Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu

by Alexander Marmer

  Each one of the following pathways leads to the artificial canal to the underground lake that surrounds the man-made island containing Khufu’s sarcophagus:

  1. The way used by the funeral procession through the temple located at the east side of the Great Pyramid and located at the distance of forty-four meters from the bisector of the pyramid and the depth of about five to seven meters.

  2. A pathway that follows along the artificial canal situated deep inside the baffling pyramid.

  3. The so-called “dead-ended” horizontal passage of the subterranean chamber of the Great Pyramid. In the middle of the sixteen-meter appendix on the ceiling of the passage there is a plug. And beyond the plug is an inclined passage that leads to the burial place.

  4. The way from the Subterranean Chamber of the Great Pyramid through the foundation of the false well. This foundation is actually false and in reality is a stone plug, which has the following parameters: two meters wide, ten meters long and two meters filling thickness. Under this stone plug there is a continuation of the cylinder-shape opening about ten meters deep down.

  * * *

  For the next several minutes Michael and Anna remained silent, trying to comprehend what they had just read. In the meantime, Tanya brought their meals.

  “Do you remember what your father’s dying words were?” Michael finally broke the silence.

  “Sure,” Anna replied. “He gave you my business card and told you to “find four ways” along with something else that was incomprehensible.”

  “Yes,” Michael looked like he had won the lottery. “Four ways!”

  “I don’t get it,” said Anna, confused.

  “The number of the pathways in Kirilov’s paper is that magic number four,” Michael explained, pointing to the paper.

  “Oh Michael, you are absolutely right. Do you think there is any connection between these numbers?”

  “I think there is a direct connection. Your father and Kirilov might be speaking the same language after all.”

  Anna gave him a strange look.

  “I mean they both speak the language of archeology,” said Michael, grinning.

  “If that’s true, then we need to check this out,” said Anna. “Are you still in?” she asked, holding out her right hand.

  “We’re in this together, whatever this is,” Michael said proudly, bringing his hand up to shake Anna’s. “But now I need to use the bathroom.”

  Michael returned to the table looking even more tired and sad.

  Anna was finishing her warm dinner. “Is something the matter?” she asked.

  “I’ve got bad news.” Michael said, looking at the bill Tanya had dropped off. “I decided to call Kirilov’s apartment. His nephew answered the phone and told me that Kirilov is unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit.

  “Oh no! What should we do now?” asked Anna.

  “You know what, we can’t really help Kirilov, but let’s go to the library in the morning to check out Herodotus’ book, “The Histories.” Maybe he will tell us something more,” said Michael. He stashed Kirilov’s letter inside the cigar box, sliding it back into his backpack and zipping it up. He pulled out his phone and calculated how much they needed to pay for the meal.

  As they waited outside the café to catch a cab, Michael could see their waitress showing off the American dollars she had received from her customers. He smiled to himself.

  A short time later they were safely at their hotel. As they entered the building, they were surprised to see many local couples patronizing the hotel at such a late hour. As they learned later, the hotel is popular among local couples that stay no longer than an hour in their rooms, since their apartments are small and often shared with extended families. This is the only privacy they can find for a small amount of their own private, happy time.

  Chapter 39

  Memphis, Egypt

  2583 B.C.

  Khufu, the pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, the Lord of Egypt and beloved by Ra the sun god, sat on a high terrace gazing thoughtfully at the silent and lifeless desert known as the Land of the Dead. Upper and Lower Egypt were united by his predecessors, so his kingdom stretched thousands of miles along the Nile River. The taxes collected from the neighboring nations flowed like a shining golden river into his treasury. The greatness of the pharaoh, the living god, was commensurate with his dazzling wealth and solemn rituals. Only immortality, the highest goal of all human imaginations, remained his last mission.

