Greatest Archaeological Discovery Coming Oct 2005?

[Guest guest]

The Search for the Hidden Tomb

Greatest Archaeological Discovery Coming Oct 2005?

By Peter Goodgame

"I really personally believe that the secret chamber of Khufu is

hidden inside the pyramid." Zahi Hawass, from a lecture in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in early July of 2005

 

http://www.redmoonrising.com/Giza/OsirisTomb1.htm

In October of 2005 the world will witness another serious effort to

uncover some of the mysteries that lay buried under the rock and

sand at Giza. There is a very good possibility that this effort will

not be in vain, and that it will result in the greatest

archaeological discovery ever made in the history of mankind. This

series of articles will explain what that discovery might be and,

more importantly, what that discovery could mean for the world not

only archaeologically and historically, but spiritually as well.

 

The major components of the Giza complex include the the three major

pyramids and also the enigmatic massive stone statue known as the

Sphinx. The Great Pyramid, the largest of the three main pyramids,

was the first built and is also the last remaining of the Seven

Wonders of the ancient world. It is a well-established fact that the

Great Pyramid was built by King Khufu, of Egypt's Fourth Dynasty,

whose reign began around approximately 2500 BCE. What is not an

established fact, although it is the common explanation, is that

Khufu built the Great Pyramid to be his own personal burial chamber.

That was not the purpose of the Great Pyramid—the truth is much more

interesting.

 

Zahi Hawass himself explains that the Giza Plateau was known by the

Egyptians as the "House of Osiris, Lord of the Underground Tunnels."

[1] So if we want to understand Giza and the Great Pyramid we must

understand the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, rather than focus on

Khufu the king who was merely tasked with initiating the

construction of this enduring monument. To begin this story we will

go back to 1998, when Dr. Hawass had just made what he called his

greatest discovery, a discovery that definitely did concern the

Egyptian god Osiris.

 

You may be asking, 'Who is Dr. Zahi Hawass?' Well, his official

titles are 'Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities

of Egypt' and 'Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation.' In other

words, Dr. Zahi Hawass is the top man in charge of Egyptian

antiquities. Nothing happens archaeologically in Egypt without his

approval and signature, and nothing happens in Giza without him

usually being physically present, either personally directing the

research or excavation or else observing with a keen and critical

eye.

 

 

The Hallway of Osiris

 

Back in November of 1998 Hawass made a discovery that he relates

here in his own words, as taken from a press release at the time [2]:

 

"I have found a shaft, going 29 meters [95 feet approximately]

vertically down into the ground, exactly halfway between the Chefren

Pyramid [the middle pyramid] and the Sphinx. At the bottom, which

was filled with water, we have found a burial chamber with four

pillars. In the middle is a large granite sarcophagus which I expect

to be the grave of Osiris, the god... I have been digging in Egypt's

sand for more than 30 years, and up to date this is the most

exciting discovery I have made... We found the shaft in November and

began pumping up the water recently. So several years will pass

before we have finished investigating the find."

 

Zahi Hawass believed at the time that he had found the burial place

of Osiris the god and he referred to this as the greatest discovery

of his entire career. This discovery eventually became known

worldwide and the FOX television network broadcast a special program

on March 2, 1999, entitled "Opening the Lost Tombs: Live From

Egypt." The special was a huge success for FOX as far as ratings

were concerned, but as far as the academic world was concerned it

was a travesty and an embarrassment both to archaeology and to

Egyptology, despite what appeared to be the good intentions of Zahi

Hawass. [3]

 

The so-called grave and sarcophagus of Osiris was eventually

explained by Hawass as being "symbolic," probably having been used

for initiatory and/or ritual purposes as a part of Egyptian

religion, and dating to 2000 years after the building of the

pyramids (665-525 BC).[4] In any case, the shaft in which it was

located did open up previously unexplored tunnels, but the world is

still waiting for Hawass to make a public presentation documenting

where these tunnels go, how extensive they are, and what they lead

to.

 

This story is not dead but it has been quiet for some time now. To

examine it further readers may click to an excellent series of

articles written by Nigel Skinner-Thompson called "The Shaft, The

Subway & The Causeway," or they may click to an article

entitled "Ananda in the Hallway of Osiris" which contains a first-

person account of what the tunnels and chambers contain and a number

of color photographs.

