The Shadowlands presents:
Mysteries of The Pyramids
We hope to provide you with a little of the who, what and why's of the various pyramid mysteries on this page.  There are many controversies and theories concerning these wonders of architecture and engineering.  This page will also deal with mysteries and legends of ancient Egypt.  We will be adding more as time goes on, like all the pages here at The Shadowlands, it's a works in progress and is constantly updated.

Table of Contents
Hidden Chambers?
Ancient Egypt-History or Future?
Mummy Curses
Related Links

Hidden Chambers?

Some recent news may make recent pyramid discussions redundant! What seems to be a hidden chamber has been discovered in the Great Pyramid. (I had to read it a couple of times to convince myself it was bona fide.)

The German Archaeological Institute in Cairo was engaged in a project to improve the ventilation of the Great Pyramid.  The plan was to clear the two small passages leading from the King's Chamber, which had become
clogged by rubble:

German engineer and roboticist Rudolf Gantenbrink was given the task, achieved by the simple expedient of attaching a point to an old lorry axle and dropping it down the shafts; after which he used a small, tracked robot with a video-camera to study the shafts before fans were installed.
He next requested permission to use his robot to explore a similar passage leading from the Queen's chamber, which lies lower down in the pyramid. And this is where the story gets interesting.

The passageway is 20cm square and rises from the Queen's Chamber at an angle of 45 degrees.  It was previously thought to extend no more than eight metres, but Gantenbrink sent his robot up and it just kept on going (very slowly) for 65 metres.  Over the last couple of metres, the walls of the passage changed from rough to finely polished limestone, and then the robot came to a door.  This is possibly of alabaster or yellow limestone, with tongue and groove fittings suggesting that it might be
raised or lowered.

The door has two copper fittings near the centre, which have been variously described as handles or just plain strips.  A gap exists at the bottom of the door, too small for the camera to see through, and in front of this lies a scatter of black dust.  The robot is to be refitted with a fibre-optic lens and light-source later this year, which should be able to peer through the gap and show what lies beyond the door. What's behind the door?


From: mstow@csc.liv.ac.uk (Martin Stower)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors
Subject: Hidden Chamber (really!)
Date: 17 Aug 93 17:31:44 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Liverpool University

Ancient Egypt-History or Future?
By Jennifer@theshadowlands.net
The Pyramids have been studied for centuries, by the greatest scholars,
scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, historians, architects and physicists the world has ever known.  So when I was asked to write about them, I must admit, I was more than a little intimidated!  People have dedicated their entire lives to unlocking the secrets of these incredible structures and the people who built them.

Although I’ve always been fascinated by them, I’m just a writer.  I research a subject, and come up with an opinion and then I communicate it.  The closest I have come to the pyramids is visiting the Ramses exhibit when it came to Dallas almost 10 years ago.  Other than that, I’ve seen tons of shows on The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel.  (There is also some extremely good data right on this website!)

We know that the Pyramids of ancient Egypt were built as burial tombs for Egyptian royalty.  They believed that when you die, you take it all with you.  So everything belonging to the deceased was placed in the tomb as well.  They were built in such a way that they line up with certain stars and planets at certain times.  It’s really amazing!

But HOW did they do it?!?  I mean, these people lived 3,000 years ago!  And we STILL can’t duplicate what they were able to accomplish!  Let alone figure out HOW they did it.  So what if they really were far more advanced that we are?

I believe we have STILL barely scratched the surface of this incredible culture.  There is a lot more there to be discovered.  If they were indeed that far advanced, where are their weapons?  Did they have computers?  Did they also have a much more technically advanced energy source?  Think about it, what if they were able to use nuclear energy?  Seems to me it could be used to move 10 ton stones.  (Yes, I realize a lot people believe that they were able to harness mind power and that is how they moved those stones into place.  I am very much open to that possibility, but for the purposes of this particular article, I chose not to go down that path.)

And the way they aligned the pyramids with the stars and specific planetary configurations, where are the instruments they used to measure all of this?  If everything, from the life story of the pharaoh to what they ate, to how they ruled and all of their belongings and how they were used is written in
hieroglyphics, why don’t we know HOW they built the pyramids?

I have a theory!  You know how when you were a kid, and you watched Bugs Bunny cartoons?  They were funny and seemed innocent enough, I mean, they were written for kids, right?  Have you seen them as an adult?  They are totally different cartoons!  There are many sexual references!  In one cartoon, Bugs Bunny is hung over!  You don’t notice these things when you’re a kid.  It goes right over your head.  It’s not in a child’s capacity to understand these references and undertones, they’re much too young and immature.  Even though they are right there in front of you, in the cartoon.  But as an adult, with the knowledge and maturity gained, you suddenly see what you’ve been missing and see the cartoon completely different.

What if the secrets to the pyramids are the same principal?  What if it’s ALL there written in hieroglyphics, but we are not advanced (mature) enough to fully understand and comprehend what they are saying?  What if there are no secrets?  What if the real mystery is WHEN are we going to be advanced enough to understand who they were, where they came from, what happened to them, etc., etc.

