Hello Graham,

Thanks for the feedback.

It now occurs to me that because it was impossible pre 'Al mamun's Tunnel' for anybody to illegally enter Khufu's pyramid and not be seen, we are looking at somebody somewhen authorising entry and the subsequent removal of any grave goods.
This suggests to me that we are looking at a time period when the 4th Dyn pyramids were no longer considered sacred.
According to Lehner (The Complete Pyramids 1997 page 15): "Pyramid building almost ceased during the First Intermediate Period when unified rule gave way to rival principalities."
On page 38 of The Complete Pyramids Lehner writes: Some 550 years after Khufu, his pyramid temple and those of his successors seem to have been stripped of their reliefs, since blocks and pieces were reused in the core of the 12th Dyn pyramid of Amenemhet I at Lisht
I'll now hazard that Khufu's pyramid was not illegally broken into until some 500 years after Khufu's demise.
As for the idea that 'Al Mamun's Tunnel' actually pre-dates Al Mamun, I'm wondering if the Romans were the true excavators of it.
The Romans certainly had the necessary tunnelling skills, but the Roman geographer Strabo (c. 25BC) mentions the entrance but not the tunnel.
However, Lehner writes, "Once Constantine converted to Christianity in AD 312, 3,000 years of pharaonic culture came to an end. The Copts began to destroy the pagan monuments of their ancestors and the last person to read the heiroglyphic script died sometime in the 4th Century AD."

Problem is, if the Romans circa. or post 4th Century A.D. dug the tunnel into the Pyramid, I would expect there to be a written record of it - and there isn't one... which brings me grinding to a halt

Regards,

MJ