# Cheops pyramid

Cheops pyramid
Egyptian name
Achet Chufu
3ḫt ḫwfw
horizon of Cheops
(with determinative for pyramid)
Data
place Giza
builder Cheops
construction time 4th dynasty
Base dimension 230.33 m
Height (originally) 146.59 m
Height (today) 138.75 m
volume 2,583,283 m³
Tilt 51 ° 50 ′ 40 "
Cult pyramid Yes
Queen pyramids 3

The Pyramid of Cheops is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids of Giza and is therefore also known as the "Great Pyramid". The tallest pyramid in the world was built as a tomb for the Egyptian king ( Pharaoh ) Cheops ( ancient Egyptian Chufu), who ruled the Old Kingdom during the 4th Dynasty (around 2620 to 2580 BC). It is counted among the Seven Wonders of the World ; Together with the neighboring pyramids of the Pharaohs Chephren and Mykerinos , it is the only one of these “wonders of the world” that has been preserved to the present day. Chose as site for his project Cheops not the royal necropolis of Dahshur as its predecessor Sneferu but the Giza -Plateau.

In ancient Egypt, the pyramid complex was called Achet Chufu ("Horizon of Cheops"). Its original side length is calculated to be 230.33 m and the height 146.59 m (approx. 280  cubits ). This made it the tallest structure in the world for around four thousand years . Since it later served as a quarry, its height is still 138.75 m today. They were measured with a very high level of accuracy, which was no longer achieved in the subsequent buildings. It is precisely aligned with the four cardinal points , and the difference in the lengths of its four sides is less than one per thousand . Locally occurring limestone was the main building material . Granite was used for some of the chambers . The cladding of the pyramid was originally made of white Tura limestone, which was almost completely removed in the Middle Ages .

On the north side is the original entrance and inside there is a chamber system made up of three main chambers: the rock chamber in the natural rock, the so-called queen chamber a little higher in the core masonry and the so-called king chamber above the large gallery with the sarcophagus , in which the king was presumably buried. A corpse or grave goods were not found. The pyramid was apparently looted in the Middle Ages at the latest, probably already in Pharaonic times. The function of the individual chamber systems in the Cheops pyramid is unexplained in many respects. The spatial program probably reflects religious ideas , such as the idea of the dead king's ascent into the sky : initially to the immortal stars of the northern sky , then to the land of light , the realms of the Re in the sky.

On the east side of the pyramid is the mortuary temple , of which only the foundations are preserved today. Almost nothing has been preserved from the pathway and the valley temple . The closest relatives of Cheops were buried in the adjacent east cemetery. This includes several large mastabas, mainly for his sons and their wives, as well as three queen pyramids, whose assignments to individual queens and princesses cannot yet be made unequivocally. A fourth, smaller pyramid served as a cult pyramid for the king. In the west, a cemetery of smaller mastabas was laid out, mainly for high officials. Seven boat pits were discovered in the vicinity of the Cheops pyramid, two of them still intact and closed. The dismantled in 1224 items bark of the king is restored and reassembled on display in the Boat Museum since 1,982th The meaning of the king's boats is still unclear. Perhaps they are related to the burial or to certain ideas about the afterlife .

Even ancient historians dealt with the Great Pyramid, especially Herodotus , who lived over 2,000 years after the pyramids were built, obtained his information partly from dubious sources and wrote from the perspective of a Greek . With him began the trials and tribulations that continue to this day about the pyramid. It was the destination of European travelers from the 15th century and of research expeditions from the 18th century. At the latest, the investigations of Flinders Petries , founder of modern Egyptian archeology , refuted numerous mythical ideas. More recently, the shafts of the Queen's Chamber have been the subject of research.

Papyrus fragments, which were discovered in 2013 in Wadi al-Garf , are of particular interest for the logistics involved in building the Great Pyramid . Among them was a log of an inspector named Merer, who led a work force that shipped stones from the Tura quarry to Giza for the construction of the Great Pyramid ( Papyrus Jarf A and B ). These papyrus finds provide for the first time an “inner” picture of the administration of the early Old Kingdom.

The Great Pyramid of Cheops and many other pyramids have been part of the complex "Memphis and its Necropolis - the pyramid fields from Giza to Dahshur" to the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 .

## Research history

### Ancient historians

#### Herodotus of Halicarnassus

Herodotus was the first ancient historian to comment on the Egyptian pyramids.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus , whom Cicero called "the father of historiography" and the narrator of "countless stories", wrote in the 5th century BC. A historical work comprising nine books, the so-called histories . As a well-traveled man, he described the countries and peoples of the then known world. He traveled to Egypt at the time of the first Persian rule around 450 BC. And wrote about it in the second book of his histories.

This oldest report on the pyramids was created more than 2000 years after they were built. Obviously, Herodotus obtained his knowledge mainly from officials and priests of low rank, from Egyptians and settled Greeks from the people and from his interpreters . Accordingly, his explanations present themselves as a mixture of comprehensible descriptions, personal descriptions, erroneous reports and fantasy stories. It was with him that the speculative errors and confusions about the monument began.

Herodotus characterizes Cheops as a tyrannical king. This probably shows the view of the Greeks that such buildings can only come about through cruel exploitation of the people. According to Herodotus, Cheops is said to have gone so far "that, when he needed money, he left his own daughter in a brothel and ordered her to earn a certain amount of money [...]."

On the orders of Cheops every 100,000 workers had the buildings in three-month layers Frondienste done. In the first ten years a wide causeway had been built, which, according to Herodotus, seemed almost as impressive as the building of the pyramids themselves, as it was about 1 km long, 18 m wide and 14 m high and covered with smooth stones. In addition, underground chambers were built at the foot of the pyramids, in one of which Cheops himself was buried. Herodotus speaks of an island in an underground lake that is filled by a Nile canal. Each side of the pyramid is about 240 m long and the same is the height. It took 20 years to build.

Herodotus also described an inscription on the outside of the pyramid which, in his opinion, indicated the amount of radishes, garlic and onions that the workers would have eaten. This could be a note of restoration work that Chaemwaset , son of Ramses II , had carried out. Apparently, Herodotus companions and interpreters could not read the hieroglyphs or deliberately gave him false information.

#### Diodorus of Sicily

Diodorus of Sicily visited Egypt around 60 BC. He based his descriptions on the one hand on the point of view of some ancient historians, but also distanced himself from Herodotus, who only described "miracle tales and entertaining poems". Presumably he drew his knowledge from the lost work of Hecataeus of Abdera and from Egyptian priests. According to his report, neither the Egyptian historians nor the people knew about the builders of the pyramids. On the one hand, he was told that the kings Cheops and Chephren were not buried in the pyramids but in a secret place, for fear of the revenge of the people condemned to labor. With this, Diodorus strengthened the connection between pyramid building and slavery and the idea of ​​huge cenotaphs . On the other hand, he brought the pyramids into connection with completely different builders. The builder of the Cheops pyramid is said to have been a certain King Harmais - a term that could perhaps refer to the Sphinx called " Harmachis " . The Chephren pyramid should therefore come from Amasis , a king of the 26th dynasty , and the Mykerinos pyramid from Inaros I , the hero of a revolt against the Persians. This notion evidently sprang from contemporary folk tales, which ascribed the pyramids to well-known personalities from the recent past. But one must also consider that the pyramids were used for new burials during this period.

According to Diodorus, the cladding of the pyramid was still in excellent condition at the time, whereas the uppermost part of the pyramid was formed by a platform six cubits wide (approx. 3 m). Accordingly, the pyramidion would be in the 1st century BC. Had already disappeared. About the construction of the pyramid he notes that it was built with the help of ramps, since no lifting tools had yet been invented. Nothing was left of the ramps, as they were removed after the pyramids were completed. He estimated the number of workers who were necessary to erect the Great Pyramid at 360,000 and the construction time at 20 years.

#### Strabo from Amasya

Strabo visited Egypt around 25 BC. BC, shortly after the conquest of Egypt by the Romans . He still considered them to be the burial places of kings, but no longer mentioned the kings buried there. Maybe he could actually enter the pyramid. For example, he mentions a stone in the middle of one side of the pyramid that can be removed and led into a curved passage to the crypt . This stone has already been interpreted in research as a kind of revolving stone door, but it was probably just a simple stone block that blocked access. The description of the curved passage, however, again best fits the grave robber approach.

#### Pliny the Elder

The Roman writer Pliny the Elder thought the pyramids were a display of wealth and a job creation measure to better control the people. Pliny points to a shaft in the pyramid that is 86 cubits deep, which according to his ideas served to channel the water of the Nile into the pyramid. He could have meant the shaft between the great gallery and the descending corridor. Perhaps only the upper chamber system was accessible at that time.

### Byzantine and Arab times

Joseph in Egypt. In the background the pyramids, thought to be granaries. Mosaic in St. Mark's Basilica , Venice .

At the time of Gregory of Nazianzen or Stephanos of Byzantium , a reinterpretation of the pyramids as " Joseph's granary " began, a misinterpretation that was to persist until the end of the 15th century. Haase attributes this to a wrong etymology of the Greek word “pyros”, which in his view means “ wheat ”. In reality, however, πυρ (pyr) means “fire”. He may be confusing this with πυραμόεις (pyramoeis), a wheat cake roasted in a fire. Furthermore, there is no information about the Great Pyramid at the time of the Byzantine rule over Egypt. With the loss of the ancient Egyptian language and the knowledge of the Egyptian rulers, the interpretation as a granary consolidated.

Even when the country was conquered by the Arabs in 639 , nothing changed. The Islamic historian al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) summed up in his work Chitat a series of early Islamic and Coptic reports of the pyramids together, described almost uniformly that the renewed access to the pyramid in the seventh Caliph of the Abbasid al-Ma'mun took place, whose men had made a tunnel near the original entrance in 820 (so-called al-Ma'mun tunnel). Al-Maqrīzī was apparently aware of the sarcophagi in the coffin chambers and recognized by them that the pyramids were not granaries but graves.

The Arab philosopher , geographer and historian al-Masʿūdī also reported on the activities of al-Ma'mun in his work History of the Time and those who wiped out the events . His descriptions are, however, interspersed with imaginative decorations. The first concrete descriptions of the situation inside the Cheops pyramid appeared in the first half of the 11th century by the doctor Ali ibn Ridwan and at the beginning of the 12th century by the Arab writer Muhammad al-Kaisi. In al-Kaisi's report, there are first descriptions of a corpse find in the burial chamber of Cheops, which is also confirmed by other Arab sources. It is unclear whose remains are.

The Arab polymath Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1163-1231), described as an army of workers of the ruler al-Malik al-'Azīz'Uthmān ibn Salah ad-Din Yūsuf unsuccessfully tried to remove the casing stones of Menkaure, and that the cladding stones of some of the side pyramids were needed to build bridges in the city of Giza. This marked the beginning of the subsequent demolition work on the cladding of the two great pyramids of Giza over the next few centuries. Abd al-Latif also referred to the many inscriptions on the cladding of the two great pyramids and pointed to the accuracy with which the cladding stones had been laid. His descriptions of the chamber system of the Great Pyramid are of particular importance. The first comment on the shafts of the King's Chamber is apparently also found here.

### European rediscovery

Title from John Greaves ' Pyramidographia (1646)

Towards the end of the 15th century, the Cheops pyramid increasingly became the destination or at least a station for European explorers and pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land , and they increasingly distanced themselves from the Christian misinterpretation of the granary.

Already in 1335 the Lower Saxon monk Guilielmus de Boldensele alias Otto von Nienhusen had visited the pyramids of Giza and also got to see the inside of the Cheops pyramid, which he declined to interpret as a granary. At that time, the cladding in the lower part of the pyramid must have been intact. It was probably removed on a large scale under the Mamluks - Sultan an-Nasir al-Hasan (1347-1362) for the construction of his mosque in Cairo.

The Mainz Bernhard von Breidenbach (1486) and Jehan Thenaud (1512), the superior of the Franciscans of Angoulême, already saw tombs of ancient Egyptian kings in the pyramids. In 1646, the Pyramidographia, or a Description of the Pyramids of Egypt by the British mathematician and archaeologist John Greaves, appeared . It is considered the first attempt at an Egyptological work. Greaves climbed the Pyramid of Cheops, measured the blocks, entered the interior and made a section of the pyramid that was remarkably precise for his time .

### Egyptological research

#### 18th and 19th centuries

The British diplomat Nathaniel Davison entered the burial chamber of Cheops in 1765 and discovered the lowest relief chamber above the burial chamber, which has been named after him ever since. Edmé François Jomard wrote the chapter on the pyramids of Memphis for the Description de l'Égypte . With the architect Célile he measured the pyramids in 1799 and counted a height of 203 stone layers in the Cheops pyramid. The French Colonel Jean Marie Joseph Coutelle , who like Jomard and Célile participated in the Napoleon expedition and led excavations in the Memphite area, interpreted the chamber above the burial chamber as a relief chamber.

Upper entrance of the Great Pyramid with the hieroglyphic inscription for the birthday celebration of the Prussian king
The Prussian expedition under Richard Lepsius celebrates the birthday of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV at the summit of the Cheops pyramid on October 15, 1842

In 1817 the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia cleared the descending corridor of debris and rediscovered the rock chamber, which had apparently been buried for centuries. He also found access to the air duct or escape shaft.

In 1837, the British pyramid researchers Howard Vyse and John Shae Perring were able to penetrate the four other relief chambers above the Davison Chamber and found many construction workers' graffiti with the name of Cheops, which for the first time allowed a clear assignment of the pyramid to this king. They also found the outer mouths of the shafts of the king's chamber, which they subsequently cleaned. During excavations on the east side of the pyramid, they came across the remains of the basalt pavement of the mortuary temple. In search of further access to the pyramid, they blew a breach in the core masonry on the south side of the pyramid.

