I love how everything is kept logical in your videos. I'm always hesitant to click any video about pyramid construction for fear of fantastical nonsense, but your videos are exactly what I've been looking for. Between your videos and Jean-Pierre Houdin's theory, construction of the pyramids maintains plausibility without sacrificing amazement.
@@AlanCanon2222 I know they want to keep the sense of mystery for the sake of tourism $$$, but I think Ancient Egypt is still an unmatched cultural marvel with or without knowing everything about the pyramids.
That bend is even more proof that the tunnel was dug from both sides. When you dig a tunnel that way, you want the two halves to meet at an angle. If they are parallel, they can miss each other completely. By digging them at an angle, you force them to meet (as any two lines on a plane that are not parallel must meet).
This works if you are thinking in 2 dimensions, i.e. just the horizontal, but remember this has to work in 3 dimensions. If they worked from both sides, how would they get the vertical axis right too? The tunnel would have to start at exactly the same level to begin with and then not deviate up or down.
@@IfUfindthisURlost The vertical axis is easy. Water levels have been used for thousands of years for tunnels, some even over distances of several kilometres. And with the pyramids, it's even easier, as they could simply rely on the existing layers. When you dig in one specific layer, you're basically in 2D.
@@HenryLoenwind I had discounted them counting the layers, for while it works to stay at the same height working from one side, if you worked from both sides, you would both have to start at the same layer. I don't see how the party digging from inside the pyramid, out, would know they were at the same layer as the outside. Once in the entrance passage, they have no way of judging which corresponding layer they are at, because the walls of this passage are dressed and therefore give no indication as to the layers that run through the pyramid. (If that makes sense).
@@IfUfindthisURlost Im sure that the access they had to the rest of the pyramid would give them a way to measure their height in relation to the outside. Just off the top of my head I would be able to come up with something. If they measured with a rope, careful to take into account the angle of the passages, they would be able to roughly model the height needed to start at and estimate which layer they should pick. Also access to the bedrock gives them a reference point. Its also safe to say that they could have just estimated from line of sight. They weren't digging in one go so along the way they would have been able to compare each end of the tunnel to make sure they were on the right track. They also might not have dug the tunnel as large at first. They could have expanded it once the two sides met up. Also once they were at the filler it would have been much easier to look at the layers and potentially see depth based purely on the shape of each block.
I have dreamed of going Giza since I was maybe 9 years old. I was 53 in 2017 when we went to Egypt and Jordan. An awe-inspiring trip. Looking forward to watching your videos!!
I started following your channel just by coincidence, but I must say, I am blown away. You do actual research, investigate, gather evidence, THINK, conclude, re-think, re-conclude and make your videos. Not 2 x per day 20 minutes each for maximum attention w*oring - but ONLY when you have something to say. I've been to the great pyramid a few times, lucky enough even being the only visitor at times, and I'm 100% certain that building something like that as only a tomb would make NO SENSE. So many details in the great pyramid speak against usage as a tomb. There is still a lot going on in the pyramid behind the scenes, every time I go there, I notice that something has been dug up - closed - moved - dug some more - cleaned - fixed - etc. The Egyptians are absolutely full on it to find something major. I'm actually hoping, someone would start up a historical archive on the pyramids, displaying tourist photos over the years. So much changes all the time. And I'm sure, all those pictures would help you too A LOT, Mr. History for Granite. The locals know SO MUCH more than they share with us. Or at least search more than they let us know. God bless you, I'm following your videos with HUGE interest. Archeology in the making.
Fantastic work, keep it up! Your detailed analsis is great and I'm glad I could help you with my rare video footage of the robber's tunnel. Thanks for the shout out and directing people to my channel. 🙏 Looking forward to seeing more from this channel.
Cave surveyor from Kentucky here. Love this series, and how it's 100% free of Alien Astronaut theories, just reviewing evidence and making informed speculation, which is carefully tagged as such. In the Mammoth Cave System, we're dealing with a 100% natural feature, with 4,000 years worth of exploration and artifacts to study and puzzle out. The cave draws us in with its mysteries, and the wonderful thing is, through science and engineering we can actually solve those mysteries. Seems like those who explore the pyramids, although they're 100% artificial, must feel similar emotions.
Your videos are too interesting, I keep having "wait a second" moments and have to rewind to process it. Either I'm getting too old or your videos are absolutely outstanding.
I thought the same, but I think a few charts to illustrate his thought process on some of his rather lengthy chaining of ideas would better help viewers follow along without several rewindings...
The Al Mamun corridor is a narrow corridor built in 2500 BC but later enlarged. The internal architecture of this pyramid is probably technical. Sincerely jmc and bonjour from France.
I was in all Pyramids, all rooms and all places you have schown in this video. I was even in the releafing chambers, but today you blew my mind my man.
You always have very logic explanations and theories. Your level of detail searching is out of this world and i love how you always easily can find a more reasonable and more logic explanation! Great work! Keep it up! :)
I think it was first broken in to at the first opportunity, in other words at the time of the first breakdown of protective state authority for the pyramid. That would have been at the end of the old kingdom about 300 years after the building of the pyramid. I think the robbers knew the interior layout of the pyramid because the thousands who built it would have proudly passed on that knowledge to their children. I think knowledge of the pyramid's interior would have been a source of pride for every family that new it.
Possibly even before that. A number of seemingly intact tombs have been discovered empty of anything valuable, and with no apparent forced entry. The conclusion drawn there is that the very priests who laid them to rest took everything out again before actually sealing up the tomb. The oldest pyramid might actually have even been robbed to furnish the interior of the next, with the guards being the ones responsible.
@@rianfelis3156 - I've always tried to give the priests the benefit of the doubt and think that possibly they were trying to maintain a cult and temples that had gone out of popularity and sold off the treasures a bit at a time to make ends meet. They could easily have been displayed and then tucked away until required. A few centuries of that would account for a lot. Cynical, but keeps the business going. There were at least some priests trying to preserve the royal mummies by hiding them even if that was the best they could do, centuries after the Pharaoh's deaths and long after anyone else cared what happened to them. The Pharaohs certainly weren't above stealing each other's treasures either.
Knowing the interior layout is different than knowing exact tunnelling coordinates. So then after that knowledge of the exact interior coordinates of the pyramid was lost after that Time of Troubles? And still having been passed down for at most, I suppose, 300 years, would still be quite a feat! I think Khafre looted it.
I love this channel… it’s so refreshing to listen to the narrator attempt to uncover mysteries using rational thought and logic to come up with a reasonable explanation… unlike idiotic channels like UnchartedX or Brian Forster…
Great Video. It mostly matched the information we were told decades ago about the tunnel being made to remove a heavy object incapable of being taken up a slope. Great introspection.
they found something BIG that they really wanted, and did not want to brake it down and bring out pieces, it's amazing that it's lost to history or still hidden.
They probably wanted to take the lid to the carcophogus back with them, because there wasn't anything else in there. What do you think the black stone in the center of Mecca is?
Like given before the video started... Watching the video, I can say it's a very linear and clear explanation (Ockham's Razor style), plus I enjoyed the usual clarity on tables and figures (I LOVE the tables from Dormion's book and Maragioglio/Rinaldi's older text). Great job, again!!!
Great breakdown. I'd heard the theory that the robbers tunnel was an exit before, but never the idea that it had been dug from both ends. Definitely food for thought!
From both ends for another reason. They, the people digging from the inside, would have had less material to transport outside, other wise they would either get stuck in the material they were digging, or they would have to transport it outside thought the descending corridor/entrance which in this case would be ascending...
@@roberthak3695 they didn't have to take rubble from the tunnel out of the pyramid, there's hundreds of feet of empty corridor below to dump rubble in. they already would have known the lower chamber was empty, and therrefore they didn't need to keep it accessible while removing the portculis blocks and later excavating the tunnel.
