Ruins of Ramses II Temple Unearthed in Giza's Abusir

Ancient Origins

An Egyptian-Czech archaeological mission has unearthed the ruins of a King Ramses II temple during excavation works taking place in the Abusir necropolis in the governorate of Giza. Ramses II was one of the most powerful and celebrated Egyptian kings and was revered as a god in his own lifetime. The absence of evidence of his building in this important area was an anomaly which this discovery now corrects. The archaeologists also uncovered telling reliefs of solar deities.

 Temple Stretches an Impressive 1768 Square Meters
Deputy Head of the mission, Mohamed Megahed, told Ahram Online that the temple is positioned in an area that forms a natural transition between a terrace of the Nile and the floodplain in Abusir. He also added that the temple stretches over 1768 square meters (18700 sq. ft.) and consists of a mud brick foundation for one of its pylons, a large forecourt that leads to the hypostyle hall, parts of which are painted blue.

View of the entrance pylon of the temple (Image: Czech Institute of Egyptology)

At the rear end of the court, the team of archaeologists discovered a staircase or a ramp to a sanctuary, the back of which is divided into three parallel chambers. The ruins of this building were lying under sand and rubble, which also contain ancient remnants which are of archaeological interest.

 “The remains of this building, which constitutes the very core of the complex, were covered with huge deposits of sand and chips of stone of which many bore fragments of polychrome reliefs,” Dr. Mirsolave Barta, director of the Czech mission, told Ahram Online.

View of the excavated temple looking south (Image: Czech Institute of Egyptology)

Temple is the First Evidence of King Ramses II Building in Memphis Necropolis
King Ramses II, (also spelt Ramesses or Rameses and given the title Ramses the Great) had the second longest known reign in Egypt, as the third king of the 19th dynasty of Egypt, 13th century BC). He was well known for extensive building programs but until now this had not been in evidence at the Memphis necropolis where so many other temples are found. Although the presence of Ramses is known here not least from a huge statue that was recovered from the Great Temple of Ptah in 1820 but that long missing evidence of construction has now been found.

Dr. Barta went on to explain that the different titles of King Ramses II were found inscribed on a relief fragment connected to the cult of the solar deities. Furthermore, the head of the Czech mission said that relief fragments portraying scenes of the solar gods Amun, Ra and Nekhbet were also discovered. The find thus verifies the uninterrupted worship of the sun god Ra in the region of Abusir, which began in the 5th dynasty and continued until the era of the New Kingdom. However, the most important thing about this discovery likely remains that this temple is the first evidence so far of King Ramses II’s construction in the Memphis necropolis.

Cartouche of Ramses II, (Image: Czech Institute of Egyptology)

“The discovery of the Ramses II temple provides unique evidence on building and religious activities of the king in Memphis area and at the same time shows the permanent status of the cult of sun god Re who was venerated in Abusir since the 5th Dynasty and onwards to the New Kingdom,” Barta tells Ahram Online.

The Life and Death of Ramses II
As we have previously reported at Ancient Origins, Ramses II is arguably one of the greatest pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Being the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, Ramses II ascended the throne of Egypt during his late teens in 1279 BC following the death of his father – Seti I. He is known to have ruled ancient Egypt for a total of 66 years, outliving many of his sons in the process – although he is believed to have fathered more than 100 children. As a result of his long and prosperous reign, Ramses II was able to undertake numerous military campaigns against neighboring regions, as well as build monuments to the gods, and of course, to himself.

Ramses II colossal statue in the Memphis open air museum in Egypt. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

 Despite being the one of the most powerful men on earth during his life, Ramses II did not have much control over his physical remains after his death. While his mummified body was originally buried in the tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings, looting by grave robbers prompted the Egyptian priests to move his body to a safer resting place. The actions of these priests have rescued the mummy of Ramses II from the looters, only to have it fall into the hands of archaeologists.

In 1881, the mummy of Ramses II, along with those of more than fifty other rulers and nobles were discovered in a secret royal cache at Dier el-Bahri. Ramses II’s mummy was identified based on the hieroglyphics, which detailed the relocation of his mummy by the priests, on the linen covering the body of the pharaoh. About a hundred years after his mummy was discovered, archaeologists noticed the deteriorating condition of Ramses II’s mummy and decided to fly it to Paris to be treated for a fungal infection. Interestingly, the pharaoh was issued an Egyptian passport, in which his occupation was listed as ‘King (deceased)’. Today, the mummy of this great pharaoh rests in the Cairo Museum in Egypt.

Top image: Colossal Statue of Ramses II in Memphis. (CC BY-SA 2.0) Ramses II and his prisoners, Memphis relief (CC BY-SA 4.0)

By Theodoros Karasavvas

Seeking eternity: 5,000 years of ancient Egyptian burial

History Extra

The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt. (Margaret Maitland)

Evidence of ancient Egyptian belief in life after death emerged as early as c4500 BC. Over the following millennia, the Egyptians’ preparations for eternal life changed significantly, with different styles of tombs, evolving mummification practices, and a wide variety of funerary objects.

