Egypt Pyramid: Queen and King Chambers

The Queen's Chamber

Mr. Greaves said, " Leaving the 'well, and going on straight upon a levell, the distance of fifteen feet, we entred another square passage. This leadeth into an arched vault, or little chamber; which, by reason it was of a grave-like smell, and halfo full of rubbage, occasioned my lesser stay. This chamber stands east and west, the length of it is lesse than twenty feet, the breadth about seventeen, and the height lesse than fifteen. The walls are entire, and plastered over with lime ; the roof is covered with large smooth stones, not lying flat, but shelving,
and meeting above in a kind of Arch, or rather an Angle."

Norden, in 1737, saw it " half filled with stones." Maillet had before remarked the forcible entry, and that "stones broken, and drawn from that place, still fill now almost all the capacity of the chamber." He noticed the roof was " made like an ass's back." He refers to the niche on the east side, three feet in the wall, "and of the height of eight upon three feet," the space sufficient for the queen's coffin. Eichardson, sixty years ago, spoke of it in the north-east corner, and like the queen's closet, or dressing-room. Both were empty, and not lined with granite.

This niche is not in the middle of the wall. One describes it as 15 feet high, and two cubits broad, gradually contracted by short offsets, from 65 inches wide at the bottom to 25-3 at the top. Two channels there looked like the air-holes of the other Chamber, but were sealed up. When broken through, the space was horizontal for 7 feet, and then turned north and south at the angle 32°. They might have been for acoustic purposes.

Mr. VVaynman Dixon tested them by smoke, which was not to be detected outside. A rounded granite ball, supposed a Mina weight, being 8825 grains, was taken from the northern channel. Some speak of the Chamber as seven.sided. From the base of the pyramid to the floor of this room is 67 feet 4 inches. The area is 1 8f by 1 7 feet. The height is from 1 4 feet 9 inches to 20 feet 3 inches. The Queen's Chamber is more beneath the top of the Gallery than under the King's Apartment.

The King's Chamber

The Gallery contracts suddenly at the upper end, and does not lead at once into the King's Chamber. There is first a small low passage, then the Ante.chamber, and another short passage. There is a low granite doorway, and one has to creep beneath the unfallen portcullis or " granite leaf ; " another low doorway must be passed before the Chamber is gained. The portcullis, which was intended for closing purposes, is described as a flat stone " found sticking up," which " had never been let down."

The distance, says Perring, to the King's Chamber, including the portcullis' space, is 22 feet 1 inch. The height of the passage part is 3 feet 8 inches ; the two passages comprehend an extent together of about a dozen feet, five on one side and seven on the other. The sides of the Ante.chamber and passages are of granite. The Antechamber, or Anti.closet of Mr. Greaves, is fitted on each side with four grooves for the reception of portculli or flat stones, to be let down to block up the way to the King's Room from the Gallery. Mr. Smyth made the size 115 pyramid inches. The height is about 14J feet. As he writes, "On either side are opposite sets of broad hollow grooves ; three being very broad ones, and one moderately broad, the latter, though a part of its height is occupied by a granite block or plate, which hangs suspended in it, and underneath which every one must pass."

Greaves wrote thus : " This inner Anti-closet is separated from the former by a stone of red speckled marble, which hangs into two mortices (like the leaf of a sluice) between two walls, more than three feet above the pavement, and wanting two of the roof. Out of this closet we enter another square hole, over which are five lines, cut parallel and perpendicular." A boss has been noticed upon this leaf or portcullis. Each groove has a semi-circular top. A French authority makes the whole side to be 9 feet 10 inches long; the width of the groove filled by the
portcullis is about 20 inches. Three portculli were thus provided for. M. Jomard, nearly eighty years since, thought these three singular traveus had no analogy with anything he knew.

