anoverviewofthehistoryofideasontheshafts

An Overview of the History of Ideas on the Purpose of the Shafts in Khufu's Pyramid

"We must make some mention, too, however cursorily, of the Pyramids of Egypt so many idle and frivolous pieces of ostentation of their resources, on the part of the monarchs of that country.  Indeed, it is asserted by most persons, that the only motive for constructing them, was either a determination not to leave their treasures to their successors or to rivals that might be plotting to supplant them, or to prevent the lower classes from remaining unoccupied."  ('The Natural History'  Pliny the Elder (23 - 79 AD):  Chap 16)

Strabo (c.63 BC - 24 AD), Greek historian, geographer and philosopher explored Khufu's pyramid in 24 BC and described an entrance in the north face with a 'hinged' stone, indistinguishable from the surrounding casing blocks, leading to a long low and narrow passage that descended down to a subterranean chamber.

Arabian Knights

According to legend, Caliph Harun al Raschid attempted to force a way into the pyramid, and apparently tunnelled about 10m into the side before giving up.  c.820 AD, his son, Caliph Abdullah Al Mamun finally succeeded when his forced passage came across the descending passage.  He explored the 'subterranean' chamber' cut deep into the bedrock 30m beneath the base of the pyramid, and also explored the ascending passage leading up to the 'Grand Gallery', and the sarcophagus chamber 42m high up within the superstructure.

Once the interior of the pyramid was open to visitors, souvenir hunters and vandals probably removed anything of value or interest, and only fanciful stories of what may have been found inside remain.  By the time the first recorded European travellers arrived, the pyramid had been picked clean.

 In the late tenth century, Masudi, an Arab historian, wrote that in the eastern pyramid (Khufu's), the king depicted the heavenly spheres, and figures representing the stars and planets in the forms in which they were worshipped; he also placed there the instruments with which his forefathers had sacrificed to the stars.....  ('The Mystery of the Pyramids', Evans 1979: 152)

Comment:  Abu'l Hassan Ma'sudi, died 956 AD  link

Masudi's remarks on the pyramid's celestial associations may have some basis in truth.  The names of some Old Kingdom pyramids are associated with stars - the Dynasty 3 mortuary complex of Netjerikhet (Djoser) was apparently named 'Horus is the star at the head of the sky' according to Quirke (after Helck);  the name 'Nebka is a Star', was found in connection with a Dynasty 4 pyramid (Edwards 1985 (1947): 282);  the name of the pyramid of Khufu's son, Djedefre:  'Djedefre is a shining star' (Strudwick 2005: xxix); 'Radjedef's star' (J.P. Allen ); 'The Pyramid which is the Sehedu-star' (Baines & Malek, 1986: 140).

Islamic scholar, Abd al Latif, also noted that the still intact casing of the two main pyramids at Giza had numerous inscriptions when he was in Egypt c.1196.   About 1600 years earlier Herodotus had one of the inscriptions translated:  "On the pyramid, it is declared in Egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if I rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this inscription, a sum of 1,600 talents of silver was spent"

Some of Abd al Latif's companions made their way up to a chamber in the upper part of the pyramid, and described what was probably the dual upper shaft's openings into the sarcophagus chamber:  "in the upper part were openings apparently designed to let in air and light."

This apparent mention of the shaft inlets is an indication that at least 800 years ago, the shafts had openings into the upper chamber.  Whether or not the shafts originally had inlets into the chamber is not known.

Abd al Latif's short description of Egypt was later widely known in Europe and was translated into Latin, German, and French; cf. S. de Sacy, Relation de l'Egypte par Abd al-Latif, Paris 1810.

European Interest

One of the earliest recorded European visitors to Khufu's pyramid, Jean Palerme, secretary to the Duke of Anjou, broke off a piece of the sarcophagus as a souvenir in 1581.

George Sandys (1578-1644), English traveller, poet, colonist, and foreign service career officer, published a journal of his travels in Europe and the Middle East, in 1615.  He climbed the pyramid to the top and counted the number of courses, and he included a description of the sarcophagus chamber in Khufu's pyramid that includes the shaft openings:  "In the walls on each side of the upper room, there are two holes, one opposite to another, their ends 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."

Girolamo Cardano, a Milanese physician and mathematician of the early 16th century and a close friend of Leonardo da Vinci, "maintained that a body of exact science must have preexisted the Greeks.  Cardano suspected that a degree of meridian (far more exact than that of Eratosthenes, Ptolemy or Al Mamun) must have been in existence hundreds if not thousands of years before the Alexandrians and that to find it one must search in Egypt"  ('Secrets of the Pyramids', Tompkins 1971: 22)

After visiting Italy to measure its ancient buildings to determine the original standard of measure used by the Romans, John Greaves, an English mathematician and astronomer, travelled to Egypt in 1646, and explored Khufu's pyramid, where he "...hoped to find in the Great Pyramid a datum that might help to establish the dimensions of the planet."  He was unable to go down to the subterranean chamber as the descending passage below the junction with the ascending passage was filled with debris, presumably from Al Mamun's activities.  He also explored the 'well shaft' as far as the 'grotto', and in the upper or sarcophagus chamber, he noted:  "two inlets or spaces, in the south and north sides of the chamber, just opposite from one another" (Greaves 1646:  73), but assumed that the blackness of the north opening was caused by lamps burning inside.  His N/S vertical section of the pyramid shows the layout of the passages and chambers, but no shafts.

After publication of Greaves research in a booklet entitled 'Pyramidographia', Dr. William Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of blood, was "surprised that Greaves had not described, or apparently even discovered, any conduits by means of which the central chambers in the Pyramid could be ventilated from the exterior." (Tompkins 1971: 29)

N/S section by Greaves:

B. De Maillet, French Consul in Egypt from 1692 to1708, understood that the small openings in the north and south walls led to shafts that must have reached the exterior of the pyramid, as he assumed that one of the shafts was for lowering down food to retainers buried alive with Khufu, and the second was for clearing the detritus. (from Badawy MIOAVB 1964:  189, note 2:  Abbe le Mecrier, Description de l'Egypte, composee sur les Memoires de M. de Maillet, Paris 1735.)

Maillet described the north shaft as 30cm wide and 20cm high and went in a straight line to the exterior of the pyramid, but was stopped up with stone within 2m of its opening.  The other which opened to the east, was perfectly round and went to the bottom of the pyramid.  ('The Mystery of the Pyramids', Evans, 1979: 92)

Edme Jomard who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt in 1798, mentioned: "these deep narrow cavities which issue from the walls of the central chamber".  A N/S cross-section through the pyramid included in the 'La Description de l'Egypte'  (Jomard was principal editor), shows a similar layout of the passages and chambers to the drawing by Greaves, and also did not show the shafts.  (Badawy, MIOAVB 1964: 189, note 3:  Jomard, Description de l'Egypte, cd. Panckoucke, 1821 - 1829, t. IX, p.491)

Comment:  Greaves correctly positioned the sarcophagus chamber south of the E/W centre line, but the later drawing from  'The Monuments of Egypt, the Napoleonic Edition'  Vol V  PL.14, incorrectly shows the chamber on the E/W centre line.  Neither drawing shows the descending passage continuing beyond the junction with the ascending passage, which means it must have been completely blocked with debris, probably from Caliph Abdullah Al Mamun's tunnelling venture around the plugging stones in the ascending passage.

N/S section from 'The Monuments of Egypt, The Napoleonic Edition' Vol V, Pl.14:

The outlets of the upper north and south shafts in the exterior face of the core masonry were discovered by Vyse and Perring, who surveyed the pyramid from 1837-38.  Vyse cleared the south shaft of sand and debris and discovered it was connected with the upper chamber.  After it was cleared, the shaft functioned as a ventilation duct.  Badawy suggested that the origin of the term 'air channels' probably dates from this time.  (from Badawy, MIOAVB 1964:  189, note 4:  J.S. Perring, The Pyramids of Gizeh, Part I:  The Great Pyramid)

Comments by Lord Lindsay who travelled the near east from the end of 1837:

“After dining with Caviglia, dear A……., to continue my yarn, we started by moonlight for the pyramid, in company with the Genius Loci, and duly provided with candles for exploration.  I must premise that Caviglia, whose extraordinary discoveries you are doubtless well acquainted with, has just been set to work again by Colonel Vyse, Mr Sloane, and Colonel Cambell, our Consul-General at Cairo.  He is at present attempting to make further discoveries in the Great Pyramid; and as soon as he gets a firman from the Pasha, intends to attack the others……….