This channel is a breath of fresh air among the vast majority of the crazy ass , lame brain, conspiracy laced, pyramid related channels. This is the place I run to first when the numbing stupidity of conspiratorial mouth breathers has got me down. Your calm logical presentation is soothing, and give hope that insanity will not rule out
I'm convinced the pyramid was robbed long before Al mamun, who knows what was in there? At least the lid of the sarcophagus, along with many other treasures. Thank you for the video!
I can't imagine someone being able to dig through all of that, let alone not being afraid of the whole thing collapsing on them. And it seems like it would take "forever" to dig through all of that.
We'll definitely circle back to who the likely culprits were at some point - there's a fun lesson in human nature and some interesting questions that arise from it.
😀 Your vid gives quite a good sense of ‘being there’, and i’m very impressed with your discernments and conclusions, but also, I can’t get away from my nagging thoughts of ‘just how much rubble, etc., has been interfered with during the past’, and also, if all the wooden ‘visitor’ steps and ramps were removed, the interiors would look very different and be much less navigable. Having worked in stone, my mind has a hard time visualising people ‘wrecking’ a structure that they’re inside of, due to the risk of ‘life’, so thanks for your similar thoughts pointing this out. Nice work, well done. 😀
Your mentioning the mortar usage is interesting, I have a feeling that mortar usage in ancient Egyptian monuments is vastly misunderstood, or just not plainly unknown by the public at large; an idea for a future videos, perhaps?
I have been looking at pictures of the pyramids my entire life, and I am over 50, and the size still makes no sense to my brain. They are just MASSIVE. It almost doesn't seem real. I can't be alone on that right? Just amazing.
It boggles the mind how big they are. You can stand at their base and look up in disbelief for over half an hour and still not process the gigantic size of them.
The robbers tunnel entrance always left questions to me: How could a hole on the outside of the pyramid remain unseen during its original excavation ?? Your theories on different excavators at different times raises the possibilities that "Party 0" was discovered and the hole left unfixed for decades or centuries. Therefore making the hole on the outside of the pyramid less obvious as it's been left forgotten in plain sight for generations making "Party 1" less conspicuous, if they made a tunnel that joined the tunnel of "Party 0" that was known to led to the hole on the outside of the pyramid. Obviously digging signatures may now have all been lost to show if different techniques were used in each tunnel section, or at different times Thank You for raising new theories. Before your analysis, I had never thought of robber tunnels meeting at a junction point within the pyramid.
People were not allowed to be near that place so a canvas stretched on a wooden frame could be used as door and if you properly painted it then you would need modern binoculars to spoot it... You can also threw out rubble at night. But most likely the guards were also taking part in that crime. I also expect that the robbers got access to a model of the pyramid internal design, stuff like that is used even nowdays and it would most likely be left for future generations to be amazed how well made, amazing and smart was the whole construction...
@@Bialy_1 Some researchers believe that so called Trial Passages are in fact the pyramid internal design model ( not far away from the pyramid itself).
I agree, the 'robbers' tunnel was accomplished from excavating from both directions. The clues are there. The deduction of its construction allowing for extraction of larger objects is then obvious. It is amazing that we really don't know who or when the looting took place.
Valuable large objects of gold would be a liability to both keep and get rid of- presuming it was robbers and not another later pharaoh who took it. Therefore gold and gems would readily have been broken up and carried out? Anyone would rather do that than dig through metres of solid rock, which it seems the robbers did? Therefore the object they wanted to get out must have HAD to be kept in one piece at all costs. I can think of only 1 known artefact from ancient times that nobody, absolutely nobody would want to tamper with, and that is the Ark of the Covenant. It was highly dangerous to all around it by all accounts. No one would ever break that into pieces to take out. If it was the Ark, then it would have been revered as the work of god, and possibly placed in the pyramid during construction. Just a thought anyway.
@@TheGreatest1974 If it was made from a solid metal then you could not chop it into pieces inside with ancient tools... also the story about liability that you presenting here is fine for modern times and kinda silly for ancient times with no photos, TV or books with printed pictures of the artefacts... Who would be able to identify an artefacts that was hiden from human eyes for 50 years?! And why not take that stuff to some other kingdom and sell it there?! And the Ark of the Covenant was propably made after this robbery took place and most likely was nothing alike the one from The Indiana Jones movie...
@@Bialy_1 it wasn’t ‘solid metal’ it was a wooden box covered in gold. And the Ark is described in the bible exactly how it was made- with the measurements etc.
Keep in mind that the earliest version of the Al-Ma’mun story was written about 200 years after he supposedly broke into the pyramid and there are a couple of different versions. It's debatable that it happened the way it was described. Certainly the Robber's Entrance might have predatedAl-Ma’mun. In Greco-Roman times people were inside the pyramid all the time, although only to the lower chamber and the original door was easy enough to find. There's certainly a lot of room for doubt about who got to the upper chambers first.
I am with you on the age of the "robber's" tunnel ... the 832 AD account sounds more like discovery than actual digging excavation. They quite possibly could of dug out and cleared the tunnel and embellished that in their record. Why I quoted "robbers" is if the pyramid was was abandon, and you used this term describing the middle period, I think "robbery" is too strong a word... if it's abandon it's open for plunder as so many did in recent centuries. Thank you for a fascinating analysis... you are a very clear thinker.
Yes, there may very well be an untouched burial chamber inside. One that no one would ever be able to access unless you disassembled the Great Pyramid stone by gigantic monolithic stone. The entire pyramid would have to be taken apart to find any hidden chamber inaccessible to anyone. Due to the sheer weight of the stones.
Interesting thoughts. It strikes me odd that the big prize had to wait 3 thousand years to get looted, especially as it seemed there were determined people in antiquity who were capable and many subsequent invaders and rulers who might also have a eye to plunder. To bypass the portcullis system suggests insider knowledge, the portcullis system being somewhat weird also. To lift them isn’t so tough unless they are locked. Really enjoy this channel, it’s so tough to get a grip on deep history as all we have is what they left us.
There was writing on the limestone blocks covering the pyramids, perhaps there were clues there that the early Arabs were able to pick up on, though I doubt they could read ancient Egyptian.
@@whiteeagle6370 yes my understanding to. I believe a historian, possibly Herodotus spoke of four languages visible, however I fear it could have been a fashionable addition from a later kingdom.
Please note a portcullis mechanism is designed to be ‘raised’ as well as lowered.You would never go to the effort of installing them unless you meant to raise them .Otherwise blocking stones would be far easier and far more permanent. Also note in the New Kingdom we have priests writing instructing workers to loot burial chambers ( ie recycle the grave goods).It’s possible that was happening from the earliest times. I note in king Tut’s grave goods is a throne/ chair that belonged to his father.Wouldn’t his father have wanted that buried with him? Recycled? Gold is rare stuff!
@@teeanahera8949 You mean like Trumps golden commode? The weight and cost of a solid gold toilet is ridiculous. To say nothing of support underneath. Obviously guilded. Or if porcelain were coated with silver solution ( an old lab arts technique for low temp soldering to glass) then it should be posible to electroplate gold onto porcelain, glass, ceramic etc. There's also vapor deposition such as in electronics.
Makes sense that they would reuse stuff. It's not the value, it's the workmanship and time. Why have it sitting there forever when it could be reused but you wonder why it was left there in the end.
Your theory simply contradicts itself... so why Tut's father chair/throne was left in Tut's grave but not in his father grave?! Tut could have this throne/chair from his father or it was a memento of his father that reminded him of him... Its to easy to forget how long ago that was and for how many generations this system worked fine before it colapsed and robbery was easy...
This is fantastic information. When my time machine finally comes online, I'll know exactly how to rob the pyrimid. I never take my. . . . history for granite.
Fascinating analysis and you answered my questions as soon as I asked them. Great stuff. You could usefully do a review of Jean Pierre Houdin's theory of construction to see if the predictions stand up to your level of scrutiny. I can't stop wondering about that block in the wall behind the sarcophagus in the king's chamber which could be a corridor plug. If plugging material was granite, a good way to hide corridor plugs is to make the walls of the same material meaning no lines of material weakness to exploit as with the ascending corridor plugs.