 

>From this adventure we can deduce that Zahi Hawass maintains a

belief that Osiris was in fact a historical figure and that his

grave, and possibly his mummified body, must still exist somewhere

within the Giza complex. What is also clear is that, for some

unknown reason, Hawass wants to make sure that when this tomb is

found the whole world will be able to watch when its contents are

revealed.

 

 

The French Initiative

 

>From past excitement concerning the possible discovery of the tomb

of Osiris we now direct our attention to current excitement

regarding the "tomb of Khufu."

 

>From September 6-12 of 2004 the 9th International Congress of

Egyptologists met at Grenoble, France. This conference included a

presentation given by two French researchers who publicized their

theory (and book) that structural anomalies suggested the existence

of a hidden chamber within the Great Pyramid itself. Gilles Dormion

and Jean-Yves Verd'hurt admit to being amateurs in areas such as

Egyptian history, culture and religion, but their specialty is in

the field of architecture and their method has achieved success in

the past when they were able to locate two previously unknown

chambers in the Meidum Pyramid to the south of Giza.

 

Dormion and Verd'hurt's theory is that this hidden chamber exists

underneath the Queen's Chamber at a symbolic location at the very

heart of the Great Pyramid. As evidence for it they argue that the

hole in the floor of the niche in the east wall of the Queen's

Chamber was used to pass ropes through to install what are

called "portcullis blocks" which are used primarily to block the

entrances and exits of chambers or passageways.

 

Their theory appeared to have been confirmed in September of 2000

when ground probing radar was used on the floor of the Queen's

Chamber revealing a passageway or void 3.5 meters below. Dormion and

Verd'hurt also provided evidence that the paving stones of the

Queen's Chamber had at one time been removed to gain access to this

alleged passageway, which is illustrated in an article located here.

[5]

 

Dormion and Verd'hurt appear to have gained the support of much of

the French Egyptological establishment, including Jean-Pierre

Corteggiani of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in

Cairo, and Nicolas Grimal the head of Egyptology at the Collège de

France. Grimal even wrote the preface to their book La Chambre de

Chèops (The Chamber of Cheops), writing that their ideas may lead

to "without doubt, one of the greatest discoveries in Egyptology."

[6]

 

While this French initiative appears to have both solid evidence and

high-level backing on its side it will inevitably go nowhere without

the support of Dr. Zahi Hawass. To test their theory the French team

has been lobbying for permission to drill through the floor of the

Queen's Chamber and Zahi Hawass, who attended the Grenoble

conference and listened to the presentation, refuses to allow this.

 

There are a couple of reasons why Hawass is opposed to the French

initiative. In the first place, Dormion's theory is based on the

idea that the Egyptian builders of the Great Pyramid were

incompetent and that the location of Khufu's Tomb had to be changed

from the King's Chamber to underneath the Queen's Chamber because

the pyramid exhibited signs of structural failure as it was being

built. This possibility does not appeal to Hawass, who happens to be

an Egyptian himself, and neither does it appeal to the other two

individuals consulted by Hawass, Mark Lehner of the USA and Rainer

Stadelmann of Germany, who Hawass considers to be the top experts on

the Great Pyramid.

 

The other reason that Hawass refuses to allow the French initiative

to move forward is because he wants to focus on his own theory of

where this hidden "tomb of Khufu" might be found within the Great

Pyramid.

 

 

The Hawass Initiative

 

The current theory that Hawass holds regarding the location of

the "Hidden Chamber of Khufu" traces back to the 1992-93 UPUAUT

PROJECT led by Rudolf Gantenbrink. This was the project in which a

robot was sent up the two anomalous shafts that project up and out,

north and south, from the Queen's Chamber. On March 22, 1993, this

robot made its way to the end of the southern shaft, 210 feet up and

54 feet from the surface of the pyramid, where it found what looked

like a stone door fitted with metal handles. Subsequent testing

showed that this "door" was only about three inches thick.

