The Great Pyramid
"Four-wheeled vehicle in the pyramid 5"
Yoshiki Sue
February 11, 2002
In 1836, a British colonel and explorer, Howard Vyse has arrived in Egypt. He who came from a wealthy aristocratic family hired as many as 700 people and commenced his excavation with Caviglia as a foreman. Yet, it is said that he then soon fired Caviglia for some reason. He also took measurements of each part of the Great Pyramid, and he seemed have been greatly interested in exploring undiscovered spots rather than already discovered. He then discovered four narrow spaces above the Davison's Chamber located still above the King's Chamber. However, his way of excavation was quite rough; being confident that there were spaces above the Davison's Chamber, he first attempted to open a hole by using a chisel, then as he found out it was completely impossible, he finally used dynamite in such a narrow space and made a passageway by force. He must have been desperate to open a hole at any cost. Then as the first discoverer, he was privileged to name those spaces. General people would usually attach their names somewhere as being delighted with the discovery and also in order to make their presences felt, but he did not use even a portion of his name but the names of people whom he has been indebted to. For example, he named the uppermost space the Chamber of "Colonel Campbell," an Egyptian consul general in Cairo. He certainly was a thoughtful man. I suppose that it was either he really had considerable respect for those people or he needed to maintain a good relationship with them for some reason. In these four spaces, he also discovered epigraphs or marks of stonemason written in hieroglyph, letters of ancient Egypt. However, some people have been casting doubt on the credibility of the marks; why they have not been found in any other spot other than where Vyse has discovered, why they have not been found in other pyramids among the three, and why it has been misspelled. He left a book called "Operations Carried on at the Pyramid of Gizeh in 1837."
It was just at then that one of Vyse's assistants named Hill discovered that the two shafts in the King's Chamber were penetrating to the outside of the pyramid. Then he attempted to open the shaft which has been clogged with sand, but that turned out quite a difficult work. Vyse said in his excavation journal on the page of February 24, 1837 that he made an attempt to clear out the Northern Upper Shaft but it was hardly possible. When he finally managed reopening the shaft, cool air came in from the outside, and it was since then that the King's Chamber has been maintained at a fixed temperature of 20 degrees Centigrade (68_F). Because of this incident, these shafts became to be considered as air holes for ventilation. Yet, the method Hill has taken to clear out the shaft remains unidentified.
In 1865, Piazzi Smyth made an investigation into the pyramid. As he was an astronomer and professor of Edinburgh University in Scotland, he took accurate measurements of the inside of the pyramid with the intention of proving his own theory "the Great Pyramid has been built based on the sacred cubit." Cubit is a unit of measurement used in ancient Egypt, and 1 sacred cubit he has determined at that time was equivalent to 25.025 cm. However, this theory of sacred cubit would then be denied by Petrie's measurements. Petrie concluded nonexistence of such unit. Well, it seemed that, as a result of his own measurement, Smyth considered "there is knowledge of astrophysics and geophysics involved in the Great Pyramid, and builders of the pyramid must have had advanced mathematical knowledge." As he returned in Scotland, he wrote a long report with 1,600 pages called "Life and work at the Great Pyramid of Giza in January, February, March, and April, 1865 B.C." However, since his idea was far removed from the conventional view of the Royal Society, it did not get accepted.
In 1872, a British engineer Waynman Dixon with his assistant Bill Grundy probed into the Queen's Chamber, and discovered the Northern and Southern lower shafts that have been hiding behind a thin wall. They made an assumption that, as there was a shaft in the King's Chamber, the same thing must be found also in the Queen's Chamber as well. Moreover, with a view to exploring the inside of the shafts, they inserted a long rod, which they have made by putting several iron pipes together. However, this pipe happened to break in the middle and ended up being left in the Northern lower shaft. A picture of this pipe is available in Gantenbrink's website. It is the second picture. http://www.cheops.org/startpage/theupuautstory/thefirst1992campaign/first92.htm
Now, here is about Flinders Petrie. By reading a book written by Piazzi Smyth (a different one from the one mentioned above), he deeply sympathized with the idea and then took an interest in the pyramid. When he arrived in Egypt in 1881, he took extremely accurate measurements of both inside and outside of the pyramid, and minutely observed materials making up the structure as well as construction method. For instance, the Great Pyramid has been known to have 4 large faces, but he found that these faces are dented in the middle, and thus it is actually composed of 8 faces. He then worked up all the information into a book called "The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" by receiving support from the Royal Academy of London. With this achievement, he was granted the title of "Sir" and what is more, recognized as the "father of Egyptian archaeology." I would like to give further information about Flinders Petrie later on.
Besides the people I mentioned here, there have been more people such as a British explorer David Davidson and two Italian scholars Maragioglio and Rinaldi who have inquired into the Great Pyramid, and a great number of universities also made an investigation after 1900s, but as none of them seemed to have something to do with the shafts as well as the four-wheeled vehicle, I would omit giving an account of them for now. Then, it was in 1992 that the four-wheeled vehicle was finally discovered by Rudolf Gantenbrink.
To be continued
Reference:
The report on the "four-wheeled vehicle" can be found in THE SECOND 1992 CAMPAIGN of his website. Click the address below. The fourth picture is the image of the four-wheeled vehicle.
http://www.cheops.org/startpage/theupuautstory/thesecond1992campaign/second92.htm
Here is the website of Rudolf Gantenbrink. You can go into the site simply by clicking the "ENTER" written on a stone-button down the screen. Then choose CYBER DRAWING, and click OK button for downloading. In a little while after clicking CHEOPS SHAFTS or other item, you will receive the drawing. You can try conducting the buttons on the top several times at first, and learn the operational procedure of the drawing.
http://www.cheops.org/
Translated by Maiko Noda
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