The Pyramid of Cheops — Wonder of the Ancient WorldSnefru’s son and successor thus benefited from the best examples he could have in order to plan an even more ambitious pyramid for his own tomb. In order to avoid another ruined building he settled on a solid rock foundation, which he found in a commanding position on the ridge above what is now Giza. The new royal palace was erected to the east.
The perfection of the proportions and construction of the superstructure exactly matches the planning of the system of corridors and chambers inside. To the present day, scholars have tried in a broadly positive spirit to attribute the pyramid’s three chambers to three successive changes in the design. But it does not do justice to the architects who designed and executed this unique building so perfectly to suggest that, in the essential element of the pyramid’s construction, that is the system of tomb chambers, they had proceeded without concept or design. Against this view is a conclusive argument in that the exterior construction and the layout of the chamber system work in perfect accord, and that neither inside nor out is there any suggestion of a change of plan. Recent research has shown that since the Thinite era royal tombs have had not just a single burial chamber but a series of three rooms or spaces, whose function has so far been only partially understood. Recently this realization has also provided evidence against pyramid mysticism, an epidemic of which is breaking out again, which suggests that hidden secrets, or even further treasure chambers, the “chambers of knowledge,” were built into the chamber system of the pyramid of Cheops.
The upper granite burial chamber stands more or less isolated in the interior of the pyramid. Five relief chambers with granite beams weighing up to forty tons served to relieve the pressure. The uppermost has a gabled roof of magnificent limestone blocks that rest on the stones of the core construction. In the relief chambers are to be found various pieces of graffiti by construction workers that name Cheops, the only authentic evidence of the builder found in this pyramid. From the middle of the south and north walls of the burial chamber — and in the same way from the middle chamber — mock corridors lead toward the southern and northern skies. They provide a direct route up to heaven for the deceased king’s soul. Previously these had been seen as ventilation shafts or telescopes for observing the skies. But it is certain that these corridors were originally sealed off and could only have served for the flight to heaven of the deceased king’s soul.
It is characteristic of the conservative beliefs of the ancient Egyptians that alongside the predominant theology centered on worship of the sun, older ideas about an underworld afterlife in the depths of the earth were tolerated. This “chthonic” (underworldly) aspect is manifested in the rock chamber cut 30 m deep into the solid ground underneath. The corridor on the east side of the rock chamber, which would have led to a southern tomb underneath the pyramid, was never completed, which is why Cheops later built a small southern pyramid on the southeast corner of his pyramid enclosure, only discovered and excavated a few years ago. The middle chamber has a statue niche on the east side for a ka statue of the king and, like the granite chamber has mock corridors leading to heaven. This chamber cannot ever have served as an actual burial chamber since it was not provided with a stone sarcophagus or a magical sealing by portcullises (stone plugs released from above in the entrance corridors). Through the inclusion of a closed cult area in the body of the pyramid, the precinct outside was reduced to the mortuary temple, of which today only the basalt paving remains. From the pattern of markings in the paving it can be seen that the temple once consisted of a broad court surrounded by columns and a chapel for mortuary offerings. Also added late, and only after the south tomb in the rock beneath the pyramid had been abandoned, was a small cult pyramid in the southeast corner of the complex. Fragments of statues of limestone and other stones are evidence of its rich decoration. The necropolis was planned just as precisely and carefully as the pyramid complex itself. Five shafts in the rock to the east and south of the pyramid once contained funerary barques — not solar barques — for Cheops. Both of the shafts to the south were originally found sealed. The eastern shaft contained a royal ship complete with rudder and rigging, broken into over 1,200 pieces. Now reassembled, it measures 43.40 m long. The other barque burial has not yet been opened, although recently video images were taken through a bore hole that show that the ship it contains has been badly damaged by conditions underground. Undoubtedly both ships provided transport for the king while he was alive and were to be at his disposal in the afterlife. These are not the only ships found in this way. As early as the First and Second Dynasties, kings were provided with ships for the afterlife. To the east also lie three small pyramids, one to the king’s mother Hetepheres, main consort of Snefru, who outlived him and died in her son’s palace at Giza and was buried there; and the others to the two main queens, Meretites and Henutsen, mothers of Cheops’ sons and successors, Djedefre and Chephren. The illegitimate sons and daughters of the king were given huge, solid double mastabas to the east of the queens’ pyramids. High court officials, the architects and even prince Hemiunu, the influential building manager of the pyramids, were given tombs in the west cemetery.
The king himself was involved in the form of the tomb chapels and their decoration, which is limited to scenes of the most important offerings. These form a unique representation in monumental form of state and society, in the strict hierarchies of the royal court and in the imaginary world of the king’s afterlife, in order that they might forever serve him. They are also recipients of royal largesse and offerings from the central royal mortuary temple.
We know as little about the person of Cheops as we do of other kings of the Old Kingdom. The critique of his reign and achievements handed down by Herodotus is a purely Greek reaction to architecture that towers above everything on a human scale, and which for a Greek could only signal mortal hubris. That he was Snefru’s son, we know only from the chance find of tomb equipment of his mother Hetepheres in a shaft burial at Giza. When she died, the queen was initially buried in this shaft tomb, while her pyramid, the northernmost of the queens’ pyramids, was being completed to the east of the pyramid of Cheops. Cheops is one of the younger generation of Snefru’s sons and was probably born when Dahshur was in the middle of its building program, which would mean that he came to the throne when he was about 25—30 years old. By this time, his older brothers the princes Nefermaat and Rahotep, who were the architects of the pyramids at Meidum and Dahshur, were already dead.
