Em Hotep:  January 27 marks the one year anniversary of the premier of Khufu Reborn at la Géode in Paris.  Of course, January 25 marked the one year anniversary of the January Revolution in Cairo.  Much has changed in Egypt in the last year, and the story continues to develop.  How has this affected your ability to work on-site, particularly with the planned survey with Laval University?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:  First of all, your question makes me think about something none of us can control:  Time!  Time flies…  It has already been one year since the premiere of Khufu Reborn at la Géode.

Jean-Pierre Houdin with his father, Henri, refining the internal ramp theory

This also begins my thirteenth year of research on Khufu’s pyramid, which has expanded to include research on the other large pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty.  When you consider twelve full years dedicated to one single quest, to learn how these large pyramids were built, that’s a lot of time invested in learning, analyzing, researching, thinking, modeling and simulating on a single subject.

In life, you learn in school—at high school and then at university—before having a job for most of the rest of your life, where your education continues.  That is what I did.  I studied architecture at the Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1970 and 1976, so that is six years spent earning my Ph.D in architecture.  Then I ran my own architectural business for more than 22 years, so that is another 22 years of field training, from designing structures on paper and computer modeling to actually being on-site to assist in their construction.

Then in January, 1999, came the big jump into the unknown, in every sense of the word.  To leave a comfortable life to focus exclusively on the search for an explanation about one of the last great enigmas of our day:  to understand a 45-centuries-old civilization in what is its biggest achievement—the pyramids.

A new life, full of uncertainties about my own future, but rich in knowledge and understanding because of this determination to resolve an enigma, something you can’t get in high school or university because they simply don’t have the answer.  This is not the kind of quest where the answer is there waiting for you in a book; for this sort of quest you have to become the scholar and write the answer yourself, based on the compilation of your learning and the addition of your own research.

Jean-Pierre Houdin at la Géode, Paris, in 2007 for the premier of the first part of his work, Khufu Revealed (photo courtesy Jean-Pierre Houdin/Dassault Systèmes)

After twelve years of research I’m still not a knighted Egyptologist, but I’ve surely acquired more knowledge on the specific subject of the pyramids than almost any other human being, Egyptologists included.  This had to be said…for those who missed this point…  My work incorporates the knowledge of Egyptologists, both what has been written and those who have worked directly with me, the expertise of engineers and computer modeling specialists, as well as my academic and practical experience as an architect and a builder.  All of these are required to understand the enigma of the pyramids.

Now, a year is gone and not a quiet one on the Egyptian soil.  While we are celebrating the first anniversary of the Géode première, Egyptians are celebrating the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square revolution, a search for a new beginning after sixty years of a non-democratic regime.  And this revolution was absolutely needed and is still not fully achieved.  Any revolution takes time to succeed…

It is not hard to imagine that, on the Egyptology side, or at least on my own research side, nothing could have happened during this period of time.  But there have been some important developments with the SCA and the Ministry of Antiquities that could clear the way for a better relationship with the authorities in charge.  We should expect less personal decisions regarding the authorizations to carry out a survey. The new Ministry of Antiquities, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, made it clear that now any approval regarding any mission or survey will be decided by the SCA council members and not by one man. There again, time will tell.

Meanwhile, we are still preparing, with Dassault Systèmes and Laval University, the future mission on site using an infrared camera, a truly non-destructive technique because we won’t touch the pyramid at all.  Experiments are being set for the coming weeks on the “Redoute”, a fortified building in the walls of Old Quebec.

The Project Khufu Team at Laval University (left to right) Xavier Maldague, Matthieu Klein, Mehdi Tayoubi, Jean-Pierre Houdin, Richard Breitner (Courtesy Mehdi Tayoubi/ Dassault Systèmes)

But I often ask myself, what is going wrong with our world?  Why is there this resistance to letting science move forward?  I have put forward a totally coherent theory from A to Z based on dozens of clues that I have gathered, most of which are right before our eyes for anyone to observe.  The theory is fully explained and can literally be experienced thanks to the same virtual reality and 3D technology that engineers and architects use to design modern structures.  We have many non-destructive techniques available, some of which could give a definitive proof in a few days, whilst others, like Multipolar Infrared Vision (the one in preparation) would take a little more time, but would be well worth it for Egyptology and the people of Egypt themselves.

A year from now, January 25, 2013, we could celebrate the second anniversary of the Tahrir revolution with a tremendous asset for the future of Egypt: a complete understanding of the big pyramids and a new reason for millions of tourists to come in Egypt—rediscovering Khufu’s Pyramid, walking in its internal ramp and visiting its two antechambers.

Should I be wrong…science would have been respected and Time could pass on the pyramids.  The worst thing is to do nothing.

Now…I don’t think that I will be wrong, because…

Em Hotep:  I saw where Japan recently did a television special on your work. Are there other documentaries forthcoming that we can look forward to?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:  In fact, in 2008 and 2009, several documentaries, all co-produced by Dassault Systèmes, were filmed in Egypt about my work.  The National Geographic Channel produced Unlocking the Great Pyramid (also known as The last Secret on BBC), Gedeon (for French Channels France 2/France 5) produced Kheops Révélé (directed by Florence Tran) and NHK Japan produced three different versions.  All of these documentaries were big successes and greatly helped the theory being known all around the world.

Mehdi Tayoubi and Florence Tran (Courtesy Mehdi Tayoubi/Dassault Systèmes)

Recently, I discovered the long NHK version about the theory and I was really impressed by the meticulous and scientific approach to my work.  Although it was in Japanese, thanks to the images and 3D animations, I was able to fully understand all the processes and details of the theory.  The Japanese director had remarkably transmitted the message.

Over the last four years I have seen evidence of the impact these documentaries are having:  each time one is broadcasted somewhere on Earth, the day after I always receive e-mails from viewers telling me that they are totally convinced and that they support me and my work.  By now I have received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails, and I always reply.  I’m proud of having so many ambassadors for the theory almost everywhere on the globe.

We have no plan, for now, to make a new documentary but this could change very quickly if we get permission for a survey on site.

Otherwise, time is not lost at all.  With the “Khufu Team” (lead by Mehdi Tayoubi and Richard Breitner) at Dassault Systèmes, we are now working, with the CATIA software, on the modeling of the last pyramid of Khufu’s father Snefru, the Red Pyramid at Dashur.  The architectural legacy between the Red Pyramid and the Great Pyramid is amazing and the building processes are similar, although with some design differences regarding the internal ramp.

Richard Breitner and Jean-Pierre Houdin guide us through the 3D virtual reality world of Khufu Reborn at la Géode one year ago today (courtesy Tayoubi/Dassault Systèmes)

You will be surprised by the cleverness of the architects and engineers.  Just as Khufu’s pyramid is a “Chef d’oeuvre” of great engineering due to its size and its multiple internal chambers and corridors, Snefru’s Red pyramid is equally a “Chef d’oeuvre” for its fineness, simplicity, purity and over all, for how quickly they were able to built it.

Last but not least, I’m very proud to learn more and more every day that the theory is being taught to pupils and students in many parts of the world.  Slowly but surely, this theory is gaining momentum in schools and universities, replacing theories that have been stubbornly taught for more than a century despite their lack of evidence and common sense, theories that literally cannot fit within the topography of the Giza Plateau.

Em Hotep:  In the comments section of the Pyramid Shafts article there was much discussion and explanation by you regarding the shafts, and I have had several people send me some questions which I have promised to ask you. I will be publishing the follow-up article about the Djedi Project and interviews with Shaun Whitehead and Mehdi Tayoubi about this project the first part of next week. I know the shafts play a role in the development of your theory, both as explanations as to their purpose and as clues to the antechambers. May I revisit the question of the pyramid shafts with you after the Djedi article/interviews are posted?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:  Absolutely…once your article and interviews about the Djedi Project have been published, your readers will then have a strong base to understand my own ideas about these shafts. The Queen’s Chamber and the King’s Chamber shafts seem to have the same purpose, but this is not the case.  More to come.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2012.  All rights reserved.

My good friend Marc Chartier of Pyramidales (and more recently of Égypte-actualités, but more on that endeavor later..) had a chance to sit down recently with Jean-Pierre and discuss these questions and more.  Thanks to Em Hotep’s partnership with Pyramidales, I am able to bring you the English language version of this interview.  Enjoy, and please feel free to join the conversation, as they say…

In January 2011, Pyramidales joined the international press at La Géode in Paris for the premier of Khufu Reborn, the second phase of Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work with the Great Pyramid originally introduced to the world in 2007 with Khufu Revealed.  Thanks to the Passion for Innovation program, Jean-Pierre has enjoyed full access to the technology and talent of Dassault Systèmes, the world leader in industrial 3D CAD and simulation, to integrate and test his theories in a virtual environment based on the most thorough surveys of the pyramid and the Giza Plateau to date (you may enter and explore the simulation yourself online here).

Subsequently, Pyramidales fully described and illustrated these new developments regarding the construction and the technical configuration of the Great Pyramid of Giza (see the Pyramidales Interviews in the right sidebar).  Now, as we come up on the one year anniversary of Khufu Reborn, Pyramidales again joined Jean-Pierre for a discussion of how the work is progressing, in particular, how the new material covered in “Phase II” has been received and interpreted by expert and amateur enthusiasts of Egyptology and the public in general.

It is with warm gratitude to Jean-Pierre that Pyramidales brings this interview to you.

Pyramidales:

Jean-Pierre Houdin, it has been nearly a year now since you premiered, at an international press conference, the continuation of the work you first presented in Khufu Revealed back in 2007 explaining your research and work regarding the manner of construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Looking back, how do you assess the reactions generated both among the general public and from specialists and experts in the field of Egyptology by these extensions to your original theory?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

The presentation of Khufu Reborn, on January 27^th, 2011, at la Géode, was already for me the expression of a major vote of confidence from my friends on the “Khufu Team” at Dassault Systèmes.  For reasons that have nothing to do with science, no scientific research has been carried out on-site since the revelation, on March 30th, 2007, of the theory of the internal ramp; the result is the inability to get scientific proof of the existence of an internal ramp.  Otherwise, the discovery by Dr. Bob Brier, while filming a documentary in 2008, of a large unknown room behind the notch on the north-eastern edge was a clue of great importance.

Given this context, the decision made four years later by the “Khufu Team” to help me, by means of an extraordinary 3D animation, to go even further in my revelations with the announcement of the possible existence of two antechambers next to the King’s Chamber, was for me a major event for the theory. After nearly eight years of silence on this aspect of my work, I can now demonstrate the consistency of this research.  No previous researcher has delved as thoroughly into the study of Khufu’s pyramid as we have, both with regard to the architectural project drawn up by the designers of the time as well as the implementation of the project.

In addition to the satisfaction they bring, public reactions are quite telling: one can observe in my proposals the gradual development of my theory and how each progression of the work consistently builds a more complete picture, based on simplicity and logic, which fully answers the questions that are related to the construction and purpose of the Great Pyramid.  The public is finally able to see the genius of the ancient Egyptians by understanding how an “inexplicable” mystery—how the Great Pyramid was built—involved neither magic nor miracles, just tried and true construction methods.  The theory explains how simple human intervention addressed seemingly impossible tasks.  Now, about the construction specialists, there again the response has been very positive.  The 3D presentation spoke their language very convincingly.

Finally, let’s talk about experts in Egyptology … the French ones!  They have not deigned to usefully express themselves since the initial presentation of the theory, so why should it be different now, particularly if the generally positive reception the work has gotten elsewhere reflects them in an unflattering light?  In contrast, many foreign Egyptologists have shown a growing interest in my work.