Mr. Houdin's theories make the mistake I believe of trying to make much more of the construction techniques for the pyramid than they warrant (and he is certainly not at the top of the list when it comes to outlandishness). The muon experiments showed where the voids in the pyramid were and no amount of theorizing or elaborating can conceal the fact that the pyramid was not built with ramps, exterior or interior (except for one , perpendicular to the structure to the abandoned entry from the desert floor which was necessary to build the damn structure and haul EVERYTHING into the pyramid, from workers to big stones and including visiting living pharaohs. One thing that Mr. Houdin seems to have gotten right, and its an important discovery supported by evidence, that the Grand Gallery was the home of a mechanical mechanism that moved stones upwards and into the pyramid. One thing that Dr. Hawass and he keep ignoring is that the so-called abandoned entry was the TRUE entry to the pyramid, and until this fact is accepted people will continue to struggle with the layout of the pyramid and its functionality.
I've been anxiously awaiting for this video! Thanks very very much for this! One of my favorite subjects ever, your insights are just amazing! Just can't get enough. Have an awesome weekend!
I would love to know why even to this day, the ORIGINAL ENTRANCE tunnel has never been opened, excavated nor investigated by simply drilling through the block. There is no linking tunnel from anywhere else in the pyramid today- so absolutely anything could lie behind the original entrance? Unseen corridors? Previously unknown rooms or information valuable to enhancing our knowledge of the pyramid? It seems that egyptologists are not bothered one bit what’s behind the main original entrance.
I would love to see a video giving a history of all the "restorations" that have been made (when, why, how), additional digging (like how the interior robber's tunnel you mention was expanded for visitors) etc. It could even go as far back to the New Kingdom and what evidence we have of renovation then but especially I"d love to see you collect and talk about all the more modern changes made together and see the patterns of reasoning/motivation etc and get an idea of how much damage this has caused, or what parts of it, if any, were actually good or necessary in some way. You have probably covered a lot or even all of it in other videos but I feel like having it all in one place could be a useful thing toward a philosophy of history/restoration. There is a path to be walked I'm sure as allowing access to the Pyramids has aided in getting funding etc but there is also a destructive cost to that. Then there are the seemingly totally unnecessary "restorations" that attempt to recreate/rebuild something the "restorers" didn't even have certainty that they understood. This is my first comment but I drop into your channel a lot. I was actually only vaguely interested in Egyptology and that more from a standpoint of sociopolitical structure and culture around the times they were made, but your videos have made me learn about and consider questions of engineering, masonry, etc that I never would've thought I'd find interesting (and these things actually reveal clues about the sociopolitical structures and culture as well). I most love you willingness to both heavily criticize totally groundless and fantastical claims of fringe researchers while still acknowledging that even people operating under extremely mistaken notions can collect and provide evidence or ideas worth considering in a different context. So much of archaeology and even anthropology and social history etc make the mistakes of assuming people who believed absurd things were totally unable to contribute anything. It's a strange notion given the fact that ancient people themselves believed a host of things we know have no real connection to reality and yet were capable of feats and understanding both that in some cases teach modern minds some things. Surely a person that believes the Pyramids were built by psychic bigfoots could still make an insightful comment about how the masonry is different in one room than the other, for instance. I also love your willingness to admit how flawed and biased some of the prevailing views in academia can be as well. Whole dominant and respected schools of thought in so many different areas of history and science have just been dead wrong and harmful with their wrongness and we need to acknowledge that while still strongly considering their evidence and adhering to scientific and self critical methods of investigation (and not just saying "all opinions are equal maybe it was bigfoots")
The graffiti and trash being littered is just as infuriating to me. It’s crazy to see graffiti inside and outside the pyramids even in the 1st photos of it, the same goes with some very historically significant places in Israel. Some of the graffiti almost certainly comes from the locals who grew up around these magnificent places which is crazy because you’d think they’d be the ones with the most respect for the place.
I notice the roof of the tunnel has notches in it like they had to cut a Chanel to allow the removal of goods that where to big to fit through freely... hummm Great narration very easy to understand. AWSOME subject 👌 😀 👏 👍
As I keep going through your videos I keep being amazed at the breadth of information, when we eventually visit the pyramids it will be nice to mention some of what I have learned from you and impress my family 😉 Once again thank you for your impressive work and sharing this with us, your findings and thoughts are gold to us pyramid enthusiasts.
Perhaps it was not actually looting but Government work crews performing state sanctioned reaquisition of Royal valuables. Would it have been possible for robbers to break in unnoticed with thier digging equipment and obvious tunnel rubble. Maybe there was a statute of limitations on tomb valuables? Really interesting channel, thank you!
Just randomly stumbled upon your channel today by sheer coincidence. I just want to sincerely thank you for being one of the only people on RUclips making content on Ancient Egypt and the Pyramids that isn't New Age 'woo' bs. So refreshing to click on a video about the pyramids and not clicking off after 2 mins when I realize it's just conspiracy theory clickbait.
Are there 3D models of the interior of the pyramids that we can zoom around and look at ? Sometimes I have a hard time following the diagrams and images. This channel is absolutely fantastic, by the way, loving it.
I seem to remember finding one a long time ago. I think they exist, but you may have to do some googling. Maybe ask ChatGP? Seems like a good use for AI.
Jean-Pierre Houdin made a 3D model using Dassault Systems CAD - the project named "Khufu Reborn". There used to be a interactive 3D viewer (with narration) available for download and freely roaming about the model, but unfortunately the site seems to have been abandoned. Here is a YT video that is a recording of that viewer.
These videos are fantastic. Your logical approach to this information is so refreshing and far more interesting than the typical accepted history. It is so disappointing how much modern Egyptology ignores physical evidence and refuses to consider any information that differs from their "definitive" narrative. Keep up the great work. 👍
Again I like your original observation approach .. combined with infill from the historical record .. haha and the channel name enforces the idea that we shouldn't take History we have been taught for granted .. because fresh-eye approach encourages us to see what was been in front of us all along! Thank you! Insightful!
Good video. I was wondering if there were any tool markings in the tunnels that might indicate directionality of progress to support the theory of working from 2 ends and meeting in the middle.
It's a good question, but with so much enlargement and renovation over the centuries you would need a very comprehensive examination to be confident in the analysis.
@@HistoryforGRANITE As you said in the video, it is a reasonable presumption that over the years any enlargement of the original looters' tunnel was done by lowering its floor, leaving the roof as originally excavated. To do otherwise would have been foolishly reckless. Even a very quick examination of tool marks on the roof should therefore be quite telling of the directionality of original excavation. Comprehensive examination might not be necessary to confirm your directionality theory.
@@HistoryforGRANITE Has anyone ever thought on why only Khufu's and Menkaure's pyramids display 8 sided construction but not Khafre's?!!... can it give some clues on their constructions methods?!!
@@dravidakumar1697 I studied this in engineering school - the facets on the four sides (creating eight surfaces) would have acted like a brace against the weight of the stones and harden the structure against earthquakes as the faceting would apply symmetrical forces on the structure. Good question as to why only two of the three Giza pyramids utilized this approach...
Brilliant deductive reasoning for the construction of the robber’s tunnel if the looters were indeed concerned about maintaining the integrity of the artifacts instead of simply stripping off the gold.
Or maybe the artifact simply couldn’t be broken up? I can think of 1 ancient artefact known to have existed that nobody in their right mind would try and break up- the Ark of the Covenant. That thing was a liability to all around it. But if you really wanted it out of that pyramid, you would put teams to work hacking the corridor larger rather than trying to take it apart! Also they say the coffer in the kings chamber would have fitted the Ark nicely.
Isn't it observable by the markings in or from which direction the rocks in the robber tunnel were chipped/chiseled to determine single or double approach?
While this is a wonderful video, like all of yours, it is more than a little melancholy seeing how the robbers got past everything to loot the pyramid, and I suspect destroy the mummy of Khufu . Just wish that one Old Kingdom royal burial was left intact . Still, it is fascinating, to see how this was done, and I salute your efforts, trying to figure this out . I also like how you steer between the more “speculative” people, and the more pat explanations of some Egyptologists . I’ve been interested in Egypt since I was a kid, and watching your videos, I am learning things that I never knew . Thanks !