The expedition to Egypt (1842–1845) sent by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Under the direction of Richard Lepsius dealt primarily with the structure of the Great Pyramid. The participants of the expedition celebrated the birthday of the Prussian king by climbing the pyramid and unfurling a flag at the top. On the occasion of the royal birthday , the expedition members also made a unique written testimony: they placed an inscription in a stone beam above the entrance to the Cheops pyramid in the style of old steles. It can probably be considered the first inscription to use this script as an information carrier again after the hieroglyphs have been deciphered .

In 1872 Waynman Dixon discovered the shafts of the Queen's Chamber .

Flinders Petrie in Giza (around 1880)

Flinders Petrie carried out extensive measurements of the pyramid from 1880 to 1882 . The English astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth , after his own measurements on the Great Pyramid, which later turned out to be unreliable, claimed that its dimensions concealed prophecies and other mystical information. Petrie settled in an empty grave near the pyramid and measured both the outside and the inside of the Great Pyramid exactly with some of his own measuring instruments. His results refuted the theories of Piazzi Smyth and speculations about a "pyramidal inch" by proving that the dimensions of the pyramid were based on the ancient Egyptian royal elite .

#### Beginning of the 20th century

George Andrew Reisner's excavation in Giza in 1926

From 1902 to 1932 George Andrew Reisner carried out extensive excavations on the Westfeld. In 1925 he discovered the grave shaft system G 7000x with parts of the grave equipment of Hetepheres I in the vicinity of the northeast corner of the queen pyramid G Ia . This was probably the wife of Snefru and mother of Cheops.

Hermann Junker also carried out extensive excavations on the western field and discovered, among other things, in the Mastaba G 4000 the more than 1.50 m high seated statue of Hemiunu , who, among other things, bore the title "Head of all construction works by the king" and thus most likely responsible for the Construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

In 1954 the two Egyptian archaeologists Kamal el-Malakh and Zaki Iskander discovered two closed pits south of the Cheops pyramid with the boats dismantled into individual parts. After extensive restoration work, the one from the eastern pit has been exhibited in the boat museum above the site since 1982.

#### Recent research

In 1986/87 French and Japanese researchers used microgravimetric instruments and electromagnetic scanners to search for as yet unknown chambers in the pyramid. However, only about 25 cm wide joints filled with sand could be found behind the walls of the horizontal corridor between the Great Gallery and the Queen's Chamber, which are probably of structural origin.

Since 1988 excavations have taken place at one of the workers' settlements southeast of the Gizeh Plateau under the direction of Mark Lehner . To the west of this workers' settlement, Zahi Hawass has been leading the excavation of a cemetery area since 1990, which in 1992 also discovered the remains of the cult pyramid southeast of the Great Pyramid.

In 1993 the engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink, in collaboration with the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Cairo under the direction of Rainer Stadelmann, examined both shafts of the Queen's Chamber with the help of the mini robot Upuaut -2. In contrast to those of the King's Chamber, these shafts have no openings on the outer walls of the pyramid. In the northern shaft, after about 40 m, the device discovered a longer iron rod firmly jammed in a bend in the shaft, which the English amateur archaeologist and discoverer of these two shafts, Waynman Dixon , could no longer remove during a "blind" inspection in 1872 . A further exploration by the robot in this shaft was not possible due to the 45-degree bend, and it is planned to completely remove the jammed bar with a special device one day. Upuaut-2 (“ Opener of the Paths ”) penetrated 65 m into the southern shaft and came across a blocking stone from the construction period, which suggested another chamber. Two copper fittings were plastered into the stone slab.

On September 17, 2002, an expedition sponsored by National Geographic used a robotic vehicle called the “Pyramid Rover”, which pierced the stone slab and inspected the space behind with a camera probe. The process could be followed live by television broadcast all over the world. Behind the smoothly polished Tura limestone blocking stone was an empty cavity, this time closed with a roughly hewn and cracked blocking stone. Another larger chamber, as suspected several times, was not found behind the stone.

On September 23, 2002, the Egyptian Antiquities Administration and the Ministry of Culture finally announced the discovery of another “door” in the north of the shafts that arise in the Queen's Chamber. The Pyramid Rover had also driven up this shaft on September 18, this time without television broadcasting. According to the results published by Zahi Hawass, the stone slab in the north shaft is identical to that in the south shaft and blocks the shaft at the same distance from the queen's chamber as its southern counterpart. Video recordings also show two copper fittings, which in contrast to the south shaft both appear to be intact.

In May 2009, an international research team led by the British engineer Robert Richardson announced the results of another expedition in the lower southern shaft. The robot Djedi used succeeded in viewing the area immediately behind the previously drilled stone slab with the help of a swiveling camera arm. In the video recordings, the researchers discovered reddish hieroglyphs on the bottom of the shaft, the decoding of which Richardson hoped to provide clues to the purpose of the shafts' construction. At the same time, the two copper metal fittings on the stone slab turned out to be bent back onto themselves into very narrow eyelets. According to the researchers, this is an indication that the copper fittings served ornamental rather than mechanical purposes. The robot is also equipped with a miniature ultrasound device that the team will use in the near future to tap the opposite wall and thus obtain information about its thickness. In addition, Richardson wanted to continue exploring the north of the shafts of the Queen's Chamber in 2011.

In autumn 2017, researchers around the scientist Kunihiro Morishima announced the discovery of a cavity at least 30 m long above the Great Gallery. This was discovered by observing muons as a by-product of cosmic radiation ( muon tomography ) and confirmed by further independent measurements by various research teams. According to Morishima, the cavity corresponds to a corridor. It has a length of 30 meters and is two meters wide and up to three meters high. It runs horizontally or slightly inclined upwards (this cannot be exactly said yet). Its volume is therefore comparable to the large gallery below.

On February 9, 2018, engineers from the University of Kassel demonstrated how the locking mechanism of the burial chamber worked with a 1: 1 replica of the entrance to the grave of Cheops.

## The pyramid

### The Giza Plateau

Corner of the Khafre Pyramid showing the massive rock core over which the pyramid was built.
Bottom layer of the original limestone cladding
Blocks of the outside of the core masonry

King Sneferu , presumably the father and predecessor of Cheops, had a total of three large pyramid complexes built: the Meidum pyramid in Meidum , the bent pyramid and the red pyramid in Dahshur . With the latter one was first geometrically true pyramid reached, and the development of the brick - Mastabas on the step pyramids of the 3rd dynasty came to an end. Cheops chose a new building site for his building project, the “Gizeh Plateau”. Presumably he left the royal necropolis in Dahshur because it no longer offered enough space for a large pyramid complex, there was no longer enough limestone available and perhaps out of fear of the unstable ground made of clay slate . In contrast, the saddle-shaped rock plateau, the so-called Mukattam formation, in Giza was characterized by a solid, compact subsoil and possessed the necessary geological consistency . At the time of Cheops there were already a number of private graves of apparently influential officials from the first three dynasties. The northeastern edge of the Mokattam Formation was chosen as the construction site, where a large, compact rock hill rose up. Michael Haase suspects that such rock plinths, on which the Djedefre pyramid and the Chephren pyramid were also built, were a decisive criterion for the choice of location. In addition to a labor saving, this could also have been motivated by static problems in the construction of the buckling pyramid. The rock core emerges clearly in five places:

• After a descending distance of 33 m, the descending corridor is a gallery carved out of the rock, from a height of 3 m above the pyramid base to the level of the base level.
• The air / escape shaft also penetrates the rock core from the base level up to a height of 7 m above it.
• At the northwest corner of the core masonry, the rock clearly extends north and south.
• At the northeast corner, the rock comes to light up to a height of 1.95 m above the base level. It was adapted to the shape of the superstructure by terracing it or filling it with stone layers in order to optimally fit the outer cladding stones.
• On the south side, near the southeast corner, the core appears to be at least two steps high.

The volume of the rock core is estimated at 7.7% of the total volume of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

### Leveling and measuring

First, the base was leveled by creating a flat plateau around the rock core, on which the base of the pyramid was measured. On the one hand the rock core was removed, on the other hand the cracks were filled with well-paved blocks. A foundation plinth made of Tura limestone was laid on the leveled rock near the pyramid core. This was used for the precise measurement of the edge lines, the construction of the right angle and ultimately the laying of the first stone layer. The leveling of the foundation is very precise: the greatest difference in height is only 21 mm.

The calibration of the pyramid was the task of Harpedonapten . It also shows an admirable accuracy, which was no longer achieved or strived for in the subsequent buildings. This is all the more astonishing in view of the elevated rock core, which made accurate measurement of the diagonals impossible. The azimuth , the deviation from north, is only 3 '6 "to the west. The four sides deviate very little from the desired length of 440 cubits (≈ 230.383 m), on the south side by 7 cm, on the north side by 13 cm. An even greater accuracy can be found in the measurement of the right angle at the corners. The deviation is 2 "on the northwest corner, 3 '2" on the northeast corner, 3' 33 "on the southeast corner and 33" on the southwest corner. The angle of repose was 51 ° 50 ′ 40 ″, which, according to ancient Egyptian measurements at 1 cubit height, results in a setback of five and a half hands. From this an original height of 280 cubits (= 146.59 m) can be deduced. Today the pyramid is still 138.75 m high.

Today's outer surfaces of the pyramid are curved inward and not flat. On the north side, the inward curve is 0.94 m.

### Core masonry and cladding

Quarry inscription on a "backing stone" with the name of Cheops after Georges Goyon.

Originally the Cheops pyramid was clad with polished Tura limestone . However, many of these stones broke out and were later reused in the construction of buildings in Cairo . The outsides are no longer smooth, but step-shaped. The cladding is only partially preserved in the lowest layers. Markings from the quarry work, which had been made with red paint, could be seen on these still-preserved blocks. The top of the panel was the (no longer preserved) pyramidion . This was probably the only element of the cladding not made of Tura limestone, but of basalt or granite .

The core masonry consists of blocks of nummulitic limestone. The blocks on the outside of the core masonry are arranged horizontally. Their height is one to one and a half meters. Today only 203 layers remain, the top seven have probably been broken off. The weight of the blocks is estimated to be one (in the top layers) to three tons (in the bottom layers). For the construction of the royal chamber, however, blocks of rose granite weighing forty to seventy tons had to be transported to a height of around 70 m.

Another layer of mortar and so-called "backing stones" was inserted between the outermost layer of the core masonry and the limestone cladding. These are small stones that increase the adhesion of the two types of masonry, which are different in terms of material and construction. Georges Goyon discovered a quarry inscription on a backing stone of the 4th stone layer on the west side. As with the inscriptions in the relief chambers, this one is also upside down and in italics. Leslie Grinsell found other inscriptions and marks in ocher and partly black on the "backing stones" of the 5th and 6th stone layers that are now exposed. These are dimension lines, names of workers' troops and, in two cases, the name of Cheops.

The mortar that was used in building the core is very hard and usually a pale pink color. It is made up of various elements such as plaster of paris , sand, powdered granite and limestone. The joints are less than half a millimeter wide on the outside and were filled with a semi-liquid gypsum mortar. The cladding blocks have lever holes on the underside. Through this the blocks could be pushed in sideways with levers. The lever holes were also closed with mortar and patch stones after the blocks were moved. Studies by French geophysicists have shown that the structure of the core masonry is probably very inconsistent. It likely contains rooms filled with sand, fine gravel and other waste material from the construction site. This method saved material, effectively shifted the pressure in the pyramid and was likely to have had a positive effect in earthquakes.

## The chamber system

 1. Original entrance 2. Al-Ma'mun tunnel (today's entrance) 3. Connection between descending and ascending corridor 4. Descending corridor 5. Rock chamber 6. Ascending corridor 7. Queen's chamber with “air shafts” 8. Horizontal corridor 9. Large gallery 10. King's chamber with “air shafts” 11. Corridor to the sarcophagus chamber and blocking stone chamber 12. Air or escape shaft with “grotto”

Many questions about the function of the individual chamber systems in the Cheops pyramid still remain unanswered. Earlier Egyptologists like Ludwig Borchardt tried to explain the complicated spatial plan through different construction phases. Accordingly, these were built in three phases due to the supposed changes: In a first phase, the rock chamber was created as a burial chamber, then the so-called Queen's Chamber was intended for it and in a third phase the Great Gallery and King's Chamber. Today it is more likely that the pyramid was planned and built to the dimensions that can be seen from the beginning. The spatial program probably reflects religious ideas , for which, however, the basics for understanding are lacking due to the lack of textual tradition from this time. That is why the chamber system remains one of the most impressive and at the same time one of the most puzzling.

The normal chamber system of this pyramid, like the chambers of all other royal tombs of this era, is without inscriptions. Only about 250 years later, since the end of the 5th dynasty (from King Unas ), are inscriptions found inside pyramids, the so-called pyramid texts , which for the first time give an impression of the royal ideas of the afterlife and the royal cult of the dead of this time.

### Original entrance

Original entrance

Originally the entrance to the chamber system of the pyramid was 16.98 m above ground level, at the level of the 19th cladding layer. It is located on the north side, 7.29 m from its central axis to the east. The north-south axis, however, was scratched into the paving, which clearly indicates that the intention was to relocate the entrance from the north-south axis to the east, although the reasons for this are no longer known today.

Above the entrance corridor there are three layers of large stone blocks and above that two layers of stone blocks arranged like a gable roof, each over 2 m high. Presumably this construction extends along the descending corridor up to the level of the rock core. Today the upper end of the descending corridor and the actual entrance no longer exist. Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi assume that the entrance structure consisted of a 1.20 m high architrave .

Strabo , who around 25 BC BC traveled through Egypt, described in his work Geographika that the entrance was closed by a stone slab that could be folded out. According to Rainer Stadelmann, this was hardly the original closure. This should have consisted of blocking stones and a cladding stone that was supposed to hide the entrance. It has been suggested that the pyramid of robberies since the first split in the late period had a stone trap door receive, could be seen making the interiors. The pyramid was later blocked and locked again, so that the access could no longer be found in Arab times under Maʾmun.