Unfortunately, as always, traditional Egyptological explanations about the pyramid of Khufu are based on a trompe-l’oeil: a north-south cross-section showing three rooms, some corridors and the Grand Gallery.  Looking at the inner works of the pyramid from just this perspective has resulted in theories that simply do not hold up under careful analysis.  These theories collapse when examined in light of how the different internal parts are laid out and relate to each other, how the funerary rites and processions would have been conducted, and especially in terms of building principles.  Yet the construction of the pyramids during the Fourth Dynasty, with Snefru, Khufu and Khafre, was the result of practical know-how, of course constantly improved, but in the service of architectural continuity.

An example of this sort of misinterpretation is the so-called “rupture” of Khufu, based on the famous north-south cross-section view.  This is not a rupture at all.  This erroneous conclusion is based on an Egyptological interpretation of the monument, not from an architectural interpretation.  But the pyramid was designed by architects, and it takes the perspective of a fellow builder to bring together all the elements in a way that allows us to understanding the intentions of the designers.  The stones speak to those who can understand their language … an architect, for example.

Pyramidales:

It seems to me, after a very thorough survey of the literature both in print and on-line that that your name remains primarily associated with the first phase of your work, in particular, with the internal ramp aspect of your theory.  In other words, Khufu Revealed is more well-known while Khufu Reborn seems to remain confined to more confidential spheres.  Do you feel that the second phase of your work, especially as it relates to the two antechambers next to the King’s Chamber, is encountering some difficulty in gaining traction?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

This apparent state of affairs is absolutely not related to the “quality” of the information revealed on January 27 (the probable presence of two antechambers close to the King’s Chamber), but to the “quantity” of information that has spread on the web after the press conference.  When Khufu Revealed premiered on March 30, 2007, there was an extraordinary “cocktail” between quality and quantity of news, the theory being propelled, thanks to a very innovative presentation in 3D animation and in real time, to the top of the news cycle for more than 24 hours.  The news went around the world with the time zones.  This type of “state of grace” is exceptional and it clearly set the bar very high for any new statement on the subject.

The purpose of the press conference on January 27, 2011, was quite different: push the theory a little deeper into the minds of people, by revealing the elements (the two antechambers) that could have blurred the message if they had been included in the 2007 presentation.  The conference itself was a great success, major French television channels (TF1, FR2, and FR3 in particular) talking extensively about the event in their mid-day and evening news.  As for news agencies and newspapers, they have widely spread the information on their side, except for a large agency that has managed to “conveniently” miss the subject, resulting in fewer articles than we enjoyed in 2007.

But I believe that above all, there was a major event nobody could have anticipated or planned for, and which partly stole the show to “Khufu Reborn”: on January 25, 2011, the first news about an embryonic revolutionary movement was arriving from Cairo… on January 27, the day of the conference, the revolution in Tahrir Square was already on the front page in all media.  You know what happened next.

Also, when you search the theory on Google, there are more responses related to 2007 than to 2011. This is only linked to the quantity of information available, not to the quality.  But I can tell you, and the “Khufu Team” certainly agrees with me, that the message is very well perceived.  Every day I receive, from everywhere around the world, many e-mail from passionate people who know a lot about pyramids and who are totally convinced by the overall consistency of the theory.

A visit to the official Khufu Reborn website made by Dassault Systèmes enables visitors to put their “feet on the site” and explore both the theory and the pyramid and its environment in a way that has never been possible before.  People can visit the website and see how the entire theory fits together and when they emerge from this journey their emails to me show that they are “getting it” and their understanding of this work leaves little room for doubting the veracity of the theory.

Finally, I conclude on this issue by taking your sentence: “In other words, Khufu Revealed is more well-known while Khufu Reborn seems to remain confined to more confidential spheres

For me, on the front line, I perceive absolutely no confinement.  Khufu Reborn perfectly complements Khufu Revealed and anyone who is interested in my work ends up having knowledge of the theory as a whole.  The goal is reached.  As for the “confidential spheres”, I would say that these terms are more applicable to a very small number of people in the world of Egyptology who have chosen to ignore me. Too bad for them, the dialogue would have been interesting.

Pyramidales:

During your public presentation of Khufu Reborn last January, contacts were established with two experts from Laval University in Quebec, for a possible in-situ observation of the Great Pyramid, using the technique of Multipolar Infrared Vision.  Can you share the current status of this project?

And a necessary complement to this question: such a project presupposes an implied agreement at the highest levels of Egyptian Antiquities.  Now Egypt has experienced the upheavals that we have all witnessed.  Will the appointment of a new Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and a minister of Egyptian Antiquities, possibly open a window to the completion of your project?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

The collaboration with a team from Laval University, consisting of Professor Xavier Maldague, Matthew Klein and Clemente Ibarra Castanedo, is developing very well.  Working meetings were held in June at the university and we have established a specific protocol, with a strategy for the establishment of a mission.  In addition, a Multipolar Infrared Vision campaign was set up in Quebec: the experience is being applied to the “Redoute”, a fortified building in the walls of Old Quebec, with local authorities being warmly receptive to the project and amenable to making the building available.  We will therefore be able to refine the protocol based on the results acquired during this local project.

This leads me to answer the second part of your question: as always, it is essential that any survey to be carried out on-site is conducted with the cooperation of our Egyptian counterparts and in accordance with the legal authorities of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The current situation in Egypt does not leave a clear vision of what is going on with the SCA, the post of Secretary-General being successively held by several people in a very short time.  The current elections are an additional element of uncertainty about the future of this service.  It follows that it is unfortunately impossible to see at the moment a “window” to complete the project.

Pyramidales:

Does your theory as formulated in Khufu Reborn represent the culmination of your “reconstitution of the building site” of the Great Pyramid?  Or is it likely to have new developments or improvements?  If so, what are the new areas of your research?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

The theory is now globally formulated, funerary architecture is determined, construction processes are detailed and the entire Giza Plateau is integrated into the explanation of the project and its progression. But as in any hypothesis, the details can still be improved.  However, they will render the theory even more relevant.  I am very pleased because the theory became more refined and simplified while its developments and its logic were enhanced.  Every step, every detail, every process, every architectural choice are supported by solid arguments or evidence visible in situ.

Countless 3D simulations conducted with the CATIA software provided by Dassault Systèmes allowed the team to construct a perfect virtual model of the pyramid and its place on the Giza Plateau, and within this environment we were able to simulate and test any concept or potentiality, and it is through this process that the refined theory has emerged.  Now, only confrontation with the reality will allow us to correct any differences in detail.

Doubt is part of the research, of course, but it is more and more difficult for me to imagine any other way apart from the technique of “building from the inside” for the construction of the Great Pyramid.  When I try to put myself “at the outside” in order to address the issue, and because of all the knowledge I gained during twelve years of research, I always understand quickly that I stumble against an impossibility.  I had the time to turn the problem in every way, believe me!

As I often say, Khufu’s pyramid has not arrived on the Giza Plateau by chance: it is the result of an evolution in the art of building from the early mastabas.  Having studied all the pyramids built from Djoser up to Menkaure, it is now appropriate that I specify for each one their specific mode of construction, especially the two pyramids of Snefru at Dahshur (the Bent and the Red Pyramids) and Khafre’s pyramid in Giza.  If construction “from the inside” is the rule, there will still be variations adapted to each of the monuments in the building processes.  The modeling of these pyramids will demonstrate these changes and can only complement and strengthen the principles of the theory.

Pyramidales:

Henri Houdin, Jean-Pierre's father, attentive to his son's research

Khufu’s pyramid is considered the ultimate pyramid architecture on the Giza plateau, the culmination of the skills of the Egyptian builders.  Does this mean that this pyramid is unique?  Or do you think that the techniques used in its construction – in particular, from your point of view, the internal ramp – have also been used to build other pyramids, Khafre, for example, or Menkaure as well?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

As I indicated in my previous answer, Khufu’s pyramid is, at the beginning of its construction, the culmination of the expertise of Egyptian builders and is absolutely not a unique monument, although this pyramid is unique in its category (funerary architecture in the heart of the monument).  The construction technique of “building from the inside” was applied to all large smooth pyramids built after the Step Pyramid of Saqqara.  This does not mean that all smooth pyramids were built in part by an internal ramp.  This technical process was only necessary for the large smooth pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty (Bent, Red, Khufu and Khafre … and certainly Meidum).  For all other pyramids from Menkaure and after, Egyptians will continue to build “from the inside”, but without recourse to an internal ramp; a construction trench penetrating in one side of the building will be reserved during construction before being recapped at the end of construction.  There are traces of trenches in the ruins of the pyramids of Neferirkare and Sahure at Abusir.

Pyramidales:

A fundamental question to me: regarding the multiple contemporary theories which succeed each other in an attempt to decipher – at last! – The “secret of the pyramids”, what are, in your opinion, the strengths, or even more, the skills, that any researcher must or should show in this field?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

I believe it is important to think first to the monument itself, to understand the design philosophy, to follow the logic of the scalable architecture of the time, to analyze in detail the components, and especially to not come proposing a gadget that could respond to a specific point of construction.  The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built using processes that were simple, logical, and controlled, they just did so on a larger scale than before.

The schedule of conditions was clear: build a pyramid, just a pyramid, and not, for example, build a big ramp “at lost” or build locks to build a pyramid.  Resources in Egypt were precious, and one had to build without wasting any material or effort.  Extracting a stone to build an external ramp was not an end but a step in the life of this stone.  Processes tailored to each major stage of construction lowered the cost of construction, because the same stone used in one phase (the external ramp) was recycled in the next phase, becoming a component of the building itself. This is the great art of the Egyptians of the time.

What are the necessary skills?  Certainly a good knowledge about construction, that makes sense to me … especially when I see some theories that ignore gravity!

I do not think that we can learn much just from the study of ancient texts, especially when these texts are so few and sketchy.  Herodotus is absolutely not sufficient, far from it!

To the contrary, we have to draw upon the totality of knowledge this period has left to us, a surprisingly vast reference library.  One can find common parameters, an architectural language and religious principles, and understanding these elements is mandatory to solving these puzzles.  By understanding how these principles have been applied elsewhere we can extrapolate how they may have served in the building of Khufu’s Pyramid.

Pyramidales:

You have lent your voice to encouraging and promoting the Earth Pyramid project developed by Steve Ward.  Why do you think this initiative is promising?  What does it reveal?

Jean-Pierre Houdin:

I have been in touch with Steve Ward for more than a year.  Steve found my theory simple, logical, ecological and perfectly suited to his project to build a modern pyramid today.  So there was already a likeable side in this encounter via the Internet.  But what attracted me the most was the idea of the Earth Pyramid Project: to build a monument intended to cross the centuries for future generations, involving the younger generations of today in a large rallying movement.

Why is this initiative promising?

We never get something for nothing.  The men and women who will support this initiative are themselves those who will make the initiative promising.  But the Earth Pyramid project has a lot going for it that makes me hopeful:  the project is positive, constructive, generous, peaceful, somewhat utopian (we will always need dreamers), dedicated to children around the world who have a sacred need to have another vision of Earth than the one they see all day long in the TV: wars, crises, disasters, famines … there is nothing very positive in all this.

So when someone is deeply motivated, fights for a noble and smart idea (transmitting messages from children intended to be read in a thousand years), I support it, it’s as simple as that.  It’s a bit of fresh air in a quite turbulent world.  And the symbol of the pyramid containing a “time-capsule” is a great idea.  It is clear that this type of monument can defy time without too much trouble … These are just the actions of men that can disrupt their life: who would dare attack a symbol dedicated to children from around the world?

In addition to providing the full simulation illustrating Jean-Pierre’s theory in detail, the Khufu Reborn universe is interactive.  You can actually navigate you way around the Giza Plateau of 4,500 years ago.  But if you aren’t ready to dive into Khufu’s world just yet, this Em Hotep tour and tutorial will equip you for the journey.

On January 27, 2011, Khufu Reborn premiered at La Géode in Paris, France.  This was the official launch of Episode Two of Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work with the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu.  The presentation was a stunning larger than life 3D simulation of the Giza Plateau, the pyramid, and a detailed explanation of Jean-Pierre’s theory.  But if you were unable to attend the premier, Dassault Systèmes has brought it to you, right to your desktop.

