THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 09 The completely disregarded monolithic and hollowed out girdle stones that formed the entire lower part of the GP's inclined well

Introduction: the girdle stones of the so-called 'horizontal passage' are the perfect example of the complete masquerade that is egyptology today; and I say that with all due respect to this profession because I’m well aware of the impossible situation where egyptologists are finding themselves today, stuck between the very cute little stories from the early 1800s on one side, and the modern Egyptians who probably are only interested in the billions of dollars that tourists are bringing to their country on the other side. How come egyptologists are allowed to continue proclaiming things that aren’t  validated by any substantial evidence in the Great Pyramid (there is no decoration what so ever anywhere in the Pyramid, anywhere in the King’s chamber, and anywhere on the so-called sarcophagus), and at the same time voluntarily disregarding real evidence that is still inside the Pyramid today (the girdle stones, the expansion joints in the horizontal passage), or that was in the Pyramid until 1998 when Zahi Hawass decided all by himself to destroy the signature and evidence of evaporative cooling in the Queen’s chamber and horizontal passage leading to that chamber. Why has Science been discarded so easily, when everybody is talking about fake news all day long? I guess after that study would revolutionize the way ancient Egyptians are considered in our modern society, psychologists will have to understand how we collectively engages ourselves in this kind of obscurantism.

Meanwhile, I invite you in this Section of The Pyramids of the Cold to understand what was the purpose of the ascending passage, why it actually was partly flooded, and almost as importantly for what reason ancient Egyptians assembled these gigantic girdle stones nobody wants to talk about.

[assembled concrete blocks] at https://sepulveda.com/product/16x8x16-gray-concrete-block

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, showing the girdle stones that no one wants to talk about, since obviously acknowledging their existence throughout the entire lower section of the ascending passage would more or less completely invalidate the hypothesis that the Great Pyramid is nothing more than a tomb. Yet, as with the massive salt deposits in the Queen's Chamber and Horizontal Passage, these gigantic stones are indeed there and have been perfectly described by the Edgar brothers. Anyone who really wants to try to understand the Great Pyramid must first and foremost be interested in these girdle stones and answer to the question of why are they here.

Vertical section, looking West, of the Great Pyramid of Giza, in the plane of its passages, by Manly Palmer Hall:   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Secret_Teaching_of_All_Ages_-_Chapter_6_-_Pyramid.jpg

09.01  The many oddities of the so-called 'ascending passage'

Many of the most amazing architectural oddities of the Great Pyramid can be found in the so-called ‘ascending passage’, or ‘ascending corridor’. These oddities are about:

1 • the three pairs of half girdles in the upper part of the ascending passage

2 • the very intriguing gigantic monolithic hollowed out girdle stones of the lower part of the passage

3 • the very intriguing intricate pattern in which the stones have been set

3 • the extremely poor quality of the limestone that has been used all over the passage

4 • the so-called 'pointer cuts' underneath each upper girdle

Of course, the most intriguing part, is that they are all to be considered at the same time: all these oddities are combined in the same place, but you will never understand them if you don’t consider the two missing parts of which were in the 'passage' at the time when the Great Pyramid was operated: the water that was trapped into most of the length of that ‘passage’, but also the wooden casing that overlaid the entire limestone work.

Unmodified diagram of the so-called 'ascending passage' of the Great Pyramid, that was almost completely flooded when the Pyramid was in operation: the passage was an inclined well, and the girdle stones were only here because of the water that was contained inside the structure of this well. Screenshot from the video I really recommend watching for anyone interested in the ascending passage, "The Strangest Pyramid Passage Ever Constructed”, by History for granite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmKHW2x8DBE

09.02  The two different sets of girdle stones in the ascending passage: the three relatively thin and isolated upper half girdles and the massive lower end-to-end girdles that transformed the passage into some kind of bunker

Contrary to what seems to suggest most of the information on the girdle stones of the ascending passage, there is not just three or four of these girdles in the passage. Actually, the entire lower end of the passage, from the G4 girdle (the lower of the usual girdles) down to the very end of the passage where the granite plug are today, is entirely made of 100% girdle stones. The fact is that when the Edgar brothers tried to understand the role of these girdles, they couldn't make any sense of this lower part of the passage because they were only interested in finding distances between blocks in order to associate these distances to Bible or other historical events. So, because all the lower girdle stones are completely pressed against each other, end to end, and because they couldn't measure anything, they simply decided not to talk about it any more (and that is exactly what they've wrote themselves). In short, the Edgar brothers couldn't make any sense of most of the girdle stones of the ascending passage, so they didn't include them in their mystic interpretation and they didn't draw them either. Since then, pretty much everybody did the exact same thing, including academic egyptologists.

