lobo-hotei Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>

>
> According to both quotes the plugs are
> 41.6"(approx. close anyways).
>



Actually, the M&R quote is probably the most accurate, and they say 41.3 inches for the blocks. That's an extra third of an inch to move the blocks by any wavering of the side walls.

They could have used water as well as a lubricant. Some have suggested the mortar, which is why it has been found in spots along the tunnel floor. M&R disagree with that hypothesis, by the way.

To take this back to MJT's original post:

Quote

However, taking the Ascending Passage as a whole, its width varies from 41.4” to 42.1”

This means that at one point in its length the Ascending Passage is 0.2” narrower than the maximum recorded width (41.6”) of the granite plugs.

The blocks are less than that... 41.3 inches. His objection has been rendered technically null. Maybe not "practically" null, as you are suggesting here with your suggestion that it would have been too tight at those low clearances, but the claim that the passage was actually smaller than the plug stones is not entirely valid, according to the latest, most comprehensive survey.

I would also like to point out that many of these passages are probably measured at the top and bottom corners. To measure across the middle would require a certain amount of triangulation that might make it time consuming for such a basic measurement. However, there is another fact about the blocks that must be brought up, that I have not seen mentioned here yet, and it has been nagging at me.

The edge corners all the way around the block were all rounded. If the Ascending Passageway, into which these plugs were shoved, had a slight bow to the walls, then the rounded corners would not interfere with the tight tolerances of the corners. In addition, the rounded edges also give the blocks an advantage when being slid down the passage: no hard edges to catch on anything. Why go through the work of rounding the blocks if they aren't going to be slid? It actually makes them harder to handle, I would suggest.

These are practical issues as well, and given the preponderance of evidence for this being Khufu's tomb and these plug stones being standard passage blocking devices, I think the benefit of the doubt goes to the current paradigm: the blocks were slid down from the Grand Gallery to plug the passage after Khufu was interred.

Anthony

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.