Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu

by Alexander Marmer

  “Yes, Inspector,” said the Detective. He removed his police radio and started barking several orders into it. The Inspector was deep in thought. The Detective nodded at his Inspector.

  As they walked outside, the Inspector said, “Detective, please gather all the possible information you can find on the Medjay tribe activities and especially Chief Jibade.”

  “Yes, Inspector.”

  “Something is not right here. Chief Jibade knows certain details that he couldn’t possibly know. I want to know his source.”

  “Inspector, do you really expect Schulze’s daughter and the American to call you?”

  “Oh, I’m sure of that. Knowing the tactics my friend Jibade uses, it won’t be long.” After making his dire prediction, the Inspector got inside his police vehicle and sped away from the hotel.

  Chapter 46

  Windsor Hotel, Cairo, Egypt

  Tuesday, September 26

  5:00 a.m.

  At precisely five o’clock the next morning, Michael was abruptly awakened. Sleepy and dazed, he lifted his head from the pillow. The alarming sound of the muezzin, the one appointed to call the faithful to prayer, blared from a nearby minaret and seemed to be echoing over the entire city. Two hours and a brief continental breakfast later, Michael and Anna were boarding the tour bus, “Sakkara Tours.”

  On the way to the pyramids, their delightful tour guide, Hatima, educated her thirty tourists about the Great Pyramid’s known facts with her soft, soothing voice. Everyone listened with genuine interest as Hatima reported the standard information on which modern Egyptology stands today: the Great Pyramid was ransacked in ancient times of which you can personally be convinced after glancing at the empty lidless sarcophagus; it was constructed with the aid of the mounds or by supplying the blocks on the steps of the already constructed part; the Great Pyramid was built by using 2.3 million limestone blocks; the mentioning by the Father of History, Herodotus, of an underground island, on which allegedly stands the sarcophagus with the mummy of the Pharaoh Khufu, is nothing more than a fairy tale.

  On his first trip to Egypt, Michael had been completely satisfied with the tour guide’s information. But that was last week. Now things were different. “Can you believe it?” Michael whispered to Anna, visibly frustrated. “I heard that same nonsense last week and it hasn’t changed a bit.”

  “Michael,” said Anna, looking directly into his eyes, “you are forgetting that we are the only ones who know the real story, which nobody is going to believe unless we find solid evidence about what we heard from Kirilov.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Michael agreed, sighing. The tour bus pulled over in front of the northeastern side of the pyramid site. “Give me a minute, I want to speak to our tour guide.”

  “Don’t do it, Michael,” Anna said as he got up. As she passed him on her way out, Anna murmured, “She’s not gonna believe you anyway.”

  Michael started describing to Hatima just a small part of what he had heard from Kirilov. Halima displayed polite interest; however, she doubted Michael’s intention of visually verifying something inside the Great Pyramid.

  “Let’s be realistic,” Hatima said doubtfully. “After Caliph Al-Mamun broke into the inner hollows of the Great Pyramid, it was repeatedly rummaged in all possible ways. Millions of tourists come here every year, stepping on the same passages as millions prior to them. If there was something out of the ordinary, I’m pretty sure somebody from the crowd of tourists, guides, scientists and Egyptologists would notice something, right?” she paused, staring skeptically at Michael.

  Michael noticed the skepticism in her voice. But her point definitely made sense. Millions and millions of people had visited the Great Pyramid throughout time, extensively in the last two centuries. Any realistic person would definitely agree that if there was something hidden inside the Great Pyramid, it would have been found already. Michael decided there was no point in arguing, at least, not yet. He thanked the tour guide and soon caught up to Anna.

  “How did it go?” she asked with a snicker.

  “Well, pretty much the way you predicted,” he replied gloomily. “And I know what you wanna say.”

  Anna slowed down and gazed at him. “Really?”

  “I told you so,” said Michael, mimicking Anna’s voice.

  Anna chuckled.

  “Well, at least she told me the magic word,” Michael commented as they continued walking toward the three big pyramids.