The "Great Pyramid" was never a tomb & it was not built by Khufu. It is a form of energy generator. It is likely way older than 4500 yrs. All Egyptian Royal tombs are full of illustrations & hieroglyfics depicting the life of the entombed & the journey to the afterlife. There are none in any Egyptian pyramid.
@@carolcamp4828 Then we can reasonably expect to find considerably more evidence for the devices the energy was used to power. Tell us when you find some. That would be considerably easier than a study of the magnetic alignment of the dust particles in the loose-fill between the stones in the pyramid itself. That presumes the power generated was electricity and the magnetic persistence of those same particles has not changed since the power source was shut down. But why stop there? That same effect would (maybe) be seen in the ground around the pyramids. Anything other than N-S and you have a clue. I read several articles that suggested that the underground arrangement of the underground tunnels was a giant ram-pump. Another good example of something that looks like something that isn't and never was. The lack of hieroglyphics mean what exactly? Remember that Egypt fell to the Arabs around the year 620. And they were Muslim in the most enthusiastic form. The images of living things would have been an anathema to them and the complete removal of all they could find would be an act of faith. Similarly, ostentatious tombs would (still are for some) something to be avoided so, the removal of the pyramids incumbent would have been seen as perfectly normal. That much has not changed: Khorsabad, The winged bulls at Nineveh, Mosque of The Prophet Younis (Jonah's Tomb), Nimrud, Mosul museum, Hatra, Mari, Tell Ajaja and Tell Brak and many more. Cemeteries were also routinly despoiled where the graves did not meet strict Islamic standards. All that in the past 20 years alone. Do remember also that there was even an attempt to dismantle them entirely, not just for building materials but, because they were considered unclean.
Nothing wrong with plundering graves, a grave is merely an extension of man's narscism and inability to cope with the fact that life ends one day, in this particular case at an unfathomable scale. It is unfortunate that we still collectively form a circle jerk around any form of "royalty", ancient or modern. The pyramids, as grand as they are, were nothing more than monuments to greed and manipulation of masses through religion and legislation. Khufu himself was almost certainly a power hungry egomaniac, so it's quite fitting his grave was probably "plundered" by the priests who laid him to rest.
A deserved like given before I watched the video - as always a great research and attention to details, I look forward to all the upcoming videos man and be safe and keep up the good work 🍻
I say the robbers tunnel was set there during construction. No one can randomly burrow an hole in that perfect path of angle to where it meets the ascending tunnel and meet perfectly. The lower face of construction is so big to know where to tunnel exact to that point of meeting the ascending passage.
Brilliant! You got it! That tunnel was dug from both ends into the middle where the ‘meeting’ of the two teams came about. By god, I’ll bet there was some beer drank that day. What an awful job hacking through solid rock. That’s likely a BIG reason why they halved the working time for both parties. It was the only way to do it.
I like the analysis that the robbers' tunnel was dug after the initial intrusion as a way to remove items. But I question whether the value of the grave goods would be enough to compensate all that work and risk. I speculate that the diggers weren't robbing, but were recovering the mummy for reburial. In that case, they need a way to extract the mummy without damage --- c.f. robbing grave goods for their bullion value where breaking them up works --- and the reduced number of twists and turns makes the "robbers'" passage worth the work.
Chuck(rip),Ben,and Jimmy would no doubt agree with the presentation you've given and egyptologists probably scoff and harumpf in critique boasting their diluted belief of superior intelligence. Good job sir!!!,common sense is strong in you.!
The Great Pyramid is fascinating, there are so many chambers and tunnels compared to other pyramids in it. And there is evidence there might still be more... From the things we can see today, I understand, that the builders were aware, that people would try to plunder the pyramid, else they wouldn't have plugged the corridor in several locations. And I understand that in the kings chamber there must have been something valuable, quite big in size, so it was worth the effort to dig a tunnel to get it out of the pyramid. Now, maybe that is the whole story, the king's treasures and his mummy were looted... but why didn't the builders conceal the entrance to the passage to the burial chamber and just plugged it with granite blocks? I like the imagination, that it was done as a bait for robbers and the entrance to the real burial site is still concealed behind some limestone blocks somewhere in the pyramid. Maybe somewhere below the queen's chamber, as some suggests. That is at least, what I had done. As soon as the robbers found something, they thought to be looking for, no one would search anymore and the pharao could stay in his tomb forever. I would have built a chamber close to ground level, below the queen's chamber. It would have been built very early during the construction phase, so it would be ready, just in case, and the rest of the pyramid is the decoration on top of it. With everything else build above, beeing a ruse to set robbers on a false track. It's just speculation, but I like the idea.
What if the pyramid was built to hold something more valuable and more powerful than a dead king and his treasure. What if the Hebrews went in there a stole what they called the ARK OF THE COVENANT.
I love how everything is kept logical in your videos. I'm always hesitant to click any video about pyramid construction for fear of fantastical nonsense, but your videos are exactly what I've been looking for. Between your videos and Jean-Pierre Houdin's theory, construction of the pyramids maintains plausibility without sacrificing amazement.
^^^^ THIS. "It does no harm to the mystery to know a little about it." -- Richard Feynman.
@@AlanCanon2222 I know they want to keep the sense of mystery for the sake of tourism $$$, but I think Ancient Egypt is still an unmatched cultural marvel with or without knowing everything about the pyramids.
That bend is even more proof that the tunnel was dug from both sides. When you dig a tunnel that way, you want the two halves to meet at an angle. If they are parallel, they can miss each other completely. By digging them at an angle, you force them to meet (as any two lines on a plane that are not parallel must meet).
Nice
This works if you are thinking in 2 dimensions, i.e. just the horizontal, but remember this has to work in 3 dimensions. If they worked from both sides, how would they get the vertical axis right too? The tunnel would have to start at exactly the same level to begin with and then not deviate up or down.
@@IfUfindthisURlost The vertical axis is easy. Water levels have been used for thousands of years for tunnels, some even over distances of several kilometres.
And with the pyramids, it's even easier, as they could simply rely on the existing layers. When you dig in one specific layer, you're basically in 2D.
@@HenryLoenwind I had discounted them counting the layers, for while it works to stay at the same height working from one side, if you worked from both sides, you would both have to start at the same layer. I don't see how the party digging from inside the pyramid, out, would know they were at the same layer as the outside. Once in the entrance passage, they have no way of judging which corresponding layer they are at, because the walls of this passage are dressed and therefore give no indication as to the layers that run through the pyramid. (If that makes sense).
@@IfUfindthisURlost Im sure that the access they had to the rest of the pyramid would give them a way to measure their height in relation to the outside. Just off the top of my head I would be able to come up with something. If they measured with a rope, careful to take into account the angle of the passages, they would be able to roughly model the height needed to start at and estimate which layer they should pick. Also access to the bedrock gives them a reference point. Its also safe to say that they could have just estimated from line of sight. They weren't digging in one go so along the way they would have been able to compare each end of the tunnel to make sure they were on the right track. They also might not have dug the tunnel as large at first. They could have expanded it once the two sides met up. Also once they were at the filler it would have been much easier to look at the layers and potentially see depth based purely on the shape of each block.
I have dreamed of going Giza since I was maybe 9 years old. I was 53 in 2017 when we went to Egypt and Jordan. An awe-inspiring trip. Looking forward to watching your videos!!
Valley of the Kings 😮 .. what was that like? 🏴
I started following your channel just by coincidence, but I must say, I am blown away. You do actual research, investigate, gather evidence, THINK, conclude, re-think, re-conclude and make your videos. Not 2 x per day 20 minutes each for maximum attention w*oring - but ONLY when you have something to say.
