HiddenMysteries: THE MYSTERY OF THE SHAFTS

Since the beginning of modern archaeology, the Great Pyramid has been a source of scientific controversy and sometimes of heated debate – about the way it was built or the incredible precision with which it was aligned to the cardinal points. However, for the past seven years, the so-called airshafts of the Great Pyramid have fostered a very wide interest. It all started with the discovery made by Rudolf Gantenbrink in 1993. What began as a technical study of the King's chamber shafts ended with an intriguing discovery in one of the Queen's chamber shafts.

JEFF DESCHAMP

THE DISCOVERY OF 1993

* Having successfully cleaned the upper shafts and set up ventilation fans in May 1992, Gantenbrink’s team came back the following year to use their small robot Upuaut - named after the Egyptian god who helped the deceased King on his way to the Duat – to explore the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber. The robot could not go all the way up the northern shaft because of a bend formed to bypass the Grand Gallery, but in the southern shaft it was able to reach the end of it. And on March 22nd 1993, not only did it confirm that this shaft does not reach outside but that it ends with a plug – or what is now commonly referred to as an ‘unidentified stone object’ – with two intriguing copper fittings. The whole exploration campaign was filmed and later broadcast on most of the international televisions, thus raising a wide interest in the general public.

WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE IN THE FIRST PLACE ?

* There are a total of four 'airshafts' in the pyramid, two in the King's chamber and two in the Queen's chamber. They are aligned on a North-South axis like the whole passageway system. The upper ones (King's chamber) both start in the chamber and reach the outside of the pyramid, whereas the lower ones started a few inches from the walls of the Queen's chamber (they were cut open in 1872) and stop at some distance from the outside.

* All four shafts run horizontally for a few feet before taking an angle. It is worth noting that while the lower shafts present more or less similar angles of inclination the upper shafts do not - however they both reach the outside at roughly the same height.

THE VENTILATION THEORY

* Trying to understand the function of an unknown object is a tougher task than one might think. In general, we tend to compare it to the objects we know and commonly use in our own culture. To the nineteenth century egyptologists, the closest thing they could compare the shafts to was a vent or airshaft meant to bring fresh air into the chambers. And as no one could work out a better explanation for these strange features, the ventilation theory imposed itself as the ‘official theory’.

* As a matter of fact, in the King’s Chamber, the shafts have been equipped with fans so that they now really serve as ventilation shafts. But could it really have been their function 4,500 years ago? Actually there are many objections to this theory. First of all, why take such trouble building angled shafts, which implies the use of many different kinds of specially cut blocks of stone, when obviously a few vertical chimneys would have sufficed (or even plain horizontal shafts). Maybe the ancient Egyptians did like to overcome the difficulty or the King just wanted it that way. Another question is : why ventilate a tomb? The pyramid was sealed for ever after the death of the King, and there was certainly enough air for the workers during construction. What then were ventilation shafts needed for? To symbolically allow the dead King to breathe in the afterlife? Maybe… but there is a last contradiction which seems to definitely rule out the ventilation theory. We already mentioned that the lower shafts were plugged at both ends. It is perfectly understandable if the Queen’s Chamber was abandoned during construction. However, even though these shafts do not reach the outside of the pyramid, they were built up to above the level of the King’s Chamber – which means that they were still in construction after the King’s Chamber was begun. This simply does not make sense…

A CHANNEL TO THE DUAT ?

* Other theories that have become very popular recently - and much debated - suggest a cultic function for the shafts. However, there are diverging views concerning the nature of this hypothetical cultic function. It has been suggested that the upper southern shaft would have provided a sort of channel for the soul of the King aimed at the region of the Duat where he would be reborn as a star. This region of the sky would have been in the constellation of Orion – which was associated by the Egyptians to Osiris, god of the afterlife. But what about the three other shafts? Were they ‘star shafts’ too? It is a possibility that the upper northern shaft would have targeted the northern polar stars – the imperishable ones.

