PYRAMID OF SECRETS
By Alan Alford
The foremost of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Giza, is unique among Egyptian pyramids not just in the precision of its construction but also in the pattern of its chambers, some of which have been built at an unprecedented height in its superstructure. This exceptional system comprises the Queenâs Chamber, the Grand Gallery, and the Kingâs Chamber, which are all connected together by a series of narrow passages.
ÂÂÂÂÂ On account of its uniqueness, the Great Pyramid has generated endless speculation on three central issues: Who built it? How was it built? Why was it built? It is the âwhyâ question â arguably the most controversial of all â that is the exclusive focus of my new book Pyramid of Secrets.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Why did the architect of the Great Pyramid require such phenomenal size? Why did he require such uncanny precision? Why did he require such an extraordinary array of passages and chambers?
ÂÂÂÂÂ There are few clues in ancient Egyptian writings, and still fewer in the Pyramid itself, whose uninscribed stones stand in mute testimony to the monumentâs essential mystery.
ÂÂÂÂÂ In search of an answer, the logical first step is to study the civilisation of ancient Egypt, which left behind a legacy of more than one hundred pyramids in all. Such has been the task of modern Egyptology, which has justifiably made the connection between the pyramids and the kings who each, in their personage, encapsulated the mystery of ancient Egyptian religion.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Since the death of the king was indisputably a defining moment in ancient Egypt, it is logical to suppose the pyramid may have been a tomb for his mummified body. Moreover, since the rebirth, or resurrection, of the kingâs soul, or spirit, was an integral part of the same defining moment, it is logical also to suppose the pyramid effected the translation of the kingâs soul to the sky and âother worldâ. Indeed, this second supposition is confirmed absolutely in the names of the pyramids and the inscriptions (the Pyramid Texts) which were included in certain pyramids some two centuries after the Great Pyramid was built (according to the official chronology).
ÂÂÂÂÂ Egyptology thus arrived at the same conclusion reached by the ancient Greeks: the pyramids were the tombs of the kings, and the Great Pyramid in particular was the tomb of Khufu (Cheops).
ÂÂÂÂÂ Â But why, if that was so, was the Great Pyramid endowed with such a complex system of passages and chambers? Were all of its chambers â the Subterranean Chamber, the Queenâs Chamber, the Grand Gallery, and the Kingâs Chamber, required in some regard for the burial of the king? And, if so, how?
ÂÂÂÂÂ Â The initial explanation, derived in the early days of Egyptology, ran as follows. Khufu had at first decided to be buried underground, to which end the Descending Passage had been dug and the Subterranean Chamber excavated from the bedrock. But then the king changed his mind, perhaps on the view this arrangement was vulnerable to tomb robbers. Accordingly, he ordered his architects to amend their plans and build the Ascending Passage â a unique development at the time â and above it, hidden in the heart of the monument, a new burial chamber, which we know today as the Queenâs Chamber.
ÂÂÂÂÂ But even then, the king was not satisfied with the security arrangements. Once again, he had instructed his architects to revise their drawings. This time, they should build a magnificent sloping hallway â the Grand Gallery â and beyond it, still higher in the Pyramid, a new chamber made of granite and protected by a portcullis in the same material. This chamber â which we know today as the Kingâs Chamber â had then met with the kingâs satisfaction; and thus he came to be buried in the uppermost of three chambers, all of which had been intended as tomb chambers, whilst the Gallery provided a glorious passageway to the kingâs tomb of choice.
ÂÂÂÂÂ In recent years, however, Egyptologists had a rethink and have rejected the âchange of mindâ theory in favour of the idea the Pyramidâs complex interior was planned that way from the outset. As Rainer Stadelmann has explained: âIt does not do justice to the architects who designed and executed this unique building so perfectly to suggest that, in the essential element of the pyramidâs construction, that is the system of tomb chambers, they had proceeded without concept or design. Against this view is a conclusive argument in that the exterior construction and the layout of the chamber system work in perfect accord, and that neither inside nor out is there any suggestion of a change in plan.â
ÂÂÂÂÂ How, then, is the Pyramid to be understood as a unified design? What was the purpose of the various chambers?
ÂÂÂÂÂ The general consensus is as follows.
ÂÂÂÂÂ The Subterranean Chamber, it is believed, was probably intended as a decoy tomb, the aim being to persuade tomb robbers that the Pyramid had already been robbed.
ÂÂÂÂÂ The Queenâs Chamber, it is widely believed, was built as a serdab for the kingâs ka-statue, i.e. the statue possessing the kingâs spirit or life force.
ÂÂÂÂÂ The Grand Gallery, it is assumed, was a glorious passageway to the kingâs tomb, functioning also as a slipway for the granite plugs that were to block the mouth of the passage below.
