Hello Anthony,
You write,
> Yes, I worded it poorly. The subterranean PASSAGE
> was never lost at any time. The secret shaft that
> leads FROM the subterranean passage up to the
> Grand Gallery, however, became choked and "lost"
> until emptied from above... by Petrie, I think.
AFAIK, it was Caviglia who first cleared the Well Shaft (or at least made it accessible throughout its length) in around 1816-1819.
He and his workers started clearing it from the top (Grand Gallery end) but it became impossible to do because of lack of breathable air (using sulphur for lighting didn't help).
Caviglia then set to clearing the Descending Passage and in the process discovered the opening in the west wall of the Passage that he then went on to find was the other end of the Well Shaft.
Apparently, the whole operation was extremely dangerous and almost cost Caviglia and some of his workers their lives.
Years later the Edgar brothers also expended a lot of time and energy clearing this Shaft.
You write,
> I base my conclusion on the debunking of the fact
> that Mamun supposedly knew about the entire
> descending passage because he talks about the
> stone falling from the ceiling of the passage.
> This claim seems rather far-fetched, as the sound
> would have had to travel through about 30 feet of
> core masonry. Add to this the noise of his own
> men working in the tunnel, and the tunnel being 30
> feet away (and yet the movement that was supposed
> to jar the piece loose was the men tunneling!).
> This just doesn't make sense, and the other
> scenario clearly does.
>
> It's also extraordinarily fortuitous that he just
> HAPPENED to pick a spot exactly parallel to the
> inner passage and tunneled almost directly to it,
> turning at just the right time to hit the joint
> just above the first granite block, and then
> cleared out both sides. Wow. Talk about luck.
> The ONLY tunnel into the pyramid, and he hits it
> spot on with his first try!
>
> No, it didn't happen that way at all. He carved
> in a tunnel to go around the granite plug stones
> without disturbing them. In order to do that, he
> had to know the plug stones were there. In order
> to know that, he had to have been in the
> descending passageway. Ergo, the DP was never
> "lost".
I fully agree with you on this.
MJ