* Some so-called ‘fringe’ researchers claim that each shaft was pointing at a particular star, each associated to a god or goddess and each having a role to play in the burial ceremony of the King. On that point, orthodox egyptologists tend to be prudent and if they are willing to consider a relation with the imperishable stars, they are reluctant to go farther. All the more so as many fringe authors did go much further by claiming that astronomy in relation to the Great Pyramid could prove a link with a long forgotten and very advanced civilization that would have existed over 12,000 years ago – maybe the legendary Atlantis itself.

* The problem with this theory – as with any theory involving religion – is that there is not enough evidence to support it in what we know of Egyptian religion during the Old Kingdom and particularly during Khufu’s time.

AN EXCEPTION IN PYRAMID BUILDING

* One thing is certain: the Great Pyramid is the only one to have such shafts. Its closest neighbor, the pyramid of Khafra, son of Khufu, does possess two small niches in the upper parts of the burial chamber’s walls. They could be symbolic shafts or the beginning of shafts that were soon abandoned. Also, some kind of shaft was recently discovered in the ‘bent’ pyramid at Dashur – one of the pyramids of Snefru, the father of Khufu – just above the descending corridor, but it is different in shape and was clearly meant for weight relieving purposes. So that actually, no other pyramid in the whole age of pyramid building does show the same strange features.

* It is a very important fact and one that has not been sufficiently taken into consideration until now. Whether the shafts serve a cultic function or a purely architectural one -or even yet another unknown one, they are definitely associated with a particular period in the history of the Egyptian Old Kingdom: the reign of Khufu. It should then be assumed that their destination was closely associated to the will of this Pharaoh, as the following Pharaohs did not use again these features in their own pyramids but sometimes reverted to older styles of pyramids. For instance, if they had a religious function, it could be concluded that new concepts were introduced at that time and were later abandoned under the following dynasties.

STRANGE GEOMETRICAL COINCIDENCES

* If one stops wondering about religion and architectural purposes and just focus on the aspect of the shafts, one can see that great care and logic were used in their design. Thus several things should be noticed:

The lower shafts apparently have similar angles of inclination and start in the Queen’s Chamber, i.e. exactly in the center axis of the pyramid. So that the angle formed by one shaft with the apex of the pyramid is the same as the other.
The upper shafts, on the other hand, have different angles of inclination (45° and 32.5°) but reach the outside of the pyramid at approximately the same height. Still, the angle formed by the southern shaft with the apex is the almost the same as the one between the apex and the northern shaft.
Each one of these shafts has an initial horizontal part. Why?
In the King’s Chamber, both shafts start at the same height above floor (42 inches), as the lower ones in the Queen’s Chamber – although the height is 62 inches there.
* Another very strange fact – that led me to develop a theory a couple of years ago (‘Khufu’s Last Will’) is that of the three chambers in the pyramid, only two possess shafts. But the third – the subterranean chamber – presents some strange features too, among which is a very low passage running south of it. This passage is too low to be a genuine corridor – being about 30 inches high - though it is quite long: over 53 feet. It starts slightly above the rugged floor of the chamber, as does the entrance passage connecting the chamber to the descending passage. All this closely matches the characteristics of the upper chambers’ shafts: the southern passage being the horizontal portion of an unfinished southern shaft and the northern passage being a very big shaft. So that, honestly, the closest thing I could compare these shafts to is not an ‘airshaft’ but a descending passage. In fact, they could very well be ‘miniature passages’.

WHAT’S NEXT ?

* Any theory whatsoever about the Great Pyramid won’t be valid until new evidence shows up, and those interested in it really have to be patient and help archaeological research as they can. As far as the shafts are concerned, there is still an unexplored part of the pyramid that could yield some more information: the upper part of the lower northern shaft, which Upuaut was unable to reach in 1993. The exploration of this last unexplored corner of the Great Pyramid would certainly be fruitful, as it would allow comparisons with the southern lower shaft. Let’s hope that the difficulties that have hindered this project will soon be over and that Mr. Gantenbrink will finally be authorized to finish what he’s begun seven years ago.

http://www.gizapyramid.com

THE MYSTERY OF THE SHAFTS

Thursday, October 19 2006 @ 11:07 PM CDT