Many researchers have connected these guardians to
such organizations as the
Illuminati, Freemasons and other secret organizations,
both past and present. In Fact, there are many that believe some high level
Freemasons are aware of the pyramid’s true purpose and that, for some unknown
reason, they choose to remain silent. This particular aspect of pyramid
discussion is far beyond the scope of this article but there is no shortage of books
on the subject for those interested in pursuing this further. It would, however,
be prudent to note that Freemasons founded the United States and that the Great
Pyramid’s enigmatic geometry had a considerable influence upon them; this
is evident not only on the Dollar bill and in the history books, but also in
Washington DC’s layout and early architecture.
That the pyramid had a continuous chaperone
indicates not only that it was designed with a specific and much later destiny
in mind, but also that knowledge of its intended purpose generated sufficient
altruism that many subsequent generations could be recruited to continue the
tradition. If the pyramid had been a tomb, it would certainly have been
protected in some way, perhaps even for an extended period, but it seems
extremely unlikely that even the most powerful pharaoh could arrange for a
personal escort for many thousands of years. It therefore seems much more
likely that early rulers whose times the pyramid passed through would simply
perform whatever renovations were required and adopt the building as their
own. This appears to be the most likely case with Khufu and we should consider
ourselves fortunate that he chose not to muddy the water by having his remains
interred within or nearby.
Classical Times
One
of the most interesting and promising clues to the pyramid’s true origin and
purpose is its location, orientation and dimensional symmetry. Indeed, it is
this amazing mathematical and geometric symphony which, finally, brings it
into a clearer and more historical focus.
As
early as 500 BC, the
classical Greeks treated Egypt in much the same way we treat trendy, modern
day tourist destinations, paying a great deal of attention both to the pyramid
and to those who accompanied it. In fact so many Greeks studied with the
pyramid’s guardians that it is now generally accepted that Egypt was the
birthplace of many mathematical advances, particularly those in geometry and
astronomy, that were, for many hundreds of years, attributed to the Greeks
alone.
So-called,
Father of History, Greek Geographer/Historian Herodotus (484-425 BC) is one of
many voices which assure us this is so. Herodotus also provides us with one of
the earliest accounts of ancient Egypt and a great deal of detailed
mathematical information about the pyramid. It remains unclear as to whether
his knowledge of the pyramid was first hand or if it was handed down, but his
reports confirm that the pyramid was designed using advanced geometry and
with some arcane or esoteric purpose in mind.
Herodotus
also claimed to have been told by the pyramid’s guardians that Cheops (the
Greek name for the Pharaoh Khufu) was buried below the pyramid on an island
that was surrounded by waters fed by the Nile. There is, however, only solid
rock below the pyramid and recent research seems to indicate that what
Herodotus was told, although accurate in some respects, was also deceptively
cryptic. In fact it is now believed that, because of his reputation as a
traveler and historian, Herodotus was used as a conduit to spread selected
misinformation about the pyramid, partly to maintain public interest in it,
but, at the same time, to dissuade treasure seekers from disturbing it.
Several
hundred years later, in the first century BC, Sicilian born, author &
historian, Diodorus Siculus, although describing the pyramid as being complete
and in perfect condition, noted that there was no apex or capstone (the
absence of which is still the subject of debate over two thousand years
later).
Also
around this time, Strabo (63 BC - 24 AD), another Greek Geographer, was
evidently given a guided tour of the pyramid’s lower interior. He not only
described the pyramid’s concealed entrance, but also commented at length on
the Descending Passage and the empty and supposedly unfinished Subterranean
Chamber. Strabo failed, however, to mention the upper passages & chambers
or even the lower entrance to the Well Shaft. This is almost certainly because
both routes to the upper interior remained concealed until they were
discovered, quite accidentally, almost a thousand years later.
In
fact, that only the lower portion of the pyramid’s interior was known
- and visited regularly down to Roman times - is evidenced by the
presence of graffiti, which was found in the lower passages & chambers but
absent in the upper interior. This, along with later discoveries, would seem
to indicate that the upper passages and chambers were concealed even from
those charged with guarding the pyramid.
The Christian Era
By the 6th century AD,
Egypt’s politics had changed considerably and the pyramid’s guardians had
completely disappeared. It is not known when or how the last guardian faded
away, or why this happened. What is known, however, is that academic interest
had waned and, presumably with the disappearance of the guardians, awareness
of the pyramid’s concealed entrance was lost. Visitors to Egypt became fewer
and fewer in a time when Christian hermits are reported to have used many of
its temples and monuments - now considered pagan - as homes. There is no
evidence the pyramid was used in this way, scattered references from this time
note only the pyramid’s magnetism for what few tourists there were and
it’s continued good condition - something it was not destined to retain for
much longer.