Marc Chartier, Jean-Pierre Houdin, and Keith Payne at the premier of Khufu Reborn (Courtesy of Marc Chartier)

Now you can log on to the Project Khufu section of the Dassault Systèmes website, download a small plugin, and see the presentation in its entirety, but with an advantage those of us in attendance did not have—at any point during the presentation you can take control and travel to anyplace in the Khufu Reborn universe to look at things in as much detail as you wish.  Here is the link to the site:

Click Here to Go Back 4,500 Years to Khufu’s Egypt!

Feel free to click on and jump right in!  But if you would like a short guided tour, then do read on.

The Khufu Reborn online interactive simulation is rendered in such detail that it really has to be seen to be believed.  And despite having all of the eye-popping graphics and navigational freedom of a cutting edge first-person video game, this universe is not by any stretch make-believe.  The environment is based on accurate surveys of the Giza Plateau and the pyramid itself, with the clock turned back 4,500 years.  Ancient details, based on up-to-date archaeological evidence, have been recreated in a way that lets you move through the Giza Plateau of Khufu and his Master Builder, Hemienu.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you first go to the site you will land at the Khufu Reborn: The Story Continues page where you can watch a brief introductory video.  The video gives you an idea of how Jean-Pierre Houdin’s theory has evolved and will set the stage for the journey you are about to embark upon.  After the video, click on the Discover a unique interactive 3D experience with 3dVia button located below the video.

The first thing that will happen is you will be prompted to install the 3dVia software from the Dassault Systèmes website.  You need the 3dVia software to run the simulation, and since the software comes direct from Dassault Systèmes you can be assured that it is safe, virus and ad-ware free, and that your privacy will be in no way compromised.  Once the software is installed on your computer you are ready to visit the Giza Plateau of 4,500 years ago.

You next find yourself at the loading screen for the simulation, as shown below.

Note the blue progress bar in the lower right-hand of the screen.  This bar does not move at a regular pace and will possibly seem to freeze up as the simulation is loading, but be patient!  The Khufu Reborn simulation is a very detailed program and some of the segments can take a while to load, and you may begin to suspect that the program is frozen.  You may even get a pop-up window saying that the plug-in appears to have stopped, asking if you want to cancel it.  Choose “no” as it is almost certainly still loading.  The wait will be worth it.

Another thing discovered during beta testing was that pulling up another application, or even another window from your browser, can cause the simulation to actually lock up, so I would recommend that you visit the Khufu Reborn universe at a time when you can dedicate your computer to just exploring the simulation.  Give yourself about an hour for your first visit so you have time for all of the narrated segments, as well as time to explore on your own.  It is, after all, interactive!

After the simulation finishes loading you will be at the intro screen, as appears below.

There are five different sections, and for your first visit you might want to take the entire tour, starting with the first section, The two enigmas of the Great Pyramid.

When you click on two enigmas you will again be greeted with the loading screen.  Allow the program time to load.  The gods of Egypt will be impressed with your patience.  I would again reiterate that while the loading screen is present don’t pull up another program or browser window.  This will displease the gods, who will punish you with a genuinely locked up simulation.  The good news is that once the segments are loaded the program is extremely stable.  While writing this tutorial I was able to switch back and forth between Google Chrome, MS Word, and Photoshop while the simulation was loaded and running without a single crash.

The Two Enigmas section will begin with a flight up the Nile to the Valley Temple and the scene of Khufu’s embalming.  The narration will begin, explaining what you are seeing.  After that we are again off and flying—up the course of Khufu’s Royal Causeway, over the Upper Temple, and circling around for a great view of the Great Pyramid.

This might be a good opportunity for your first experiment with the interactive part of the simulation.  If you click on the button labeled Free Navigation Mode in the lower right of the screen you will find that the narrative stops and the buttons change to say Normal, Expert, and Play Mode.  If the Expert button is lit up, click on Normal.  The screen should now have some navigation controls in the upper right of the screen.

The navigation controls operate the virtual camera that flies you through the simulation.  With the narration paused, you are now in full control.  The controls are pretty easy to use.  The +/- on the left side of the controls allow you to tip the camera angle up or down.  The directional keys in the center of the circle move the camera forward and backward and from left to right.  The +\- on the right of the control allows you to zoom in and out.  The left/right arrows at the bottom allow you to pan the camera circularly left and right.  As simple as these commands are, they allow you to travel practically anywhere on the landscape and observe from any angle and distance.

In the above image I have navigated over to get a closer look at the boat pits.  Take a little time playing with the navigation controls to get a feel for how they work.  The movement is very intuitive and in no time you will be flying around the virtual environment like Horus himself.  When you are done, press the Play Mode button and the camera automatically reorients itself and the narration resumes where it left off.

Once the two enigmas segment has finished you will want to return to the intro screen to select the next segment.  You will notice that at all times when in the simulation there are three small icons in the upper left of the screen.  The first icon, shaped like a house, is the Home button.  Press this at any time during or after a segment to return to the intro screen.  The middle icon, with the question mark is a Help button.  The third icon, shaped like a gear, pulls up the Options panel.

The Options panel allows you to toggle the music and narration on and off, as well as switch to full screen mode.  You will also notice that you have an option to immerse yourself more fully into the Khufu Reborn universe with 3D.  You can either set the simulation to work with a 3D TV, or you can go the old fashioned route and don your 3D shades.  The old cardboard type with the red and blue lenses will work just fine.  After checking out the Options panel, click on the Home button to return to the intro screen.

Back at the intro screen, you will notice that if you move the cursor over the next section, The genius of the builders, that you have three options:  the Fifth Year, the Fourteenth Year, and the Fifteenth Year, each representing different phases of the construction leading up to the King’s Chamber.

For your first trip through I recommend taking the sections in order so you get both a fuller understanding of Jean-Pierre Houdin’s theory and a complete idea of what the Khufu Reborn universe contains.  The simulation is intended to be enjoyable and educational, but it is also a tool for your own research, so it is worth the time invested to learn how it works.

Once the genius of the builders—the fifth year segment has loaded you will notice that there is an arrow icon on the left side of the screen.  If you run your cursor over this icon the Timeline will appear, as pictured below.

The Timeline is divided into chapters and you can either move the segment forward or backward using the vertical sliding bar, or jump straight to a chapter by clicking on it.  Not all segments have chapters, so the Timeline will not be available everywhere.  As always, you can pause the narration at any time and take control of the camera by clicking on the Free Navigation mode button.

The last thing we will look at is the top bar of the display where you will see buttons labeled Khufu Reborn, 3D Experience, The Story, and Clues.  You will notice that the 3D Experience button is toggled while you are in the simulation.  Khufu Reborn simply takes you back to the screen with the introduction video.  The Story gives you the option to download a pdf (or pull it up in your browser”) of the press kit that was provided at the Khufu Reborn premier.  This tells the story of how Jean-Pierre Houdin became interested in the Great Pyramid, how Dassault Systèmes became involved in the project through their Passion for Innovation program, and touches on some of Dassault Systèmes’ other current projects on the Giza Plateau.

Clues gives you an opportunity to evaluate the evidence for Jean-Pierre’s theory for yourself.  There are two videos—one explaining the counterweight system in the Grand Gallery and another explaining “Bob’s Room”, the corner room first explored by Bob Brier.  There is also another pdf file you can view and download called “Khufu’s Pyramid—The “Inside-Out” Construction Theory:  34 Clues in Support for the Theory”.  If you are skeptical of Jean-Pierre’s theory, then this is the place to get some answers.  Here Jean-Pierre lays out the physical evidence for his theory in detail.

That pretty much concludes this guided tour of the Khufu Reborn online interactive experience.  Go forth now and explore!

Click Here to Go Back 4,500 Years to Khufu’s Egypt!

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2011.  All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise stated, all images are provided courtesy of Jean-Pierre Houdin and Dassault Systèmes, copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

Audio/Video

Hidden Hieroglyphs in the Great Pyramid: 3D Video Report Dassault Systèmes—an excellent video produced by the wizards of 3D animation at Dassault Systèmes (posted to YouTube May 30, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Websites and Journal Articles

• Zahi Hawass Official Website: The Djedi Team Robot—Zahi Hawass (no date listed)

I selected the Djedi team during a competition that I coordinated to pick the best possible robot to explore the shafts in the Great Pyramid. I decided on a team sponsored by Leeds University and supported by Dassault Systèmes in France.

• Scoutek, ltd

The official website of Scoutek, the company founded by Shaun Whitehead, and which is providing management and systems engineering for the Djedi Project. “Scoutek is solidly based on over 40 years of experience in exploration and inspection technology, in the arenas of terrestrial, archaeological, space and subsea.”

• 3D Perspectives: Exclusive 3D reconstruction of the Djedi robot findings in the Great Pyramid—by Mehdi Tayoubi (May 31, 2011)

But 3D is not only a tool for engineers and we believe that the best way to experience this adventure for yourself is through 3D experiences we are able to deliver. We spent this weekend capturing images in real-time, in a virtual 3D world, to help the public -all publics- understand what the robot has seen.

• Leeds University Faculty of Engineering News: Djedi robot expedition reports findings—no author listed (May 26, 2011)

Pictures from inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu, gathered by a robot explorer designed by University of Leeds engineers, together with Scoutek, UK and Dassult Systèmes, France, have been published…The team has committed to completing the work by the end of 2011. Full results of the work will be published in due course. The next report is expected to be issued in early 2012 after completion of the work.

• Daily Grail: Pyramid graffiti in the Gantenbrink Shaft?—by Greg (no last name listed) (May 26, 2011)

For his part, Zahi Hawass has continued to mention the possibility of a hidden chamber in the pyramid, based on the myth of Djedi…

• NewScientist: First images from Great Pyramid’s chamber of secrets—by Rowan Hooper (May 25, 2011)

They might be ancient graffiti tags left by a worker or symbols of religious significance. A robot has sent back the first images of markings on the wall of a tiny chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt that have not been seen for 4500 years. It has also helped settle the controversy about the only metal known to exist in the pyramid, and shows a “door” that could lead to another hidden chamber.

• Luxor News: Zahi Hawass seeks secret chambers in the Pyramid of Cheops—by Jane Akshar (May 17, 2011)

Top secret mission on the Giza Plateau: Under the strictest of secrecy and on instruction of the controversial Egyptian minister for antiquities, Zahi Hawass, a new mini robot crept through the passageways of the Pyramid of Cheops on the 29th May 2010. Its aim: To search for previously undiscovered secret chambers of the Pharaoh.

• Antiquity Lives: New robot set to explore mysterious shafts in Egypt’s Great Pyramid—by Aaron (no last name listed) (October 20, 2010)

A robotics team from the University of Leeds, working in conjunction with the Supreme Council and Dassault Systèmes in France, have already made two examinations and are currently waiting on the green light for a third.

• Projects Magazine: Djedi robot to enter the Great Pyramid of Khufu—by Adelle Kehoe (August 08, 2010)

A research team from the University of Leeds is set to discover secrets from Ancient Egypt using a specially designed robot. The tunnels the robot are set to explore have not been entered for over 4,500 years.

• Alan Alford’s Blog: Robot to probe Great Pyramid in 2009—by Alan Alford (December 25, 2008)

Fifteen years have gone by since Rudolf Gantenbrink’s robot unexpectedly revealed a copper-handled “door” in the southern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber during a routine survey of the Great Pyramid’s shafts in 1993.

News Articles

• Dentistry IQ (via South China Morning Post): Dentist has to wait to get his teeth into history; Hong Kong practitioner’s search for pyramid’s last secret is put on hold by the uprising in Egypt—by Adrian Wan (May 29, 2011)

Because of the protests, Hawass has told the team to put off their exploration for safety reasons. But the Causeway Bay dentist for 30 years said he could not wait to get inside and resume work on the project of his dreams. “I’m not afraid of protesters .We’ll be working inside the very secure pyramid anyway,” he said. “We’ve been on the project for nine years and I really can’t wait to find out and show the world what’s behind it.”