Modified diagram of the layout of the girdle stones in the inclined well of the Great Pyramid of Giza (top view). Original diagram of the "First Ascending Passage", by John and Morton Edgar, in "Great Pyramid Passages", (1910), plate CX, paragraph ref. 460, page 230: ​https://archive.org/details/GreatPyramidPassagesVol11910Edition/page/n239/mode/2up

09.03  The lower girdle stones of the ascending passage and the questionable attitude of the Edgar brothers

461 In Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, 5th edition, page 295, Professor C. Piazzi Smyth inserted the following as a footnote : "In the year 1872, Mr. Waynman Dixon applied himself long and steadily to mapping down everything measurable touching the reputed disorder of the joint-lines in the First Ascending Passage of the Great Pyramid, or that one leading up to the lower north end of the Grand Gallery ; and presently perceived a most admirable order pervading the apparent disorder, tending also to hyper-excellent masonic construction. For the chief discovery was, that at stated intervals the smaller blocks forming elsewhere separately portions of the walls, floor, and ceiling of the passage, were replaced by great transverse plates of stone, with the whole of the passage's hollow rectangular bore cut clean through them ; wherefore, at these places, the said plates formed walls, floor, and ceiling, all in one piece,"

462 These plates of stone have been called Girdles. Before leaving home we had recognized the importance of the three upper ones as marking important dates in the Law Dispensation*. We therefore examined them with care, and found that -while all of the Girdles are differentiated from the other stones in this passage by their remarkable structure, the upper three are distinguished by symmetrical joints in the stones above and below them. An examination of these joints, as shown in the diagram (Plate CX), will demonstrate the exact symmetry of their angles one with another. Additionally, let into the walls immediately below the three upper Girdles, there are peculiar inset stones, which look like pointers, as If to call the Pyramid students' special attention to these Girdles. And as if still further to accentuate their importance, the inset "pointer" stones are let into specially large wall stones, as a reference to the diagram will show.

* In spite of long application we were unable to discover chronological significance in the lower Girdles.

Excerpts from the book written by the Edgar brothers in 1910. "Great Pyramid Passages, Volume 1" by John and Morton Edgar 1910", sections 460 to 470. Source: https://archive.org/details/GreatPyramidPassagesVol11910Edition/page/n239/mode/2up

466 These three upper Girdles are vertical, and square across from east to west, and are each composed of two stones, an upper and a lower, the upper forming the roof and part of both walls, and the lower the floor and the remainder of the walls, The joints on the walls of the passage between the upper and lower portions of each Girdle are horizontal, but are not opposite each other. In the first and third Girdles which, we have seen, are indicated by pointers on the west wall, the joint on the west is lower than its companion on the east wall ; while in the second Girdle, which is indicated by a pointer on the east wall, the east joint is lower than the west. It would therefore appear that the two stones which form each Girdle are not set horizontally one upon the other from east to west, but at an angle.

467 Those Girdles which lie lower down the passage than the three just described, are all in contact with one another. Though, like the first three, they are vertical, they do not lie square across the passage ; their joint-lines on the floor and roof incline upward diagonally from the east wall to the west wall. Some of these lower Girdles are formed out of a single stone. As will be seen in the drawing {Plate CX), the fourth Girdle is very irregular in shape, its south face being cut to form no less than six distinct joint-lines with the stones above it.

468 The whole of the passage from -the fourth Girdle down to the upper end of the Granite Plug is much dilapidated, extensive exfoliation having taken place on walls, roof and floor. Accurate measuring at this part is therefore almost impossible. However, we tried our best to get the exact positions of alt the joints by stretching lines tightly along the four angles formed by the walls with the roof and floor, and taking off-sets to these lines from the various joints. From peculiar indications in the root at this dilapidated part, it would seem that the stones which form the Girdles here were originally built in solid, end to end, after which the bore of the passage was cut through them. Above the fourth Girdle, however, there can be no doubt that the passage was constructed in the usual way, i.e., that the floor was first laid, the walls erected at the proper distance apart on the floor, and the roof- stones then placed on top of the wall-stones. Nevertheless, it is quite probable that the stones forming the three upper Girdles were built in entire, and the bore of the passage cut through them in situ. The two roof -stones immediately above and below each of the three upper Girdles, are in themselves partial girdles, thus further calling attention to the importance of these three prominent Girdles.

