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Great Pyramid "air shafts" Explained.


Bennu

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I have discovered what I believe to be the true explanation for the southern shafts of the King's and Queen's Chambers of the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza.

The image below is from the program Starry Night, set to the time which I believe to have been the construction date of the Great Pyramid, 2860 BC. It actually works the same anywhere in the time period 2500-2970 BC. The key here is that Alcyone, the brightest star in the Pleiades, is due West when these angles match up. Earlier than about 2970 BC Alcyone didn't reach due West before disappearing below the horizon so that limits the construction date to after that year.

As you can see, the line from Alcyone to Aldebaran, the bright red star in Taurus, is the exact angle of the southern shaft of the Queen's Chamber, as reported by Rudolf Gantenbrink on cheops.org. The line to Epsilon Tauri is the same as the King's Chamber shaft. This seems an unlikely coincidence. The Pleiades were associated with the goddess Hathor, Mistress of the West, who accompanied the dead to the afterworld. As a goddess associated with the dead and their tombs, she was quite appropriate to the Giza necropolis. The statue niche in the Queen's Chamber faces due West so we have further reason to believe that something in the western sky was of special significance to the builders of the Great Pyramid.

2e3vkmh.png

Why do I believe that the Great Pyramid was built at around 2860 BC? Because at that time Thuban, the North Star of the 4th Dynasty Egyptians, was at the precise angle of the Great Pyramid's azimuth when Alcyone was on the South Meridian. I believe that the Egyptians used Alcyone's transit of the South Meridian as the indicator of the time when Thuban was very close to True North because Alcyone made a wide arc during its passage through the sky, while Thuban made a very tiny arc, which meant that Alcyone's transit made for a very accurate indicator of Thuban's position. For instance, Thuban barely moved its position during a 5 minute period when Alcyone was transiting the South Meridian. So Alcyone didn't even need to be exactly South for this to work, as long as it was within about a 5 minute range of being due South. Then as years passed Thuban got further West of Due North, which would explain why Khafre's Pyramid has an azimuth which is a little further West of North than the Great Pyramid's. Menkaure's Pyramid wouldn't work with this scheme, however, being about 12.5 arc minutes EAST of Due North. Apparently, a completely different system was used for aligning that particular pyramid. It works perfectly for the first two though, and probably earlier ones, though I haven't checked any of others yet.

Edited by Bennu
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So why did the builders intentionally place stones in these shafts, effectively closing them off?

IF the shaft does align as mentioned, what is the purpose of this alignment?

Edited by scorpiosonic
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So why did the builders intentionally place stones in these shafts, effectively closing them off?

IF the shaft does align as mentioned, what is the purpose of this alignment?

Only the Queen's Chamber shafts came short of exiting into the chamber and have a block near the upper end. My suspicion is that the QC shafts were intended for the spirit of the king to go through, so it could pass through the stone into the shaft. The KC shafts were probably intended for the form of the king's spirit which took the appearance of a sparrow hawk. This was the form in which the king would "go forth by day", as mentioned in this Wiki page about the Egyptian Book of the Dead;

"The ba was a free-ranging spirit aspect of the deceased. It was the ba, depicted as a human-headed bird, which could "go forth by day" from the tomb into the world" http://en.wikipedia....ook_of_the_Dead

The shafts are just about the right size for a hawk to go through. There may be some other reason for the closed condition of the QC shaft. It is odd, I must admit. My theory is that the shafts were intended to guide the king's ba to the stars of Taurus, which I suppose was the stellar representation of the king as a bull.

Edited by Bennu
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So why did the builders intentionally place stones in these shafts, effectively closing them off?

Simple; do you want the dead breathing up all of our air?

I thought so.

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Only the Queen's Chamber shafts came short of exiting into the chamber and have a block near the upper end.

*SNIP*

The shafts are just about the right size for a hawk to go through. There may be some other reason for the closed condition of the QC shaft. It is odd, I must admit. My theory is that the shafts were intended to guide the king's ba to the stars of Taurus, which I suppose was the stellar representation of the king as a bull.

Not the one I meant....there are blocks set farther up in the shaft.

From link: "Scientists exploring the Great Pyramid in Egypt sent a robot into the northern shaft in the past few days, discovering another blocking stone. The "door" appears to be identical to the one in the southern shaft that was already known. The doors are equidistant (65 meters/208 feet) from the queen's chamber. It is the third such block discovered within the shafts of the pyramid......"