 Egypt’s dry climate, secure geographic position, and wealth of resources means that we have been left with an abundance of evidence about burial practices. In the early 19th century, Europe’s race to uncover ancient Egyptian mummies and treasures amounted to little better than tomb looting. However, recently the archaeological recording of burials and a systematic approach to their study have made it possible to make sense of Egypt’s changing funerary traditions.

 An upcoming exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, The Tomb: Ancient Egyptian Burial, charts the development of burial in ancient Egypt, and examines one of the first tombs to be excavated and recorded in detail: a tomb that was used and reused for more than 1,000 years.

 An eternal holiday
The ancient Egyptians saw the afterlife as a potential extension of their lives on earth – but an idealised version, almost an eternal holiday. Preparations for the afterlife are first evidenced in prehistoric Egypt (c4500–3100 BC) by the placement in burials of pots containing food and drink for the deceased. Through this period an increasing number of provisions were placed alongside the dead, such as stone or pottery vessels, eye makeup palettes, flint tools, and beads.

 In this early period, the dead were buried in pits, usually laid facing west, towards the setting sun. Throughout ancient Egyptian civilisation, the sun held particular importance. To reach the afterlife, the Egyptians hoped to join the sun god, who set every evening and was reborn at dawn each morning on his eternal journey. The pyramids built to house the tombs of Egyptian kings evoke the descending rays of the sun – a stairway to heaven – and were often given names with solar associations, such as ‘King Snefru Shines’. The Great Pyramid was named ‘The Horizon of King Khufu’. Some of the earliest detailed information about Egyptian beliefs comes from the first funerary texts, inscribed on the walls of the burial chambers in royal pyramids around 2400–2250 BC. These were magic spells intended to protect the king’s body, and to reanimate it after death in order to help him ascend to the heavens.

Some spells were intended to be recited at the funeral, while others were written in the first-person, to be spoken by the deceased king addressing the gods.

 These pyramid texts reveal that, as well as wishing to join the sun god, the deceased hoped to become like the god Osiris. According to myth, Osiris was the first king of Egypt. He was the first person to be mummified and brought back to life after death, thus becoming ruler of the afterlife. This dual system of afterlife beliefs, relating to both solar and Osirian rebirth, was to characterise burial through the rest of ancient Egyptian history.

Clay statue of the afterlife god Osiris, from Umm el-Qaab, Abydos, c1295–1186 BC. (National Museums Scotland)

 Inside the tomb
The tomb itself was intended help magically transform the dead into a semi-divine being like Osiris. Pyramids and royal tombs even had associated temples in which the king would be worshipped as a god after his death. Wealthy individuals had a decorated tomb-chapel – a public part of the tomb above ground, separate from the actual burial chambers – where relatives could visit to remember the deceased, and priests could make offerings and recite prayers.

 In prehistoric burials, bodies were sometimes preserved naturally through the dry heat of the desert sand. The earliest active attempts to preserve human bodies involved wrapping the dead in resin-soaked linen, but the first real mummification took place during the pyramid age, or Old Kingdom (c2686–2134 BC). The body was dried using natron, a naturally occurring mixture of salts, and wrapped in linen. Sometimes the internal organs, the parts most likely to decay, were removed and mummified separately. The Egyptians believed that a person’s soul had the potential to leave the body to enjoy the afterlife, but it needed the preserved body as a resting place to return to each night.

 During the Middle Kingdom (c2030–1800 BC), the funerary spells originally written inside royal pyramids began to appear on the coffins of priests and high officials. God of the afterlife Osiris also grew in importance. Rectangular coffins were slowly replaced by anthropoid coffins that depicted the deceased holding royal regalia, transformed into Osiris to ensure their resurrection. Wooden models depicting food and craft production were initially introduced to burials to magically provide for the dead and transfer their wealth and status into the afterlife. These developed into funerary figurines called shabtis, initially intended to act as a substitute for the deceased, in case they were called up by conscription to perform physical labour in the afterlife.

Wood anthropoid coffin of the estate overseer Khnumhotep, with gilded face, from Deir Rifa, Middle Kingdom c1940–1760 BC. (National Museums Scotland)

 A major change in royal burial came In around 1530 BC, after a period of foreign occupation, when Egypt was reunified under the rule of a king from Thebes. Burial traditions in Thebes favoured rock-cut tombs in the cliffs on the west bank of the Nile, so royal pyramids were abandoned in favour of tombs hidden in the Valley of the Kings.

This period, the New Kingdom (c1550–1069 BC), marked the height of the ancient Egyptian empire. The civilisation was extremely wealthy; a fact reflected in the hundreds of tombs constructed by officials opposite the capital city of Thebes. In addition to magical items produced specifically for burial, such as coffins, canopic jars, and shabtis, the prosperous now wanted to take their wealth with them. They filled their tombs with all the beautiful things that they enjoyed in life, from jewellery to furniture. Another new innovations of this time was the Book of the Dead, a collection of magical spells developed out of the texts written inside royal pyramids almost 1,000 years earlier. For the first time, these spells were written and illustrated on papyrus scrolls, shrouds and amulets for the wealthy to take with them to the afterlife.