A
Rude Awakening
Documented
history of The Great Pyramid begins in 820 AD, when the Caliph of Baghdad,
Abdullah Al Mamoun (786-833), forced his way through the north face in search
of a fabled treasure of ancient documents and artifacts. Exactly what Mamoun
expected to find inside the pyramid is difficult to say. He is reported to be
an educated man who tried, without success, to calculate the true
circumference of the Earth, and who sought to regain ancient navigational
knowledge that had been lost when the library of Alexandria was destroyed.
Hacking
blindly into the base of the pyramid, Mamoun eventually broke into the
Descending Passage just below its carefully hidden junction with the Ascending
Passage. From here he was free to explore everything in the pyramid’s lower
interior, from the formally concealed entrance (ironically just a few feet
from his forced tunnel) to the lower passages and Subterranean Chambers.
Finding nothing that interested him in the lower part of the interior, Mamoun
turned his attention to the foot of the Ascending Passage, which, after
remaining concealed for thousands of years, had been exposed when its stone
seal had been dislodged by his excavations.
Ordered
to tunnel up and around what was eventually discovered to be three huge
granite plugs (still wedged firmly in place today), Mamoun’s men smashed out
core masonry and then broke up several smaller limestone plugs which had been
placed behind the heavier, harder and more securely wedged granite. Having
finally gained access to the Ascending Passage, Mamoun climbed into the heart
of the pyramid, where he found the upper end of the Well Shaft, the Grand
Gallery, the King & Queen’s Chambers and almost all other known features
located in the upper body of the pyramid.
It
is both interesting and important to note that Mamoun and his men, after
tunneling horizontally for a hundred feet through solid stone, now went to
almost unimaginable lengths to tunnel upward, around the granite plugs that
blocked the Ascending Passage. This would seem to confirm, once again, that
the bottom of the Well Shaft was effectively concealed at that time. If this
had not been so, it would have been far easier for Mamoun’s men to remove
the loose rubble that we know filled the Well Shaft, than to tunnel upward
through solid stone.
One
can only imagine Mamoun’s thoughts as he and his men explored the upper part
of the pyramid. The disappointment of finding only cramped passages and empty
chambers, and the confusion of staring into the empty coffer must have been
heart breaking. Although the treasure Mamoun sought had, quite literally, been
staring him in the face since before he’d broken into the pyramid, it
remained concealed by his own greed, and he was eventually forced to pay his
men from his own pocket. Aside from a few interesting but unsubstantiated
rumors to the contrary, the interior features of the pyramid are all that were
exposed at that time and, regrettably, both the pyramid and mankind failed to
benefit from their discovery.
Despite
his reputation as an educated and enlightened man, Mamoun shamelessly savaged
the Great Pyramid and left without giving its size, orientation and curiously
arranged passages & chambers another thought. Open to the elements for the
first time since it was built, the battered and bruised pyramid quietly
awaited a much more serious and deadly attack.
Seismic Shock
Soon
after Mamoun departed, a series of unusually powerful earthquakes ravaged the
area and presumably further damaged the already shattered casing. How bad the
actual damage was we will never know, the quakes transformed the pyramid into
a convenient, twenty-two acre, pre-cut limestone supermarket and the casing
was looted to rebuild what is now Cairo. When the quarrying finally stopped,
over four hundred years later (as late as 1356 casing stones were removed to
build Cairo’s celebrated Mosque of Sultan Hassan), what little that remained
of the casing lay buried beneath some fifty feet of rubble.
Abandoned,
this time quite literally to the elements and ignored for hundreds of years,
The Great Pyramid continued its free fall through the Middle Ages. The lost
casing became as potent a legend as the monument’s embodiment of ancient
knowledge, and the exposed core became a home for bats and rodents. For a
while, the remains of the once great monument, regardless of what they may or
may not have concealed, appeared destined for little more than decay and
obscurity. As the darkness surrendered to enlightenment, however, inquiring
minds appeared to re-acquire their target, preparing now for a much more
sustained but benign assault.
The Renaissance in Giza
In
the sixteenth century, the brilliant Italian physician & mathematician
(and friend of Leonardo da Vinci), Girolamo Cardano, concluded that the Great
Pyramid embodied a system of linear measure that had been derived from the
dimensions of the Earth itself. Cardano knew that a great deal had been
learned and copied from the early Egyptians. He also believed the true size of
the earth had been known thousands of years earlier, and that it too would be
embodied in the pyramid. It would be hundreds of years before Cardano’s
suspicions could be tested, but the search was on, and by the early
seventeenth century, the Great Pyramid was attracting the attention of far
more benign and inquisitive visitors.