Plz read link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0923_020923_egypt.html

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Not the one I meant....there are blocks set farther up in the shaft.

From link: "Scientists exploring the Great Pyramid in Egypt sent a robot into the northern shaft in the past few days, discovering another blocking stone. The "door" appears to be identical to the one in the southern shaft that was already known. The doors are equidistant (65 meters/208 feet) from the queen's chamber. It is the third such block discovered within the shafts of the pyramid......"

Plz read link: http://news.national...0923_egypt.html

Oh, they found a block in the northern QC shaft too. interesting, and at the same height as the one in the southern shaft. I can't imagine their purpose, since the shafts don't reach the outside anyway. Just another mystery. All I know is that the southern shafts are at the precise angles of the two Taurus stars from Alcyone. Presumably the northern shafts guided the king's ba to the imperishable northern stars.

Interestingly, the article says that the blocks are 208 feet from the QC. That's actually 121 Royal Cubits of 20.62 feet. 121 is, of course, 11 squared.

Edited by Bennu
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I would suspect the angles match up to a great many things. Is there any particular reason to consider these stars a more likely contender than any other?

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Oh, they found a block in the northern QC shaft too. interesting, and at the same height as the one in the southern shaft. I can't imagine their purpose, since the shafts don't reach the outside anyway. Just another mystery. All I know is that the southern shafts are at the precise angles of the two Taurus stars from Alcyone. Presumably the northern shafts guided the king's ba to the imperishable northern stars.

Interestingly, the article says that the blocks are 208 feet from the QC. That's actually 121 Royal Cubits of 20.62 feet. 121 is, of course, 11 squared.

There are two problems with the measurements from scorpionsonic's link: 1) 65 meters is not 208 feet, it's actually 213.25 feet which means that any further calculations based on the link's incorrect number are wrong as well and 2) the 19 meters from the last sentence in the link is not 63.3 feet, it's actually 62.3 feet. Both of which suggest IMO that the writer either copied or calculated the measurements in feet incorrectly.

cormac

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Its possible that the shafts could have been lined up with certain stars, but probably to aid with construction to make sure things are lined up. More likely are that these air shafts were just that, air shafts.

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Its possible that the shafts could have been lined up with certain stars, but probably to aid with construction to make sure things are lined up. More likely are that these air shafts were just that, air shafts.

My favorite theory is that they were used for some kind of scaffolding or retainer for the ramps... but given the evidence that is as likely as any other theory...and quite irrelevant unless we know a little more about the construction.

We are like the 4 blind guys trying to explain an elephant: we only see a small aspect and it might be completely irrelevant to reality.

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My favorite theory is that they were used for some kind of scaffolding or retainer for the ramps... but given the evidence that is as likely as any other theory...and quite irrelevant unless we know a little more about the construction.

Obviously they used them to run the counter weights they used to pull the larger stones to the top. :rolleyes:

We are like the 4 blind guys trying to explain an elephant: we only see a small aspect and it might be completely irrelevant to reality.

But it is fun to do though. :yes:

Edited by Timmeh
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Cladking will explain it all for us :lol:

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Cladking will explain it all for us :lol:

Oh, is Cladking on this forum? That guy really gets around. I guess nothing can be determined from the height of blocks since we don't know the precise distance. One thing I noticed is that the blocking stone is too perfectly matched to the sides of the shaft to have been pushed or pulled in there through the completed shaft. It must have been put there when the shaft was being made. It's purpose, no one can say.

The reason why I believe that the southern shafts may have been aligned to the angle between Alcyone and the Taurus stars is that the chambers themselves are positioned exactly the same as the stars Atlas and Alcyone in the Pleiades. Though this would make me expect that the shaft from the King's Chamber would be the angle from Atlas to Epsilon Tauri, rather than Alcyone to Epsilon Tauri. For some reason that's not the case. It only matches the angle from Alcyone. Maybe that means that the whole pyramid is intended to represent Alcyone. Of course, I can't say for certain that the shafts were meant to match those angles, just that it seems to be a remarkable coincidence if it wasn't done purposely.

This image shows how the chambers perfectly match Atlas and Alcyone when Alcyone was Due West in the 4th Dynasty. It's a CAD drawing I made myself from Petrie's survey data so it's an exact replica of the chamber positions and dimensions. It appears that the Giza design is all about the Pleiades, not Orion, though Orion may have been a secondary consideration.