### Al-Ma'mun tunnel

Below the original entrance, the seventh Abbasid caliph Abu l-Abbas Abdallah al-Ma'mun is said to have built an entrance into the interior of the pyramid in 832, through which visitors today usually enter the pyramid. Al-Ma'mun suspected the entrance at the level of the seventh stone layer, i.e. ten layers below the actual entrance, and also misjudged himself 7.3 m to the west. The tunnel was dug directly and horizontally about 27 m into the stone layers and then bends sharply to the left to meet the blocking stones at the lower end of the ascending corridor to the Great Gallery. Here Al-Ma'mun's workers worked their way through the soft limestone around the blocking stones and into the ascending corridor.

### Descending corridor

The descending corridor

The descending corridor is 1.09 m wide and 1.20 m high. With a slope of 26 ° 34 '23 ″ it leads about 34 m through the masonry massif, where it meets the ascending corridor after about 28.21 m. After reaching the base level, it leads a further 70 m through the natural rock, i.e. a total of 105.34 m to a depth of 30 m below the base level. There an 8.91 m long horizontal corridor leads further into the rock chamber.

About 1.50 m in front of the rock chamber there is a small, apparently unfinished niche in the horizontal corridor on the western side, the meaning of which has not been clarified. As it has similarities with the niches in the horizontal section of the corridor of the Meidum pyramid, Michael Haase believes it is possible that a blocking device should be installed here.

Although several, even worked granite fragments were found in the corridor, according to Rainer Stadelmann it is unlikely "that the entire descending corridor would once have been blocked with stones". These therefore came from the upper third. It can be assumed that the aisle section was also blocked up to the blocked crossroads. This would explain why a tunnel leading past the upper part of the corridor was created during the robbery instead of removing the blockage.

### Rock chamber

The descending corridor ends in the rock chamber. The chamber obviously remained unfinished, and the floor was not worked to its planned level either. The western area was not carved out of the rock into a rectangular room. There are still working gutters from the attempts to cut off the rock. According to Michael Haase, the workers apparently had enormous problems working out the chamber as the oxygen supply was insufficient.

The chamber measures 8.36 m in north-south orientation, 14.08 m in east-west orientation and is a maximum of 5.03 m high. The uneven ground in the eastern area is up to 1.30 m deeper than the level of the corridor, which indicates that a pavement was planned at an unknown height. IES Edwards did not rule out that this deepening was the first stage of a discontinued operation to deepen the rock chamber. From the southeast corner, an extension of the corridor system, leads a corridor a further 16.41 m to the south, where the work has been canceled. Its function remains a mystery, as only one man could laboriously cut his way through the rock with a chisel and hammer.

In the eastern part of the rock chamber a shaft leads down. Its side walls are not parallel to the chamber walls, but roughly diagonal. The first part of the shaft to a depth of about 2 m was often considered old. Perring penetrated to a depth of 11 meters, looking for an underground chamber. Rainer Stadelmann also considers the first shaft approach to be a futile drilling for later treasure hunters due to the orientation.

The function of the rock chamber is controversial in research. The structure of the subterranean chamber area corresponds to that of the royal tombs of the Old Kingdom : After the descending corridors, the burial space is connected on a flat or elevated level. Rainer Stadelmann does not consider it possible that the chamber was intended as a burial chamber for an initial project for the following reasons:

• There are no safety precautions in front of it.
• The planned route to the south turns it into a kind of antechamber.
• No coffin could have been brought down the corridor.

For Michael Haase, this evidence is not sufficient to deny the room's function as a burial chamber. He thinks it is possible that an underground chamber system was planned here, which failed, which is why new grave rooms were built in the core masonry of the pyramid.

Underground rock chambers are a reminder of the king's chthonic nature and his work as a god of the dead. In later stories there was an account of an Osiris tomb under the pyramid. According to Rainer Stadelmann, Osirian ideas were not so pronounced in Cheops' time as those associated with Ptah and Sokar : “According to an old tradition, the original place of worship of the god Sokar called Ra-setjau is to be found in Giza according to the etymology one has to imagine it as a cave. Perhaps Cheops wanted to enclose a personal rose rope with the rock chamber under the pyramid, a cave with an infinite or blindly ending corridor, Egyptian sṯˀw (setau) , in which the dead king rested in the image of Sokar. "

### Air or escape shaft and "grotto"

Plan and section of the grotto and the ventilation or escape shaft that leads past it.

An air or escape shaft, also known as a well or connecting shaft, runs between the Great Gallery and the descending corridor. The lower entrance is about 98 m below the entrance on the right wall of the descending corridor. It consists of several sections of different lengths and structures. Except for a few irregularities, it runs parallel to the Descending Corridor, about 1.2 to 1.4 m west of it. It appears that it started on the rock on which the pyramid was built, about 5.7 m above the base level and 78 m south of the northern edge of the pyramid. The part of the shaft that leads vertically from the base level into the rock was built with medium-sized stone blocks over a length of around 2.50 m. This part of the air or escape shaft leads through a cavity structure in the rock, which is known as a "grotto".

It has already been assumed that the grotto is the remains of an old grave complex, but no evidence could be found. Neither the general structural condition nor the dimensions of the "grotto" give rise to this assumption. In the grotto there is a large fragment of a stone block made of granite, which was probably one of the three blocks with which the burial chamber was closed.

After the approximately 5.20 m long vertical section, the air / escape shaft runs as follows: About 26.50 m deep at an angle of 45 ° in a southerly direction, a section about 9.50 m long at an angle of 75 ° and an almost 2.30 m long, south-east oriented, horizontal section as a connection piece to the descending corridor. In the opposite direction, the shaft was built over a length of 61 m to a height of 21.80 m into the core masonry, where it ends at the level of the base of the Great Gallery.

This was probably used by the underground workers for ventilation or as an escape route. If the shaft had been designed solely as an emergency exit, one would expect a shorter route to the descending corridor.

### Ascending corridor

The ascending corridor

About 27.40 m below the original entrance of the pyramid is the transition to the ascending area of ​​the corridor in the ceiling of the descending corridor. This creates a connection between the lower chamber system carved into the rock and the upper chamber system constructed in the core masonry. The corridor measures 1.20 m in height and 1.05 m in width and opens into the Great Gallery after a length of 37.76 m. The lower end tapers to 0.97 m to hold the block in place. The three granite stone blocks are still stuck in their original position today and the passage is only accessible via the end of the al-Ma'mun tunnel.

A special feature of the ascending corridor are four "Gürtelsteins" (also girdle stones ). These are limestone blocks built vertically in the core masonry, through which the corridor was constructed. Ludwig Borchardt said that because of this, the corridor had already been driven through laid wall material. This should support the thesis that the rock chamber was planned as the first burial chamber and the ascending corridor was only built after its abandonment. Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi were able to prove that they were used to statically secure the descending corridor and that they did not already exist before the corridor was constructed. They were supposed to absorb the loads of the corridor construction.

### Great gallery

The Great Gallery is on the same inclined plane as the ascending corridor, but with a slightly different azimuth . This deviates from north by plus 1 ′ 20 ″. It is twice as wide as the ascending corridor, many times higher and has a cantilever vault . With this ceiling construction , the overhanging binder courses on the long sides of a room gradually approach so far that the space above them can be bridged. The construction also has a stabilizing function. The pressure of the stone mass above is deflected sideways into the core masonry. From a height of 1.80 m, seven side layers of the walls shift inwards by 8 cm each, so that the width of the ascending corridor is reached again at the end. The height of the gallery varies between 8.48 and 8.74 m, the length is 46.12 m. The construction of the cantilever vault was probably due to the width of the corridor, which required space due to its function.

The ceilings were staggered, so that they do not form a level transition, “but rather hook into the side walls to absorb the thrust”. The gallery consists of a central, 1.05 m wide corridor and raised side benches with a height and width of 0.52 m. In the banquets and immediately above in the walls there are 25 rectangular recesses and niches at a distance of 1.40 to 1.50 m from one another. The niches are approximately 0.67 m × 0.20 m, the recesses 0.52 m × 0.18 m. The niches seem to have been closed again later by a limestone filling. Flinders Petrie and Noel Wheeler already assumed that the niches and depressions were used to hold the blocking stones, which were stored in the deep gallery of the gallery.

### Horizontal corridor to the queen's chamber

A 38.15 m long corridor leads from the lower end of the Great Gallery to the Queen's Chamber. The first 5.07 m of the corridor are open up to the large gallery. Rainer Stadelmann suspects that this section must have been temporarily covered by a bridge that blocked access. Niches were made in the walls to the left and right of the open section. For Michael Haase, they probably served as holding devices that held the blocking stones in the middle aisle in position and perhaps also as holding points for the superstructures of a wooden scaffolding with which a kind of false ceiling could be drawn into the Great Gallery.

The corridor is 1.05 m wide and 1.17 m high and thus 3 cm lower than the blocking stones of the ascending corridor, which is why they could not be stored in this corridor. The corridor sinks in the direction of the queen's chamber by several centimeters and on the last 5.5 m by an additional 0.50 m. This level is also maintained in the queens chamber. Perhaps a granite floor was laid here, which was torn out later.

### Queen's Chamber

Niche in the queen's chamber

The horizontal corridor ends in the northeast corner of the so-called Queen's Chamber. This owes its name to a wrong interpretation of its function in Arab times. The 5.23 m × 5.76 m large chamber lies exactly in the east-west axis of the pyramid, but is offset from the north-south axis to the east. It is lined with fine limestone and has a flat 6.26 m high pitched roof . It has an angle of inclination of 30.5 ° and extends to a height of 4.69 m above the ground. It was the first room in an Egyptian pyramid to be equipped with a ceiling in the form of a gable roof.

On the east wall there is a 4.69 m high and 1 m deep niche, the side walls of which are constructed like a cantilever vault. The function of the niche is unclear, Petrie assumed that there was a statue in it, as he found numerous fragments of diorite on the north outer side of the pyramid. Lehner also thinks this is possible, as the horizontal corridor to the queen's chamber was probably completely blocked. This is a feature of the Serdab , a space for the Ka statue, the king's spiritual doppelganger.

From this niche, an approximately 15.30 m long shaft leads into the core masonry of the pyramid. While Rainer Stadelmann assumes that he was knocked out by treasure hunters, Michael Haase believes that at least the first 7 m were built during the construction of the pyramid and that they had a specific function. Only then does he take on a raw figure that suggests grave robbers.

### Corridor to the sarcophagus chamber and blocking stone chamber

Grooves, which probably served to guide the rope of the blocking stones

A 6.85 m long and approximately 1.05 m × 1.11 m large corridor connects the large gallery with the sarcophagus chamber. The corridor crosses a granite chamber with granite falling stones. Three granite blocks weighing around 2.5 t were once used to primarily block the burial chamber. The blocks could be moved in vertical channels about 55 cm wide. During the construction period, the blocks were probably pulled up using a rope device and also held in an elevated position by stone or wooden beams so that the passage was passable until it was closed. To pass the ropes through, the granite blocks were pierced four times at the head ends. In the side walls of the chamber, the round devices for three horizontally fixed logs can still be seen, over which the ropes were pulled. Four semicircular grooves on the rear wall served as guides for the ropes to prevent jamming.

One of the blocking stones was found in the "grotto". Other fragments were found in the descending corridor, and a large fragment now stands in front of the pyramid's original entrance.

### King's Chamber

The king's chamber with the granite sarcophagus of Cheops

The entrance to the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid is in the northeast corner of the chamber. The 10.49 m × 5.24 m large and 5.84 m high royal chamber is oriented on the east-west axis. It is built entirely from granite blocks. For Michael Haase, it appears "as if Cheops' construction manager used the step pyramid of Djoser as a guide when designing the primary burial chamber ". It is the only royal burial chamber within the 4th to 6th Dynasties that has a flat ceiling. Presumably because of the spatially compact chamber system, it was not roofed over with a gable roof or a cantilever vault as usual. Instead, nine granite bars over 6 m long were placed on the walls, which required the relief chambers above.

The granite sarcophagus of Cheops stands in the western area of ​​the king's chamber. The lid is no longer there. The sarcophagus consists of a single block of granite that was cut into shape by sawing, drilling and polishing. Traces of machining on the outside show that saws made of copper with the addition of quartz sand were used as an abrasive. Traces inside show that copper drilling cylinders with an assumed diameter of 11 cm and a wall thickness of 5 mm were used here.

In terms of size (2.28 m × 0.99 m × 1.05 m), the sarcophagus did not fit through the corridors and was therefore certainly placed there when the burial chamber was built. On the western upper edge of the sarcophagus has three drill holes through which the lid was presumably fixed and locked with pins.

According to Arab historians of the Middle Ages, a kind of mummy-shaped coffin was found here. The body found in it was therefore looted at that time. Rainer Stadelmann does not rule out the possibility that the burial was probably restored in the Ramesside period and was only reopened by Ma'mun. At least one can infer from the vague descriptions of ancient visitors like Herodotus that they may not have seen the inside of the pyramid.

### Relief chambers

Above the burial chamber there are five small, superimposed, hermetically sealed cavities. Through these so-called relief chambers, the gable roof construction was shifted so far up that "it could fulfill its force-diverting function in an area that had no effect on the chamber system". In particular, this prevented the ceiling construction from weighing on the blocking stone chamber and the large gallery. From the point of view of modern structural engineering , this construction may appear exaggerated, but it certainly achieved the desired effect. A slight depression in the burial chamber resulted in small cracks that were already repaired in ancient times. The entire burial chamber construction with the cavities above has a height of 21 m.