• Discovery News: Pyramid-exploring robot reveals hidden hieroglyphs: Written in red paint, the symbols may help Egyptologists figure out why the mysterious shafts were built into the pyramids—by Rosella Lorenzi (May 26, 2011)

“We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built,” Rob Richardson, the engineer who designed the robot at the University of Leeds, said. The study was sponsored by Mehdi Tayoubi and Richard Breitner of project partners Dassault Systèmes in France.

• HK News Watch: Dentist digs deep to discover Giza secret—by Adrian Wan (December 28, 2010)

Team founder Dr Ng Tze-chuen – whose more than 30-year dental practice in Causeway Bay supports a passion for science that includes the designing of precision instruments for missions to Mars – is overjoyed at having the opportunity to help unlock the secrets of a section of the pyramid that, even at the time it was built, only very few could access.

• University of Leicester eBulletin: Space inspiration in quest to reveal enigma of pyramid: Former University of Leicester space researcher turns to exploring Egyptian mysteries—no author listed (August 18, 2010)

In the imaginations of millions of people across the world, the mysteries of space are only rivaled by the mysteries surrounding the Egyptian pyramids. Both tantalize with glimpses of little-understood worlds that never quite seem to be within reach, at least until now. In a surprising link between the two, a researcher has taken the principles he learned in the University of Leicester’s world renowned Space Research Centre and applied them to cross the divide, not of the Universe, but of more than 4,000 years of history.

• Egypt News: Robot could open door to Great Pyramid secrets—no author listed (August 11, 2010)

Nobody knows where two unexplored air shafts leading from that ancient room lead. The hope is that the remote-controlled robotic tunnel explorer–which can fit through holes less than one inch in diameter–can drill through the secret door blocking the shafts and gather evidence that determines their purpose.

• Robot Living: Return of the Djedi—by Chief Robot (August 09, 2010)

An attempt to explore a shaft in the Pyramid of Khufu, one of the ancient seven wonders of the world, has stymied archeologists and once again they turn to robots for help.

• The Independent: Robot to explore mysterious tunnels in Great Pyramid: For 4,500 years, no one has known what lies beyond two stone doors deep inside the monument—by Andrew Johnson (August 08, 2010)

For 4,500 years, the Great Pyramid at Giza has enthralled, fascinated and ultimately frustrated everyone who has attempted to penetrate its secrets.

• Al-Ahram: The three secret doors and the magician Djedi—by Zahi Hawass (December 5-11, 2002)

Some believe these doors have a symbolic meaning because it is written on the Pyramid Text that the Pharaoh must travel through a series of doors to reach the Netherworld. But, I feel from the shape of the second door that it has another function.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2011.  All rights reserved.

“Red-painted numbers and graffiti are very common around Giza,” advises Peter Der Manuelian, an Egyptologist at Harvard University and director of the Giza Archives at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “They are often masons’ or work-gangs’ marks, denoting numbers, dates or even the names of the gangs.”

There is a lot to be excited about with the Djedi mission, but we need to keep the discoveries in context until Egyptologists have had an opportunity to analyze the findings and their implications.  But that does not mean that we can’t have some fun in the meanwhile…

Dr. Zahi Hawass has been dropping tantalizing bits of news about the mission to explore the Queen’s Chamber shafts for several years now.  When news broke that a team at Leeds University, backed by the Passion for Innovation initiative from Dassault Systèmes, had been selected to lead the mission Em Hotep took notice.  According to Hawass:

I selected the Djedi team during a competition that I coordinated to pick the best possible robot to explore the shafts in the Great Pyramid. I decided on a team sponsored by Leeds University and supported by Dassault Systèmes in France. (Source:  Zahi Hawass Website:  The Djedi Robot)

Dassault Systèmes provides financial and technical support for two other projects close to our hearts:  Project Khufu and (speaking of Peter Der Manuelian) the Giza 3D Project.  Judging from the incredibly detailed and scientifically accurate 3D animation produced by Dassault Systèmes’ for these other projects (just click on any of the videos in the Project Khufu and Giza 3D Media Clearinghouses), combined with the engineering genius of Shaun Whitehead, we knew to expect some audiovisual magic.  We were right.

Knowing how eager the public is for more info and a better understanding of the Djedi Project, Mehdi Tayoubi and the team from Dassault Systèmes spent the weekend putting together this fantastic video that shows Djedi in his “natural habitat”—exploring the Queen’s Chamber shaft.  Another advantage of 3D is that you get to see the layout of the shaft in relation to the rest of the pyramid.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Industrial 3D is more than just a visually pleasing way to supplement the “hard science”… It is hard science.  The models produced by the 3D engineers at Dassault Systèmes are accurate down to the last detail.  The same software that is used to design and make predictions about the life cycle of everything from race cars to supertankers has been lent to the field of Egyptology, allowing researchers to share information to people of all fields, languages, and levels of expertise in a visual manner.  As Mehdi Tayoubi explains:

…3D is not only a tool for engineers and we believe that the best way to experience this adventure for yourself is through 3D experiences we are able to deliver…in a virtual 3D world, to help the public -all publics- understand what the robot has seen.   (Source:  3D Perspectives:  Exclusive 3D Reconstruction of the Djedi Robot Findings in the Great Pyramid)

So while rumors of hidden treasure and 4,500 year old secret messages continue to float around the web, we encourage you to keep a level head.  Sources such as the 3D Perspectives blog, Zahi Hawass’ official website, and, of course, Em Hotep, will keep you informed of the very real and very exciting details as the Dassault Systèmes/Leeds University joint expedition continues.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2011.  All rights reserved.

Audio/Video

The Giza 3D Team at the Louvre Museum—Kate Bourdet takes us to the Louvre to explore the technical considerations of making scientifically accurate virtual reality models of locations and artifacts (posted to YouTube May 04, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

3D and Egyptology—Peter Der Manuelian and Giza 3D in the classroom, with Dr. Manuelian demonstrating how the technology is used to transport students to the times and places being discussed (posted to YouTube April 5, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Avignon Forum 2010:  The 3D Interactive Experience—Mehdi Tayoubi and Peter Der Manuelian discussing the importance of the Giza 3D Project (in French and English) (posted to YouTube November 17, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Harvard Viz Center—short clip of Peter Der Manuelian using the 3D VR tools in the classroom (posted to YouTube November 12, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Giza 3D Guided Tour—a clip of the Giza 3D fly through demo, narrated by Peter Der Manuelian (posted to YouTube November 08, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reassembling Giza:  The Tomb of Nefer—a three minute video showing some of the steps involved in reconstructing a tomb in 3d, including gathering puzzle pieces from all over the world and reassembling them in virtual reality (posted to Vimeo July 10, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Course Trailer Video: Pyramid Schemes: The Archaeological History of Ancient Egypt—Peter Der Manuelian’s video introduction to his Gen Ed course at Harvard, including some very nice high resolution clips of the Dassault Systèmes’ real-time 3D imaging software (posted to Vimeo July 10, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Giza 3D on France 3 TV (with English subtitles)—a 2.5 minute news feature story with Mehdi Tayoubi and more demo footage of the Giza 3D software (posted to YouTube June 05, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dassault Systèmes and Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Giza 3D Preview—a two-minute fly through demo of the Giza 3D Project, including a trip around the Western Necropolis, down into a tomb, and a view from beneath the necropolis, without narration but in higher resolution (posted to YouTube April 22, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dassault Systèmes 3D Giza Immersive Experience—another demo of the 3D technology, illustrating how smoothly participants can navigate their way through the landscape in real time (posted to YouTube April 22, 2010)

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s Cool: Giza Web Site Highlights—a video summarizing the highlights of the Giza Web Site (posted to Vimeo April 14, 2009)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Giza Homepage Images Slideshow—historic dig and discovery photos, modern color images, and even some vintage postcard views of the Giza Plateau (posted to Vimeo April 10, 2009)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Search Giza from Above—video demonstrating how to use the top-down visual surveying tools on the Giza Archives website (posted to Vimeo April 10, 2009)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Giza Digital Library—Peter Der Manuelian describes how to make use of the hundreds of online books and journal articles archived at the Giza website (posted to Vimeo April 10, 2009)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why are the Tombs at Giza Important?—this 12-minute video is taken from a lecture on Giza by Peter Der Manuelian, Giza Archives Director at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It took place at the Museum of Fine Arts on April 3, 2009 (posted to Vimeo April 6, 2009)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Websites and Journal Articles

• The Giza 3D Project Official Page at Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), announce a strategic partnership to enable real-time virtual reconstruction of the Giza plateau based on actual archeological data.

• The Giza Archives Official Page at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

This Web site is a comprehensive resource for research on Giza. It contains photographs and other documentation from the original Harvard University – Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition (1904 to 1947), from recent MFA fieldwork, and from other expeditions, museums, and universities around the world.

• Giza Archives Blog

News from the Giza Archives at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• Peter Der Manuelian’s Webpage

From my earliest study of ancient Egypt, I realized that sharing the excitement of this field with others would always play a major role in my career. Many of the great scholars with whom I have studied were also extraordinary teachers, and I have always wanted to follow their example.

• Peter Der Manuelian’s Faculty Page at Harvard University

His primary research interests include ancient Egyptian history, archaeology, epigraphy, the development of mortuary architecture, and the (icono)graphic nature of Egyptian language and culture in general. He has published on diverse topics and periods in Egyptian history, but currently focuses on the third millennium BC, and specifically on the famous Giza Necropolis, just west of modern Cairo.

• Museums and the Web:  Virtual Pyramid:  The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Giza Archives Project

Museums have begun to discover that, with the help of technology, their vast collections, and the intellectual property that accompanies them can reach both the scholar and the interested layman far beyond the doors of the physical museum building itself.

• ARCE/NC Archives: George Reisner and the Giza Pyramids—by Nancy Corbin (no date given)

Dr. der Manuelian began by taking the audience back to a quieter time; as in 1927, when one reached the great pyramids via a street car traveling up the Al Pharon.  Work at the Giza Plateau at the turn of the century was a sort of “Indiana Jones” type of affair, during which great quantities of objects, papyrus and debris was removed, and some of the world great museums were the major benefactors.

• 3D Perspectives: The Giza 3D Team at Le Louvre Museum—by Kate Bourdet (May 04, 2011)

The main goal was to teach the 3D artists who will recreate the whole Giza world what’s important in terms of design. For example, I learned that proportion of Egyptian objects meet very tight rules. Our team had then to understand what the rulers were and how to use them.

• 3D Perspectives: Harvard Gets Immersive VR with Giza 3D—by Kate Bourdet (November 15, 2010)

Peter Der Manuelian tells me that Giza 3D at Harvard’s immersive virtual reality Viz Center is up and running, and the 170 undergraduate students in his “Pyramid Schemes” Egyptian archaeology class are loving it!

• 3D Perspectives: Giza 3D:  International Collaboration—by Kate Bourdet (June 8, 2010)

Our ultimate goal is to preserve and post the world’s collected archaeological knowledge about the Giza pyramids, and we can only accomplish this challenge with the help of the world community.

• 3D Perspectives: Three Questions for Harvard Professor Peter Der Manuelian—by Kate Bourdet (April 22, 2010)

I must confess I got excited when I learned about Dassault Systèmes’ partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  The entire Giza Archives in 3D for educational and research experiential/interactive discoveries!

• Talking Pyramids: Website review:  The Giza Archives Project Website—by Vincent Brown (May 07, 2008)

The Giza Archives Project is a very useful and comprehensive online resource for anyone interested in the Giza Necropolis. Excavations that have occurred in the area are documented on the site.