  All pharaohs were consumed with their life beyond the grave. Since the ancient times it was believed that at birth all human beings are endowed with Ba, the soul, and Ka, the person’s twin. Ba, depicted as a bird with a human head, can be integrated with the body to become one, but also exist away from it. Depicted as raised hands, Ka seemed to be real, having flesh and able to consume food. At the same time, Ka was thought to live an eternal life apart from its body and act like its guardian angel. When a person dies, their Ba and Ka leave for a period of time, returning only if they recognize the body. If the body decomposes, its spiritual twin will die and the deceased will lose their chance for eternal life. To live for eternity, the body must retain its own image. This was made possible through the mummification process. The body was preserved with special solutions and wrapped with linen soaked in aromatic resins: no expense was spared.

  In order to ensure its preservation, however, the mummy had to be hidden away from tomb robbers. Pre-dynastic rulers were buried inside secret wells in the far outskirts of the desert. These burial sites were often plundered. Later, huge royal tombs with mastabas, enormous flat rectangular roofs with outward sloping sides, were used. The first giant step-pyramid constructed was for Pharaoh Djoser. His architect, Imhotep, realized that in order to securely hide the needle there needed to be a haystack.

  Getting away from the maddening crowds, Khufu found solace and peace on the Nile’s left bank where the rocky spurs of the Mokattam plateau dissected the endless horizon of the Libyan Desert. The cliffs created the appearance of a notched barrier to the west beyond which stretched the silent desert. When he traveled around the imposing cliffs he never ceased to marvel; the peaks of the three cliffs captivated his imagination. An immense cliff located to the north and situated away from the others especially mesmerized Khufu. His priests related perplexing legends of the mysteries deep inside the cliff’s womb. It was said to contain the treasury and sanctuary of the god Thoth, depicted as a man with the head of Ibis, the god of wisdom and numeracy, the keeper of the secrets of life and the protector of the dead. Thoth was the one who, together with the Goddess of the Truth, would someday escort him to eternal life.

  From his first day Pharaoh Khufu had considered his eternal resting place. Countless pharaohs had gone into the realm of eternal darkness, but only the names of the most powerful and recently deceased stayed in human commemoration. The names of the others were erased by the ruthlessness of time. He might be doomed to be forgotten in some distant cave, his earthly traces gradually swept away by the squeaky sand. Reflected in these disturbing images, Pharaoh Khufu’s sun-god earthly life seemed like a burden.

  As he returned to his palace, Khufu stood on his solar boat looking back at the tallest cliff basking in the sundown rays of the sacred disc, Ra. As a farewell, a last greenish ray slashed along the cliff’s crest. It was something marvelous, unearthly; a fragment of eternity that had swooped down and bonded with his immortal soul and mortal body. I should place my eternal home here, next to Thoth’s sanctuary, which stores the secret of our heavenly origin, Khufu thought. Leaving the Mokattam cliffs behind, Khufu promised himself he would come back for good, for eternity.

  Sailing briskly along the Nile, Khufu envisioned an edifice where no one would disturb his eternal rest, a pyramid engineered to be inaccessible to anyone who would ever dare to desecrate it. But who would be able to understand and implement his majestic plan? A
nd where would he find somebody like Pharaoh Djoser’s great architect Imhotep?

  Back at his Memphis palace, Khufu walked to his mother’s room. Queen Hetepheres eyes brightened at the sight of her son. Blonde with dark blue eyes, she sat proudly in her gold chair. Khufu bowed respectfully. After describing his plans and thoughts, she nodded, “You are the exalted pharaoh and your eternal tomb should be grand.”

  “But who can be trusted with constructing it?”

  The queen sat quietly. Finally she answered, “I think you should invite our High Priest, HemIwno. He is experienced, energetic and loyal.” Khufu meditated and shortly made his decision.

  The High Priest, HemIwno, appeared at the appointed time and bowed low. As he raised his head, his cold eyes considered his ruler with an imperious gaze.

