'Primitive Machine' Within Great Pyramid of Giza Reconstructed

FOR THE RECORD.... I absolutely hate the title, because it's misleading.

No, they're not talking about giant robots standing guard over the pharaoh. They're talking about a system within the pyramid that allowed them to lower huge stone blocks to obstruct the entrance after they left the pyramid.

The ancient Egyptians created a simple yet elaborate system of blocks and grooves within the Great Pyramid of Giza to protect the King's Chamber from tomb robbers.

In an upcoming episode of the Science Channel's "Unearthed," that system comes to life via computer animations. In the episode, Egyptologist Mark Lehner describes the system for viewers, calling it a "very primitive machine." Lehner leads Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), a team that has been excavating at Giza for about 30 years.

source

Lehner is a real Egyptologist, and a fairly well-known one.

If my memory serves me correctly.. didn't one of these stones falling and blocking the entrance alert the tomb robbers if where to turn left and tunnel..

The Egyptians were fantastic in their achievements but the method used to jeep out the robbers was actually the reason it the robbers were able to get in..

have the researchers ever gotten to look beyond those plugs/ doorways that are locking the mysterious & very small 'shafts' that go off in pairs from the 2 different Chambers in the pyramid

...never found any follow up on that discovery by a robot device that crawled up the shafts to see where it ended up and found a blockage instead of a unexpected blockage (which negates the idea that the shafts were aligned to Stars for the Pharoh afterlife journey)

I like the idea of the king having a second chamber where he could rest properly while the grave robbers thought they have had everything

I guess the Egyptians were inventive as all other human kins of this time, yet I am not following the theory that the Great Pyramid is their creation. Neither this:

Many scholars believe that the King's Chamber housed the remains of the pharaoh Khufu

My guess is that this and many more pyramids are creation from several different civilizations from around 25,00 BC to 12,000 BC.

Sadly to start proving this we need a lot of genuine research. I just don't have the five million dollars to spend abut it.

a reply to: Byrd

For a moment there, I thought you'd gone and joined the dark side...

a reply to: St Udio

As I understand several attempts have been made to get camera equipped robots down some of those shafts, many seem to be blocked, and after so many years of neglect it's not all that surprising really.

But that was several years ago, so I don't know about any more recent attempts.

Byrd's the right person to ask, though... I look forward to the answers, as well.

originally posted by: St Udionever found any follow up on that discovery by a robot device that crawled up the shafts to see where it ended up and found a blockage instead of a unexpected blockage (which negates the idea that the shafts were aligned to Stars for the Pharoh afterlife journey)

No it doesn't, in a physical sense sure, but the point of pyramids wasn't physical, it was spiritual and according to the beliefs of the Egyptians, physical barriers aren't barriers to the spirits of the dead

The website for the Upnaut project can be fond here,
www.cheops.org...

a reply to: Byrd
For a moment I thought you're crossing over to a woo topic, that could've made my day. Thanks for sharing.

At the risk of being off topic, why does the Khufu pyramid gets all the attention? What can you share to us regarding the other two pyramids? Do they also have passageways and chambers inside? Is it true that the pyramid of Khafre looks bigger when one is on site because it stands on a higher platform?

originally posted by: MaxTamesSiva
a reply to: Byrd
For a moment I thought you're crossing over to a woo topic, that could've made my day. Thanks for sharing.

At the risk of being off topic, why does the Khufu pyramid gets all the attention? What can you share to us regarding the other two pyramids? Do they also have passageways and chambers inside? Is it true that the pyramid of Khafre looks bigger when one is on site because it stands on a higher platform?

I think it gets all the love because it's the "Great Pyramid." There's over 115 standing pyramids in Egypt, including some of mud brick that are mostly rubble.

The interior of the other two Giza pyramids is much more simple than Khufu's, lacking the gabled chamber (a feature that's in both earlier and later pyramids.

When you're there on the plateau, it's hard to tell which one is largest because they're all huge and astonishing. It would have been overwhelming and exciting to be there in the 5th dynasty (after everything was finished) with the brightly painted temples and structures, the walls, the carved pavements, and the huge pyramids flanked by the smaller queens' pyramids.

Heh. I was so excited that I don't really remember much comparative detail. Plus, they let us go inside the GP and climb up and down to the chambers (a struggle for me) and that about did me in (I am not young.)

originally posted by: GmAndre
I guess the Egyptians were inventive as all other human kins of this time, yet I am not following the theory that the Great Pyramid is their creation. Neither this:

Many scholars believe that the King's Chamber housed the remains of the pharaoh Khufu

Actually, the Egyptians were the only ones who had pyramids at that time. Other pyramids are much younger.

Sadly to start proving this we need a lot of genuine research. I just don't have the five million dollars to spend abut it.

Five million would host a single field season (assuming you're paying the crew and all other expenses such as security and equipment) with researchers there on the plateau. I think the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA are still holding digs there.

In order to join one, you will have to learn a lot about the culture and you will have to learn to read hieroglyphs and to understand the artwork. I can give you the names of some books on the subject if you like. But you're on your own in trying to get into the Egyptology program at those two universities.

