Gantenbrink, Hawass, & the Great Pyramid

I was listening to Coast to Coast AM and I happened to catch a link that Noory mentioned for The Great Pyramid of Giza Organization. I'd never heard of this site before, so I decided to visit it.

I've never seen more than five photos of the interior of the Great Pyramid, so I started with the photo tour and my morning went from dull to extremely interesting within minutes. On page 5 of this photo tour there is a picture of a door taken by Rudolf Gantenbrink. The photo is numbered 31-The Unknown Door at the end of the southern air shaft. The caption for this photo reads as follows:

Rudolf Gantenbrink in 1993 sent a small robot with a camera up the southern air shaft in the Queen's Chamber. After traveling about 200 feet up the air shaft it came to a small door complete with copper handles. The air shafts are about 9 inches square. As far as we know, this door has not been opened and what is inside remains unknown.

I wondered if anything further had been done with the door since the photo was taken in 1993, so I Googled Rudolf Gantenbrink and found this page, which is at a web site I accessed last week while pursuing the Sphinx subterranean chamber mystery in another thread here at ATS.

A brief 2002 "expedition" apparently discovered stone rubble beyond the northern shaft door after drilling a small hole, but that seems to be the last attempt to find out what lies beyond it. Another deployment was planned at the end of 2006, I was not able to find any further information about the status of this project. Does anyone know if Hawass ever allowed penetration of any of the three new doors that have been found in the Great Pyramid?

Gantenbrink also has his own web site, The Upuaut Project, which is very well-presented and would be of interest to other Egyptophiles, however, I did not note any current information regarding the project status at his personal site either.

In my opinion, this is another example of Hawass interfering with legitimate research. I understand the need for preservation of Egypt's monuments, but the proposed procedure for further exploration of what lies beyond these doors appears to be minimally invasive.

Hawass' obstructionist tendencies are starting to verge on the ridiculous. I'd like to know how he justifies making statements to the effect that there is nothing left to find in the Great Pyramid when it is clear that there are still aspects of it yet to be explored.

Respectfully submitted,
Sleuth

My First Thread!

Originally posted by Sleuth

In my opinion, this is another example of Hawass interfering with legitimate research. I understand the need for preservation of Egypt's monuments, but the proposed procedure for further exploration of what lies beyond these doors appears to be minimally invasive.

Hawass has not stopped this investigation. The worst you can claim about him is that he took over the investigation for his own benefit.

In fact. Gantenbrink is himself at fault. he lost his affiliation with the institute that had the permit to do the investigation. Hawass had nothing to do with that.

Egypt will not issue permits to individuals, only to accredited University Archaeology departments of universities and to recognized archaeological associations or institutions.

Originally posted by Sleuth
Hawass' obstructionist tendencies are starting to verge on the ridiculous. I'd like to know how he justifies making statements to the effect that there is nothing left to find in the Great Pyramid when it is clear that there are still aspects of it yet to be explored.

Respectfully submitted,
Sleuth

You got a link to a quote of Hawass making this claim that there is nothing left to discover in the pyramid? I ask because Hawass, judging from his website, does not appear to be of this opinion.

Harte

Dr. Hawass: We are not discovering anything in the Great Pyramid, there is nothing really remaining to be discovered inside.

Source

Yeah around 1999 all research by anyone except Hawass or others connected to the Egyptian government, or in other words any research by anyone who is credible, was halted. Hawass cancelled all research at the Giza plateau for at least 10 years.

People will try to make all kinds of exuses as to why he did this, but it's still very strange and suspicous that he would stop all research there right at the exact time when real discoveries actually important to mankind were just starting to be made, like the Tomb of Osiris, Hall of Records, Astronomical alignments, Rain weathering on the Sphinx etc. were finally being made for real.

In 2002 they did a live television show where Dr. Hawass claimed to be going in the Gatenbrink door for the first time, but this was obviously a fraud and they had obviously been in there already long before the live tv stunt.

After they passed the first door, well, they found another door. They claimed they would go back in there and go past the second door, and that they would show us what's beyond it. Since then, it's now 5 years later, and there's been no word and no information about what's beyond the second door had been made public. IF there was nothing beyond the second door you would think they would at least try to say that there was nothing there, but they haven't said anything about it at all. Hawass went on record though saying he believes they will "find" a statue of khufu in there(probably planted there by Hawass).