Clay shabtis and wooden shabti box, from Thebes (Luxor), c747–656 BC. (National Museums Scotland)

 Our exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland focuses on a tomb built in the New Kingdom period for a chief of police and his wife. When it was excavated in 1857, detailed records and plans were made of the tomb’s layout and the objects found within it. It was enormous, carved 38m into the desert cliffs, followed by a shaft 6m deep leading to several burial chambers, making it larger than some of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Ironically, while the chief of police was in charge of the security in the Valley of the Kings, he wasn’t able to protect his own tomb, which was eventually robbed. The only surviving object from his burial is a beautiful pair statue [a statue depicting a couple].

Sandstone pair statue of the chief of police and his wife, c1290 BC. (National Museums Scotland)

 A change in fortune
As Egypt lost control of its empire and became politically unstable (c1069–650 BC), the country fractured between the north and south and eventually succumbed to foreign rule. This change in fortune meant that people looked to cut costs in their burials – the people of Thebes could no longer afford to build new tombs and fill them with lavish burial goods. Since wood was scarce and expensive, a new form of mummy-case made from linen and plaster (cartonnage) was invented. Old tombs were reused and recycled. A number of objects excavated in the tomb featured in our exhibition reveal that it was reused by several individuals during at least two different time periods between 800 and 650 BC.

 With widespread tomb looting and reuse, Egyptians worried that organs stored in canopic jars might become separated from the body. The integrity of the body was important, so internal organs were mummified individually and then returned to the body. Canopic jars were technically no longer needed, but some people still made solid dummy canopic jars for the sake of tradition and symbolic protection.

 Objects from daily life were generally no longer placed in the tomb; instead the focus was entirely on magical items made specifically for burial. Originally just one single shabti figurine had been placed in the tomb, but this number quickly grew (as quality decreased significantly), eventually becoming a workforce for the afterlife.

 Over time, funerary objects like shabtis and canopic jars began to disappear, and even coffins became rare. By the time Egypt became part of the Roman empire in 30 BC, burials were focused entirely on the body itself; the most commonly used burial items were shrouds and either a mask or classical-style portrait placed over the face of the mummified person. The realism of classical portraiture may have appealed to those wishing to preserve the body and bring the dead back to life: in a portrait, they appeared alive again. On the other hand, traditional practices invoked ancient magic: gilded mummy masks aimed to make the dead semi-divine, based on an age-old belief that the skin of the gods was made of gold.

Mummified man with a portrait-board fitted over the face, excavated at Hawara c80–120 AD. (National Museums Scotland)

 The final reuse of the tomb featured in our exhibition was by an important Egyptian family who lived under the last pharaonic ruler Cleopatra and witnessed the conquest of Egypt by the first Roman emperor. The burials of the high-official Montsuef and his wife Tanuat can be dated specifically to 9 BC, by inscriptions on their funerary papyri. Unlike the earlier standardised Books of the Dead, these were personalised with vignettes about the couple, attesting to the virtuous lives they had led. The new Roman influences in this era are evident in the gold and copper wreath Montsuef’s body wore over a traditional gilded mask, a classical symbol of victory re-interpreted as a symbol of triumph over death.

 Montsuef’s funerary canopy is an amazing object – completely unprecedented in the history of Egyptian burial. Yet other elements of it are entirely traditional, such as its Egyptian temple shape, royal cobras and winged sun-disk motifs. Like other objects from this period, it demonstrates how much Egypt was being transformed by external influence, but also just how determined the Egyptians were to hold onto their traditions in their pursuit of the afterlife. While shrouds decorated with ancient Egyptian symbols were produced until around the late third century AD, with the introduction of Christianity to Egypt, followed by Islam, burial practices that had lasted thousands of years were finally abandoned. Nevertheless, the ancient Egyptians still live on today, given eternal life through their extraordinary burial objects.

Wooden funerary canopy of Montsuef from Thebes, 9 BC. (National Museums Scotland)

 Dr Margaret Maitland is senior curator of Ancient Mediterranean collections at National Museums Scotland. The Tomb: Ancient Egyptian Burial presents the story of one extraordinary tomb, built around 1290BC and reused for more than 1,000 years. The exhibition runs from 31 March until 3 September 2017 at the National Museum of Scotland and comes ahead of the opening of a new permanent Ancient Egypt gallery in 2018/19.

Two Mysterious Cavities Found Inside Great Pyramid May Be Secret Rooms

Ancient Origins

A team of researchers that have used cutting edge technology to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt have discovered two previously unknown cavities inside the world-famous monument. Are they secret rooms or passages that have long been rumored to lie within?

The research team with the Scan Pyramid project applied a combination of infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging and elements of 3D reconstruction of the Great Pyramid. The results revealed two anomalies inside the construction that have been described as “cavities”.
The Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of two anomalies in Cairo on Thursday. The millennia-old pyramid has three known chambers, but researchers have speculated for many decades that there is much more to discover inside the 146-meter tall pyramid of King Khufu. According to Seeker, the researchers are able to confirm the existence of a 'void' hidden behind the northern side at the upper part of the entrance gate.  The void may be a corridor which runs inside the structure. The second cavity was discovered on the northeast flank of the pyramid.