ÂÂÂÂÂ And the Kingâs Chamber, it is held, was the kingâs final resting place. Hence, its superior finish in granite and the inclusion of the granite sarcophagus, which was of just the right size and shape to contain a human body.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Thus, whilst Egyptology has amended its theory in some respects, it continues to insist the Kingâs Chamber â the uppermost chamber in the Pyramid â was Khufuâs final resting place. Which is basically to say the Great Pyramid was âa tomb and nothing but a tombâ (Wallis Budge, 1893).
ÂÂÂÂÂ And yet the hard facts of the matter are these: the Kingâs Chamber sarcophagus was found broken and empty; no trace of the kingâs body has ever been found in the Pyramid; no direct evidence exists of a human burial in the Kingâs Chamber; and no reliable record has ever been unearthed of a king having being buried in, or removed from, either the sarcophagus or the Pyramid.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Moreover, it was not the Egyptian practice to deposit the kingâs body at a great height inside his tomb. Rather, it was the custom to bury the deceased in the Earth, in accordance with the fundamental principle âthe body to earth, the spirit to the skyâ. This was the standard practice from the beginning to the end of Egyptian civilisation, and it is reflected in the design of the pyramids, whose tomb chambers were as a general rule placed beneath the superstructure.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Thus Egyptology created a conundrum for itself: for why had Khufu, alone among all the pyramid building kings of Egypt, decided to raise his burial chamber from the Earth to the Kingâs Chamber, at a height of 140 feet in the superstructure of his pyramid?
ÂÂÂÂÂ In answer to this conundrum, Egyptologists proposed Khufu had broken with convention in an innovative attempt to fool tomb robbers, who had desecrated the graves of his ancestors. But this theory merely begs another big question: if security was such a problem, then why had other kings not taken similar precautions?
ÂÂÂÂÂ There the matter has been left, while Egyptologists turn to other, more pressing matters, seemingly unconcerned by their collective failure to solve the conundrum of the raised burial chamber. Khufu, it is supposed, had his reasons; and those reasons might well remain unfathomable to us. Itâs no big deal.
ÂÂÂÂÂ But actually, it is a big deal. For if Egyptologists took the time and trouble to comprehend the true meaning of Egyptian religion, the true role of the king, and the true symbolism of the pyramid, they would realise a burial in the Pyramidâs superstructure would have destroyed the vital magic of the pyramid building ritual and rendered the entire structure useless from the kingâs point of view. It would not so much have signified a religious revolution as an annihilation of the religionâs most fundamental principle, which dictated the kingâs body be buried in the Earth, beneath the Pyramid.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Here, a little explanation is required.
ÂÂÂÂÂ According to Egyptologists, ancient Egyptian religion was essentially a Sun cult for the latter two thirds of its four-thousand-year history, the God of the Egyptians thus being the Sun-god. It is this view which has informed modern opinion on the significance of the kingship, the pyramids, the temples, and the tombs. In short, the king is assumed to be a Sun-king, who embodied the spirit of the Sun-god, whilst the true pyramid (the smooth-sided variety) is assumed to be a solar symbol and a vehicle to an afterlife with the Sun. Under this view, there is no hard and fast rule requiring the king to be buried beneath his pyramid, even though this was the normal custom.
ÂÂÂÂÂ However, in my book Pyramid of Secrets I argue ancient Egyptian religion was not a Sun cult per se but a âcult of creationâ, and the true God of the Egyptians was not the Sun-god but the creator-god. Accordingly, the king did not personify the Sun-god, but the creator-god, and the pyramid was not a symbol of the Sun and a Sun-king, but a symbol of the creation and a creator-king.
ÂÂÂÂÂ What do I mean by these terms âcult of creationâ and âcreator-godâ?
ÂÂÂÂÂ Firstly, the âcult of creationâ may be defined as âa cult whose primary aim was to celebrate and re-enact perpetually the myth of the creation of the Universe.â
ÂÂÂÂÂ Secondly, the âcreator-godâ may be defined as âthe personification of the myth of the creation of the Universe.â
ÂÂÂÂÂ Which brings us to the crux of the matter, namely the Egyptian creation myth.
ÂÂÂÂÂ The Egyptian creation myth is geocentric. Its starting point is a pre-existent proto-Earth â a living being of body and soul â which has âdiedâ following an ill-defined, cataclysmic event. This living being is personified by the creator-god (or strictly speaking by the duality of the creator-god and the creator-goddess).
ÂÂÂÂÂ The soul of the Great God awakens from âdeathâ, frees itself from its body â the proto-Earth â and rises up into the nascent sky. At the same time, the proto-Earth gathers itself together, rises up from the watery abyss, splits open, and ejects the primeval matter from which the sky-ocean, the stars, the Sun, and the Moon will be born. This is the myth of âthe separation of the heavens from the earthâ.
