jueves, 2 de octubre de 2008

Possible Location of Khufu´s Chamber









POSSIBLE LOCATION OF KHUFU´S CHAMBER
UNDER THE GREAT PYRAMID

Introduction

There is a possibility of a secret subterranean chamber under the Great Pyramid, where the mummy and artifacts of Pharaoh Khufu remains undisturbed. The chamber would be connected by a gallery with the Nile River Valley or a lateral valley northwest to the pyramid. The hypothesis is based on easy and well known ancient Egyptian tunnelling techniques and it would be tested when geophysical cave detection methods will develop next years. The author is a Spanish geologist with experience in mining and civil engineering. He apologized for his deficiencies on English language, but he expects it would be enough to communicate.

The Great Pyramid of Egypt was built circa 2550 B.C. onto the plateau of Giza, close to the Nile River Valley, to hold the corpse of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops). Its original dimensions were of 146.6 m (height) x 230.4 x 230.4 m. The pyramid has three known burial chambers: the King’s one, the so-called Queen’s chamber and one more subterranean. There is no evidence of occupation by Pharaoh Khufu of his chamber. Herodotus wrote about of subterranean chambers under the Great Pyramid, surrounded by Nile water.

Suspicion of a secret chamber

Pharaoh Khufu surely knew that the King’s chamber would be looted sooner or later. So, it is easy to think on another secret burial chamber, much more difficult to find.

Possible chamber locations

It is possible that the massive Great Pyramid hides more rooms, but it is difficult that one of them would be another pharaoh’s one, because the possibility of discovering of his passage by tomb looters or destroyer Egyptian rulers. This is the case of the tunnel dug in the north face by caliph al Ma´mun in the IXth century, only to discover the empty chambers.

The real good one location is under the pyramid and with no connection with it. So, it would be very difficult to find the chamber digging into the pyramid and also trying to find it looking for deep galleries around the pyramid, opening expensive deep trenches in rock.


The gallery and the chamber

The plateau of Giza stands up about 40 m above the Nile River Valley and it is formed up by Eocene limestone and marly limestone from Mokattam Formation, easy to cut, which dips slightly southeast. The Great Pyramid is located 300 m to the Nile River Valley and more or less 800 m to the lateral valley to the northwest; we suppose both are filled with fluvial sediments. Our suspicion is that a gallery was tunnelled from one of the riverbanks, probably from the lateral valley, as shown in figure. It was an isolated emplacement, far from the big works on the Great Pyramid, easy to hide under appearance of minor quarry works. The gallery would begin digging the fluvial sediments some meters under the water table. To drain the pit they used waterwheels or another device, with some clay or stone casing on the slopes to diminish the water inflow. After that the gallery tunnels into the limestone of Giza Plateau, running upward to the Great Pyramid, with a path slightly labyrinthic, maybe with bifurcations at 45º or 90º. The medium slope would be around 4% with a length of about 1 km and a rectangular section similar to other galleries in the area and roughly finished. At some points the gallery would be wider and supported with timber, for future collapse.

The gallery would run up to some meters above the water level under the pyramid, where the chamber was dug. To know this level it would be necessary an exploratory shaft in the Giza Plateau. The known pit of the subterranean chamber of the pyramid perhaps afforded for this information.

The orientation and slope of the gallery would not represent a major problem for Egyptian technicians, not either digging the limestone. The problem would be ventilation. It could be resolved with appropriate dimensions of the gallery combined with the movement of palm fronds or some fan mechanism or, not so a discreet solution, with some narrow vertical shafts, concealed with huts on the ground surface and later sealed.

Burial and oblivion

A secret burial ceremony was performed for Khufu. The gallery was collapsed in some sections, the entrance of the gallery was flooded by underground water, the pit in the river valley was filled and levelled and the area was assigned to some restricted proposal, like agriculture land for royal family. After some decades the gallery would be only a legend, out of scope for common gangs of looters and an expensive goal for a ruler, looking for a maybe and who-knows-where treasure.

Proposal

A 0.4 km geophysical profile would be conducted along the road close to the west side of Great Pyramid as shows in picture to look for the gallery, when higher resolution methods will be available. The conditions are favourable for interpretation: horizontal ground surface and subhorizontal homogeneous sedimentary beds. If negative, a second possibility is to search along the east and south sides of the pyramid.

© Juan Paricio Cardona
September 2008
D.L. TE-143-2008



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