The Great Pyramid's "Air Shafts"

While shafts in the King's Chamber had been described as early as 1610,
the shafts in the Queen's Chamber were not discovered until 1872. In
that year, Waynman Dixon and his friend Dr. Grant found a crack in the
south wall of the Queen's Chamber. After pushing a long wire into the
crack, indicating that a void was behind it, Dixon hired a carpenter
named Bill Grundy to cut through the wall. A rectangular channel, 8.6
inches wide and 8 inches high, was found leading 7 feet into the pyramid
before turning upward at about a 32º angle. With the two similar shafts
of the King's Chamber in mind, Dixon measured a like position on the
north wall, and Grundy chiseled away and, as expected, found the opening
of a similar channel. The men lit fires inside the shafts in an attempt
to find where they led. The smoke stagnated in the northern shaft but
disappeared into the southern shaft. No smoke was seen to exit the
pyramid on the outside. Three artifacts were discovered inside the
shafts: a small bronze grapnel hook, a bit of cedar-like wood, and a
"grey-granite, or green-stone" ball weighing 8.325 grains thought to be
an Egyptian "mina" weight ball.

*Shafts and passages
of the Great Pyramid at Giza.*
Shafts & passages


      The Shafts of the Queen's Chamber Described

The openings of both shafts are located at the same level in the
chamber, at the joint at the top of the second course of granite
wall-stone; the ceilings of the shafts are level with the joint.

The northern shaft runs horizontally for just over six feet (76"), then
turns upward at a mean angle of 37º 28'. The shaft terminates about 20
feet short of the outside of the pyramid. The total length of the
northern shaft is about 240 feet and rises at an angle of 38º for the
majority of its length.

The southern shaft also runs horizontally for just over six feet (80"),
then turns upward at a mean angle of 38º 28'. The total length of the
southern shaft is about 250 feet and, as its northern counterpart,
ascends at an angle of 38º for the majority of its length and comes to
an end about 20 feet short of the outside of the pyramid.

(Read about recent explorations of the Queen's Chamber shafts *here*
<shaftend.html>.)


      The Shafts of the King's Chamber Described

The openings of both shafts are located at roughly the same level in the
chamber, at the joint at the top of the first course of granite
wall-stone. The northern opening is slightly lower, its ceiling being
level with the joint, while the floor of the southern opening is roughly
level with the joint.

The northern shaft is rectangular, about 7 inches wide by 5 inches high,
a shape it maintains throughout its length. The shaft begins on the
horizontal for about 6 feet then takes a series of four bends. While
maintaining its general upward angle, it shifts first to the
north-northwest then back to north, then to north-northeast, and finally
back to true north. It has been speculated by some that this unexplained
semicircular diversion might have been necessary to avoid some
heretofore undiscovered feature of the pyramid. The total length of the
northern shaft is about 235 feet and rises at an angle of 31º (with a
variation of between 30º 43' and 32º 4') for the majority of its length.

Though the first eight feet of the northern shaft is intact, the next
thirty or so feet have been excavated by treasure seekers, presumably
following the direction of the shaft in search of treasure. The breach
to the shaft was made in the west wall of the short passage leading from
the antechamber to the King's Chamber. A modern iron grate today guards
the mouth of this breach.

The southern shaft is different in appearance. Its mouth is larger,
about 18" wide by 24" high. The dimensions are reduced to about 12" by
18" within a few feet, and then narrows yet more to about 8" by 12". The
shape is not rectangular, as is the northern shaft, but has a dome shape
where it enters the chamber, with a narrow floor, the angle of the walls
being slightly obtuse, and a dome-shaped ceiling. The shaft is
horizontal and true south for about 6 feet. At the first bend, its shape
changes to an oval, and continues thusly for about 8 feet. Its
orientation also changes slightly from true south to south-southwest. At
the second bend its shape changes yet again to a rectangle, with a
height greater than its width. It retains this shape for the 160 feet to
the outside of the pyramid where it emerges at the 101st course of
stone. It also changes directions once again at the second bend to a
more severe south-southwest diversion. The total length of the southern
shaft is about 175 feet and ascends at an angle of 45º (with a variation
of between 44º 26' and 45º 30') for the majority of its length.


      The Function of the Shafts

When Sandys described the Great Pyramid in 1610, he wrote of the shafts:

    In the walls, on each side of the upper room, there are two holes,
    one opposite to another, their ends not discernable, nor big enough
    to be crept into -- sooty within, and made, as they say, by a flame
    of fire which darted through it.

Greaves also wrote of the King's Chamber shafts in 1638. Considering the
presence of the lampblack inside, he concluded that the shafts had been
intended as receptacles for an "eternal lamp." In 1692, M. Maillet wrote
that the shafts served as means of communication for those who were
buried alive with the dead king. Not only did the shafts provide air, he
reasoned, but they also provides a passage for food which was placed in
boxes and pulled through by rope.

By the 20th century, the shafts were presumed to have been designed to
provide ventilation. That view has slowly been changing, however. I.E.S.
Edwards wrote, "The object of these shafts is not known with certainty;
they may have been designed for the ventilation of the chamber or for
some religious purpose which is still open to conjecture." (/The
Pyramids of Egypt/, 1961, p. 126.) Ahmed Fakhry wrote, "They are usually
referred to as 'air channels,' but most Egyptologists believe that they
had a religious significance related to the soul of the king." (/The
Pyramids/, 1969, p. 118.) More recently, Mark Lehner wrote:

    A symbolic function should also be attributed to the so-called
    "air-shafts," which had nothing to do with conducting air. No other
    pyramid contains chambers and passages so high in the body of
    masonry as Khufu's and so the builders provided the King's Chamber
    with small model passages to allow the king's spirit to ascend to
    the stars. (/The Complete Pyramids/, 1997, p. 114)

There are many reasons why it is not likely that the shafts were meant
for ventilation. The complex angles of the shafts necessitated the
piercing of many courses of stone, a daunting logistical challenge
during design and construction. Horizontal shafts would have been much
easier to build: shafts carved through a single course of stone. One
might well wonder /why/ ventilation would be needed at all! No other
known pyramid builder made such provisions; even workers in rock-cut
tombs managed on the air provided solely by the entrance passage. When
the bulk of work on the King's Chamber was being done, ambient air was
plentiful as the ceiling had not yet been put in place. The chamber was
finished as the superstructure rose.

There are also, however, reasons why it is not likely that the shafts
were meant to serve as "launching ramps" for the king's /ka/. When, in
1964, Alexander Badawy and Virginia Trimble determined that the shafts
are "aimed" at certain "imperishable" circumpolar stars and at the
constellation of Orion, the function of the shafts as cultic features
seemed certain. But the /ka/ did not require a physical means of egress
from a tomb -- false doors served this purpose quite nicely both before
and after Khufu's reign. The passage that ascends to the entrance of the
pyramid is also directed at the circumpolar stars in the manner of
previous pyramids. The northern shafts for such a use would have been a
needless and bothersome redundancy, although admittedly the Egyptians
were not adverse to redundancies.

That fact that no other pyramid in Egypt is known to posses similar
shafts as those of the Great Pyramid is problematic. If the shafts were
so important for either ventilation or as passages for the king's /ka/,
then why were they omitted in other funerary structures? It is obvious
that the builders of Khufu's pyramid went to a jolly lot of trouble to
incorporate the shafts into the design of the pyramid, but the true
reason why still remains a mystery.

Catchpenny Mysteries © copyright 2000 by Larry Orcutt
<MAILTO:larryorcutt@catchpenny.org>.

 

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