Great Pyramid of Giza (thing)

Dimensions:
Originally, the Great Pyramid stood at 481.3949 feet high. It has now been reduced to a little over 450 feet. Each side was intended to be about 755 feet long, and this hardly varies.

Initially the pyramid was encased in 22 acres of gleaming white limestone blocks, which were 8 feet thick and weighed about 16 tons. The mean thickness of the joints between these blocks was 0.02 of an inch, an astounding figure which would have made the pyramid appear as one single flawless megalith. Unfortunately, the majority of these were dislodged by an earthquake in AD 1301, and the exposed interior rock was used as a quarry for about 500 years.

The pyramid stands at a latitude of 29º58'51", or merely a mile south of exactly 1/3 the distance form the equator to North Pole.

The sides of the pyramid slope upwards at about 51º52', about the slope made by loose sand if it is allowed to fall and pile up. Interior passages always run at 26º. The longest star-shaft is that of the North Kings Chamber, at 65m. The shortest is 24m, and belongs to the Nth Queens Chamber. The steepest angle is 32º28' from the vertical, also held by the North Kings chamber. The shallowest is 45º15, this time belonging to the South Kings Chamber. The apparent reason for this variation (not counting star alignment) is that the two pairs (King's and Queen's shafts) appear to have been designed to emerge at the same height. Each star-shaft is about 23x22cm in width.

The meridian is an imaginary line running north-south across the center of the sky. As stars move in an east-west fashion, they achieve their highest point apon crossing the meridian. The shaft targeted at Osiris-Orion's belt would have done so circa 2,500 BC. A more intriguing possibility arises when one searches even further back, to approximately 15,000 BC, when the shaft once more lines up. Although 2,500 BC is labeled the 'pyramid age' by egyptologists, it is believed by many that the Sphinx, which is an integral (although not necessarily contemporary) piece of the Giza complex, can be dated back much further.

In the last few decades it has become apparent that the massive wearing on the Sphinx was not caused by wind and sand damage, but rather by enormous rainfall. The Sabians (whose arabic name Sa'ba comes form the ancient Egyptian word for star, Sba) worshipped the Sphinx under the name of Mwl, and believed that it had survived a great flood in approximately 13,000 BC. In this era, the Sphinx, which points due East, would have seen the sun rise against the background of the constellation Leo.

And so we see that the Giza plain may well have been seen as special, from an astronomical standpoint, since long before the great pyramids were built. It might also be useful to mention here that the Great and Second pyramids are built upon protruding foundations of bedrock, which may well have served as astronomical observation points for millennia.

It would be foolish to believe that the star shafts served intentionally as ventilation for the workers. As noted by Dr. Alexander Badawy in 1964¹, the simplest way to provide sufficient airflow would be to leave a slight space between slabs running from opposite sides of the Pyramid to the ceiling of the chambers. The shafts we are presented with, however appear to be constructed in the most difficult way, requiring 4 differently shaped blocks (A large wedge-shaped block with a flat underside, upon which a downward slanting hollow block rests to form the tunnel. On each side a wedge-shaped block with a flat top is required, and a final flat-topped wedge-block which rests apon the tunnel block completes the illusion of a single slab). Not to mention that the two shafts running to the so-called 'Queen's Chamber' have been sealed off for the last few epochs right up to the original construction, and the last 5 inches were only opened with a chisel in 1872 by Waynman Dixon, a British engineer.

Although rarely given credit for any astronomical expertise, it is believed that the ancient Egyptians knew about Zodiac progression (the Zodiac symbols move across the sky, changing the apparent rising point of the sun. As of AD 2000, we have entered the Age of Aquarius. Yay!). According to the pyramid texts, Horus (or the Horus-Kings/pharaohs, the reflection of the sky mirrored on earth as were many customs in ancient Egypt. It was believed that changes in the sky represented events that had happened in Zep Tepi, the first time, or age of the gods), in the form of the solar disc, crosses the Nile (the band of the Milky Way) on his way to join Osiris and Isis (Sirius, which moves across the sky at about 1 degree per 3000 years). He must first stand between the paws of Leo (or Rostau, a creature represented with a hieroglyph depicting two lions side by side, or one above the other) and receive directions form the ancients. The ceremonial boat discovered buried near the Great Pyramid's south face suggests that this journey may have been undertaken by the pharaoh, and that the Giza plan (and other pyramids to the North and South, at the correct to-scale distance, which help to complete the image of Orion) may have simply been tools used to complete this journey, perhaps as a kind of rejuvenation ceremony. After all, the rising of the region of sky known as the Duat, or afterworld in which Horus' journey takes place, is bathed in pink light before the Summer Solstice, and subsequent inundation of the Nile.