The perfection of the proportions and construction of the superstructure exactly matches the planning of the system of corridors and chambers inside. To the present day, scholars have tried in a broadly positive spirit to attribute the pyramid’s three chambers to three successive changes in the design. But it does not do justice to the architects who designed and executed this unique building so perfectly to suggest that, in the essential element of the pyramid’s construction, that is the system of tomb chambers, they had proceeded without concept or design. Against this view is a conclusive argument in that the exterior construction and the layout of the chamber system work in perfect accord, and that neither inside nor out is there any suggestion of a change of plan. Recent research has shown that since the Thinite era royal tombs have had not just a single burial chamber but a series of three rooms or spaces, whose function has so far been only partially understood. Recently this realization has also provided evidence against pyramid mysticism, an epidemic of which is breaking out again, which suggests that hidden secrets, or even further treasure chambers, the “chambers of knowledge,” were built into the chamber system of the pyramid of Cheops.
The upper granite burial chamber stands more or less isolated in the interior of the pyramid. Five relief chambers with granite beams weighing up to forty tons served to relieve the pressure. The uppermost has a gabled roof of magnificent limestone blocks that rest on the stones of the core construction. In the relief chambers are to be found various pieces of graffiti by construction workers that name Cheops, the only authentic evidence of the builder found in this pyramid. From the middle of the south and north walls of the burial chamber — and in the same way from the middle chamber — mock corridors lead toward the southern and northern skies. They provide a direct route up to heaven for the deceased king’s soul. Previously these had been seen as ventilation shafts or telescopes for observing the skies. But it is certain that these corridors were originally sealed off and could only have served for the flight to heaven of the deceased king’s soul.
It is characteristic of the conservative beliefs of the ancient Egyptians that alongside the predominant theology centered on worship of the sun, older ideas about an underworld afterlife in the depths of the earth were tolerated. This “chthonic” (underworldly) aspect is manifested in the rock chamber cut 30 m deep into the solid ground underneath. The corridor on the east side of the rock chamber, which would have led to a southern tomb underneath the pyramid, was never completed, which is why Cheops later built a small southern pyramid on the southeast corner of his pyramid enclosure, only discovered and excavated a few years ago. The middle chamber has a statue niche on the east side for a ka statue of the king and, like the granite chamber has mock corridors leading to heaven. This chamber cannot ever have served as an actual burial chamber since it was not provided with a stone sarcophagus or a magical sealing by portcullises (stone plugs released from above in the entrance corridors). Through the inclusion of a closed cult area in the body of the pyramid, the precinct outside was reduced to the mortuary temple, of which today only the basalt paving remains. From the pattern of markings in the paving it can be seen that the temple once consisted of a broad court surrounded by columns and a chapel for mortuary offerings. Also added late, and only after the south tomb in the rock beneath the pyramid had been abandoned, was a small cult pyramid in the southeast corner of the complex. Fragments of statues of limestone and other stones are evidence of its rich decoration. The necropolis was planned just as precisely and carefully as the pyramid complex itself. Five shafts in the rock to the east and south of the pyramid once contained funerary barques — not solar barques — for Cheops. Both of the shafts to the south were originally found sealed. The eastern shaft contained a royal ship complete with rudder and rigging, broken into over 1,200 pieces. Now reassembled, it measures 43.40 m long. The other barque burial has not yet been opened, although recently video images were taken through a bore hole that show that the ship it contains has been badly damaged by conditions underground. Undoubtedly both ships provided transport for the king while he was alive and were to be at his disposal in the afterlife. These are not the only ships found in this way. As early as the First and Second Dynasties, kings were provided with ships for the afterlife. To the east also lie three small pyramids, one to the king’s mother Hetepheres, main consort of Snefru, who outlived him and died in her son’s palace at Giza and was buried there; and the others to the two main queens, Meretites and Henutsen, mothers of Cheops’ sons and successors, Djedefre and Chephren. The illegitimate sons and daughters of the king were given huge, solid double mastabas to the east of the queens’ pyramids. High court officials, the architects and even prince Hemiunu, the influential building manager of the pyramids, were given tombs in the west cemetery.
The king himself was involved in the form of the tomb chapels and their decoration, which is limited to scenes of the most important offerings. These form a unique representation in monumental form of state and society, in the strict hierarchies of the royal court and in the imaginary world of the king’s afterlife, in order that they might forever serve him. They are also recipients of royal largesse and offerings from the central royal mortuary temple.
We know as little about the person of Cheops as we do of other kings of the Old Kingdom. The critique of his reign and achievements handed down by Herodotus is a purely Greek reaction to architecture that towers above everything on a human scale, and which for a Greek could only signal mortal hubris. That he was Snefru’s son, we know only from the chance find of tomb equipment of his mother Hetepheres in a shaft burial at Giza. When she died, the queen was initially buried in this shaft tomb, while her pyramid, the northernmost of the queens’ pyramids, was being completed to the east of the pyramid of Cheops. Cheops is one of the younger generation of Snefru’s sons and was probably born when Dahshur was in the middle of its building program, which would mean that he came to the throne when he was about 25—30 years old. By this time, his older brothers the princes Nefermaat and Rahotep, who were the architects of the pyramids at Meidum and Dahshur, were already dead.
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