The Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza

“…Behind the pyramid’s wall,
There is a tomb, kneel down and enter it through a hole.
An Arab with torch first got in, disappeared. I crept
After him, devoted to mercies of the sons of steppes.
Two kept me harnessed, my hands clasped in their own,
- Third one crawled with light, while the fourth pushed me on -
And they buried me in this tomb completely dark -
 And through slippery passages, no steps, no rungs
We climbed up, and I returned to life, as it could seem,
When I was able to lift head facing chamber of queen
Again we crawled in causeways of this bee-hive of death
Until in chamber of the king’s corpse I found myself;
The light of candle and dark shade slightly mingled -
Sarcophagus was empty: I hit with palm – tingled
Like a thing void…”

Juliusz Slowacki "Pyramids", 1836
translated by Dana Cieslak

The Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza

AHt-xwfw (Khufu's Horizon)

A - King's Chamber with relieving chambers above B - Queen's Chamber C - subterranean chamber D - air shafts E - Grand Gallery F - horizontal passage G - ascending passage H - descending passage   I - entrance

J -  enclosure wall K - two southern boat pits L - boat pits M - eastern boat pits N - mortuary temple O - cult pyramid P - Queen's pyramids Q - causeway

The Great Pyramid has been an object of many both essential scientific elaborates and pyramidal rubbish, inspired by a magic of numbers and fantasy of pseudo-explorers or simply those smart people who thus found their way to earn heaps of money thank to ignorance or naiveté of others. I will cite after T. Schneider the short characteristic of this structure, maybe not as magnificent as described by poets and not as thrilling as the followers of parascientific speculations wish it to be, but still true, unstrained and conformable with the present state of knowledge. Building of the proper pyramid around the natural core of rock was managed by Hemon (Hemiunu) and Ankhhaf . Originally it was composed of 210 layers of stone blocks and was 146,6 m high. Length of sides was 230 m, angle of slope 51,5 o. Interior of the monument is made of locally gained stone while outer and upper layers of limestone of Tura. Totally the structure was composed of 2 500 000 blocks of stone, weighing together 7 000 000 tons. The passage (H) leading from the northern entrance (I) to rock chamber (C) located about 30m beneath the ground level is initially descending at the length of 105 m, next runs 9 m horizontally. From the chamber leads another16,4 m long corridor, however its function remains unknown. At the length of 28,2 m of descending passage begins ascending corridor (G) which ends after 38 m in the 2,1 m wide, 46,7 m long and 8,5 m high Grand Gallery (E). From the Grand Gallery runs 38,2 m long horizontal passage (F) to the so called “Queen’s Chamber” (B) with two-side slopped roof, niche and so called “air tunnels” (D). As the horizontal passage branches out there is a shaft 58,4 m deep which meets the descending corridor near the rock chamber. Next to the gallery there is a short passage leading through granite chamber with a dropped down stone block and one more passage entering the proper one funerary chamber (A), cased with pink granite, with 5 cavities above alleviating the two-side slopped roof. There is a granite sarcophagus in this chamber, however no traces of burial have been stated. On the east side of the pyramid there was located (did not survive until now) mortuary temple (N), access to which was from a   covered ramp 825 m long and decorated with reliefs. The ramp was leading from the lower temple, recently discovered in the village of Nazlat es-Samman. On both sides of the mortuary temple there are shafts (M) entering chamber for two funerary boats (morning and evening boat). One of the two shafts, which survived in untouched state since Khufu’s burial, was uncovered in 1954. Remarkably well preserved dismantled shift, originally 43,3 m long, was subsequently subject to conservation and finally restored. Many times plundered since antiquity the pyramid laid opened already in Strabo’s times, 20 years BC. Ca. 820 caliph Al-Mamun broke into the pyramid, and next, under the sultan Hassan in XIV century external layout had been demolished and used for building the sultan’s mosques Next to the mortuary temple there are pyramids of royal wives of the pharaoh, Meritit and Henutsen as well as his mother’s, queen Hetepheres (1). G1a - Hetepheres (1) G1b - Meritit G1c - Henutsen The northernmost, was earlier attributed to queen Meritit but today Mark Lehner considers instead to be the tomb of queen Hetepheres I. The core of G1a, which oryginally consisted of three or perhaps even four steps, was built of yellowish gray limestone. The entrance in the north wall is located slightly above the base of the pyramid. The descending corridor turns to the right and comes out in a small burial chamber that was cut into the rock and surfaced with limestone blocks. A sarcofagus was not found in it. Before the east wall of the pyramid stood a small mortuary temple. South of G1a, a pit for a boat burial was dug in the rock, but no traces of the boat have been found.  The pyramid is resembles G1a. No remains of a buried boat were found. Hence it is not clear which queen was buried there - it may have been Meritit, who was probably one of Khufu's older wives. She is thought to be the mother of prince Kawab and perhaps made the transition from Snefru's harem to Khufu's.   The southernmost of queens'es pyramids, G1c, is thought to be that of queen Henutsen. According to George Reisner, its casing remained unfinished. In many respects its architecture resembles that of the other two pyramids. In opinion some scholars, this pyramid was not part of the oryginal plan of Khufu's complex. If Stadelmann is corect in thinking that the double mastaba belonged to prince Khufukhaf before he became king and was known as Khafre, the letter was probably the builder of pyramid G1c.   narmer.pl liberta bintoro ranggi wirasakti.. Magelang uiy