Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu

by Alexander Marmer

  “But,” Michael interrupted Kirilov, “then thousands of stonemasons would not have been able to complete the Great Pyramid within a hundred years’ time.”

  “That’s true. However, they built it in a span of thirty years. There is no reason not to trust Herodotus. So, it means HemIwno found a solution, which I finally figured out!” exclaimed Kirilov, beaming with pride.

  “What was it?” Michael asked.

  “HemIwno’s wisdom consisted in the fact,” Kirilov continued in his calm voice, “that the creation of the passages occurred not only from top to bottom, but also from bottom to top at the same time, in both directions. This method made it possible to expedite the construction process. Hammering into the rocky soil of the created passage, stonemasons were getting rid of discarded stones by throwing them down, thus never leaving the passage. Along the Inclined Passage these discarded stones were carried outside. The Inclined and Dead-end Passages were intersected at an angle, thus functioning as a continuous assembly line. The Inclined Passage joined the Descending Passage outside in the base of the rock. HemIwno was a genius.”

  Suddenly the lights went off again. Michael quickly crawled into the Lesser Subterranean Chamber and then continued toward the cave-like room known as the Subterranean Chamber as the lights were turned on again. He noticed it was becoming a real challenge to breathe.

  According to Kirilov, this chamber was surrounded on all sides by the pyramid’s rocky ground cliff. It had functioned as a major transportation link in the continuous movement of the limestone blocks. Hidden and safeguarded, the Subterranean Chamber successfully provided the transportation of the large number of building blocks toward the upper sections. The Subterranean Chamber itself did not need to be reinforced by the granite slabs, as the use of them in these conditions was not possible. Therefore, this Subterranean Chamber at the end of the construction had acquired the uneven shape of the cave because it was not meant for viewing or for future use.

  Below Michael’s feet was the well. It was the key technological aperture of the Great Pyramid and used as a drain during the construction work. When the pyramid was complete, the workers plugged the well by wedging a conical stone inside and burying it in seven feet of sand. Beneath the plug, the thirty-two feet deep well leads into the secret artificial canal, which connects the Nile River with the underground artificial lake. It is in the middle of this artificial lake where the sarcophagus containing Pharaoh Khufu’s mummy rests. For a moment, Michael was able to visualize a piece of Kirilov’s hypothesis.

  Contemporary Egyptology does not mention the plug, the well, the artificial underground canal, the underground lake or the island with the sarcophagus. In fact, it alleges that those features were a fantasy dreamt up by Herodotus. All that is known about the inside of the Subterranean Chamber is that there is a seven-foot Dead-end Passage filled with rubble leading to nowhere.

  The lights started blinking irritably. Michael took a final glance toward the Dead-end Passage at the end of the Subterranean Chamber. There was no way to get back there because it was barred by a fence and had no lights.

  The ascent took considerably longer than the descent. Michael had to stop several times and hold onto the railing in order not to slip downward. With the air shortage, he felt suffocated. Everything seemed to ripple. Limiting access to the Descending Passage made perfect sense, as it would be technically impossible to provide ventilation without damaging the Descending Passage and especially the Subterranean Chamber. If somebody started to feel ill, it would not be easy to send help down there because it was so narrow. If he had found Schulze in the Descending Passage, there would have been no way to assist him.

  At the intersection of the Descending, Ascending and Al-Mamun’s Passages the guard asked him to be quiet and squat for a moment while he checked on the entrance. After a few moments, he returned and asked Michael to say nothing about going down below.

  Before moving upward, toward the main hollows of the Great Pyramid, Michael looked closely at the very peculiar place where the two main passages, the Ascending and Descending, converged. In order to get inside the Ascending Passage, visitors have to start from the platform where the guard on duty is seated. However, to walk upward directly from the Descending Passage would be physically impossible as the point of the intersection of the two main passages is blocked by an enormous granite plug.

