The beginning of the ascending passage is very close to 1/3 of the distance from the edge, so this may well have been intended. It is pretty well accepted that the edge of the great step was intended to be at the midline of the pyramid. The slope of the ascending passage/grand gallery is very close to the 2:1 slope and numerous commentators, including Gantenbrink, after his own survey in the 199
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
For me, one of the more interesting parts of the book dealt with the cracking of the roof blocks in the king's chamber. According to Romer, this was due to subsistence of the limestone blocks, largely in reaponse to all of the weight of all the granite for the king's chamber and the relieving chambers. This made me wonder why this was not anticipated in the first place, and also made
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
I have just read Romer's new book. I am starting a new thread because the earlier ones have fallen off the front page. I agree with Jon B. that there is a lot of excellent info in the book and a lot of great pictures. Many of the pictures are archival but I had not seen quite a few of them.
Of all of the info in the book, the part I am most familiar with and was most interested in rea
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
In Petrie's section on the peribolus walls around the third pyramid he says the western peribolus wall of the second pyramid divides the northern peribolus wall of the third pyramid approximately evenly. He also says:
"Not only does the peribolus of the Second Pyramid appear to be thus connected in its position, but the wall at the head of the galleries, if prolonged, would pass but
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Graham,
In the section above the section you quoted from, Petrie talks about the other walls around the second pyramid. About the wall to the north of the second pyramid he says:
"On the N. side it is a wide substructure of very large blocks, rather rudely hewn, and bearing cubit marks and numbers on the backs."
About the wall to the south of the second pyramid he says:
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Using Petrie's orientation, the EW distance and the NS distance from the NE corner of G1 to the SW corner of G3 is also precisely 9/11.
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Here is another proposed explanation for the Giza siteplan.
Assumptions as follows:
1. The starting point is a rectangle with a border one cubit wide and outside dimensions of 1732 x 1414 cubits.
2. The northern and eastern sides of G1 and the southern and western sides of G3 are drawn on the inside border of the rectangle. Thus, the northern edge of G1 is 1730 cubits north of the
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Graham,
Interesting about your equation producing 201.2 for G3. We have been using 1414 cubits as the square root of two times 1000 cubits, but more precisely, the square root of two times 1000 is 1414.2
Jim
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Wayne,
If you align the 2000 cubit diagonal at 45 degrees, as I understand you have done, AND you make the rectangle defined by the SE corner of G1 and the NW corner of G3 precisely horizontal and vertical, I think you will find that the error for both E and G will be smaller.
Jim
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Wayne,
Here is another one that you might want to add:
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Graham,
By my calculation, the diagonal distance from the middle of the south face of G1 to the G2 diagonal is 773.575 cubits. This is based on baselengths for the first two pyramids of 440 and 411, and Petrie's survey results of 250 NS and 213 EW between the first two pyramids, which I think should be considered very reliable since the azimuths of the first two pyramids are pretty mu
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Clive,
The ratio you give for the diagonal distances as 600/314.5 is given by Robin Cook as 21/11.
Since 6/pi = 21/11 these are equally fair measures. 21/11, or 6/pi, is also the ratio between the modern meter and the ancient egyptian cubit.
The diagonal box from Cook's old website that is shown in the diagram above gives 21 for the long side and 8 for the short side.
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Ronald,
I have to say that I agree with Wayne and can not understand your comment about the terrain and the primative means of the builders. Both of the first two pyramids are almost perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions, giving their diagonals a 45 degree azimuth. The NS distance from the SW corner of G1 to the NE corner of G2 is 250 cubits while the EW distance from the SW corner
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Clive,
The eleven cubit diameter of the two circles is also the same as the EW length of the chamber, so if the 11 cubit circle in the chamber was a sphere, it would just touch the east and west walls.
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi MJ,
This was discussed here a coupld of years ago. There is also support for the theory that the lower southern block on the western wall blocks a passageway, in the number of blocks in all of the surfaces of the chamber. Here is my drawing of the blocks in the chamber:
There are nine blocks in the ceiling. There are 36 blocks in the south wall. There are 27 blocks in the north w
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Warwick,
How is the fact that Djedfre built a pyramid off of the Giza Plateau any evidence at all that he did not hold the same religious beliefs as the builders at Giza?