News Articles

• Newsweek: Of Pyramids and Protesters:  As Egypt transitions to democracy, Egyptians from all walks of life are stepping up to protect the country’s ancient heritage—by Peter Der Manuelian (April 10, 2011)

How do Egyptologists view these events through the lens of Egypt’s millennia-old civilization? As the playing field has turned upside down, some of us might remember the admonitions of an ancient Egyptian sage named Ipuwer. Some of his phrases almost seem aimed at Hosni Mubarak himself: “We do not know what will happen throughout the land…Indeed, the laws of the council chamber are thrown out…See, things have been done which have not happened for a long time past; the king has been deposed by the rabble. You have deceived the whole populace. It seems that [your] heart prefers to ignore [the problems]. Have you done that which will make them happy? Have you given life to the people? They cover their faces in fear of the morning.”

• French/American Chamber of Commerce Blog: The French connection in the archaeology of the Egyptian Pyramids—by Ami Wright (March 28, 2011)

At first glance, the archeology of the Egyptian pyramids might seem out of place at an event devoted to the French economic presence in New England, but there is actually a connection.  Professor Manuelian is Director of the Giza Archives Project at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  The Giza Archives Project has recently begun collaborating with Dassault Systèmes to create a 3D virtual model of the entire Giza plateau.

• Harvard Gazette: Generally a happy anniversary:  Gen Ed curriculum expands, draws interest after its first year—by Paul Massari (December 02, 2010)

“The course has given me a chance to go beyond what I would normally experience in a classroom,” said William Weingarten ’11. “I’ve enjoyed getting the chance to travel out to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and to visit the Visualization Center here at Harvard to get a deeper intuition for what Egypt was really like thousands of years ago.”

• My Science: Peter Der Manuelian Named Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology—no author listed (May 12, 2010)

Der Manuelian has led a 10-year effort to digitize extensive materials pertaining to the Old Kingdom Giza Necropolis, a 4,500-year-old array of tombs, temples, and artifacts near Egypt’s famous Giza pyramids.

• All Art News: Boston’s MFA Uses Dassault’s 3D Tech to Study Pyramids—no author listed (May 03, 2010)

Dassault Systèmes, a world leader in 3D software solutions and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), one of the world’s most important encyclopedic art museums, today announced that they will join forces in a strategic innovation partnership to bring the power of industrial and experiential 3D to the domain of archaeology.

• Art Museum Journal:  Dassault Systèmes and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston use 3-D technology to study Giza Pyramids—by Stan Parchin (April 21, 2010)

Dassault Systèmes (DS), a world leader in three-dimensional software solutions, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) announced today a strategic innovation partnership related to the Giza Archives Project, the museum’s digital initiative that assembles and links the world’s archaeological information on the pyramids and mastabas (tombs) at the Giza Plateau. The collaboration will enable real-time virtual reconstruction of the ancient structures.

These media are from the Khufu Reborn/Khufu Renaissance phase of Project Khufu, an international and interdisciplinary initiative to explain how the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu was built based on the theories and research of French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin.

Audio/Video

Sealing the King’s Chamber—animation uploaded by Marc Chartier (posted to YouTube February 09, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sealing the King’s Chamber Up Close—another animation of the sealing mechanism uploaded by Marc Chartier, focusing on the sealing blocks (posted to YouTube February 09, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Architects Find New Rooms in the Pyramid of Khufu—Indonesian coverage of Khufu Reborn, but the clips are fantastic (posted to YouTube February 04, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

An Architect Uncovers the Secrets of the Great Pyramid—Euronews’ coverage of Khufu Reborn, again in French but visually wonderful (posted to YouTube February 02, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Khufu Reborn coverage on France 3—French language, but excellent clips (posted to YouTube February 02, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Khufu Pyramid Secret Rooms—English-language coverage of Khufu Reborn from CCTV News (posted to YouTube January 29, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Websites and Journal Articles

• Talking Pyramids:  Two Secret Pyramid Chambers Revealed—by Vincent Brown (January 29, 2011)

Thursday was ‘D Day’ and Jean-Pierre and Dassault Systèmes ended all the intrigue and mystery with their spectacular 3D presentation of Episode 2 “Legacy of Khufu” at the La Géode conference in Paris.

• Talking Pyramids:  ‘Khufu Reborn’—Unveiling Secrets—by Vincent Brown (January 24, 2011)

In three days time Jean-Pierre Houdin and Dassault Systèmes will be at a conference in La Géode to reveal ‘Khufu Reborn’, the sequel to Jean-Pierre’s internal spiral ramp theory.

News Stories

• NTD Television:  French Architect Discovers New Rooms in Ancient Khufu Pyramid—no author listed.  (January 28, 2011)

French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin unveiled in Paris on Thursday the existence of two hidden and so far unknown rooms in Egypt’s Great Pyramid.  No one had ever suspected the existence of any such rooms.  But in his many visits to Khufu’s king’s chamber, Houdin noticed that one stone element in the burial room was not supporting any weight and therefore had once been a passage.  According to funeral rites of ancient Egypt, kings would be buried with all their belongings in close proximity. In other pyramids these items are situated in a room adjacent to the burial room.

• Physorg:  Great Pyramid has two secret chambers—no author listed (January 27, 2011)

A French architect campaigning for a new exploration of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza said on Thursday that the edifice may contain two chambers housing funereal furniture.

These media are from the Khufu Revealed phase of Project Khufu, Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work up to and ending with the premier of Khufu Reborn in January 2011.

Audio/Video

National Geographic Expedition Week:  Unlocking the Great Pyramid—the NatGeo special on Jean-Pierre Houdin’s Khufu Revealed work, in its entirety!  (posted to YouTube March 17, 2011)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another Pyramid Fly Through—this one even better!  (posted to YouTube August 17, 2009)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jean-Pierre Houdin and Bob Brier Interviewed—Associated Press (posted to YouTube November 19, 2008)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Interview with Jean-Pierre Houdin—World News Australia (posted to YouTube November 13, 2008)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Great Pyramid Mystery Solved?—National Geographic short piece from their special on Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work, Unlocking the Great Pyramid (posted to YouTube October 31, 2008)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jean-Pierre Houdin and Mehdi Tayoubi Interviewed—Also French audio, but also worth viewing for the clips (posted to YouTube June 24, 2007)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jean-Pierre Houdin, Mehdi Tayoubi, Richard Breitner Interviewed—French audio, but the clips of the Dassault Systèmes animations make it worth viewing even if you don’t speak French (posted to YouTube June 24, 2007)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pyramid of Cheops by Jean-Pierre Houdin—Spanish-language coverage of Khufu Revealed, as always the visuals make viewing desirable even if you don’t speak the language (posted to YouTube April 3, 2007)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pyramid Fly Through–The Khufu Pyramid modeled by architect Jean-Pierre Houdin in Dassault Systèmes’ 3D Life.  (posted to YouTube April 01, 2007)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Websites and Journal Articles

• The Khufu Revealed/Kheops Révélé Official Page at Dassault Systèmes

The site dedicated to the first phase of Jean-Pierre Houdin’s internal ramp theory.  The site provides a good, basic explanation of the general concepts of the theory up to that point, with sections for explanations, clues/evidence, and a 3D demo that requires installation of Dassault Systèmes’ proprietary 3d viewer, 3DVIA, which can be downloaded from the site.

• Heritage Key:  Exclusive Interview: Jean-Pierre Houdin Defends His Internal Ramp Pyramid Theory—by Malcolm Jack (September 07, 2009)

The question of how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built is one of the most hotly-debated topics in ancient history. Maverick French architect and self-styled “Mr. Pyramid” Jean-Pierre Houdin is determined that he has the answer – the 4,569 year-old monument was, he argues, erected from the inside-out, using an internal ramp built into the fabric of the structure. Others are skeptical of his theory, but Houdin is certain he has the proof.

• Heritage Key:  Building the Great Pyramid of Giza:  Jean-Pierre Houdin’s Internal Ramp Theory—by Malcolm Jack (September 04, 2009)

We know lots about the Great Pyramid of Giza – it’s age (about 4,569 years), who it was built for (the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian King Khufu), who designed it (Khufu’s brother, the architect Hemienu) and even who rolled up their sleeves and did the work (tens of thousands of skilled labourers from across the kingdom, as opposed to slaves as was once believed). But ask a room full of experts how it was built, and you can expect a whole lot of head-scratching and beard-stroking, followed by heated argument and possibly some light fisticuffs.

• Talking Pyramids:  How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? Part 5:  Houdin’s Internal Ramp—by Vincent Brown (April 10, 2008)

French Architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has a revolutionary theory on how the pyramids were built.  He looked at the three main existing theories: the large long straight ramp used to drag the stone up on sleds or rolled on logs, the wooden ‘machines’ mentioned by Herodotus & the spiral ramp theory.

• Smithsonian:  Monumental Shift—by Diana Parsall (August 01, 2007)

In 1999, Henri Houdin, a retired French civil engineer, was watching a television documentary on the construction of Egypt’s ancient pyramids. He had supervised many dam and bridge projects, and much of what he saw on the show struck him as impractical. “It was the usual pyramid-building theories, but he wasn’t satisfied as an engineer,” says his son, Jean-Pierre, an independent architect. “He had a sparkle in the brain. ‘If I had to build one now, I would do it from the inside out.’

• Archaeology:  How to build a pyramid—by Bob Brier (Vol. 60 no. 3, May/June 2007)

Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains. An estimated 2 million stone blocks weighing an average of 2.5 tons went into its construction. When completed, the 481-foot-tall pyramid was the world’s tallest structure, a record it held for more than 3,800 years, when England’s Lincoln Cathedral surpassed it by a mere 44 feet.

News Stories

• National Geographic News:  Great Pyramid Mystery to be Solved by Hidden Room?—by Brian Handwerk (November 14, 2008)

A sealed space in Egypt’s Great Pyramid may help solve a centuries-old mystery: How did the ancient Egyptians move two million 2.5-ton blocks to build the ancient wonder?

• National Geographic Channel:  Unlocking the Great Pyramid—by Bob Brier (November 11, 2008)

It always surprises my students when I tell them we don’t know how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. Dancing in their heads are Hollywood’s images of lots of guys hauling blocks up a huge ramp. The truth is, that simply won’t work. In order for the workers to pull the blocks, the ramp would have to have a gentle slope, but the pyramid is 480 feet high and that would mean that Hollywood’s ramp stretches for more than a mile. The ramp would be greater in volume than the pyramid! Also, archaeologists have never found the remains of such a ramp, and something that big doesn’t just disappear in the dry desert. So how the Great Pyramid was built is still one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of our time.

• Free Republic:  Egyptologists use high-tech software to analyze construction of the Great Pyramid—by Sumathi Reddy and Nia-Malika Henderson (October 21, 2008)

Using cutting edge technology, Egyptologist Bob Brier of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University delved into the only standing wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid, and uncovered the mystery behind cracks in the massive Egyptian structure, unearthing a new room along the way.

• USA Today:  Scientists Ramp up for pyramid theory—by Dan Vergano (May 16, 2007)

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the sole surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stands today as the most massive puzzle in the history of civilization.

• National Geographic News:  Great Pyramid Built Inside Out, French Architect Says—by Dan Morrison (April 02, 2007)

Ancient Egyptians built the 480-foot-high (146-meter-high) Great Pyramid of Giza from the inside out, according to a French architect.  Based on eight years of study, Jean-Pierre Houdin has created a novel three-dimensional computer simulation to present his hypothesis. He says his findings solve the mystery of how the massive monument just outside Cairo was constructed.

• A VR Geek’s Blog:  The Pyramid and the biggest VR screen (March 31, 2007)

On Friday March 30th 2007, the biggest VR screen was inaugurated with a great event; A big show at La Géode (IMAX theater in Paris) to unveil the theory of Jean-Pierre Houdin about his theory on the construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Kheops).