In
1637, British astronomer and mathematician, John Greaves, came to Giza in
search of the true circumference of the Earth. Greaves, who had studied in
Italy and Greece, and who had discovered the use of a geographic foot in the
ruins of the Parthenon, believed, like Cardano, that he would find similar
information embodied in the pyramid’s exterior measurements. Unfortunately,
debris from the stripped casing made it impossible for Greaves to make an
accurate survey of the pyramid’s base and Cardano’s theory remained just
that.
Inside
the pyramid, and although finding the Descending Passage blocked with rubble
left by Al Mamoun’s men over eight hundred years earlier, Greaves was able
to examine the upper passages and chambers. Gathering a great deal of the
early data on the pyramid’s upper interior and commenting on many of its
enigmatic features, Greaves captured public imagination and set the stage for
far more detailed study.
Rather
ironically, that same public soon began to refer to the coffer in the King’s
Chamber as a sarcophagus. This fostered the assumption that somebody must have
been buried within and thus was born the theory that the Great Pyramid may
have been a tomb. Academic interest remained firmly focused on the pyramid’s
mathematical mysteries, but, for reasons that may never be known, and despite
knowing it was grossly at odds with the evidence, Egyptologists of the time
appeared more than willing to jump on (and, in fact, may even have created)
the tomb bandwagon.
In
the summer of 1665, Bubonic plague swept across Europe. In England
institutions of higher learning were closed and an already reclusive young
student was quarantined on his family’s farm. Far happier in the solitude of
the English country side than the comparative crush of Trinity College, the
young man spent his summer studying the works of Galileo, Copernicus and
Kepler in an effort to provide mathematical proof of their discoveries. Not
satisfied with the observations of his predecessors, he invented an entirely
new branch of mathematics in order to feed an obsession with proving the
things his contemporaries accepted without question. It was during this summer
(legend has it after seeing an apple fall in his garden) that Isaac Newton
decided to rethink an old problem.
In
order to calculate the force of gravity, Newton needed to know the true
diameter of the earth. He believed such information was embodied in the
dimensions of the Great Pyramid, but like many others, was unsure if it would
pertain to the earth’s mean diameter, or its diameter at the latitude of the
pyramid. Compounding the problem of latitude was Newton’s belief that, when
measured accurately, the earth would be found oblate (slightly flattened at
the poles) and this added to the possibility that the dimensions of the
pyramid might prove more confusing than enlightening.
In
fact Newton found the pyramid’s dimensions extremely confusing, but not
because of its location or his beliefs with regard to the shape of the earth.
According to the most recent data, the pyramid’s base and height were not
divisible by a common unit, something utterly inconceivable. To Newton it
appeared that the pyramid had been designed using at least two different
systems of measurement, a situation akin to us designing a building using
imperial units for horizontal dimensions and metric for the vertical
components. Despite this glaring disparity, (something later recognized as
quite deliberate on the part of the pyramid’s designers), Newton concluded
that the pyramid had indeed been built using two entirely different and
unrelated units.
In
other words, instead of pondering the powerful enigma presented by the
pyramid’s dimensions, one of the greatest minds known to science (and one
evidently obsessed with proving what others accepted without question) simply invented
a separate unit for each dimension. To be fair, Newton put a great deal of
thought into the problem, but, already a deeply troubled man, perhaps he was
also inhibited or influenced by the current conflict between science and
religion and so did not give the pyramid the attention it so clearly deserved.
Eventually concluding the pyramid’s designers had used a “sacred” cubit
for the base and a “profane” cubit for the height, Newton evidently gave
no further thought to the significance of the problem itself.
Fortunately, Newton’s (inverse square) law of gravitation proved far
more accurate than his proposed cubits. The true size of the earth, however
– along with the answer to the mathematical problem posed by the pyramid’s
base and height dimensions, would elude science for another two hundred years.
Thirty-eight
years after Newton’s death, Nathaniel Davison, a British official
vacationing in Egypt, attempted to explore the pyramid. The exterior remained
shrouded in rubble and, like Greaves, Davison was unable to bypass Al
Mamun’s debris in the lower interior. Concentrating instead on the upper
passages and chambers, and, after being driven from the Well Shaft by the lack
of breathable air, Davison discovered a roughly carved passage, at the top of
the Grand Gallery’s south wall. Risking almost certain death by scaling the
twenty-four foot height of the already elevated gallery, Davison followed the
passage to a low, empty and featureless compartment which had evidently been
designed to protect the King’s Chamber, directly below, from the weight of
the masonry above.
In
the end, Davison added little more than his name to the history of The Great
Pyramid, but the “Construction Chamber” he discovered (and which now bears
his name) would later precipitate a great deal of activity, discovery and
controversy.
A New World Order
Soon
after conquering Egypt, in 1798, Napoleon initiated the first truly scientific
study of the pyramid by savants (scientists and scholars) who had accompanied
his army.