The lowest of the discharge chambers was discovered by the British diplomat Nathaniel Davison in 1765, which has been named after him ever since. The other four chambers were not discovered until 1837 by Colonel Howard Vyse and John S. Perring, who were able to penetrate the topmost one with a hammer, chisel and gunpowder. They were named after famous personalities of the time: Admiral Nelson , Duke of Wellington , Lady Ann Arbuthnot and Consul General Colonel Patrick Campbell .

Numerous builders' inscriptions and markings have been preserved in the four upper relief chambers. The inscriptions recorded in red give a small impression of the organization of the construction work and the surveying technology at that time. Three teams of workers who were responsible for transporting the stone blocks are mentioned particularly often. The teams “The courtiers of Chufu” and “Horus Medjenu is pure” appear only in the southern half of the chambers, the team “The White Crown of Khnum-Chufu is mighty” only in the northern half . This presumably shows a logistics concept according to which the workers' teams brought the blocks to a section of the relief chambers where they were built.

Numerous informative marker drawings were found. In the western area of ​​the south wall of the Lady Arbuthnot Chamber, the north-south central axis of the pyramid was marked, on which the sarcophagus was presumably aligned within the burial chamber. The west wall of the burial chamber, which is 11 m lower, was fixed in this chamber by level lines .

### Shafts

Entrance of the northern shaft of the King's Chamber

A special feature of the Cheops pyramid are the so-called "air shafts". With the exception of a few places, all four shafts are built through the pyramid according to the same construction principle, which researchers were able to analyze using robots in particular: The side walls and the ceiling of the shafts are hewn in a U-shape, turned inside out and placed one behind the other Monolithic stone blocks formed. These rest on a number of base stone blocks. The shafts thus form their own diagonal "stone channel" that is independent of the surrounding horizontal stone layers of the pyramid. Although the course and structure of the manholes are relatively well documented through modern studies, the question of their function has not yet been clearly clarified.

#### Shafts of the King's Chamber

From the royal burial chamber, two shafts lead to the north and south of the sky. The exits are located on the south flank at the level of the 102nd stone layer and on the northern flank at the level of the 101st layer. The southern shaft has a regular, straight course up to approx. 6 m before the upper outlet. There it widens by approx. 0.34 m and has a one-sided, rivet-like niche. The interpretation of this finding could be related to the new discoveries in the southern shaft of the queen's chamber, where a lock stone and a small room behind it were discovered.

The exit of the northern shaft was probably at an unspecified point in time by treasure hunters from an original width of 0.22 m × 0.22 m over a length of about 11.30 m to a size of 0.91 m × 0.84 m expanded. The shaft shows several changes of direction in the lower area, as it had to bypass the upper area of ​​the Great Gallery.

The angle of the southern shaft is 45 ° 00'00 "that of the northern 32 ° 36'08". The width of the shaft is 20.5 cm, with a maximum deviation of 0.5 cm.

#### Shafts of the queens chamber

Dixon's finds probably from the lower northern shaft. British Museum, London

The lower exits of the shafts in the queen's chamber are in the middle of the north and south walls, today at a height of 1.50 m. Assuming a paving of 0.523 m, they were probably originally installed at the same height as that of the King's Chamber, approx. 0.96 m. The lower exits were closed until modern times, in such a way “that in the corresponding blocks of the side walls the last section of the shaft with a thickness of 0.18 m ≈ 10 years. Finger was not excavated ”. It was not until 1872 that the Waynman Dixon shafts were discovered and forcibly opened. He found three objects in the lower section of the northern shaft: a small stone ball, a wooden strip and an object made of copper, probably a dovetail-shaped copper tool. These are now in the British Museum . Presumably these are original additions: “The most likely interpretation of these objects is that they were model additions, as they appear in a similar way to founding additions. They were used as tools for the king in the afterlife, the small ball as a stone hammer, the copper tool as a chisel, the wood as a cubit or wedge wood for the magical opening of the shaft. ”This finding suggests that the lower exits of the king's chamber were originally closed.

The northern shaft of the queen's chamber is blocked after about 19 m by an iron bar, which may still come from Dixon's investigations. That is why Stadelmann and Gantenbrink's investigations with the robotic vehicle concentrated on the southern shaft. This initially runs 2.29 m horizontally and then rises with a slope of 39.60 °. After 57.55 m, a limestone block with a polished surface closes the further rise. On this surface there are two strongly bloomed and eroded, 5.5 cm high copper fittings.

In 2002 the blocking stone was pierced. Behind it was an empty cavity, which is closed with a roughly hewn and cracked blocking stone this time. The approximately 21 cm deep cavity behind it obviously represents the extension of the shaft. Presumably, this is the end of the shaft, as no exit point could be found in the area on the outside of the pyramid, where the south shaft should theoretically exit. The northern shaft could also be explored in 2002. There, too, a stone block, identical in construction to the one in the north shaft, blocks further ascent. This also has two copper fittings. It can be assumed that behind it there is a similar cavity structure as in the southern shaft.

With the Djedi project, the blocking stone and the chamber behind it were researched again in 2011. It was possible to examine the entire cavity with the help of a movable endoscope camera. The back of the blocking stone is also smooth and the copper fittings on the back form the shape of two eyelets, which may be decorative in nature. Furthermore, red markings were discovered on the floor of the 23 cm high chamber, which are probably construction worker graffiti.

#### Interpretations of the shafts

Like the real grave corridors, the model corridors also have a short horizontal passage into the grave chamber and then rise at a steep angle directly towards the sky. Stadelmann interprets that there are not only corridors to the northern sky, but also to the southern sky, with the universal claim of Cheops as the incarnation of the sun god: “the northern corridor (nSK) leads to the circumpolar stars, the jḫmw-sk (ichemu-sek) , where the king mounts the sun god's day barge , the southern one (sSK) to the jḫmw wrḏ ( ichemu weredsch - non-circumpolar stars), the deans and planets that accompany him in his night barge . "

Michael Haase raises the following objections to the "soul shaft" hypothesis:

• In all the pyramids of Sneferu, Cheops father and predecessor, the burial chambers are raised opposite the lower end of the corridor. So Snefru's soul was always forced to go down a little before it could ascend to heaven.
• The question arises as to why the shafts of the king's chamber lead to the outside of the pyramid while those of the queen's chamber end about 15 m beforehand in the core masonry.
• The additional orientation of the southern shafts to the southern sky would remain a one-time affair. In the later pyramids there are no further south facing corridors.
• Attempting to interpret it on the basis of the ideas in the pyramid texts is not without problems, as these were not recorded until about 250 years later and in between fundamental developments in the structural and structural nature of the pyramid architecture have taken place.
• In addition, the ends of the shafts in the queen's chamber were not marked as symbolic passages in the sense of a false door, which contradicts a religious functionality, which was characterized by a certain “pictorial quality”.

In addition, the shafts are interpreted as air shafts for the workers in the chamber system. This view is based, among other things, on the experience of British researchers who cleaned the shafts of the King's Chamber, which resulted in a noticeable supply of fresh air in the burial chamber. Perhaps the Egyptians cleverly used the north wind for this. The ventilation channels in the queen's chamber were planned, but ultimately not used and abandoned. On the one hand, the use of ventilation ducts already had a certain tradition in the 4th Dynasty, on the other hand they could have been created in view of the negative experience with the air supply in the rock chamber.

The Egyptologist Rolf Krauss agrees with the interpretation as ventilation shafts. He bases this on two arguments. On the one hand, the attempt to relate the inclination angle of the shafts to culminating stars leads to chronological contradictions. On the other hand, in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, in contrast to all other ancient Egyptian pyramids, the supply of fresh air was required, since the king and queen chambers are located high up within the pyramid massif. In other pyramids, cool air could flow into the chambers below and warm air could rise upwards, creating a circulation of air. In the Cheops pyramid, this air circulation to the chambers above had to be artificially created through shafts in order to supply the workers with fresh air and the oil lamps or torches with oxygen.

## The pyramid complex

Plan of the Cheops pyramid complex and surrounding necropolis

### Mortuary temple

The cult of the dead for the deceased king concentrated mainly on the so-called mortuary temple (also pyramid temple), which was connected in the middle to the east side of the pyramid. A striking feature of the funerary temples of the 4th Dynasty is that they were not architecturally connected to the pyramid. There is no direct connection between the grave (pyramid) and the cult complex (mortuary temple). The distance between the base of the pyramid and the western front of the temple is about 10 m.

The mortuary temple was almost completely a victim of stone robbery. Only remains of a basalt pavement, remains of pillars made of granite and fragments of statues and limestone blocks with inscriptions and reliefs still bear witness to this. A north-south width of 52.40 m and an east-west length of around 40.30 m can be reconstructed. An open courtyard was surrounded by 26 granite pillars that formed a covered colonnade. Two further rows of colonnades were connected to the west and led to the inner cult rooms of the temple. The relief ornaments show scenes of the Sedfest , the festival of the white hippopotamus and other motifs. In the floor there are remains of a sewer system that drained rainwater.

The reconstruction of the main cult room is made more difficult by a grave shaft measuring 5 m × 5 m, which was dug there in Saitic times. Jean-Philippe Lauer recognized irregular depressions in the rock measuring 19.50 m × 9.25 m × 0.60 m, which he interpreted as belonging to a north-south oriented space. Due to the length of the room and the findings in the mastabas and queen pyramids, he assumed that there were two false doors on the west wall of the main cult room. Maragioglio and Rinaldi assumed that the recesses in the rock are aligned with the grave shaft and therefore do not belong to the original mortuary temple. Herbert Ricke spoke out against a reconstruction with false doors. He said that this room housed statues and called it a "temple of worship" for the worship of the deified king. According to Ricke, the necessary sacrificial offering was located directly on the east side of the pyramid and was marked by a pair of stelae and a sacrificial altar. Based on investigations into the mortuary temple of the Red Pyramid, Rainer Stadelmann concludes that there was also a room with false doors in Cheops, which was flanked by a sacristy or a sacrificial magazine in the north and south.

### Way and valley temple

The archaeological findings of the valley temple and the access road are extremely sparse. The walls of the path must have been decorated with ornate reliefs, as the reports of Herodotus and the finds of some fragments make clear. The pathway should have been about 700 m long.

Black basalt blocks , which were found in 1990 about 750 m northeast of the Great Pyramid in the village of Nazlet el-Sammam, probably came from the valley temple. Furthermore, limestone blocks that were built into the Amenemhet I pyramid and have inscriptions with the name of Cheops also come from the valley temple. It has also been considered that the latter came from a temple of Cheops in the vicinity of Faiyum . Otherwise nothing is known about him, and the reconstruction remains entirely hypothetical.

In January 2015, it became known that a resident of the village of el-Haraneya near Giza had stumbled upon a corridor clad with stone blocks in an illegal dig in the courtyard of his house. An investigation by archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities revealed that it is apparently the route through the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

### Courtyard and enclosing walls

On all four sides of the Cheops pyramid, the remains of a surrounding wall can be seen , which stood on not very deep foundations between 3.15 and 3.60 m wide and led around the pyramid at a distance of about 10 m. The original height can no longer be determined. The sides were sloped slightly and the top rounded. The courtyard between the surrounding wall and the pyramid was paved with irregularly shaped, white limestone blocks, some of which are still in situ . Ludwig Borchardt noted that the courtyard has a slight slope towards the outside, certainly to divert torrents from the pyramid when it rains. In addition, in the north-west and south-west corners of the courtyard canals were cut into the pavement, which led under the surrounding wall and thus further drained the rainwater. The courtyard could only be entered through the mortuary temple - there was probably no other connection to the outside of the surrounding wall.

Further away, at a distance of 18.75 to 23.60 m, there are remains of a second surrounding wall, which consisted only of rubble and was plastered with mortar. It was between 2.50 and 3.50 m thick and did not run exactly parallel to the pyramid. This wall was certainly not built in the time of Cheops. The very fact that it runs over the southern boat pits suggests that it was built under his son Djedefre at the earliest , even more likely in connection with the construction of the southern mastabas.

On the south side of the pyramid, between the inner and outer enclosing wall, there are foundations of another wall that was only about 0.75 m thick.

### Boat pits

A total of seven boat pits were discovered in the vicinity of the Great Pyramid. Five belonged to the pyramid of Cheops and two to the queens pyramids. The two boat pits south of the Cheops pyramid could still be found intact and locked.

#### The southern boat pits

The restored boat in the museum
Find situation: the closed pit (above) and the dismantled boat (below)

The two southern boat pits were only discovered in 1954. The individual parts of a dismantled boat could be retrieved from the eastern pit and reassembled. The second pit was not examined for the first time until 1987. There, too, is apparently a completely preserved boat, dismantled into parts.

The eastern of the two pits runs parallel to the south side of the pyramid at a distance of 17.10 m, east of its extended north-south axis. It is 31.15 m long and 5.35 m deep. Large blocks of covering stone were placed across the pit on supporting surfaces on the north and south sides and their butt joints were hermetically sealed with fine lime mortar. The 41 cover stones have different dimensions. On average they are 4.50 m long, 0.85 m wide and 1.80 m high and weigh between 15 and 20 t.

Numerous construction workers 'inscriptions were discovered on the covering stones, including names of the work teams who were responsible for transporting the stone blocks, including eighteen cartouches with the name of Cheops' successor Djedefre and a date of “11 Times the count ”. Verner concludes from this that some parts of Cheops' tomb complex were only completed after his death. However, according to Haase, the date relates more to the reign of Cheops. Accordingly, it is a registration of the stone block in the quarry at the time of Cheops. Since Cheops now has a record for a “year after the 13th count”, it would have been stored for a few years before it was used for the burial. Against a year of reign of Djedefre speaks also that he only ruled for about eight years, he would have to have been in office for an 11th time and a two-year counting method for at least 21 years. In addition, the boats would then no longer have been deposited in connection with the burial of Cheops.