20gjz40.jpg

Also, as you can see, there is another star just above the South end of the antechamber, Pleione. That makes me believe that the true sarcophagus may be concealed above the antechamber, as shown in the image below, with Plieone at the king's feet, which is where Isis stands at the bier of Osiris, meaning his casket stand. At the time of the Great Pyramid's construction Plieone may have represented some other goddess than Isis but it would be the same principle. I made the image of Osiris' mummy to be as close as possible to the true scale of a human body in relation to the scale of the chamber. This secret sarcophagus chamber would have been accessed either through the end of the Grand Gallery above the passage entrance or through one of the blocks in the King's Chamber. If you look at images of the northern wall of the chamber you'll see that there's a block right at the proper place to act as a doorway to the theorized sarcophagus position.

The ceiling of the antechamber is granite. That may indicate that it is supporting something heavy above it, aside from the pyramid stones. Why would they have needed a passage as high as the Grand Gallery if it only led to a small passage at its bottom? The theoretical sarcophagus chamber is at right about the middle of the Gallery's end. Probably the stones on the face of the upper end of the Gallery are movable. It would make more sense to take the sarcophagus through the end of the Gallery than to take it through the small passage into the King's Chamber and then through its wall, though it's possible.

16kdzdu.png

Edited by Bennu
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Yes clad will be along soon I expect!

But, anything can be made to line up at least some time, did you ever see the "Manhattan-Henge"? Where the sun makes perfect alignment

quote:

On May 30 at 8:16 p.m. and again on July 11 at 8:24 p.m., Manhattanhenge reaches its point of perfection as the full setting sun aligns with the city's grid of East-West streets

irlusmkgGllw.jpg

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Yes clad will be along soon I expect!

But, anything can be made to line up at least some time, did you ever see the "Manhattan-Henge"? Where the sun makes perfect alignment

quote:

On May 30 at 8:16 p.m. and again on July 11 at 8:24 p.m., Manhattanhenge reaches its point of perfection as the full setting sun aligns with the city's grid of East-West streets.

Cool. If it were on July 4th it would be really remarkable. The thing with my alignments is that they happen precisely when Alcyone is due West, or actually due West in the 4th Dynasty. This is significant because the Pleiades were seen by the ancient Egyptians as a goddess of the West and the pyramids were also aligned East/West/North/South;

The ancient Egyptians also singled out the Pleiades as a female goddess, probably most often recognized as Neith, the “divine mother”, or Hathor, who took on the form of a cow (who carried the seeds of life). Pyramidologists working in Egypt in the last twelve years have found pyramidal texts that suggest the Egyptians revered the Pleiades as a higher divine star system, especially Alcyone, its brightest star. http://www.keysofeno...e_pleiades.html

Also, the fact that the Queen's Chamber is right on the vertical axis of the pyramid suggests some significance to the West meridian, meaning due West. Giza is all about the West, being on the West side of the Nile and the West being seen as where the dead go on their journey to the afterworld. Hathor was called Mistress of the West and Hathor was obviously important to the Egyptian kings as shown by a statue of her with Menkaure and her association with the dead. The Pleiades/Giza correlation just makes a lot of sense when all factors are considered. It is also known that some of the pyramids in Teotihuacan are aligned to the Pleiades and Alcyone in particular. Some people believe that there is a connection between the American pyramids and the Egyptian ones. It just seems like too many coincidences to me.

I should add that the King's Chamber goes from the passage westward with the sarcophagus at the western end of it and that the Queen's Chamber statue niche also faces West. Why the niche is off-center in the chamber I don't know, unless it was intended for the statue of Hathor (presumably) to be looking more toward Atlas than Alcyone, for some reason. Maybe Hathor was associated with that particular star or maybe it was supposed to be the king's statue in there and the king was supposed to be associated with Atlas. Whichever, it's undeniable that the statue would have been gazing westward.

Note also that the number 7 crops up a lot in the Great Pyramid, or multiples of it like the 28 notches in the Grand Gallery. The significance could be related to the seven major stars of the Pleiades, sometimes know to the Egyptians as the Seven Hathors, which were depicted as cows on the inside of the coffin lids of the dead. That means that they were clearly very important in relation to the dead. It would be surprising NOT to find some kind of connection between the Giza necropolis and the Pleiades.