............His majesty’s chamber is a noble apartment, cased with enormous slabs of granite, twenty feet high; nine similar ones (seven large and two half-sized) form the ceiling.  At the west end stands the sarcophagus, which rings, when struck, like a bell.  From the north and south sides respectively of this room branch two small oblong-square passages, like air-holes, cut through the granite slabs and slanting upwards – the first for eighty feet in a zigzag direction, the other for one hundred and twenty.  It is Caviglia’s present object to discover whither these lead.  Being unable to pierce the granite, he has begun cutting sideways into the limestone at the point where the granite casing of the chamber ends has reached the northern passage at the point where it continued through the limestone and is cutting a large one below it, so that the former runs like a groove in the roof of the latter, and he has only to follow it as a guide, and cut away until he reaches the denouement.

“Now,” says Caviglia, “I will show you how I hope to find out where the southern passage leads to.” Returning to the landing-place at the top of the grand staircase, we mounted a ricketty ladder to the narrow passage that leads to Davison’s chamber, so named after the English consul at Algiers, who discovered it seventy years ago; it is directly above the king’s chamber, the ceiling of the one forming the floor of the other.  The ceiling of Davison’s chamber consists of eight stones, beautifully worked; and this ceiling, which is so low that you can only just sit cross-legged under it, Caviglia believes to be the floor of another large room above it, which he is now trying to discover.  To this room, he concludes the little passage leads that branches from the south side of the king’s chamber.  He has accordingly dug down the calcareous stone at the farther end of Davison’s chamber, in hopes of meeting it; once found, it will probably lead him to the place he is in quest of.”    

(‘Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land’ – Lord Lindsay 1838: 73-80)

Thoughts were turning skywards in the 19th century:

A leading astronomer of the 19th century, Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), had begun a survey of the southern sky in 1834 from the Cape of Good Hope Observatory in South Africa when the 'Great Moon Hoax' was perpetrated.

In 1835 the New York Sun newspaper wrote a series of satiric articles with statements falsely attributed to John Herschel about his supposed discoveries of animals living on the moon, including bat-like winged humanoids.

The headline read:  'GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES LATELY MADE BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, L.L.D. F.R.S. &c. At the Cape of Good Hope (From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science)

The articles were probably written by Richard Adams Locke.  The Edinburgh Journal of Science was a real scientific journal which had however ceased publication some years earlier.  "...The articles described fantastic animals on the Moon, including bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tailless beavers and bat-like winged humanoids ("Vespertilio-homo") who built temples. There were trees and oceans and beaches. These discoveries were supposedly made with "an immense telescope of an entirely new principle". For a time the Sun's circulation skyrocketed, and remained permanently higher than before. In a way, the hoax "made" the paper, which had only begun publishing a few years earlier. Herschel was initially amused at the hoax, noting that his own real observations could never be as exciting. This later turned to annoyance when he had to field questions from people who had taken the hoax seriously."  link

"The New York Times believed the reports both "probable and possible", the New Yorker thought they heralded "a new era in astronomy", Yale was said to be "alive with staunch supporters", while, according to another report, an American clergyman considered starting a collection for Bibles for the lunar inhabitants."   link

'The Great Moon Hoax' link

 The unsuspecting lunar inhabitant, Vespertilio-homo, was still waiting for a bible when Herschel suggested c.1840 that the descending passage into Khufu's pyramid was aligned with Thuban, the North or Pole star in the Old Kingdom, so setting the stage for an interest in Khufu's pyramid by a number of 19th-century astronomers.

Comment:  Thuban was closest to the North Celestial Pole (NCP) c.2785 BC.  Thuban's altitude due north, matched the 26.56° angle of incline of the descending passage c.3400 and c.2180 BC.  A modern estimate for the construction of Khufu's pyramid is c.2589 - 2566 BC (+- 50 years).

 In  'The Lost Solar System of the Ancients Discovered' (1856), John Wilson, a British writer on astronomy wrote:  "...the pyramid of Cheops indicates the half circumference of the earth and the half diameter of the earth's orbit.  Its towering summit may be supposed to reach the heavens, and the pyramid itself to represent the law of the time of a body gravitating from the earth to the sun...."  Using measurements from Khufu's pyramid, he came up with the size of the earth, the distance to the moon and sun, the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn........ (Evans, 1979: 166)

According to Dr. M.A. Mosalam, in 1862, an Egyptian astronomer, Mahmoud Basha El-Falky noted that the inclination of the four faces of the Great Pyramid was 52.5° which he also thought was the same as the other pyramids of the Giza plateau.  Basha El-Falky apparently concluded that the slope was not random, but was related to astronomical phenomena, specifically to Sirius.  He had calculated that Sirius shone perpendicularly down onto the face of Khufu's pyramid in 3300 BC, giving an astronomically fixed construction date.

Comment:  The angle of incline of Khufu's pyramid is slightly less than 52° (a ratio of 14:11, sqd 5 1/2)  Menkaura's pyramid is similar, and Khafra's pyramid has an angle of incline of 53.1° (a ratio of 4:3, sqd 5 1/4)  Sirius would have shone perpendicularly down onto the face of a pyramid with an angle of incline defined by sqd 5 1/2 (51.84 degs) c.2750 BC, when it was 38.16° above the horizon.

The north and south shafts connected to the lower chamber were discovered in 1872 when stone (13 - 17cm thick) covering the inlets into the chamber was chiselled away.  Unlike the upper shafts, no outlets have been found in the exposed stepped core masonry.

C.P. Smyth, began his astronomy career in 1835 when he was sixteen years old, at the Cape of Good Hope Royal Observatory, when John Herschel was conducting his survey of the southern skies there.  Smyth became chief assistant at the observatory, and much impressed Herschel, who recommended him for the post of Astronomer Royal for Scotland.  Smyth never had more than a grammar school education,  ".....his only degree was an honorary doctorate received in 1890.  In this, he resembles his younger contemporary, Norman Lockyer, and we can wonder whether the discipline of a university might have protected him from his later excesses.  Equally, it might have blunted his astonishing ingenuity."  (Sky & Telescope, August 1989)

In 1863, he was in Egypt conducting a survey of Khufu's pyramid, and in his book, 'Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid' (1864), Smyth noted that the angle of incline of the descending passage, matched the altitude of the Pole Star (Thuban) when it was due north below the North Celestial Pole (NCP) in 2170 BC.

Smyth also noted an alignment with the upper northern shaft and Thuban when it was due north, and directly above the NCP (Smyth used an angle of 33.47° in his calculations).  He also noted that the mean of the two angles he used for the descending passage and the upper north shaft gives the latitude for Khufu's pyramid. (26.49 + 33.47 = 59.96 / 2 = 29.98°)

"Now, of the entrance passage, it has been abundantly proved by various writers, that is is truly in the plane of the meridian as regards azimuth; and for altitude, in the direction of the lower culmination of the pole-star of about 4300 years ago.  Well, then, accepting that, one of the air-channels is above the entrance passage;  and apparently, for there are no precise observations on record, in the same azimuth, but at a different angle of altitude; and at what angle?   Why, if we can trust the best, and almost only observation, it is pointed to the upper culmination of the same polar star, or 33 degs 42 mins:  so that a mean between these two built passages, - which both debouch, if we may so say, upon the Pyramid's northern face, and work their way through about 200 feet of solid masonry, - will give exactly the latitude angle of the Pyramid.  The northern air-channel, therefore, is thus found, in its position, to be, besides its other uses, the most admirable geodesic complement to the entrance passage;  for it prevents all possible doubt as to men perceiving plainly, that though the pole-star was required to be observed through one of the tubes, yet the place of the pole itself, so necessary for defining the latitude of that diameter of the earth given by the height of the Pyramid, is also marked therein.  Showing also, that though astronomy be indeed concerned as well as geometry, in deciding the direction of these strangely formed channels, yet it was not for the purpose of converting the building into a simple astronomical observatory; for the bend in the lower part of the northern air-tube, joined to its very small bore, would completely prevent a human eye from ever seeing the pole-star through it, when completed." (Smyth, 1864: 61-63)

Comments:  according to Petrie, Smyth's measured angle for the descending passage was 26.44 degs.  Petrie's angle was slightly different at 26.52°, which is very close to the angle of incline defined by sqd 14 or a rise/run of 1:2 (26.56 degs).  In the 1877 edition of his work, Smyth includes the lower chamber's shafts discovered in 1872, but his drawing only shows the descending passage's alignment with Thuban at lower culmination).

