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EXACTLY what drove two men to pretend to be archaeologists and hack off pieces of the Great Pyramid? Atlantis. It's a tale of cranks, conspiracies and an ancient cartouche. The Great Pyramid of Khufu (also known as Cheops) on the Giza Plateau is the largest pyramid in Egypt and the only surviving example of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The cartouche? It's an ancient red-pigment scribble deep inside the Great Pyramid said to be the linchpin in identifying who it was actually built for. Is it an authentic ancient Egyptian depiction of his name, or a 19th century...

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dating back to the days of the Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops in the Fourth Dynasty, the harbor dates back 4,500 years. The Great Pyramid of Giza serves as the tomb of Khufu, who died around 2566 B.C. The harbor was built on the Red Sea shore in the Wadi al-Jarf area, 112 miles south of Suez. The harbor was discovered by a French-Egyptian mission from the French Institute for Archaeological Studies. The site "predates by more than 1,000 years any other port structure known in the world," according to the mission's director, Pierre...

I have solved riddle of the Sphinx, says Frenchman By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent (Filed: 14/12/2004) Archaeologists, who are able to tell us who built the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, have puzzled over the riddle of the Sphinx for generations. The identity of the ruler who ordered the building of the 65ft high, 260ft long limestone half-human statue that has guarded the Giza Plateau for 4,500 years has been lost in the sands of time. Workers on the Sphinx in a television reconstruction Now, following a 20-year re-examination of historical records and uncovering new evidence, Vassil Dobrev, a French Egyptologist,...

The first one belongs to Princess Mersankh, the granddaughter of King Khufu. This tomb was originally built for her mother, Queen Hetepheres II, but on Mersankh's sudden death the tomb was donated to her. The tomb was discovered in 1927 by archaeologist George Reisner where a black granite sarcophagus was found along with a set of Canopic jars, and a limestone statue depicting Queen Hetepheres II embracing her daughter. The sarcophagus is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo while the statue is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The second tomb belongs to Seshem-Nefer, the overseer of...

A Japanese University has provided a $10million grant to help see the reconstruction of one of the oldest known boats in the world, and the process has begun this week in Egypt, near the Giza Pyramid. With the help of the grant from Waseda University archaeologists on Monday began restoration on the 4,500-year-old almost 140ft (43 metre) so-called 'solar barque', which has shown signs of being used during the life of its owner Khufu(King Cheops) but was apparently also meant to carry him into the afterlife. Its 'sister' boat has already been restored and is housed in a specially built...

CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian and Japanese archaeologists on Thursday began to unearth an ancient boat belonging to King Khufu and buried near the Giza pyramids for more than 4,500 years. > t is one of two boats belonging to King Khufu, or Cheops, a fourth dynasty ruler who built the Great Pyramid of Giza. Solar boats were buried with the Pharaohs in the belief that they would carry them to the afterlife. The boat was first discovered in 1987 in a large pit covered by 41 limestone blocks, weighing 16 tons each. >

Markings in red paint found within the Great Pyramid by a camera-toting robot are likely numerals used by builders. THE GIST Hieroglyphs written in red paint on the floor of a hidden chamber in Egypt's Great Pyramid are numerical signs.The builders of the pyramid simply recorded the total length of the southern shaft from the Queen's Chamber: 121 cubits.Multiples of 7, 9 and 11 cubits occur frequently in the design of the Great pyramid.

A robot has sent back the first images of markings on the wall of a tiny chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt that have not been seen for 4500 years. It has also helped settle the controversy about the only metal known to exist in the pyramid, and shows a "door" that could lead to another hidden chamber. The pyramid is thought to have been built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu, and is the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing. It contains three main chambers: the Queen's Chamber, the Grand...

The Egyptians started building the Great Pyramid of Giza on August 23, 2470 B.C., according to controversial new research that attempts to place an exact date on the start of the ancient construction project. A team of Egyptian researchers arrived at the date based on calculations of historical appearances of the star Sothis—today called Sirius. Every year around the time of the Nile River floods, Sothis would rise in the early morning sky after a long absence. "The appearance of this star indicates the beginning of an inundation period" for the Nile, said team leader Abdel-Halim Nur El-Din, former head...