The functioning barque was dismantled into 1224 individual parts and its components were piled up in 13 layers. It is a royal rowing boat made of Lebanese cedar wood, which, among other things, consists of a cabin, five pairs of oars, two rudders and a cargo bridge. Its total length is 42.32 m, the maximum width 5.66 m. Its shape seems to be based on the type of boat made from papyrus reeds. It was put back together after ten years of restoration work and has been on display in a specially built museum since 1982.

Signs of wear and tear could suggest that it was once used as a royal rowboat. However, Zahi Hawass assumes that it was never in the water. Traces of chips around the pits indicated that it was made right next to the pyramid.

In 1987, recordings from a miniature camera showed that there was also a boat dismantled into individual parts in the second boat pit. Presumably it is a sailing ship. After many years of preparation, a team of researchers from Waseda University Tokyo and the Supreme Council of Antiquities started investigating the second boat pit in 2009 . The recovery of the boat began in June 2013.

#### The eastern boat pits

One of the two boat pits on the east side of the Great Pyramid of Cheops

To the north and south of the remains of the mortuary temple there is a 50 m long and 7 m wide boat pit parallel to the east side of the pyramid, at a distance of 23.60 m (northern pit) and 24.60 m (southern pit). These have been open for an unknown time and there were no traces of the boats deposited in them. Only in the north was a shoulder fragment of a granite statue of the king and a fragment of a limestone block with a partial inscription discovered. Presumably it comes from the mortuary temple or Aufweg. The two pits are larger than those on the south side of the pyramid and are the largest known boat pits within the Egyptian pyramid districts. The structures on the floor suggest that they were walled up with stone blocks up to a certain height, forming rectangular interiors.

#### The boat pit on the way up

About 45 m east of the pyramid, parallel to the pathway, there is another boat pit, 21.70 m long and 4.25 m deep. She is clearly different from the others. A staircase leads to a boat-shaped depression in the bedrock. Perhaps a “cult barque” or the barge with which the royal mummy was transported to the burial site was deposited here. The head of a lion statue, fragments of wood studded with gold and a rope were found inside. It is not clear whether these belonged to the original boat burial, as the pits were also converted into graves in later times. Stone blocks on the side walls indicate that the pit was also covered with limestone blocks and walled up.

#### Boat pits of the queen pyramids

For the first time under Cheops, boat burials are also documented at queen pyramids. On the south side of the pyramid G Ia is a 22.7 m long, 4.35 m wide and 4.70 m deep boat pit, which apparently belongs to this queen pyramid.

Only in the 1950s was another boat pit discovered at the southwest corner of the pyramid G Ib. The remains of brickwork found in it presumably come from a later burial. This boat pit was possibly created in a later construction phase than that of the pyramid G Ia. It lies between the two pyramids G Ib and G Ic. One side protrudes over 6 m over the western edges of the two pyramids. Perhaps because of the uneven terrain on the south side of the pyramid G Ic, it was built on its northwest corner. It is also possible that the position of the queen, who was buried in G Ib, was posthumously upgraded, which made a boat burial necessary.

#### Interpretations

The meaning of the royal boats is still unclear. According to Jaroslav Černý , the four boats on the east and west sides were designed to allow the king to sail to the afterlife in all four directions. The fifth pit contained the boat with which the royal mummy was brought to the tomb. For Walter Bryan Emery and Selim Hassan they served the king to drive across the celestial ocean in the retinue of the sun god Re . Abu Bakr thinks that they should bring the deceased Pharaoh to the holy places of Egypt on various pilgrimages and other solemn occasions. It is also unclear why the boats were dismantled. Perhaps all objects that came into contact with the king's burial had to be “neutralized” by dismantling them, since they were considered “loaded with power”.

### Cult pyramid (G Id)

Remains of the cult pyramid (G Id)

In 1992, Zahi Hawass discovered the remains of the cult pyramid 25.50 m southeast of the Great Pyramid . Such secondary pyramids have been part of the standard program of royal tombs at least since the Meidum pyramid of King Sneferu . Since they were always south of the royal pyramids, they were also referred to as "southern tombs". Apparently they had an important cultic function that has not yet been clarified.

The 21.75 m wide pyramid has been removed down to the lowest stone layers. The T-shaped chamber system clearly distinguishes them from those of the royal wives. The inner walls are inclined inwards in the manner of a tent or canopy . This shape corresponds to the galleries under the east side of the Djoser pyramid . The most important finding is the pyramidion of the cult pyramid made of Tura limestone.

### graveyards

Aerial view of the Cheops pyramid (left), Chephren pyramid (right) and the Westfriedhof in between.
Mastabas in the east cemetery of the Great Pyramid of Cheops

Clearly planned mastaba cemeteries were built to the east and west of the Great Pyramid . The close relatives of Cheops were buried in the east cemetery and high officials and dignitaries were buried in the west cemetery. Through this privilege, the buried could be included in the imagination of the royal afterlife and received the necessary offerings through the worship cult carried out in the royal mortuary temple. The structure, alignment and equipment of the individual private graves were a reflection of the hierarchical society of that time. During Cheop's reign, a total of 77 graves were built in the two cemeteries, and numerous graves were added later. Another set of mastabas was laid south of the Great Pyramid during the 6th Dynasty.

In the basic planning, the Westfriedhof consisted of the three independent burial fields G 1200, G 2100 and G 4000 and the single mastaba G 2000. The regular arrangement of the individual mastabas suggests that it was designed by a state building authority. Apparently the mastabas were left to the owners as shell structures without cladding and they took on the further decoration.

The Ostfriedhof (necropolis G 7000), east of the Cheops pyramid, was intended for close family members and immediate descendants. It consists of six rows of graves facing north-south. The three queen pyramids are closest to the pyramid, followed by eight large tombs, especially for the sons of Cheops ( Bauefre , Chufuchaef , Horbaef , Hordjedef , Kawab and Minchaef ). These are grouped in four rows of two mastabas each and, as the eastern boundary, the great mastaba of Anchhaf , a son of Snefru and thus probably a brother or half-brother of Cheops.

### Queen pyramids

The three queen pyramids. From left to right: G Ia, G Ib and G Ic

About 56 m east of the royal pyramid are three side pyramids for the queens, which are now (from north to south) designated G Ia to G Ic. Cheops was the first Egyptian king who undoubtedly had side pyramids built as tombs. While even his ancestor built Snefru Besides the pyramids, but those of the Bent Pyramid proved to be a cult pyramid and the function that the Meidum pyramid is unknown. The queen pyramids were not part of the royal district and had no connection to the access road and mortuary temple. They were independent facilities as part of the G 7000 necropolis, which also contains eight mastabas and was intended as a royal family necropolis. The spatial division of the tombs apparently corresponds to the degree of kinship of those buried there to the king.

The queen pyramids of the pyramids of Chephren and Mykerinos were each in the south. The choice of location of Cheops for these pyramids in the east was already explained by the fact that a southern location for the purpose of delivery of the building material from the east was not possible. Therefore, the southern side had to be kept free from the quarries because of the transport ramp. Peter Jánosi explains the situation primarily with the connection to the necropolis G 7000.

The assignment of the pyramids to individual queens or princesses remains purely hypothetical and is based primarily on the assumption that the mastabas to the east of them provide information about the people buried in the respective pyramid. Dating of the three pyramids is only possible to a very limited extent. The completion of the first third of the royal pyramid is assumed to be the earliest point in time for the start of construction, so that the unimpeded progress of work on this was guaranteed.

Even though Zahi Hawass uncovered the bases of the three pyramids in the 1990s, no exact measurements of the systems have been carried out so far. Average values ​​of 44 to 48 m are given for the basic dimensions. The angles of inclination correspond more or less to those of the Great Pyramid, resulting in theoretical heights of 29 to 30.5 m, which corresponds approximately to a ratio of 1: 5 to the king pyramid.

#### G Ia

Queen pyramid G Ia

The queen pyramid G Ia is usually assigned to Queen Meritites I. To the east of this is the Mastaba des Kawab (G 7110-7120), in which a relief fragment with the name of this woman was found. A stele that has now disappeared and that Auguste Mariette found near the Great Pyramid and which he suspected also came from the mastaba of the Kawab also names a meritites. So one can assume that the mother of Kawab was called Meritites. Based on the assumption that there was a family relationship between the buried persons of the pyramids and the mastabas behind them, the pyramid was now assigned to meritites, but ultimately this remains speculation. Due to the find situation and the interpretation of the G 7000x mine, it is now also assigned to the Hetepheres.

The pyramid core was originally composed of three or four steps made of yellow-gray limestone. Only small remains of the cladding have survived. The entrance in the north wall is slightly east of the north-south axis and slightly above the base. The descending corridor bends to the right approximately below the midpoint of the pyramid base and leads into the burial chamber. This was carved out of the rock and covered with limestone blocks. No sarcophagus was found.

There was once a small mortuary temple on the east wall, of which only minor remains have survived. Its center consisted of a north-south oriented chapel. In addition to two false doors, two niches were installed in the west wall, the meaning of which has not yet been satisfactorily clarified. George Andrew Reisner and Peter Jánosi suspected the main place of worship in the southern niche, as it was usually larger and the sarcophagus was located behind it in the underground chamber. The northern niche would then have referred to the “second” entrance, that is, to the mouth of the shaft that led into the underground chamber.

#### G Ib

Queen's pyramid G Ib

The architecture of the pyramid G Ib is very similar to G Ia . No burial remains were found in it either. Relief fragments and parts of a queen's titulature from the cult chapel of this pyramid have survived, but the name of the owner is unknown. For them there is no corresponding mastaba opposite that allows an assignment, because there are only two mastabas opposite the three queen pyramids.

Due to the proximity to the mastaba of the Kawab, this pyramid was also assigned to the Meritites I.

#### G Ic

The architecture of the pyramid G Ic also resembles the previous ones. However, according to Reisner , her disguise remained unfinished. The mortuary temple has the biggest difference: According to Reisner, it was hastily built from mud bricks during the reign of Schepseskaf .

In 1858, Auguste Mariette found the “ Stele of the King's Daughter ”, also known as the Inventory Stela , in the ruins of the mortuary temple ( Egyptian Museum Cairo , JE 2091). A king's daughter named Henutsen is mentioned on this stele . However, the stele dates from the 26th dynasty. Although the name is documented more frequently in the Old Kingdom, there is no contemporary evidence that connects the name with a wife or daughter of Cheops. Nevertheless, it may go back to a historical model. There is no queen title on the inscription, but this does not necessarily mean that Henutsen was just a princess. In the mastaba of Chaef-Chufu (G 7130-7140) east of it, he is shown with his mother, but her name has not been preserved.

The pyramid is on an unfavorable surface and therefore probably had to be moved closer to G Ib than intended. Features in the architecture also suggest that it was not included in the original building project, but was added later.

It has already been assumed that Chaef-Chufu was the later Chephren, who changed his birth name when he was enthroned . If Henutsen was now the mother of Khafre, this would be an explanation for the fact that this pyramid was built later, namely after the reign of Cheops successor Djedefre, under Khafre. This would certainly explain the different structural findings of this pyramid compared to the other two.

The small mortuary temple was already in ruins at the end of the Middle Kingdom . It was reconstructed and enlarged during the 18th dynasty and further rebuilt in the 21st and 26th dynasties . The temple complex was as Isis -Kultstätte now the name "Temple of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid" and became the target of pilgrims came to here to worship the goddess and her Gebärvermögen.

### Tomb of Hetepheres I (G 7000x)

Location of the grave G7000x of Hetepheres in the east cemetery of the Great Pyramid of Cheops

The shaft grave of Hetepheres I with the designation G 7000x is part of the east cemetery of the Cheops pyramid (necropolis G 7000) and is not far from the northeast corner of the northern queen pyramid G Ia. The Egyptian queen Hetepheres I was probably the wife of Sneferu and mother of Cheops . The tomb was discovered in 1925 by employees of the Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner . A shaft leads over 27 m deep to a chamber that still contained large parts of the queen's grave equipment. The organic materials in the finds had already passed and only dust and tiny fragments remained. The floor of the whole room was filled with sheet gold that came from the gold-studded furniture that was once deposited here. However, it was possible to reconstruct many objects in a laborious process. The tomb became famous for the style and richness of the royal burial equipment. It is the best preserved burial equipment of a queen of the Old Kingdom. The grave was not untouched, however. The Alabaster - sarcophagus was found to be empty, but the sealed was canopic chest with the entrails still intact. To date, no satisfactory explanation has been found for these circumstances. It was certainly not the royal mother's regular grave. Possibly it is a hidden grave (cachette) to protect against grave robbers or an emergency grave.

### G Ix

In a T-shaped depression, which is 7.5 m east of the pyramid G Ia, Reisner suspected the beginning of the construction of a secondary pyramid, which he called G Ix. Lehner also considers the pit to be the entrance to an unfinished pyramid. In his opinion, G 7000x and G Ix were part of the same unfinished tomb complex of Queen Hetepheres I. At a later point in time, the mummy was transferred to a new tomb with completely renewed grave equipment. Their original grave goods remained in the rock chamber of G 7000x.

The assignment of the two wells to one and the same grave monument remains very speculative. The plan of the substructure of the alleged pyramid complex G Ix and G 7000x would differ fundamentally from those of other queen pyramids of this time. In addition, there is no evidence for the existence of a pyramid over G Ix. At least there seems to have been various plan changes in necropolis G 7000.

### Processing of the grown rock

#### "Trial Passages"

Sectional drawing of the “Trial Passages” by Flinders Petrie (1883).