469 And yet, to the casual visitor to the Pyramid, and even to the observer who keeps his eyes about him, none of this wonderful symmetry in the masonry of the First Ascending Passage is clearly visible. The joints between the stones are in most Instances so close, that it is difficult to locate their exact positions, more especially as they appear to run in all directions. The first impression one gets from an endeavour to understand the system of masonry in this passage, is that it is without order. Here is the impression which Professor C. Piazzi Smyth had formed of it : " The walls show sometimes vertical, and sometimes perpendicular- to- pas sage joints, and these are now and then confusedly interfered with by parts of horizontal courses of masonry.

[excerpts from] "Great Pyramid Passages, Volume 1" by John and Morton Edgar, published 1910: https://archive.org/details/GreatPyramidPassagesVol11910Edition/page/n239/mode/2up

Photograph of John Edgar looking directly at the upper block of the granite plug of the 'ascending passage'. This block only moved a few meters down after its release when it was time to drain the inclined well from its waters. That block has been glorified into Taweret: a big and heavy grey hippopotamus that is spending almost its entire time under water. Photograph taken by his brother Morton Edgar: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:49_edgar.jpg

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cooling of a hypothetical Solvay manufacturing of natron. It is perfectly known that the entire lower part of the ascending passage, starting with the girdle stone number 4 (G4 on the above diagram) down to the lower block of the granite plug that is sealing the passage, is entirely made of massive and hollowed out blocks assembled together: these monolithic blocks are the girdle stones.

09.04  The very poor quality of the stones used in the ascending passage is because it was entirely overlaid by the central wooden Djed caisson... there never was any 'change of plan'

We’ll see in Section E, one of the most important part of the entire operating layout of the Great Pyramid: the central wooden Djed caisson in which was moving endlessly the composite impactor and which was absolutely necessary so that not only pressurized water could have been created, but also pressurized air, so that the moist air with about 100% humidity rate generated by a full cycle of operation could be replaced by new dry air. Without the central wooden Djed caisson, the Great Pyramid wouldn’t have been able to create flash-evaporative cold more than just one time. We’ll see in particular, that the caisson wasn’t restricted to the Grand Gallery, but that it also extended inside what is known today as the ascending passage so that the impactor would have been guided on its skate blades not only in the Gallery but also in the well. In short, the interior of the inclined well was covered entirely with a wooden casing, and this is why Egyptians didn’t care about using the most expansive limestone available.

“Unlike all the other passages and chambers within the pyramid, the ascending corridor is not made of the higher quality Tura limestone that once made up the pyramid casing. Hany Helal of Cairo University along with professors Hassan Imam and Taha Abdallah conducted a study of the hardness of the limestone used within the Great Pyramid. The hardness measurements revealed that high-quality limestone was used everywhere except the ascending corridor. The quality here was mediocre and highly inconsistent. This poor-quality limestone might once again point to the ascending corridor being a change of plan”. The Strangest Pyramid Passage Ever Constructed”, video by History for granite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmKHW2x8DBE

09.05  The never ending easy solution of 'the change of plan': can everybody stop with the stupid black men attitude?

One of the most intriguing oddities of the ascending passage of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, though very rarely mentioned, is that Egyptians used for its construction very poor quality blocks, and it is something so puzzling that it seems egyptologists are thinking it is the signature of a change in plans in the Pyramid’s construction. It’s almost funny: each time the academic vision of what was supposed to be the Great Pyramid is invalidated by scientific observations, egyptologists draw the magical card of the ‘change of plans’.

 And this is understandable; ancient Egyptians weren’t supposed to be very smart right? They only were black people from Africa thousands of years ago and they were only supposed to spend their time doing agricultural work or engage themselves into mysterious religious activities. So, sure if you think of these guys this way, even if you perfectly know that they’ve already written the first medical treaty long time before the Great Pyramid was built, there is no surprise to see that magical ‘change of plan’ card. But of course this attitude is wrong and you can even call it stupid. Ancient Egyptians weren’t the stupid ones, we are. So instead of demonstrating how stupid modern people can be, maybe we should really try to understand why did ancient Egyptians absolutely had to implement this extraordinary resources spending that lead to the construction of a true internal tunnel inside the structure of the Pyramid.