I've been to the great pyramid a few times, lucky enough even being the only visitor at times, and I'm 100% certain that building something like that as only a tomb would make NO SENSE. So many details in the great pyramid speak against usage as a tomb. There is still a lot going on in the pyramid behind the scenes, every time I go there, I notice that something has been dug up - closed - moved - dug some more - cleaned - fixed - etc. The Egyptians are absolutely full on it to find something major.
I'm actually hoping, someone would start up a historical archive on the pyramids, displaying tourist photos over the years. So much changes all the time. And I'm sure, all those pictures would help you too A LOT, Mr. History for Granite. The locals know SO MUCH more than they share with us. Or at least search more than they let us know.
God bless you, I'm following your videos with HUGE interest. Archeology in the making.
Every other pyramid was a tomb
Fantastic work, keep it up! Your detailed analsis is great and I'm glad I could help you with my rare video footage of the robber's tunnel. Thanks for the shout out and directing people to my channel. 🙏 Looking forward to seeing more from this channel.
The skepticism and attention to detail required to study the pyramids is astounding
Cave surveyor from Kentucky here. Love this series, and how it's 100% free of Alien Astronaut theories, just reviewing evidence and making informed speculation, which is carefully tagged as such. In the Mammoth Cave System, we're dealing with a 100% natural feature, with 4,000 years worth of exploration and artifacts to study and puzzle out. The cave draws us in with its mysteries, and the wonderful thing is, through science and engineering we can actually solve those mysteries. Seems like those who explore the pyramids, although they're 100% artificial, must feel similar emotions.
Your videos are too interesting, I keep having "wait a second" moments and have to rewind to process it. Either I'm getting too old or your videos are absolutely outstanding.
I thought the same, but I think a few charts to illustrate his thought process on some of his rather lengthy chaining of ideas would better help viewers follow along without several rewindings...
I like these videos before i watch them. Some of the best content knowledge and information on ancient times you can find.
The Al Mamun corridor is a narrow corridor built in 2500 BC but later enlarged.
The internal architecture of this pyramid is probably technical.
Sincerely jmc and bonjour from France.
I was in all Pyramids, all rooms and all places you have schown in this video. I was even in the releafing chambers, but today you blew my mind my man.
This must be even more fascinating if you've seen the structures: it's tough to get my bearing just via photos.
Oh wow you must know a lot of things and have items that are knowledgeable about things that schow you things like the leaves in the chambers
You always have very logic explanations and theories. Your level of detail searching is out of this world and i love how you always easily can find a more reasonable and more logic explanation!
Great work! Keep it up! :)
i love how you turn complicated and seemingly conflicting information into an easily digestible 20 min video. Very good job :D
Traduzir ou espanhol ou português Brasil ok
I think it was first broken in to at the first opportunity, in other words at the time of the first breakdown of protective state authority for the pyramid. That would have been at the end of the old kingdom about 300 years after the building of the pyramid. I think the robbers knew the interior layout of the pyramid because the thousands who built it would have proudly passed on that knowledge to their children. I think knowledge of the pyramid's interior would have been a source of pride for every family that new it.
Possibly even before that. A number of seemingly intact tombs have been discovered empty of anything valuable, and with no apparent forced entry. The conclusion drawn there is that the very priests who laid them to rest took everything out again before actually sealing up the tomb. The oldest pyramid might actually have even been robbed to furnish the interior of the next, with the guards being the ones responsible.
@@rianfelis3156 - I've always tried to give the priests the benefit of the doubt and think that possibly they were trying to maintain a cult and temples that had gone out of popularity and sold off the treasures a bit at a time to make ends meet. They could easily have been displayed and then tucked away until required. A few centuries of that would account for a lot. Cynical, but keeps the business going. There were at least some priests trying to preserve the royal mummies by hiding them even if that was the best they could do, centuries after the Pharaoh's deaths and long after anyone else cared what happened to them. The Pharaohs certainly weren't above stealing each other's treasures either.
Knowing the interior layout is different than knowing exact tunnelling coordinates. So then after that knowledge of the exact interior coordinates of the pyramid was lost after that Time of Troubles? And still having been passed down for at most, I suppose, 300 years, would still be quite a feat! I think Khafre looted it.
It's a plausible theory, but it would only relate to the particular tomb that that family was involved with. Wouldn't it?.
@@scottzema3103 coordinates are easily followed by the grid the blocks are laid in.
I love this channel… it’s so refreshing to listen to the narrator attempt to uncover mysteries using rational thought and logic to come up with a reasonable explanation… unlike idiotic channels like UnchartedX or Brian Forster…
Great Video.
It mostly matched the information we were told decades ago about the tunnel being made to remove a heavy object incapable of being taken up a slope.
Great introspection.
Easily my favorite new channel.
Subscribed.
Keep up the great work.
they found something BIG that they really wanted, and did not want to brake it down and bring out pieces, it's amazing that it's lost to history or still hidden.
They probably wanted to take the lid to the carcophogus back with them, because there wasn't anything else in there. What do you think the black stone in the center of Mecca is?
@@LarsLarsen77 that is a lot of work for a heavy stone lid, unless it was Gold
@@LarsLarsen77 Isn't it part of a meteorite?
L
Been looking forward to this new episode. This channel is amazing 👏
Never so glad, I stumbled onto an excellent channel by accident. A great job as always.
Anybody else watch these videos at least twice?
Absolutely brilliant, as always. Watched it twice already 👏👏👏👏
Awww shucks, you're gonna make me blush!
ouch called me out @19:00ish
mad love
These videos on Egypt and its ancient civilization are always interesting to just about everyone.
Fascinating story! I truly wish average adults were able to organize their thoughts and present their arguments so briefly, cogently, and succinctly.
Many thanks!
Like given before the video started... Watching the video, I can say it's a very linear and clear explanation (Ockham's Razor style), plus I enjoyed the usual clarity on tables and figures (I LOVE the tables from Dormion's book and Maragioglio/Rinaldi's older text).
Great job, again!!!
Great breakdown. I'd heard the theory that the robbers tunnel was an exit before, but never the idea that it had been dug from both ends. Definitely food for thought!
Robbed? You'd have assume there was something to rob before claiming being robbed, wouldn't you? Moron.
From both ends for another reason. They, the people digging from the inside, would have had less material to transport outside, other wise they would either get stuck in the material they were digging, or they would have to transport it outside thought the descending corridor/entrance which in this case would be ascending...
@@roberthak3695 they didn't have to take rubble from the tunnel out of the pyramid, there's hundreds of feet of empty corridor below to dump rubble in. they already would have known the lower chamber was empty, and therrefore they didn't need to keep it accessible while removing the portculis blocks and later excavating the tunnel.
Thank you so much for being the logical/rational Egyptologist on YT.
See also ruclips.net/video/C_TxoE6T0Ng/видео.html
This channel is a breath of fresh air among the vast majority of the crazy ass , lame brain, conspiracy laced, pyramid related channels. This is the place I run to first when the numbing stupidity of conspiratorial mouth breathers has got me down. Your calm logical presentation is soothing, and give hope that insanity will not rule out
The builders of the Great pyramid were not stupid. The kings chamber might just turn out to be a red herring and the real tomb still remains hidden
Love the idea of the two tunnels meeting it the middle and that's why there's a bend! Makes sense!
I'm convinced the pyramid was robbed long before Al mamun, who knows what was in there? At least the lid of the sarcophagus, along with many other treasures. Thank you for the video!
I can't imagine someone being able to dig through all of that, let alone not being afraid of the whole thing collapsing on them. And it seems like it would take "forever" to dig through all of that.
Great new video. I like the way that you approach the topic in a forensic manor like a crime scence analysis - actually it was a crime scene!
We'll definitely circle back to who the likely culprits were at some point - there's a fun lesson in human nature and some interesting questions that arise from it.
Keep up the great work mate, all your videos are so fascinating and refreshing.
All your videos are so informative and well done. Your efforts are truly appreciated.
Fast follow up from the other video, thanks for not making us wait long, I've been excited for this one!!!!
