keeperzz Wrote:
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> Hi Hermione,
>
> Thanks for the link.
>
> I have two questions to all on the following
> drawing:
>
>
>
> 1) Was there any reason the architect chose the
> 7:11 grid, or was this choice arbitrary?

> If the choice is reasonable, can we determine the cause?

The primary reason for the slope of the KCN shaft is so that it points to the upper culmination of Thuban. In the year -2552, this culmination was precisely at the seked of 11½ palms (31.33°). The bulk of the KCN shaft, however, is at seked 11 palms (32.47°). There is a slight flattening of the shaft in the last 10m. Now, if the KCN shaft had continued at its original 7:11 slope, it would exit at the 154c level, at the top of course 104. Instead, because of the change of angle, it exits two courses lower, at the top of course 102.

This raises the question: Why did they start with a gradient of 7:11? Why not start with a gradient of 14:23? Because the shaft was not just targeting Thuban. It was also targeting the 154c level. Why this level? Because the 154c level has a diagonal of 280c, and sets out the geometry of sqrt 2 (99/70 and 140/99).

But why the 7:11 grid? On account of the specific dimensions of the grid, which are 70c x 110c. The primary dimension is the vertical one of 70c, and this comes from the 70c x 70c grid of KCS. Why this? Because this also sets out the geometry of sqrt 2 - the diagonal of the 70c x 70c is 99c, and this determines the primary value of sqrt 2 as 99/70.

> 2) Why is the King's chamber shifted south of
> pyramid's axis, after all the length of the Grand
> Gallery could be adjusted so that the chamber
> would be on the axis (like the Queen's chamber)?
> What other reason, besides the need to construct
> shafts with different prechosen angles, could
> cause the architect to move the chamber off the axis?
>
> Alex.

The same question was asked (and answered) by Prof. Giulio Magli. He reckoned that the offset of the king's chamber was such that the shafts, with their stellar-directed angles, would exit at (roughly) the same height (though he was at a loss in finding what the reason for this was). He wrote an article on this, and it is published somewhere on the web. Unfortunately it would take me quite a while to go through my notes to find the reference.

However, we are in a position to determine why the shafts should exit at the same height (154c in Gantenbrink's model). At the 154c level, the diagonal is 280c, and this leads us on to discover the geometry of sqrt 2 (coincidentally, the same geometry as expressed in KCS's 70c x 70c grid.