Pyramid Quest (45 page)
Authors: Robert M. Schoch
Tags: #History, #Ancient Civilizations, #Egypt, #World, #Religious, #New Age; Mythology & Occult, #Literature & Fiction, #Mythology & Folk Tales, #Fairy Tales, #Religion & Spirituality, #Occult, #Spirituality
WHERE WAS KHUFU ACTUALLY BURIED?
The standard Egyptological view is that the Great Pyramid was built as the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu. Even if this was indeed the case, if being the intended tomb of Khufu does not exclude the possibility that it was used for other purposes as well, such as an astronomical observatory, before being completed (Proctor, 1883), or as a site of initiatory rites (Adams, 1895, 1898), it is not necessarily true that Khufu was actually buried in the Great Pyramid upon his death. Indeed, the classical writer Diodorus said that the Great and Second Pyramids were designed as tombs for the pharaohs Chemmis (Khufu) and Cephren (Khafre), but that neither one was actually buried there (Greaves, 1646; Kingsland, 1935, p. 32),
for the people being exasperated against them by reason of the toilsomeness of their works, and for their cruelty and oppression, threatened to tear in pieces their dead bodies, and with ignominy to throw them out of their sepulchres. Wherefore both of them dying, commanded their friends privately to bury them in an obscure place. (Diodorus as quoted by Kingsland, 1935, p. 34)
Although generally dismissed by western Egyptologists and historians, there exists a medieval Arab tradition of a body having been found in the Great Pyramid, as explained by Wake:
As to the Great Pyramid, if we are to believe those [Arab] writers, an embalmed human body was actually discovered in the so-called King’s Chamber when it was opened by the Caliph Mamoon. This is said to have taken place in the year 820 A.D., and Arab historian, Abd-el-Hôkm, relates that “a statue resembling a man was found in the sarcophagus, and in the statue (mummy case) was a body with a breast-plate of gold and jewels, bearing characters written with a pen which no one understood.” Alkaisi gives much the same story, and he adds that the case stood at the door of the king’s palace at Cairo in the year 511—that is, 1133 A.D. It may be doubted, however, whether this had anything to do with the Great Pyramid. Dr. Ebers mentions that in the middle of the 15th century, “an Emir caused the destruction of the much admired ‘green shrine,’ which was formed out of a single block of a stone as hard as iron, and ornamented with figures and inscriptions. It was smashed to pieces.” He adds, “the golden statue, with eyes of precious stones, which had once been enshrined in this marvel of art—dedicated probably to the Moon-god Chonsu—had long before disappeared.” In this shrine and statue we have no doubt the case and body mentioned by Abd-el-Hôkm, as Alkaisi when referring to these speaks of an image of a man in green-stone, containing a body in golden armour with a large ruby overhead. It must be admitted, therefore, that there is no reliable evidence of any human body having been found in the Great Pyramid. Nevertheless this is not any proof that the building was
not
used as a tomb. The Arab writer Abd Allatif refers to an early statement that when the Persians conquered Egypt they took away great riches from the Pyramids, which were the sepulchres of the kings, and, therefore, no doubt the receptacle of their treasures. Moreover, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the Egyptians themselves had in many instances plundered the tombs of Thebes and he seems to think that the Great Pyramid met with the same fate at their hands. (1882, pp. 49-50)
not
used as a tomb. The Arab writer Abd Allatif refers to an early statement that when the Persians conquered Egypt they took away great riches from the Pyramids, which were the sepulchres of the kings, and, therefore, no doubt the receptacle of their treasures. Moreover, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the Egyptians themselves had in many instances plundered the tombs of Thebes and he seems to think that the Great Pyramid met with the same fate at their hands. (1882, pp. 49-50)
According to Herodotus, Khufu was buried in an underground chamber that included a canal flowing in from the Nile such that his tomb sat on an island surrounded by water (Wake, 1882, p. 40). There is a tomb located south and slightly east of the Great Pyramid and west and slightly north of the Great Sphinx that was called Campbell’s Tomb (named by Vyse for Colonel Campbell), which Smyth (see Smyth, 1877; Tastmona, 1954, pp. 30-31) considered to be Khufu’s actual tomb, “fulfilling the description of Herodotus, as to the place where King Cheops was buried; viz. ‘not in Gr[eat] Pyramid at all, but in a subterranean Island, surrounded by the waters of the ‘Nile,’ which filter through the intervening rock up to their level in the River at the time” (Smyth, 1877, part of caption on p. 15).
Concerning this tomb, Petrie (1883, pp. 138-139) says:
The very remarkable tomb known as Campbell’s tomb, requires some notice here, as it has been associated with the name of Khufu by some writers. . . . We may state the general form of it as a large square pit in the rock, 26 by 30 feet, and 53 feet deep; outside this there is a trench, running all round it at 9 to 22 feet distant; this is 5 feet wide and 73 feet deep. Bars of rock are left at intervals across this trench. Altogether about 10,000 tons of limestone have been excavated here.