• BBC News:  “Mystery of Great Pyramid ‘solved’—no author listed (March 31, 2007)

A French architect claims to have solved the mystery of how Egypt’s Great Pyramid was built.  Jean-Pierre Houdin said the 4,500-year-old pyramid, just outside Cairo, was built using an inner ramp to lift the massive stones into place.

This is the seventh article in a series based on Marc Chartier’s discussions with Jean-Pierre Houdin following the premier of Khufu Reborn, the long awaited revelation of the second chapter of Project Khufu.  These articles are provided in English to Em Hotep via special arrangement with Marc Chartier/Pyramidales, Jean-Pierre Houdin and the Project Khufu team at Dassault Systèmes.

• March 30, 2007: Khufu Revealed.

• January 27, 2011: Khufu Reborn (aka Khufu Renaissance).

Two dates that, for the architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, punctuate some twelve years of research into the “why” and particularly the “how” of Egypt’s pyramids. Two highlights punctuating the development of a “theory”, the foundations of which date back to 1999, when Jean-Pierre’s father, Henri Houdin, an engineer, had an intuition that something was wrong with the “standardized” presentation of the Great Pyramid’s construction. Hence the idea of the internal ramp, which subsequently fit the developments we know about.

In an exclusive interview given to Pyramidales, Jean-Pierre Houdin presented the main themes of Khufu Reborn, which is his new interpretation of the internal structures and the environment of the Pyramid of Khufu.

Various articles in this blog have already been devoted to this subject: the antechambers, the King’s Chamber, the “Noble Circuit”, the layout of the Giza Plateau, etc.

The entrance to the pyramid has also been re-interpreted by Jean Pierre Houdin, who offers the following details to Pyramidales’ readers.

The scaffold leading to the entrance of the pyramid

We are (approximately) in the year 2550 BC. King Khufu, Pharaoh and sovereign ruler of Egypt, is dead. Long live the King!

His body is transported in his Solar Boat as far as the Lower Temple at Giza, where priests must undertake the mummification, a ritual lasting seventy days.

The Pharaoh is then ready for his great voyage to the Eternal Stars, traveling along his pyramid’s the Royal Way, built for this one occasion of the solemn funeral.

The funeral procession begins by going up the Royal Causeway that connects the Valley Temple to the High Temple, at the foot of the pyramid’s east face. “There,” comments Jean-Pierre Houdin, “the priests perform the mouth-opening ceremony to give the King the use of his senses. He thus recovers his speech and can appear before Osiris for the weighing of the souls. Nothing reproachable coming to light during his confession, he is ready for eternity in the hereafter.”

As the sun sets, the procession reaches the entrance to the Pharaoh’s last resting place – “his” pyramid – more than seventeen meters above the ground on the north facade. To do this, the procession uses wooden scaffolding, built many years before, giving access to the monument’s interior. It then gets ready to enter the bowels of the monument to reach the King’s Chamber, where the bulky granite sarcophagus was put in place, as a result of its size, at the time this chamber was constructed.

The “Service Circuit” and the “Noble Circuit”

According to Jean-Pierre Houdin, the funeral procession will indeed enter through the mouth of the descending corridor in the north face but, contrary to common belief, will leave this passage a few meters further on, ignoring the entire route following on from it – the ascending corridor (to which we now add the detail “No. 1”), the Grand Gallery, the portcullis chamber and the access corridor (to which we also add the detail “No. 1”) to the King’s Chamber – a route that visitors from all over the world have followed since tourism and curiosity have existed, to take the tunnel dug in the north-south axis when caliph Al-Ma’mun broke into the pyramid in AD 820.

The tourist route will not be followed for good reason: it was blocked in several places. It was used as a “service circuit” throughout the period of constructing the King’s Chamber and the strange structure above it. At the end of this construction phase, having no further use, it was abandoned to the silence of the stones until rediscovered by “visitors”, well intentioned or otherwise, who would never have imagined that this was not the real route for the royal funeral.

According to Jean-Pierre Houdin’s proposals, the procession will follow what we will call an “alternative route”, but which in reality, to use the architect’s phrase, is the “Noble Circuit”, as designed and constructed just for the day of the solemn royal funeral ceremony.

A consequence of this configuration, unknown to this day: to give access not only to the “service circuit” but also and especially to the “Noble Circuit”, the original entrance to the Great Pyramid has to incorporate this dual function, supposed to remain secret so as to give no clue to those who might desecrate the royal sepulcher, into its very structure. Proof of this is that caliph Al-Ma’mun and his soldier-sappers did not succeed in detecting the real entrance to the monument, but undertook digging to a lower level to end up on… the “service circuit”!

Clues present

With the exception of Al-Ma’mun’s breach, which is like a wart on the north face of the pyramid, even if very useful today for tourist access, and given the fact that this pyramid has been deprived of its Tura limestone facing blocks for several centuries, what clues reveal the real entrance to the “Noble Circuit”?

Jean-Pierre Houdin lists them as follows:

• The Tura limestone rafters above the original entrance are too large for the roof of the descending corridor (two cubits, or 1.05 m, wide) and, in addition, much too high in relation to it.

• By measuring the existing oblique abutments, we can see on site that there are six pairs of rafters missing from the lower part and three missing from the upper part: the lower series having covered a void, while the upper series constituted an overlapping roof, extending a second void “that the Egyptian builders,” says Jean-Pierre Houdin, “thrifty in time and materials, had to have had a very good reason to build. The present large hole did not exist at the time. Everything visible today was immersed in the mass of stonework and recessed about ten meters behind the original north face. Much closer to the facade, a first room (where the current hole is) was located just above the descending corridor, and a vertical access shaft, centered on the room, linked these two structures directly. The rest of the descending corridor is taken to have been used by the funeral procession, but in reality it was only used by workers during the construction of the pyramid.”

• 

  Arrow : higher density area

  Jean-Pierre Houdin continues: “Micro-gravimetric measurements made 25 years ago detected an anomaly, namely the presence of a zone of very high density beneath the north face of the pyramid, in a precise continuation of the entrance rafters. This is located to the east of the north-south axis, so aligned with the known corridors in the pyramid. Furthermore, this high-density zone ended directly in line with the second section of the hypothetical internal ramp.¹
• The grooved block inserted beneath the first row of rafters, and previously stored at the back of the second room, has visibly been pushed from inside, traces of mortar protruding under the right rafter. In front of this block, we can see that the limestone floor has been pointed with plaster and given a surfaced and perfectly flat finish;
• the grooved block does not go as far as the point of the opening; a triangle 40 centimeters high has been filled with stonework centered on the ridge of the rafters.

The Greek geographer Strabo (first century BC) wrote of this stone: “At a certain height on one of its sides there is a stone that can be removed, which, once removed, allows us to see the entrance to a tortuous gallery or hypogeum, leading to the tomb.”² Hence its current name of “Strabo’s stone”.

A single entrance opening onto two rooms

“Faced with these observations, I had the proof,” Jean-Pierre Houdin goes on, “that other rafters had been installed to a much reduced distance from the face, in front of the currently visible rafters. From then on it was obvious that in the area of the present gaping hole, there had been two rooms, one in front of Strabo’s stone, the other behind this stone, slightly higher up.

“Then I understood that the Egyptians, being the very great architects they were, had designed a single entrance to serve several corridors at once. This entrance could lead to any chamber in the monument, so being used for Khufu’s funeral and, at quite another moment, for access to the site during the pyramid’s construction.

“The two rooms under the rafters enabled a direct connection to be made to the descending corridor, connecting it to a second series of corridors that led to the Queen’s Chamber and the King’s Chamber without passing through the Grand Gallery.”

Due to the complexity of its configuration, the original entrance to the pyramid is therefore characterized by a clever multiplication of uses: it gives access, via the descending corridor, to the “service circuit” (of no further use at the end of the construction phase), and it opens onto the “Noble Circuit”, which immediately includes two separate routes: one, horizontal, towards the Queen’s Chamber (we should not forget that this chamber was intended to receive the king’s sepulcher in the event of his untimely demise); the other, ascending, as the first part of the journey leading to the King’s Chamber.

The function of the two successive rooms was to begin the “Noble Circuit” (the “Royal Way”) deep within the mass of the pyramid (the back of the second room is about 16 meters from the facade). In contrast to those in all previous pyramids, the King’s Chamber is very high within the mass of the pyramid. Consequently there is no longer any question of providing access to it by means of a descending passage emerging practically perpendicular to the façade. Rather, an initial ascending passage (more or less parallel to this facade, arriving tangentially and not at right-angles: a “whistle” configuration, hard to implement), then a horizontal corridor (no. 2) leading to the two antechambers. Moreover, the passage of the internal ramp in this zone would have resulted in the intersecting the ascending corridor no. 2 that serves as point of departure for the funereal “Noble Circuit” to the King’s Chamber. The simplest and most economical solution was to push the beginning of this corridor further back into the mass, the two horizontal entrance rooms serving as connecting and displacing modules.

At the same starting point, a shaft is connected to the neighboring internal ramp, for the evacuation of the last workers: “At the end of Khufu’s funeral,” says Jean-Pierre Houdin,

…and after having sealed the pyramid at several “sensitive” points (chamber, antechambers, access corridor, entrance room), the workers are thought to have left the funeral circuit via the internal ramp, getting back to it through a connecting shaft dug just behind the second entrance room, at the starting point for the second ascending corridor. The designers had previously simulated this set up in the mock-up of the construction site dug out of the bedrock about 50 meters east of the pyramid.

The priests and other officials for the funeral ceremony had previously left the pyramid as they had entered, taking exactly the same route, as befit their positions.

Footnotes

¹ The internal ramp represented one of the major elements of Khufu Revealed. Obviously it is still present in Khufu Renaissance, but with variants that will be covered in a future article in Pyramidales.

² the precise translation of the Greek text, as confirmed by Ian Lawton, for example, the author of Giza, the Truth, in a letter sent to Jean-Pierre Houdin, is indeed “leading to the tomb” (and not “leading to the foundations”). Which is what was suggested by Amédée Tardieu: “At a certain height on one of its sides there is a stone that can be removed, which, once removed, allows us to see the entrance to a tortuous gallery or hypogeum, leading to the tomb.”

Copyright by Marc Chartier, 2011.  All rights reserved.

Jean-Pierre Houdin’s theory of the how the Great Pyramid was built continues to unfold.  How were the sixty-ton megalithic beams moved from the harbor at the base of the Giza Plateau to 43+ meters high into the Great Pyramid?  Was there a second counterweight system like the one in the Grand Gallery?  Why was Khafre’s Royal Causeway so wide?

In this, the sixth in a series of articles and interviews from Pyramidales writer Marc Chartier, we learn some of the key evolutions in Jean-Pierre Houdin’s theory.  In the few short years between Khufu Revealed and Khufu Reborn, researcher/architect Houdin has expanded his work to account for anomalies surrounding the pyramid of Khufu’s successor, Pharaoh Khafre, and what they tell us about Khufu’s pyramid.

The English-language version of this article was very kindly provided by Marc Chartier, Jean-Pierre Houdin, and the Project Khufu team at Dassault Systèmes exclusively for Em Hotep readers.

The "main construction causeway" for the building site

The number two has pride of place in Khufu Reborn (aka Khufu Renaissance), the new version of Jean-Pierre Houdin’s reconstitution of the Great Pyramid’s construction. After the two ascending corridors (one for the service circuit inside the pyramid, the other for the “Noble Circuit”), the two horizontal corridors (one giving access to the Queen’s Chamber, the other being a section of the “Noble Circuit”), the two antechambers preceding access to the King’s Chamber, two entrances to this chamber and the two levels of the internal ramp, space was made for two external ramps built on the Giza Plateau to transport the materials used to construct the monument (limestone blocks and granite monoliths from the Aswan quarries).

The first of these ramps, qualified as the “main construction causeway”, follows a line east-west towards the position where the Pyramid of Khafre would later be built; its upper part is equipped with a counterweight system. The other ramp continues towards the south face of the Great Pyramid and enters the monument under construction, as a trench, up to the 70 m level.

