OXFORD, England - Unearthed from centuries-old garbage dumps in central Egypt in the late 19th century, the Oxyrhynchus Papyri - a trove of classical material dating from the second century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. - have yielded gem after gem: plays by Aristophanes, Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides; early fragments of the Gospels; accounts of daily life in the Greco-Roman empire 2,000 years ago.

But the papyri, old forms of paper made from reeds that grew along the Nile, are fragmentary and fragile, and the pace of translating them and placing them in context is mind-numbingly slow. Scholars have become accustomed to the decorous pace of the Oxyrhynchus work, which is published as it goes along, in a new volume every year or two. With only 5,000 or so of the estimated 500,000 fragments translated so far, Volume 69 is being published this month. There is no end in sight.

So in the small but passionate world that follows such things, it came as something of a shock when the British newspaper The Independent printed an article in April announcing a major Oxyrhynchus breakthrough.

"Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world," the headline said. The newspaper went on to say that, that week alone, new infrared technology had allowed researchers "to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world."

Immediately, phone lines were buzzing and e-mail was flying. Important discoveries from the collection are generally announced in academic journals and on the Oxyrhynchus Web site before the world at large hears about them. But no such announcements had been made; few people, if any, seemed to know what in fact was going on.

At Oxford, Dr. Dirk Obbink, a lecturer in Greek literature and papyrology who directs a project that among other things puts images of the papyri on the Internet, took the unusual step of issuing a statement that tried to put some of the assertions in context. "The article surely should not have said (if it did) that all the papyri had been discovered yesterday, only that we made significant (and sufficiently exciting) advances," the statement said.

As is so often the case with British newspapers, the Independent article turned out to be both true and not true. It was right to say that new technology was indeed making it easier, in some cases, to read the Oxyrhynchus material, and that new discoveries were being made. But it was not right to say that the technology had just been discovered, or that it was functioning as a sort of Rosetta stone, or that so many new revelations were emerging as to herald "a second Renaissance."

"This stuff has been coming out for years now, and some of the things mentioned in the Independent story are months or years old," said Dr. James Romm, an associate professor of classics at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., and the director of its classical studies program. He called the article "very much overhyped" in a field where any public attention at all is rare.

"I'd love to know who first talked to whom in order to generate such good P.R," Dr. Romm said in an interview. "There is material coming out from those authors, but it's coming out in dribs and drabs."

The technology in question, developed at Brigham Young University in Utah, uses a digital camera with a series of ultraviolet and infrared filters. It can increase the contrast between text and background and so is particularly useful in reading texts written on dark, charred or stained surfaces, allowing researchers to see the ink in ways conventional methods cannot. In past years, it has been used to fine effect on blackened and previously unreadable documents unearthed from the ruins of the ancient Herculaneum library, destroyed in the first century A.D. during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Pompeii.

It has helped decipher some of the Oxyrhynchus works, too, but by no means all of them. Dr. Obbink said many of the dozens of papyri identified recently are fragments, snatches of existing works that can be plugged in to fill gaps in historical knowledge about various authors.

But others are new, including a poem by the seventh century B.C. poet Archilochus about the events preceding the Trojan War. Like much of the collection's artistic material whose originals date to antiquity, the poem was set down in writing by a professional scribe centuries later. In some cases, the newly deciphered material helps shed light on works that were repeatedly copied, in varying forms, over the years.

In addition, Dr. Obbink said, there is a newly discovered poem about Narcissus that appears to have been the basis for Ovid's poem on the same subject. He said he was hopeful that the technology would help provide new insights on biblical history by helping to decipher New Testament manuscripts in the collection - including books that did not make it into the New Testament, bits of which are contained in the papyri.

The papyri were unearthed by two Oxford undergraduates from the rubbish heaps of Oxyrhynchus, about 100 miles southwest of modern Cairo, and other prominent lost towns in Egypt that had been under Greek and Roman rule nearly two millenniums earlier. The material was brought to Oxford from 1898 to 1907; successive generations of scholars have worked on it since.

The collection includes poetry, prose, plays, religious texts and official documents pertaining to the daily life of the city, much of it fragmentary. About 10 percent is literary; the rest comprises documents like wills, census rolls, correspondence, bills and accounts.