Seems obvious that Hawass didn't find his statue of Khufu beyond the second door lol. The only explanation as to why they haven't told us what's beyond that door is that what they found was something they didn't expect and something they didn't want to be there.

Guardian: I know that you rotate the restoration of the Giza pyramids, generally leaving two open and one closed for restoration. You recently reopened the third pyramid, that of Menkaura. Is the true that the next pyramid to undergo restoration will be the Great Pyramid?

We're going to close the Great Pyramid on April 1st, because we found inside the pyramid again after 6 years, salts deposited on the walls up to 2 cm thick, and we also found cracks and graffiti left by the people and therefore we will close this for 8 months to restore these things. Then we'll open to the public the 1st burial chamber and the so-called Queen's Chamber and we'll do this cleaning and this restoration, mechanically removing all the salt, but also, at the same time we will make a new ventilation system with the French expedition. You know we are not closing the pyramid to hide anything as people say. We are not discovering anything in the Great Pyramid, there is nothing really remaining to be discovered inside.

In the context of the 1998 interview he is referring to the known parts of the interior that were being repaired. If you read the interview he gives his reasons for the there not being an immediate follow up to penetrate the next door.

Well, you may call them reasons. I consider them excuses. Research doesn't stop just because you're installing ventilation, and the AC Hawass talks about still hasn't been installed according to the articles I've read on the subject, or, if it has, there's been nothing published about it.

I liked Zahi in the beginning, but now he's engaging in petty bureaucratic BS just to frustrate research efforts on the Plateau.

My $.02.

Your opinion noted!

Originally posted by Hanslune
Your opinion noted!

I don't understand why people are getting so snarky here. It seems as though you're taking posts personally, which you shouldn't do.

I accept that there are people who believe Hawass. I'm not one of them, but I'm not being nasty about my disagreement. I'd appreciate some mutual consideration. I'm here to learn, not to argue or make enemies.

Sleuth

While looking at some more information concerning the "pit" which they talked about in that site, I ran across an article on the 2007 Discovery Channel expedition to open the Gantenbrink's Door , and the results of the operation. Hope you find it helpful

Pyramid's Secret Doors to Be Opened

Very interesting thread! Thanks for the great site reference. I learned a whole lot more than I thought I would about the structure.

Flagged and starred

I don't understand why people are getting so snarky here.

"Snarky", nope just noting your opinion.

Thanks for that link. Looks like Hawass is still dragging his feet on that. That was March of last year and nothing has happened yet.

And the years slip by . . .

Maybe he's hoping people will forget about it.

Why don't you volunteer to pay the costs and provide the technology to do it?

hawass is a wan**r, i would love to meat him. i swear he's working for the CIA Preserving the earth's most innner secrets.

Hawass does have a difficult job but I would agree that he moves very slowly on some issues.

CIA? LOL. Here is a question for you. Who is the head of the CIA "archaeology" section?

copper pipes in the doors?, these could be for air/electricuty cables or terminals(for electricity)

they could also be a for a clever booby trap, to pour granuled salt onto invadors, while slowly closing the entrance...my hat! dun da da da da da da(i think hawass called them handles,yeah okay..)

reply to post by Hanslune


do you mean CIA
OR the cia(central intelligance agency)

I believe the "doors" are about 22 cm and yes the handles are thought to be copper.

CIA the one in Langley of course! LOL good one.

Originally posted by Sleuth

Dr. Hawass: We are not discovering anything in the Great Pyramid, there is nothing really remaining to be discovered inside.

Source

After I requested this source, I left ATS for a while.

Just wanted to thank Sleuth for responding with the requested source, although I agree with Hans regarding the context within which it was made.

Anyway, a belated thank you to Sleuth.

Harte

I think people who view Hawass seem to forget he operating in a difficult situation. Trying to preserve the Giza plateau and other areas while under the screws to maximize tourist income and conduct scientific research.

Take a look at how Hawass is viewed by Egyptologists who live outside Egypt.

Hawass is a very dangerous man. He is delusional, having said that he is one of the pharaohs, reincarnated to return to set things right. I wonder if he was just trying to be humorous. It did not go well with the press.

He has his own agenda. He will not be crossed. The Giza plateau is a closed military zone. The Egyptians are up to something there, & I hope the US satellites can discover what exactly it is.

My 2 pence.....