SPIRIT OF CHEOPS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 February 1927, Page 11

SPIRIT OF CHEOPS

OPINIONS may differ as to the feasibility )) of the theosophical idea of conjuring up jj the spirit of the departed Pharaoh, Cheops, the reputed builder of the Great Pyramid, hut the fact remains that for thousands of years the Great Pyramid has stood a-silent sentinel over the waste of desert sand, exercising the ingenuity of man to line! a satisfactory reason for its existence.

The popular theory about the pyramid in general, and there are seventy-five of them scattered throughout the land of Egypt, is that they were built to serve as monumental tombs by successive Pharaohs, each being prepared during the life of the prospective tenant. This the.ory may possibly hold good in respect to some of the smaller and later pyramids, but many authorities find it difficult of acceptance with respect to the Great Pyramid, the first of the series to be built.

What we do know about tne building of the Great Pyramid is derived chiefly from that famous historian of olden times, Herodotus. According to him Cheops or Khufu, who flourished about 4000 8.C., was persuaded, probably by some visiting Chaldean astrologers, to embark upon the monumental work which seems destined to stand for ever as one of the seven wonders of the world. One hundred thousand men, employed continuously for thirty years, were required for the work, which earned for its author the undying hatred of his own and subsequent generations. For the unknown advisers of the Pharaoh induced him also to throw overboard the accepted religion of his fathers and to adopt a form of ivorship hateful alike to priests and people. We can only conjecture what an absolute autocrat Cheops must have been to have been enabled to accomplish his purpose, and it is very difficult to understand how it was that the subsequent kings were allowed to do much the same kind of thing even if on a smaller scale.

The original height of the Great Pyramid was about 480 feet and its base was 774 feet square. In size it therefore dwarfs into insignificance any modern structure. Its exterior easing of stone has not withstood the

THE GREAT PYRAMID

ITS HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

ravages of time or the despoiling hand of man. for did it not furnish convenient building blocks for the mosques and walls of Cairo; But it is what is found in the interior of the Great Pyramid that makes it so interesting, for its passage ways and chambers make it. unique amongst the pyramids. There is a chamber measuring 40 feet by 27 feet, 10 feet (3 inches in height. This was reached by a passage 320 feet long descending to it from the entrance near the foot of the pyramid. What is known as the Queen’s Chamber occupies a position nearly in the centre of the pyramid. This chamber, which is 20 feet high and which measures 17 by 19. feet, is reached by an ascending passage leading from the other one and terminating in a horizontal passage. A prolongation of the ascending passage of the Chamber leads to the King’s Chamber, a room 17 by 34 feet and 19 feet high. Five smaller chambers were made vertically in succession above this, perhaps to diminish the pressure of the superincumbent masonry. The passages and chambers are carefully finished with slabs of granite displaying exquisite workmanship, and the entrance to the King’s Chamber was closed with granite portcullises.

The only entrance from the outside of the pyramid was carefully sealed up. till in the ninth century it was broken into by Abbasidc Khalif El Mamun, but history does not relate that the mummy of Cheops or of anyone else was ever found inside. In the King’s Chamber, which incidentally has two narrow ventilating shafts communicating with the exterior, is a broken red granite sarcophagus, and that, is all.

The fact that the sides of the Great Pyramid face the cardinal points of the compass, that the tunnel had a definite astronomical outlook, and a number of other features, has led to the propounding of numerous theories about the significance of the pyramid’s measurements. There are some whose names are by no means insignificant who maintain that the whole structure is a sort of compendium of universal knowledge.