Pyramid of Khufu
Name of Pyramid:
‘Akhet of Khufu’
Period: 2551-2528 BC, 4th Dynasty
Dimensions:
Base: 230.33 metres
Height: 146.59 metres
Volume: 2 583 283 cubic metres
Slope: 51 deg 50′ 40″
Status: Open to the public: 9:00am – 5:00pm.
Currently the Queen’s chamber and Sub-terranean chamber are both closed. It is currently LE100 to enter the pyramid (students: LE50). Only 300 tickets are sold each day, 150 in the morning and another 150 in the afternoon. Tickets on sale at 8:00am & 1:00pm. No photography is allowed inside the pyramid.
Khufu’s Solar-boat museum: LE50 to enter (students: LE25).
Khufu’s Pyramid
The only remaining wonder of the ancient world is the Great Pyramid, otherwise known as the pyramid Khufu. Khufu’s full name was Khnum-Khufu, meaning “Khnum is His Protection” and he is often referred to by the Greek name, ‘Cheops’. The only statue that we have today of Khufu, the owner of the largest of all the pyramids is the smallest ancient Egyptian sculpture ever discovered. This ivory statue found at Abydos, is just 7.5 cm tall and is inscribed with Khufu’s Horus name Medjedu.
It has been calculated that there are 2 300 000 blocks of limestone in the pyramid, each block having an average weight of 2.5 tonnes, some weighing as much as up to 60 tonnes each. A number of theories have arisen over how the pyramid was built ranging from long straight ramps, external spiral ramps, internal sprial ramps, making the stones from concrete, and more. It is fascinating to think that a structure built almost four and a half thousand years ago still holds some mysteries to be solved.
The pyramid of Khufu marks the high point of pyramid building in Egypt with some very daring and innovative features.
Internal Features
The entrance through which visitors get into the pyramid is not the original one. Today tourists enter through Caliph Mamun’s tunnel, which was cut in 820 AD. After failing to find the the entrance, which lies more than seven metres east of the middle of the northern face, Mamun had his mean use brute force to tunnel their way into the pyramid. After a distance of just over 30 meters the tunnel connects with the internal passage system of the pyramid.
Khufu’s pyramid is quite unusual in that it’s chambers are high in the body. Until now only his father Sneferu had attempted to build chambers above ground level, and while successfull, they are only a few meters above ground level. Khufu managed to position his burial chamber over 43 meters above the base of his pyramid.
For many years Egyptologists thought that the three chambers inside the pyramid were the result of ever changing plans. It is now generally accepted that Khufu was always to be buried high in the body of the pyramid and that the subterranean and Queens chambers were emergency chambers, or backups that would be used in the case of the King dying before the pyramid was complete. As the pyramid’s construction continued and the next chamber nearing completion, the previous chamber would be abandoned. This theory might explain the incomplete state of the subterranean and Queen’s chambers.
Subterranean Chamber
Situated 30 meters beneath the pyramid at the end of the descending passage is a room measuring 27 feet wide by 56 feet long. Angled at 26 degress, 34 minutes, 23 seconds the descending passage through which it is accessed is aimed like a telescope at the northern polar region of the sky and deviates no more than a centemeter along it’s entire 28 meter length.
Queen’s Chamber
The Queen’s chamber is inappropriately named as it was never intended for one his queens, they had their very own pyramids built for them. The name is thought to have come from early Arab explorers who recognised the familiar gabled ceilings that are common to female burial chambers. In the east wall is a niche that seems to have once housed a statue. Lehner and others have suggested this could be evidence that the chamber was intended as a room for the ka statue of the king, otherwise known as a serdab.
The chamber lies on the east-west central axis of the pyramid but unlike the King’s chamber, does not extend far enough westward to meet the pyramid’s north-south central axis. One of the most peculiar features of this chamber is the presence of two small 8 x 8 inch shafts that exit the north and south walls of the chamber at about eye-height. These shafts were discovered in 1878 by Wayman Dixon who after finding a crack in the wall chiseld away the remaining 5 inches of stone to reveal the shafts. Inside the northern shaft he found some objects that have become known as the Dixon relics. These are a diorite stone the size of a baseball and a small copper hook. What these peices were used for and why they were left inside the shaft is a mystery but the ball looks very much like the pounding stones that were used to shape stone.
Grand Gallery
One of the most awesome moments during a visit to the pyramid is when you crawl out of the cramped confinement of the ascending passage after stooping along it’s 37 meter length and enter the Grand Gallery. The ascending passage is just one meter high while the Grand Gallery is an impressive 8.74 meters in height. It is a long hallway leading up high into the body of the pyramid at an angle of 26 degrees, like all the passages in the pyramid. This grand hallway has some rather peculiar features that make you feel as though you are inside a functional machine rather than a hallway made to take you to the final burial chamber. It has no steps and without the modern wooden planks and hand rails would be nearly impossible to climb. Elongated notches at regular intervals along both sides of the ramp were once perhaps used to fix large beams of wood across the gallery to hold back the granite blocks that would seal the ascending passage.
At the top of the Grand Gallery the visitor has to climb of a large stone known as the ‘Great Step’. A short horizontal passage is all that remains before entering the King’s chamber. This passage was originall blocked by three granite slabs which have since been smashed and removed. A fourth slab remains and oddly, was never made to be lowered as the grooves that hold the slab do not continue to the ground and instead stop at one meter above th efloor leaving ample room to duck underneath.
King’s Chamber
Entering the King’s chamber from the north-east corner the visitor is again struck with awe. Made entirely from granite quaried in Aswan and transported over 1000 kilometers to the Giza plateau before lifting them to a height of 43 meters above the ground, the mind boggles at the ability of the builders.
A single red granite sarcophagus lies in the western end of the room, the final resting place for the body of Khufu. The room is otherwise empty and like every other chamber in the pyramid is completely void of inscriptions or decoration as was the case with all Old Kingdom pyramids.
Just like the Queen’s chamber, the King’s chamber has two small 8 x 5 inch shafts that exit the north and south walls. Unlike the Queen’s chamber though, these shafts go all the way to the exterior of the pyramid exiting high on the north and south faces. Much speculation has been made over what purpose these shafts served. Were they to ventilate the chamber for the builders, or for the preists carrying out funerary rituals? Or did they serve a purely symbolic function of projecting the soul of the king to the stars?
The Satellite Pyramids
Located on the eastern side of the pyramid of Khufu are three pyramids that were most likley intended for three queens. These are sometimes referred to as GI-a, GI-b, and GI-c, ‘GI’ being short for ‘Giza, 1st pyramid’, the first of the three main pyramids on the plateau.
GI-a
The northern-most of the three queens’ pyramids is thought to belong to the mother of Khufu, Hetepheres.
GI-b
It is possible that GI-b was built for queen Meritetes.
GI-c
It is not known for certain but Egyptologists suspect that queen Henutsen owned this pyramid. In later dynasties, the chapel at the base of this pyramid’s eastern side was converted to a temple of Isis as ‘Mistress of the Pyramids’.
GI-d or GI-ci?
A fourth satellite pyramid has recently been discovered between GI-b, GI-c and the south-east corner of Khufu’s pyramid. It is known who this pyramid was built for but it is thought that the boat pit that is located to it’s east, between GI-b & GI-c.
Photographs of the Queen’s pyramids by Todd.
External Sites: The Discovery of the Satellite Pyramid of Khufu (GI–d)