Tale of a discovery, in several steps

A study of the Giza Plateau, together with the technical implications of transporting the materials used to construct the Pyramid of Khufu, led Jean-Pierre Houdin to the following observation: “Everything on the Giza Plateau proves that the Royal Causeway, connecting the Low and High Temples of the Pyramid of Khafre, was constructed on a ramp that had previously been used for the construction of the Pyramid of Khufu.”

The architect was thus able to provide a significant variant to the theory that he had developed and published in 2007, according to which the Great Pyramid’s construction site was supplied from the port following the natural slope of a wadi (temporarily dry riverbed), workers obviously dragging the sledges loaded with blocks or monoliths along the gentlest slope.

“When I presented my ‘Khufu Revealed’ theory,” Jean-Pierre Houdin tells us:

I explained that the granite beams for the King’s Chamber were hauled up the external ramp using the counterweight system in the Grand Gallery. Well, one day I received this message from someone who attended one of my conferences: ‘Your counterweight enables the beams to be raised from the base of the external ramp as far as the level of the King’s Chamber (+43 m). But how do you get these same beams from the port to your ramp? The distance between them is at least 500 m, and more particularly the port is located 40 m lower than the ramp. Shouldn’t you consider a second system to haul the blocks over this distance?’

This correspondent was right! Explains Jean-Pierre:

If the Egyptians had considered the counterweight solution, they would certainly have applied it to the entire journey made by the beams. A second counterweight would have had to be used to haul the granite blocks from the unloading port for materials coming from Aswan as far as the base of the external ramp. But do traces of its existence still remain?

A revealing photograph

The right questions had been asked. It was now a matter of trying to answer them…

Two days later, the architect discovered a photograph of the Giza Plateau with its three pyramids on the Talking Pyramids website. It was taken in 1905, from a balloon, by the aerostat pioneer Eduard Spelterini.

“As I was examining this document,” comments Jean-Pierre Houdin, “an obvious fact came to me: the royal funereal causeway linking the Low Temple to the High Temple of Khafre’s Pyramid had been built on an old ramp. This foundation could only have been used during a construction project before Khafre’s: that for the Pyramid of Khufu!”

Days passed… Then, during a recent trip to Egypt, Jean-Pierre Houdin spent long hours studying the topography of the site at Giza, with the aim of checking the accuracy of his intuitions against Spelterini’s photographs. He describes his observations:

I started by examining Khafre’s royal causeway in order to find any clues to the existence of the ancient ramp leading from the port to Khufu’s construction site. Then I discovered that this causeway, about ten meters wide, is laid on a perfectly uniform foundation 23 m wide, extending 6.5 m on each side, which is the case neither for Khufu’s royal causeway (10 m wide), nor for Menkaure’s causeway (8 m wide). Over the better part of the south side, very large limestone blocks were even put into place to fill in hollows.

After walking back up Khafre’s royal causeway to its western end, I stood exactly where the external ramp for the Pyramid of Khufu should have started. From there, I was surprised to discover a sort of large slab floor, made of limestone blocks, pointing towards the Great Pyramid. These blocks have nothing to do with Khafre’s Pyramid (the transport of the blocks needed to construct this pyramid did not require such an infrastructure), from which I deduced that they would probably have served as the foundation for the external ramp of Khufu’s Pyramid.

Moreover, along its route, this ramp serves several of the quarries on the plateau, which supplied most of the materials for the Great Pyramid. This ramp, currently measuring nearly 500 m with a slope of 8.5%, is ideal for the stresses of moving sledges, even more so for dragging beams loaded onto large sledges on rollers.

 In my view, the conclusion was obvious: the royal funereal causeway connecting the Low and High Temples of the Pyramid of Khafre had been constructed on an ancient ramp that could only have been used on the previous construction project for the Pyramid of Khufu. King Khafre must have reused a route that had served in the construction of his father’s pyramid.

Two counterweight systems

The counterweight sliding in Grand Gallery

However there remained a problem: human strength alone, which has limits for reasons of co-ordination, could not be sufficient to drag beams weighing up to 63 tons the length of this royal causeway. Jean-Pierre Houdin considers that additional force was therefore absolutely essential: the most logical possibility, given the Egyptians’ technical knowledge at the time, is that the source of this force would have taken the form of a counterweight moving in a slide channel, a technique enabling human strength to be combined with mechanical force, the mechanical force being “rewound” by human force sequenced in time and space.

But if there had been a counterweight, it was still necessary to find traces of it, proof of its existence…

Resuming his observations “on the ground”, Jean-Pierre Houdin then took an interest in the configuration of the second Giza pyramid.

Jean-Pierre Houdin notes:

When you study plans of Khafre’s Pyramid you notice that the funereal corridor leading to the King’s Chamber was dug into the ground, under the monument, about ten meters below the level of the Plateau in this area. But there is an anomaly in its construction. Over a length of 8 m, the Egyptians did not dig the corridor: they built it, floor, walls and ceilings, in stone. Why? The only plausible explanation is that there was a sizeable hole there, a very deep trench requiring special treatment. Now, if we extrapolate the ramp from the port, or royal causeway, as far as the Pyramid of Khafre, we observe that it crosses the funereal corridor exactly where this construction is found.

This meant there could be no further doubt for Jean-Pierre Houdin: in the precise line of the royal causeway starting from the port, and toward its higher end, this trench under the Pyramid of Khafre had been dug into the bedrock at the time of Khufu, to serve as a slide channel for a counterweight system.

Based on the considerable, not to say indispensable, advantages offered by an external ramp built as an “expressway”, he understood that the Giza Plateau had been landscaped to provide the following logistical facilities: a direct ramp from the port to the foot of the pyramid’s external ramp (in red on the sketch above), simplifying and speeding up material supplies to the site; then, as an extension, almost right-angles, a second ramp running towards the south face of the pyramid (in blue). The special feature of this system is that its “driving force” relied on two identical counterweight systems (in green):

It was not possible to use human strength alone, so the architects and engineers decided on the principle of using counterweights from the start of the project, in other words from the design phase. This meant installing two counterweight systems. The first, sited in a trench excavated in the bedrock of the Giza Plateau, to haul the monoliths from the port (level 20 m) to the foot (level 75 m) of the external ramp of the Pyramid of Khufu. A first dragging ramp was built from the port, toward this trench, for this purpose. The second system was sited directly in the heart of the pyramid, between levels +21 m and +43 m: its still visible slide channel, namely the Grand Gallery, is opposite the external ramp that served the construction site up to a maximum level of +43 m.  (Jean-Pierre Houdin)

An external ramp… extending as an internal ramp

Another new feature then appeared in the reconstitution of the Great Pyramid’s construction, the Khufu Renaissance version: the configuration of the external ramp extending beyond the royal causeway and heading towards the monument’s south face.

External ramp (level 43 m)

Located on a natural promontory of the plateau, the starting point for this ramp was higher than the pyramid’s base level. The ramp thus reached a height of 43 m (base of the King’s Chamber, with a length of only 325 m. It was extended in a trench, inside the monument, to a height of 70 m (this is new compared with the 2007 hypothesis), the whole thing having a slope scarcely more than 8.5%.

At a height of 70 m, no more than 15% of the volume remained to be built, over an additional 76 m height. This last part of the construction site was out of reach of the external ramp; otherwise it would have been necessary to extend it excessively and make it exceed the volume of the pyramid itself. Hence the necessity for the internal ramp, the central idea of the Houdin theory in its first Khufu Revealed version.

“At the start of my research into construction of the Pyramid of Khufu,” says Jean-Pierre Houdin,

I thought that the Egyptians had built almost three-quarters of the monument using the external ramp. But I was still far away from what they were capable of doing… Discovering the ramp from the port enabled me to position Khufu’s external ramp precisely on the ground. Among other things, I noticed that it arrived at the monument at the level of the base of the King’s Chamber to the west of the south face, almost at the point where the internal ramp ended. During the construction of the King’s Chamber, the pyramid continued to rise normally, except for this southern part where the granite beams were stored.

External ramp (level 70 m)

The external ramp arrived at the south-west corner and continued as a trench in the pyramid by turning clockwise until it reached above the roof of the King’s Chamber (+70 m). The southern part remained at level +43 m while the King’s Chamber was built.

Construction of the internal ramp was therefore interrupted in this southern part, but the Egyptians’ big trick was to continue its construction and use by making it restart from the south-east corner. Thus for several years, teams were dragging sledges on the flat and in the open air at level +43 m, then pulling them up a slope from the south-east corner. When they had finished using the external ramp, the southern part was filled in and a horizontal tunnel was constructed to link the internal ramp from the south-west corner to the south-east corner. This is why, as shown by measurements made in 1986, the section of ramp in this southern part remains horizontal.

"You must first ask yourself the true questions”

By not cutting across the path of the external ramp with the internal ramp during the construction of the King’s Chamber, the Egyptian builders had succeeded in constructing 85% of the pyramid’s volume by using the external ramp. However this trick had one drawback: part of the internal ramp stayed permanently horizontal at level +43 m, but this was largely compensated for by the fact that there remained no more that 15% of the volume to be constructed. On the other hand, there still remained more than 76 m in height to be completed: this is where the internal ramp played its part to the full.”

Three complementary ramps

In summary, Khufu’s Pyramid was built using three separate and complementary ramps: the ramp from the port (future Khafre’s royal causeway) used, with its counterweight, as far as the level of the current Pyramid of Khafre; the external ramp, as far as level +43 m of the pyramid, extended by a ramp built in a trench running clockwise as far as the +70 m level; the internal ramp, constructed from the base of the pyramid (south-east side), spiraling counter-clockwise and including a flat part at the +43 m level.

It is precisely onto this flat part (+43 m) that the monoliths for the King’s Chamber and the relieving chambers were first raised (using the counterweight in the Grand Gallery), then stored temporarily before being put in place (still using the Grand Gallery counterweight system) at their various levels to form the ceilings of the King’s Chamber and the relieving chambers.

The "main construction causeway" (in red) and the natural ramp (in blue)

To complete this logistical configuration of the Giza site, Jean-Pierre Houdin guides us to a final observation, while still keeping an eye on the plateau’s topography. This time it is connected with the facing blocks made of Tura limestone delivered to the port and those extracted from quarries excavated around the Sphinx and a little higher up.

There was no need for these blocks to take a detour towards the position where Khafre’s Pyramid was subsequently erected. They were quite simply pulled over a small natural ramp (in blue on the sketch above) following the incline of the plateau in order to be brought as far as the entrance to the internal ramp located in the southern face of Khufu’s Pyramid and about 25 m from its south-east corner.

Transported to the foot of the pyramid being constructed, the blocks then began their ascent into the bowels of the monument, following the internal ramp.

“After filming of the ‘Khufu Revealed’ documentary in 2008,” adds Jean-Pierre Houdin,

..and Bob Brier’s discovery of a room behind the notch in the north-east ridge, we were able to use 3D modeling of this area to specify the geometry of the internal ramp. This enabled us to understand the role of this room and gave us very precise information about the route of the internal ramp within the pyramid, because we now had several reference points in space: firstly, at the base of the pyramid, the entrance in the south-east area; then the passage above the rafters of the north-face entrance, then again the end at level +43 m under the west face, and finally this room at +81 m in the north-east edge; the horizontal route of the ramp at level +43 m beneath the south face then became evident.

By relying on the picture of the density anomaly detected in 1986, and by positioning the entrance to the internal ramp precisely using field observations, I was able to reconstruct the likely route for blocks inside the pyramid.

The first section of the ramp (in blue) is parallel to the face and climbed as far as the first corner chamber in the north-east corner. The second and third sections (the first two white segments) climbed ‘at an angle’, because as they rose they followed the slope of the pyramid inclined towards the interior. The fourth section located at a height of +43 m (in yellow) is horizontal and parallel to the south face. The following fourteen sections (in white) climb ‘at an angle’ as far as the summit.”

