Khazar-khum writes, 'I don't understand how knowing when they were robbed affects understanding that they are tombs.'

Cicely writes, 'Unless, possibly, what MJ is suggesting is that the pyramids weren't initially intended as tombs, but were, at some later time, retrofitted as tombs? That when they were robbed, as tombs, would determine the earliest time when they were used as tombs?

I don't know that this is what MJ is suggesting, but I'm just tossing it out there for what it's worth.

My own view is that, while it would be nice, and useful, to know when they were first robbed, it's probably not possible to determine it, time and traffic having done for the evidence we could use to determine it. Which doesn't mean we shouldn't keep looking!
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Let’s see if I can resolve this confusion (most of which I suspect is of my own doing ) over what I am saying about pyramids in general and Khufu’s in particular.

IMO all of the Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for the kings/pharaohs.

However, I am not convinced that all the pyramids of the 4th and early to mid 5th Dynasties were functional tombs.
I consider it possible that some of these pyramids were symbolic tombs and their respective kings were interred elsewhere.

In the case of Khufu, if, repeat if, he was interred in his pyramid, then his actual burial chamber has yet to be discovered.
My reasons for saying this are several and rather long, so I shan’t go into it here.

IMO Khufu’s pyramid was not broken into before the digging of the tunnel in its north face.
As I see it, this tunnel would not have been dug during the time that the Pyramid was seen as sacred and necessary for the well-being, etc., of Khufu’s spirit or spirits, and so on.

Because it would have been impossible for such an excavation to be completed without official sanction (even tacit) either we are looking at a conspiracy at a high level and on a grand scale or the the break in occurred some time after the Pyramid was no longer considered sacred – which, I believe, brings us to circa. 2100BC.
Currently I favour the latter.

I hope this clarifies things.

MJ