On the north side of the access road, about 87.50 m from the east side of the Cheops pyramid and 43.50 m from the east-west axis, narrow corridors were carved into the rock. These trial passages (roughly “test passages ”) are a kind of model of the most important parts of the corridor system of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The rock was carefully machined, and imperfections were even repaired with mortar. The corridors are oriented almost exactly north-south and are the same in section and orientation as the corridors in the Great Pyramid, only on a reduced scale of about 1: 5. They imitate the descending corridor, the ascending corridor, the lower part of the large gallery and hint at the horizontal corridor to the queen's chamber. In the large gallery, the middle aisle and side benches are reproduced, and even the narrowing at the beginning of the descending corridor that holds the blocking stones in place has been reproduced. In the “Trial Passage”, however, the corridor narrows in length and height, in the real corridor it only appears on the side. The only difference to the real findings in the pyramid is a vertical shaft that leads up where the descending and ascending corridor meet. On average, it resembles the air or escape shaft, but no counterpart has been found in the pyramid until now. Steps have been cut into the rock near the Trial Passages . Petrie said that they were used to level the masonry. However, no remains of masonry could be found at this point.

For the most part, the Trial Passages are interpreted as a model that the architects of the pyramid laid out in order to define the characteristic points of the inner passages in a plastic and practical manner. Maybe they wanted to try out gait locking with the model. Today, however, they can no longer be examined because they were used for incineration and are now completely filled.

#### "Narrow Trench"

To the north of the Trial Passages there is the so-called Narrow Trench (roughly "narrow cut" - also called trench cut ). This is 7.40 m long, 27 cm in the north and 44 cm deep in the south and an average of 71 cm wide. At the southern end the incision is carefully worked, at the northern end it is cut vertically into the rough rock. Apparently it is carefully oriented north-south and thus lies parallel to the “Trial Passages”. Apparently it is somehow connected to them, because the length is almost identical to the vertical shaft of the Trial Passages .

#### "Bedrock Cuttings"

In the vicinity of the Great Pyramid there are numerous bedrock cuttings called bedrock cuts (roughly “rock soil cuts”), the possible connections of which have so far only been partially investigated.

Maragioglio and Rinaldi pointed to a series of round or rectangular holes, with sides of 35 to 65 cm and depths of 40 to 60 cm. These were carved out of the natural rock along all four sides of the pyramid. Before the courtyard pavement was laid, they were filled with stones and mortar. In addition, the two researchers mentioned other holes that are round and only a few centimeters deep, isolated or occur in groups and have no visible pattern.

Georges Goyon carried out further investigations and Mark Lehner finally came to the conclusion that the rows of holes formed a square around the pyramid, 3 m away from the pyramid base. The distances between the individual holes are between 3.4 and 4 m. In the places where the grown rock was exposed, the holes were blurred again during leveling. So they should have been part of the construction of the first survey of the site.

A row of four small holes describes a line that begins 2.5 m west of the northern end of the Trench Cut and ends about 10 m east of the "Great Gallery" of the "Trial Passages". Their irregular distances are between 3.32 and 7.90 m. According to Mark Lehner, there seem to be many more such holes and cuts on the rock surface south and west of the Trial Passages .

## The construction of the pyramid

### Quarries and stone processing

Quarries near the Chephren pyramid

Most of the stone used to build the pyramid was broken on site. Most of the material for the core masonry comes from the main quarry area about 300 m south of the tomb. Today the quarry is a huge, horseshoe-shaped plateau gap that is up to 30 m below the original surface. A petrographic analysis of rock samples has shown that stone material also came from a mining area on the edge of the break east of the pyramid, from a mining area in the southeastern area of ​​the plateau and a small part from an undetermined mining area. The triangular rock area between the main quarry of Cheops and the Sphinx provides valuable references to the ancient quarrying techniques . Here the rock was not quarried as thoroughly as in the main quarry, which is why blocks left by the quarry workers are still visible. Rectangles of rock the size of small houses, which separate corridors so wide that entire groups of tourists can march through today, are divided by narrow gullies that were just wide enough for a worker to make his way with a pickaxe. In some places the blocks are almost detached from the rock.

The traditional copper tools, processing marks on the stone surfaces, unfinished monuments and tests on the hardness of the copper tools have shown that the Egyptian stonemasons could work softer rocks with copper tools, but only harder stones with stone tools. The two groups share between limestone, sandstone and alabaster on the one hand and granite, quartzite and basalt on the other. In addition to the numerous copper tools that archaeologists found, small fragments of corroded copper were found in the cover blocks of the southern boat pits , which are apparently the broken edges of the copper tools. To smooth the pyramid mantle made of the finest Tura limestone, only 8 mm wide chisels were used. The granite blocks, on the other hand, were worked with pear-shaped dolerite sticks weighing 4-7 kg, but they became more and more rounded the more often the stonemason used them. The fine work was done with smaller stones, sometimes clamped between two wooden sticks.

The granite had to be machined with a material that was at least as hard as quartz, the hardest of the minerals that make it up. For the external shaping of the slabs and the granite sarcophagus, copper saws and copper drills in conjunction with a grinding mixture of water, plaster of paris and quartz sand were used. The copper was only used for guidance, the quartz sand did the actual cutting. Dried remains of the mixture, which was colored green by the copper, can still be seen in the incisions on the blocks of the mortuary temple. The sarcophagus was hollowed out using tubular drills made of copper, as they are known from various representations from the Old Kingdom.

### Construction ramps

Examples of straight ramps.
From left to right: zigzag ramp (according to Hölscher), inner ramp (according to Arnold) and spiral ramp (according to Lehner).

The type of ramp necessary to construct the Great Pyramid has been the subject of innumerable studies. However, many do not take into account that there is hardly any evidence for this pyramid from which a clear picture of the type of ramps used can be reconstructed, but that such ramps are well documented by some other pyramids. These remains show that the Egyptians did not use the same ramp system for every pyramid. Just as there was no standard pyramid, there was no standard method for building a pyramid, and it is precisely the largest ones that offer the greatest range of variation in construction methods.

From the 3rd and early 4th dynasties, the following ramps are documented:

• In the unfinished Sechemchet pyramid in Saqqara , a ramp leads from the quarries west of the pyramid perpendicularly over the huge surrounding wall to over the first step of the pyramid.
• With the pyramid of Sinki , Günter Dreyer and Nabil Swelim discovered, so to speak , a snapshot of the construction of a small step pyramid, with four ramps leading up to the pyramid from all sides.
• At the Meidum pyramid remains of a grinding runway or possibly a ramp have been preserved, which apparently led directly over the secondary pyramid from the southwest and projected onto the higher pyramid layers on the west side, and another ramp comes from the east.
• At the Red Pyramid of Dahshur there are remains of two construction roads made of compact stone fragments and marl that lead very close to the pyramid from the quarries to the southwest. From the east come two more ramps made of white limestone fragments, over which the cladding stones may have been brought in.

A huge ramp was excavated near the Great Pyramid, which leads from the quarries west of the Sphinx to the pyramid plateau, to the east of the queen pyramids. The ramp, carefully constructed from reading stones , is 5.4 to 5.7 m wide, contained two parallel walls and was coated with mortar. The ramp has been preserved over a length of 80 m. The padding removed today contained seal impressions with the name Cheops. The ramp was probably used to deliver the rocks to the plateau, but possibly not for the pyramids, but for a mastaba of the late 4th dynasty (Mastaba G 5230).

Mark Lehner suggested that the rock excavation northwest of the Great Pyramid could indicate the position of the main ramp that led up from the quarries to the actual pyramid ramp, the foot of which he assumed was in this corner of the pyramid. The position and shape of this ramp were the starting point for some recent theories on the construction of the pyramid. For Dieter Arnold, however , all these theories remain in vain, since no traces of actual pyramid ramps have been preserved.

The question of the shape of the ramp gave rise to various attempts at reconstruction. Perhaps a combination of different forms was also used:

• The straight or vertical ramp: Many researchers assume a straight rising ramp on one side of the pyramid. It is controversial whether it covered the side surface entirely or only partially.
• The zigzag ramp: According to this theory, the ramp zigzagged up one side of the pyramid.
• The spiral ramp: According to this idea, the ramp spiraled up around the pyramid. Dows Dunham suggested, for example, that a total of four ramps, each from a corner, climbed up on the stepped, non-interlocked layers in a counterclockwise direction.
• The inner ramp: Dieter Arnold suggested this model, which, in contrast to the straight ramp, did not start so far outside, because part of the ascent would have been in the pyramid masonry itself.

Rainer Stadelmann assumes a ramp from the quarry to a corner, which then leaned on one side for the central section of the pyramid. The material was brought up the truncated pyramid from all four sides via a large number of small ramps until a height of around 15 to 20 m was reached. Above a certain height, these ramps could no longer be raised without the inclination angle becoming too steep and the ramps too narrow. That is why Stadelmann is proposing a variant that was developed by the architect Nairi Hampgian: It allows the core building to grow up in a step or cube shape. While the four corners were already lined with cladding blocks, flanking ramps in the middle were used for transport until the space became too tight here too. The remaining stones were transported up the steps of the cube building using levers or pulley-type devices. After the pyramidion was brought up and the corners filled in, the last steps were filled.

In the so-called NOVA experiment, Mark Lehner, the stonemason Roger Hopkins and a group of Egyptian bricklayers tried to test various theories on pyramid construction in practice by building a small pyramid near the Giza plateau. Lehner had the idea that ramps leaned against the outer surface: “As the foundation of an earthfill including the construction road, cladding blocks could be used that were left protruding (individually or in layers).” More recent studies by Zahi Hawass seem to support this theory: At the foot of the queen pyramids he was able to prove that the cladding stones were left behind and not decorated with bosses , which were actually a block protrusion.

### Port facilities

The rocks from the distant quarries and other materials and supplies were supplied via a large port area. The Nile then probably ran two to three kilometers further west than it does today, so a port could be connected to the Nile via one or more canals.

A port facility was located near the village of Nazlet el-Sissi, directly in front of the valley temple. In 1993, about 550 meters further east, remnants of the wall were made out, which indicate the eastern boundary of a flood basin or quay walls of a larger port complex. Thus, this port should not only have played a role in the context of the royal burial as a landing site and for the later supply of the cult of the dead sacrifice, but was also part of the infrastructure for the pyramids.

Another port was perhaps east of the Giza Plateau, at the entrance to the central wadi. Investigations of the site confirm its existence, but an exact dating has not yet been possible. In any case, logistically, the port would have guaranteed a good connection to the quarries and their workplaces.

### Workers' settlements

Mark Lehner has been excavating a workers' settlement south of the so-called crow wall since 1988, and Zahi Hawass has been digging an associated cemetery area. Although an unambiguous dating could only be made in the reigns of Chephren and Mykerinos, it is assumed “that the settlement was already laid out under Cheops in the course of the construction of his tomb and that the later royal builders continued to use it on the Giza plateau. "

Today the excavation area amounts to 40,000 m², but the settlement extends even further south. The settlement consists of gallery-like, north-south-oriented complexes built from adobe bricks, which were planned according to symmetrical specifications and were partially separated from each other by streets. These run from east to west and divide the settlement into sectors. So far, various bakeries and production facilities for copper, beer and fish have been identified, as well as administrative buildings. Furthermore, magazines and houses could be located, including a purely residential area for the craftsmen and workers.

Statue of Hemiunu in the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim

Traces of another workers' settlement, which clearly dated to the reign of Cheops, were discovered between 1971 and 1975 south of the path of the Mykerinos pyramid. Enormous amounts of settlement rubble, architectural parts of residential buildings, seal impressions with the names of Cheops and Chephren and ceramic fragments of household furnishings from the early 4th dynasty were found. The settlement was evidently removed with the construction of the Mykerinos pyramid and raised at the site.

Further workshops are believed to be west of the quarries (near the Chephren pyramid), west and east of the actual construction site and in the vicinity of the port and the valley temple.

### Hemiunu, the builder

The builder of the Great Pyramid was probably Hemiunu . He was the son of the site manager Nefermaat , who led the construction of the Meidum pyramid under Sneferu. Since Nefermaat was a brother of Cheops, Hemiunu was a nephew of the extended family of Cheops. He held the office of vizier and also bore the title of “head of all construction works for the king”. Thus he supervised all construction work on the necropolis of Cheops.

Hemiunu's own grave was the Mastaba G 4000 in the Westfriedhof. In 1912 excavators discovered a life-size seated statue of the grave owner in the statue chamber. It is the only known statue of this type by a private person from the time of Cheops.

### Papyri from Wadi al-Garf

Papyrus fragments, which were discovered in 2013 in Wadi al-Garf , a port that was used in the 4th Dynasty for shipping traffic to the Sinai Peninsula , are of particular interest for the logistics involved in building the Great Pyramid . Among them was a log of an inspector named Merer, who led a work force that shipped stones from the Tura quarry to Giza for the construction of the Great Pyramid. Presumably the logbook was kept by the work team themselves in order to be able to report to the administration on their activities. Other papyri recorded daily or monthly food deliveries for the labor forces and are not least comparable with the Abusir papyri from the time of Neferirkare and Raneferef (5th dynasty). These papyrus finds provide for the first time an “inner” picture of the administration of the early Old Kingdom. The port facility in Wadi al-Garf seems to be closely linked to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. It may even have been built for the purpose of bringing in copper from the Gulf of Suez , which was necessary for the tools used in building the pyramids.

## Pyramidology

A group of pseudoscientific theories is summarized under the term pyramidology . The subject of many of these theories is to underlay the dimensions and the arrangement of the Cheops pyramid on the plateau with mystical interpretations, to establish connections with other pseudoscientific theories (for example that the builders were refugees from sunken Atlantis or extraterrestrials ), or prophecies for the future. What is classified as pyramidology today, however, was partially recognized science before the 20th century, such as the theories of Charles Piazzi Smyth . In addition, many views come from reports by ancient authors such as Herodotus.

### Number mysticism

Charles Piazzi Smyth
Lengths and angles of the Great Pyramid after Charles Piazzi Smyth
Geographical location of the pyramid according to Smyth

Edmé François Jomard , participant in Napoleon's Egyptian expedition , wrote the description of the Memphite pyramids as a collaborator on the Description de l'Égypte . Since the hieroglyphic script was not yet deciphered in his time , he could not yet rely on written sources and tried a more esoteric interpretation of the pyramids than that of a royal tomb. He took the view that "they were creations of science in which mathematics and astronomy could reveal themselves, in which a kind of Urelle, the Egyptian royal cell, had been built and the mysteries of initiation in cult and religion had taken place".

