The Giza Power Plant Read online

  This discovery left Greaves extremely puzzled, for the Well Shaft did not seem to serve any purpose. The cavern, which is now known as the Grotto, was equally perplexing. It seemed pointless to Greaves to dig a shaft to nowhere and to enlarge a part of the shaft into a grotto. This perplexity affected later explorers as well.

  In 1765, Nathaniel Davison, while vacationing in Egypt, was able to carefully explore the Great Pyramid. Going farther than Greaves, Davison was lowered by rope another one hundred feet below the level of the Grotto. Here he encountered a blockage in the shaft. Why anyone would go to the trouble of digging a shaft, with no apparent purpose or destination, almost two hundred feet into the heart of the pyramid, was a mystery to Davison.

  A part of this mystery was to be solved when G. B. Caviglia, the Italian captain of a Maltese ship flying the British ensign, quit his maritime occupation and undertook the task of exploring the Great Pyramid. Caviglia was determined to shed some light on the mystery of the Well, and, after being lowered past the level of the Grotto by some Egyptian helpers, he attempted to clear the blockage that Davison had encountered before him. The blockage appeared to be just loose sand and rock, so Caviglia filled baskets with the debris and had the helpers raise the baskets up and out of the shaft. He could not persuade them to work for long, though, for the air became so foul with clouds of dust and the stench ofbat dung that the men were about to suffocate. Caviglia burned chunks of sulfur in an attempt to purify the air, but this ploy did not impress his helpers, who refused to continue working.

  Still determined to find some reason for the shaft, Caviglia decided to clear the Descending Passage down to the Subterranean Pit. Al Mamun's men had used this passage as a dumping ground when they were cutting around the plugs that filled the Ascending Passage. With his helpers back on the job and carrying the chippings out of the pyramid, Caviglia slowly and painfully inched his way downward.

  His extreme discomfort was eventually rewarded when he discovered a low doorway on the west side of the passage. Through this doorway, a hole bored upward into the heart of the pyramid. The smell of sulfur was evident inside the doorway, and Caviglia deduced that perhaps this smell was from the sulfur he had previously burned. Digging upward, Caviglia and his workers, with limestone chips and dust showering down on them, finally broke through into the Well Shaft, thereby completing the connection between the lower parts of the Descending Passage and the Grand Gallery.

  Caviglia, like Greaves and Davison before him, was still faced with the same questions: Who dug the Well, when was the Well dug, and why? Another aspect of this same mystery, which further increased his perplexity, is that from the junction of the Grand Gallery and the Horizontal Passage down to the level of the bedrock, it appears that the Well Shaft actually had been included in the original plans for the construction of the pyramid. From the level of the Grand Gallery down to the bedrock, the walls of the Well Shaft are symmetrical in their construction, and, although they do not have the precise, fine finish that is evident in other passages and chambers, their features do not resemble those of a tunnel cut as an afterthought through solid masonry, such as the forced passage dug by Al Mamun's men.

  It has been speculated that this shaft was dug by grave robbers who broke into the pyramid to strip it of its treasures. This theory has been refuted by some who have debated whether or not a band of thieves would have the knowledge, perception, or sheer luck to dig a blind passage with such accuracy that it would eventually meet with the Grand Gallery, which is only a few feet wide.

  In contradiction to the grave robber theory, David Davidson, a structural engineer from Leeds, in the north of England, developed a scenario of prehistoric events that, in his mind, met the demands of logic and common sense, and at the same time explained the existence of the Well Shaft.

  Davidson, after spending several months studying the pyramid, felt that the Great Pyramid was not originally intended for the use of the people who built it or their king; rather, it was designed to be used as a "time capsule" in which knowledge would be preserved for the benefit of a future civilization. In a professional capacity, he also maintained that the plugs inside the Ascending Passage were positioned as the level of the pyramid grew higher. According to Davidson, to have slid them down the passage without them jamming in the process would have been an unlikely feat, as the clearance at the sides of the passage would not have been sufficient to allow them to pass freely.