Mummy Curses
by slinkii@webtv.net

#1 - The year was 1910. Egyptologist Douglas Murray was sought out by a diseased and ragged looking American. He told Murray he had an offer that would most likely be the most priceless and important find of his whole career, a mummy case, complete with mummy, of an ancient Egyptian
high priestess of the temple of Ammon-Ra who supposedly lived in Thebes around 1600 BC.

Murray was quick to write the American a check, drawn from the Bank of London, but the check was never cashed. The American died that night.

A colleague of Murray's  told him the legend behind his new purchase. The ancient high priestess had held high office in the then feared Cult of the Dead, helping to turn the once rich and fertile land in the Valley of the Nile into a bare wasteland, a truely desolate place. Inscribed on the walls of her tomb were warnings of death and terror for anyone disturbing her resting place. Believing it was a load of poppycock, Murray laughed at the warning. 3 days later, while on a hunting trip. his gun exploded in his hand, causing him  months of almost constant pain spent in hospital. The wound eventually became infected, and fearing the gangrene would spread, his arm was amputated
at the elbow.

When his health returned he set sail for England, mummy case and all. During the trip, 2 Egyptian servants who had handled the mummy case were found dead. They were considered to be young, strong, healthy men, so their deeaths came very unexpectedly. Upon arriving in London, Murray
took a good long look at his acquisition, and while examining the carved gold and painted image of the priestess, he later told friends that "the face seemed to come alive with a stare that chilled to the bone."

Murray decided t was time to get rid of the mummy case. A lady friend of his persuaded him to sell it to her, and within weeks her mother died, her lover left her, and she herself was diagnosed with what could only be called a 'wasting' disease. Was it perhaps the same disease to plague the American? Whatever it was, she insisted that Murray take it back. He then gave it to a British museum, and it seemed that the 'curse' was no less effective there, either.  A photographer dropped stone cold dead
while photographing the mummy case, and the man in charge of the cases exhibit was soon found dead in his own bed. In light of these events, the museums head honcho's met privately and unanimously decided to give it to a prestigious New York museum. The case was sent with no fanfare, but the case never reached it's destination, for it sunk to the bottom of the sea along with the Titanic and almost 1500 souls in April of 1912.

# 2: - In 1357 BC, King Akhnaton of Egypt, ( the tyrnnical father-in-law of Tutankhamen) had his own daughter raped and murdered by his temple priests. To add eternal insult to injury, they cut off her right hand and buried it in a secret location in the Valley of the Kings. According to the beliefs of ancient Egyptians, anyone who was not buried whole would forever be barred from entering paradise in the afterlife.

Centuries later in 1890, Count Louis Hamon cured a well-to-do sheik of malaria. The sheik insisted that he accept a gift as a token of his thanks, the mummified right hand of an Egyptian princess! Despite its gruesome nature, Hamon accepted the gift, though reluctanly, and brought it home to England.  His wife was instantly horrified by the dry, shrivelled hand. Hamon tried to give it to an England museum, but they would not accept it. His wife then insisted they keep it locked up in a
safe at their home.

32 years later, in October of 1922,, the safe was opened and to their horror the hand was plump with new tissue! Hamons wife demanded the hand be disposed of, and Hamon agreed, however, it was to have the best funeral he could give it. So on Halloween night, Hamon read aloud a passge from the Egyptian book of the dead. He later wrote to his longtime friend, Lord Carnarvon, that while he read from the ancient book he placed the hand into a blazing fire in the fireplace and then shut the book. As soon as he closed the book thunder rocked the house and all the lights went out, The door was then flung open accompanied by a blast of freezing cold air. In Hamon's own words, "the figure of a
woman entered wearing the royal apparel of ancient Egypt,  her headdress bore the  image of the Serpent of the House of Pharoahs." The womans right arm ended in a stump. The apparition went to the fireplace where the hand was burning, bent over, and then diappeared, along with the hand.

4 days later, Hamon learned that the party his old friend Lord Carnarvon had been funding had finally found the tomb of King Tutankhamen after what had seemed like endless, fruitless searching  and that they, despite the curse written at the entrance of the tomb, planned to enter it. Count Hamon and his wife were in hospital being treated for severe shock. It was from there that he wrote his friend, Lord Carnarvon, begging him to reconsider opening the tomb. He wrote, "I know now that the ancient Egyptians had knowledge and power of which today we have no comprehension. In the name of God, I beg you, take care!"

The letters warning went unheeded and Lord Carnarvon told his party to go ahead and enter the tomb. Soon afterwards, Lord Carnarvon was dead of an infected mosquito bite. But that was only the beginning, more deaths were to follow, giving rise to what could most probably be the worlds
most infamous curse, the Curse of the Pharoahs.


The Worlds Greatest Ghosts
        Nigell Blundell & Roger Boar

Land of the Pharoahs
         Dr. Thomas Hartly

 A&E  tv special

Related Links
Pyramids: The Inside Story
Giza Pyramids: The Vanishing Point
The Orion Mystery
Comet Pyramid Project
The Great Pyramid
Egyptian Mysteries
The Great Pyramid

Back to Mysteries and The Unknown
Back to The Shadowlands