  “Michael, remember the granite plug that Caliph Al-Mamun stumbled upon at the end of the Descending Passage inside the Great Pyramid? It looks like this plug was hiding the Ascending Passage behind it. All of the attempts to remove or destroy the plug were unsuccessful.”

  “So, what was the purpose of this enormous piece of granite?”

  “When I examined the photos and diagrams of that plug,” Kirilov continued, “I realized that it’s not a plug at all. It’s a piece of the engineering. If this granite block did not exist, neither could the Great Pyramid with its underground burial of the Pharaoh Khufu exist. In order to create the pyramid, the builders used a rock protrusion as the base for its construction. However, the height of the rock base of the pyramid made it possible to create one more passage for further transportation of the building blocks to even higher altitudes. When HemIwno created this passage, it was subsequently named as the Ascending Passage. Since the rock base of the pyramid consisted of soft limestone, it was necessary to use granite. The enormous durability of the granite block ensured the reliability of the transportation of the limestone blocks. The granite block not only withstood the resistance of the blocks, but also the sleds filled with building blocks that moved higher and higher.”

  “So you think the purpose of this granite block,” Anna interrupted Kirilov’s thoughts for a moment, “was to hide the Ascending Passage?”

  “No,” Kirilov answered. “Egyptologists still do not know its prime designation, even today. They continue to assert that the plug was simply to hide the Ascending Passage. On the contrary, being located in plain sight at the end of the Descending Passage, it attracted attention, instigating a natural desire to explore what lay behind it. It teased and invited the unwanted, but expected, robbers to penetrate the pyramid further.”

  “That’s exactly what Al-Mamun did,” said Anna.

  “That’s right,” continued Kirilov. “Al-Mamun’s workers couldn’t break the granite, had to dig around it and found the Ascending Passage. This passage eventually led them to the upper sections of the Great Pyramid.”

  * * * * *

  “I couldn’t sit outside any longer. So, how was it? Did you find any proof to Kirilov’s theory?”

  “Anna, you can’t even imagine!” Michael whispered excitedly, his eyes shining in the semi-darkness. “Right now, I need some fresh air.”

  Anna realized at that moment that they were standing at the doorway of the greatest discovery.

  Chapter 47

  The Great Pyramid, Giza Plateau, Egypt

  Tuesday, September 26

  10:25 a.m.

  “An ancient Arab proverb says, ‘Man fears time, but time fears the pyramids,’” Michael remarked to Anna as they sat in the shade, taking a water break. “Once you hear it, don’t you feel a whiff of eternity?”

  Anna nodded thoughtfully, looking around and taking her time to fully enjoy the view.

  “You see, nowadays pyramids have the desert all around them,” said Michael, adjusting his sunglasses. “But don’t let that fool you. In ancient times, palaces, temples and other tombs surrounded them. Barks and boats stood anchored at the pier on the Nile River. Priests and artisans lived nearby in crowded neighborhoods.”

  Anna paused, admiring the breathtaking view as the brilliant morning sun warmed her face. On one hand, the man-made mountains, created by the supremacy of human ingenuity on the bare yellow plateau, impressed her with their grandeur. On the other hand, she was stunned by the Herculean human effort that employed only simple tool
s to lift up countless massive stones and assemble them in a surprisingly harmonic structure. The Great Pyramid was especially amazing and beautiful in the morning’s rays of light. It seemed that it peaked at the top of the bright blue sky, while its surface blended with the desert sand.

  “OK, it’s time for us to go in,” Michael said abruptly, nudging her. “Come on, let’s go!”

  “Wait, what’s the sudden hurry?” asked Anna, surprised.

  “I just saw the Inspector spying on us.” He paused to finish up his third bottle of water. “Come on, let’s get inside the pyramid.”

  As they started making their way to the Great Pyramid, Anna thought sadly, I’m not sure if I’m ready for this. Her head started whirling with superstitious thoughts about the curse of the pharaohs. They reached the Great Pyramid, and as Michael started climbing up the outer carved stairs, Anna paused to rest. She vividly recalled the inscription on one of the tombs: “anyone who would harm this tomb will be struck twice by the goddess Hathor, cursed by the gods and torn apart by a crocodile, hippo and a lion.” Anna looked up at Michael climbing the stairs and decided; I have to do this in memory of my father. She caught up to Michael as he was presenting their tickets to the ticket collector.

