Secret Passages in the Great Pyramid
From the Greenwich Citizen:
A trip to the pyramid came next. Brier was pictured precariously perched on the edge of the pyramid.
“It’s not too hard to climb a pyramid if you’re not afraid of heights,” he quipped. He climbed along with a National Geographic cameraman for a documentary, “Unlocking the Great Pyramid,” to be featured this Sunday night…..
…On Brier’s 365-foot climb up the side of the Great Pyramid, he found an already pictured 8 x 8-foot notch, but also what appears to be a small, battered ramp never laid down in the historic record, though someone had found it in 1845 and left his date of discovery.”
The next task is to obtain permission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities to use thermal or infra-red photography to look for the hidden ramp inside the pyramid.
“It will take up to two years,” he said. “The theory will get wider known.” But Brier hopes one day to take “a mile-long walk” inside the pyramid.
“We still don’t know how they got the blocks to the top of the pyramid,” he said. A slide showed a single ramp with sleds pulling up each stone. “The ramp would have an angle gentle enough for dragging, an 8 percent grade at the maximum. The ramp would be a mile long and have a volume greater than the pyramid.” But no remains of a ramp have been found.
“You’re talking 4 million tons,” he said. “The single-ramp theory doesn’t work.” Another theory conjectured was the cork-screw ramp built around the Pyramid. “It would take 600 men to pull a 60-ton block.”
Read the full story.
You can purchase the book by clicking on the image above or you can purchase the DVD.
The National Geographic production “Unlocking the Great Pyramid” will show on the National Geographic Channel at 9 o’clock Sunday night, November 16.
Related stories:
More Evidence of Secret Passages in the GP
Secret Chamber Discovered in the Great Pyramid
How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? – Part 5. Houdin’s Internal Ramp
Related posts:
- More Evidence of Secret Passages in the GP National Geographic has posted a video to their YouTube channel...
- Secret Chamber Discovered in the Great Pyramid Corners of the internal ramp Breaking in the news this...
- Update on the Great Pyramid’s Secret Chamber Corners of the internal ramp Theories on how the ancient...
- Update on the Pyramid’s ‘Houdin’ Chamber Corners of the internal ramp In volume 62, the latest...
- Brier on the Spiral Ramp Inside the Pyramid Bob Brier spoke on NPR (National Public Radio) explaining how...
Follow me on Twitter
There is a temptation to look at Khufu’s pyramid in isolation, but if we assume that the construction techniques were developed during the building of earlier pyramids, might not the evidence be more visible in some of the more dilapidated examples such as the Meidum, or the more numerous later examples. Even examination of the damaged areas near the corners of Djoser’s pyramid, or the Bent pyramid, might yield a useful insight.
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for chiming in with your thoughts. You’re right, there is a general tendency to focus on the Great Pyramid. There are a few reasons why this is, it being the largest of the 118 pyramids, the only one to have ‘air shafts’ running through the body of the pyramid, one of the only ones to have the burial chamber high up in the body of the pyramid instead of being situated near or underground, and a list of other distinctive features. Having said that, one of the satellite pyramids of the ‘Bent’ pyramid of Meidum does show some similar architectural features and might indicate the development of some of the features present in the Great Pyramid.
Considering the many architectural innovations employed in Khufu’s pyramid, one might also expect to see at least some of them employed in later pyramids such as that of Khafre for example.
Hi Vincent
I agree that Khufu’s Great pyramid has many unique features, but I see this a result of its some may be the result of its scale. In terms of the burial chambers, Khafre’s is perhaps a grater technical achievement. My point was, if internal ramp was used for the Great Pyramid, why not elsewhere?
The problems inherent in the logistics an external ramp are the same for pyramids of any size, (I think), the ratio of ramp volume to pyramid volume is a constant at a set angle.
PS: If Houdin & Brier are correct, it’s bad news for publishers
Hi Geoff,
Yes I got your point, and it is a valid question. I agree that if it was not possible to build Khufu’s pyramid with the previously suggested techniques (a long straight ramp, or an external spiral ramp, etc) then it should also follow that we should expect the same for Khafre’s and other pyramids.
Not sure about it being bad news for publishers though. The interest being generated might in fact spur more books to be written about other aspects of the pyramid. Many people keep asking about the shafts for example, what is behind the second ‘door’?
Adding fuel to the mystery, in 2002 the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass stated that he believed that the ‘King’s chamber’ in the Great pyramid was NOT the real burial chamber of Khufu, and that his burial chamber lies undiscovered elsewhere in the pyramid!
Zahi is usually pretty good at creating a buzz like that.
Hi Vincent
I have to concede that understanding the construction method will probably not put an end to ‘pyramidology’.
National Geographic’s Explorer in residence will be busy on lots of fronts; I think the VOC will be in the news – big style – he has found two new tombs, and one may not robbed.
About the pyramids – What intrigues me is the statement:
“While conducting field work at the pyramid in 2008, Brier achieved another first: He found and photographed a room high in the pyramid which had never been noted before: Link
There is an interesting square in the middle of that French/Japanese low-density plot, looks a higher relieving chamber, rather than a tomb.
Excellent website, quite exceptional, btw.
Hi Vincent,
This may be the answer to my question: National Geographic
Some detail on the secret room.