  Davidson's scenario was set shortly after the Great Pyramid was built, or not many generations after—before knowledge of the design of the interior was lost or forgotten. He theorized that following a violent earthquake, or some other equally devastating occurrence, the guardians of the Great Pyramid noticed some subsidence effects of the structure on the outside. Fearing that the King's Chamber also might have suffered from the disturbance, they decided to enter the pyramid to investigate. To do this, they started to dig upward near the bottom of the Descending Passage. Davidson explained that instead of taking a possible shorter route, such as taken by Al Mamun at a later date, the guardians chose their route so that they could inspect two large fissures in the bedrock of the Descending Passage.

  Although these fissures can be seen in the Descending Passage, what knowledge did the guardians of the pyramid have that assured them that the unseen portion of the fissures followed a predictable direction? Would they have been able to plot the course of their tunnel with assurance that, as they bored through the limestone bedrock, they would cross the same fissures at two points? Without this assurance, would such a difficult and time-consuming project be undertaken?

  Knowing that the Great Pyramid's thirteen-acre base was surveyed using modern instruments and found to be level within 7/8 inch—an astounding accuracy by modern standards—it does not make much sense to suggest that the guardians would be concerned about any subsidence. Moreover, it would be interesting to know what extent of damage the guardians thought these fissures would have on the King's Chamber, which, after all, was their primary concern. The King's Chamber is located 175 feet above the ground level. There were no disturbances noted in the Queen's Chamber or the Horizontal Passage. In 1881, Sir William Flinders Petrie surveyed the Descending Passage, where the fissures were noticed, and discovered that it was remarkably accurate. He found the passage to have an error of only .020 inch over the 150-foot length of the constructed portion; and the entire length of the passage, both constructed and excavated, was within a minuscule quarter inch over 350 feet.3 This hard data brings into question the widely held theory that an earthquake was the cause of the disturbance in the King's Chamber. It seems obvious that those who knew the interior design of the pyramid dug the shaft. Considering the amount of work involved in digging it, the Well Shaft that connects the Descending Passage with the lower portion of the Grand Gallery must have been a part of the original design of the pyramid and served a specific purpose for its builders.

  Nevertheless, Davidson's theory is given the benefit of the doubt by Peter Tompkins, who said, "There is nothing inherently illogical about this version of events. It would have been no easy job to tunnel upwards through the solid rock and various courses of masonry—altogether hundreds of tons of material would have had to be chipped away and taken out of the pyramid up the descending passage—but it would not have been impossible."4

  It is absurd to propose that this feature of the Great Pyramid exists through the efforts of tomb robbers who were digging blindly on the chance that they might discover a burial chamber. The physical demands are monumental. Digging upward, the workers would be contending with a small, cramped, almost vertical tunnel in which they would need physical support, light, and oxygen. As they hacked away at the face of their bore, the air would be heavily laden with limestone dust, and fragments would be falling on them and the workers below. The sheer human effort would have been daunting as hundreds of tons of chips were wrestled up the Descending Passage and removed from the pyramid.

  Compare the digg
ing of the Well Shaft with Al Mamun's hole. Al Mamun's men, as the story goes, were ready to give it up after digging only one hundred feet. Their patience had reached its limit. It could be asked, therefore, how far this band of treasure seekers would have gone if the task before them had been the Well Shaft. Tompkins went on to say, "What militates against this theory is the observations of Maragioglio and Rinaldi that the walls of the Well Shaft upward from the Grotto are built and lined with regular blocks of limestone, apparently as a feature of the original structure."5

  In their book, L'Architettura delle Piramidi Menefite, Celeste Maragioglio and Vito Rinaldi proposed that the Well Shaft was dug to provide air to workers in the pyramid. Egyptologist and world authority on the pyramids, I.E.S. Edwards, agreed that it may have been used for this purpose, but claimed that within the context of the tomb theory, it would not have been necessary as the Ascending Passage was open until the funeral procession had left and the granite blocks had been lowered into position at the mouth of the passage. Edwards claimed the Well Shaft was an escape route for those who facilitated the lowering of the granite blocks.6 However, that theory—to me—presents a convoluted nonsensical way of going about things, and is barely worth the time we could spend arguing about it. I find the observations of Petrie more agreeable and likely. He cast doubt on the intentions of the builders, as interpreted by Maragioglio, Rinaldi, and Edwards:

