Khufu's Coffin
Sir Flinders Petrie's survey of the Pyramids of Gizeh was not only the most meticulous that had ever been carried out, but it is not at all certain that anything done since has equalled it. Modern equipment may allow greater precision, but adjusting the figure for the height of the Great Pyramid by the wavelength of green light is hardly earth-shattering and ignores the fact that Petrie's survey covered much more than mere measurement.
For example, he not only noted that the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber was an inch or so wider than the doorway into the chamber - proving that it must have been installed before the roof was laid over the chamber - he also noted that the finish on the sarcophagus was not up to the standard of the rest of the chamber.
Famously, the granite blocks which make up the King's Chamber are so smooth and so even that it is impossible to fit a piece of paper between them - as those who come on our tours are able to demonstrate for themselves. The sarcophagus, on the other hand, is striated with the marks left by the saw which cut it out of the parent rock. Such striations, of course, are inevitable, but why were they not polished out, as they must have been with the blocks in the walls of the chamber?
(The lighting in the King's Chamber is so poor that it is impossible to see these striations on black stone in black gloom. However a few years ago I took along a torch and held it flat against the stone so that its beam shone down the face of the stone. In this way the irregularities were highlighted and I was able to take a photograph showing them.)
You or I might note the fact, shrug and move on, but for Petrie the unfinished state of the sarcophagus had enormous significance. He had been sent out by his father, a firm believer in pyramidology, to measure the Great Pyramid accurately and thus determine with precision the date when the world would end. If the pyramid was indeed a Divinely inspired "prophecy in stone", then it would have to be perfect. The fact that it wasn't, militated against the validity of the "prophecy in stone" theory.
Petrie's suggestion to account for the fact of the unfinished state of the sarcophagus was an ingenious one. According to his reconstruction, the Queen's Chamber had been intended as the burial place of Pharaoh Khufu. Unfortunately, some ancient time and motion expert had organised the building of the pyramid and the blocks of stone were being supplied from the quarries on a JIT (Just In Time) basis.
Disaster fell when the boat bringing the sarcophagus from the quarries at Aswan sank with its cargo. Work on the pyramid could not be stopped while another sarcophagus was procured, so the plans were hastily altered, the Grand Gallery was added and a second, higher burial chamber constructed while the quarrymen at Aswan worked round the clock to get another sarcophagus ready.
Their best efforts, however, could not produce a finely carved sarcophagus in time and the boat had to set out for Gizeh with a partly finished sarcophagus on board. Workmen may have continued to work as the ship sailed north and may have been still chipping away as the workmen arrived to drag it up the ramps and into its final resting place.
The story is an ingenious one, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. For example, why were the workmen not allowed to continue work on the chamber as the rest of the pyramid grew over their heads? Once the King's Chamber had been roofed, they could have worked in perfect safety - and the darkness of the chamber would have been no obstacle to the technicians who dug the underground chamber at the foot of the Descending Passage and who, a few centuries later, were to dig the tunnels in the Valley of the Kings.
Still, it will be interesting to see if the latest survey to be conducted in Egypt turns up a black basalt coffin with the name "Khufu" on it. Archaeologists are to conduct a survey of the bed of the Nile between Aswan and Abydos, using sonar and ground penetrating radar to detect any anomalies beneath the silt.
That is, of course, to assume that there were ancient shipwrecks in the Nile and that the water does indeed conceal a treasure trove of statuary and pottery. It seems extremely likely, but the team will be able to prove that their equipment works by a sweep of the river bed opposite Luxor. In the 1880s the French Director of Antiquities, Gaston Maspero, arranged for two small obelisks to be shipped from Luxor to the Cairo Museum but the felucca on which they were loaded had hardly left the quay-side when it sank.
The technology of those days was unable to locate the objects, so if they can be found by the archaeologists it will be a triumphant proof of concept as well as restoring to view the obelisks which have not been seen for 120 years.
© Kendall K. Down 2009
In a move that is probably long overdue, the Egyptian authorities have announced an underwater survey using sonar, side-scanning radar and other remote sensing technologies, of the River Nile. Despite the recent loss of a tourist-filled Nile steamer, the interest is not in providing safer shipping nor in improving agriculture, nor even in solving the problem of the rising water table in Egypt.
The purpose of the survey can probably be guessed when I reveal that it is to be conducted between the granite quarries of Aswan and the ancient site of Abydos. The Egyptian Archaeological authorities are hoping to locate shipwrecks, both ancient and modern, that were carrying objects from Aswan to building sites along the Nile.
Among the objects known to be missing in the Nile are two relatively small obelisks that were being transported to the Cairo Museum by Gaston Maspero, the French Director of Antiquities. The barge carrying them got into difficulties near Luxor and the last resting place of the obelisks is known approximately. Locating them will be a first test of the survey methods.
Personally, I have my doubts about how much will be found. Considering the vast quantities of silt that were carried by the Nile before the various dams and barrages were built, I expect that any ancient shipwrecks were quickly buried beyond the reach of radar or sonar, which can only "see" a few feet below the ground.
I am also puzzled as to why the survey is being halted at Abydos. One of the mysteries of the Great Pyramid is the rough finish to the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber. Having read about this, I was eager to photograph it, but picking out surface details on a black stone object in the near stygian darkness of a tomb chamber is not an easy task. In the end I shone a small torch down the side of the sarcophagus and got a somewhat out-of-focus but nonetheless distinct picture of the saw-cuts in the stone.
Given that the granite blocks which make up the tomb chamber are finished to a high degree of accuracy - you cannot fit your entrance ticket into any of the joints between the stones - it is surprising that the sarcophagus is so roughly finished. The sarcophagii recovered from other pyramids - in particular the pyramid of Mycerinus - are beautifully carved with panels reminiscent of the wooden palaces in which the pharaohs lived, so why not that of Khufu?
Petrie's theory is that the Queen's Chamber was intended to be the burial chamber of the king and a fine granite sarcophagus had been ordered from the quarries at Aswan. On its way up river, however, some mishap occurred and it was lost. Work on the pyramid could not be halted, however, so a hasty alteration to the plans was made: the Grand Gallery was created with the King's Chamber at the top, so work could continue while a new sarcophagus was made and transported. There was no time to finish it before it needed to be put in place and the chamber roofed over, hence the roughness of its finish.
It is an ingenious theory but it leaves almost as many problems as it solves. The Grand Gallery itself bears all the marks of careful planning, with specially cut stones forming its walls and ceiling. It is hardly a last-minute alteration to the design of the pyramid. Then there is the question of why, even if the sarcophagus had to be installed in an unfinished condition, it was not properly carved, smoothed and polished inside the King's Chamber.
The discovery of a sarcophagus bearing the name of Khufu somewhere on the riverbed between Aswan and Gizeh would turn Petrie's theory into certainty, but as the loss could have occurred anywhere along the route, it is surprising that the survey will not continue at least as far as Cairo.
© Kendall K. Down 2008
