Welcome to History for Granite.
Join me to explore ancient Egypt.
Together we’ll uncover secrets that only stones from antiquity can reveal.
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What makes the Great Pyramid of Giza stand out from the other magnificent pyramids of
the 4th dynasty isn’t just its greater size and precision.
There are so many intriguing features within, and each mystery deserves a closer examination
than you will find in any available literature.
One of my favorite subjects is the story of how the Great Pyramid was plundered, and the
methods and knowledge that was required to gain entrance to its chambers.
The entire story of how the pyramid was desecrated is longer than a short video can do justice
for.
Instead, we’re going to focus on a single missing piece of its internal defenses.
Most of you are no doubt familiar with the internal layout of the Great Pyramid, and
how the entrance opens to a descending passage that is intersected from above by an ascending
corridor that eventually leads to the King’s Chamber.
The intersection of these corridors is famously plugged by three enormous and precision-cut
granite blocks that slid down the ascending corridor to seal this point of entry.
The mystery begins here, where the granite stone ends and the intersection of the passages
is now laid bare.
The key question to ask is, was there ever a block disguising this entrance in the ceiling
and how effective could it have been?
Most mainstream Egyptology sources proclaim there was a block obscuring the granite plugs,
because they believe secrecy was a part of the defenses that every pyramid would employ.
I, however, remain skeptical that Old Kingdom Egyptians attempted a secrecy defense for
a monument that needed tens of thousands of workers to construct.
Taking a closer look at this hypothetical limestone block raises many concerns.
The block would have been trapezoidal in shape with sharp angles, and I refer to it as the
‘Prism Stone’.
The dimensions of the Prism Stone would be 120 centimeters tall, 100 centimeters wide,
with an average depth around 65 centimeters.
This means it would weigh no less than 2 tons, and attempting to raise such a block into
position within the constrained space of the descending corridor would have been an enormous
challenge.
Looking at the space to receive such a block, we notice that there are two notches on the
lateral sides which would indicate that supporting protrusions from the prism stone could fit
into them.
The notches are located immediately after the granite plugs which causes them to look
as though they are used for a device to block those plugs.
However, the granite plugs are in fact stopped by a narrowing of the ascending corridor above
so they didn’t need any help coming to a halt in their current position.
The problem with these notches supporting the hypothetical prism stone is that they
are very shallow, not much more than 5cm deep.
The notches are also nearly identical in size, and this is a huge red flag.
Other examples of notches in opposing walls designed to receive supports can be found
in the nearby Grand Gallery, where a floor would have been supported with beams covering
the corridor to the Queen’s chamber.
This false floor was necessary to slide the granite plugs into their final position down
the corridor, so it’s an ideal point of comparison.
These square notches that received supports are much more substantial in size, ranging
from 21 to 40 centimeters on their sides and each pair combining to about 80 centimeters
of depth.
Most importantly, you see that for each pair of notches, one of them is twice as deep as
the opposite side.
This allows a fixed length beam wider than the corridor to be introduced.
The beam is angled into the deeper notch so as to fit perpendicular to the corridor, and
then it can be pulled back out a short amount to fit into the shallow notch and is then
supported on both sides.
With this evidence it becomes clear that the notches inside the space for the Prism Stone
are inadequate in size to support any substantial weight.
You could only fit about 2 centimeters of support on either side in order to angle the
stone into position.
It’s also important to consider that even if the Prism Stone was supported in place,
it would still have substantial gaps between it and the surrounding walls, and so mortar
and plaster would be required to fill these joints.
With every other stone in the descending corridor having a precise fit, this would be very poor
camouflage.
Since mortar and plaster would be required to camouflage the Prism Stone, it would be
simpler and easier to fill the entire space with mortar and plaster instead of attempting
to hang a heavy, precariously suspended limestone block.
Now having established that the Prism Stone would neither be properly supported in this
space, nor provide good camouflage for the ascending corridor, what evidence remains
about this crucial corridor junction?
We don’t see any traces of mortar or plaster on the preserved eastern wall, nor on the
face of the granite plug itself and not even within the notches that would be the most
likely place for some to remain.
A proper forensic examination for microscopic traces of mortar would be prudent here, but
this will never happen until mainstream Egyptology takes the history of pyramids seriously.
The most logical conclusion from an apparent absence of mortar is that the granite plugs
in the ascending corridor were never concealed by a Prism Stone nor or any form of permanent
adhesive.
This leads us to the most confounding question of all, which is why do written accounts of
the Great Pyramid’s interior from the Greek and Roman Empires not make any mention of
the upper chambers, nor the Grand Gallery?
It is based on this lack of evidence that many historians ascribe the discovery of the
upper chambers to Al-Mamun and the robber’s tunnel of which he laid claim to in 832 A.D.
To resolve why Greek historians may have been unaware of the Great Pyramid’s upper chambers,
one can look to the burial practices of Late Period Egyptians during the same era.
The 26th dynasty of Egypt beginning in 664 B.C. was a time when major restorations were
conducted on the Giza pyramids by the pharaohs of that time.
For example, the inscribed wooden coffin found within Menkaure’s pyramid dates to this
period.
It’s very likely that the Egyptians of this era plugged up the robber’s tunnel of which
Al-Mamun takes credit and also concealed the ascending corridor junction.
The lower entrance to the well shaft could also have been concealed.
The reason for doing this is that Egyptians from the Middle Kingdom onward used secrecy
and camouflage as a primary defense mechanism for royal tombs.
The Great Pyramid, having been opened already for thousands of years would have been strewn
with rubble, infested with bats, and had moisture and salt damage everywhere.
This may have greatly aided in disguising the ascending corridor junction and the robber’s
tunnel.
The Greek historian Herodotus is the most ancient written account of the Great Pyramid,
and he lived less than a century after the time of pyramid restoration in the 26th dynasty.
If the Great Pyramid’s upper chambers had been secretly closed off by the Late Period
Egyptians, it wouldn’t be surprising that this camouflage would still persist during
the time of Herodotus and other Greek and Roman authors that came shortly after him.
The Late Period Egyptians were probably unaware that the pyramids of the Old Kingdom did not
attempt to disguise their entrances and corridors.
They fell victim to the historian’s fallacy, which is to judge the past by the standards
of their own time.
This is the same mistake that modern Egyptologists make, believing that pyramids from the Old
Kingdom were designed to camouflage the location of the tombs within.
If the builders of the Great Pyramid needed to camouflage the ascending corridor, they
could have accomplished this by making the plugging stones slightly wider than the descending
corridor.
When the lowest limestone plug came to rest on the descending corridor sidewalls, it would
appear to be a normal ceiling block with flush joints.
The architect Gilles Dormion provides further analysis of this in his 2004 book, The Chambre
of Cheops.
And lastly, what about the 5 centimeter notches in the sidewalls below the granite plug?
Their purpose was probably to anchor a ladder that was used to gain access to the ascending
corridor before a final closure of the pyramid.
The weight of humans and grave goods are much more suitable to be supported by notches of
that size.
The Great Pyramid relied upon the strength of granite to thwart tomb robbers rather than
hoping to keep secret the arrangement of its internal chambers and passages.
This was almost certainly a better choice, because decades of construction with thousands
of workmen would make concealing major design features impossible to achieve.
No doubt the Great Pyramid would have been the most popular topic of conversation for
generations, and indeed it still fascinates and astonishes the world to this day.
Thanks to everyone who watched this video to the end.
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