Inside
the pyramid, Napoleon experienced a measure of success in as much as he was
able to explore the upper part of the pyramid personally and even spend some
time alone in the King’s Chamber (where, it is claimed, he foresaw his own
destiny). But the pyramid was now home to thousands of bats, and efforts to
explore the Descending Passage and blocked Well Shaft, were prevented by
rubble, bat droppings and foul air.
Outside
the pyramid, Edme-Francois Jomard, one of the most influential of Napoleon’s
savants, had cleared away some of the debris at the base and exposed what were
believed to be the northeast and northwest alignment sockets (shallow
depressions carved into the bedrock). Like many before him, Jomard believed
not only that the base of the pyramid would reflect the Earth’s true
circumference, but that it would also reveal the builder’s original units of
measure. Unfortunately the sockets he uncovered were separated from the core
masonry by a thick layer of carefully manufactured rock pavement which posed
more questions than it answered. Debris still surrounded the remainder of the
pyramid and Jomard was unable to measure the base accurately enough to prove
his theory before the French were obliged to leave Egypt.
Napoleon
appears to be one of the few men of power - certainly the first - to show any
respect and compassion for the pyramid. The extent, accuracy and results of
work he commissioned provided a wealth of important information and proved
conclusively that the Great Pyramid – far from being a tomb – was all
about numbers.
The
Victorian Era
In the early nineteenth century, The Great Pyramid fell into the hands
of an eccentric Italian seaman who believed it concealed a secret chamber.
Somewhat
curiously, Giovano Caviglia began his search for this chamber from the shallow
confines of Davison’s Construction Chamber. After tunneling a short distance
into the core above and to the south of the King’s Chamber, he suddenly
stopped work and decided to explore the Well Shaft instead. When progress
there was halted by helpers who refused to work in the airless shaft, he moved
into the lower part of the pyramid. The Descending Passage, still blocked by
debris left by Al Mamun’s men a thousand years earlier, was finally cleared
and Caviglia continued his search for the secret chamber. What he eventually
found was actually the lower end of the Well Shaft, his men succeeding in
doing from the bottom what so many had failed to do from the top.
It
is not known exactly how Caviglia discovered the bottom of the Well Shaft, but
we
do know that it was filled with loose rubble. Rather than being forced to
tunnel upward,
the workers simply loaded the debris into baskets and removed it to the exterior.
Once
open and finally explored, the Well Shaft revealed the existence of the
two-room Grotto, carved into the bedrock just below the pyramid’s core
masonry. It is doubtful the Grotto satisfied Caviglia’s secret chamber
theory, but he had unwittingly exposed another piece of the pyramid puzzle.
Regrettably, its significance would also be misunderstood and overlooked for
many years.
Colonel
Richard Howard-Vyse, a British army officer, arrived in Giza in 1837 and
worked with Caviglia long enough to become similarly obsessed with a secret
chamber (by which time Caviglia became dissatisfied and left Egypt).
Howard-Vyse
also began his assault from Davison’s Chamber, but moved in a different
direction. Blasting upwards, he exposed a second chamber and named it after
Wellington, under whom he’d served earlier. No taller than Davison’s
Chamber below, the granite-beamed floor of Wellington’s Chamber was, in
fact, the roof of Davison’s Chamber. The similar, granite beamed ceiling of
the second chamber, prompted the assumption that still more lay above, and
several months of blasting uncovered third, fourth and fifth Construction
Chambers.
Unlike
the first four, the fifth chamber had a gabled roof, which almost certainly
convinced Howard-Vyse that it was the last (there is evidence he pushed a
little higher). Perhaps knowing he would not find the fabled secret chamber
here proved just too much of a disappointment for him. Later, he claimed to
have discovered proof that Khufu built the pyramid, but the single cartouche,
painted on the rock of the fifth chamber, was discredited by the discovery
that it was misspelled in exactly the same way as in a publication available
at that time. In fact it would be prudent to note here that Howard-Vyse
had a profound knack for exploring with explosives and for finding all kinds
of evidence to support his theories. That he was the only one ever to find
hieroglyphs and artifacts in the Great Pyramid should be viewed with a healthy
dose of skepticism.
Outside the pyramid, Howard-Vyse made two major
and much more authentic discoveries. The first was to confirm a theory that
the air shafts in the King’s Chamber actually penetrated to the exterior of
the building (there are reports that the shafts penetrated the casing, but
this is now impossible to confirm). Later, while removing debris from a small
area at the foot of the north face, he also uncovered the finely crafted rock
pavement and discovered that it continued north under the remaining debris. In
doing so, he also uncovered some of the original casing stones, confirming the
now centuries old legend of the limestone casing and providing a more accurate
angle for the pyramid’s sloping sides.