N/S section by Smyth, 1877  link

Gantenbrink's survey of the upper northern shaft has different angles to what Smyth was using.  The last 11m (36ft) straight section to the outlet in the core masonry, is parallel to the N/S axis of the pyramid and has an average angle of incline of 31.2°, which means the top of the shaft was facing an area of the sky where Thuban transited the meridian at upper culmination due north c.2588 BC (Voyager 4.5 that corrects for proper motion, atmospheric refraction, and nutation and Starry Night Pro Plus, have c.2588 BC, but Stellarium has c.2575 BC for Thuban, alt. 31.2°)

A much longer 56.7m (186ft) section of the shaft from the outlet in the core masonry, has an average angle of incline of 32.6°.  However, the lower 45m of this section of the shaft veers 1.25° east of north before straightening out to become parallel with the N/S axis of the pyramid for the last 11m with a 31.2° angle of incline to the outlet in the core masonry.

The intended overall angle of incline from the end of the initial horizontal section of the shaft to the top end is defined by sqd 11 (32.47° a ratio of 7:11).  The floor line of a shaft with this angle of incline theoretically intersects with the original north face of the pyramid at the same height above the base as the south shaft and would have aligned with Thuban c.2345 BC.  The 7:11 ratio also defines the proportion of the basic pyramid form - the height, 280 cubits to base side length, 440 cubits ratio (7:11).

However, Petrie's survey of the outlets of the shafts in the core masonry, shows that projected lines along the floors of the shafts do not intersect with the original line of the exterior face of the casing at the same height - the difference is about 76cm (2.5ft) - tantalizingly close to having the same height, but the difference is of a magnitude that makes it difficult to assess if this was the intention of the designers or not.  According to Petrie, the intersection of the extended line of the southern shaft with the original line of the casing is 0.63m (2.07ft) below, and the northern shaft, 1.39m (4.56ft) below the required height needed for symmetrical shafts with slopes of 45 (7:7) and 32.47 degs (7:11).

 In his 1875 book 'Pyramid Facts and Fancies', James Boxwick mentions the historical link between Khufu's pyramid and Sirius:

"Several writers, including Arabian philosophers, have fancied some 'mystical correlation', to use the words of M. Dufeu, 'between the design and age of the Pyramid and the revolutions of Sirius, the judge-god of the dead......Popular tradition among the Arabs, revived among certain mystical Christian writers of our days, indicates Seth as the builder of the Pyramid.  Seth, in this case, is probably Sothis, or Sirius.  No star was so venerated in Egypt as Sirius, associated as it was, with the time of the annual overflow of the Nile, which the rising of the star foreshadowed.  The hieroglyph for Sirius is, oddly enough, the triangular face of a pyramid.  Dufeu and others suppose that the Pyramid may have been dedicated to this venerated star or period.  Proclus (5th century BC) relates the belief in Alexandria that the Pyramid was used for observations of Sirius......M. Dufeu finds the total height from the soil of the siringe to the roof to be 2920 noctas, or twice the Sothic Cycle of 1460 years. 'We consider that', 'says he', a proof that the Great Pyramid has been dedicated to this memorable period, or rather to Sothis, the star justly venerated in Egypt." (Boxwick 1875: 168-9)  link

"In the 1880s, Richard Proctor suggested that the Great Pyramid was built at the time when the star Alpha Draconis (Thuban) could be seen on the horizon in the north through the ascending corridor, which was still under construction, and in the south, the star Alpha Centauri could be seen through the still unfinished, Open Gallery.  In his opinion, this occurred in 3400 BC.  According to other theories, at the point where the descending corridor begins to ascend, there was a pool of water that reflected Sirius and was used to orient the structure in relation to that star.  This is supposed to have occurred between 5600 and 5100 B.C.E."  (Verner 2001: 452-3)

Comments:  Richard Procter, an English astronomer and science popularizer wrote 'The Great Pyramid:  Observatory, Tomb, and Temple' (1883), where he suggested that the pyramid could have been temporarily used as an observatory during construction.  The 'Grand Gallery' could have been used as a meridian transit sight and the huge level square of the truncated pyramid used with the 'Grand Gallery' to map the sky.

Proctor's proposed alignment with Thuban was not as Verner states when Thuban "....could be seen on the horizon in the north through the ascending corridor", but about 26.5 degs above the horizon when it aligned with the descending passage.  As Proctor calculated, the angle of incline of the descending passage matched the altitude of Thuban c.3400 BC.  Smyth had earlier calculated that it also aligned over a millennia later c.2170 BC.

Procter linked two stars transiting the meridian in 3400 BC, Alpha Centauri (26.64 degs) in the southern sky (aligning with the ascending passage),  and Thuban (26.5 degs) in the northern sky (aligning with the descending passage).  (these two stars had the same altitude of 26.58 degs c.3387 BC when transiting the meridian.  Thuban was again at 26.58 deg altitude 1200 years later c.2187 BC).

Smyth linked the transit of Thuban at lower culmination in 2170 BC, with the Pleiades when they reached their zenith due south (64 degs alt.)

David Davidson in his book 'The Great Pyramid, its Divine Message (1924), had a similar idea to Smyth's:   "The scored line points to Alcyone of Pleiades and the Entrance Passage axis to Pole Star 2144 BC.  The Scored Line does not give the date of the Pyramid's construction.  The Pyramid was built between 2500 and 3000 B.C."

Comments:  The enigmatic scored lines, 12.23m down from the original north face of the pyramid, on both sides of the passage, are perpendicular to the floor and ceiling of the passage as are all the joints in the walls, with the exception of two vertical joints just before the scored lines.

Petrie's mean angle of incline for the length of the passage was 26.52 degs, but Davidson apparently used an angle of 26.30 degs for the slope, which matches his date for the alignment with Thuban in 2144 BC.  However, this means that a line perpendicular to the passage floor has an angle of 63.70 degs, and Alcyone in the Pleiades star cluster reached its zenith of 63.70 degs c.2265 BC, not 2144 BC when its zenith was 64.4 degs.   (in 2144 BC Thuban was at 26.34 degs altitude)

(if the slope of the passage was defined by a 1:2 ratio (26.56 degs), a line perpendicular to the passage floor has an angle of 63.43 degs and would have been aligned with Alcyone c.2315 BC)

In the early 1890s, Norman Lockyer, an astronomer / solar physicist, became interested in possible astronomical alignments of ancient Greek and Egyptian monuments and temples.  In 1894, his book, 'Dawn of astronomy' was published, where he confirmed an earlier idea by the French physicist/mathematician/astronomer Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774 -1862) that the circular zodiac at Dendera represented the Egyptian sky in 700 BC,  ".........when Sirius rose "cosmically", or in unison with the sun, at the Egyptian new year.  But Lockyer quoted an old inscription which described a temple of Hathor at Dendera in the time of Khufu (Cheops) in the Fourth Dynasty (which he dated at 3733 BC) "when the star shone into the temple and mingled with the light of her father Ra".  (from Tompkins 1971: 168)

Light of Grand Orient

Early in the 19th century, Sarah, wife of the Italian showman, engineer and explorer of Egyptian antiquities, Giovanni Belzoni (1778 - 1823), wrote:  "Let the Masonic Brethren search, and they will find that the Egyptian Masonic Key will unlock the hitherto unrevealed mysteries of Egyptian Wisdom"

Late 19th century, Freemasonry literature linked the descending passage with Thuban and the southern shafts with Sirius.  Albert Churchward's 1898 book, 'Origin and Antiquity of Freemasonry, and its analogy to the eschatology of the ancient Egyptians, as witnessed by the 'Book of the Dead', and the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, the first Masonic Temple in the world', included a N/S vertical section through the pyramid showing the interior layout complete with all four shafts. (p.65) The two south shafts are wrongly drawn parallel to each other, and both point to 'Sothis, Light of Grand Orient', and the descending passage points to the 'Pole Star'.