Big fan,keep up the great videos,your videos are quickly becoming the gold standard
😀 Your vid gives quite a good sense of ‘being there’, and i’m very impressed with your discernments and conclusions, but also, I can’t get away from my nagging thoughts of ‘just how much rubble, etc., has been interfered with during the past’, and also, if all the wooden ‘visitor’ steps and ramps were removed, the interiors would look very different and be much less navigable. Having worked in stone, my mind has a hard time visualising people ‘wrecking’ a structure that they’re inside of, due to the risk of ‘life’, so thanks for your similar thoughts pointing this out. Nice work, well done. 😀
Your mentioning the mortar usage is interesting, I have a feeling that mortar usage in ancient Egyptian monuments is vastly misunderstood, or just not plainly unknown by the public at large; an idea for a future videos, perhaps?
I have been looking at pictures of the pyramids my entire life, and I am over 50, and the size still makes no sense to my brain. They are just MASSIVE. It almost doesn't seem real. I can't be alone on that right? Just amazing.
It boggles the mind how big they are. You can stand at their base and look up in disbelief for over half an hour and still not process the gigantic size of them.
I always look forwards to your new videos! Another excellent one!
The robbers tunnel entrance always left questions to me: How could a hole on the outside of the pyramid remain unseen during its original excavation ?? Your theories on different excavators at different times raises the possibilities that "Party 0" was discovered and the hole left unfixed for decades or centuries. Therefore making the hole on the outside of the pyramid less obvious as it's been left forgotten in plain sight for generations making "Party 1" less conspicuous, if they made a tunnel that joined the tunnel of "Party 0" that was known to led to the hole on the outside of the pyramid.
Obviously digging signatures may now have all been lost to show if different techniques were used in each tunnel section, or at different times
Thank You for raising new theories. Before your analysis, I had never thought of robber tunnels meeting at a junction point within the pyramid.
People were not allowed to be near that place so a canvas stretched on a wooden frame could be used as door and if you properly painted it then you would need modern binoculars to spoot it...
You can also threw out rubble at night. But most likely the guards were also taking part in that crime.
I also expect that the robbers got access to a model of the pyramid internal design, stuff like that is used even nowdays and it would most likely be left for future generations to be amazed how well made, amazing and smart was the whole construction...
@@Bialy_1 Some researchers believe that so called Trial Passages are in fact the pyramid internal design model ( not far away from the pyramid itself).
I agree, the 'robbers' tunnel was accomplished from excavating from both directions. The clues are there. The deduction of its construction allowing for extraction of larger objects is then obvious. It is amazing that we really don't know who or when the looting took place.
Valuable large objects of gold would be a liability to both keep and get rid of- presuming it was robbers and not another later pharaoh who took it. Therefore gold and gems would readily have been broken up and carried out? Anyone would rather do that than dig through metres of solid rock, which it seems the robbers did? Therefore the object they wanted to get out must have HAD to be kept in one piece at all costs. I can think of only 1 known artefact from ancient times that nobody, absolutely nobody would want to tamper with, and that is the Ark of the Covenant. It was highly dangerous to all around it by all accounts. No one would ever break that into pieces to take out. If it was the Ark, then it would have been revered as the work of god, and possibly placed in the pyramid during construction. Just a thought anyway.
@@TheGreatest1974 / well that’s a novel theory i’ve never heard before
@@leland818 the kings chamber sarcophagus is said to be the same internal size as the Ark of the Covenant.
@@TheGreatest1974 If it was made from a solid metal then you could not chop it into pieces inside with ancient tools... also the story about liability that you presenting here is fine for modern times and kinda silly for ancient times with no photos, TV or books with printed pictures of the artefacts... Who would be able to identify an artefacts that was hiden from human eyes for 50 years?! And why not take that stuff to some other kingdom and sell it there?!
And the Ark of the Covenant was propably made after this robbery took place and most likely was nothing alike the one from The Indiana Jones movie...
@@Bialy_1 it wasn’t ‘solid metal’ it was a wooden box covered in gold. And the Ark is described in the bible exactly how it was made- with the measurements etc.
Keeping your orientation and the deductions feasible in that morass is most impressive
Very refreshing to see someone who's actually a relevant expert, weighing in on these issues. Keep up the great work!
Keep in mind that the earliest version of the Al-Ma’mun story was written about 200 years after he supposedly broke into the pyramid and there are a couple of different versions. It's debatable that it happened the way it was described. Certainly the Robber's Entrance might have predatedAl-Ma’mun. In Greco-Roman times people were inside the pyramid all the time, although only to the lower chamber and the original door was easy enough to find. There's certainly a lot of room for doubt about who got to the upper chambers first.
I am with you on the age of the "robber's" tunnel ... the 832 AD account sounds more like discovery than actual digging excavation. They quite possibly could of dug out and cleared the tunnel and embellished that in their record. Why I quoted "robbers" is if the pyramid was was abandon, and you used this term describing the middle period, I think "robbery" is too strong a word... if it's abandon it's open for plunder as so many did in recent centuries. Thank you for a fascinating analysis... you are a very clear thinker.
The best of the narrated videos you’ve put out so far
I’m so glad I found this channel. I’m going thru a little pyramid phase right now (will be in Egypt in December!).
I can't get enough of these videos
Wow I wasn’t aware of the vertical dig next to the plugs.
Yes, there may very well be an untouched burial chamber inside. One that no one would ever be able to access unless you disassembled the Great Pyramid stone by gigantic monolithic stone. The entire pyramid would have to be taken apart to find any hidden chamber inaccessible to anyone. Due to the sheer weight of the stones.
Interesting thoughts. It strikes me odd that the big prize had to wait 3 thousand years to get looted, especially as it seemed there were determined people in antiquity who were capable and many subsequent invaders and rulers who might also have a eye to plunder.
To bypass the portcullis system suggests insider knowledge, the portcullis system being somewhat weird also. To lift them isn’t so tough unless they are locked.
Really enjoy this channel, it’s so tough to get a grip on deep history as all we have is what they left us.
There was writing on the limestone blocks covering the pyramids, perhaps there were clues there that the early Arabs were able to pick up on, though I doubt they could read ancient Egyptian.
@@whiteeagle6370 yes my understanding to.
I believe a historian, possibly Herodotus spoke of four languages visible, however I fear it could have been a fashionable addition from a later kingdom.
This man is a genius! All his videos make a whole lot of sense. Please do the Osiron & Zayat El Aryan & the Osirus shaft next!
Please note a portcullis mechanism is designed to be ‘raised’ as well as lowered.You would never go to the effort of installing them unless you meant to raise them .Otherwise blocking stones would be far easier and far more permanent.
Also note in the New Kingdom we have priests writing instructing workers to loot burial chambers ( ie recycle the grave goods).It’s possible that was happening from the earliest times.
I note in king Tut’s grave goods is a throne/ chair that belonged to his father.Wouldn’t his father have wanted that buried with him? Recycled? Gold is rare stuff!
Ha ha like flowers in churches for weddings or funerals x)
Gold may be rare but chairs were gilded with gold leaf and at only fractions of a millimetre thick gold leaf is worth very little.
@@teeanahera8949 You mean like Trumps golden commode? The weight and cost of a solid gold toilet is ridiculous. To say nothing of support underneath. Obviously guilded. Or if porcelain were coated with silver solution ( an old lab arts technique for low temp soldering to glass) then it should be posible to electroplate gold onto porcelain, glass, ceramic etc. There's also vapor deposition such as in electronics.
Makes sense that they would reuse stuff. It's not the value, it's the workmanship and time. Why have it sitting there forever when it could be reused but you wonder why it was left there in the end.
Your theory simply contradicts itself... so why Tut's father chair/throne was left in Tut's grave but not in his father grave?!
Tut could have this throne/chair from his father or it was a memento of his father that reminded him of him...
Its to easy to forget how long ago that was and for how many generations this system worked fine before it colapsed and robbery was easy...
Occams razor: They didn't make the tunnels large enough to transport stolen goods out of the pyramid because there where none.
They had Indiana hawass doing the dirty work behind the scenes for VIP pirates so let's hope there's something left worth finding.
love the channel, I've been looking forward to this video!
