The "Air shafts" of the Great Pyramid

One of the most mysterious features of the Great Pyramid of Giza are the so called "air shafts". It has been suggested that the shafts were used to ventilate the monument during construction. This would certainly be a problem, but the shafts do not run all the way to the outside and so they may not have been able to fulfil this function. No shafts were discovered in other pyramids, so it seems that the ancient builders had found another way of overcoming this problem. The discovery of small finely finished limestone "doors" at the top of the shafts suggests that there was more to the shafts than ventilation. This was a very popular theory among scholars, but most are now of the opinion that it is unlikely that they served such a mundane purpose.

Religious Symbolism

Stadelmann suggested that the shafts allowed the king's soul to travel to the "stars that never die" (the circumpolar stars in the northern sky) and the "land of light" (the southern sky). This argument has a certain simplicity, and seems quite reasonable. No similar shafts were found in other pyramids, but symbolic doors were often used (making the construction of physical doors rather unnecessary). However, building the shafts in as they constructed the pyramid cannot have been easy. So it is tempting to assume that they had a deeper significance.

Secret Doors

The 'door' at the top of one of the Queen's chamber shafts

At the top of the southern shaft of the Queens Chamber, a small limestone block with two copper fittings was discovered. Hawass has suggested that the fittings were hieroglyphic signs (rather than handles) which enabled the soul of the king to pass through the blockage. When an opening was drilled through this small limestone block and an endoscopic camera inserted, archaeologists discovered a narrow empty space terminated by a rough limestone block, thought to be part of the pyramid core.

The shaft in the north side of the Queens Chamber is the same. The corridor ends in front of a white limestone block bearing the traces of two copper fittings. Quarry marks are still visible, along with the sign of the work-gang "wadi" ("the green ones"). and a sign thought to be the hieroglyph "prjj" ("to come out" of the tomb).

Star Alignment

Their astronomical significance was first recognized by Alexander Badawy, and Virginia Trimble, in the 1960´s. They suggested that the north shaft of the Queens Chamber aligned with "Beta" (B) in Ursa Minor, while the south shaft is aligned with Sirius. The constellation of Ursa Minor was only introduced in 600 BC. The Ancient Egyptians considered Ursa Major and Minor to be part of Draco (known to the ancient Egyptians as the Hippo). Draco was associated with the goddess Tawret (who took the form of a hippo). Sirius was associated with Isis and known as the "Nile Star" because of its annual appearance at sunrise on the day of the summer solstice which heralded the innundation.

'Ursa Major and Ursa Minor

The southern shaft in the Kings Chamber reaches to the outer surface of the Pyramid and is thought to be aligned with the Orion´s belt. Orion was associated with Osiris, and was also the god of the netherworld. The northern shaft aligns with Thuban, in the constellation of Draco. Nowadays, Polaris marks our celestial north pole, but at the time of the ancient pyramid builders the star closest to the pole was Thuban. Thus it was of high astrological importance and considered to be a symbol of immortality (as it never left the night sky).


Badawy and Trimble concluded that the shafts were not astronomical sightlines, as is sometimes suggested (a view supported by the fact that the shafts are horizontal at their ends). Instead the shafts allowed the kings soul to reunite with the stars. This is in keeping with writings in the fifth dynasty pyramid texts which confirm that the king joins circumpolar stars which never rise or set. They turn around the north celestial pole without ever dipping below the horizon. The ancient Egyptians called them the "undying" stars and took comfort from their stability and endurance.

Stellar Clock

However, the stellar alignment is not exact. According to some theorists (including Buvall) the alignment of the south shaft of the Kings Chamber to Orion and the south Queens Chamber to Sirius actually occurred much earlier that the Fourth Dynasty (2575 - 2465 BC), when the Great Pyramid is generally thought to have been built. Hence the argument that the Pyramid is much older than previously thought, and that the shafts confirm the date actual date of its construction. Proponents of this view often suggest that there was an astrophysically advanced ancient culture which built the great pyramid and then disappeared, along with its advanced ideas. This is not a new idea. Plato (428 to 347 BC) refers to an ancient culture whose knowledge was lost in "Timaeus", and Atlantis is still a remarkably popular idea.

Giza pyramids

Robert Bauval (an engineer) and Adrian Gilbert propose that the three pyramids of Giza are an earthly representation of the Belt of Orion. They further suggest that the Fourth Dynasty "Unfinished Pyramid" at Zawyet el-Ayran, south of Giza, represents Bellatrix, and the pyramid of Djedefre at Abu Rawash, north of Giza represents Saiph. They suggest that the pyramids were intended to create an earthly copy of the stellar netherworld. Thus, the Great Pyramid of Giza becomes a time clock using the precession of the circumpolar stars to mark the dates of 10,500 B.C (when they suggest the plan was begun) and 2450 B.C (when they suggest the great pyramid was completed). So far no pyramids have been found which would represent Betelgeuse and Rigel, despite the fact that they are the two brightest stars in that area of the heavens.

Orion's belt

This thoery remains contentious. Ed Krupp (Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles) and Anthony Fairall (astronomy professor at the University of Cape Town) have both criticised the astronomical observations which underpin the theory and even suggested that in order to make the facts fit the map of the pyramids had to be inverted. However, Archie Roy (Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Glasgow University) and Percy Seymour (astronomer and astrophysicist at Plymouth University) have defended the theory and noted that the visual correlation is striking when the pyramids of Giza are viewed from the north. Furthermore, there is some support for it in the fact that the Pyramid Texts (which date to the fifth dynasty but were most likely formed from earlier religious concepts) make frequent references to the connection between the the resurrection of the king and Sahu (Orion).

copyright J Hill 2010
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