On page 69 he refers to the 'Chamber of New Birth' with an empty sarcophagus in it, and with "......the small opening admitting the light of that bright morning star Sothis, shining down the line into the chamber."  (the empty sarcophagus indicates that he is referring to the upper chamber, but confusingly, after visiting the 'Chamber of New Birth', the 'Postulant' finally ends up in the 'Chamber of the Grand Orient' which also seems to be the upper chamber)

(like Churchward, David Davidson in his 1924 book 'The Great Pyramid, its Divine Message', also labelled the sarcophagus chamber 'The Chamber of the Grand Orient'.  He also called it the 'Chamber of the Open Tomb' and 'The Hall of Judgment of the Nations')

Churchward's section:

In 'The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh' (1883), Petrie used the term 'air channels' for the shafts as Smyth had done.  The term 'air channels', implies that the original purpose was for ventilating the chambers high up within the superstructure.  Smyth's earlier idea, however, linked the upper northern shaft with Thuban, and Freemasonry literature associated the southern shafts with Sirius, so at least by the latter half of the 19th century, these two astronomical ideas, were circulating.

Charles Taze Russell (1852 - 1916), a Knights Templar Mason of York Rite, and the founder of the 'International Bible Students Association',  forerunner to the 'Watchtower Bible and Tract Society', believed that Jehovah had the 'Great Pyramid' built, and biblical prophecies could be verified with measurements of the interior passages in British inches that correspond to years (an earlier idea promoted by Menzies and Smyth)  Russell stated that the source for his measurements was the published work of Professor Smyth.

In 1909, John, (a professor of gynaecology at Glasgow) and Morton Edgar, both followers of Russell's teachings, explored and measured Khufu's pyramid, and noticed that the "South Air-Channel of the King’s Chamber was quite open and a good breeze constantly passed through it, but the North Air-Channel of this chamber was entirely stopped up with stones and hardened dust."  

(Over 70 years earlier in 1837, Vyse had cleared the upper south shaft of sand and debris.  Petrie surveyed Khufu's pyramid from 1880 to 1982 and noticed then that the upper south shaft was blocked by sand from 23m (76 ft) down the shaft.  He also observed that the sun shone down the shaft at noon on Feb. 8, and Nov. 2)  link

Both shafts were blocked in 1928 when Morton Edgar cleared both the upper shafts of sand and debris, resulting in " a constant cool air-current passing through the Pyramid".  He probed the lower shafts with metal rods, managing to push his rods 53.34m (175 ft) up the north shaft before it broke, and 63.4m (208 ft) up the south shaft when it came up against an obstruction.

Comments:  Edgar miscalculated, as it was impossible to probe 63,4m up the south shaft with metal rods, as an 82mm (3.25") thick 'closure' stone, 59.45m from the inlet in the south wall of the sarcophagus chamber, prevented any probing beyond it.

(note:  J.P. Lepre also probed the lower shafts with rods, and stated that the south shaft was 250 ft (76.2m) long.  Again, where he got this figure from is a mystery, as he could not have probed past the 'closure' stone 59.45m up the shaft, and the total projected length of the floor line of the shaft to the original exterior face of the casing stones is 74.84m, still 1.36m short of his figure.  He states on page 113 of his book, 'The Egyptian Pyramids' (1990) that the air shafts leading from the Queens Chamber were discontinued when they reached the height of the apex of the uppermost (fifth or Campbell's) 'relieving' chamber above the sarcophagus chamber, leaving them 20 ft (6m) short of the exterior.  However, the first closure stone is actually 50.5 ft (15.39m) short of the original exterior face of the pyramid, which means that the shaft to this closure stone reaches a height about the level of the floor of the forth 'relieving' chamber, not to the apex of the ceiling of the fifth 'relieving' chamber, about 5m (16.4 ft) higher)

Morton Edgar thought the shafts "represent life - that is 'the breath of life'"  link

Although Edgar was unaware of this, the royal funerary texts inscribed within two Dyn 6 pyramids also mention 'the breath of life':  "I will take for myself my breath of life, I will breathe in joy for myself, I will be inundated with god's-offerings, I will snuff the wind for myself, I will have abundance of the north wind....." (Faulkner 1969: 1158 PN)

Soul / star shafts

In 1924, the Belgian Egyptologist, Jean Capart, suggested another purpose for the shafts:  "they are often called air-shafts;  it is more probable that they had a funerary purpose, perhaps to afford a passage to the soul of the king" 

Egyptologist and architect, Alexander Badawy, adopted Capart's idea and enlarged upon it, linking the upper shafts with the circumpolar stars and the Orion constellation:

"In the North and South walls (of the burial chamber) are the apertures, similar to those of the middle chamber, of channels square in section, cut out of one stone and roofed with a slab.  They are sloping upwards to reach the North and South faces of the pyramid, at the same level and have accordingly different gradients:  31 degs for the northern and 45 degs for the southern.  They are usually thought to be ventilation-channels, but would be better be considered as open ways for the king's soul to reach the circumpolar stars to the North and the Orion constellation, to the South."  ('A History of Egyptian Architecture', Badawy  1954: 138)

Badawy provided the ancient Egyptian religious / funerary rationale behind these stellar links in his 1964 paper 'The Stellar Destiny of Pharoah and the So-Called Air-Shafts of Cheops' Pyramid' (in MIOAVB, band X, 1964:  189-206), and in her accompanying article, 'Astronomical investigation concerning the so-called air-shafts of Cheop's pyramid' (in MIOAVB, band X, 1964:  183-7), the astronomer Virginia Trimble, using a 44.5 deg angle of incline for the upper southern shaft in her calculations, showed that Orion's 'belt'  "...passed once each day, at culmination directly over the southern shaft of the Great Pyramid at the time it was built".

An extract from the University of California: In Memoriam (1987):

".......Badawy's work on Egyptian architecture is not merely descriptive. His philological training qualified him admirably to interpret the difficult Egyptian texts referring to methods of building design and to architectural symbolism. His articles on these subjects, some of which are purely philological, are recognized as major contributions.  I.E.S. Edwards, Emeritus Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, commented: "Symbolism was one of the most important features in Egyptian funerary and temple architecture. Its interpretation is often difficult, either because too little is known about the source of its inspiration or because elements have become stylized and their original hard to recognize.  Dr. Badawy devoted a number of articles to various aspects of this subject; they show that he had a deep understanding of the mentality of the ancient Egyptians and of the conventions which they observed.  His articles on the so-called air shafts of the Great Pyramid paved the way to the final elucidation of these features - so long a puzzle to students."

Comments:  earlier in 1954, Badawy gave the angle of incline of the upper southern shaft as 45°, but Trimble used a 44.5° angle in her calculations.  (this same angle is repeated by Edwards and Cornell, and also by Badawy in his 1964 paper).

Petrie's measurements for the top 21m (70ft) section of the shaft, ranged from 44.44° - 45.50° with a mean angle of 45.23°.  Petrie was careful to point out that:  "It is striking that the slope of both passages continuously increases up to the outside (except just at the mouth of the S. channel); hence these quantities, which only extend over a part of either passage, cannot give the true mean slope;  probably on the whole length the means would not be greater angles than 31° and 44.5° respectively."

Perhaps it was this odd mention (scribal error) by Petrie of 44.5° that confused the issue, as he should have written, not greater than 45.5°, which is consistent with his survey data.  According to Gantenbrink the overall angle for the 42m (138ft) section of the shaft from its last change of angle in the lower section, to the top end of the shaft, is 45°.

If it was intended by the designers that the upper southern shaft should target Orion's 'belt', then as Virginia Trimble in principle demonstrated, an approximate date for its construction can be calculated.  At the latitude of Giza, and allowing for a 6 arcmin tolerance, Alnitak in Orion's 'belt' was at 45.1 - 44.9° altitude due south between c.2470 - c.2520,  Alnilam, the middle star, at the same altitude between c.2530 - c.2580, and Mintaka between c.2630 - c.2670 BC.

c.2570 BC is midway between the earliest and latest dates and fits well within the estimated 2589 - 2566 BC (+- 50 years) for the reign of Khufu.

The top of the upper northern shaft's final 11m (36ft) section (the only section of the shaft apart from the initial horizontal section that is parallel with the N/S axis of the pyramid),  was facing an area of the sky where the North or Pole Star, Thuban, reached its highest point in the sky due north as it circled the NCP c.2570 BC, during the same era when the 3-star asterism in the centre of Orion's aligned with the southern shaft when it reached its highest and brightest point in the sky due south.

