MJ Thomas Wrote:
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>
> Sorry to be a nuisance, Anthony, but you haven’t
> said what in your opinion the primary purpose of
> the Queen’s Chamber was.
You're right.
> Any chance of you coming back with an answer? It
> would be appreciated – and not only by me, I am
> sure.
Snowball. Hell. You get the picture....lol.
>
> I’m not at all sure what you have in mind when you
> say “the landing area for the Grand Gallery.
> Are you referring to the north (lowermost) end of
> the Gallery, the south (uppermost) end of the
> Gallery, or some point between the two?
You may not be sure, but you guess well!
>
> If you think it probable that the Grand Gallery
> “would have been modified into a 2nd chamber”,
> then you must have some idea in mind as to its
> size and shape.
> Can you tell us what you imagine this ‘chamber’
> would have been like?
That dimension would have been entirely dependent upon how far they had completed the height of the pyramid, above the Grand Gallery base. Since they completed it, there's no way of knowing or predicting this particular dimension. However, since you ask, I'll guess that the widest it could have been is 4 cubits... the width of the walls of the Grand Gallery. Beyond that, it's purely hypothetical.
> >
> >
> >
> > The Subterranean Chamber was just such a
> chamber.
> > Its unfinished state shows that it wasn't
> needed.
>
> It was ‘such a chamber’?
> It wasn’t needed?
It wasn't needed, ergo it wasn't finished. The current state of the subterranean chamber clearly speaks to that conclusion.
>
> Why is the Subterranean Chamber (SC) so large and
> at the same time unfinished?
Had it been needed, it would have been much more finished.
> Are we really expected to believe that Khufu
> needed such a vast burial chamber (especially as
> you appear to me to think that the appreciably
> smaller Queen’s Chamber and King’s Chamber were
> each deemed adequate)?
If it was going to be below ground, then apparently the answer is "yes".
>
> It makes no sense to argue that the SC was
> unfinished because it wasn’t needed as a burial
> chamber.
It makes sense from an Egyptian mortuary perspective. No other sense is needed.
> The builders wouldn’t have known it wasn’t needed
> until after the Queen’s Chamber had been built.
Correct.
> There was plenty of time – literally years -
> between the start of work on the Pyramid site and
> the building of the Queen's Chamber for the SC to
> have been completed and made ready to serve
> whatever purpose it was intended to serve.
Tunneling and clearing rock from that far down is not a fast process... certainly not as fast as stacking blocks.
> I seriously doubt that the seeming abandonment of
> the SC has anything to do with your proposed
> contingency plans for the king dying before his
> burial chamber proper (the King’s Chamber?) was
> ready.
You are welcome to provide an alternate idea, but as an abandoned contingency burial chamber in case of the king's early demise I can assure you it fits both logical and culturally into the Fourth Dynasty.
>
>
> > > Then why is Khufu's pyramid the only
> one
> > with
> > > these "shafts" (AFAIK)?
> > >
> >
> >
> > Because of its design it was the only one
> that
> > needed them.
>
> Then what is it about the design of the interior
> of Khufu’s pyramid that makes these ‘shafts’
> necessary?
Study a hundred pyramids and you'll figure that out. Seriously, it becomes quite obvious when you do.
> Surely any pyramid with a burial chamber located
> at or above the base of its superstructure could
> ‘need’ these shafts.
No, not really.
> Looking at the cross-section diagrams in Lehner’s
> The Complete Pyramids, I see that the pyramids of
> Sneferu and Khafre could quite easily have
> accommodated shafts of this kind; so too, I see,
> could some of the pyramids of the 5th and 6th
> Dyns.
Yes, but they didn't. When you study them all more closely, you'll see why.
> Again, what is it about the design of the interior
> of Khufu’s pyramid that makes these ‘shafts’
> necessary?
You have demonstrated quite a bit of ingenuity with your research, MJT. You're up to this little puzzle... especially now that you have a much bigger clue than I did when I started. I didn't know the shafts were canals. You do.
Anthony
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.