The English bookseller John Taylor preferred the pyramidal inch as a universal system of measurement instead of the supposed royal elite. This idea was taken up by the Scottish astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth . Piazzi Smyth spent several months in Egypt in 1865 taking accurate measurements of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, which are still standard today, although the conclusions he drew from them are nonsense. He found the length of the sides of the pyramid, expressed in pyramid inches, to be 36524, which is exactly 100 times the length of the tropical year . At the same time, 500 million pyramid inches (= 12,712.7 km) correspond to the length of the earth's axis (= 12,713.55 km). The height of the pyramid times 10 9 (5813 pyramid inches × 10 9 = 147.7978 million km) would correspond to the distance between the earth and the sun (= 149.6 million km). In addition, the pyramid lies not only in the center of a circle that forms today's delta coast, but also on a meridian that divides the earth's surface in two halves. The earth density can be calculated from the dimensions of the coffin and the direction of the exit / entrance corridor determines an ancient Egyptian Pleiades year. John Taylor said that the slope angle of the Great Pyramid required knowledge of the circle number (pi). Especially in pseudoscientific literature, the theory has recently reappeared that the builders “encoded” the number (Pi) in the dimensions of the pyramid . The double base side (230.37 m) divided by the height (146.60 m) would result approximately (because 230.37 * 2 / 146.60 = 3.1428; and with 3.1416 it is only 0.04% smaller) . However, it is more likely that an integer ratio of the side length (440 royal cells) to the height (280 royal cells) = 11: 7 was chosen by the builders and only coincidentally results in half of . The deviation from 11: 7 to is only 0.04%. The statement that the construction of the building was based on the intent to consciously use mathematical codes, such as B. , is therefore not proven. In addition, Ludwig Borchardt pointed out that the ancient Egyptians did not express the angle of slope in degrees and minutes , but instead indicated the slope that the slope has to a height difference of 1 cubit. In the case of the Cheops pyramid, there is an embankment of 5 1/2 hand widths, i.e. such a setback to 1 cubit (= 7 hand widths) difference in height. ${\ displaystyle \ pi}$${\ displaystyle \ pi}$${\ displaystyle \ pi}$${\ displaystyle \ pi}$${\ displaystyle \ pi}$${\ displaystyle \ pi / 2}$${\ displaystyle \ pi}$

The study and survey of the Pyramids of Giza by William Matthew Flinders Petrie in the 1880s marked the point in time of the separation between the pyramidologists and the emerging scientific Egyptology. Petrie subjected Smyth's theories to an on-site review in 1880. Using measuring instruments, some of which he built himself, he measured both the outside and the inside of the Great Pyramid. The result was so accurate that Petrie's figures are still valid today. However, they contradicted the theories of Piazzi Smyth and once and for all undermined speculations about a pyramid tariff. Rather, Petrie proved that the dimensions of the pyramid were based on the ancient Egyptian royal cell:

“So all the theories that said the number of days in a year was represented were utterly erroneous. The size of the pyramid was determined by being 7 × 40 Egyptian cubits (20.6 inches) high and 11 × 40 cubits wide. This is confirmed by the pyramid of Meydum, which is older and 7 × 25 cubits high and 11 × 25 cubits wide. ... The angle of repose required for this 7-to-11 ratio is within the slight inaccuracy (two minutes) of the remains. "

- Flinders Petrie : Seventy Years in Archeology. P. 34 f.

Perhaps because Petrie's publication was too scientific, it received less attention, and in 1885 Anton Jarolimek published number games again, especially now with the golden ratio , which a number of other engineers and amateur archaeologists subsequently championed. Regarding number mysticism, Rainer Stadelmann continues: “These number games with the golden section and the number and the calculations of a pyramid cell or a pyramid inch each had a fatal tendency towards a cosmic relationship, the assumption of extensive, astronomical knowledge, a universal knowledge, that in the Cheops pyramid is built up and stored and is available to the initiated, as it were on demand. ”On this basis, theosophical and prophetic interpretations became the basic content of pyramidology. ${\ displaystyle \ pi}$

### Pre-astronautics

Erich von Däniken is the best-known representative of the so-called pre-astronautics or the “paleo-SETI hypothesis”: extraterrestrials would have visited the earth a long time ago and had a decisive influence on human development. Because of their high technical superiority, these astronauts were considered gods by primitive man. Against the background of this assumption, von Däniken interprets the various legacies of ancient cultures as evidence of extraterrestrial visitors. For example, he is of the opinion that "primitive" people were not able to provide cultural services such as the building of the pyramids of Giza without outside help.

In his book Memories of the Future , published in 1968 , a collection of “riddles of history”, he did not “solve” the riddles directly, but rather clothed his answers in the form of rhetorical questions, which always resulted in the artefacts in question being evidence of the prehistoric Visit from aliens. Of course, this also applies to the pyramids, although Däniken does not claim that these were built by aliens. He initially refers to a number of "inconsistencies", but makes use of the treasure trove of his pyramidological predecessors ("Is it a coincidence that the base of the pyramid - divided by twice its height - results in the famous Ludolf number ?"). ${\ displaystyle \ pi}$

The core, however, is: "Who is simple-minded enough to believe that the pyramid should be nothing but the tomb of a king?" That is a sentence that comes up again and again in a similar form among proponents of para-scientific pyramid theories . In the end, Däniken suggests that the pyramid building is a form of imitatio dei ("imitation of God" or in this case "imitation of the gods"), whereby extraterrestrial astronauts are to be assumed as gods who survive the millennia of an interstellar journey , put into a death-like form of hibernation . The observation of the resurrection of the apparently dead would have led the ancient rulers of Egypt to be provided with crisis-proof material goods and stored mummified in "quasi nuclear-bombproof" buildings (the pyramids) in the hope of resurrecting like the astronaut gods.

Even after the first commercial success of Däniken's books in the late 1960s, there were publications that explained the untenability of his claims. As an author, Däniken stands outside the scientific community of archeology , anthropology and history , which largely ignore Däniken's work because of its untenability. Important points of criticism of the pre-astronautical theories are:

• Underestimation of the intellectual and cultural creativity of people of earlier epochs: The intervention of high-tech extraterrestrials or unknown ancient high cultures in the known cultural development is strikingly reminiscent of religious creation myths, as well as the theories of today's creationists or of " intelligent design ", resulting in the rise of man own biological and cultural power was not possible, but only took place successfully through the intervention of a higher power.
• Neglecting the scientific notion of reduction: If there are several possible explanations, the theory with the simplest assumption should also be the most appropriate for the economy principle of the theory of science ( Ockham's razor ).
• The structure of pre-astronautics as a borderline or pseudoscientific sub-area: the existence of teaching staff, seminars and (predominantly popular science) lectures, (also predominantly popular science) publications or the announcement of funding and research awards give it the appearance of a serious science. Apart from that, there is seldom an overlap with the established sciences.
• The extra-contextual consideration of texts and individual objects: Many theories refer almost exclusively to the Cheops pyramid and neglect the context of the pyramid development.

## literature

### Boat pits

• Farouk el-Baz: Giza, Khufu pyramid sun barks and boat pit. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 350-51.
• Nancy Jenkins: The Boat Beneath the Pyramid King Cheops' Royal Ship. Holt / Rinehart & Winston, Orlando 1983–01, ISBN 0-03-057061-1 , ( online ; PDF; 43.6 MB).
• Paul Lipke: The Royal Ship of Cheops. A Retrospective Account of the Discovery, Restoration an Reconstruction. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 1984, ISBN 0-86054-293-9 .
• Mohammad Zaki Nour et al .: The Cheops Boats. General Organization for Govt. Print. Offices, Cairo 1960 ( online ; PDF; 93.1 MB).
• Sakuji Yoshimura, Hiromasa Kurokochi: A ship for eternity. The previous research on the second boat of King Cheops. In: Sokar Vol. 25, 2nd half of 2012, pp. 6–17 (from the English by Christine Mende).

### More detailed questions

• Dieter Arnold : On the history of the destruction of the pyramids. A presentation. In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK) 47, 1991, pp. 21-27.
• Jürgen Brinks: The height of the steps in the Great Pyramid - system or coincidence? In: Göttinger Miszellen Vol. 48, Göttingen 1981, pp. 17-24.
• Josef Dorner : The inner system of the Great Pyramid - considerations about the planned masses. In: Egypt and Levant. Vol. 10, 2000, pp. 37-44.
• Josef Dorner: The staking out and astronomical orientation of Egyptian pyramids. (Dissertation, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Innsbruck) Innsbruck 1981.
• Georges Goyon : Les inscriptions et graffiti des Voyageurs sur la Grande Pyramide. Société Royale de Géographie, Cairo 1944.
• Georges Goyon: La chaussée monumentale et le temple de la vallée de la pyramide de Khéops. In: Le Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. 67, 1969, pp. 49-69. ( Online )
• Georges Goyon: Quelques observations effectuées autour de la pyramide de Khéops. In: Le Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. 67, 1969, pp. 71-86. ( Online )
• Michael Haase: Focus on Giza. The shaft systems of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. In: Sokar 5 (2nd half of 2002), pp. 3–13. ( online ; PDF; 1.4 MB).
• Michael Haase: The service shaft of the Cheops pyramid. Comments on the construction of the connecting shaft between the Great Gallery and the descending corridor. In: Sokar 9 (2nd half of 2004), pp. 12-17. ( online ; PDF; 1.1 MB).
• Zahi Hawass: The Discovery of the Satellite Pyramid of Khufu (GI – d). In: Peter Der Manuelian (Ed.): Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson. Volume 1, Boston 1996. ( online ; PDF; 4.5 MB)
• Zahi Hawass: The Programs of the Royal Funerary Complexes of the Fourth Dynasty. In: David O'Connor, David P. Silverman: Ancient Egyptian Kingship. Leiden 1994, pp. 221-262. ( online ).
• Zahi Hawass: The Discovery of the Harbors of Khufu and Khafre at Giza. In: Catherine Berger, Bernard Mathieu (eds.): Études sur l'Ancien Empire et la nécropole de Saqqâra dédiées à Jean-Philippe Lauer. Montpellier 1997, pp. 245-256, ( online ; PDF; 8.3 MB).
• Peter Jánosi: The development and interpretation of the sacrificial room in the pyramid temples of the Old Kingdom. In: Rolf Gundlach, Matthias Rochholz (Hrsg.): Ägyptische Tempel - Structure, function and spatial program (= files of the Egyptological temple conferences in Gosen 1990 and in Mainz 1992. ). Hildesheim 1994, pp. 143-162, ( online ; PDF; 9.2 MB).
• Peter Jánosi: The pyramids of the queens. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1996.
• Peter Jánosi: Giza in the 4th dynasty. The building history and occupancy of a necropolis in the Old Kingdom. Volume I: The mastabas of the core cemeteries and the rock graves. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3244-1 , ( Online ; PDF; 9.3 MB)
• Lásló Kákosy: The Plundering of the Pyramid of Cheops. In: Studies on ancient Egyptian culture. Vol. 16, 1989, pp. 145-169.
• Jean Kerisel : Le conduit sud de la chambre de la rein dans la pyramide de Chéops In Bulletin de la Société Francaise d'Egyptologie. Vol. 127, 1993, pp. 38-44.
• Jean Kerisel: Pyramid de Khéops. Dernières recherches. In: Revue d'Egyptologie. Vol. 44, 1993, pp. 33-54.
• Dietrich Klemm, Rosemarie Klemm: The Stones of the Pyramids. Provenance of the Building Stones of the Old Kingdom Pyramids of Egypt. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010, especially pp. 82–89.
• Mark Lehner : The Pyramid Tomb of Hetep-heres, and the Satellite Pyramid of Khufu. von Zabern, Mainz 1985, ISBN 3-8053-0814-0 , ( online ; PDF; 57.8 MB).
• Mark Lehner: The Development of the Giza Necropolis. The Khufu Project. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. Vol. 41, 1985, pp. 109-143, ( online ; PDF; 11.4 MB).
• Mark Lehner: Some Observations on the Layout of the Khufu and Khafre Pyramids. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Vol. 20, 1983, pp. 7-25.
• Rainer Stadelmann, Rudolf Gantenbrink: The so-called air ducts of the Cheops pyramid. Model corridors for the king's ascent to heaven. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department, Vol. 50, 1994, pp. 285–294.
• Pierre Tallet: Les papyrus de la Mer Rouge I, Le << Journal de Merer >> (Papyrus Jarf A et B). (= Mémoires publiés par les membres de l'Institut Français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. [MIFAO] Volume 136) Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 2017, ISBN 978-2-7247-0706-9 .

## Movie

• Crime scene Egypt: secret of the great pyramid. Documentation, 2003, 45 min., Production: ZDF , summary of the ZDF.
• Great Pyramid of Cheops. Monument to the ages. Documentation by Melita Akdogan for National Geographic Channel, 2013. 44 min. Broadcast on March 22, 2014 on ZDF info

Commons : Pyramid of Cheops  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Cheops pyramid  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The Giza Archives ( Memento from January 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Very extensive website: photos, documentation and bibliography with literature on Giza available online, interactive satellite images and panoramic images, information on excavations
• Mark Lehner: The Lost City of the Pyramids. In: The Lost City of the Pyramids. In: Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA). Information about the excavation in the workers' settlement in Giza.
• Rudolf Gantenbrink, Stephen Bellness: The Upuaut Project. Official Web Page Documentation of the Gantenbrink expedition with 3D models, images, plans
• The Great Pyramid of King Cheops in Giza . Detailed information on the Great Pyramid at: benben.de ; last accessed on January 22, 2016.
• Pierre Tallet: Ouadi el-Jarf (Egypte) In: Orient & Mediterranée; Last accessed on December 9, 2018. Information on the papyrus finds in Ouadi al-Garf, which are of particular interest for the logistics involved in building the Great Pyramid.