As the Dual King over the Two Lands, the king had several options - the upper shafts may have provided a 'path' for the king's ascension to the sky - to Thuban, the central pivotal star among the northern Imperishable Stars, and to Sopdet and Sah in the southern sky. This duality was an essential cornerstone of royal ideology, so it should come as no surprise that this same duality may be found in the dual 'paths' linking the sarcophagus chamber and the southern and northern skies. 

Inscriptions in two Dyn 6 pyramids, mention the king raising himself up to ‘wander’ his southern and northern mounds (N 411 (Nt 248); PT 676 §2011), and a Coffin Text mentions Sah (saH, 'Orion') and the Two Lands: "I am Sah (sAH, 'Orion') who treads (sAH, lit. toes) his Two Lands, who navigates in front of the stars of the sky on the belly of my mother Nut... (CT 227)

As Dual King over the Two Lands, the king could choose whichever shaft was appropriate for whatever season at any particular 'potent' time. The actual sarcophagus that probably held the remains of Khufu, appears to be the only funerary component in the whole pyramid that was aligned along the centre north/south axis of the pyramid, further highlighting the north/south theme.

Unis has united the skies, and Unis has taken control of the southern and northern lands… W 224 (PT 319) Sethe Vol. 1: 263; §514b

Although stars are points of light in the sky, the top ends of the shafts are not 'facing' points, but small areas of the sky.  Immediately after a series of niches (these may have once held a closure stone), and 8.1m down the shaft from the original exterior face of the pyramid, the upper southern shaft has a square cross-section of 22.5 x 22.5cm (3 x 3 AE palms).  Although the shafts were not designed for observing the sky, the small square area of the sky 'seen' from these niches is about 1.6 arc degrees square.  This means that a star crossed the 'field of view' of the shaft for approximately seven minutes each day, and from 45.35m down the shaft where the long straight section begins, for about one and a half minutes each day.

The c.2570 BC astronomically derived date for the two upper shafts alignments with the 3-star asterism in the centre of Orion in the southern sky and Thuban in the northern sky fits the archaeological evidence for the era of Khufu's reign.  The question of intent can be debated in the context of what is known about the royal funerary ideology of the Old Kingdom that was strongly influenced by celestial phenomena, making the royal funerary complexes suitable candidates for investigation into possible deliberate architectural/celestial links.  Badawy's 1964 paper, 'The Stellar Destiny of Pharoah and the So-Called Air-Shafts of Cheops' Pyramid' (in MIOAVB, band X, 1964:  189-206), examines the ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom cultural context for possible stellar links.

The significance of Orion to the ancient Egyptians

Orion was a distinctive, large constellation that crossed the southern part of their sky, and the 3-star asterism in the centre of Orion known today as 'Orion's belt', was one of the most distinctive asterisms in their sky.

Sah personified Orion in ancient Egypt and is mentioned in the earliest surviving royal funerary rituals and texts (inscribed within Unis's pyramid at the end of Dynasty 5) as the 'father of the gods' who gives the king a warrant as 'Great Power' (408 UT).  This text, from Utterance 273-4, is regarded as one of the oldest of the corpus of texts found within Dyn 5 - 7 pyramids.  Referring to Utt. 273-4, Badawy states:  "At least one of the pyramid spells mentioning Orion belongs to the older stock since it occurs in the context of the so-called Cannibal Hymn." (Badawy 1964:  199)

The 'warrant' granted by Sah to the king, maybe an allusion to a celestial, 'afterlife' version of the mks, held in the king's hand when he performed the ceremonial heb-sed run and thought to be a legal document legitimizing the king's right to rule the unified land of Upper and Lower Egypt, or as Lehner states:  "....the household deed to the whole of Egypt" (Lehner 1997: 92)

Beneath the Dyn 3 'Step Pyramid' and its 'South Tomb', are depictions of Netjerikhet performing the ceremonial heb-sed run and holding the mks.   "The step pyramid includes numerous architectural elements designed to perpetuate the role of the king in the afterlife.  Symbolic components of the royal palace complex from which the king could rule for eternity.  Elements associated with the celebration of the heb-sed (festival of rejuvenation of the kingship) express the desire to maintain the king's rulership in the netherworld."  (TAGS, 'Cults' Wegner 2002: 72)

Inscriptions within the last pyramid of Dynasty 5 and the pyramids of Dynasty 6, have many references to Sah:

Sah was the brother of the Sun (ra), and sister of Sopdet (spdt, 'Sirius'), who personified the brightest star in their sky, Sirius (§2126cg N).  Sah also presided over Upper (southern) Egypt. (§959 PMN)

The king regularly ascended with Sah (sAH, 'Orion') from the eastern region of the sky, and regularly descended with Sah (sAH, 'Orion') into the western region of the sky. (§821 PMN)

"Raise yourself because of your strength, may you ascend to the sky, may the sky give birth to you like Sah (sAH, 'Orion')." (§2116 N)

You (the king) shall reach (sAH) the sky as Sah (sAH, 'Orion'), your soul shall be as effective (spd) as Sopdet (spdt, 'Sirius'); have power, having power; be strong, having strength; may your soul stand among the gods as Horus who dwells in Irw. (§722-3 TN)

"The eastern door of the sky is opened for you by Him whose powers endure.  Nut has laid hands on you, O King, even she whose hair is long and whose breasts hang down;  she carries you for herself to the sky, she will never cast the King down to earth.  She bears you, O King, like Sah (Orion), she makes your abode at the head of the Conclaves.  The King shall go aboard the bark of Re on the banks of the Winding Waterway, the King shall be rowed by the Unwearying Stars and shall give orders to the Imperishable Stars......."  (§2171-3 N)

"The sky quivers, the earth quakes before me, for I (the king) am a magician, I possess magic.  I have come that I may glorify Sah (sAH, 'Orion')......"  (§924 PMN)

"O King, you are this great star, the companion of Sah (sAH, 'Orion'), who traverses the sky with Sah (sAH, 'Orion')....."  (§882 PM)

The king was alive and young beside his father Sah (Orion) in the sky as they travelled to the west.  (2179-81 N)

"The Duat has grasped your hand at the place where Sah (Orion) is...."  (802 PMN)

Sah (Orion) is swallowed up by the Duat, pure and living in the horizon.  Sopdet (Sirius) is swallowed up by the Duat, pure and living in the horizon.  I am swallowed up by the Duat, pure and living in the horizon.  It is well with me and with them.  It is pleasant for me and for them, within the arms of my father, within the arms of Atum.  (151 U)

Inscribed in the face of a pyramid capstone of Dyn 12, is an explicit mention of Sah (sAH, 'Orion').  One of the very few capstones that have survived in the archaeological record was found on the east side of the pyramid of Ammenemes III at Dahshur.  It has inscriptions on each of the four sides that mention various deities:  Harakhte, Anubis, Osiris, Ptah, Neith and Sah (sAH, 'Orion').  One of the sides has the following text:  "King Ammenemes sees the beauty of the sun.  The face of King Ammenemes is open.  He sees the 'Lord of the Horizon' as he sails in the sky.  The soul (Ba) of King Ammenemes is higher than the heights of Sah (sAH, 'Orion'), and it unites itself with the Duat....."

 Ahmed Fakhry mentions the lower shafts in his book 'The Pyramids':  "They are usually referred to as "air-channels," but most Egyptologists believe that they had a religious significance related to the soul of the king."  (Fakhry  1961, third impression 1974: 118)

Aliens and Launch Pads

Sirius's association with ancient Egypt was again brought to the attention of an unsuspecting reading public in 1976,  when 'The Sirius Mystery', by Robert Temple, was published, and earth's inhabitants were confronted with the idea that a civilizing amphibious extraterrestrial race from a planet in the Sirius system, had visited earth.  Knowledge of their visit was preserved in the myths and legends of the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations that somehow survived in the beliefs of a north African tribe, the Dogon.