  “What’s that?”

  “She helped me come up with a reasonable amount of baksheesh to offer in negotiations with the pyramid’s guards.”

  “Backsplash?” Anna asked, smiling.

  “No, silly,” Michael grinned, “we are not trying to remodel your kitchen here. Baksheesh is an Arabic word meaning a tip or a little extra payment for exceptional service. Hatima explained to me that Egyptians are very proud people, so they refuse to beg. Instead, they operate under a powerful concept called baksheesh, which loosely translated means, ‘share the wealth.’”

  “Basically, it’s a bribe, right?”

  “Well, more like an aggressive form of tipping. Kind of like, you’ve got it and I don’t, so give some of whatever you got to me. Hatima told me that baksheesh could be taken to ridiculous heights. For example, if you ask directions from someone on the street, chances are that person will expect baksheesh. Since nobody begs, the idea of a welfare system seems insulting to Egyptians. They earn their money, no matter how little the money or the work. I wish that idea existed back home in the States.”

  “So how is baksheesh going to help us?”

  “Hopefully it will unlock some tightly closed doors,” Michael answered mysteriously.

  At the ticket office they stood in line and purchased their coveted tickets, as only 300 tourists are allowed in the Great Pyramid each day. As they walked away from the lines, Michael said, “From now on, I will go alone. I’ll have a better chance to negotiate with the security guard,” he said pointing to the guard who stood in front of the gated entrance.

  “I understand,” Anna said quietly. “I’ll be waiting for you here in the shade.

  “Excellent.”

  “Just promise me something.” Anna paused as her eyes filled with tears.

  “Anything, just name it.”

  “Promise me that you’ll show me where my father died.”

  “Dear Anna,” Michael tenderly placed his hand on Anna’s shoulder. “I will take you there, I promise.”

  Anna nodded her head and turned to find a seat in the shade. Michael looked at the Great Pyramid looming above him in the morning sun and started walking.

  “Be careful!” she shouted as Michael started climbing the stairs.

  “I will!” Michael called back to her.

  There are two entrances almost next to each other on the northern side of the Great Pyramid: Al-Mamun’s and the original entrance. In 820 A.D. Caliph Al-Mamun’s workers dug the entrance where tourists are allowed to enter today. This tunnel is aptly named the ‘Robber’s Tunnel.’ The pyramid’s original entrance is located higher and to the left of Al-Mamun’s.

  When Michael arrived at the top of the stairs at the Robber’s Tunnel, he was greeted by the sight of a sleepy ticket collector donned in a mustard-colored galabeya, a traditional Islamic shirt lengthened all the way to the feet. Michael handed the man his ticket and took a deep breath before diving into the millennial gloom.

  It was his second journey inside the Great Pyramid within a week’s period, but this time was different. Instead of blindly stepping over the beaten path, Michael took baby steps as he ran his palms along the tunnel’s walls in a pat-down motion.

  After about ninety feet the tunnel turned sharply left, where it met some stones that blocked its continuation. Al-Mamun’s workers had been unable to move the stones, so they had dug around them. This passag
eway continued toward the Ascending Passage. It is at this point where the Descending Passage connects with the Ascending Passage. The original entrance leading into the Descending Passage is blocked. The ticket purchased in the kiosk does not give the visitor the right to enter the Descending Passage leading to the grotto. It only allows the purchaser to go upward to the King’s and Queen’s chambers.

  Al-Mamun’s passage was rough as it twisted like a snake-shaped tunnel into the interior of the pyramid. It was in complete contrast with the smooth passages of the rest of the pyramid. Michael decided to crawl under the low arches of Al-Mamun’s passage in order to completely perceive the contrast. What a bonanza that I returned here, he thought as he suddenly noticed one additional and very important difference between the two passages. The walls and ceiling of Al-Mamun’s passage were coarse from the forceful use of chisels and hammers. Michael turned and looked at the two passages that almost converged near the end of Al-Mamun’s hacked entrance.