 

The discovery of a "door" at the end of the southern "star-shaft"

created a storm of media attention and debate, but nothing was done

about it until 2002. That was when another TV special was set up,

funded by the National Geographic Society and broadcast live, as

before, by the FOX TV Network on September 16, 2002. The world

watched as a robot ascended the shaft to drill a tiny hole

through "Gantenbrink's Door" after which a camera was inserted

offering pictures of the other side. What it showed was simply the

end of the shaft in the form of a rough hewn block, this time

without metal handles. The robot was also able to successfully

ascend the northern shaft and it found another smooth stone "door"

with metal handles. However, in this case a decision was made not to

drill through the "door."

 

To bring this story up to date we must go to the University of

Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where Zahi

Hawass gave a lecture in early July of 2005. According to a report

carried by The Daily Star, this was when Zahi Hawass voiced his

confidence that "the secret chamber of Khufu is hidden inside the

pyramid." [7]

 

Hawass explained that his hopes lay in what is beyond the "end" of

the Queen's Chamber's southern shaft, and what is beyond the "door"

of the northern shaft. According to Hawass, in October of 2005 a

robot built by the University of Singapore will be sent up the

shafts to drill through both of these blocks. This time, to avoid

any major disappointment as before, Hawass says that the drilling

will not be broadcast live, but the results will be announced in a

press release. However Hawass did explain that "If something

interesting is discovered, we're going to show it to people all over

the world."

 

At the same time that the drilling is taking place in the Great

Pyramid there will also be a team from Birmingham, England,

performing radar mapping at select locations on the Giza plateau.

Perhaps this has to do with the new tunnels that were opened up with

the discovery of the so-called "Tomb of Osiris"?

 

 

The Giza Wall

 

Whatever may be in store for Giza this October, it appears that Zahi

Hawass and the Egyptian authorities have been preparing for

something big. In 2002 construction began of a massive concrete

security wall to surround the Giza plateau which, for reasons

unknown, also extends into the empty desert to encompass a total

area of about eight square kilometers. Egyptologist and mystic J.J.

Hurtak comments on this wall saying that such a wall was never

needed for tourists, but can only be in preparation for a major

discovery [8]:

 

"The psychological reality of guards stationed as sentries at

intervals along the entire wall carries the intrigue of a major

feature film set, designed for the few experts who are to find an

underground sphinx or obelisk, or a connection between Osiris and

the constellation of Orion, rather than an open-door feature for

thousands of well-behaved international students of history and

archaeology who have never needed to be extensively controlled."

 

It is now 2005 and this wall must now be almost certainly complete.

What kind of event could possibly be scheduled to demand such a high

level of security and safety? What kind of discovery could possibly

be expected?

 

It is interesting that Hurtak referred to the possibility of finding

evidence connecting Osiris with Orion. This connection is something

that is well-known to many researchers of the religion and history

of ancient Egypt, but it is still unaccepted within the mainstream

academic community of Egyptology. In the next article we will

examine why this connection is important and we will argue that the

Great Pyramid of Egypt, if it was indeed built as a tomb, is more

likely to contain the mummy of Osiris, rather than that of Khufu the

builder of the pyramid.

 

Next (upcoming)

 

 

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Footnotes

 

1. http://www.towers-online.co.uk/pages/shaftos1.htm

 

2. From a newspaper article entitled "Sandpit of Royalty" by Dorte

Quist taken from

http://phoenix.akasha.de/~aton/HO-OSIRIS.html

 

3. See this page for two critical reviews:

http://www.csicop.org/cmi/reviews/opening-lost-tombs.html

 

4. Secret Chamber: The Quest for the Hall of Records, Robert Bauval,

1999, p.83

 

5."A Secret Chamber in the Great Pyramid?" :

http://www.cite-

sciences.fr/francais/ala_cite/science_actualites/sitesactu/question_a

ctu.php?langue=an&sommaire=1&id_article=3343

 

6. "Secret Chambers of the Great Pyramid of Khufu" by Jimmy Dunn:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidchambers.htm

 

7. "The Great Pyramid may still contain Khufu's intact pharaonic

tomb" by Kyle Cassidy:

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?

edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=16740

 

8."New Walls Encircle Pyramidal Complex at Giza" by Dr. J.J. Hurtak:

http://www.initiation.cc/Giza_Update/giza_update.html

 

 

 

Further Reading

 

— A book review of Robert Bauval's Secret Chamber:

 

— The Search for Hidden Chambers On the Giza Plateau by Alan Winston

(four parts)

 

— Website of Larry Dean Hunter: www.larryhunter.com