A visit to the project, deep inside Oxford's handsome Sackler Library, shows that work is proceeding much the same way it always has - that is, slowly. Scholars surrounded by fat, obscure reference works sit outside the main office, poring over minute scraps of dirty, frayed material that to an outsider appear wholly undecipherable. Inside, more than 800 boxes are used to store the whole collection. Fragments are mounted on glass when they are being worked on and once they have been published.

The first task is to translate the work into English, usually from ancient Greek. The next is to try to place it somewhere - perhaps within the existing literature, perhaps as something that stands on its own and has yet to be categorized, perhaps as part of a lost work by a known author. The plays of Sophocles would fall into the last category. Though he is known to have written 120 of them, only 7 have survived intact; many of the rest appear in bits and pieces scattered throughout the collection.

Researchers try to date the work from clues like spelling and the way certain words are used; they analyze the writing style to discern whether it is prose or poetry, old or new, history or oratory, and who may have written it.

But the technology can go only so far. "You have to put all your knowledge of language and literature to put a story together and provide a context," Dr. Nikolaos Gonis, the administrator of the project and curator of the collection, said in an interview. "There has been a boom in technology, but it doesn't replace the knowledge of the language and the eye that has to focus on the details."

"http://query.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2005/05/30/arts/design/30papy.html&tntemail1"

What may be one of the earliest glassmaking sites in ancient Egypt has been uncovered in the eastern Nile Delta.

Evidence at Qantir-Piramesses indicates that glass was made there out of raw materials as early as 1250 B.C., researchers from England and Germany report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

The reworking of already made glass into finished goods has been documented at ancient sites in the Middle East and Egypt, but the new report adds evidence for primary glass production at this location.

Thilo Rehren of University College, London, and Edgar B. Pusch of Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany, report finding a large number of crucibles with remains of glass inside.

Glass was made using finely crushed quartz powder which was melted with other materials inside the ceramic crucibles, which then were broken to get the glass out, they reported.

The glass ingots "would then have been transported to other, artistic workshops where they were re-melted and worked into objects," Pusch and Rehren reported.

Much of the glass produced at Qantir-Piramesses was red, produced using copper in a complex process, and some of it was blue or colorless.

A large shipment of glass ingots has been found in an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Turkey. The wreck predates the materials found at Qantir-Piramesses, but the ingots are similar in size and shape to the crucibles found at the Egyptian site.

Fragments of similar crucibles have also been found in Egypt at el-Amarna and Lisht, Rehren and Pusch noted.

Caroline M. Jackson of the University of Sheffield in England called the new report "highly significant."

Jackson, who was not part of the research team, said, "Rehren and Pusch convincingly show that the Egyptians were making their own glass in large, specialized facilities."

In a commentary accompanying their report, Jackson says their analysis reinforces the role of glass in Egypt "as an elite material that was exported from Egypt to the Mediterranean world."

Rehren and Pusch's research was funded by the German Research Council and the British Academy.

SAQQARA, Egypt - A superbly preserved 2,300-year-old mummy bearing a golden mask and covered in brightly colored images of gods and goddesses was unveiled Tuesday at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo.

The unidentified mummy, from the 30th pharaonic dynasty, had been closed in a wooden sarcophagus and buried in sand at the bottom of a 20-foot shaft before being discovered recently by an Egyptian-led archaeological team.

"We have revealed what may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said as he helped excavators remove the sarcophagus' lid to show off the find.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3148968a12,00.html

Aug. 8— The story of Jack the Ripper, the well-dressed serial killer who brutally killed five prostitutes amid the fog of Victorian London, has intrigued generations of crime buffs in the century since the murders took place.

The case was never solved, although dozens of Victorians, both famous and obscure, have been advanced as possible suspects over the years. Now crime writer Patricia Cornwell is certain she has found the true culprit: Walter Sickert, an Impressionist painter who walked the same East London streets as Jack the Ripper, and 20 years later produced a gruesome series of paintings of murdered prostitutes.

"I do believe 100 percent that Walter Richard Sickert committed those serial crimes, that he is the Whitechapel murderer," Cornwell told Primetime's Diane Sawyer.

Cornwell has spent $4 million on her obsession, delving into Sickert's life and work in a quest for evidence tying him to five Ripper murders committed in the East London district of Whitechapel in 1888.

She bought up 30 of Sickert's paintings, some costing as much as $70,000, only to tear some of them up to look for clues. She bought his painting table and had forensic experts scour it for fingerprints. She visited the scenes of the Ripper's crimes, and the modest graves of his victims.