  Khufu spoke, “It is time to think about my house of eternity. I’m appointing you to be Vizier, the Chief Architect, and entrusting you to engineer and build the greatest structure ever erected in our land. Everything will be at your disposal. If you accomplish it, you will be glorified for centuries to come.”

  The High Priest’s eyes lit up at the thought of creating something unprecedented. After a long conversation, Khufu noted with satisfaction that by the grace of the gods his choice was successful; his mother always gave him good advice. HemIwno had asked for thirty days to come up with the plan’s first outline and the preliminary calculations. Khufu grinned with anticipation.

  The hoary head of the High Priest, and now Chief Architect, was reverently bowed as he went his way, deep in thought. He adored the grand beauty and craftsmanship of the pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser, who died nearly a hundred years before. Djoser’s seven-step pyramid was the country's first stone building of that magnitude. If he accomplished his pharaoh’s will, his name would be just as Imhotep’s, glorified for the millenniums ahead. His stopped, gazing at the spiky ridges of the northern cliff. He needed to penetrate its secrets and find in its winding cracks the key to encasing it within a pyramid, a daunting task.

  HemIwno strode through the gloomy temple where stone gods guarded the secrets of the priests. In his chambers he took out a roll of papyrus containing a record of external materials and tools, looked at it and threw it down in frustration. He needed something extraordinary. His eye caught the corner of the papyrus. Its acute vertex was … HemIwno jumped. He realized the sacred structure should be shaped like the bent pyramid of Pharaoh Sneferu, the founder of the fourth dynasty and Pharaoh Khufu’s father. Yet, it should be of slightly different proportions and unprecedented dimensions so it could encase the massive cliff. The ideas began flowing. The pyramid would be unadorned, its grandeur in its simplicity. The peak would draw the eye upward. The apex would rise above the valley and be the first to greet the morning light of the god Ra, long before its sunrays dispelled the darkness at the base of the pyramid. The Chief Architect began some preliminary calculations.

  A few days later, his preliminary sketches were complete. An excellent designer, he had long tinkered with the calculations and, finally, after many efforts found it to be of unprecedented dimensions! He was overwhelmed by the resulting value and at the same time, proud of the novelty of his method. Using another papyrus, he designed the burial chamber. He provided ventilation channels that would pierce the masonry and emerge near the top. After much thought, he traced all false moves going up and down, and a preliminary schematic of treacherous traps with huge overhanging rocks that would crush anyone who dared to disturb the peace of his pharaoh. He felt ready to present it to Pharaoh Khufu. Yet, one thought haunted his mind.

  At the palace, the high priest opened a scroll and began his presentation. Slightly on edge, he spoke passionately and persuasively. From the beginning, Khufu seemed to be skeptic and tensed as if preparing to jump into a fight. Toward the end of the presentation, however, the young pharaoh eased up, visibly satisfied.

  “There is only one delicate issue that remains,” HemIwno said, looking deeply concerned.

  Khufu looked at him curiously.

  “In order for the pyramid to retain its secrets, one of the workers has to be left behind. Someone has to set all the traps in motion, but no one must know the secret.”

  Pharaoh Khufu remained quiet for a while and finally nodded his approval. “Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. The integrity of the pyramid cannot be compromised. May the god Thoth ease his sufferings and escort him peacefully to the underworld.”

  HemIwno bowed respectfully and asked for three months in order to finalize the project.

  Chapter 40

  The Great Pyramid, Giza Plateau, Egypt

  820 A.D.

  He could not believe his eyes: at his feet lay a dehydrated corpse. A tomb robber? But Al-Mamun, the son of the Caliph of Baghdad, was absolutely sure that nobody had ever been inside the Great Pyramid. They had thoroughly searched the Great Pyramid’s exterior. Not even the slightest single aperture had been detected. Over the last several months his workers had been trying to crack open the colossal stone structure, spurred on by the knowledge that they would be the first ones inside!

  But there was this corpse.

  Was it the pharaoh himself that somehow had fallen out of his own sarcophagus? This seemed impossible. The ancient structure had been tightly sealed for centuries.