## Individual evidence

1. ^ Roman Gundacker: On the structure of the pyramid names of the 4th dynasty. In: Sokar. Vol. 18, 2009, pp. 26-30.
2. see also 26th century BC BC and compare the end of the Neolithic in Central Europe
3. Entry on the website of the UNESCO World Heritage Center ( English and French ).
4. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 125.
5. Herodotus: Historien, II, 126 ; Quoted from the following edition: Herodotus: Nine books on history. With an introduction by Lars Hoffmann. (Based on the translation by Dr. Chr.Bähr, Berlin-Schöneberg 1898) Marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-86539-142-1 , p. 206.
6. The report of the tomb of Cheops on an island in an underground lake was considered to be pure legend, until Zahi Hawass discovered a complex that largely corresponds to the description during an excavation in an underground chamber system of the Giza Plateau in 1999, which he found as a symbolic grave of Osiris classified. See Zahi Hawass "The Mysterious Osiris Shaft of Giza" ( April 29, 2014 memento in the Internet Archive ) (accessed November 5, 2009)
7. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 127
8. Diodor: Bibliothéke historiké. Book I, 69, (online) ; Haase: A place for eternity. P. 127.
9. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 127 f.
10. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 128.
11. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 128 f.
12. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 129.
13. Mark Lehner: Secret of the pyramids in Egypt. P. 41
14. Peter Jánosi: The pyramids. Myth and Archeology. P. 21
15. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 128 ff.
16. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 132.
17. Peter Jánosi: The pyramids. Myth and Archeology. P. 22
18. Mark Lehner: Secret of the pyramids in Egypt. P. 41
19. Michael Haase: The riddle of Cheops. The final secrets of the great pyramid of Giza. P. 232.
20. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 133 f.
21. Miroslav Verner: The pyramids. P. 219.
22. Peter Jánosi: The pyramids. Myth and Archeology. P. 22
23. Mark Lehner: Secret of the pyramids in Egypt. P. 48
24. a b c Haase: A place for eternity. P. 136.
25. Miroslav Verner: The pyramids. P. 220.
26. ^ Lepsius archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences: The written documentation of the Lepsius expedition (accessed on November 13, 2013).
27. ^ William M. Flinders Petrie: The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Field & Tuer, London 1883; Miroslav Verner: The pyramids. P. 222 f.
28. Rainer Stadelmann: Royal Tombs of the Pyramid Age. In: Regine Schulz, Matthias Seidel (ed.): Egypt. The world of the pharaohs. Könemann, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89508-541-3 , p. 65.
29. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 136 f.
30. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 137.
31. Verner: The pyramids. P. 229.
32. ^ Architectural Analysis of the Great Pyramid. On: ancient-wisdom.co.uk ; last accessed on February 6, 2016.
33. ^ Zahi Hawass: The Secret Door Inside The Great Pyramid. On: guardians.net ; Retrieved June 3, 2011.
34. Update: Third "Door" Found in Great Pyramid. In: National Geographic, September 23, 2002.
35. ^ Discovery News: Pyramid-Exploring Robot Reveals Hidden Hieroglyphs . From: news.discovery.com on May 26, 2011, accessed June 3, 2011.
36. ^ Discovery of a big void in Khufu's Pyramid by observation of cosmic-ray muons . Authors: Morishima, K. et al., From: nature.com November 2, 2017, accessed November 2, 2017.
37. Large chamber discovered in the Great Pyramid of Cheops . Author: Jan Oliver Löfken on Wissenschaft-aktuell.de from November 2, 2017, accessed on November 13, 2017.
38. Cheops pyramid: Engineers provide surprising findings on the closure of the burial chamber. In: Press release from the University of Kassel. February 9, 2018, archived from the original on March 19, 2018 ; accessed on September 26, 2018 .
39. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 14 ff. And also Verner: The pyramids. P. 223 f.
40. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 17.
41. a b c V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 12.
42. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 22 with reference to J. Dorner: The staking out and astronomical orientation of Egyptian pyramids. 1981.
43. a b Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 108.
44. V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 16.
45. a b Verner: The pyramids. P. 224 f.
46. The Great Pyramid of King Cheops in Giza. On: benben.de ; last accessed on January 22, 2016. cited Georges Goyon: Les inscriptions et graffiti des voyageurs sur la grande pyramide. Cairo 1944, S. XXVII, Pl. CLV and Georges Goyon: The Great Pyramid. Mystery and story . Augsburg 1990, p. 256.
47. Leslie V. Grinsell: Egyptian Pyramids. Gloucester 1947, p. 103.
48. ^ V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 12. 18.
49. Verner: The pyramids. P. 233 f.
50. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 110 f .; Lehner: Secret of the pyramids. P. 111.
51. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 111; V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 18; Ludwig Borchardt, Louis Croon, Herbert Ricke: Lengths and directions of the four basic edges of the great pyramid at Gise. 1937, p. 3.
52. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 111; Haase: A place for eternity. P. 30.
53. ^ William M. Flinders Petrie: The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. London 1883, p. 166 ff.
54. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 111 ff.
55. The Great Pyramid of King Cheops in Giza.On: benben.de ; last accessed on January 22, 2016.
56. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 113.
57. According to other information 26 ° 18 ′ 10 ″ see Maragioglio, Rinaldi: Piramide. IV, p. 26.
58. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 113; Haase: A place for eternity. P. 30; V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 26.
59. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 33
60. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 113 f.
61. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 34; Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 114; V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 30.
62. IES Edwards: The Egyptian pyramids. 1967, p. 76.
63. a b c Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 114.
64. a b Lehner: Secret of the pyramids. P. 111.
65. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 34.
66. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 35.
67. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 121.
68. Georges Goyon: The Great Pyramid. Mystery and story. 1990, p. 218.
69. Vito Maragioglio , Celeste Rinaldi : L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 140 ff.
70. Vtio Maragioglio, Celeste Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 140; Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 117 f.
71. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 35 f.
72. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 114 f .; Haase: A place for eternity. P. 36.
73. Ludwig Borchardt: Some things about the third construction period of the great pyramid at Gise. (= Contributions to Egyptian building research and antiquity. Vol. 1) 1932, pp. 1–4; quoted from Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 114.
74. ^ V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 34.
75. ^ V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 34 ff.
76. ^ Dieter Arnold: Lexicon of Egyptian architecture. Düsseldorf 2000, p. 136.
77. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 36; Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 115.
78. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 116.
79. Flinders Petrie : The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Field & Tuer, London 1883, p. 216; Noel Wheeler: Pyramids and their purpose. In: Antiquity IX, 1939 ; quoted from Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 116.
80. a b c Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 118.
81. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 36 f.
82. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 37 f.
83. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. S. 118 with reference to Petrie: The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. P. 136 f.
84. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 118; Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 38.
85. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 38 ff.
86. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 40.
87. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 44.
88. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 44 f.
89. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 120.
90. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 119.
91. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 41.
92. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 40 f .; Richard William Howard Vyse, John Shae Perring: Operations carried on at the pyramids of Gizeh in 1837: with an account of a voyage into Upper Egypt, and an appendix. 1940, p. 235 ff. (Online)
93. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 42 ff.
94. ^ Rainer Stadelmann, Rudolf Gantenbrink : The so-called air channels of the Cheops pyramid. Model corridors for the king's ascent to heaven. In: MDAIK 50, 1994, p. 285 f.
95. ^ Rainer Stadelmann, Rudolf Gantenbrink: The so-called air channels of the Cheops pyramid. In: MDAIK 50 , 1994, p. 295.
96. ^ Rainer Stadelmann, Rudolf Gantenbrink: The so-called air channels of the Cheops pyramid. In: MDAIK 50 , 1994, p. 287 f.
97. a b Stadelmann, Gantenbrink: The so-called air ducts of the Cheops pyramid. In: MDAIK 50 , 1994, p. 288.
98. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 51 f.
99. ^ The Djedi Project: The Next Generation in Robotic Archeology. (No longer available online.) In: Em Hotep! Archived from the original on January 15, 2016 ; accessed on September 5, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
100. Stadelmann, Gantenbrink: The so-called air ducts of the Cheops pyramid. In: MDAIK 50 , 1994, p. 290 f.
101. ^ Rainer Stadelmann, Rudolf Gantenbrink: The so-called air channels of the Cheops pyramid. In: MDAIk 50, 1994, p. 291.
102. according to Rainer Stadelmann: NSK = n ördlicher S chacht the K önigskammer, SSK = s üdlicher S chacht the K önigskammer
103. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 52 ff.
104. RWH Vyse, JS Perring: Operations I. S. 286.
105. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 54 f.
106. Rolf Krauss : The secret of the Cheops pyramid . Were the shafts inside the sight lines for fixed stars? In: Stars and Space . Astronomy magazine. No. 2/2015 . Spectrum of Science , 2015, ISSN  0039-1263 , p. 34-39 .
107. Peter Jánosi: The development and interpretation of the sacrificial room in the pyramid temples of the Old Kingdom. In: Rolf Gundlach, Matthias Rochholz (ed.): Egyptian temples - structure, function and spatial program. (Files from the Egyptological temple conferences in Gosen 1990 and Mainz 1992), Hildesheim 1994, p. 144.
108. V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite , P. IV, p. 60; also Jean-Philippe Lauer: Le temple funéraire de Khéops à la grande pyramide de Guizèh In: Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte. (ASAE) No. 46, Le Caire 1947, p. 246 and Fig. 17.
109. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 59; Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 121 f.
110. Verner: The pyramids. P. 235 ff.
111. ^ Jean-Philippe Lauer : Le temple funéraire de Khéops à la grande pyramide de Guizèh. In: Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte. Vol. 46, 1947. Quoted from Jánosi: The development and interpretation of the sacrificial room in the pyramid temples of the Old Kingdom. P. 145.
112. Vito Maragioglio, Celeste Rinaldi: L'Architettura delle Piramidi Menfite. Vol. 4, p. 62 f.
113. Herbert Ricke: Comments on Egyptian architecture of the Old Kingdom. Volume II, Cairo 1950, p. 24 ff. And p. 44.
114. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. P. 122, fig. 32; Stadelmann: The great pyramids of Giza. Graz 1990, p. 164, Fig. I06: Quoted from Jánosi: The development and interpretation of the sacrificial room in the pyramid temples of the Old Kingdom. P. 145.
115. For an overview of the various proposals for reconstruction of the mortuary temple, see also Vito Maragioglio, Celeste Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 164 ff.
116. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 56 f .; Lehner: Secret of the pyramids. P. 109.
117. Man discovers passage to Egypt's Great Pyramid - under his house . In: The Week. January 5, 2015. Accessed January 9, 2015.
118. ^ V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 64 ff.
119. Ludwig Borchardt, Louis Croon, Herbert Ricke: Lengths and directions of the four basic edges of the great pyramid at Gise. 1937, p. 16; The Great Pyramid of King Cheops in Giza. Enclosing wall and courtyard. On: benben.de ; last accessed on January 22, 2016.
120. a b c d V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi: L'Architettura Delle Piramidi Menfite. P. IV, p. 66.
121. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 65 ff.
122. Verner: The pyramids. P. 238.
123. a b c d Haase: A place for eternity. P. 67.
124. Verner: The pyramids. P. 239; Haase: A place for eternity. P. 144, note 214.
125. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 68.
126. Yoshimura, Kurokochi: A Ship for Eternity. The previous research on the second boat of King Cheops. In: Sokar Volume 25, 2012, p. 6 ff.
127. ^ Excavation of 4,500-year-old boat at Giza pyramids begins. On: english.ahram.org.eg (Ahram Online) from 2010; last accessed on January 22, 2016.
128. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 68 f.
129. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 69 f.
130. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 85 ff.
131. Verner: The pyramids. P. 238 f.
132. ^ Zahi Hawass: The Discovery of the Satellite Pyramid of Khufu (GI – d). In: Peter Der Manuelian (Ed.): Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson. Volume 1, Boston 1996. ( online ; PDF; 4.5 MB)
133. Lehner: Secret of the pyramids. P. 109.
134. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 62 ff.
135. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 71 ff.
136. Peter Jánosi: The pyramids of the queens. Vienna 1996, p. 5 ff.
137. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 72 ff.
138. Jánosi: The pyramids of the queens. P. 12.
139. Jánosi: The pyramids of the queens. P. 11 f.
140. a b c d Jánosi: The pyramids of the queens. P. 11
141. Haase: A place for eternity. P. 83.
142. Jánosi: The pyramids of the queens. P. 10 f.
143. a b Haase: A place for eternity. P. 84.
144. Verner: The pyramids. P. 240.
145. a b c d Verner: The pyramids. P. 241.
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202. Erich von Däniken : Memories of the future . Unsolved mysteries of the past. Econ, Düsseldorf 1968, p. 118. So wrong: With an original side length of 440 cubits and a height of 280 cubits you get: (440 × 440) ÷ (2 × 280) ≈ 345.7. The number Pi on the other hand is 3.14159 ...
203. Däniken: Memories of the Future. P. 121.
204. Däniken: Memories of the Future. P. 124 ff.
205. See u. a. Pieter Coll: Business with the Imagination. Why there couldn't have been spaceflight thousands of years ago. Arena-Verlag, Würzburg 1973, ISBN 3-401-01226-6 .
 before Tallest building in the world after that Red pyramid of Dahshur (147 m) around 2570 BC BC - 1311 (?) Lincoln Cathedral
 This article was added to the list of excellent articles on February 4, 2016 in this version .

Coordinates: 29 ° 58 ′ 45 ″  N , 31 ° 8 ′ 2 ″  E