  The walls and the ceilings of the Descending and Ascending Passages seemed virtually polished in comparison to Al-Mamun’s. Looking closely, Michael was able to observe the surface of the original passages. He noticed some distinguished notches and small chippings, but they were strikingly different from Al-Mamun’s as there was only some trifling roughness.

  What does this difference signify? Al-Mamun’s workers revealed what could be achieved by digging through the thickness of the limestone even though their chisels and hammers were made of the finest Damascus steel. The builders of the Great Pyramid, however, used primitive copper and granite tools. If they were digging in the limestone in the same manner as Al-Mamun’s workers, they would have been unable to attain the smooth surface finish.

  For a second, Michael imagined himself back inside Kirilov’s apartment surrounded by Kirilov’s comforting voice. “Remember, the ancient Egyptians cut their future passages on the exposed surface of the limestone rock. During the construction stages of the Great Pyramid these passages served as inclined flat surfaces in order to transport multi-ton limestone blocks in the upward direction.”

  Michael pondered the skepticism he had met back at the tour bus with the tour guide. Yes, it went against common sense to think that more could possibly be found after millions had passed here before him. But Michael was the first one armed with Kirilov’s hypothesis and it worked perfectly.

  Well, now what? Upward, according to the purchased tickets or downward where the way is shielded by the locked iron gate? He did not hesitate. Squaring his shoulders he commenced climbing to the entrance currently barred to the general public.

  The guard watching over the Descending Passage saw Michael and winked understandably several times, signaling for him to wait. A group of tourists from Italy came through and then disappeared past the turning point. When the guard and Michael were alone at last, the guard whispered the magic word, “Baksheesh.”

  “How much?” Michael asked quickly.

  “100 Egyptian pounds.”

  Michael shook his head and started to turn, as if to go back to the Ascending Passage.

  The guard grabbed Michael’s hand, “OK, agreed, seventy-five pounds.”

  “No.”

  Their bargaining ceased as they heard steps approaching from above. The guard signaled Michael to quickly get inside Al-Mamun’s passage as another guard passed by. After the second guard walked away, the guard called Michael back. As Michael approached the guard, he discretely displayed a fifty-pound banknote.

  As the tour guide had explained earlier, if he were to bribe the guard with 1,000 American dollars, it would instantly raise suspicions. The guard would be hesitant to let a stranger pass to the closed area in fear of some elaborate scheme. By offering the guard a relatively small amount of money and pretending that he was just a curious tourist, he would not raise the guard’s suspicions.

  The guard grabbed the bill, tucked it away and reached out to help Michael climb over the gate. Michael could see the steps leading downward in the half-darkness. As it was necessary to step carefully inside the tiny grooves alongside the stairs, the guard carefully placed Michael’s foot inside the first one.

  “Quickly!” the guard commanded when Michael was only a few feet away. Michael nodded, although he knew his journey would be anything but quick. As soon as he passed behind the turning point, the seemingly infinite Descending Passage opened up in front of him, faintly illuminated by a smooth garland of electric lamps attached to one side. Michael spun back around to take a final look back toward the entrance of the pyramid. Through the gaps in the iron gate he could see the celestial blue sky. That was the exact point from where it was possible to observe the Polar Star according to Piazzi Smyth, or the North Star Alpha Draconis according to the astronomer Richard Proctor.

  Bending down into a duck-walking position, Michael began his descent. About 130 feet down the passage Michael suddenly found himself able to stand up straight. Hmmm, I don’t remember any book mentioning this. The unknown cocoon, as Michael decided to call it, was unfortunately located in a dark niche between the lights. As he reached up, his hands rubbed against the ceiling’s friable clay. The cocoon soon became narrow both overhead and along the sides of the passage.

  Finally, the descent was over. At this point, Michael was underground where the horizontal passage of the Subterranean Chamber began. Michael estimated it was about twenty feet to the Lesser Subterranean Chamber. He was halfway there when …

  Blackout!