Does the Great Pyramid contain hidden chambers? Source: BigStockPhoto

According to the statement by Scan Pyramids, muons are "similar to X-rays, which can penetrate the body and allow bone imaging" and "can go through hundreds of meters of stone before being absorbed. Judiciously placed detectors -- for example inside a pyramid, below a potential, unknown chamber -- can then record particle tracks and discern cavities from denser regions." The newly discovered spaces inside the pyramid may be the long expected lost element of the pyramid.
The work by the French researchers from the Scan Pyramids project has been made in collaboration with famous archeologist and former head of the Ministry of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass. The project had initially been led by Nicholas Reeves, who used radar scans to reveal possible unknown chambers in the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. However, that discovery was negated by Dr Hawass and other researchers, so Reeves didn't receive permission to excavate inside the tomb. Dr Hawass’ previous opinions about the scans make his appearance in the project rather surprising. As National Geographic wrote in May 6, 2016: ''After claiming that radar has never led to a single discovery in Egypt, Dr Hawass said, “We have to stop this media business, because there is nothing to publish. There is nothing to publish today or yesterday.''

Previously, but without the company of Dr Hawass, the same team examined the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur. The study became a huge success. As Natalia Klimczak from Ancient Origins reported in May 10, 2016:

''A team of researchers has presented the results of an analysis focused on the internal structure of the Bent Pyramid of pharaoh Sneferu (Snefru), a 4,500-year-old monument named after its sloping upper half.”

A 3-D cutaway showing the inside of the Pyramid of Sneferu. Source: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, HIP Institute and the Faculty of Engineering (Cairo University)

The study is based on three modern technologies: infrared thermography, 3D scans with lasers, and  cosmic-ray detectors. All of them have allowed the researchers to take better look inside the pyramids. Using the infrared thermography technique, the researchers measured the infrared energy emitted from the structures. The results of their testing were used to estimate the temperature distribution inside. Then, the team used lasers to bounce narrow pulses of light off the interiors of the Bent Pyramid. The last part of the research was locating cosmic particles, muons , within the structure, using detector plates.
Muons are formed at the moment when cosmic rays hit the Earth’s atmosphere. The particles rain down from the atmosphere, pass through empty spaces, and they can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces. They don't affect the human body, but if special detector plates are used, they can be tracked.

Kunihiro Morishima, from the Institute for Advanced Research of Nagoya University, Japan, placed 80 plates in the lower chamber of the Bent pyramid. They covered an area of about 10 square feet (0.93 sq. meters) and stayed there for 40 days. Following an analysis of these plates, the researchers were able to create 3D images of the pyramid, which revealed the shape of all of the chambers inside the pyramid.''
The size, shape and exact position of the newly-discovered cavities are now under investigation. To that end, the Scan Pyramids project has requested an extension of one year to complete the project.
Top image: A 3D cutaway view of the Great Pyramid of Giza revealing its interior chambers. Experts confirmed the existence of the mysterious cavities on Saturday after scanning the millennia-old monument with radiography equipment. Credit: Operation Scan Pyramids
By Natalia Klimzcak

Unraveling the Mystery of the Great Pyramid Air-Shafts – Part II

Ancient Origins

The Design

There are two air shafts each going out towards the North and the South direction in both King’s and Queen’s chamber. While, the King’s Chamber shafts go all the way to the external surface of the pyramid, out in the open, the Queen’ Chamber shafts are blocked some distance from the external surface. One of the reasons given is that the Queen’s Chamber was initially going to be the where Khufu would be interred but when the plan was changed to move the burial to what is the King’s Chamber, the shafts were blocked and their openings at the Queen’s Chamber were closed and sealed.

Transparent view of Khufu's pyramid from SouthEast. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The shafts in the Queen’s Chamber have been up for much speculation. In 1992, an exploratory expedition into the shafts of the Queen’s Chamber was conducted by German engineer Rudolf Gatenbrink via a robotic explorer named after the ancient Egyptian god of war “Wepwawet” or alternatively called “Upuaut”. The robotic explorer found a number of artificial items in the Queen’s Chamber northern shaft such as a hexagonal iron rod with threaded end, indicating it was more recent in history, perhaps left behind by discoverers of the shafts Dixon and others. Other items found were a green grappling hook, a small grey green stone ball and a broken off piece of square wooden slat.