"This poor-quality limestone might once again point to the ascending corridor being a change of plan”. The Strangest Pyramid Passage Ever Constructed”, video by History for granite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmKHW2x8DBE

“Stupid Black Men. How to Play the Race Card and Lose”, Macmillan Publishers, by Larry Elder: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429929059/stupidblackmen

Original diagram is from “L’architettura delle Piramidi Menfite”, written by Maragioglio and Rinaldi, and published in 1965: http://www.cheops.su/wiki2/images/45123523.jpg and there are even more excellent diagrams of the internal layout of the Great Pyramid at http://www.cheops.su/wiki2/index.php/Maragioglio_%D0%B8_Rinaldi

During the entire operating period of the Great Pyramid, the bottom of the inclined well was sealed by the Taweret granite block: the upper granite plug. Taweret was maintained in position by a wedging block presenting an easy to break protruding part, getting out of the floor of the well. The breaking of that fragile part released the Taweret block and the waters of the well were drained through the dormant breach, between the Girdle Stones G8 and G9. Photograph of a relief showing the ancient Egyptian way of representing the inclined central wooden Djed caisson, from tomb KV 11 of Ramesses III, side chamber, image # 21076 by Matjaz Kacicnik, courtesy of ARCE, American Research Center in Egypt in partnership with the American University in Cairo Egyptology Department: https://thebanmappingproject.com/images/21076jpg

09.06  The joints in the floor indicate two sets of girdle stones with different orientations

When you look attentively to the drawing of the Edgar brothers (plate CXXVIII), showing the layout of the walls, floor and ceiling of the passage, you can see something absolutely amazing about the orientation of the joints in the floor of the passage: the lower girdle stones were arranged in two sets, each with a different orientation on the vertical axis. It is like these two sets of girdles are opening up to reveal a dormant breach. More amazing is that at the exact location where the breach is positioned, we can find a tiny squared imprint in the floor with a granite block still stuck inside today. 

We'll see that this little granite block still inside the floor of the ascending passage today, is the lower part of what I called the Bes wedging block, the block of granite which anchored the Taweret block at the very bottom of the inclined well, until it broke under extra pressure so that Taweret could be released and the waters of the well drained in the cavity of Al Ma'mun.

09.07  The lower part of the Bes granite wedging block is still in the floor of the passage today

The draining of the well was necessary in order to empty completely the pyramid of all its technological content. This is Petrie talking about the part just ahead (south) of the granite plugs: "The present top one is not the original end ; it is roughly broken, and there is a bit of granite still cemented to the floor some way farther South of it". Source: The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh par W. M. Flinders Petrie. Chapter: The inside of the Great Pyramid, The Ascending Passage, second to last paragraph in mark 38, seventh line of page 64: https://archive.org/details/cu31924012038927/page/n102/mode/1up

The polygonal arrangement of the blocks of the ascending passage / inclined well of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Original of the Diagram of the First Ascending Passage, by John and Morton Edgar, in "Great Pyramid Passages" 1910, plate CX, paragraph ref. 460, page 230: ​archive.org/details/GreatPyramidPassagesVol11910Edition/page/n239/mode/2up

09.08  If the girdle stones are designed to counter transversal forces directed towards the exterior of the inclined well, the interlocking and polygonal arrangement of the blocks is designed to counter longitudinal forces

What is striking when looking at the above diagram showing the layout of the blocks in the ascending passage, is how complicated and sophisticated everything has been made. Remember that this part of the Great Pyramid was under constant solicitation by the impactor ramming into the waters of the well, but also by the air itself pushed down by that same impactor before its pressurized the well. So, instead of describing this incredible and sophisticated layout as 'erratic' of 'approximative' as I've heard it, probably we should show some awe and respect, and certainly we should already have understood that if ancient Egyptians had put such efforts into building the ascending passage this way, it might be because there really was no other choice. But of course, it would implicate that the Great Pyramid isn't a tomb in the first place.

09.09  Probably the 'pointer' underneath each upper girdle was meant to fix the central wooden Djed caisson

Probably that the Djed caisson was also fixed at the bottom of the inclined well, onto the Taweret block. We can imagine some kind of groove that would have accommodated the four sides of the first wooden girdle of the caisson. Unfortunately, the upper part of the Taweret block has been obviously damaged, maybe to get the caisson out of its groove.

Preface

Next chapter

Previous chapter

Table of contents

Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

Timelines

Index