  “Shall we?” he asked, with a smile for her.

  She nodded and pushed past her fears, bravely stepping inside the 4,500 year old masonry. Once inside they started by walking around the granite plug, just as Al-Mamun’s workers had done back in the ninth century. Anna admired Al-Mamun’s persistence as they passed through the limestone tunnel. Slightly bending their heads down, they headed up the steep twenty-six degree and thirty-four minute angle of the Ascending Passage. Soon it split into two routes. One route continued going up to the larger, open area of the Grand Gallery, where Anna’s father had collapsed, and the King’s Chamber. The other route continued in a horizontal direction through the lower passage and ended in the Queen’s Chamber. As they knew from Kirilov’s explanations, these were conventional names given to the chambers since neither ever contained royal mummies. Michael suggested they first explore the horizontal passage that led to the Queen’s Chamber.

  The lower horizontal passage starts at the junction of the Ascending Passage and the Grand Gallery. It continues south through a vertical wall that increases in height via a stepped floor prior to entering the Queen’s Chamber. The Queen’s Chamber is the first large accommodation in the pyramid and positioned in the center of the pyramid itself. Michael gauged it to be roughly thirteen feet high. The relieving blocks transmitted the pressure of the superincumbent stones on the walls, shaping the ceiling in the form of a tent.

  “Look at the walls,” Michael said, scrutinizing the walls.

  “What are we looking for again?”

  “Evidence of a cliff, remember?”

  “A flashlight and a magnifying glass would be nice,” Anna commented as she frowned and squinted in the semi-darkness. Michael did not hear her as he was completely consumed with combing the walls of the chamber. Suddenly, he stopped. He looked fixedly at the deepening on one of the walls.

  “Anna, come here! Michael exclaimed. Anna went over to him. “Look!” Rapturously he pointed at the eastern wall located outside the chamber not far from the niche. “That’s the piece of the mainland cliff!”

  Anna squinted and looked hard at what he was talking about, trying to get accustomed to the chamber’s artificial lamplight. Finally, she noticed that an entire ten-foot section of the wall did not have one single joint between the wall blocks.

  “That has to be a part of the cliff!” Michael announced happily.

  “Well, if it was located to the right of the entrance, as part of the western wall of the Queen’s Chamber, then it would be clear that this was precisely the part of the natural supportive cliff. But on the left side there is supposed to be the casing of the pyramid. So, maybe this piece of the rock is something like the wall of the inner cave within the cliff.”

  “Well, it’s impossible to assume that the pyramid’s builders dragged this giant piece of rock upwards. It must weigh tens of tons,” said Michael, puzzled.

  “Well,” said Anna, pausing for a moment. “I would assume that this chamber is nothing more than a natural deepening in the cliff. It’s basically a cave coated by limestone blocks over its three sides. The internal cliff certainly did not have a correct geometric form but had bulges and caves. So, it’s logical to assume that the chamber built into the cliff was constructed taking into the account its natural unevenness.”

  “How did you know that?” he asked, flabbergasted.

  “I went back over the notes I took in Kirilov’s apartment,” Anna explained, smiling calmly.