  The shaft, or "well," leading from the N. end of the gallery down to the subterranean parts, was either not contemplated at first, or else was forgotten in the course of building; the proof of this is that it has been cut through the masonry after the courses were completed. On examining the shaft, it is found to be irregularly tortuous through the masonry, and without any arrangement of the blocks to suit it; while in more than one place a corner of a block may be seen left in the irregular curved side of the shaft, all the rest of the block having disappeared in cutting the shaft. This is a conclusive point since it would never have been so built at first. A similar feature is at the mouth of the passage, in the gallery. Here the sides of the mouth are very well cut, quite as good work as the dressing of the gallery walls; but on the S. side there is a vertical joint in the gallery side, only 5.3 inches from the mouth. Now, great care is always taken in the Pyramid to put large stones at a corner, and it is quite inconceivable that a Pyramid builder would put a mere slip 5.3 thick beside the opening to a passage. It evidently shows that the passage mouth was cut out after the building was finished in that part. It is clear then, that the whole of this shaft is an additional feature to the first plan.7

  Petrie also noted a large block of granite at the level of the Grotto. The block was positioned as though it had been pushed aside from the vertical section of the shaft. What was this block of granite doing down a shaft, which, in many minds, had nothing to do with the original design of the pyramid? After tunneling through virgin rock and reaching the level of the Grand Gallery, why would anybody decide to drop a block of granite down the Well? This would take considerable effort. And where did they get the granite? There has to be a reason for it being there (see Figure 5).

  FIGURE 5. Well Shaft

  Maragioglio, Rinaldi, Edward, and Petrie's observations can be reconciled by proposing that the constructed portion of the Well Shaft was originally smaller than it is now and was enlarged to allow passage into the Grand Gallery for inspecting the damage in the King's Chamber. If this is true, then perhaps the Well Shaft was designed not for human access, but for something else. Whatever this purpose was, perhaps it called for the inclusion of a large granite block within the passage to serve a specific function. These are questions I will answer later in this book.

  If the Well Shaft had been dug by grave robbers, they would have needed to know the internal arrangement of the pyramid, and be sufficiently inspired by what was contained within it to undertake the project. As for the inspection theory, we might ask, "How were the guardians able to discern any subsidence on the outside of the pyramid?" With an error of only 7/8-inch over the entire thirteen-acre base, over a distance of one foot the amount of error would be only .001 inch—less than half the thickness of a human hair! To detect the 7/8-inch error in the base of the Great Pyramid, even if the base were perfectly flat originally, the ancient guardians would had to have been in possession of some remarkably advanced measuring equipment.

  Assuming that they had the equipment to measure this minute variation in the pyramid's levelness, would such an insignificant deviation from accuracy warrant the penetration of the pyramid in the manner theorized? If the guardians were concerned about the fate of the internal passages and chambers, they could have put their minds at rest by closely checking the Descending Passage. As I mentioned earlier, this passage was scrutinized by Petrie who reported, "The average error of straightness in the built part of the passage is only 1/50 inch, an amazingly minute amount in a length of 150 feet. Including the whole passage the error is under 1/4 inch in the sides and 3/10 on the roof in the whole length of 350 feet, partly built, partly cut into the rock."8

  Nonetheless, evidence indicates that an inspection of the inside chambers of the Great Pyramid was conducted in antiquity and repairs were made. For example, plaster was daubed on the cracks of the ceiling beams above the King's Chamber. But what triggered the guardians' concern for this chamber? If they were to initiate a close inspection of the internal passages and chambers of the Great Pyramid following an earthquake, wouldn't the Descending Passage satisfy their curiosity and put their minds at ease? It would seem that the penetration of the internal chambers of the pyramid was prompted not by the detection of minute subsidence on the outside, but by other observations of the pyramid's form and function.

  At the time of Al Mamun's exploration of the Great Pyramid, many untold mysteries remained hidden from his searching eyes. It was not until 1765 that Nathaniel Davison made a discovery that initiated continuing explorations and further compounded the mystery of this enigmatic structure.

