Anthony wrote, ‘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". ‘
RLH wrote, ‘I don't see the logic behind this! If the descending passage was open all along then why would they move 30 feet to the west to start tunnelling in?
If appears to me the passage was hidden and they chose the center line of the pyramid to start tunneling looking for the passage.’
Part way down the Descending Passage is (was?) a block of limestone that from its size and shape once fitted into the gap between the roofline of the Descending Passage and the start of the granite plugs.
Clearly, this block was intended to fill in this space in the DP roof and at the same time conceal the Ascending Passage and its granite blocks.
Now, if Al Mamun (not sure about the spelling) first entered the Pyramid by the Descending Passage, how did he then discover the start of Ascending Passage in the Descending Passage roof ?
As I see it, either
a) the concealing block had already fallen into the Descending Passage, leaving the start of the Ascending Passage exposed to view
b) somebody in Al Mamun’s party noticed something odd about this particular block in the Descending Passage roof and this led to it being forcibly removed
c) Al Mamun already knew about the concealing block and its location in the Descending Passage roof and had it hacked out.
Of these three possibilities I think b) to be the most likely (I remind the reader that this is assuming Al Mamun knew about the Descending Passage before he tunnelled into the Pyramid).
But what prompted Al Mamun to start his tunnel at the mid-length of the Pyramid’s north side?
I think the most likely cause was the small groove cut into the pavement very close (i.e. 1.5”) to the actual mid-length of the north side; this groove runs underneath the Pyramid’s casing, so it was definitely cut by the Pyramid’s builders.
IIRC, this marker was not known about in modern times until the area was cleared of debris by Cole in 1925.
I tentatively propose that Al Mamun saw this marker and presumed it indicated the location (N-S) of another passage.
I believe it to be generally accepted by those who know about these things that Al Mamun’s people would not have tunnelled through the limestone blocks along side the Ascending Passage’s granite blocks from the floor of the Descending Passage because it was potentially too dangerous.
Burrowing into the area from the side was, so I understand, a safer option.
Hence we have Al Mamun not only knowing about the Descending Passage, but also the existence and whereabouts of the start to the Ascending Passage, and a reason for starting his tunnel at the mid-length of the Pyramid’s north side.
Any feedback on this would be most welcome
Regards to all,
MJ