The height of the portcullis, according to Perring, is 12 feet 5 inches. Mr. Waynman Dixon found a bronze hook near there ; it may have belonged to some treasure-seeker of old. Looking at the Ante-chamber, M. Maillet thought of the first invaders, and exclaimed, " How many difficulties would they not have had to surmount in order to conquer the King's Chamber ! It was," he added, "the last refuge of the architect." In his day the relics of the struggle were to be seen. He observed the fragments of the stones broken by the workmen, now removed to make the way smooth for the bakshiish bestowing Englishmen. One great stone, 6 feet by 4, lay before him. His further remarks are noticed in the " Blocking " article.

In Aristotle we read : " Now, as with admiration we behold the tops of the pyramids, but that which is as much more underground opposite to it we are ignorant of ; I speak what I have received from the priests." Yet Strabo had heard of a cell being there. The King's Chamber is, in spite of the spoliations, a beautiful granite- walled apartment. Noble slabs of granite, 20 feet high, and admirably joined, line the sides. The roof is flat. There is no furniture but the ever-mysterious Coffer or Sarcophagus. Pietro della Valle, in 1615, said, "The pyramid was, 'perhaps,
constructed for several persons ; but I have found no tomb in one or the other (chambers)." Sandys wrote admiringly of it, saying, "A goodly chamber twenty foote wide and forty in length ; the rooffe of a maruelous height ; and the stones so great, that eight floores it, eight rooffes it, eight flagge the ends, and sixteene the sides, all of well wrought Theban marble " (granite).

The story by Mr. Greaves, the Oxford Professor, is too important to omit. He passed through the Anti-closet, crept through "another square hole, over which are five lines cut parallel and perpendicular," and stood " at the north end of a very sumptuous and well-proportioned room." The rest of his account is as follows : — " This rich and spacious chamber, in which art may seem to have contended with nature, the curious work being not inferiour to the rich materials, stands as it were in the heart and centre of the pyramid, equidistant from all the sides, and almost in the midst between the basis and the top. The floor, the sides, the roof of it, are all made of vast but exquisite tables of Theban marble (granite). From the top of it descending to the bottome, there arc six changes of stone. Of these, there are nine which cover the roofc ; two of them are less by half in breadth then the rest, the one at the east end, the other at the west."

Again he writes: " From the top to the bottom of this chamher are six ranges of stone, all of which being respectively sized to an equal height, very gracefully, in one and the same altitude all round the room. The stones which cover this place are of a strange and stupendous length, like so many huge beams lying flat and traversing the room, and withal supporting that infinite mass and weight of the Pyramid above." He truly calls it " a glorious room."

He gives the length of the chamber 34 feet ; the breadth, 17 the height, 19.5 feet. Perring reckoned it 34 feet 3 inches long, 17 feet 1 inch broad, and 19 feet 1 inch high. From the base of the pyramid to the floor of the chamber it is 138 feet 9 inches. It is beyond the centre, from the entrance side, by 16 feet 3 inches. While the temperature of the pit or well was found by Coutelle to be 25°, that of the chamber was
22°. He noticed, in 1799, a thick bed of dung on the floor. He speaks of an echo in the opening repeating six times. Dr. Eichardson supposed that by removing one of the granite slabs at the side an access might be gained to other chambers.

The Air-Chambers of the chamber are two rectangular holes at the side ; which, says Mariette Bey, " may be like the rectangular hole in the partition of the principal chapel of the tomb, or mastaba, which communicated to the deposit of images (of the departed), and before which, it is believed, prayers were said, and incense burnt." But though the very outlet has been found outside, the hole being closed showed that no air could reach the chamber. Sir E. Beckett thought they were " for the benefit of the mummy of the king, or the breathing of the undertakers and masons."

Norden said : " They appear to me vent holes to give air to the chamber." Greaves thought them "receptacles for the burning of lamps." The north channel is 233 feet long, with an angle of 33°. One is 9 inches by 6, and the other 9 by 9. One passes to the north or right side of the pyramid, and the other to the south. Perring notes that they are 3 feet from the floor. One, 8 inches by 6, Runs to the north 233 feet ; the
other southward, 174 feet long, 8 inches broad, and 9 inches high. The north channel bears the angle of 33° 42', and the
south 45°.