 Also in the late 70's, Peter Lemesurier, who read languages at Cambridge University, was quite happily regurgitating older ideas.  Lemesurier "..unearthed some remarkably conclusive evidence that the Great Pyramid contains a detailed prophesy in mathematical code - a prophesy whose main purpose appears to be the validating of just such a redemptive or Messianic plan for mankind as appears to have been outlined by Jesus of Nazareth." ('The Great Pyramid, Decoded', Lemesurier 1977:  158).  He included a vertical cross-sectional diagram through the pyramid in his book, where he labelled the upper southern shaft, 'Transition of the spirit-planes' and the lower southern shaft, 'Millenium: earthly age of spiritual escape' (p.158)  In another diagram the upper southern shaft has the caption, 'direction of escape' and the northern shafts, 'direction of rebirth'. (p.164)

 Astronomer and archaeoastronomy researcher, Dr. E. Krupp, recognized that the shafts had an astronomical significance that reflect what he considers to be the most probable function of the pyramid:  a "transcendental launchpad" that propelled the king's soul into the sky.

"The Pyramid Texts describe the ascent of the departed king to the sky. He joins Orion (Osiris), and Sirius is his guide. They continue together as participants in the cosmic cycle. A similar wish is expressed in other texts. The spirits of the dead hope to join the never-setting, never-dying, circumpolar stars. These two possible transfigurations, in which the dead pharaoh joins Osiris or the Circumpolar stars, may explain the orientation of the so-called air shafts from the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid. They may be ramps by which the dead king makes his way to heaven." ('In Search of Ancient Astronomies', Krupp 1979)

Ancient Egyptian 'transcendental space travel':

The king ascended "in a blast of fire"  (§541 TMN)

"......bring to the king the 'Sfrt-htpt' which was on the back of Osiris (Wsir), so that the King may ascend on it to the sky...."  (§517 U)

The king ascended to the sky as Horus upon the 'sdsd' of the sky.  (§800 PMN)

Faulkner note: 'sdsd', the bolster like protuberance on the front of the cult standard of Wepwawet.  R.H. Wilkinson:  "bolster-like emblem called the shedshed, which may have represented the royal placenta, which was regarded as the king's 'double'."

The standard of Wepwawet 'Opener of the Ways', from PT §1009 PMN

"...Wepwawet opens a way for me, Shu lifts me up, the Souls of On set up a stairway for me in order to reach the above, and Nut puts her hand on me just as she did for Osiris on the day when he died."  (§1090 PMN)

"Wepwawet has caused me (the king) to fly up to the sky among my brethren the gods."  (§463 UPN)

Wepwawet may have been associated with a star or star pattern:

You have ascended to the portal, having appeared as King and gone on high as Wepwawet  (§1638 MN) "You (the king) shall ascend to the sky, you shall become Wepwawet, your son Horus will lead you on the celestial ways......" (1009 PMN)  "The libation is poured and Wepwawet is on high......" (1011 PMN)  "I sit among you, you stars of the Duat;  may you support me like Re and serve me like Horus;  raise me up on high like Wepwawet....."  (953 PMN)  "Arise, O great float-user, as Wepwawet, filled with your power, having gone up from the horizon!"  (455 U)  "..I am on high as Wepwawet.."  (1374 PMN)

"Your eyes have been given to you as your two uraei because you (the king) are Wepwawet who is on his standard....." (1287 P)

To be raised on high as Wepwawet, suggests an allusion to the standard of Wepwawet raised up high above the procession, and in light of the royal funerary texts, perhaps a ritual enactment of a star or star pattern being 'born' in the eastern region of the sky, and rising high above the earth in the sky.  "The birth of the Limitless (Re, the sun god) in the horizon will be prevented if you prevent me from coming to the place where you are.  The birth of Selket will be prevented...., The birth of Sah (Orion) will be prevented..., The birth of Sopdet (Sirius) will be prevented...., The birth of Wepwawet in the Pr-nw will be prevented...."  (1435-38 PM)

The idea of the sky giving birth to a star or star pattern, and used as a metaphor for the kings new birth, is implicit in this text:  "Raise yourself because of your strength, may you ascend to the sky, may the sky give birth to you like Sah (sAH, 'Orion')." (2116 N)

The king, like the sun and stars, is said to be conceived and given birth by the sky.  His 'imperishable limbs' (iron bones) are in the womb of his mother, Nut (530 TP) the personification of the sky.

"Whether as a star or in company with the sun, each day the king re-enters the Duat to be born again into the sky.  Given its cosmic associations, the tomb is therefore more than just the final resting place of the king.  It is his personal Duat:  like its cosmic counterpart, secret and inaccessible to the living (at least as much as ancient technology could make it so).  And it is the womb and '3ht' that ensures him daily rebirth into the sky to begin his eternal cycle of celestial life anew.  It is for this reason that the king's pyramid is intended to "remain for the span of eternal sameness" (Pyr. 1622)  ('Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt', 'The Cosmology of the Pyramid Texts', Allen 1989:  25-6)

(the mini robot sent up the shafts by Gantenbrink was appropriately called 'Upuaut', another name for Wepwawet, 'opener of the ways')

The ancient Egyptian king regularly ascended with Sah (sAH, 'Orion') from the eastern region of the sky, and regularly descended with Sah (Orion) into the western region of the sky (§821 PMN), but the king was not the only one who found Orion useful for space travel.  The Apollo astronauts were trained to navigate using the stars, and the stars of Orion were particularly useful as Orion is a conspicuous, easy to find constellation:

"The Project Apollo insignia was a disk circumscribed by a band displaying the words “Apollo” and “NASA.” The center disk bore a large letter “A” with the constellation Orion positioned so that its three central stars formed the bar of the letter. To the right was the Earth, with the Moon in the upper left of the center disc. The Moon’s face represented the mythical god Apollo. A double trajectory passed behind both spheres and through the central stars."   link

The distinctive 3-star asterism in the centre of the constellation of Orion, symbolized the three astronauts flying with each mission.

(the Apollo program was a series of human space flight missions from 1961 to 1972, designed to land human beings on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. Six of the missions achieved this goal.  Man first set foot on the moon in July 1969)

Dr. I.E.S. Edwards, in his 1981 paper, 'The Air-channels of Chephren's Pyramid', wrote:

"....the channels were intended to to serve as passages through which the spirit of the king could make its ascent to the astral regions....The Pyramid Texts frequently allude to the king's association in his afterlife with the stars and, in particular, with the circumpolar stars and with Orion and Sothis.  Scientific study has shown that at the time when the Great Pyramid was built, the northern channel, which sloped upwards at an angle of 31 degs with the horizontal, was in almost exact alignment with what was then the Pole Star (a Draconis), around which the circumpolar stars revolved, while three stars in Orion's belt passed each day at culmination directly over the southern channel, whose slope is 44.5 degs.  To suppose that such a setting of the channels had no magical significance seems highly improbable."  Edwards goes on to say that "the northern shaft "......was a substitute for the regular upward sloping corridor, a model representation of it, but no doubt considered equally effective as a magical element.  It was a simple solution, which not only satisfied the supposed requirements for the king's passage to the northern stars, but also made possible the introduction of a second channel as a means of approach to the constellation of Orion in the south, for which no special provision had previously been included in the architecture of a pyramid."

(In his revised edition of 'The Pyramids of Egypt' (1985), Dr Edwards added information about the stellar theme suggested by Badawy in 1954:  ".....Once every 24 hours the three stars in Orion's belt passed at culmination over the shaft.  We learn from the Pyramid Texts that Orion and Sirius occupied almost as important positions in the king's plans for his after-life as the circumpolar stars.......", and "The Great Pyramid was unique in making provision for the king to associate himself with both the circumpolar stars and the constellation of Orion and Sirius.")

In his book 'The First Stargazers, an Introduction to the Origins of Astronomy' (1981), James Cornell, a science writer who worked for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote:

"Virginia Trimble and Alexander Badawy have found possible astronomical alignments for both shafts.  The northern shaft, which exits the King's Chamber at an angle of 31 degrees, points toward the upper culmination of Alpha Draconis.  The ventilation shaft on the south face, angling out at 44.5 degrees from the horizontal, aligns with the star Alnilam in Orion".............."  Most likely, the airshaft alignments were never intended for observations, although observation might have been used to establish them.  Trimble and Badawy suggest the shafts were linked to the "stellar destiny" of the pharaoh.  After his death, he would join the other "imperishable stars" of the firmament, those circumpolar objects which neither rise nor set;  in short, the stars of immortality.  It is this mixture of astronomy and religion, this commingling of myth and reality, and this application of advanced observing, engineering, and surveying to the purposes of fantasy that so frustrates and fascinates the student of Egyptian life and science.  In Egyptian astronomy, science was totally subjected to religion, and any practical advantages of observational ability (with the exceptions of time-keeping and surveying) were given over to the impractical and obsessive preparations for the afterlife." (pp. 108-9)

Lucie Lamy (step-daughter of R.A.Schwaller de Lubicz), in her 'New light on ancient knowledge, Egyptian Mysteries' gave her esoteric interpretation of the purpose of the shafts:

"Egypt it was said, is in the image of Heaven.  The emphasis placed on north and south then leads us to investigate the regions of the sky, of which earth is only a reflection.