The idea that Sickert might be Jack the Ripper has been around since the 1960s, and most experts believe it is a myth stemming from his macabre paintings. But Cornwell's research has convinced her that she has the right man.

"That is so serious to me that I am staking my reputation on this," she said. "Because if somebody literally proves me wrong, not only will I feel horrible about it, but I will look terrible."

Cornwell initially started researching the Ripper murders for one of her crime novels, planning to have her fictional character Kay Scarpetta look into the more than century-old case. But she became so interested in the topic that she decided to make it into a nonfiction book. The book is due out in October.

Paintings of Dead Prostitutes

Sickert is best known for his paintings of London theater scenes. But in 1908-9 he painted a dark series showing a naked prostitute — sometimes alive, sometimes murdered — in a room with a clothed man. The series is known as the Camden Town Murders, after a 1907 killing in Sickert's London neighborhood. But Cornwell believes the artist's tortured depictions of the dead prostitutes were inspired by murders from two decades before.

"Some of his paintings, if you juxtapose them with some of the morgue photos, are extraordinarily chilling," said Cornwell.

She says one of the paintings closely resembles the room where Mary Kelly, the Ripper's last victim, was killed in 1888. Cornwell noted that the painting features a wooden bedstead, just as in the Kelly murder. Sickert painted iron bedsteads in his other paintings.

Cornwell, who has studied serial murders extensively as background for her novels, said that almost all serial killers keep souvenirs of their crimes, so they can use them to fuel their fantasies later. Her hunch is that Sickert drew sketches as a souvenir — but his sketchbooks have been lost.

She believes Sickert waited 20 years before painting the series because he knew the works would have attracted attention if he painted them soon after the Ripper killings.

A Suspicious Red Handkerchief

Cornwell also read extensively about Sickert's life and works. In a memoir written by one of his fans, she read that he kept a red handkerchief in his studio while he was painting the Camden series, using it for inspiration. Cornwell believes the red handkerchief was the same one that a witness saw a man hand to Kelly shortly before she was killed.

The author also found that Sickert had a psychological profile similar to that of many serial killers. He grew up with an abusive father, and was a fearful and compulsive child who washed his hands constantly.

Forensic profilers have found that serial killers often have a growing rage stemming from a painful event in early childhood. Cornwell knew that Sickert had undergone painful surgery several times as a small child, for a fistula, or abnormal canal, somewhere on his body. She later learned from Sickert's great-nephew that the fistula was on the painter's penis, meaning that the operations might have left him sterile.

Sickert married three times but never had children, and Cornwell thinks he might have had a sexual disability that set off a murderous rampage in 1888, when he was 28. "You've got this severe sexual dysfunction, and I think that was a huge trigger for him," she said.

Hunting for a Speck of DNA

With powerful circumstantial evidence linking Sickert to the Ripper's crimes, Cornwell was sure that he was the culprit. But she knew she would need physical evidence to convince people. She thought she knew how she could get it: If she could obtain DNA from letters believed to have been sent by the Ripper, she could compare them with letters known to have been written by Sickert.

The 1888 murders had transfixed all of London, and the police had received hundreds of letters claiming to be from the murderer, most of which were hoaxes. There are a few Ripper letters that are generally believed to be written by the murderer himself. The British government gave Cornwell permission to test the letters, which are kept at the Public Record Office in London.

At her own expense, Cornwell flew a whole team over to Britain: a handwriting expert, a forensic photographer to make a high-resolution record of the letters, and a DNA analyst. They discovered that the letters had been heat-sealed under plastic to preserve them, a process that degrades DNA. None of the letters had any trace of DNA.

There was renewed hope when a former Scotland Yard curator discovered a suspected Ripper letter that had never been turned over to the archive and thus had not been heat-sealed. An initial test found the letter had no trace of DNA, but the letter did have something no one had ever seen on a Ripper letter before: a watermark from Perry & Sons, an exclusive stationer of the day.

In the Sickert archives, Cornwell found that the artist had used the same stationery at the time of the 1888 Ripper crimes. Acknowledging that a defense attorney could argue that someone else wrote the letter or that Sickert wrote it as a hoax, Cornwell believes it would have been enough at the time. "The heck with defense attorneys. A jury back then would have said, 'Hang him.' "

Cornwell's team also tore apart several of her Sickert paintings, scrutinizing the frames and canvas for fingerprints or traces of blood, but found nothing. It was the same story with his painting table.