Brilliant channel, great video as always
Grabbing popcorn now! This will be great!
Love your channel amazing content man can't get enough
This is fantastic information. When my time machine finally comes online, I'll know exactly how to rob the pyrimid. I never take my. . . . history for granite.
Your channel is wonderfully insightive and inspirational!
Amazing, well structured presentation. Thank you for your work 👏👏👏
Fascinating analysis and you answered my questions as soon as I asked them. Great stuff. You could usefully do a review of Jean Pierre Houdin's theory of construction to see if the predictions stand up to your level of scrutiny. I can't stop wondering about that block in the wall behind the sarcophagus in the king's chamber which could be a corridor plug. If plugging material was granite, a good way to hide corridor plugs is to make the walls of the same material meaning no lines of material weakness to exploit as with the ascending corridor plugs.
When were all the Hieroglyphics stolen? The idea that the dynastic Egyptians built the great pyramid is nothing shy of stupid....
@@mrrooster4876 what on earth are you talking about?
Mr. Houdin's theories make the mistake I believe of trying to make much more of the construction techniques for the pyramid than they warrant (and he is certainly not at the top of the list when it comes to outlandishness). The muon experiments showed where the voids in the pyramid were and no amount of theorizing or elaborating can conceal the fact that the pyramid was not built with ramps, exterior or interior (except for one , perpendicular to the structure to the abandoned entry from the desert floor which was necessary to build the damn structure and haul EVERYTHING into the pyramid, from workers to big stones and including visiting living pharaohs. One thing that Mr. Houdin seems to have gotten right, and its an important discovery supported by evidence, that the Grand Gallery was the home of a mechanical mechanism that moved stones upwards and into the pyramid. One thing that Dr. Hawass and he keep ignoring is that the so-called abandoned entry was the TRUE entry to the pyramid, and until this fact is accepted people will continue to struggle with the layout of the pyramid and its functionality.
Absurd premises underlie your theory!
⁶6
Very informative and logical presentation. Thumbs up !
Wow. A great topic. I haven't seen a video like yours before. A ++++
I've been anxiously awaiting for this video! Thanks very very much for this! One of my favorite subjects ever, your insights are just amazing! Just can't get enough. Have an awesome weekend!
Awesome analysis.
New subscriber. I really appreciate your analysis and even I can understand a lot of what you say. Thanks.
I would love to know why even to this day, the ORIGINAL ENTRANCE tunnel has never been opened, excavated nor investigated by simply drilling through the block. There is no linking tunnel from anywhere else in the pyramid today- so absolutely anything could lie behind the original entrance? Unseen corridors? Previously unknown rooms or information valuable to enhancing our knowledge of the pyramid? It seems that egyptologists are not bothered one bit what’s behind the main original entrance.
Again, well done analysis from both ends. Good questions, good hypotheses.
Almost first. Great channel. I upvote before watching.
Fashionably late.
@@TheMoneypresident g’day ✌️
I would love to see a video giving a history of all the "restorations" that have been made (when, why, how), additional digging (like how the interior robber's tunnel you mention was expanded for visitors) etc. It could even go as far back to the New Kingdom and what evidence we have of renovation then but especially I"d love to see you collect and talk about all the more modern changes made together and see the patterns of reasoning/motivation etc and get an idea of how much damage this has caused, or what parts of it, if any, were actually good or necessary in some way. You have probably covered a lot or even all of it in other videos but I feel like having it all in one place could be a useful thing toward a philosophy of history/restoration.
There is a path to be walked I'm sure as allowing access to the Pyramids has aided in getting funding etc but there is also a destructive cost to that. Then there are the seemingly totally unnecessary "restorations" that attempt to recreate/rebuild something the "restorers" didn't even have certainty that they understood.
This is my first comment but I drop into your channel a lot. I was actually only vaguely interested in Egyptology and that more from a standpoint of sociopolitical structure and culture around the times they were made, but your videos have made me learn about and consider questions of engineering, masonry, etc that I never would've thought I'd find interesting (and these things actually reveal clues about the sociopolitical structures and culture as well).
I most love you willingness to both heavily criticize totally groundless and fantastical claims of fringe researchers while still acknowledging that even people operating under extremely mistaken notions can collect and provide evidence or ideas worth considering in a different context. So much of archaeology and even anthropology and social history etc make the mistakes of assuming people who believed absurd things were totally unable to contribute anything. It's a strange notion given the fact that ancient people themselves believed a host of things we know have no real connection to reality and yet were capable of feats and understanding both that in some cases teach modern minds some things. Surely a person that believes the Pyramids were built by psychic bigfoots could still make an insightful comment about how the masonry is different in one room than the other, for instance.
I also love your willingness to admit how flawed and biased some of the prevailing views in academia can be as well. Whole dominant and respected schools of thought in so many different areas of history and science have just been dead wrong and harmful with their wrongness and we need to acknowledge that while still strongly considering their evidence and adhering to scientific and self critical methods of investigation (and not just saying "all opinions are equal maybe it was bigfoots")
When you right a book I will buy it.
tomb robbing continues until this day, they are searching and robbing them as fast as they can find them
The graffiti and trash being littered is just as infuriating to me. It’s crazy to see graffiti inside and outside the pyramids even in the 1st photos of it, the same goes with some very historically significant places in Israel. Some of the graffiti almost certainly comes from the locals who grew up around these magnificent places which is crazy because you’d think they’d be the ones with the most respect for the place.
As we speak they are digging into the hidden chamber above the kings chamber.
But not digging encourages more homosexual special rights.
Should diggers stay in Mexico ?
The dead can't take it with them right?
@@Icehax1 got a source on this?
I notice the roof of the tunnel has notches in it like they had to cut a Chanel to allow the removal of goods that where to big to fit through freely... hummm
Great narration very easy to understand. AWSOME subject 👌 😀 👏 👍
As I keep going through your videos I keep being amazed at the breadth of information, when we eventually visit the pyramids it will be nice to mention some of what I have learned from you and impress my family 😉 Once again thank you for your impressive work and sharing this with us, your findings and thoughts are gold to us pyramid enthusiasts.
Oh oohhhh yes you are thankful for it
Fortunately your vids are 500% better than the name...Great work, thank you
Outstanding video as always. Thank you so much for producing such high quality and thought provoking material.
Thanks for this, really interesting, I've seen many documentaries on the pyramids, but never one looking at how this one was looted.
Perhaps it was not actually looting but Government work crews performing state sanctioned reaquisition of Royal valuables. Would it have been possible for robbers to break in unnoticed with thier digging equipment and obvious tunnel rubble. Maybe there was a statute of limitations on tomb valuables? Really interesting channel, thank you!
Just randomly stumbled upon your channel today by sheer coincidence.
I just want to sincerely thank you for being one of the only people on RUclips making content on Ancient Egypt and the Pyramids that isn't New Age 'woo' bs. So refreshing to click on a video about the pyramids and not clicking off after 2 mins when I realize it's just conspiracy theory clickbait.
Are there 3D models of the interior of the pyramids that we can zoom around and look at ? Sometimes I have a hard time following the diagrams and images. This channel is absolutely fantastic, by the way, loving it.
I seem to remember finding one a long time ago. I think they exist, but you may have to do some googling. Maybe ask ChatGP? Seems like a good use for AI.
Yes, and in the same size !
There's a link to the 3D file in a video by the "Lines in Sand" channel.
ruclips.net/video/xE39WfQRZL4/видео.html
Jean-Pierre Houdin made a 3D model using Dassault Systems CAD - the project named "Khufu Reborn". There used to be a interactive 3D viewer (with narration) available for download and freely roaming about the model, but unfortunately the site seems to have been abandoned.
Here is a YT video that is a recording of that viewer.
Great forensic analysis.