A north/section of the Pyramid of Cheops shows that the two so-called 'air-shafts' leading out from the King's Chamber are, within one degree of accuracy, inclined so that the northern one is centered on the celestial Pole and the southern one on the three stars of Orion's Belt.  In her presentation of these facts, Virginia Trimble pointed out that, in the light of the ancients' mystic sense, it is obvious that these openings were meant to be guide-ways for the soul, aiming either towards the Circumpolars in the northern sky or to the constellation of Orion in the southern sky.

It is actually a matter of two ways being offered to each individual:  that of final liberation and eternal life (the north), or that of reincarnation in a mortal body and the commencement of a new experience (the south)".  (Lamy 1981, reprint 1991: 28)

Evan Hadingham (M.A. in Prehistory and Archaeology) commented on the upper shafts in his book 'Early Man and the Cosmos' written in 1983:

"Perhaps the most convincing theories explain the two so-called  "air-shafts" leading from the main chamber.  These shafts slope upwards towards the outside of the pyramid, but they could not have been observation tubes;  at both ends of each shaft, there is a horizontal bend so that a direct sightline to the sky is impossible.  Nevertheless, the main angle of each shaft does coincide with the north-south passage of two important stars at the time of the pyramid's construction - Thuban, the star then closest to the North Pole, and Alnilan, a star in Orion's Belt.  We know that the Egyptians identified Orion with Osiris, the underworld god of vegetation and rebirth.  Temple inscriptions speak of the pharaoh's ascension to join Osiris in the sky, where he was to command the eternal revolutions of the stars.  If this explanation is correct, then the two shafts were not intended for practical skywatching or ventilation, but for the passage of the pharaoh's soul on its journey towards the afterlife in the heavens."  (Hadingham 1984:  22-3)

In 1983, Robert Bauval noticed the similarity between the distinctive 3-star asterism in the centre of the constellation of Orion, and the site layout of the three pyramid complexes on the Giza plateau - a similar arrangement on the ground as could be seen in the sky - two stars in line and one slightly offset corresponding to two pyramids in line and one slightly offset with similar relative distances between the three stars and between the three pyramids.  This observation became the core idea of the Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) proposing as an explanation for the site layout,  that the ancient Egyptians of the Dyn 4, created a symbolic representation of the three stars making up the asterism, establishing a celestial link between the Orion constellation, and the three individual and distinct royal funerary complexes located on the Giza plateau.

Following a recommendation by Dr Edwards, Robert Bauval's paper, 'A Master Plan for the Three Pyramids of Giza Based on the Configuration of the Three Stars of the Belt of Orion', was published in the Egyptological Journal, 'Discussions in Egyptology' 1989 Vol. 13.

In 1986, Robert Bauval realized the lower southern shaft was aligned with Sirius, and in his 1990 article 'The seeding of the Star Gods:  a Fertility Rite Inside Cheop's Pyramid?', published in 'Discussions in Egyptology' Vol 16, the link between the lower southern shaft and Sirius, and possible implications of this link, were presented.

Egyptologist, Miroslav Verner, in his book 'The Pyramids', mentions that the upper south shaft was aligned with the star Alnitak in Orion's 'belt', the lower south shaft with Sirius, and the lower north shaft with Kochab.  (Verner 2001:  201-2)  (note:  Robert Bauval had earlier noticed these alignments and published his findings where he suggested they were intentional)

John Legon, in several articles in 'Discussions in Egyptology' (1988 and 1993), wrote against the idea of shafts linked to stars, arguing instead that  "...they were air-shafts, perhaps actually functional in the case of the shafts leading from the King's Chamber, but more probably symbolic and serving for a hitherto little-known aspect of the funerary / Osirian cult", and "....the design of these shafts was determined by considerations of geometry, symmetry, and the desire for a coherent dimensional design, and had nothing to do with the conjectured astronomical alignments."    link

Comment:  Legon's idea of linking the shafts to a "hitherto little-known aspect of the funerary / Osirian cult", is problematic as the name Osiris is only first securely attested from the latter half of Dynasty 5, or possibly from the early Dynasty 5 (tomb of Hemetra)

In his follow up book 'The Great Pyramid, Your Personal Guide' (1987), Lemesurier asked:  "Is one of the functions of the airshafts to emphasize the height and numerical value of the base of the missing capstone?"  (he had noticed that the south airshaft terminates in the 102nd course and the north airshaft, the 101st course, and adding these two figures together, realized the result was the course number, 203, of the present summit-platform)

In one of his diagrams the northern shafts are labelled 'Paths of emergence' and the descending passage 'Descent into language-based materialism', but it seems that unless the postulant can experience the 'Sudden illumination' upon entering the Grand Gallery, and the 'Continued endeavour despite suspension of illumination' during the climb up the ramp until reaching the Great Step where there is  a 'resurfacing of illumination' before the 'Period of final integration' in the 'King's Chamber', it seems the true purpose of the shafts will remain hidden to all but the brave souls willing to endure the "shattering initiatory sequence" in this 'House of Initiation'.

Lemesurier also informs us that the "...rounded corners of the airshafts suggest that whatever emergence, or transcendence, is achieved at this stage is likely to be based on at least some degree of consciousness-expansion" and if anyone is wondering,  Lemesurier did mention that "...a certain amount of linguistic vagueness is no bad idea at this point, at least where the nature of 'emergence' and 'wholeness' is concerned."

The postulant emerges from the lidless granite coffer "...to enter one or the other of the chamber's two airshafts.  If we take the backward-facing northern one, with its square cross-section and multiple bends, we symbolically fall prey to prevarication as we attempt, even at this late stage , to adopt a somewhat devious, materially orientated path of emergence.  But if by the age of seventy (80) we take the straight, southern airshaft, with its womb-like entrance and circular cross-section - if, in other words, we fully accept the demands of inner wholeness without preconditions of a development in its relatively unthreatening septuagenarians..........." (p.206-7)

Before going any further, the "unthreatening septuagenarians" among us, should heed Lemesurier's warning:  "Deliberately awakening the hitherto-dormant primal drives of the human organism - the process to which esotericists generally refer when they speak of 'opening the chakras' - brings with it serious risks of burn-out."

A more technology-oriented alternative to the 'House of Initiation' idea, is 'The Giza Power Plant' theory proposed by C. Dunn, explained in his 1988 book 'The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt'.  Naturally, the shafts have a vital role to play in the running of the power plant:

"The power plant theory describes a chemical process where two solutions combine to create hydrogen. The Giza Power Plant theorizes that the Southern Shaft provided a diluted hydrochloric solution to the Queen's Chamber and the Northern Shaft provided a hydrated zinc solution."  link

"Shafts leading to the Queen's Chamber but not quite connected to it. These could have been supply shafts for chemicals needed in the reaction. The shafts would allow chemicals to enter the chamber and prevent evolving gases from escaping."   (C. Dunn, 2002) link 

The upper northern shaft was a conduit for a microwave signal input, and the upper southern shaft for a microwave power output, both connected to the 'resonant quartzite chamber' (sarcophagus chamber)  link

Recent comments on the shafts by Egyptologists:

Dr Zahi Hawass:  "Scholars first suggested that these air channels were for ventilation, but Badawy believed that the channels provided a passage for the king's spirit to ascend to the astral regions.  This latter explanation of the function of the air channels appears to be reasonable;  thus the king would have travelled through the northern channel to join the northern stars.  However, in my opinion, the southern channel in the king's chamber would have been provided for Khufu as Ra to travel to the day and night boats located south of the Great Pyramid.  These channels occur only in the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra, which are also the only two pyramids to be associated with five boat pits, thus the connection between the channels and the boat pits is strengthened."  ('The Pyramids and Temples of Giza', Petrie, with an update by Zahi Hawass, 1990: 101)