The
pavement uncovered by Howard-Vyse was the same as that which proved so
problematic for Napoleon’s Savants at the pyramid’s northern corners. The
significance of this pavement actually extending beneath the core masonry of
the pyramid (as opposed to ending or beginning at the base line) was evidently
lost not only Howard-Vyse, but also on other researchers of his and later
eras.
When
he returned to England, Howard-Vyse published his findings and re-ignited the
debate over what, in reality, was yet another failure to discern the true
purpose of the Great Pyramid.
Editing The Results
Fascinated
by the failure to reach a solid conclusion for the actual size and shape of
the pyramid, the Editor of the London Observer, John Taylor, began a detailed
study of the work of both Napoleon’s savants and Howard-Vyse. Although it
would take him the rest of his life, Taylor eventually published a number of
fantastic conclusions, which he reached, regrettably, by making the same
mistake as Newton.
Taylor
noted that the pyramid’s base perimeter had grown considerably over the
previous two hundred years. Assuming – quite correctly - that each
successive explorer had plunged ever deeper into the debris, Taylor decided to
mathematically reconstruct the pyramid using the most recent measurements and
to probe it for the geometric poetry he was sure it contained. Unfortunately,
he also assumed the most recent measurements were correct and so was unable to
reveal that poetry.
Discouraged
by the same lack of symmetry between the base and height that had troubled
Newton, Taylor explored an earlier claim that the area of each face had been
designed to equal the square of the pyramid’s vertical height. Then, in
assuming the pyramid was a perfectly geometric construction, he plunged
headlong into the same quagmire from which even Newton had been unable to
emerge unscathed
While
comparing the base perimeter to the pyramid’s height, Taylor arrived at a
figure just slightly larger than, but close enough to pi to spark his
imagination. Then, in assuming the pyramid’s height had the same
relationship to its base perimeter as does the radius of a circle to its
circumference, he also searched in vain for a unit of measure that would
divide the base and the height. (There are many who claim the pyramid embodies
Pi & Phi along with a solution for squaring the circle, but there is, as
yet, no evidence for this). Failing, but determined to retain the pi
proportion he was now sure existed, Taylor plunged back, starting back at the
base. In one of his calculations, he came up with a unit of 25 inches, a value
remarkably similar to Newton’s sacred cubit and also one recently proposed
by renowned astronomer Sir John Herschel.
In
the early 1800’s, Herschel had proposed dividing the earth’s as yet
unknown polar axis by five hundred million to produce a
sensible, earth commensurate, unit of measure. This, he predicted, would result in a unit of
about fifty inches, which, when halved, would
provide a useful cubit of twenty-five (which more
or less agreed with the sacred cubit Newton believed he had “found” in the
pyramid). Taylor already knew that the side of a British acre measured 2,500 inches, and, for him,
a recently adopted map scale of 1:2500
appeared to complete the circuit. Although the new
map scale bore absolutely no relation
to the standard British mile of 5,280 feet, it fit
both Herschel’s cubit and the ancient acre
exactly.
Evidently
unconcerned that the pyramid had yet to be measured accurately, Taylor went on
to study the pyramid’s interior and eventually concluded that the entire
structure was a record of weights and measures which had been constructed, or,
at the very least, commissioned by God himself. Publishing in 1859, he was
ridiculed almost until his death, a scant five years later. Despite the less
than complimentary publicity, however, Taylor found an influential supporter
who took up his cause just before he died.
The Astronomer Royal
Charles
Piazzi-Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, adopted the sacred cubit without
question, publicly supported Taylor’s views of divine inspiration, and, in
return, was criticized and censured by his peers. As provocative as Taylor’s
views were, the divine inspiration angle appeared just too much for most
people to swallow, especially those recently exposed to Charles Darwin’s
views on the origins of man. Undaunted and unconvinced by the views of his
peers or Darwin, Smyth not only continued to work with Taylor, but also
gleaned enough information to conclude that he would have to go to Giza
himself.
Although
finding the Descending passage blocked again (this time by guides who resented
escorting tourists to the Subterranean Chamber), Piazzi-Smyth is credited with
making the first truly comprehensive study of the beleaguered pyramid. His
work is now one of the most widely read and respected on the subject, but, as
it had for so many others, the debris at the base severely hampered his
efforts on the exterior.
Smyth
was determined to prove that the pyramid had been designed using the sacred
cubit, that its base perimeter would reflect the number of days in a year and
that it would contain an accurate value for pi. In order to prove this,
however, Smyth required a base length longer than the French figure but less
than the most recent figure as reported by Howard-Vyse. Perhaps realizing his
was an arbitrary and unscientific approach, he decided the only sure way to
make his point was to clear the remaining corner sockets and to measure up and
over the debris himself. Unfortunately he ran out of time and was forced to
convince visiting engineers to finish the job for him and to forward their
results.