  Michael’s mind pulled him back in time to Kirilov’s cozy Russian apartment. “Richard Pocoke was an Englishman traveling in Egypt in the middle of the eighteenth century. He was the first one to assume that a cliff was the basis of the Great Pyramid,” Kirilov said, getting up from his armchair and walking to his bookcase. Grabbing one of the books, he continued. “In his book, Description of the East and Some Other Countries,” Kirilov held the book up, “he wrote about the traditional centuries-old custom of covering the mountains to convert them into pharaohs’ tombs. Pocoke assumed that the Great Pyramid covered a two-headed cliff,” added Kirilov, after placing the book on the dining table. “And in 1986 the French firm EDF obtained all of the necessary permits to perform a special kind of work inside the Great Pyramid. They drilled three openings into the left wall of the horizontal passage leading to the Queen’s Chamber. They were testing the theory that there was a hidden chamber behind the west wall. The holes revealed a large cavity filled with unusually fine sand, which turned out to be quartz sand. It is believed that the volume of the cavity amounted to about fifteen to twenty percent of the whole volume of the Great Pyramid. This discovery gave birth to quasi-scientific explanations with the absurd conclusion that the Great Pyramid is just an empty shell filled with sand. But, if we recall that this is an enclosed natural cliff with all its disproportions, then the Frenchmen merely stumbled onto one of its hollows.”

  Michael and Anna located the set of square airshafts that were a sensation back in the 1990s. “Back at Kirilov’s apartment, you mentioned that your father participated in the Upuaut Project to explore these airshafts,” said Michael.

  “That’s right. The other set of airshafts are located in the King’s Chamber. Back in 1993, after getting their expedition cleared through enormous amounts of red tape, some German scientists sent micro-robots through these airshafts. My father assisted them. At the end of the first shaft, the micro-robots stumbled against a smooth stone slab with two copper fittings.”

  “Do you happen to recall what Kirilov mentioned about the function of these shafts?” asked Michael.

  “All four had the same purpose. They ensured effective air circulation by using the force of a breeze, which ensured the necessary atmosphere inside during the construction of the Great Pyramid. It was obvious that the robot could not move beyond the surface of the rock soil of the cliff.”

  “And what about the stone slab with two copper fittings?”

  “They drilled through that and a robot pushed a camera inside,” Anna replied with a grin. “It led to another stone slab door.”

  The last ascent led Michael and Anna to the Grand Gallery. At its top, the Ascending Passage suddenly opened up into what is always described as the most magnificent example of architecture in the ancient world. The Grand Gallery was a 153-foot long, twenty-eight-foot high passage that continued upward, at the same angle of twenty-six degrees and thirty-four minutes as the rest of the passages. The Grand Gallery consisted of a narrow, channeled floor situated between two high ramps and corbelled walls that reduced its seven-foot width just above the ramps to less than four feet at the stepped ceiling. Halfway up the sidewalls, and for the full length of the Gallery, small grooves ran pa
rallel to the corbelling. Where the base of each wall met the ramps, twenty-eight sets of angled depressions and stone inserts divided the Grand Gallery at equal intervals.

  Anna’s eyes were busy searching for the spot where her father collapsed a mere week before. This was the second time Michael had been inside the Grand Gallery. During his first visit he was performing CPR on a dying German engineer. And now for his second visit, he was with the man’s daughter.

  “It happened here,” Michael said quietly, pointing to the spot in the middle of the Grand Gallery.

  “I need to be alone,” Anna murmured.

  Michael nodded his head and continued his ascent to the top of the Grand Gallery. Later Anna joined him. “Are you going to be all right?” he asked, watching her dab at her eyes with a tissue.

  She nodded and blew her nose.

  “I’m so sorry,” said Michael. “I tried to revive him.”

  “I know you did everything you could. I’m glad it was you who was there.”

  Michael hugged her gently. From their vantage point at the top, they looked back at the breathtaking view of the Grand Gallery stretching in front of their eyes. They stood silently, listening to their own thoughts.

  “So, what was the Grand Gallery’s purpose?”

  “Well, according to Kirilov, the Grand Gallery was mainly used to transport the heaviest blocks, including the granite blocks, which weighed more than fifty tons. Take a look at that ditch in the middle of the gallery.”

  “Oh, that’s right, the ditch was built with the height of workers’ shoulder level in mind. It was necessary for the sleds that were filled up with heavy blocks to advance toward the upper chamber.”

  “Yes, and I think it made perfect, practical sense. So, are you ready to go inside the King’s Chamber?” Michael asked gently.

  Anna nodded.