In his diagrams Petrie shows the floors of KC south shaft intersecting the casing just below the top of course 103, and KC north intersecting at the top of course 102. In the text he gives the height of the exits as 3248.4" and 3119.1" above pavement. (somewhere I read that Goyon gives different figures 3157" and 3127"). Gantenbrink states on his website - "As we verified in 1992, the upper southern shaft emerges on the exterior at the 101st layer, the upper northern shaft at the 102nd layer". Yet Legon in his analysis of the shafts writes - "The north and south shafts from the King's Chamber are now reported by Gantenbrink to have both opened in the casing at the height of 80.63 ms ± 4 cm above the base. The apertures thus coincided with the level of the 105th course as determined by Petrie (3174.7 to 3176.0 inches above the base, mean 80.65 ms). This is exactly 2 × 7 × 11 equals 154 cubits above the base". And Gantenbrink's whole shaft analysis and diagrams are based upon a height for both shafts as 154 cubits. Meanwhile in Magli's book 'Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient Egypt' (2013), on page 79 he states - "I shall use the most reliable data on the shafts' slopes, provided by Rudolph Gantenbrink". (Though he also states that the uncertainty of shaft angles is about a degree !).
In the nineties I was hauled over the coals for producing a shaft analysis based on Petrie with a horizontal distance between shaft exits of 200 cubits. So 20 years ago I downloaded Gantenbrink's CAD drawings for study. Taking the KC shafts, if the various constructional bends around the chambers are ignored, we find that the long straight portions converge 77 cubits above base and 22 cubits from centre, key evidence for the 7/11 scheme. This also produces the important ratio 99/70, or 280/198. So if the goalposts have moved back to Petrie how can we explain this? (And by the way why are authorities so anal about releasing data, considering that the QC shafts have now been explored, and much else I wager).
Turning to the astronomical portions of the shafts I am in agreement Kanga. Petrie could at least get to and measure their slopes (45 and 31.2 degrees) meaning that they pointed to Orion's belt and Thuban at its maximum altitude at Khufu's accepted date. However, in plan, the northern shaft does not point north but is skewed a few degrees to the east. Considering Khufu's builders were rather meticulous in most respects this cannot be a 'mistake'. Any offers? (QC north also appears to veer very slightly to the east).
Edwards wrote in 'The Pyramids of Egypt' - "Once every 24 hours the three stars in Orion's belt passed at culmination over the [south KC] shaft. We learn from the Pyramid Texts that Orion and Sirius occupied almost as important positions in the king's plans for his after-life as the circumpolar stars. In Spell 821 the king is addressed in these words: 'Thou wilt regularly ascend with Orion from the eastern region of the sky, thou wilt regularly descend with Orion into the western region of the sky.' In Spell 882 the king is identified with Sirius: 'O King, thou art this great star, the companion of Orion, who traverses the sky with Orion.' The Great Pyramid was unique in making provision for the king to associate himself with both the circumpolar stars and the constellation of Orion and Sirius."
The AE might have been superstitious but I don't think they were idiots. As in the modern world the masses probably didn't give much thought to the mechanics of the cosmos, being satisfied that stars were 'born' in the east and 'died' in the west. But the priests who framed the circle of the decans might well have conceived a 'proto Ptolemaic' model of how things worked. Whatever, conditions in egypt were unusual - because of the flood and a long growing season it was important to keep the masses occupied with public work projects and carnivals. Better I suppose than the state of eternal war we now enjoy.
By the way, regarding the two angles of the west passage of the Bent pyramid do you mean Legon rather than Butler?
