From Chapter 6. Into the Void

This book began with the discovery of the “Big Void” and went on to show how there exists some good evidence to indicate that the Coptic-Egyptian oral tradition that speaks of the purpose of the Great Pyramid as some kind of “Ark” may actually be based more in fact than the myth believed by Egyptology. As explained in the opening chapter, the Big Void (figure 7.1) is believed to have similar proportions to the Grand Gallery (157 x 28 feet).

The discovery of this void has mainstream Egyptologists scratching their heads as to why such a massive “space” should exist within the Great Pyramid at all. While Egyptologists such as Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass of the ScanPyramids project team advise caution in declaring this space a new chamber, it seems perfectly clear from the data that this massive void is not like many of the much smaller sand and mortar filled voids that the Great Pyramid is peppered with. Indeed, this void appears to be something altogether different and is highly likely, after further investigation, to be found to be the fifth major chamber within the Great Pyramid.

One of the reasons why Egyptologists are hesitant to pronounce this void as a new pyramid chamber is that there is no obvious entry to it. No passageways or connecting tunnels have been detected. If it is indeed a purposely built chamber, then it appears to be entirely isolated and apparently without any obvious means of access. Why would Khufu build his pyramid with a totally inaccessible chamber inside it?

Some have speculated that Khufu may have built this chamber to store his treasure, to perhaps take with him to the Afterlife. This scenario seems highly unlikely since, in accordance with ancient Egyptian burial rituals, it was the job of the ancient Egyptian priests to place these items within the Pyramid only after the king’s death, by which time this chamber would have been long completed and sealed. How, then, would it have been possible for the priests to place Khufu’s afterlife goods into a chamber to which there was no access; a chamber that was entirely sealed off as the Pyramid was built upwards and over it?

It seems that the mainstream narrative--that an ancient pyramid was simply a “tomb of the king”--needs a serious rethink, because the tomb paradigm, quite simply, cannot adequately explain this anomaly; especially if this void is found to be a purposely built, inaccessible chamber. While everyone is focused on the “void” and the modern science that went into discovering it, no one is looking at what the ancient Egyptians themselves have said with regards to the building of the pyramids, and if there is any clue in their ancient texts to shed light upon this discovery.

This book argues that the first, giant pyramids of ancient Egypt were conceived and constructed not as the “tomb of the king,” but rather as the “womb of the kingdom”; that the first sixteen or so pyramids of ancient Egypt, the giant pyramids, represented the allegorical “body of Osiris” (which was said to have been cut into sixteen pieces and scattered across the land of Egypt). This book further argues that the giant pyramids were conceived and built as “Recovery Vaults” for the kingdom in lieu of an impending deluge which the ancient Egyptians believed would overwhelm their kingdom.

This idea of a “Recovery Vault” is not unlike our modern-day seed vault on Svalbaard in the Arctic Circle, which opened in 2008. I did not, however, arrive at this Recovery Vault conclusion of my own accord--I took my cue from what the ancient Egyptian texts tell us:

“. . . The king then directed the astrologers to ascertain by taking the altitude whether the stars foretold any great catastrophe, and the result announced an approaching deluge. The king ordered them to inquire whether or not this calamity would befall Egypt; and they answered, yes, the flood will overwhelm the land, and destroy a large portion of it for some years. . . . upon which the king ordered the Pyramids to be built, and the predictions of the priests to be Inscribed upon columns, and upon the large stones belonging to them; and he placed within them his treasures, and all his valuable property, together with the bodies of his ancestors.”

And there it is--this text suggests that the Big Void within the Great Pyramid is a chamber built specifically to house and protect, “. . . the bodies of his [Sūrīd’s] ancestors.” What must be appreciated here is that, to the ancient Egyptians, their deceased kings and queens continued to perform a vital role for the living kingdom. In the afterlife their role was to commune with the gods in the heavenly realm to assist the living king to ensure the sun would rise, the Nile would flow, and that the crops would grow. Indeed, part of the reason why it was essential that the bodies of these kings and queens were preserved and mummified was to protect them against decay since a decayed body could not fulfill this vital function in the afterlife. It was also the job of the living king to protect the tombs of these long deceased kings and queens from robbery or desecration and to give prayers and offerings to help “nurture” them. Indeed, failing to do this could bring dire consequences for the living king and the kingdom.

And so, as a consequence of their religious beliefs, the ancient Egyptians had great reverence for their ancestor kings and queens and would go to quite extraordinary lengths to protect their long expired bodies, often removing their mummified remains from their original tombs to new, safer tomb locations when it seemed their original tombs were in danger of some kind (usually tomb raiders).