Comments:  It has been suggested that the southern shafts aligned with the sun on specific days of the year that had a particular significance for Khufu - the following text from the Dyn 6 pyramid of Pepy I, may allude to the sun reaching it's highest point due south:  O Re, thus men say, when they stand beside this King on earth:  'When you have appeared in the middle of the sky, give your hand to the King, take him with you to the middle of the sky.'  (§1498 P)

Each of the two southern shafts was aligned with the sun, twice a year.  Petrie noticed in 1881 that the sun shone directly down the upper southern shaft on the 8th of February and the 2nd of November.  (originally, the shaft probably did not reach the exterior face of the casing stones, and the first section of the shaft as it leaves the chamber is horizontal, so the sun's rays did not directly reach the upper chamber)

The sun aligned with the lower southern shaft about 20th November and 20th January. It is not known if the corresponding dates in the ancient Egyptian calendar had any significance for Khufu. (during the Old Kingdom, the festival of Re, the sun deity, fell on the 21st of the 4th month of the harvest season, corresponding to a date sometime in late June)

Dr Jaromir Malek:  "The main axis of the interior of the pyramid of Khufu (and others) is, beyond any doubt, north-south, and most would, I am sure, agree that it reflects star-oriented ideas, though with the stipulation ‘not necessarily exclusively’.  If the new sun-oriented ideas influenced the other parts of the complex, they may also have been present in the pyramid.  It is more difficult to accept that the Pyramid Texts, which appeared in the pyramids’ interior some 250 years after solar ideas had come to play a part in the architecture of the pyramid-complex, can represent stellar concepts in their pristine condition.  Nevertheless, I find few problems in connecting the interior of the Khufu pyramid with stellar ideas contained in the Pyramid Texts."  ('Discussions in Egyptology' Vol. 30, 1994)

In Mark Lehner's 1997 book 'The complete Pyramids', a caption for the two southern shafts reads:  "'Air-shafts' oriented to Orion", and for the two northern shafts: "'Air-Shafts' oriented to the northern polar stars" (pp. 112-3)

On page 114 he writes:  "A symbolic function should also be attributed to the so-called 'air-shafts', which had nothing to do with conducting air.  No other pyramid contains chambers and passages so high in the body of the masonry as Khufu's and so the builders provided the King's Chamber with small model passages to allow the king's spirit to ascend to the stars.  There are similar 'air-shafts' in the Queen's chamber though mysteriously, they did not penetrate through the walls of the chamber itself...."

In an interview with Earthfiles, Mark Lehner stated that:  "Now, the southern ones (shafts) point up at the southern sky and it's a very reasonable guess that the destination there in terms of the stars was the constellation Orion ­ or what we know as the constellation Orion ­ with the three stars in the belt. Orion was the symbol of Osiris, the Lord of the Dead. Or, the star Sirius which was a very important star for the ancient Egyptians because it was associated with the God of Isis. We know that because we have a tradition in later hieroglyphic text, religious text, that tells us about the King's soul, or Ka, ascending to the circumpolar stars on the north and to Orion or Sirius in the south."

Astronomer Professor Tony Fairall agreed with Lehner's interpretation in his article 'Precession and the layout of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids' (June 1999, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society)

Stephen Quirke:  "The importance of the starry sky also seems clear in the positioning of narrow shafts, through the masonry core, from the inner chambers of the GP. Whatever their practical application as air vents, these are far too carefully incorporated into the design to escape symbolic significance"  ('The Cult of Ra' Quirke 2001:  115-6)

"So-called airshafts, only 20cm (8in) square, leave the north and south walls of the chamber and emerge high up on the corresponding faces of the pyramid. These also were found in the original high-level burial chamber, and seem to have been aimed at particular stars, implying a stellar aspect to the king's afterlife - although as we have seen he was later more closely associated with the sun.  Interestingly, the pyramid for Khufu's immediate successor, Djedefre, bore a name that described the king as a 'shining star'" (Dr Aidan Dodson,  a specialist in Egyptian funerary archaeology)   link

Comment:  two other translations for the name of Djedefra's pyramid:  'The Pyramid which is the Sehedu-star' (Baines & Malek, 1986:140);  'Starry sky of Djedefra' (Quirke, following the interpretation by Wolfgang Helck, 2001: 116)

Miroslav Verner, attempted to explain the rationale behind both the ventilation and astronomical theories in his book 'The Pyramids':

"Of the theories so far proposed, the most probable attributes a ventilating function to them.  The architects realized that the circulation of air was made more difficult by the location of the chamber over the level of the pyramid's entrance (both King's and Queen's Chambers are above this level), which could have led to serious problems if several people were in the chamber at once - during the burial rites for example.

The fact that the shafts are "astronomically aligned" corresponds to the logic of the structure and to its builders' practical conceptions and religious ideas.  The ancient Egyptians were probably well aware that the dominant wind was from the north, as they commonly made use of it in sailing on the Nile.  Thus there was nothing unusual about the alignment of the shafts with a given star in the northern and southern skies;  it was thoroughly practical.  (Verner's note:  A simulated reconstruction of the sky over Giza in 2,500 B.C.E. shows that the north shaft in the King's Chamber was aimed at Alpha Draconis (Thuban) and the south shaft at Zeta Orionis (Alnitak);  in the Queen's Chamber the north shaft was aimed at Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab) and the south shaft at Sirius (Alpha Canum Majoris)

In addition, these stars played an important role in contemporary ideas about religion and burial.  Zeta Orionis was identified with the death god Osiris and Sirius with his divine partner, Isis.  After his death, the pharaoh's soul went to the pole star (Alpha Draconis, in the age when the pyramids were built), there to become immortal.  For the same reason, shafts featured in the plans for the King's Chamber.

The fact that they exist only in the Great Pyramid is yet another argument for the "ventilation theory";  after all, in other pyramids, the burial chamber is not located above the level of the entrance."  (Verner 2001:  201-2)

In his book 'The Egyptian Pyramids' (1990), J.P. Lepre commented on the shafts:

  "A number of Egyptologists refer to the north air channel in the Great Pyramid as the representation of the pharaoh's association with Alpha Draconis, which was the pole star during the reign of King Khufu.  They note, as further evidence of the connection between stars and pharaoh, that the constellations of Orion and Sirius would pass over the air channels at fixed intervals.  Yet it would appear that there is a much stronger affiliation with astrology here than with science.  First the assumption put forth by this school is that the north air shaft is directed in a straight line toward the pole star of 4,500 years ago, Alpha Draconis.  Yet it has already been illustrated that the north air channel of the Great Pyramid does not ascend in a straight-forward manner, but rises in a series of twists and turns.  A deduction that the channel would have pointed to the pole star of that era at its final passage through the monument would be based on extreme speculation.  It was not expedient for the north air shaft of Khufu's pyramid to be aligned with Alpha Draconis, but it was expedient for that air channel to supply fresh air for the funerary cortege."  (p.100)

Comment:  Lepre believed that the members of the funerary cortege, family, close friends and associates, aristocrats, high priests, etc, assembling in the upper chamber lit by torchlight, needed fresh air supplied by the shafts.  However, it should be noted that the Valley Temple and the royal cult complex on the eastern side of the pyramid were far more suitable for large assemblies participating in the funeral ceremonies, as the route up to the sarcophagus chamber was long, arduous and difficult.

A number of astronomers, have taken an interest in ancient Egyptian sacred architecture and used their expertise to investigate possible links with the sky, or assessed the technical feasibility of stellar links proposed by others.

Some researchers think the shafts were for ventilating the pyramid, while others have taken a more esoteric approach, where an understanding of the symbolism of the pyramid's architectural features can apparently enhance an individual's spiritual development, be used to predict future world events, or reveal the ancients advanced technology.

What is also apparent, is that some researchers were operating in a twilight zone of shaky facts and wishful thinking with faulty data and mistakes cropping up again and again, copied and repeated by later researchers, and critics alike.

Variations on the 'air-shaft' theory are still popular, also shafts as 'model passageways' enabling the soul or spirit of the king to travel to and from the sky, to specific regions of the sky, or to specific stars or star patterns in the sky.

Although Dr. Edwards endorsement of Alexander Badawy's ideas gave strong support for a theory that is consistent with the earliest surviving royal funerary rituals and afterlife beliefs inscribed within later Old Kingdom pyramids and taking into account the many variables, it is also technically feasible. Without more evidence, the purpose of the enigmatic shafts in Khufu's pyramid still remains a difficult question to resolve.

Chris Tedder    20.10.2004