These videos are fantastic. Your logical approach to this information is so refreshing and far more interesting than the typical accepted history. It is so disappointing how much modern Egyptology ignores physical evidence and refuses to consider any information that differs from their "definitive" narrative. Keep up the great work. 👍
Again I like your original observation approach .. combined with infill from the historical record .. haha and the channel name enforces the idea that we shouldn't take History we have been taught for granted .. because fresh-eye approach encourages us to see what was been in front of us all along! Thank you! Insightful!
Good video. I was wondering if there were any tool markings in the tunnels that might indicate directionality of progress to support the theory of working from 2 ends and meeting in the middle.
It's a good question, but with so much enlargement and renovation over the centuries you would need a very comprehensive examination to be confident in the analysis.
@@HistoryforGRANITE As you said in the video, it is a reasonable presumption that over the years any enlargement of the original looters' tunnel was done by lowering its floor, leaving the roof as originally excavated. To do otherwise would have been foolishly reckless. Even a very quick examination of tool marks on the roof should therefore be quite telling of the directionality of original excavation. Comprehensive examination might not be necessary to confirm your directionality theory.
@@HistoryforGRANITE Has anyone ever thought on why only Khufu's and Menkaure's pyramids display 8 sided construction but not Khafre's?!!... can it give some clues on their constructions methods?!!
@@dravidakumar1697 I studied this in engineering school - the facets on the four sides (creating eight surfaces) would have acted like a brace against the weight of the stones and harden the structure against earthquakes as the faceting would apply symmetrical forces on the structure. Good question as to why only two of the three Giza pyramids utilized this approach...
Fascinating - great summary of what is known, logically interpreted.
Brilliant deductive reasoning for the construction of the robber’s tunnel if the looters were indeed concerned about maintaining the integrity of the artifacts instead of simply stripping off the gold.
Or maybe the artifact simply couldn’t be broken up? I can think of 1 ancient artefact known to have existed that nobody in their right mind would try and break up- the Ark of the Covenant. That thing was a liability to all around it. But if you really wanted it out of that pyramid, you would put teams to work hacking the corridor larger rather than trying to take it apart! Also they say the coffer in the kings chamber would have fitted the Ark nicely.
Enthralling and wonderful 👍
Isn't it observable by the markings in or from which direction the rocks in the robber tunnel were chipped/chiseled to determine single or double approach?
Great video. There must have been so much loot that it made it worthwhile to create the robber's tunnel. One can only imagine how much loot Kufu had.
I'd say most tombs were looted not a thousand years or even a hundred years after a burial, but more like five or ten years after.
you are a top quality giza for making this content.
While this is a wonderful video, like all of yours, it is more than a little melancholy seeing how the robbers got past everything to loot the pyramid, and I suspect destroy the mummy of Khufu . Just wish that one Old Kingdom royal burial was left intact . Still, it is fascinating, to see how this was done, and I salute your efforts, trying to figure this out . I also like how you steer between the more “speculative” people, and the more pat explanations of some Egyptologists . I’ve been interested in Egypt since I was a kid, and watching your videos, I am learning things that I never knew . Thanks !
It is not obvious to me that any mummies were ever present in this pyramid, or any pyramid
The "Great Pyramid" was never a tomb & it was not built by Khufu. It is a form of energy generator. It is likely way older than 4500 yrs. All Egyptian Royal tombs are full of illustrations & hieroglyfics depicting the life of the entombed & the journey to the afterlife. There are none in any Egyptian pyramid.
@@carolcamp4828 Then we can reasonably expect to find considerably more evidence for the devices the energy was used to power. Tell us when you find some. That would be considerably easier than a study of the magnetic alignment of the dust particles in the loose-fill between the stones in the pyramid itself. That presumes the power generated was electricity and the magnetic persistence of those same particles has not changed since the power source was shut down. But why stop there? That same effect would (maybe) be seen in the ground around the pyramids. Anything other than N-S and you have a clue.
I read several articles that suggested that the underground arrangement of the underground tunnels was a giant ram-pump. Another good example of something that looks like something that isn't and never was.
The lack of hieroglyphics mean what exactly? Remember that Egypt fell to the Arabs around the year 620. And they were Muslim in the most enthusiastic form. The images of living things would have been an anathema to them and the complete removal of all they could find would be an act of faith. Similarly, ostentatious tombs would (still are for some) something to be avoided so, the removal of the pyramids incumbent would have been seen as perfectly normal.
That much has not changed: Khorsabad, The winged bulls at Nineveh, Mosque of The Prophet Younis (Jonah's Tomb), Nimrud, Mosul museum, Hatra, Mari, Tell Ajaja and Tell Brak and many more. Cemeteries were also routinly despoiled where the graves did not meet strict Islamic standards. All that in the past 20 years alone.
Do remember also that there was even an attempt to dismantle them entirely, not just for building materials but, because they were considered unclean.
@@carolcamp4828 Have you been hitting the bong?
Nothing wrong with plundering graves, a grave is merely an extension of man's narscism and inability to cope with the fact that life ends one day, in this particular case at an unfathomable scale.
It is unfortunate that we still collectively form a circle jerk around any form of "royalty", ancient or modern. The pyramids, as grand as they are, were nothing more than monuments to greed and manipulation of masses through religion and legislation. Khufu himself was almost certainly a power hungry egomaniac, so it's quite fitting his grave was probably "plundered" by the priests who laid him to rest.
A deserved like given before I watched the video - as always a great research and attention to details, I look forward to all the upcoming videos man and be safe and keep up the good work 🍻
I say the robbers tunnel was set there during construction. No one can randomly burrow an hole in that perfect path of angle to where it meets the ascending tunnel and meet perfectly. The lower face of construction is so big to know where to tunnel exact to that point of meeting the ascending passage.
Brilliant! You got it! That tunnel was dug from both ends into the middle where the ‘meeting’ of the two teams came about. By god, I’ll bet there was some beer drank that day. What an awful job hacking through solid rock. That’s likely a BIG reason why they halved the working time for both parties. It was the only way to do it.
I like the analysis that the robbers' tunnel was dug after the initial intrusion as a way to remove items. But I question whether the value of the grave goods would be enough to compensate all that work and risk. I speculate that the diggers weren't robbing, but were recovering the mummy for reburial. In that case, they need a way to extract the mummy without damage --- c.f. robbing grave goods for their bullion value where breaking them up works --- and the reduced number of twists and turns makes the "robbers'" passage worth the work.
One thing that gets overlooked...
Do the tooling marks look like they where going in, or going out?
Clearly on the outside mate 😂😂😂
Chuck(rip),Ben,and Jimmy would no doubt agree with the presentation you've given and egyptologists probably scoff and harumpf in critique boasting their diluted belief of superior intelligence.
Good job sir!!!,common sense is strong in you.!
The Great Pyramid is fascinating, there are so many chambers and tunnels compared to other pyramids in it. And there is evidence there might still be more... From the things we can see today, I understand, that the builders were aware, that people would try to plunder the pyramid, else they wouldn't have plugged the corridor in several locations. And I understand that in the kings chamber there must have been something valuable, quite big in size, so it was worth the effort to dig a tunnel to get it out of the pyramid.
Now, maybe that is the whole story, the king's treasures and his mummy were looted... but why didn't the builders conceal the entrance to the passage to the burial chamber and just plugged it with granite blocks? I like the imagination, that it was done as a bait for robbers and the entrance to the real burial site is still concealed behind some limestone blocks somewhere in the pyramid. Maybe somewhere below the queen's chamber, as some suggests. That is at least, what I had done. As soon as the robbers found something, they thought to be looking for, no one would search anymore and the pharao could stay in his tomb forever.
I would have built a chamber close to ground level, below the queen's chamber. It would have been built very early during the construction phase, so it would be ready, just in case, and the rest of the pyramid is the decoration on top of it. With everything else build above, beeing a ruse to set robbers on a false track. It's just speculation, but I like the idea.
This is how humans would tackle this issue 100%, misdirection
I agree with you. There must be more to it than meets the collective eye.
What if the pyramid was built to hold something more valuable and more powerful than a dead king and his treasure. What if the Hebrews went in there a stole what they called the ARK OF THE COVENANT.