Wepwawet giving scepters to Seti I, found at Temple of Seti I. Wepwawet is often depicted as a bluish or grayish haired wolf or jackal to avoid confusion with Anubis. (Roland Unger / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The Measurements

The openings of the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber have the same measurements with regards to height and depth of 21 by 21 centimeters or 8.4 inches by 8.4 inches. Flinders Petrie determined the angles of the northern and the southern shaft, using a goniometer, with northern shaft having a mean angle of 37 ° 28’ and that of the southern shaft having a mean angle 38 ° 28’. The northern shaft runs 190 centimeters or 76 inches horizontally before it turns upwards, similarly the southern shaft runs for 200 centimeters or 80 inches horizontally before turning up.  The southern shaft goes up to 208.66 feet and is blocked by a limestone slate fitted with copper handles on both obverse and reverse sides with a confirmed thickness of 60 mm. “The floors of the shafts are made of flat limestone blocks, the thicknesses of which are unknown.  The walls and ceilings are formed by sections of inverted u-blocks that resemble upside down gutters.  Although it is uncertain what the blocks above and below the shafts look like, the shafts run at a sloping angle through the horizontal layers of the pyramid, so it is believed that the u-blocks and basal blocks rest under and on blocks that are wedge-shaped.”

Opening to the King’s Chamber shaft. Morton Edgar, 1910. ( Public Domain )

Almost a decade after the ambitious “Upuaut” rover project, in 2002, the much hyped “Pyramid Rover” sojourn took place. Unlike the Upuaut rover, the Pyramid Rover was equipped with a drill bit and a camera. After a laborious climb of about 45 minutes, the rendezvous between the rover the limestone slab happened. This whole program was being broadcast live across the world with audience sitting in front of their televisions, waiting with bated breath, while the rover drilled a hole in the limestone slab. Once this was done, the camera was inserted and all that was to be seen was a recess blocked by another slab of unknown proportion and thickness. While the audience were disappointed, for the experts, the seemingly uninteresting view was encouraging. The Queen chamber’s northern shaft was also explored for the first time and it was reported “The ‘door’ appears to be identical to the one in the southern shaft that was already known. The doors are equidistant (65 meters/208 feet) from the queen's chamber. It is the third such block discovered within the shafts of the pyramid.”

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Then almost nine years later in 2011, the Djedi rover project was launched, which was a better designed robotic explorer, suitable to move in tighter confines of the southern shaft, given its articulate frame and its ability to expand and contract. The Dejdi rover was also equipped with a camera connected via a snake mount with the ability to bend and “see” behind itself. The project made discoveries such as, it imaged, in passing, what appeared to be workmen’s graffiti or glyphs of unknown meaning. It imaged the reverse side of the first blocking limestone plate, named “Gantenbrink’s Door”.

Gantenbrink’s Door. ( Image Source )

It discovered that the fractures on the roof of the shaft ran above the limestone plate and to the other side behind it. The camera also photographed some quarry marks left behind by workmen, “that have not been seen for 4500 years.”

The Purpose

Ever since the shafts were cleared of debris and the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber were discovered, claims as to the very nature and purpose of the shafts have remained dubious at best. Unfortunately, no contemporary text or evidence exists from the Khufu’s time that could explain this architectural anomaly. Like many other features in the great pyramid have baffled archaeologists, architects and engineers, the shafts continue mete out the same treatment to anyone who tries to study and interpret their function, symbolism and purpose. 

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The shafts were called “air channels” by earlier explorers such as Howard-Vyse, Piazzi Smyth and Flinders Petrie, who thought that these shafts were primitive climate control systems. Another known Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, has stated that these shafts were “gateways” to the stars, to guide the deceased king’s “Ka”. Rudolf Gantenbrink, the inventor and owner of Upuaut rover, rejects the notions of shafts being “air channels” or “gateways” to the stars. The dead have no need for proper air ventilation and the sky is not visible through the shafts from the King’s chamber so they cannot serve their purpose as gateways to the sky and the very fact that other pyramids (both preceding and succeeding the Great Pyramid) lack such shafts, casts shadows over the religious belief theory. Since the Great Pyramid has been stripped of its casing stone, it is not possible to ascertain whether the casing stone blocked the King’s Chamber shafts.
Then there are hundreds of other theories that make fantastic claims fantastic claims of shafts being conduits of power plant, a nuclear generator or an alien construction, a riddle set in stone. Until we discover an edict, a piece of papyrus that could explain the reason behind the shafts, the all theories about their purpose shall remain valid opinions of the experts and it is quite certain we may never be able to get to know their true purpose.
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Top Image:  Great Pyramid of Giza in the rays of the sun. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
By Rudra

Unraveling the Mystery of the Great Pyramid Air-Shafts

Ancient Origins

The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza near Cairo in Egypt is the last of the surviving Seven Wonders of the World. For more than forty centuries until the 19th century, it was the tallest and the most massive structure ever built by humans. Within itself, it enshrines disciplines of mathematics, trigonometry, engineering and geography. It is also one of the most complex pyramids ever built, with its system of passages, gallery and chambers, which makes it quite unique with respect to the other pyramids in Egypt and elsewhere.

The Great Pyramid has air-shafts or just shafts that lead outwards from both the Queen’s and the King’s chamber. The purpose of these shafts is not very well known. Some experts have theorized that these channels served as passages to let the air flow inside the chambers and keep them ventilated while others have suggested that these shafts merely served as passages for the “Ka” (spirit) of the deceased King to travel to the circumpolar stars, which practically never set, hence immortal.