When
the results arrived, the base sides, at 759.17 feet, were far too short to
prove his point. Rather than accept the engineers’ findings, Smyth chose a
point between their results and Howard-Vyse’s figure of 764 feet - a value
that was, ironically, equally arbitrary and
which was still too short to prove his point.
Smyth
published his findings as soon as he returned to England, but his deeply
religious beliefs were not well received. The latest measurement of the
pyramid’s base had not only failed to support his theory that the pyramid
embodied a reference to the year – and that it was therefore the product of
divine intervention, but it also failed to prove Taylor’s pi proportion.
With
nothing else to turn to, those uninterested in the tomb theory (by now more or
less official), remained torn between the Taylor/Smyth divine intervention
theory and Jomard’s earth commensurate proposals. Despite being forced, once
again, to wait for confirmation of one or the other, the public was suddenly
treated to an intriguing new discovery.
Concealed Shafts
In
1872, Engineer, Wayneman Dixon, on scarcely more than a hunch, discovered the
first entirely new feature of the pyramid’s interior in more than a
millenium.
Evidently
puzzled by the absence of so called “air shafts” in the Queen’s Chamber,
Dixon concluded that something similar would be concealed behind its otherwise
featureless walls. Within minutes of instructing his helper to chisel into the
south wall, Dixon found exactly what he’d suspected, a concealed shaft
almost identical to those in the King’s Chamber. Probing the north wall in
the same way, Dixon uncovered a second shaft, and, inside, claimed to have
found a small piece of wood, an iron hook and a stone ball. Unlike their
counterparts in the King’s Chamber, these shafts did not penetrate to the
exterior of the pyramid. Attempts were made to explore the new shafts, but
their size, depth and angle of ascent made anything other than clumsy probing
impossible.
Dixon
wrote to Piazzi Smyth about his discovery and sent him the artifacts he
claimed to have found in the northern shaft. These were reportedly examined by
experts at the British Museum but shed little light on their own origin and
purpose, or on why the shafts were open and continuous in one chamber but
deliberately concealed and evidently limited in the other. The newly
discovered shafts would eventually prove significant, but not for another 121
years.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
In 1880, the Earth’s Polar Diameter was calculated to be 7,898.78
miles. The newly determined dimension translated into
just shy of 500,500,000 British inches, or an even five hundred million if the inch were lengthened
slightly. Herschel had been right (as had both Newton and Taylor - but each for the wrong reasons).
The
following year, William Flinders Petrie, a professional surveyor, cleared a
little more of the pyramid’s base and also made an accurate survey of the
entire Giza complex. Having done so, Petrie proved that the pyramid was almost
perfectly aligned to the cardinal points of the compass, and also discovered a
curious hollowing of the pyramid’s sides. This subtle hollowing – about
thirty seven inches on each face - had been noted and sketched by one of
Napoleon’s savants, but overlooked until it was rediscovered by Petrie.
Petrie
had long been interested in the variety of measures used throughout the world,
and believed that a history of these measures could be ascertained by the
careful measurement of ancient monuments. He also knew only a truly accurate
survey of the pyramid would prove the Taylor/Smyth theory right or wrong.
Clearing the pyramid’s corners once again, Petrie concluded that the
alignment sockets discovered by the French had been designed more for
reference than physical alignment (the Northern sockets were far too shallow
to provide the required strength). While working on another area of the base,
Petrie had also noted that the pavement surrounding the pyramid had, in fact,
been laid first and continued for an unknown distance beneath the structure.
In all likelihood, the sockets had been for surveying and preparation purposes
and the pavement had, presumably, supplied a second, more effective alignment
method some eighteen to twenty inches higher.
After
numerous researchers had spent almost a hundred years digging down to the base
of the pyramid (albeit only at the corners and a small section of the north
face), Petrie was now forced to calculate his way back up. In doing so, he
found the base length to be 755.75 feet – far too short to support either of
Jomard’s Earth circumference or Piazzi-Smyth’s days in a year theories.
The 20th Century
Next
into the fray was a Structural Engineer who sought only to destroy the idea
that the pyramid was an instrument of prophecy. David Davidson, appalled that,
for some, the pyramid had become the bible in stone, went over the building
with fine toothed comb in an effort to silence the religious fanatics. Not
only was he forced to concede defeat, he was also forced, like many others,
into rethinking the issue from two entirely different points of view at one
and the same time. In the end Davidson accepted the divine inspiration/bible
in stone theory completely, but the route to his conversion would throw the
whole pyramid debate on its ear.