  Once again, Al-Mamun circled the pyramid’s hollows. He stopped inside the King’s Chamber and leaned on the empty sarcophagus. Even if the corpse was indeed Pharaoh Khufu, then where was the lid to the sarcophagus? Even if some muscular robber had managed to lift it off, it would have been impossible to carry away: the passages were too narrow. Maybe the lid had been decorated with precious stones and metals. Could the burglar have broken the lid into pieces in order to carry it away? Then why was the sarcophagus made of only simple, dark granite without any decorations or carvings?

  Al-Mamun looked around the empty room with its polished red-granite blocks; this room did not look like the burial place of one of the greatest pharaohs. Pharaoh Khufu had spent more than 30 years gathering people, money and treasures from all of his subordinated lands with the simple purpose of constructing his eternal abode.

  In 820 A.D. the young Caliph Al-Mamun, son of Harun Al-Rashid from the famed “Arabian Nights,” had assembled a vast conglomeration of engineers, architects, builders and stonemasons in order to force entry into the Great Pyramid. Al-Mamun was diligently looking for the plate, which he had read about in Strabo’s writings.

  On the side of the Great Pyramid there is a stone that can be moved, and if the stone is lifted open it will expose the winding passage leading to the grave.

  But all the stones were identical. To find only one out of thousands of twins was an impossible task. Al-Mamun ordered his workers make their own entrance, but the stones and calcareous shell were so hard that the cutters and chisels could not break them. They began splitting the stones by heating them up with fires and spraying them with cold vinegar. It was exhausting drudgery, but inch-by-inch the treasure hunters got deeper and deeper inside the pyramid. For over one hundred feet, they tunneled into the pyramid’s solid core. They excavated a narrow passage that only became hotter, dustier and more constricted as they continued. Torches and candles consumed the precious oxygen and poisoned the air.

  The legends of Queen Scheherazade in the famous “Arabian Nights” recalled that there were supposed to be “thirty underground chambers made of multicolored granite alongside the fabled Holy Gallery and filled to the top with precious stones, bountiful riches, exotic images and luxurious weapons that were greased by the fats cooked by using the ancient wisdom. And there exist glass that can be bent and does not break, and different miscellaneous potions and salutary waters.” The treasures were not the only reason Caliph Al-Mamun was attracted to the Great Pyramid, he was also intrigued by the legends told by Herodotus and Strabo about the ancient steles with ancient knowledge written on them.


  Al-Mamun was about to give up when one of the workers heard something heavy falling somewhere within the pyramid. Renewing their efforts and altering the direction of the bore, the workers managed to break into a hollow path. It was a passage three and a half feet wide by almost four feet high, sloping at a steep angle of twenty-six degrees. It was the entrance Strabo had mentioned in his writings.

  Next, his workers moved in the opposite direction: down. This course led them into an empty cave with jagged, rough-hewn walls. On one wall they discovered a blackened, horizontal entrance to a passage. The workers followed the path, but after about fifty feet it was a dead-end. When the workers followed the path in the other direction, they found that after another thirty feet it ended with a well dug into the cave floor.

  Yet, Al-Mamun continued searching. He carefully examined the entrance tunnel and found a granite plug that covered the opening of yet another passage, which had never been mentioned before. Al-Mamun figured he had stumbled onto a secret, hidden passage.

  The workers tried to chip away at the granite plug, but it was tightly wedged, of indeterminate length and evidently weighed several tons. Spurred by the prospect of a new passage leading to some hidden treasure chamber, Al-Mamun ordered his men to cut around the plug through the softer limestone blocks of the surrounding walls. Even this turned out to be a huge job. After boring beyond the first granite plug, the workers encountered another granite plug, equally as hard and equally as tightly wedged. Beyond it laid yet another, third plug. Beyond the third granite plug they came upon a passage filled with a limestone plug that could be cracked with chisels and removed piece by piece.