The gold ring found here, bearing the cartouche of Khufu, only belonged to a priest of that king in late times, and the king’s name on it is only introduced incidentally in the inscription, which does not profess to be of early period. But there is, nevertheless, ground for believing this excavation to be the remains of a tomb of the Pyramid period.
When this pit was cleared out by Vyse, he found a tomb built in the bottom of it; but this cannot have been the original interment, for the following reasons. On the sides of the pit may be seen the characteristic marks where the backs of lining blocks have been fitted into the rock . . . and on the surface round the pit and the trench are numerous traces of the fitting of stones, and of plastering, and even some remaining stones let into the rock. Hence this pit has been lined with fine stone, and a pavement or a building has existed above it at the ground level. This lining would so far reduce the size of the pit, from 315 width to probably about 206 inches, that it could be roofed either with beams or with sloping blocks. But the object of such a deep pit seems strange, as it would form a chamber 50 feet high. Perhaps the great rock-pit of the Pyramid at Abu Roash explains this; as Vyse says that in his day, there were signs that it had been filled up with successive spaced roofs, like those over the King’s Chamber.
The remaining indications then show that this pit is merely the rough shell of a fine-stone chamber, probably roofed with successive ceilings for its greater security, and having some pavement, or probably a great mastaba chapel, on the surface above it. The access to it was perhaps down the square shaft in the rock, which still remains. It is certain, then, that the tomb of the twenty-sixth dynasty, built of small stones in the bottom of the great pit, after all the lining had been removed, and when it was again a mere shell, cannot have been the original interment. And from the character of the design, and its execution, there can be but little hesitation in referring the original work to the fourth dynasty. Though it may not have been the tomb of Khufu himself, as some have suggested, yet the trench around it may at high Nile have readily held water, insulating the central pit; and it may thus be the origin of the description of Khufu’s tomb, given by Herodotus.
Following the account of Herodotus, Pochan (1978, p. 287) believes that the body of Khufu (Cheops) was laid in a crypt, where it presumably rests to this day, located 58 meters beneath the Great Pyramid’s base and 27 meters below the Subterranean Chamber. Pochan (1978, p. 287) passionately writes:
To me, this is more than a mere hypothesis, for while crawling along the blind passage, surrounded by bats, I have repeatedly had the strange impression that by striking the floor with a simple key, I made the entire Pyramid tremble! This extraordinary resonance was probably the reason why Howard-Vyse [many authors, including Pochan, hyphenate this name] had the primitively squared lustral well deepened by 9 meters. But the depth reached was clearly not sufficient to lead to the vault of the royal hypogeum.
For additional suggestions as to the location of Khufu’s burial chamber, see the earlier section on “Unknown” Chambers in “Passages and Chambers within the Great Pyramid.”
WAS KHUFU GOOD OR BAD?According to Herodotus (fifth century B.C.), Khufu was a tyrannical and criminal king whose memory instilled hate long after his death. He was said to have closed all of the temples and outlawed sacrifices, and furthermore made the populace work for him building the Great Pyramid (Wake, 1882, p. 39). Supposedly, according to Herodotus, when Khufu’s funds ran out, he put his own daughter to work as a prostitute: she took on lovers, each of whom was required to donate a stone block toward the construction of the Great Pyramid (Bonwick, 1877, p. 75). Khufu, according to Herodotus, reigned for 50 years and was then succeeded by his brother Khafre (Khafra or Chephren), who reigned another 56 years and continued the evil ways of his brother (Wake, 1882, p. 40). (In the probable Twelfth Dynasty Westcar Papyrus, however, Khafre is referred to as a son of Khufu; see Petrie, 1999, p. 5.) Supposedly, the memory of these monarchs was so odious that the Egyptian priests of Herodotus’s time did not want to even speak their names, “and for this reason they call the Pyramids after the shepherd Philitis [also referred to as Phili tion; see Kingsland, 1935, p. 3], who at the time of their erection used to feed his flocks near this spot” (Herodotus as quoted by Wake, 1882, p. 40). According to Herodotus, Khafre was followed by Mycerinus, a son of Khufu, who built the third (and much smaller) Giza pyramid and also ordered the temples opened, ended the cruelties of his father and uncle, and was viewed by the Egyptians as a fair and just king. As a side note, some authors such as Smyth have equated Philitis with Melchizedek, King of Salem and a priest of God (see Kingsland, 1935, p. 4; Genesis 14:18; Salem is sometimes equated with Jerusalem, Viening, 1969, p. 660), and in turn some have suggested that it was Melchizedek (Melchisedek) who built the Great Pyramid. It has also been suggested that Melchizedek was actually Jesus Christ (Bonwick, 1877, p. 80, quoting, but not advocating, the opinion of a writer named Captain Tracey).