Access can be difficult to get without a university or NatGeo interceding for you... even if you ARE an Egyptologist.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Byrd

For a moment there, I thought you'd gone and joined the dark side...

I know! Hate the title. Hate, hate, hate it.

Why are there no designs on the exterior of the granite coffer?
Where is the lid?
Where is the funerary text/hieroglyphics decorating the walls inside the Kings Chamber?
Where is the pomp and circumstance that has been discovered in other burial chambers?

It's all a bit 'plain' for the King of Egypt.

originally posted by: fromtheskydown
Why are there no designs on the exterior of the granite coffer?
Where is the lid?
Where is the funerary text/hieroglyphics decorating the walls inside the Kings Chamber?
Where is the pomp and circumstance that has been discovered in other burial chambers?

It's all a bit 'plain' for the King of Egypt.

You do realize that those were from 200 years later, right?

The other kings of the 4th, 5th, and 6th dynasty built stone pyramids (so a period of about 400 years). Khufu's pyramid was broken into many times since the 1300's and nobody left much of anything for us.

Typical robbers (ancient Egyptians) would break into a pyramid, smash the sarcophagus lid, smash the coffins, and burn the mummy for the gold. This would destroy the plaster where the decoration was painted.

The Great Pyramid gets all the attention because it has been incorporated so heavily in the art world.
From an engineering perspective the three stones sliding in grooves would only require a wedge to re lift them?
The three blocks that were slid down the longer shaft would be more effective against a quick entry.
The pyramid builders must have expected the great pyramid to be guarded like the tomb of the unknown soldier?

Khufu's pyramid was broken into many times since the 1300's

A hot item in the Renaissance art world obviously, but how long did it stay sealed?

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: fromtheskydown
Why are there no designs on the exterior of the granite coffer?
Where is the lid?
Where is the funerary text/hieroglyphics decorating the walls inside the Kings Chamber?
Where is the pomp and circumstance that has been discovered in other burial chambers?

It's all a bit 'plain' for the King of Egypt.

You do realize that those were from 200 years later, right?

The other kings of the 4th, 5th, and 6th dynasty built stone pyramids (so a period of about 400 years). Khufu's pyramid was broken into many times since the 1300's and nobody left much of anything for us.

Typical robbers (ancient Egyptians) would break into a pyramid, smash the sarcophagus lid, smash the coffins, and burn the mummy for the gold. This would destroy the plaster where the decoration was painted.

I totally appreciate your better knowledge of Pyramids than my own and I can also understand what damage the plundering has done, in the past. So, what you are saying is that Khufu's Pyramid never had any decoration in the King's Chamber or that it has completely vanished through destruction?

a reply to: fromtheskydown

see. thats what happens when you ask an astute question. deafening silence or ridicule of the premise.

originally posted by: fromtheskydown

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: fromtheskydown
Why are there no designs on the exterior of the granite coffer?
Where is the lid?
Where is the funerary text/hieroglyphics decorating the walls inside the Kings Chamber?
Where is the pomp and circumstance that has been discovered in other burial chambers?

It's all a bit 'plain' for the King of Egypt.

You do realize that those were from 200 years later, right?

The other kings of the 4th, 5th, and 6th dynasty built stone pyramids (so a period of about 400 years). Khufu's pyramid was broken into many times since the 1300's and nobody left much of anything for us.

Typical robbers (ancient Egyptians) would break into a pyramid, smash the sarcophagus lid, smash the coffins, and burn the mummy for the gold. This would destroy the plaster where the decoration was painted.

I totally appreciate your better knowledge of Pyramids than my own and I can also understand what damage the plundering has done, in the past. So, what you are saying is that Khufu's Pyramid never had any decoration in the King's Chamber or that it has completely vanished through destruction?

The honest answer is "we don't know." All of them have been broken into multiple times (one was the site of another mummy burial). Herodotus and Stabo both claim it was opened (at least one passage was) and Caliph Ma'mun in the 800's who discovered several passages. His biographer reports finding a skeleton in the sarcophagus.

With the main passages open, it was undoubtedly entered by treasure seekers (and limestone harvesters) many times before Belzoni came in and reported on the Sarcophagus (and by now there were bull bones inside it.)

If there was plaster on the walls, bats and visitors and time has crumbled it into dust. The walls were NOT carved (that much is certain) but plastering over an area and painting it was a very standard decoration.

Nat Geo has an article on this (not my favorite articue, but very accessible)

The other kings of the 4th, 5th, and 6th dynasty built stone pyramids (so a period of about 400 years). Khufu's pyramid was broken into many times since the 1300's and nobody left much of anything for us.

Typical robbers (ancient Egyptians) would break into a pyramid, smash the sarcophagus lid, smash the coffins, and burn the mummy for the gold. This would destroy the plaster where the decoration was painted.
.....
If there was plaster on the walls, bats and visitors and time has crumbled it into dust. The walls were NOT carved (that much is certain) but plastering over an area and painting it was a very standard decoration.

well, that kinda speculative for the KC, afaik no rests of any plaster decoration was found on the walls..

sadly your GEO link is broken..

Clearly the builders were trying to protect something housed in the pyramid Whether that was a pharaoh or an ARK of the covenant type device is another matter.