All Giza Pyramids in one shot. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

So what were these shafts intended for? Why were these incorporated in the design of the pyramid? There are several questions such as these and many more. In this article, we will delve into the subject of these so-called “air-shafts”, go through their history, design and purpose.

Schematic cross-section of the Great Pyramid. (7 denotes Queen's Chamber and shafts/vents, 10 denotes King’s Chamber and shafts) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The History

It’s believed by Egyptologists that the Great Pyramid was originally built to serve as the tomb of the Old Kingdom’s Sixth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu (Khnum Khufwy) and was sealed with all the funerary equipment and other things needed by the deceased king in the afterlife.

Ivory idol of Khufu in detail. (Public Domain)

It remained intact for at least a couple of centuries after it was sealed. The Great Pyramid was broken into and deprived of its funerary items along with the royal mummy of Khufu sometime during the overlapping period at the end of the Old Kingdom and the start of the First Intermediate. Not only was the Great Pyramid violated, but also the pyramids of Djedefre, Khafre, and Menkaure were broken into and robbed too. The cult temples of Khufu and Khafra were also vandalized and had most of their statuary broken or carted away. The site of Giza lay in neglected and ruinous state for another two thousand years, though it was briefly revived during the New Kingdom under Thutmose IV, who erected the Dream Stele between the paws of Great Sphinx to avow that his ascension to Kingship was divinely ordained and another thousand years later it was revived as an ancient cult site by the Pharaohs of the XXVI dynasty.

Dream Stele, detail; reproduction at Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Sphinx and Great Pyramids of Egypt. (Source: BigStockPhoto)

The Giza plateau, already famous as an ancient site by the Roman period, was a popular tourist destination. Accounts left by Greek and Roman travelers such as Herodotus, Pliny the Elder and Strabo, of the Great Pyramid are useful in their own ways but it is interesting to note that the descriptions given by them of the Great Pyramid only talk about the descending passage and the subterranean chamber. Strabo also talks about the swivel door on the entrance to the descending passage on the outside of the Great Pyramid, which had to be lifted to open, and when closed, it lay flush, indistinguishable from the surrounding masonry.

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The Hunt for Treasure and Knowledge

As per the written history and oral traditions, the first forced entry into the Great Pyramid was conducted by Baghdad Caliph Abdullah al-Mamum. Abdullah al-Mamum was taken in by the tall stories of pyramids containing unaccountable treasure and priceless documents relating to ancient science. For the next thousand years, Great Pyramid had only a few visitors summoning enough courage to go inside its dark and seemingly dreadful passageways.
There was a resurgence of immense interest in Ancient Egypt during the Renaissance Period. In 1638, English astronomer John Greaves visited the Great Pyramid to collect data that would help him get accurate measurement of the Earth with respect to its circumference, dimensions and other geographical properties. He is credited to be the first visitor who undertook the scientific measurements of the Great Pyramid. He published his findings in his book, “Pyramidographia: Or A Description Of The Pyramids In Aegypt”. The book was well received within the academic circles and the subsequent discussions led to speculations about some sort of air ventilation system being present in the Great Pyramid.
George Sandys, an English traveler and a poet, who visited the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid in 1610 at least 28 years before Greaves, had noted “In the walls on each side of the upper Room there are two holes, one opposite to another; their ends are not discernable, nor big enough to be crept into; sooty within, and made as they say, by a flame of fire which darted through it.” George Sandys at that time was not sure about structure or purpose of the air-shaft openings and they did not excite him enough to probe any further.
John Greaves also makes mention of the openings of the air-shafts inside the King’s Chamber in his book. He states “This made me take notice of two inlets or spaces in the south and north sides of the chamber, just opposite to one another, that in the north was in breadth 700 of 1000 parts of English foot. In the depth of 400 of 1000 parts, evenly cut, and running in strait (sic) line six feet and farther, into the thickness of the wall; on the south is larger, and somewhat round, no so long as the former, and, by blackness within it, seems to have been a receptacle for burning lamps.” Even though Greaves had a lively discussion with Dr. William Harvey about the quality of air inside the Great Pyramid, (which is presented as a footnote in the later editions of his book), it never occurred to him that the air-shafts might have served as conduits for ventilation inside the building.

Transparent view of Khufu's pyramid from SouthEast. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Excavating the Pyramid

It was not until two hundred years later, in 1837, when under the supervision of Colonel Howard-Vyse, extensive excavations and explorations were conducted in Giza pyramids. Colonel Howard-Vyse initially thought that channels in the King’s Chamber were conduits to hitherto unknown chambers in the Great Pyramid.  Also, the drawings of Great Pyramid made at that time showed no air-shafts leading outwards from the Queen’s Chamber, as these were discovered much later. On May 15th 1837, when the northern shaft was finally cleared of debris and rubbish that had accumulated in its passageway and by means of boring rods and water, it was confirmed that the shaft directly served as a conduit from the outside to the King’s Chamber.