  The few seconds that passed by felt like an eternity. Inside the vast abyss of darkness Michael felt the gloom enveloping him.

  “Quickly!” the guard shouted from above.

  That meant Michael’s fifty Egyptian pounds had run its course already. I want to get to the well. I might not get a second chance. He kept quiet, thinking that the guard would not force him to climb back up in the darkness.

  The lights turned back on.

  Michael rejoiced and continued his journey until he noticed a visible crack, approximately four inches wide, running all the way across the floor, walls and the ceiling. It was entirely filled in with clay-like material. With mountains of books written about the Great Pyramid, why was this crack never mentioned? As he admired the crack encircling him, his mind returned to Kirilov’s cozy apartment.

  “It is rather strange,” said Kirilov, “that Egyptologists were never puzzled by the fact that one of the horizontal sections of the Subterranean Chamber is shorter than the other. It is widely known that the ancient Egyptian’s way of rationalization was based on symmetry. However, if you look closely at the diagram of the internal hollows of the Great Pyramid, the Subterranean Chamber was situated at about the axis of symmetry. If we were to continue the Descending Passage until it intersected with the well, then this line would to lead us to the plug. Now from this point on, continuing at the same angle of twenty-six degrees and thirty-four minutes, mentally picture the line extending to the opposite side. It would cross the horizontal passage of the Subterranean Chamber exactly in the middle, leaving the remaining section of the chamber to be twenty-six feet long. In this exact point, on the ceiling of the Dead-end Passage, must be a well-hidden plug closing off the other, undiscovered Inclined Passage. This hidden, Inclined Passage would lead upward until it intersected with the former road coming off the water basin. At this point is the beginning of the original path that leads to Pharaoh Khufu’s tomb. Obviously, it is hidden from the eyes.”

  Michael walked the next several feet while running both of his hands slowly across the ceiling. He knew exactly what he was looking for as Kirilov had mentioned more than once the importance of the barely-noticeable and seemingly useless seam. Several feet down the passage, to his excitement, was a shallow joint as thick as his pinky. It intersected the passage, not across its perimeter, but across the ceiling and the left eastern wall of the Subterranean Chamber.

  “This smooth join
t has an equal thickness throughout its length,” Kirilov explained as both Anna and Michael studied his 3-D diagram of a cross-section of the Great Pyramid, “and although it was created with great technical difficulties, it still seems rather pointless and peculiar at the same time. If the tunnel was lit well, then you might see something. Namely, the other seams; barely noticeable, they blend in with the joints of the walls, floor and the ceiling. The now-hidden and sealed shaft in the ceiling of the horizontal passage was the beginning of the now-hidden passage, which I would call the Inclined Passage. This hidden Inclined Passage intersects with the Dead-end Passage. The builders of the Great Pyramid thoroughly sealed the ceiling opening of the horizontal Dead-end Passage. HemIwno, the chief architect knew rather well that the Dead-end Passage he created was the key to unlocking the greatest secret of the Great Pyramid. In order to avoid this, HemIwno extended the Dead-end Passage about thirteen feet further. The logic behind it was to lure potential robbers slightly forward and away from barely noticeable seams.”

  “Mr. Kirilov,” Anna asked carefully, “what was the purpose of the Inclined Passage, if the mummy of the Pharaoh Khufu, as you mentioned earlier, was brought into his tomb through an entirely different way?”

  “That’s a very good question,” said Kirilov, visibly impressed. “Try to imagine how the pyramid builders made these passages. Iron tools were not invented for another twelve hundred years, so their arsenal consisted only of copper tools, right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “The sizes of the passages illustrate that only one stonemason could work inside it at a time. He would be working in a kneeling position, completely surrounded by darkness. They couldn’t use torches because of the rapidly depleting oxygen. The working conditions were diabolical. Imagine striking a stone against other stone and dodging pieces of rock. In order to throw away the dislodged stones, the worker had to climb outside.”