Hi Waggy,

I'll be long dead when the model becomes available :-( But your excellent work goes far to compensate for this).

Whereas the south wadi might well have exercised a constraint on orientation one may still ask why Khentkawes was not oriented to the cardinal points? And it does seem that the Wall of the Crow follows this orientation. But what are the azimuths of these features? Khafre causeway for example has an offset of 1 in 4, a favourite proportion for wall-batters and the like, so perhaps Khentkawes orientation might mean something.

But the situation to the southeast remains perplexing. The comparatively shoddy workmanship of the Menkaure complex is often put down to 'change of cult'. But the majority of tombs in the Western Cemetery are fifth dynasty which demonstrates that Khufu's cult was still going strong. Yet the superstructures of the pyramids built during this period are small and shoddily built. Was there a manpower problem of some kind? Or other actually useful projects like canal building?
I doubt the conscripted slaves who did the rough work on the large pyramids enjoyed their lot but in Egypt everything was centred on the royal elites, as Wengrow makes clear -

[ls-tlss.ucl.ac.uk]

Perhaps then we might consider the large pyramids as aberrations - the consequence of a mathematically-minded (and apparently neurotic) contingent that had for a time gained power within the priesthood. But it is this very design question which makes these vainglorious piles of stone interesting.