Scrapbook page containing an annotated photograph showing six men positioned around the entrance to the Cheops pyramid. The page also includes a labeled diagram showing the interior chambers and passageways of the pyramid, and their dimensions. Circa 1860 – 1890 (Public Domain)

The workmen found the opening of the southern air-shaft by going around the pyramid and finding it within the same location on the southern face as they had found the opening on the northern face. Howard-Vyse’s assistant, Mr. Hill found a stone blocking the southern air-shaft and with some effort managed to remove it. “Upon the removal of this block the channel was completely open; an immediate rush of air took place, and we had the satisfaction of finding that the ventilation of the King's Chamber was perfectly restored, and that the air within it was cool and fresh. This is how the shafts in the Pyramid came to be known as air channels, thought to be ancient climate control mechanism built in the design of the pyramid.

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The shafts in the Queen’s Chamber were not discovered until thirty-five years later, in 1872, by Waynman Dixon. “….In that year, Waynman Dixon and his friend Dr. Grant found a crack in the south wall of the Queen's Chamber. After pushing a long wire into the crack, indicating that a void was behind it, Dixon hired a carpenter named Bill Grundy to cut through the wall. A rectangular channel, 8.6 inches wide and 8 inches high, was found leading 7 feet into the pyramid before turning upward at about a 32º angle. With the two similar shafts of the King's Chamber in mind, Dixon measured a like position on the north wall, and Grundy chiseled away and, as expected, found the opening of a similar channel.”

Top Image:  Great Pyramid of Giza at night (CC BY-ND 2.0)
By Rudra

Great Pyramid of Giza Was Lopsided Due to Construction Error

Ancient Origins

Research carried out by engineer Glen Dash and Egyptologist Mark Lehner has revealed that the Great Pyramid of Giza is not as perfect as once believed. Results of testing showed that its base was built  lopsided.

According to LiveScience, the builders of the Great Pyramid made a small mistake while constructing it. The new research reveals that the west side of the pyramid is slightly longer than the east side. It means that the long lasting myth about the perfection of this construction is not true. Dash and Lehner detected the small flaw in a new measuring project carried out with the support of Glen Dash Research Foundation and Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA). Mapping and excavating the Giza plateau by AERA took about 30 years.
As Glen Dash wrote in his report:

''Originally, the Great Pyramid was clad in more than 21 acres of hard, white casing stones that the Egyptians had hauled over from quarries at Tura across the Nile. Most of those casing stones were removed centuries ago for building material, leaving the pyramid as we see it today, without most of its original shell. The photo below was taken along the pyramid’s north side. In it, we see some of the pyramid’s few remaining casing stones still in place. These sit on a platform that originally extended out 39 to 47 centimeters (15–19 inches) beyond the outer, lower edge (the “foot”) of the casing. Behind the casing stones in the photo we can see the rougher masonry that makes up the bulk of the pyramid as it stands today.''

Researchers took measurements of the Great Pyramid's edges and platform, showing what one of the corners may have looked like when built. Researchers noticed a "corner socket," or a cutting in the rock, whose purpose remains unclear. Credit: Image courtesy of Glen Dash

Lehner undertook research to determine the lengths of the original pyramid sides. His team looked for surviving casing stones situated at the foot of the pyramid's platform, and which would have formed the pyramid's original casing baseline. They found 84 points along 155 meters (508 feet) of the original edges of the pyramid, which were marked on a grid system. It was used for mapping all of the features on the Giza Plateau. The obtained data was then processed to receive the most precise outline of the Great Pyramid, which allowed the projection of the original lengths of the pyramid's base.

The Casing Stones can be seen here at the base of the pyramid (Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library / Flickr)

The results surprised the researchers, who proved that the pyramid originally measured between 230.3 and 230.4 meters (755.6 and 755.8 feet), while the west side of the pyramid originally measured somewhere between 230.4 to 230.4 meters (755.8 and 756.0 feet). It means that the west side was 5.55 inches (14.1 centimeters) longer than the east side. The researchers claimed that the previous measurements of the Great Pyramid were not exactly correct, and the error in construction comes from ancient times.
According to Dash, the ancient Egyptians laid out the pyramid on a grid. The north-south meridian of the pyramid runs 3 minutes 54 seconds west of due north while its east-west axis runs 3 minutes 51 seconds north of due east. Moreover, the east-west meridian runs through the center of the temple built on the east side of the pyramid too. The measurements by Dash and Lehner prove that the Great Pyramid is oriented slightly away from the cardinal directions. The analysis of the data gathered by the team led by Dash and Lehner will be continued.
In January 2014, April Holloway from Ancient Origins reported about a different discovery of Mark Lehner. His team made some new discoveries ''including the remains of a bustling port, as well as barracks for sailors or military troops near the Giza pyramids. The findings shed new light on what life was like in the region thousands of years ago.
Archaeologist Mark Lehner, director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, has said that the discoveries suggest Giza was a thriving port, at least 4,500 years ago.  Lehner's team discovered a basin, which may be an extension of a harbour, near the Khentkawes town just 1 kilometre from the nearest Nile River channel.
"Giza was the central port then for three generations, Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure," said Lehner, referring to the three pharaohs who built pyramids at Giza.
Archaeologists also discovered a series of long buildings, called ‘galleries’, which they believe were used as barracks, either for sailors or for soldiers.  The buildings were about 7 metres high and 35 metres long and could have held about 40 troops in each one. These troops may have been participating in voyages from the port to the Levant, or soldiers who may have been used for guarding kings and queens while at Giza.''
Top image: The Great Pyramid of Egypt. Source: BigStockPhoto
By Natalia Klimzcak

