THE GREAT PYRAMID Photo by Garret Griffiths, Outlook Entertainment, Los Angeles, CA                The Great Pyramid at Giza — the greatest stone structure on the planet. The largest, most enduring, most accurately engineered, most enigmatic, and most difficult-to-duplicate stone monument of all time. No official inscriptions, no paintings, no carvings, no records of its construction, no easily understood reference to it of any kind anywhere in Egypt until at least 1000 years later. No explanations. No burials. After centuries of research and debate, scientists and scholars around the world are still trying to determine exactly who built it, when, how, and why. Conclusive historical evidence has not been found and the factual paradoxes are profound. Photo above: The Great Pyramid (foreground) The Pyramids attributed to Khafre and Menkaure (backgound) Photo at right: The only known existing image of Khufu, credited with the building of the Great Pyramid, is this small statue (about three inches high) housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Inset: Cartouche (a figure containing a Pharaoh's name) of Khufu

OUTSIDE THE GREAT PYRAMID

Engineering of stone blocks above the original north entrance to the Great Pyramid Complex of non-uniform stone work on the northeast corner of the Great Pyramid    Although only observable from specific sight lines, meticulous measurements taken by Sir Flinders Petrie demonstrate indentations in the centre of each side, as shown, slighltly exaggerated, in his diagram of the Great Pyramid, above left. An aerial photo, above right, taken by Brigadier P.R.C. Groves when the timing and angle were coincidentally ideal, clearly shows the indentation on the south side. (Both figures appear in Petrer Tompkins' "Secrets of the Great Pyramid", permission pending.)

Huge core blocks over the original outer entrance hint at complex structural engineering over all the interior passages and the grand gallery. Petrie's observations on the joints between the casing stones: "an area of some 35 sq. ft. each, the mean variation of the cut stone from a straight line and from a true square, is but .01 in. on a length of 75 in. Up the face the mean opening of the joint was but 1/50 in., yet the builders managed to fill the joint with cement. . . the weight of the stone to be moved — some 16 tons . . .to merely place such stones in exact contact at the sides would be careful work, but to do so with cement in the joints [and without chipping] seems almost impossible." Many blocks meet at compound angles and each stone is individually fitted to all adjacent stones. The 13-acre foundation varies from true level by less than 1 inch. (See also Ancient Egyptian Stone Technology In situ fitting and design or pre-fitted mosaic, non-ubiquitious core stones Limestone casing stones A precise joint between the casing stones

INSIDE THE GREAT PYRAMID

Plan View (Looking down from the top) and Detail of Plan View

North Section View (Looking through from the north) and Detail of North Section

East Section View (Looking through from the east) and Detail of East Section