THE PYRAMIDS' CHAMBERS

THE PYRAMIDS' CHAMBERS

Chambers and passageways detected by sophisticated seismograph and ground penetrating radar equipment in the last few years established the accuracy of the plans. Egypt is also successfully using sophisticated satellites to identify sites buried beneath the surface at Giza and other locations. The novel tracking system was launched at the begin-ning of 1998 and the location of 27 unexcavated sites in five areas was precisely determined. Nine of those sites are on Luxor's east bank and the others are in Giza, Abu Rawash, Saqqara and Dashur. The printouts of the Giza area show an almost incomprehensible mass of net-like tunnels and chambers crisscrossing the area, intersecting and entwining each other like latticework extending out across the entire plateau.

With the space surveillance project, Egyptologists are able to determine the location of a major site, its probable entrance and the size of chambers before starting excavations. Particular attention is being focused on three secret locations: an area in the desert a few hundred metres west/southwest of the original location of the Black Pyramid, around which is currently being built a massive system of con- crete walls seven metres high covering eight square kilometres; the ancient highway that linked the Luxor temple with Karnak; and the "Way of Horus" across northern Sinai.

Among the mystics or members of Egyptian mystery schools, tradition explained that the Great Pyramid was great in many ways. Despite the fact that it was not entered until the year 820, the secret schools of pre-Christian Egypt insisted that the interior layout was well known to them. They constantly claimed that it was not a tomb nor a burial chamber of any kind, except that it did have one chamber for symbolic burial as part of an initiation ritual.
According to mystical traditions, the interior was entered gradually and in various stages via underground passageways . Different chambers were said to have existed at the end of each phase of progress, with the highest and ultimate initiatory stage represented by the now-called King's Chamber .
Little by little, the traditions of the mystery schools were verified by archaeological discoveries, for it was ascertained in 1935 that there was a subterranean connection between the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid and that a tunnel connected the Sphinx to the ancient temple located on its southern side (today called the Temple of the Sphinx).

As Emile Baraize's massive 11-year sand and seashell clearing project neared completion in 1935, remarkable stories started to emerge about discoveries made during the clearing project. A magazine article, written and published in 1935 by Hamilton M. Wright, dealt with an extraordinary discovery under the sands of Giza that is today denied. The article was accompanied by original photographs provided by Dr Selim Hassan, the leader of the scientific investigative team from the University of Cairo who made the discovery. It said: We have discovered a subway used by the ancient Egyptians of 5000 years ago. It passes beneath the causeway leading between the second Pyramid and the Sphinx. It provides a means of pqssing under the causeway from the Cheops Pyramid to the Pyramid of Chephren [Khephren] . From this subway, we have unearthed a series of shafts leading down more than 125 feet, with roomy courts and side chambers.Around the same time, the international news media released further details of the find.