Hello Anthony,

You write, 'Also, in your diagram, you show the block to be the full size of the current opening. Do we know this is actually the case? Could it not have been a simple flat stone, perhaps 12 inches thick, that was just pushed up and wedged into position like a big flat door?'

According to Smyth, Petrie, and the Edgar brothers the block that filled the space in the Descending Passage lies (at their respective times) on the floor of the Passage a short distance north of the space.
It is clear from their descriptions that the block is in shape much as I have drawn it, and was large enough to make getting past it rather difficult.
However, on reflection I realise that the block lying on the DP floor has to be smaller than I have shown it because otherwise it would have been impassable.
But, then, it is very likely that this block is only a fragment of the original block.

As far as I can deduce from the descriptions of this block by Smyth et al, it is significantly more than "a simple flat stone...".

Regarding your suggestion that this block could have been "a single flat stone ... that was just pushed up and wedged into position like a big flat door", I think it unlikely.
Wedges would probably have been sufficiently visible to rouse interest in that particular area of the Descending Passage roof.
As there is no mention of this block pre Al Mamun, I would suggest that wedges were not used.
The absence of traces of cement/mortar all so lends itself to this view.

MJ

p.s. I have just asked myself a question to which, at the moment, I don't have an answer:

Then how could Al Mamun have known about it before he started his tunnel?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2007 05:17PM by MJ Thomas.