Second Test Finds DNA on Ripper Letter

After the first test failed to find DNA on the unsealed letter, Cornwell commissioned more sophisticated and time-consuming mitochondrial DNA tests. The new results, which came back two weeks ago, found DNA from a single person on the suspected Ripper letter. The tests also found DNA on the Sickert letters, but the DNA was a blend of many different people. There was a match between the DNA on the Ripper letter and the blended DNA on the Sickert letters. Cornwell's DNA expert points out that this is likely a coincidence, the mish-mash of blended DNA matching a sequence from the DNA on the Ripper letter. But Cornwell herself believes it is "a cautious indicator that the Sickert and Ripper mitochondrial DNA ... may have come from the same person."

After Primetime first reported Cornwell's theories in December, a woman in Britain contacted the author and told her she had a century-old hotel registry book with an entry signed "Jack the Ripper." Cornwell flew to England to see the book, and found that it was filled with crude annotations and obscene sketches that she believes are consistent with Sickert's work and personality. She turned the book over to the Tate Gallery, home to many of Sickert's paintings, for examination.

Primetime asked established Ripper experts what they thought of Cornwell's theories. Some said they thought they were feasible, while others dismissed them as "rubbish."

But Cornwell has not been deterred. She is planning to continue hunting for physical proof of the Ripper's identity — not for his sake, but for his victims' sake.

Recalling the unvisited, untended graves of the five young prostitutes, Cornwell said: "They have a right to have justice after 113 years. They have a right for someone to care about them for once and not to care about him. ... He doesn't deserve to be mythologized and turned into some hero played by movie stars. And he doesn't deserve to have his art celebrated."

Edgar Cayce, "the sleeping prophet," spoke suggestively of 1998 being the year when the Hall of Records, hidden beneath the Sphinx in Egypt, would be rediscovered and opened. This "opening" in 1998 was also associated with the imminent 'Second Coming' of Christ. The records were pposedly "sealed" around 10,500 BCE. This was during the astrological Age of Leo the Lion. In recent years, the connection between the constellation of the Lion in the sky and the Sphinx on Earth has become rather popular. "As above, so below ..."

What is a Pole Shift, Really?

What also occurred at that time, 12,500 years ago, was a pole shift. This was not a shifting of the Earth's magnetic field as popularized by modern doomsday advocates, but rather an astronomical and also astrological pole shift. The Earth has a peculiar gyrating motion that creates a nearly 26,000-year cycle. During this cycle, the position of the Sun, at the moment of the vernal (spring) equinox, appears to shift through the thirteen constellations of the zodiac, spending approximately 2000 years in each one. Around 10,500 BCE, the Sun, at vernal equinox, was entering the constellation of Leo the Lion (Age of Leo). Presently this "age" marker is in the constellation of Pisces the Fish (Age of Pisces) and moving toward Aquarius the Water Bearer (Age of Aquarius).

In addition to the movement of the equinox, the poles of the Earth also appear to move through different constellations of stars. Imagine the Earth's north pole as a crown chakra. The stars directly above this opening would be suggestive of the Earth's "spiritual connection". At the start of the last Age of Leo, around 10,500 BCE, the north pole of the Earth was "shifting" into a new constellation of stars, the one we now call Hercules. It was a pole shift, folks. A major test for the legendary Hercules was battling a lion, whose skin he is often seen wearing. The myths reflect what is appening in the sky. Now let's return to the present time.

Between 1998 and 2001, the Earth, at the time of the equinoxes and solstices, will be aligned with the Milky Way Galaxy in which we live. This only occurs once every 6500 years or so. At the autumn equinox this year on September 22-23, the Earth will begin this Galactic Alignment and galactic initiation. The autumn equinox will align with the north pole of our Galaxy. In the sky, the position of the North Galactic Pole is found just behind and above the constellation of the Lion. The Lion is in a guardian position. It is the archetypal protector for this galactic chakra or gateway. Visualize our Galaxy with an open crown chakra. This is where galactic energies move in and out. This also suggests intergalactic travel. It is only during Galactic Alignment that the Earth can receive these galactic frequencies and become involved in intragalactic activities. How much does this involve us humans?