The 4,500-year-old vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat removed in pieces from another pit in 1954 and painstakingly reconstructed. Experts believe the boats were meant to ferry the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid in the afterlife. Starting Saturday, tourists were allowed to view images of the inside of the second boat pit from a camera inserted through a hole in the chamber's limestone ceiling. The video image, transmitted onto a small TV monitor at the site, showed layers of crisscrossing beams and planks on the floor of the dark pit... Experts will begin removing around 600...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian authorities suffered a setback Wednesday in their plan to send a 35-member team to drape Egypt's Great Pyramid at Giza with the flags of the world's 57 Muslim countries. The chairman of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the body responsible for the Giza site, said in Cairo that he would not allow it to be draped. "This cannot take place," chairman Zahi Hawass said. "The pyramid cannot be draped by any person in this world. Nobody is allowed to do this." Malaysia's Defense Minister Najib Razak announced the project during a ceremony Tuesday, when...

CAIRO -- Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a number of rare Pharaonic seals of soldiers sent out on desert missions in search of red paint to decorate the Pyramids, Egypt's culture minister said on April 28. The 26 matchbox-sized seals belonged to Cheops, who ruled from 2551 to 2528 BC, in whose honor the greatest of the great pyramids of Giza southwest of Cairo was built, and show Pharaonic soldiers' ranks, the MENA news agency quoted Farouq Hosni as saying. "These seals were used by a mission sent by Cheops to collect ferric oxide, which is necessary to make red paint,"...

A new robot, currently being designed by a Singaporean university, will hopefully explore the bowels of the Great Pyramid next year, a noted Egyptologist said on Wednesday. "The manufacturing of the robot will start in October, with the university footing the bill. The exploration will likely start next year," Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters. "Stone doors inside the Great Pyramid could not just be there as an ornament. They must have a function and hide something behind them," he said. "They could not just be there for dead King Cheops (Khufu) to slip...

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...

Kheops [Khufu, building of the Great Pyramid] was succeeded by Djedefre, his oldest surviving son. The mother of Djedefre is unknown. He married his (half-) sister Hetepheres II, which may have been to legitimise his claims to the throne if his mother was one of Kheops’ lesser wives... The Turin King-list credits him with a rule of 8 years, but the highest known year referenced to during this reign was the year of the 11th cattle count. This would mean that Djedefre ruled for at least 11 years, if the cattle counts were anual, or 21 years if the...

Robot made in Singapore to reveal secrets of pyramids August 07, 2004 The Supreme Council of Antiquities SCA Secretary-General Dr. Zahi Hawwas said the secrets of the pyramids will be revealed next year, noting that the council agreed with a Singaporean University to manufacture a robot for revealing what are behind the secret doors inside the pyramid, especially the second and the third ones. He added that work is underway in the radar project that will be used in revealing what is inside the ground between the second Pyramid and the Sphinx. This came during the meeting that was held...

The Great Pyramid of Khufu has always fascinated people because it is the only ancient wonder of the world that exists today. It is also possible people are fascinated because Khufu’s pyramid, especially the interior, is very complex. The modern entrance to the pyramid was created in the Ninth Century A.D. by el-Mamoun son of Haroun el-Rhasied. The true entrance is above this one. This passage goes down through the pyramid, and then connects to another corridor that ascends to the King’s and Queen’s Chambers. The original passage continues downwards into an unfinished chamber directly under the pyramid. Discussion about...

Khufu and the chamber of secrets November 28 2002 at 02:24PM By Owen Coetzer History calls it a tomb. Yet no mummy was ever found in it. It is attributed to the 4th Dynasty pharaoh Khufu, (Cheops in Greek) yet the only reference to his name is upside-down in red paint on some quarry blocks discovered by sheer accident in an almost totally inaccessible pressure-relieving vault high above the so- called King's Chamber. In fact, no inscriptions of any kind appear anywhere in the Great Pyramid. And absolute proof is still needed - after some 4 500 years - to...

Khufu and the chamber of secrets November 28 2002 at 02:24PM By Owen Coetzer History calls it a tomb. Yet no mummy was ever found in it. It is attributed to the 4th Dynasty pharaoh Khufu, (Cheops in Greek) yet the only reference to his name is upside-down in red paint on some quarry blocks discovered by sheer accident in an almost totally inaccessible pressure-relieving vault high above the so-called King's Chamber. In fact, no inscriptions of any kind appear anywhere in the Great Pyramid. And absolute proof is still needed - after some 4 500 years - to attribute...