RLH Wrote:
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> Nice job MJ thanks for the exact measurements.
> From this it does appear the plugs could not be
> stored in the GG and slid down after placing the
> King.

Hello RLH and all,

The majority of the measurements are taken from C. Piazzi Smyth's Life and Work at the Great Pyramid 3 Vols. Edinburgh 1867. (an original first edition of which my wife bought me last year - and very useful it has proven to be, too).

I should like to point at that Smyth mentions the fact that in many places the side walls of the Ascending Passage are much worn away.
Consequently, he took measurements from lines in the Passage floor that indicate where the original face of the wall was.
Unfortunately, these lines are few and far between so Smyth was only able to give 4 measures.
To these can be added two measures taken by Flinders Petrie.
It is also worth noting that when Petrie measured the altitude of the Passage floor (at nine points) he made due allowance for the wear in the floor itself.
If memory serves, Petrie was able to determine the original base of the walls in the places that he measured.

As I have already mentioned, at one point in the Passage the width is less than the width of the uppermost granite block.
However, because this difference is only 0.2” it is well within the realms of plausibility that this narrowing has been caused by a slight shift in the stonework.
But even allowing for this we have to accept that the granite blocks (or at least the uppermost one) are a very close fit inside the Ascending Passage – and this applies to it both width-wise and perpendicularly/vertically.

The largest recorded gap between the sides of the uppermost granite block and the walls of the Ascending Passage is 0.5”, giving us a mean 0.25” gap on either side of this granite block.

Now let’s ask ourselves this: How were these three granite blocks manoeuvred down the Ascending Passage?

Given the limited space available – which in places might have been even less than 0.25” – between granite block and limestone wall, it is clear that the builders didn’t let the blocks down the Passage gradually using ropes.
Nobody could have gone down the Passage in front of the blocks with some kind of braking device.
Well, they could have done so with the first block, but I can’t help but feel sorry for the chaps who had to take the second and third blocks down!!!
So, we are left with each block being carefully horizontally and vertically positioned at the mouth of the Ascending Passage (at the north wall of the Grand Gallery) and then given a push (an almighty one, I would imagine) to send it sliding down to the bottom of the Passage.
As Anthony suggests, the builders would have to have used a lubricant of some kind (dry granite block sliding down dry limestone floor, side of block occasionally brushing against side wall – you can guess the rest).
However, we are not talking WD40 or 3-in-1 here.
The lubricant (e.g. mortar or animal fat) would have had mass (well, certainly thicker than WD40 or 3-in1 and that, so I imagine, would have made the fit even tighter, especially as the lubricant built up around and under the front rounded edges of the granite block as it rumbled its way downward.
There’s also the probability that limestone dust/powder would have been churned up and mixed with the lubricant, too.

Interestingly, there is a 4” gap between the 2nd and 3rd granite blocks.
It has been suggested that this is evidence for the use of a lubricant; the idea being that it accumulated as the next block closed in and caused the gap by disintegrating over time.
As plausible as I find this, I have to ask: why don’t we see the same thing between the other two blocks?

Then there is still the problem with the Grand Gallery (ramps not far enough apart) to be resolved…

In view of all the above (including my opening post), I am inclined to accept the view that the three granite blocks in the Ascending Passage were built in situ.

However, as far as my hypothesis on how the interior of Khufu’s pyramid was designed, it is not in the slightest in my interest for the Ascending Passage to have been sealed during its construction.

On the contrary, I dearly wish somebody could persuade me that the Passage was sealed after Khufu’s supposed burial in the King’s Chamber.

As it is, I have Khufu safely tucked away in a yet to be discovered chamber, and no idea of how it could have been done if the granite blocks in the Ascending Passage were built in situ.

MJ