The fact that like Khafre, Menkaure and Hamet-Ra, Djedfre had the same suffix suggests to me a continuity of belief, not a discontinuity.
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Kat,
As I recall some previous arguments against Osiris at Giza, the fact that Khafre and Menkaure had the re suffix suggested to some that they were solar oriented and not stellar oriented and therefore Osiris/Orion must not have been involved. But here we have Hamet-Ra with the same solar suffix and an attestation to Osiris in her funerary offering formula. Is there any evidence for you
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
This 1936 article in the Bulletin of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts gives Hemet-Ra at Giza as 4th dynasty:
I believe this link shows the illustrations referred to in the Bulletin article:
Why the discrepancy in your assertion that this is mid to late 5th dynasty?
PS - thanks Jon as always for sharing your excellent work and pictures.
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Clive,
Nice find about the KC ceiling at 1/3 the height of the pyramid. Given 280 height this gives 93.333 repeating for the height of the KC.
Given 440 for the baselengths, I get 82.010101 for the height of the KC floor at 1/2 the area of the base at ground level:
440/sq rt 2, divided by 2, x 28/22 = 197.989898
280 - 197.989898 = 82.010101 for height of KC floor.
The difference
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Interesting thread.
In support of his suggestion that the remains are that of Sneferu, Batrawi says:
"On a priori grounds there is no reason why the remains under consideration should not be considered as those of the original burial in the pyramids, i.e. of Sneferu himself."
I disagree with this statement. To begin with, it assumes that Sneferu was originally buried in this
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Lee,
Thanks for the info. I would also like to see your translation. My email is jalison@hiwaay.net. I recently reread some of "Archaic Egypt" by W.B. Emery (1961). Even back then he seemed to think there was archeological evidence of Osiris prior to Dyn. 4. Here are a few quotes:
"Wit
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Dave,
Here is an image of the obelisk at Heliopolis with the coordinates from Google earth:
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Dave,
The long side is 2, the short side is sq. rt. phi and the height is sq. rt. phi x 3/2. As a result of your slight errors of construction or measurement I think this is a bit closer to your given measures than the pi calculation. Of course they are related and the approximate presence of one assures the approximate presence of the other, just like the GP.
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Kat,
Thanks for all the info.
PS to Donald and Bernard: I took this picture of a stepped circular pyramid at Coba:
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Kat,
"Btw the picture you have here has chopped off some mounds... now why is that I wonder?"
I was trying to zoom in as much as possible. As I said in my first post, the whole area is available in high resolution on Google earth.
"So what do you know about Caral Jim?"
Not as much as you. What were their religious beliefs? Did they have worship the sun or sta
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Donald,
According to this:
Caral has been radiocarbon dated from 2600 BC to 2000 BC. This would make it contemporaneous with you know where.
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi all,
Google earth has a very nice high resolution satellite image of Caral at 10 deg 53' 32" S and 77 deg 31' 14" W. I have rotated the image from due north to align the structures horizontally and vertically. Does this look familiar?
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi Dave,
"Course heights, iirc, are ad hoc."
I am not sure what you mean by this, but the height of each of the five courses of the KC is 64 digits, or 16 palms. (The lowest course is measured from the base of wall, not from the raised granite floor). This gives a height of 80 palms for the chamber, as compared with a width of 70 palms and a length of 140 palms.
Best,
Jim
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Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Hi MJ and RLH,
"the Ascending Passage (AP) floor line is 1546.8 inches long. That's 74.971 royal cubits. But a lot of people report and or take the length of the AP as - not close to or near, but as - 75 royal cubits. I think this is wrong because it is misleading."
If you subtract the 59.8 inch portion of the floor line that is the extended portion from the lower end of the
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History
Assuming that the QC was a back up KC, why would the QC still be the go to chamber after the KC ceiling was in place. The reason for all of the relieving chambers is ostensibly to carry all of the weight of the completed pyramid. Either the pyramid would be completed after the Khufu's death, in which case the relieving chambers would be completed, or the pyramid would not be completed af
by
Jim Alison
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Ancient History