Page 311 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

epiphanies.
Bent almost double, my back brushing against the polished limestone
ceiling, it was with such thoughts in my mind that I began to scramble up
the 26° slope of the ascending corridor, which seemed to penetrate the
vast bulk of the six million ton building like a trigonometrical device.
After I had banged my head on its ceiling a couple of times, however, I
began to wonder why the ingenious people who’d designed it hadn’t
made it two or three feet higher. If they could erect a monument like this
in the first place (which they obviously could) and equip it with corridors,
surely it would not have been beyond their capabilities to make those
corridors roomy enough to stand up in? Once again I was tempted to
conclude that it was the result of a deliberate decision by the pyramid
builders: they had made the ascending corridor this way because they
had wanted it this way (rather than because such a design had been
forced upon them.)
Was there motive in the apparent madness of these archaic mind
games?

Unknown dark distance

At the top of the ascending corridor I emerged into yet another
inexplicable feature of the pyramid, ‘the most celebrated architectural
work to have survived from the Old Kingdom’ —the Grand Gallery.
13
Soaring upwards at the continuing majestic angle of 26°, and almost
entirely vanishing into the airy gloom above, its spacious corbelled vault
made a stunning impression.
It was not my intention to climb the Grand Gallery yet. Branching off
due south at its base was a long horizontal passageway, 3 feet 9 inches
high and 127 feet in length, that led to the Queen’s Chamber. I wanted
14
to revisit this room, which I had admired for its stark beauty since
becoming acquainted with the Great Pyramid several years previously.
Today, however, to my considerable irritation, the passageway was barred
within a few feet of its entrance.

The Pyramids of Egypt, p. 93.
13
14 Dimensions from Traveller’s Key to Ancient Egypt, p. 121, and The Pyramids of Egypt,
p. 93.

309