Talking Pyramids

Andrew Collins has once again rebutted the efforts by Zahi Hawass to debunk his claim that he has rediscovered the large cave system under the Giza plateau.

A number of photos of the caves have been posted in the past week. One on Collins’ website shows the entrance to the caves through a bricked up doorway to the right (west) of the N-S corridor, which has been breached at some point in history. Only enough bricks have been removed to allow one to slip through into the caves but from the photo it appears as though this bricked up opening was an intentionally carved doorway, perhaps once part of the original tomb, known today as NC2.

With respect to the cave discoveries at Giza, Egypt’s top Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass is still denying their existence, claiming that we merely got confused inside an already recorded tomb, and thought that its 35-meter length was longer than it actually is. Yet as the dozens of pictures taken inside the caves show, we are well aware of what a tomb looks like and know the difference between 35 meters and a conservative estimate of 90 meters travelled inside the natural cave system, which constitutes the only known hard evidence for the existence of Giza’s cave underworld.

On the subject of the tomb in which the caves are accessed. Dr Hawass claims that it is fully recorded, but the only modern evidence which has come to light since the cave controversy began is a previously unpublished plan drawn in 1939 by a draftsman working with American Egyptologist George Reisner (click here to see the plan and here to read my response), as well as a rough plan sketched in the Expedition diary for the date Friday, April 28th, 1939 (link to follow). The latter is slightly more detailed, and shows the opening in the wall that provides access to the cave complex. However, the caves themselves are not shown. How could this possibly be? How it is that a methodical Egyptologist like Reisner failed to record the existence of a massive cave system unique to the plateau? Somehow, it just doesn’t make sense. Perhaps he just wasn’t interested in exploring natural caves, or simply did not have the time to venture further. Since the ominous shadow of the Second World War was looming ever closer, and the tomb had already been ear-marked as a makeshift air raid shelter for his workers, I suspect that he had other things on his mind.

The only people known to have entered the tomb other than Salt and Caviglia is Col. Richard Howard Vyse and British engineer John Shae Perring. Their team explored the tomb in 1837, discovering the remains of bird and animal mummies (the reason why we refer to it as the “Tomb of the Birds”). It is likely that the tomb came to be venerated as the site of a local bird god, most obviously the falcon-headed Sokar, the patron of the Giza necropolis, due to the presence of the caves. This might well have been seen as the entrance to the underworld of Giza-Memphis, over which Sokar had dominion. As you also read in the book, the caves (el-kahf in Arabic) are in local tradition said to be haunted by a giant snake called el-Hanash, a memory perhaps of the serpents that the ancient Egyptians believed frequented the cave underworld that the pharaoh had to pass on his way to the afterlife. I talk also about the tradition existing through to medieval times that either the Great Pyramid or Second Pyramid was thought to be the tomb of Agathodaimon, the “good spirit”, a Gnostic god in the form of a serpent, which was said to “repose”, i.e. rest, beneath the plateau.

Read more on the Giza caves and view a photo of the entrance on Andrew Colins’ website: Cave Discoveries – the Very Latest

Related posts:

1. The Giza Caves Officially Excavated Andrew Collins explores the cave system The cave saga continues...
2. Giza Caves Sealed Shut With Iron Gate Entrance to the 'Giza Caves'. Photo by Larry Hunter The...
3. Hawass Debunks Collins’ ‘Giza Caves’ Dr Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council of...
4. Update on the ‘Giza Caves’ from P Manuelian Entrance to the 'Giza Caves' Director of the Giza Archives...
5. Video of the Caves Beneath Giza Watch as Andrew Collins explores the caves underneath the Giza...

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