Ancient Priest's Tomb Painting Discovered Near Great Pyramid at Giza

By Owen Jarus

A painting discovered in the tomb of a priest, just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt depicts scenes of ancient life. Credit: Photo courtesy Maksim Lebedev

A wall painting, dating back over 4,300 years, has been discovered in a tomb located just east of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The painting shows vivid scenes of life, including boats sailing south on the Nile River, a bird hunting trip in a marsh and a man named Perseneb who's shown with his wife and dog.
While Giza is famous for its pyramids, the site also contains fields of tombs that sprawl to the east and west of the Great Pyramid. These tombs were created for private individuals who held varying degrees of rank and power during the Old Kingdom (2649-2150 B.C.), the age when the Giza pyramids were built

The new painting was discovered in 2012 by a team from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which has been excavating these tombs since 1996.
A surprise discovery
Scientists discovered the painting when they began restoring the tomb of Perseneb, a man who was a "priest" and "steward," according to the tomb's inscriptions.

The ancient tomb, possibly for a priest, contains a central room (shown here), with four statues.
Credit: Photo courtesy Maksim Lebedev

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His tomb, located 1,000 feet (300 meters) east of the Great Pyramid of Giza, contains an offering room, central room and burial chamber. The three rooms contain 11 statues showing depictions of Perseneb and members of his family. First recorded in the 19th century by the German explorer Karl Richard Lepsius and French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, the tomb is believed to date to the middle or late fifth dynasty (ca. 2450-2350 B.C.). The fifth dynasty is a time period within the Old Kingdom.
"Known since the 19th century, the [tomb] could hardly present any new principal features. Therefore, it was a real surprise to discover an Old Kingdom painting on the eastern wall of the central room," wrote Maksim Lebedev, a reader (the American equivalent is a professor) at the Russian State University for the Humanities, in an email to Live Science.
"The painting was made on a thin layer of fine white plaster darkened with 19th-century soot and dirt. By the time of recording, only about 30 percent of the original plaster had preserved on the wall," Lebedev said.
Since the 19th century, the growth and industrialization of Cairo has led to problems with pollution at Giza. And the fact that people were actually living inside the tomb in some periods (including the Middle Ages) also damaged the painting, Lebedev said.
Nevertheless, "none of the scenes has been lost completely. The remaining traces allow [for the] reconstruction [of] the whole composition," Lebedev said.
Scenes of life
The reconstructed painting reflects ancient life. At the top of the painting there are images of boats sailing the Nile River, their sails pointing south. They "probably represent the return of the owner from the north after a pilgrimage or inspection of his funerary estates," Lebedev said. Funerary estates were tax-exempt property left by the deceased to help support surviving dependents and the upkeep of his tomb. [Photos: Amazing Discoveries at Egypt's Giza Pyramids]

Archaeologists removed dirt and soot from the tomb painting.
Credit: Photo courtesy Maksim Lebedev

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The painting's "two lower registers preserved representations of various agricultural scenes: plowing, sowing, workers driving sheep over sown seed, driving donkeys laden with sheaves to the threshing floor," Lebedev said.
The painting also shows an image of Perseneb, his wife and what appears to be his dog. There is also a marsh scene with a man on a boat who appears to be bird hunting.
"All the depicted scenes had important symbolic meanings. Fowling (bird hunting) in the marshland could refer to the ideas of rebirth and taming of chaotic forces," Lebedev said. "The full agricultural sequence relating to crops represents the most crucial event in the life of ancient Egyptian society," he added. Also, the representation of "boats with sails going southwards is another important tomb subject, which reflected the high status of the person."
More discoveries to come
The area the Russian team has been excavating contains a number of tombs that may hold undiscovered wall paintings. The team has found indirect evidence for paintings in some tombs, such as very smooth walls and remains of wall plaster and paint, Lebedev said.
"Since many rock-cut chapels of the eastern edge of the Giza plateau were rapidly excavated or just recorded [without excavation] in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes without sufficient documentation, and still covered with thick layers of rough plaster left from later inhabitants [who lived in the tombs], one may expect that more paintings will be discovered in this part of the necropolis."
The tomb of Perseneb was partly restored by the Russian mission in 2013. The work was supported by a donation from the Thames Valley Ancient Egyptian Society in the United Kingdom.
The painting reconstructions will be published, in full, in a scholarly publication in the future. The images on Live Science show just a few of the reconstructed scenes.
http://www.livescience.com/46806-tomb-painting-discovered-near-great-pyramid.html