Between the Paws of the Sphinx

Just after the lunar eclipse on August 8, 1998, the Sun moves into the constellation of the Lion. On August 21-22, a solar eclipse takes place immediately in front of the star Regulus, the "Lion's Heart". This corresponds to the "doorway" between the paws of the Sphinx. Edgar Cayce cryptically spoke, "the line of shadow falls between the paws of the Sphinx ..." while referring to the entrance to the Hall of Records. During this eclipse, a shadow will cover the Sun between the paws of the Lion/Sphinx. What is unique and special about this particular solar eclipse is that it occurs near the time of Galactic Alignment. The last Galactic Alignment, when an equinox aligned with this galactic pole was just prior to the last Age of the Lion and the "sealing" of the Hall of Records. The true history of humanity is supposedly contained amongst these records. Maybe the only time that we can reconnect with our true ancestors, who are probably intergalactic travelers, is during a Galactic Alignment.

The archetypal Lion is the guardian of the galactic pole and also the entrance to the Hall of Records below the Sphinx. This archetypal being has been called by the names of Jah, in the masculine and Sekmet, in the feminine. The brightest star in the Lion's constellation is called Regulus and is the key to the Lion's mysteries. This star is the only bright star that lies along the path of the Sun as the Sun appears to move through the zodiac. There is an intimate relationship between the Lion and the Sun.

In Galactic Astrology, the Sun represents a center of consciousness, usually self-consciousness and ego-consciousness. It is the place we identify with as "I" or "me". The stars and constellations represent the dimensions of the soul and spirit. The stars are out all the time, yet we cannot see them during the day because the Sun is too bright. In a similar way, the archetypal dimensions of the soul and spirit cannot be seen when the light of the ego or self-consciousness is too bright. The stars appear when the Sun goes down. Multidimensional realities appear when the ego is transcended. During solar eclipses, the Sun (and ego) are temporarily blocked out. The stars can actually be seen during the day at the moment of a total solar eclipse.

The archetypal Lion is the "ruler of the heart" for each individual. Often this archetype is projected onto a celebrity, such as a member of a royal family, a rock star, or a movie star. Integrating this for yourself involves being open to the Lion and being willing to experience your heart as the ruler; in other words, always doing what you truly want and acting out of love rather than fear.

Sirius Rising

The rising of the star Sirius, for the area around Stonehenge, also occurs near the time of the solar eclipse on August 21-22, 1998. This area includes sacred sites such as Avebury, Silbury Hill and Glastonbury. This is also where the majority of Crop Circles take place. Remember that England, the location for all of these sites, is symbolizes by a lion. Is there a direct connection between the Sphinx and the sacred sites in southern England?

The rising of the star Sirius occurs on different days for different locations on the Earth. Most of the "seedings" from Sirius occur during July and August every year. Ancient Egyptian culture was very much attuned to the cycles, energy and movement of the star Sirius. During ancient Egyptian times, the stars of the Lion and Sirius both rose together. The rising of Sirius was the event that initiated their New Year. What does the Earth receive from the star Sirius every year?

Imagine that the Earth is a living entity. Similar to how some people need glasses to see better or a radio to receive invisible communications; the Earth has pyramids, stone circles and other temple structures to assist the Earth in receiving certain energies, frequencies and information, much of it coming from the stars. Imagine that these instruments are designed and built for the Earth's planetary evolutionary needs. Imagine that humanity is only a small part of this project and is assisting the Earth in ways that are mostly unconscious. Imagine that the Sphinx, the pyramids, many sacred temples and the Crop Circles are all designed from a level of consciousness beyond the capacity of human understanding.

Keys Under the Sphinx

Underneath the constellation of the Lion in the sky are two constellations that are also keys to the Sphinx mystery. One of these is the constellation called Crater, the Cup. This is represented in myth and legend by the Holy Grail. According to the popular telling of the story, the Holy Grail was brought from Jerusalem to Glastonbury. The other interesting constellation found under the Lion is called Argo Navis the Ship, also sometimes called the Ark. The Holy Grail is an important icon in the Christian tradition as is Noah's Ark in the Bible and also the Ark of the Covenant in the Jewish tradition. One secret tradition suggests that the Ark of the Covenant was brought from Jerusalem to the British Isles by the Knights Templar.