By
noting that Petrie had not extended the hollowing of the pyramid’s sides to
his calculations for the lost casing, Davidson discovered the pyramid’s
designers had, in fact, incorporated three
calculations for the year in the base perimeter. By extending the hollowing
himself, he was able to prove that each face of the pyramid had been a complex
geometric contour. When the base perimeter was finally measured accurately, it
would, he claimed, prove that the designers had purposely embodied what we
refer to as the Solar, Anomalistic and Sidereal years. Davidson had all but
proved Piazzi-Smyth correct, but the pyramid’s missing apex now cast an
eerie new light on the monument.
Davidson
predicted that, when finally measured accurately, the pyramid’s base
perimeter would be found short of Piazzi-Smyth’s length by exactly 286.1022
inches (23.84 feet), and he called this distance the pyramid’s
“Displacement Factor.” The figure itself is embodied within the pyramid in
numerous places. The original entrance is offset to the east of the
north/south axis by this amount; it is exactly the difference in height
between the Ascending Passage and the Grand Gallery; and it is also the
calculated height of the missing apex.
In
1925, the pyramid was finally cleared of debris, the base accurately surveyed
for the first time and the results published as the official size and
orientation of the pyramid. Davidson was not only proved correct by the
results, but a curious mathematical conundrum was also uncovered.
The
actual distance around the base was found to be equal to half of one minute of
arc of the Earth’s circumference - which the pyramid’s designers had
evidently deemed to be slightly less than our own calculation. Although
vindicating Jomard in one respect, the figure did not provide the
much-anticipated unit of measure because it was a scaled reference, which
would be recognized regardless of the units used to confirm it. But, when the
height of the missing apex was added, the result reflected the number of days
in a year and also vindicated Piazzi-Smyth. It was this figure, ironically,
that supplied an original unit of measure, an increment that was within a few
decimal places of one we’d used for much of recorded history – the inch!
For many this was confirmation that the pyramid had been designed to attract
the attention of those capable of appreciating its mathematical symbolism as
opposed to its previously supposed perfection.
The
designers of the Great Pyramid had carefully incorporated specific information
into the casing of the pyramid and then squared and oriented the building
almost perfectly north/south by a near miss so close it is debated as
deliberate to this day. If indeed the designers had sought to attract the
attention of those who understood the numbers embodied in the Great Pyramid,
they had not succeeded until well over four and a half thousand years after
the building had been completed. Even then, what should have been a turning
point in pyramid research was lost on two camps still torn between what they
saw as opposing theories.
Science,
it seems, was unwilling to chose between the Earth Commensurate & Bible in
Stone theories and unable to move forward with both. As a result, a whole new
ball game would play out in the vacuum left by indecision.
In
the 1950’s the Great Pyramid was granted a small part in a drama that would
one-day see it promoted to a more prominent role. The general public was
suddenly rocked by claims the earth had not evolved as slowly and uniformly as
originally supposed. Evidence of regular, perhaps cyclic cataclysms was found
all over the planet. To many it appeared the earth had been suddenly shaken,
ripped or smashed from its daily rotation not once, but dozens, perhaps
hundreds of times - and with disquieting regularity. Suddenly, the theory of
ice ages, both fatally flawed and unexplainable by science anyway, was placed
under increasing pressure.
In
the tropics and close to the equator, scientists found striations in the
bedrock caused by ice that not only moved under the broiling heat of the
tropical sun, but which also moved in the wrong direction – often uphill.
Erratic boulders weighing thousands of tons, supposedly transported by
glaciers, were found thousands of miles from their point of origin, often in
the middle of open plains or half way up mountains that were older than the
strata below.
In
the far north explorers found the remains of huge numbers of animals, some now
extinct, frozen solid with their last meals still in their mouths and
stomachs. Whole populations of animals had dined on lush, green vegetation and
were then instantly transported to the arctic, where they were smashed
together in heaps, along with the very vegetation they had been eating, and
flash frozen.
Evidence
from all over the world forced one simple conclusion on incredulous minds.
Time and time again ancient mountain chains had been thrust up and over much
younger formations or had been suddenly submerged. Sea and land had exchanged
places in violent convulsions. Volcanoes had spewed lava thousands of feet
deep over hundreds of thousands of square miles, all in the age of man and
often in cycles of only a few thousand years.
Much
of the evidence, it was learned, was not new. Darwin himself had remarked on
the awesome destruction of fauna and the geological anomalies evident over the
almost pole to pole length of the Americas. In his notes he remarked that the
earth’s entire frame must have been shaken both repeatedly and frequently.
Mainstream science, at a loss or reluctant to explain the evidence, battled or
denied theory after theory. Some, still searching for a reason for the
pyramid, tried to connect it and the obviously recent geological violence –
sometimes with astonishing results - to almost everything from Plato’s
Atlantis to the biblical flood.
Ironically,
the pyramid embodied an answer, but it would remain concealed a little longer.