Edited by Bennu
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Well for practical reasons ~ so far my theory is it is to keep the centers 'centered' .... buried under all those outer layers there has to be some method of keeping track and knowing how far up and wide the construction is ~ until they were far up enough to use something on the horizon or some landmark the builders/engineers use to keep the proportions 'true' to the pyramidal dimensions ~ a geometrically sound pyramidal that is ~

~

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Well for practical reasons ~ so far my theory is it is to keep the centers 'centered' .... buried under all those outer layers there has to be some method of keeping track and knowing how far up and wide the construction is ~ until they were far up enough to use something on the horizon or some landmark the builders/engineers use to keep the proportions 'true' to the pyramidal dimensions ~ a geometrically sound pyramidal that is .

Then why only in the Great Pyramid and no other? The shafts don't align to any stars anyway. That was just a flawed theory. For instance, the QC southern shaft only aligned to Sirius in 2189 BC, long after the pyramid was built. No, this is something peculiar to the Great Pyramid and it doesn't involve aligning to stars on the South meridian. The shafts were, in my theory, meant to show angles in the western sky rather than on the South meridian. Therefore, they don't actually point at any star but simply give the angle for the king's ba to follow in the western sky from Alcyone when the Pleiades are just above the horizon. They're probably symbolic rather than intended for the ba to actually go through, which would explain why the QC shafts are not even open at the ends.

Edited by Bennu
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Then why only in the Great Pyramid and no other? The shafts don't align to any stars anyway. That was just a flawed theory. For instance, the QC southern shaft only aligned to Sirius in 2189 BC, long after the pyramid was built. No, this is something peculiar to the Great Pyramid and it doesn't involve aligning to stars on the South meridian. The shafts were, in my theory, meant to show angles in the western sky rather than on the South meridian. Therefore, they don't actually point at any star but simply give the angle for the king's ba to follow in the western sky from Alcyone when the Pleiades are just above the horizon. They're probably symbolic rather than intended for the ba to actually go through, which would explain why the QC shafts are not even open at the ends.

With one up the others can be aligned accordingly is my guess ... I don't believe it has anything to do with aligning to anything other than itself ~

~

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I agree that the 'blocking stones' were placed in the shaft during the const. process.

I'm not saying there aren't astro-alignments....but I've always doubted this as the shafts do not open to the exterior, etc. The AE aligned the pyramid to N accurately, also the shafts would naturally align w/ at least some stars as they progress across the night sky.

If the ba could pass thru the blocking stones, etc, (and the casing stones) why would he need an open shaft to exit/enter??? (I doubt the 'symbolic' idea, they went to some trouble to const. these shafts.)

Edited by scorpiosonic
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If the ba could pass thru the blocking stones, etc, (and the casing stones) why would he need an open shaft to exit/enter??? (I doubt the 'symbolic' idea, they went to some trouble to const. these shafts.)

Valid point. You would think the ba could go through anything so no need for shafts. Also, the other pyramids have no shafts yet those kings' bas could presumably get out. I don't know, it's very mysterious. I simply noted that the shaft angles do precisely match the angles from Alcyone to the two Taurus stars. Could be purposeful design, could be sheer coincidence. I found it interesting myself so I thought I'd see what others would say about it. Thanks to everyone who commented in this thread by the way.

I do believe that the King's and Queen's Chambers were positioned to match the relative positions of Atlas and Alcyone though. That seems very unlikely to be coincidental to me, especially when the statue in the niche would have gazed directly westward, pretty much telling us to look at that part of the sky. There is no other explanation that I know of for the offset of the King's Chamber from the center of the pyramid while the Queen's Chamber is right in the center. While their positions are very close to corresponding to the ends of the hypotenuse of a 1:2 right triangle, it's not exact. The centers of the two chambers are actually off from a 1:2 triangle by a little over 3.5 Royal Cubits and the centers of the floors are off by a little over 2. I think it's unlikely that the builders would have made that large an error considering the extreme precision of the rest of the pyramid. However, they do very precisely match those star positions, so closely that you really can't even detect a variance. Besides, you would need to explain why they would have wanted to depict a 1:2 right triangle that way. The below image shows how off the hypotenuse lines actually are visually. Granted, if the Queen's Chamber floor was 0.4147503 cubits lower then the centers of the two floors would be exactly on that hypotenuse line. Interestingly, that's extremely close to sqrt 2 minus the 1, so I guess there could be something to that.

amqwc0.png

Edited by Bennu
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