the official custodian of ancient mankind's greatest architectural, geodesic, astroomical, mathematical achievement. Letting every academic Thomas, Richard and Hanri deface the place would be unforgivable. The job in question needs to have more science brought to bear before the destructive rockwork begins.
He wakes every day and sees the noseless Sphinx, French work of a bygone era. I'd be wary of the French regardless of their credentials. A French Emperor defaced the Sphinx.
Stargate ping? :-)
Egyptians? Really? Instead of whom? Olmecs? Peace Corps volunteers? Space aliens?
He is quite good at what he does. Limited and he eats a LOT (most Jaffa do), but good.
I believe the Pyramids are a 3D Origami folded version of an earlier French/Gaul surrender flag.
North European Druids. Refugees from Atlantis. Nubians. No, Hawass goes against the flow and asserts it was Egyptians.
It takes guts for an Egyptian to assert, in Egypt, that the Egyptian pyramids were built by Egyptians. My hat's off to Mr. Hawass!
From everything I've ever read about Hawass, he comes off as a pompous jerk.
Hawass worships himself. Haven't you seen the pompous, self-serving b@$tard slime his way through his well-rehearsed "discoveries" on National Geographic specials?
Egypt is terminally stupid for putting such a phony in charge of their priceless antiquities...
That is actually incorrect. Napoleon had nothing to do with the damage to the Sphinx.
from http://www.napoleonseries.org/faq/sphinx.cfm
"Over the centuries the Great Sphinx has suffered severely from weathering...Man has been responsible for additional mutilation. In 1380 A.D. the Sphinx fell victim to the iconoclastic ardor of a fanatical Muslim ruler, who caused deplorable injuries to the head. Then the figure was used as a target for the guns of the Mamluks."
This accusation is most often leveled at Napoleon Bonaparte, who is said to have shot the nose off the Sphinx -a claim that is manifestly incorrect, not only because earlier western representations of the Sphinx depict it with its nose missing (for example, the drawing published in 1755 by Frederick Norden) but also because medieval Arabic texts attribute the damage to a Muslim fanatic in the fourteenth century CE."
Did the mechanical engineer check with chemical engineers to verify the existence or an explanation of their absence, of chemical residues from such an operation?
Did he detail the chemicals, and how much would have been required? Explain where they came from or how they were produced? How they were transported? What supporting infrastructure would have been required?
What was the 'power' used for; how was it transmitted/carried/stored; where are the devices it powered?
Why are there no records of this?
Not asking you to explain it; just wondering if his book did?
If he did, was it at all plausible; or, just an 'interesting read'?
What was the purpose of the power plant?
A video for the engineer in your life that has everything. And I got to tell you, I think this guy is onto something.
http://theforgottentechnology.com/Page1.htm
Look out for the Doughnuts though Murry!
The damned things were the earliest landfills, that's why the lower layers have no access.
The symbiote will take care of them. Along with that questionable burrito T'ealc ingested during the episode.
I've gotta be dyslexic.. I read that as "Apophis is not a dog."
I'm going to go increase my caffiene intake now.
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