In contradiction to the account of Herodotus that Khufu “plunged into every kind of wickedness,” Mantheo says that he “was translated to the Gods, and wrote the sacred book” (both quotations from Kingsland, 1935, p. 1). Kingsland (1935) suggests that Mantheo, being an Egyptian, is a better authority here than Herodotus. Furthermore, both the Great Pyramid and Second Pyramid have temples associated with them, which is contrary to Herodotus’s assertion that Khufu and Khafre closed all of the temples. It is also possible that the statements of both Herodotus and Mantheo are to some extent true, depending on one’s perspective. That is, Khufu may have introduced a new religion or supreme god, and in that sense was considered “wicked” by the standards of the old religion, while revered by the adherents of the new religion (compare the suggestion made along the same lines by Pochan, 1978, p. xiii). Fix (1978, p. 89) says that cartouches of Khufu are found on many tombs and monuments, some dating to the last centuries before the Christian era. “Egyptologists explain that Khufu’s name had become ‘a powerful charm,’ and was put on monuments as a sign of sanctity and protection. In other words, it was used in later times as the sign of the cross has been used in Christian countries for nearly two thousand years” (Fix, 1978, p. 89). The cult of Khufu may have lapsed during the Middle and New Kingdoms, but it was revived during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, also known as the Saite Period (Hawass,
Update to Petrie,
1990, p. 98).
Update to Petrie,
1990, p. 98).
The Westcar Papyrus (named after the former owner, Henry Westcar, and purchased by the Berlin Museum), a probable Twelfth Dynasty document but containing possibly older tales, contains a story known as “Tales of the Magicians,” in which the sons of Khufu relate stories to their father (Petrie, 1895, 1999, p. 21). The royal son Hordedef also brings the living magician Dedi to Khufu. Khufu asks Dedi, “And is it true what is said, that thou knowest the number of the designs of the dwelling of Tahuti?” and Dedi responds that he knows where they are (Petrie, 1999, p. 15). According to Petrie (1999, p. 25), “the translation of ‘the designs of the dwelling of Tahuti’ is not certain; but the passage seems to refer to some architectural plan which was desired for the [Great] pyramid.”
THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE PHARAOHS OF THE FOURTH DYNASTYAccording to Baines and Málek (1980, p. 36) the pharaohs composing the Fourth Dynasty and the dates of their approximates reigns (all B.C.) were as follows (note that spellings vary from author to author).
Snofru: 2575-2551
Khufu (Cheops): 2551-2528
Ra’djedef: 2528-2520
Khephren (Ra’kha’ef): 2540-2494
Menkaure’ (Mycerinus): 2490-2472
Shepseskaf: 2472-2467
Khufu (Cheops): 2551-2528
Ra’djedef: 2528-2520
Khephren (Ra’kha’ef): 2540-2494
Menkaure’ (Mycerinus): 2490-2472
Shepseskaf: 2472-2467
The gap in this list between Khafre (Khephren) and Menkaure was filled by the short reign of the pharaoh Shero, or Sheiru, a son or Khafre, according to Lepre (1990, pp. 139-140), or by the short reign of a pharaoh named Nebka (Nabka) or Bikka (possibly the Bicheris of Mantheo; see Edwards, 1985, p. 144), who was responsible for the so-called Unfinished Pyramid at Zawiyet el-Aryan. Bikka may have been a son of Ra’djedef (Djedefre; Edwards, 1985, p. 144).
Sneferu (Snofru) married Hetepheres, the daughter of Huni (El Mahdy, 2003, p. 77), the briefly reigning last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, and so became the founder of the Fourth Dynasty. Possibly Sneferu and Hetepheres were brother and sister, or half-brother and half-sister (El Mahdy, 2003, p. 77). According to El Mahdy (2003, see diagram of reconstructed lineage, p. 9), Khufu (Cheops) was the son of Sneferu and Hetepheres. Khufu himself married at least two of his sisters, Meritetes and Henutsen, and had many children by them, including his intended heir, the crown prince Kawab, who died before the end of Khufu’s twenty-three-year reign (El Mahdy, 2003, p. 78). Another son of Khufu, Redjedef (Ra’djedef, Rededef, Djedefra, Djedefre: see Lepre, 1990, p. 132), became his direct successor as pharaoh, and upon Redjedef’s death, Redjedef’s half-brother Khafre (Chephren) took the throne (El Mahdy, 2003, diagram p. 9). Menkaure was apparently of a later generation, with Khafre being possibly the uncle of Menkaure and Khufu being Menkaure’s grandfather (see El Mahdy, 2003, diagram p. 9).
Lepre (1990, p. 61), who considers Sneferu to be the last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty and begins the Fourth Dynasty with Khufu, believed that both Khufu and Khafre were sons of Sneferu, and that Redjedef was a son of Khufu, as was Menkaure (Mycerinus), who inherited the throne after the death of his uncle, Khafre (see Lepre, 1990, p. 139, who says he is following ancient hieroglyphic texts in this respect). Shepseskaf, according to Lepre (1990, p. 61), was a son of Menkaure, and Imhotep (not the Imhotep of the Third Dynasty) and Queen Khentkawes, the two of whom ruled for about two years after Shepseskaf, were a son and a daughter of Menkaure (Lepre, 1990, p. 150). The Tomb of Khentkawes is one of the structures found on the Giza Plateau, and it is very likely that her tomb actually consists of an older (Predynastic or very early Dynastic) structure that was refurbished and reused.
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