  Close to the King's Chamber, on the Great Step, a curious echo coming from the ceiling of the Grand Gallery caught Davison's attention. Assisted by the illumination of an elevated candle, Davison scrutinized the gallery ceiling and vaguely discerned an opening near the top. Taking his life into his hands, he erected a precarious collection of ladders and gingerly proceeded to climb to the top.

  To his delight, Davison discovered that there was indeed an opening. His pleasure, though, soon turned to disgust as he wedged himself inside the hole and found himself immersed in pungent mounds of bat dung. Using a handkerchief to protect his offended nose, he forced himself into the fetid passage and struggled along in this manner for twenty-five feet until he came across a large chamber not quite high enough to stand in. Once inside this chamber, Davison cleared away bat dung and uncovered nine enormous granite beams measuring up to twenty-seven feet long and weighing up to seventy tons each. This monolithic ensemble formed the ceiling of the King's Chamber. Unlike the bottom and sides of the beams, though, the tops of them were rough-hewn with no pretension to straightness or accuracy. Davison also noticed that the ceiling of the chamber he had discovered was constructed with a similar row of granite beams. Davison could make little sense of these features, and his only satisfaction in his discovery was to carve his name on the wall and have the chamber named after himself.

  Additional exploration of Davison's Chamber came in 1836 when Colonel Howard-Vyse, with the help of civil engineer John Perring, made extensive explorations of the pyramid complex at Giza. In Davison's Chamber, Howard-Vyse noticed a crack between the beams of the ceiling. He perceived the existence of yet another chamber above the one he was occupying. Without obstruction, he was able to push a three-foot-long reed into the crack. Howard-Vyse and his helpers then made an attempt to cut through the granite to find out if there was indeed another chamber above. Finding out in short order that their hammers and hardened steel chisels were no match for the red granite, they resorted to using gunpowder. A l
ocal worker, his senses dulled by a supply of alcohol and hashish, set the charges and blasted away the rock until another chamber was revealed.

  This chamber held a mystery for the early explorers who entered its confines, a mystery that has baffled people for decades. The chamber was coated with a layer of black dust, which, upon analysis, turned out to be exuviae, or the cast-off shells and skins of insects. There were no living insects found in the Great Pyramid, which made this discovery even more mysterious. What prompted hordes of insects to single out this one sealed chamber and shed their skins? It is a mystery that has never been satisfactorily explained. In fact, there has not been any attempt to explain it, and because there is no logical answer that fits in with any previously proposed theory, no one has given it much attention.

  As in Davison's Chamber, a ceiling of monolithic granite beams spanned this new chamber, indicating to Howard-Vyse the possible existence of yet another chamber above. Blasting their way upward for three and a half months, to a height of forty feet, they discovered three more chambers, making a total of five. The topmost chamber had a gabled ceiling made of giant limestone blocks. Howard-Vyse surmised that the reason for the five superimposed chambers was to relieve the flat ceiling of the King's Chamber of the weight of thousands of tons of masonry above. Although most researchers who have followed have generally accepted this speculation, there are construction considerations that cast doubt on this theory and prove it to be incorrect.

  What Howard-Vyse and others have not considered is that there is a more efficient and less complicated technique in chamber construction elsewhere inside the Great Pyramid. The structural design of the Queen's Chamber negates the argument that the chambers overlaying the King's Chamber were designed to allow a flat ceiling. The load of masonry bearing down on the Queen's Chamber, which itself is situated below the King's Chamber, is greater than that above the King's Chamber. Yet the Queen's Chamber has a gabled ceiling, not a flat one. If a flat ceiling had been required for the Queen's Chamber, it would have been quite safe to span this room with one layer of beams similar to those above the King's Chamber. Both the King's Chamber and Queen's Chamber employ huge gabled blocks of limestone that transfer the pressure of the above masonry to the outside of the walls. The fact is that a ceiling similar to the one in the King's Chamber could have been used in the Queen's Chamber, and, as with the beams above the King's Chamber, the beams would be holding up nothing more than their own weight (see Figure 6).