ÂÂÂÂÂ After a period of chaos in the sky, the Universe is created and order prevails. The Great God becomes manifest in the entire created Universe â the sky-ocean, the stars, the Sun, and the Moon.
ÂÂÂÂÂ In the final act, the creator-god turns back to embrace his body â the newly-risen earth â and infuses it with his ka, the vital spirit of life.
ÂÂÂÂÂ In short, the Egyptian creation myth describes the âdeathâ of an old Universe and its rebirth as a new Universe, this entire process being personified by the âdeathâ and rebirth of the creator-god.
ÂÂÂÂÂ The creation myth thus provides the archetype for the death and rebirth cults that were so important in ancient Egypt â the death and rebirth of the Sun (daily, at the winter solstice, and at eclipses); the death and rebirth of the Moon (monthly, and at eclipses); the death and rebirth of the stars (daily, and at longer intervals, for example the reappearance of Sirius after seventy days spent below the horizon); the death and rebirth of the Nile and agriculture; and the death and rebirth of the king. All of these natural, recurring events were a perpetual reminder of the one death and rebirth that really mattered â the original one without which none of the other deaths and rebirths could happen â the death and rebirth of the Universe, personified by the death and rebirth of the creator-god.
ÂÂÂÂÂ This is what I mean by the _expression_ âcult of creationâ. In ancient Egypt, every religious ritual was a re-enactment of the creation myth, with the king standing in lieu of the creator-god. From coronation to funeral, the kingâs every act was aimed at repeating the events of creation, in order to rejuvenate the cosmic order (maat) which had been laid down by the creator at the beginning of the world.
ÂÂÂÂÂ In death, the king underwent the same transformation experienced by the creator-god at the beginning of time. Thus his body became identified with the primeval Earth, whilst his soul separated from the body and soared up into the sky to re-enact the creation of the Universe.
ÂÂÂÂÂ The pyramidal form symbolised this creative act, the Earth below it representing the primeval Earth, the superstructure signifying the separation of the soul from the body, and the capstone (the benben stone) symbolising the seed of the creator-god, which had been ejaculated from the Earth into the sky for the conception and birth of the stars, the Sun, and the Moon.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Under this view, of course, it becomes absolutely imperative the body of the king be buried beneath the pyramid. To break this rule, as Khufu is supposed to have done with the Great Pyramid, would have been to destroy the vital magic of the pyramid building ritual. I therefore reject the orthodox theory Khufu was buried in the Kingâs Chamber sarcophagus, at a height of 140 feet in the Pyramidâs superstructure.
ÂÂÂÂÂ Of course, this begs the question of what the Kingâs Chamber sarcophagus was for. It evidently contained something, otherwise intruders would not have bothered to break off its lid. But what?
ÂÂÂÂÂ Here, the creational theory provides a plausible answer. According to the myth of creation, the eruption of the proto-Earth had blasted into the sky the seed of the creator-god; and, in Egyptian tradition, this seed was the meteorite, or to be more accurate, meteoritic iron. In the Pyramid Texts, where the king re-enacts the myth of creation, this iron (bja) is everywhere. The king is said to have iron bones; he is urged to sit upon his iron throne; this iron throne is then lifted up into the sky; and finally the king provides the iron for the formation of the stars, the Sun, and the Moon. As we read in the Pyramid Texts, Spell 684: âThis king ascended when you ascended, O Osiris; his word and his ka are bound for the sky; the kingâs bones are iron, and the kingâs members are the Imperishable Stars.â
ÂÂÂÂÂ In view of the fact the Pyramidâs capstone, the benben stone, symbolised this iron seed, might the real meteoritic iron have been enshrined in the Kingâs Chamber sarcophagus?
ÂÂÂÂÂ I believe this was indeed the case. That the meteoritic iron, the seed of the creator-god, was placed in the superstructure of the Great Pyramid. And the body of the king, representing the body of the creator-god, was buried in the Earth beneath the Pyramid.
ÂÂÂÂ In the second part of this article, I will address the full astonishing implications of this theory for the purpose and meaning of the Great Pyramid.Â
Â______________________________________________________________________________
Alan F. Alford is the author of four earlier books including the bestselling Gods of the New Millennium (1996) and When The Gods Came Down (2000). Pyramid of Secrets is published in the UK by Eridu Books, 440 pages, 138 black-and-white illustrations, large-format trade paperback, price Â18. There are no plans for an Australian distributor. To purchase the book by credit card, visit the Eridu Books website www.eridu.co.uk, or telephone/fax Eridu Books on +44 1543 370453. Or send a bank draft for Â18 plus 20% p&p to Eridu Books, P.O. Box 107, Walsall, WS9 9YR, England.Â
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