My Great Pyramid Adventure

I ticked a mark off my Bucket list last Saturday 10 Dec 2016

For many years I have dreamed of visiting the great Pyramid of Egypt on the Giza plateau. By this I mean the Pyramid of Khufu which stands alongside the Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure. But it is the great pyramid itself which intrigues and fascinates researchers and dilettantes such as I. 

Here I am with Barry my colleague from El Gouna School, as we walked onto the Giza plateau. 

Standing in front of the Great Pyramid of Kafre

I had obviously decided I was definitely going inside the great Pyramid, and paid my 200 LE just for the privilege. 

They have made the entrance easier by placing smaller steps on the huge blocks and you can make your way to the entrance that was apparently punched through by a ninth century Caliph al Ma'mun of Cairo

I didn't actually take a photo of the entrance so found this pic that matched my experience. The actual entrance is clearly visible above. I was not sure why its not used today and does appear to be blocked. The small opening to the right below is where we went in.

You Tube video showing the entrance to the Pyramid

The "Official Story" of the entrance 

In the ninth century an Arab governor of Cairo, known as the Caliph al Ma'mun, decided to see for himself what lay inside the Great pyramid and began to excavate a tunnel bodily through the casing and core blocks. Fortuitously for the Caliph, their busy tunnelling shook the structure so much that the capstone fell off the end of the ascending passage. 

The resonating crash was heard by the workers, who dug in that direction and found not only the descending passage, but also the ascending passage and all the upper chambers in the pyramid. After thousands of years lying undisturbed deep inside the pyramid, the King's and Queen's chambers were opened at last and their treasure would soon belong to the Caliph. 

Except they found nothing inside. Now that's an intriguing question. . .

Heres a video of the entrance tunnel dung by Caliph al Ma'mun, I filmed this on my way out bear in mind and you can see at the beginning a lower stair case leading to the Queen's chanber, which for whatever reason is out of bounds.
 I do apologise for the bad sound quality of the video my phone just wasn't behaving this day of all days . . . !!

After a slightly winding tunnel entrance and passing the descending tunnel,  We find ourselves at the beginning of the very narrow and cramped and claustrophobic ascending tunnel. 

This mercifully comes to an end and broadens out into a high steeply ascending 'hallway' they call the 'grand gallery' 

 Again apologise for the poor sound quality. . . My impression was, Firstly, wow here I am. . ta dah  !                                                                                                     I have seen this on countless videos and books, but here I am actually inside. It has another entrance which splits the gallery in half, I must admit I am a bit puzzled about which entrance goes to the Queens chamber, since we passed another one nearer the entrance. Anyway you can't go into this entrance as it too has a gate that is locked, but it splits the walkway in two, so you climb up a ladder and continue your climb on either side of this 'entrance' upwards towards the 'Kings Chamber" . . .

Then I thought somehow I thought it would be larger, not that it was small. . . but I got that idea. Then I thought this Pyramid is enormous they could fit any number of passageways and chambers in it. Indeed this question has often be raised, but no further exploration has ever been properly done.  

This is the actual entrance to the Kings chamber, it is linked to the 'grand gallery by a small passageway that is also very narrow and cramped. The guard at the top of the grand gallery presumably watching over the Kings chamber shouted down at me when he saw my cell phone.              You are not allowed to film or photograph the inside of the Pyramid. 

But after I entered the 'Kings Chamber' the guard took my phone! I thought he was either going to confiscate it or force me to erase my pics! But instead he took a series of pics and asked me to pose at various positions. I was very pleased of course. . . then he inevitably asked me for money, which I had left in bag at the bottom with the guide. . . 

This is the famous 'Sarcophagus' of Pharaoh Khufu. 

BUT IS IT?

I would like to explore this idea in further blogs, but it is not a new subject.

Firstly, the only people who managed to break into the Pyramid found it exactly as we see it today. 

Then, the granite Box is in fact not that big! When one considers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen an exceedingly minor and insignificant king, his boxes of sarcophagi would never be able to fit into this granite box. 

According to the research, the average ancient Egyptian adult (male and female) could lay down inside the Coffer with about 188 mm (5.5 in.) clearance to spare at their head and feet. Not a lot of head and foot room, but a body could fit, provided they were not wearing a headdress and other large outer garments. When one considers the mummification process it becomes far too cramped to fit much more than an unadorned body in there. 

 The sarcophagus is slightly larger than the Ascending Passage, which indicates that it must have been placed in the Chamber before the roof was put in place. 

The Coffer was carved out of a single block of red Aswan granite and hollowed out similar to how a carpenter would hollow out a block of wood with an auger — the spiral markings on the inners sides tells us this. Engineers have estimated it would require very hard bits (some precious stone?) and an overhead pressure of 1-2 tons.

The four sides are about 6 inches thick and the base is about 7 inches thick. There is also a lip along the inside edge of the top that hints of a lid, but no lid has ever been found. . . The broken corner is the result of people chiseling pieces from of the Coffer to take home with them as a souvenir. . . 

Then theres another problem: 

Granite sarcophagus that were used during the Old Kingdom (2500 BC) had designs inscribed on their exterior. In later years, the sarcophagus had more elaborate designs and inscriptions on them. The stone Coffer inside the King's Chamber of the GP has NO designs nor any inscriptions. Nothing. Nothing to denote any (special) purpose whatsoever.

THE CHAMBER                                                                     

WAS THE KING'S CHAMBER A TOMB?

There is no physical evidence to support this theory. None. No funerary text, no hieroglyphics, nor any artefacts have ever been found to support the idea that the Chamber was a tomb. At best, the only physical evidence found to support anything are the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the upper relieving chambers that simply (and perhaps fraudulently?) suggest the GP was built during Khufu's reign.

Our Guides name was 'Gad' did a really great job

Next Stop Cairo museum

What is Very interesting to me is that so many artists and art teachers have a strong connection and fascination for ancient Egypt.

The most well known one was Howard Carter the famous discoverer of Tutankhamen's tomb in the valley of the Kings. and yes indeed he began his career as an artist.

"He spent much of his childhood with relatives in the Norfolk market town of Swaffham, the birthplace of both his parents. Nearby was the mansion of the Amherst family, Didlington Hall, containing a magnificent collection of Egyptian antiques, which sparked Carter's interest in that subject. In 1891 the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF), on the prompting of Mary Cecil, sent Carter to assist an Amherst family friend, Percy Newberry, in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan." (taken from Wikipedia)

The Entrance to the Tutankhamen exhibit with a great diagram of his tomb at the valley of the Kings

 I saw the relics of Tutankhamen at the Egyptian museum in Cairo and the most beautiful object among them was his funerary mask and gold covered coffers 

This is a pic I found but this is exactly what I saw.

I stood looking down at this coffin and tried to sneak in a picture. Here's the best I could do with my phone down on my belt trying not to be caught. . . 

There was a guard standing there who was stopping people from taking pictures, it was just in this particular section of the museum.

Very frustrating when to be sure it was the most beautiful and awe inspiring artefact in the whole museum. 

This is what the funerary mask looks like on its display, again I had to dig this pic up off the internet, since we were not allowed to take pics in this room but this is exactly what we saw.

Why we cant take pics so annoying but we could take pics of the other stuff which was amazing, but i have to say these objects are quite breathtaking. 

I took this shot from the outside looking into the room, best I could do. . . 
But that mask is very beautiful. . . You really have to see it for yourself.







More amazing artefacts it was really wonderful to get to see all this.

To be continued. . .