At each corner of the pyramid, corresponding to the junction between two sections of the ramp, a volume (a room as discovered by Bob Brier) was created to rotate the sledges used to transport the blocks.

One of these volumes, under the north-east edge of the pyramid, gave rise to detailed exploration by the American Egyptologist Bob Brier.

The results will be presented in a forthcoming article on this blog.

Interview by Marc Chartier

Illustrations: copyright Jean-Pierre Houdin / Dassault Systèmes

Copyright by Marc Chartier, 2011.  All rights reserved.

French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin sees the answer in the arrangement of internal elements of the pyramid’s architecture still hidden from plain view, but discernable by other architectural and material oddities, such as the relieving compartments themselves.  Why were they so high?  What purpose did raising the pressure points serve?

This is the fifth in a series of fascinating dialogues held between writer Marc Chartier, of the website Pyramidales, and Jean-Pierre Houdin following the premier of Khufu Reborn, the next chapter in the unraveling the mysteries of the Great Pyramid and the Giza Plateau.  This series of articles is being provided in English for Em Hotep in an exclusive arrangement with Marc, Jean-Pierre, and the Project Khufu team at Dassault Systèmes.

I do not think this will be a scoop for anyone: the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid is topped by an imposing and complex superstructure, made from five so-called “relieving chambers”, supposed to protect it from hypothetically crushing the last remains of the Pharaoh nestled in the heart of the monument.

Even those uninitiated into the subtleties of the art of Egyptian construction can easily feel how much these masses and spaces capping the funereal chamber could and still can fuel debates between Egyptologists or pyramidologists. (This latter term is sufficiently vague that it usefully covers an entire army of researchers trying to understand the hows and whys of the Egyptian pyramids).

In particular, among other good questions, why a “simple” raftered vault would not have sufficed, as in what is called the “Queen’s Chamber” – also intended to house the mortal remains of the Pharaoh at some time in the pyramid’s history, and on the face of it subject to the same volumetric compression? What is the “security” bonus of this stack of utterly enormous monoliths?

We will skip over the thorny question of the cracks that appeared in this enormous structure: this is not relevant here. Moreover, Pyramidales has already made a contribution on this subject, unwittingly stirring up a pretty unhealthy controversy just where the search for knowledge is called for, to the exclusion of any favoritism or personal bitterness.

As the five superimposed chambers are not there purely for style, nor in answer to any gratuitous challenge the Egyptian builders might have set themselves, but really are important pieces of the gigantic pyramid “puzzle”, Jean-Pierre Houdin could not disregard them in his Khufu Reborn (aka Khufu Renaissance) reconstitution of the Great Pyramid’s construction. Quite the opposite, he recognizes their essential role, without which part of the “puzzle” could collapse.

Let’s summarize what we already know from Khufu Reborn. Following Jean-Pierre Houdin along what he calls the “Noble Circuit” (corridors and structures deep within the pyramid intended for the royal funeral procession), we have discovered two antechambers in front of the King’s chamber, then an access corridor running up to the “formal” entrance to this chamber, distinct from the service entrance.

The architect then continues his reading of these places, using a totally new approach. In his opinion, the relieving chambers were not designed to be, as is generally thought, a cascade of bulwarks to prevent the King’s chamber caving in. Their construction and disposition must rather be associated with the existence of the two corbel-vaulted antechambers, ensuring their stability by protecting them from the effects of transferred load.

A major technical challenge

According to Jean-Pierre Houdin, the major technical challenge that must have faced Hemienu and Ankhhaf, the architects of the Great Pyramid, derives directly from their decision to build a flat ceiling for the King’s chamber. This innovation was fundamental… but it did not make the task easier! It is the very key to the special nature of the monument’s construction and the raison d’être for some of its main structures, such as the Grand Gallery, for example.

 “From one pyramid to the next,” comments Jean-Pierre Houdin,

Egyptian builders kept what was successful, abandoned what they considered not so good and, above all, took advantage of the opportunity to try new construction techniques. For the Great Pyramid, they kept corbelling for the antechambers and set themselves a gigantic challenge: that of offering their king, Khufu, a funereal chamber with a flat ceiling. This was a technical feat that they had never before attempted.

The entire organization of the project depended on this bold choice. The architects ordered materials from different quarries, from those at Tura for the facing blocks, from those at Aswan, more than eight hundred kilometers to the south, for granite for the King’s Chamber. This granite was the only material capable of spanning a void of some 5.20 m between the north and south walls of the chamber. The quarrymen could not deliver the beams to Giza at the start of construction because it would take years to extract and transport them. While they got down to their work, the monument was taking form. The beams would all have to be delivered to the site by the fourteenth year of Khufu’s reign at the latest, the pyramid having then reached a height of 43 m.

Jean-Pierre Houdin then made a detailed examination of the consequences, in terms of cost and technological progress, of the architectural choice governing erection of the Great Pyramid, which had a funereal chamber that until then had not featured on any architect’s plans:

The Egyptians did not order granite beams from Aswan for the pleasure of hiding such a quantity of beams inside the bulk: 2,100 tons altogether in the 43 beams distributed over 5 ceilings between level +48.85 m and level +60.15 m.

Exceptional technical resources were deployed to bring them from the banks of the Nile to their final position: between the levels of the delivery port (altitude 20 m ASL) and the last ceiling (altitude 100.15 m ASL), an uphill haul of more than 80 m!

Exceptional resources for an exceptional project

Major resources for a major project. Indeed, exceptional resources for an exceptional project. According to Jean-Pierre Houdin, the construction of the Great Pyramid required nothing less than:

• the construction of a ramp more than 600 m long (in red on the sketch above) between the port and the bottom of the Great Pyramid’s exterior ramp (in blue on the sketch);
• the installation of a counterweight-assisted traction system by cutting a huge trench in the bedrock (later buried under the pyramid of Khafre: in green, in the middle, on the left on the sketch) as an extension of the ramp coming from the port (Pyramidales will return to these technical aspects in a future article);
• construction of the Grand Gallery (in green, on top on the sketch) , a real built-in “crane”, as a second counterweight-assisted traction system to bring the beams into the pyramid enclosure for the construction of the ceilings;
• creation of an entire series of additional structures (ascending corridor no. 1, horizontal corridor no. 1, portcullis chamber), needed to operate the counterweight.

Counterweight sliding in Grand Gallery

This is what it cost to implement the ambitious plans of the architects for the Pyramid of Khufu! “The construction of a corbelled roof for the King’s Chamber,” comments Jean-Pierre Houdin,

would not have required any of these facilities, and there would never have been any granite in this pyramid. To have brought granite into the pyramid, the only material capable of spanning a void more than 5 m side and thus the only material to allow the construction of a flat ceiling, is the result of an architectural choice.

The “umbrella” effect

At this stage in our reading of the architectural plan for the Great Pyramid, guided by Jean-Pierre Houdin, a question arises: Hemiunu and Ankhhaf decided to install a flat ceiling on the King’s chamber. So be it! But why were they not content with just one ceiling, then capping it directly with a raftered vault, the only structure to deflects loads laterally, rather than transmit them vertically downward?

The architects of the Great Pyramid didn’t choose this solution

With such a hypothetical single ceiling surmounted by its inverted “V” vault, the Grand Gallery with its corbelled vault constructed parallel to the slope would not have seen its stability threatened in the slightest. The location of the Grand Gallery on a projection of the northern rafters of the roof at a slope of 50% would have been structurally equivalent, for example, to a buttress of a Gothic cathedral. The gallery therefore certainly did not require the installation of additional relieving chambers.

Let’s read our architect-guide’s explanations: “Rafters transfer loads along an oblique, and if there had been only the Grand Gallery in the zone receiving the oblique load, it would have had no difficulty ‘absorbing’ it.

“There are three reasons for this:

• the Grand Gallery is aligned with the oblique load and, given its very imposing structure, it reacts as an abutment (it is even stronger than the surrounding ‘in-fill’);
• the empty part of the Grand Gallery (2 cubits: the width of the last corbelling) only receives the oblique load over half of each rafter, which is positioned so that the other half is butted against the side walls of the Grand Gallery;
• given the position of the Grand Gallery entirely to the east, the rafters transfer more than 90% of the northern oblique load into the ‘in-fill’, compared with 100% of the southern rafters’ load.

“Conclusion: there would be no structural reason for the structure of the relieving chambers, as constructed, if there were only the Grand Gallery to consider.”

The relieving chambers were not therefore constructed to protect the Grand Gallery, although the Grand Gallery was built to transport and position the monoliths for the five load-deflecting chambers.

From this it follows that the reason for the relieving chambers must be sought elsewhere. And this “elsewhere” is called the “antechambers”, an essential part, according to Jean-Pierre Houdin, of the funereal architecture in the “Khufu’s Inheritance” version (see previous article from Pyramidales).

Without the relieving chambers superstructure, the antechambers would have been crushed down by the oblique load transferred by the rafters of the North side of the roof.

Jean-Pierre continues:

If the Egyptian builders had put the inverted “V” roof immediately above the ceiling of the King’s chamber, this roof would have underpinned the entire load above it in order to transfer it to the sides. And the corbel-roofed antechambers, unable to withstand this huge oblique load, would have ended up collapsing. They would have been crushed under the load.

So the architects had not hesitated. As they needed the counterweights of the Grand Gallery to construct the first ceiling in any case, it was no harder for them to construct five of them, each one above the other, before installing the raftered roof.

In the end, what we term the ‘relieving chambers’ were not constructed to protect the King’s Chamber, but to protect the nearby antechambers. Nor are the ‘ceilings’ really ceilings, but beams that retain the side walls of a large void (described nowadays as a ‘reinforced trench’). Hemiunu and Ankhhaf, the Viziers of Khufu’s Great Royal Works, were not only great architects, they were also great engineers.

By raising the roof very high, the architects greatly enlarged the protected zone so that the oblique load passed above the corbelling of the antechambers. Therein lies the real reason for the huge structure above the King’s Chamber. The Egyptians could not have done otherwise. The ‘relieving chambers’ served only to raise the roof of the King’s Chamber as high as possible, so that the oblique loads did not push on the corbelling of the antechambers.

This is what Jean-Pierre Houdin describes as the “umbrella” effect: “This type of structure is only found in the Great Pyramid, but it is essential due to the choice made by the designers to cover the King’s Chamber with a flat ceiling.”

Jean-Pierre Houdin concludes his analysis:

With the antechambers perpendicular to the King’s Chamber, they could possibly have been covered by raftered roofs. The problem would then only have been worse: it would also have been necessary to ‘raise’ the ‘stone umbrella’ (the raftered roof) very high up in the mass, because, being perpendicular to the funereal chamber, they would have similarly received the oblique load from the northern rafters of the roof to the King’s Chamber. They would then have been distorted (tilted) or perhaps even crushed under the pressure.

But another problem would have arisen: the eastern slope of the antechambers’ raftered roofs would then have transferred the absorbed vertical loads laterally directly against the western wall of the Grand Gallery; and it is the latter that would finally have been crushed. The choice of corbelling for the antechambers was extremely shrewd and perfectly suited to the situation: they wisely absorbed the vertical loads, without spreading them around, which is why they had been considered and tested for almost a century.

The pyramid’s designers therefore created a zone devoid of oblique load from the rafters between the top of the antechambers’ corbelling and the upper oblique line of the sheltered zone.

This is explicit proof of a very great understanding of materials, loads, forces, stresses and structural behavior. Nowadays would we call this an ‘Engineering and Building Technology Consultancy’.

One little detail: this was 45 centuries ago; in other words, with 5 generations per century, 225 generations ago. Egyptology, which was itself born following Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian Campaign, can only claim (a maximum of) 10 generations in existence…”

Interview by Marc Chartier for Pyramidales.

Copyright by Marc Chartier, 2011.  All rights reserved.