Both the Grail and the Ark are containers; the 'blood of Christ' in the Grail and the two stone tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. Both the Grail and the Ark can be recognized on a deeper level as communication devices. The 'blood' in the Grail suggests a "blood line" or lineage going back in time. Does this go all the way back to our origins, coming from the stars? The Ark was used by "God" to talk to Moses. Was this the being or beings who brought humanity here from the stars? Both the Grail and the Ark can also be related to as symbols for the Earth. The Earth holds us like a cup and transports us through space, like a ship or Ark. Visualize the Earth as a living spaceship traveling with the Sun through galactic space.

Let's imagine the Earth to be like a large bio-computer. When we download a new program or application onto our modern computers, an icon appears on the desktop. What can we better understand when we recognize that the Crop Circles are icons for new programs being "downloaded" into the Earth from Sirius and other stars systems? The new icon or Crop Circle is visually symbolic of the function of the new program. What will happen when these new programs are activated? Maybe the master program that utilizes all of these smaller Crop Circle programs hasn't been downloaded yet. Maybe the download for the new master program is scheduled for the Total Solar Eclipse in August 1999, when the shadow of that eclipse travels through Southern England, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan and India. What will the Crop Circles in August 1999 be like? Are these new programs needed by the Earth for the Galactic Alignment?

The Great Alignment

The 1998-2001 Galactic Alignment happens during the time period of thirteen equinoxes and solstices, from September 1998 through September 2001. Imagine that the Earth as a planet has been like a solitary bio-computer, only able to access itself, the Sun and some of the other planets in the solar system. A way to view this Galactic Alignment is imagining the Earth being connected to a interstellar, multidimensional Internet; a Galactic Wide Web. It will take thirteen years or so for the Earth to integrate these new programs and this new galactic connection. Imagine the levels of consciousness and information accessible when the Earth goes "galactically" on-line in 2012.

The year 2012 is also marked by the position of the star Regulus, the Heart of the Lion. In 2012, Regulus shifts from the sign of Leo into the sign of Virgo. The star Regulus will be at the meeting place between these two. Remember that the Sphinx is a combination of the Lion and the Virgin!

The solar eclipse on August 21-22, 1998, is preparing the way for the Galactic Alignment and provides an opportunity to open to the rhythm of the Lion's heartbeat. When we do this, we release all fear and surrender to unconditional love. This is a prerequisite to accessing the entrance to the Hall of Records. The Sun will be passing through and underneath the Lion (Sphinx) until the start of Galactic Alignment. This occurs at the moment of the equinox on Sept. 22-23.

For those that find the "entrance" through their hearts and access the "inner" records, this equinox will signal a possible "anointing" through the crown chakra and the beginning of conscious articipation in the Earth's galactic initiation. This is an opportunity for some of us to shift our center from Sun-centered (ego) consciousness to galactic (higher Self) consciousness. For others, life will continue to reflect the illusions created by egocentric consciousness. These people will continue to believe that what is "out there" is something other than a reflection of themselves. Galactic consciousness is analogous to Christ consciousness. Yeshua ben Yosef (aka Jesus Christ) was of the tribe of Judah, symbolized by the Lion. Those who have chosen the 'Lion's Path of Unconditional Love' will know that there are no teachers or leaders to follow. They will be led by their own hearts and unconditional love. A few may even stop time long enough to receive a gift, the Flower of Life.

HERODOTUS - 5th Century BC

The Great Pyramid - Interior

The internal design of the Great Pyrimid at Giza is absolutely unique in Egyptian architecture. In no other monument do we see such elaborate design concepts as the Grand Gallery, the so-called Relieving chambers, and the enigmatic "Ventillation Shafts". These are just a few of the internal features that set the Great Pyramid apart from all other constructions in Egypt. Click on the thumbnail below to see a diagram of the internal structure, "borrowed" from The Traveller's Guide to Ancient Egypt, by John Anthony West.

The modern tourist enters the Great Pyramid of Giza, not through the original entrance, but through the hole and tunnel forcibly made by Al Mamoon and his men, in the 9th century AD. From the surviving documentary evidence, we know that these men tunneled in horizontally, and finally met the descending passage which led them back up to the original entrance. This original entrance was apparently meant to be entered by moving a pivoted casing stone, but was so indistinguishable from all the other casing stones around it, that it was never discovered from the outside.