In
the 1960’s and 70’s, a public perhaps forced into readiness by the
terrifying revelations of the fifties, was treated to a burgeoning array of
ever more outrageous and groundless theories. The history of the pyramid was
lost on a public more willing to believe it was the work of aliens. Its
orientation and mathematical symbolism meant nothing to those who believed its
missing apex had been fashioned from an unknown precious metal or crystal,
which beamed mystical energy to or from space. If nothing else, the furor
paved the way for a much more scientific and sensible approach.
The
1980’s and 90’s saw a surge of study that, among other things, tied the
very layout of the Giza complex to ancient astronomical data, and set the
stage, finally, for finding a reason for the pyramid’s very existence.
Modern researchers, it seemed, were beginning to suspect that The Great
Pyramid contained a message of some kind, a message not from God or from space
travelers, but from our own ancestors, somewhere in the dim and distant past.
In
the spring of 1993, a small video camera equipped robot, ascended the southern
shaft in the Queen’s Chamber in search of a solution to continuing pyramid
ventilation problems (at the time, the northern shaft was deemed unsuitable
because of debris left by Dixon’s probing). High in the pyramid’s core
masonry, the robot stopped cold at what first appeared to be a dead end. As
the area was studied more closely, however, the video camera revealed a stone
slab that appeared to have been dropped into the shaft and secured with small
copper pins. That the shaft continued beyond the slab was made obvious by a
tiny, triangular gap at the bottom right hand corner (if
the robot’s video camera was able to see through the gap, the results were
not revealed to the general public).
Some
two hundred feet up, in a shaft impossible for even the smallest child to
navigate, the Great Pyramid’s designers had left a stone slab that could be
discovered and studied - perhaps even moved - only by a technologically
advanced explorer. But, before even
completing the task, they had concealed the bottom of the shaft and left no
visible clue of its existence! As exciting and provocative as this was for
many, what became known as the “Door” was arbitrarily dismissed by
authorities as unimportant, and, for a while, no further exploration was
allowed (or revealed).
Almost
a decade later, a second robot was dispatched to drill through the door and to
pass a video camera into the space beyond. The televised, supposedly live, but
embarrassingly unprofessional event was condemned as little more than a money
raising sham, which ended too soon after the camera passed through the newly
bored hole. The presumably world wide TV audience was given a suspiciously
brief glimpse of a second obstruction, but no explanation for why the
previously articulate camera remained perfectly rigid after being passed
through the door.
In
the years between the only two publicized forays, the airshafts were studied
more intensely by other researchers, and it was claimed that each
“pointed” to a specific star or constellation in remote antiquity.
Somewhat naively, it was assumed that the “star shafts” were incorporated
into the pyramid to signify its date of construction (a common, if not
entirely understandable failing among those claiming to have found dates
embodied in the pyramid).
It
has since been rumored that there has been quiet exploration of the remaining
shafts, that an additional door has been found and that an additional passage,
perhaps even chamber, exists. At this point in time, one can only wonder what
will become of these or any other new discoveries that are made within or
around the pyramid. Access to the pyramid is already severely restricted and
it seems unlikely that Egyptian authorities will comment upon – or even
reveal – any discovery which contradicts the official tomb theory.
The Great Pyramid’s Future
As
a consequence of all of the above, The Great Pyramid has been handed down in
battered and desecrated condition and the general public now allowed only
limited access. Despite a still burning desire to know who built it and why,
we are hampered by the events & attitudes of the past, the politics &
prejudices of the present, and by a confusing jumble of information that,
perhaps, we were intended to uncover in a more logical sequence.
We
can no longer marvel at the true size, shape and precision of the pyramid; it
has been ravaged by man and the elements for more than a quarter of its known
history. We no longer need to search for a hidden entrance or concealed
passages because we know exactly where they are. We have no need to explore
and measure those passages and chambers because it’s been done for us over
and over again. And, largely because we’ve been bombarded by crackpot theory
after crackpot theory, we no longer have a desire for anything but concrete
facts.
Early
in the twentieth century, the Great Pyramid was finally recognized for what it
was intended to be - a complex mathematical message aimed at only those who
were diligent enough to uncover the subtle clues to its existence. In 1925,
after thousands of years in limbo, the pyramid had cleared its throat and
uttered a single word – inch. But it has taken us almost a hundred years to realize that the
pyramid had spoken, let alone understand the significance of that word.
As
of April 2007, pyramid research continues at a furious pace, and the inch
continues to play a prominent role, reveal more and more about the pyramid and
why it was built. Today, more than ever, research is conducted by thousands of
individuals who are completely independent and unfettered by antiquated
beliefs and pressure to adhere to old school cronyism.
The
pyramid’s future, although still uncertain, now appears brighter than ever;
will we be listening when it speaks again?
