It's not a logical impossibility to prove at all, if an actual tomb containing Khufu was to be located. There is an enormous amount of evidence that the Great Pyramid was built to serve the function of a tomb, but a notable absence of evidence that this took place.
The one place i would have expected evidence to have been found in the historic period of European exploration, would have been in the well shaft, notably the grotto, which if grave goods had been extracted via that route would have left debris there for certain. All evidence has suggested the upper passageways and chambers were not entered until the time of Al Mamun, and has suggested no burial, despite this confounding expectations.
The evidence has suggested a certain amount of indecisiveness on the part of Khufu, regarding having a subterranean chamber unfinished and then a furthur two chambers above that at the differing levels, possibly on the grounds of increased security, a state of mind which could have led him to abandon the idea that such a pre-eminent landmark could actually ever remain undisturbed over great periods of time.
If Khufu did make the decision to be buried in a more discreet location, beneath an actual sacred mountain rather than a prominant manmade construct, then possibly this also influenced Djedefre to abandon the idea of burial within a pyramid and to find a natural mountain to be buried beneath, far off the beaten track;
According to a preliminary study of the epigraphic material by K.P. Kuhlmann (KUHLMANN 2002: 133-138) - firstscholar on the spot and cooperation partner of the ACACIA project - the site had seen activities of at least three sub-sequent pharaonic expeditions, two in the reign of Khufu (fig. 13) and one in the reign of Radjedef (or Djedefre), hisson and successor. The longest inscription on the rear rock face of the terrace (fig. 14) records an expedition led bythe officers Jj-mrjj and Bbj in “the year after the thirteenth time of counting the cattle”, i.e. regnal year 27, of Khufu,which extends the generally accepted length of his reign by four years. As stated by the text, Jj-mrjj and Bbj had comethere with two regiments of recruits (up to 400 men) in order to “make mefat”, following Kuhlmann’s interpretationmost probably a mineral powder used for paint - surely an important need in regard to the huge building projects ofthe Fourth Dynasty. As another inscription records, Bbj had been to the site on his own already two years earlier, at that time leading only one regiment but for the same reason, to “produce all kinds (?) of mefat”.Radjedef’s name appears - in contrast to Khufu’s - only once but in a remarkable manner: A short inscription including his cartouche is enclosed by a frame surmounted by two humps (fig. 15). Since this frame resembles the hieroglyphic sign for “mountain”, and since the same shape appears several times filled with a number of zig-zag lines similar to thehieroglyphic word for “water”, Kuhlmann suggested that “Radjedef’s Mountain (of Water)“ might be the Egyptian namefor this location. Meanwhile, several more attestations of the framed “water motif” have been found in the surroundingsof site Khufu 01/01. In no case they are associated with any hieroglyphs, thus challenging Kuhlmann’s interpretation.
The presence of workcrews of Khufu and Djedefre in the Eastern sahara is hard to explain, a given explanation is they were making 'powder', (even the red ferrous pigment for colouring pyramids red, though neither is understood as having used such, and would have been surely available in more readily accesible areas), which i suppose they would have been if chiselling away underground...
It's all about having a contingency plan...
Morph
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2007 04:24PM by Morph.
