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GEOARCHEOLOGY BLOG
Rev. 2021-02-01; 2024-11-11
Gregory Charles Herman, PhD   Flemington, New Jersey, USA

Some physical aspects of the Giza pyramids: Old-Kingdom Science and Engineering

Khufu as a DC Power Facility * Lighting and electroplating of indoor temple space * The pyramid-construction machine * Discussion * References

Somehow, at the beginning of the Bronze age ~4500 years ago (before the present or B.P.), Egyptians of the Old Kingdom demonstrated advanced scientific and engineering skills by 1) scaling the Giza pyramids relative to the dimensions and positions of inner-solar-system bodies, 2) devising and using sophisticated ramps and block-and-tackle pulley systems to aid in the construction of the Great Pyramid (Khufu-Cheops), that 3) was designed to be a gigantic galvanic cell to generate and store direct-current (DC) electricity used to light indoor temple spaces and for electroplating.  This entry speculates on how they did it, and opens discussion on how they may have learned to do it.

The Giza pyramids as inner-solar-system bodies
Giza map

Profile pyramids and plants
Figure 1. The Giza pyramids have polar radii, base- perimeters, and spacing that are scaled to Earth, Venus, Mercury and The Moon using the basic units of time (seconds and days) as integral factors.

Khufu (Cheops) Internal  Aspects
West section
Figure 2.
The internal chambers, shafts, passages, and bedrock terrace of the Khufu (Cheops) pyramid in profile looking west. Note the four different tiers of limestone blocks used to build the structure.

Construction details of the King's and relieving chambers and the antechamber.
Vyse's passage
Figure 3.
A 3D, X-Ray model view looking SW showing details of the King's and Relieving Chambers, the antechamber, and top of the Grand Gallery. Limestone encases the stacked Aswan-granite beams comprising  the stacked chambers. Note the locations of the Connecting and Vyses's passages.

Khufu Pyramid as a DC Power-generating Facility Khufu as a galvanic battery
Figure 4. The Great Pyramid has all of the components and tell-tale signs of once having served as a direct-current (DC) power-generating station. The King's and Queen's chambers probably housed refined metals that served as the anode (copper) and cathode (gold) components of a huge galvanic cell (battery) that generated and stored direct-current (DC) electricity.

The first successful breeching of Khufu in 832 CE.
Al Mamoun's forced cavity
Figure 5. Plate 28 from Kingsland (1932) was digitally scanned and inserted into the SketchUp model to add model elements but nicely illustrates Al Ma'mun's(Mamoun's) forced cavity and the detailed measurements provided for the pyramid model.


A simple electrochemical battery using gold and copper
Simple battery schematic
Figure 6. A simple schematic illustrates a table-top version of the electrochemical galvanic cell concept incorporated in the Great Pyramid.

Khufu's 'Relieving Chamber' is an air electrical capacitor
Khufu's DC air capacitor
Figure 7. The 'Chambers of Construction' or 'Relieving Chamber' is a giant, multilayered air capacitor using the contrasting dielectric propertied of granite and air to accumulate and store electricity (electrons). The granite beams received an inductive, negative charge that accumulated in air space between the negatively charged granite beams and the positively charged and grounded entombing limestone bulk. Note that the granite beams of the capacitor are physically connected to the the King's sarcophagus which houses the Gold cathode and draws the negative (electron) electrical charge.


Pyramids, Ankhs, Wass, and Djeds
Djeds
Figure 8. Egyptians of the Old Kingdom were lighting indoor temple spaces using electroluminescent minerals wired into Djeds that were powered with portable electrical capacitors made of rolled glass and copper, and charged in the great pyramid.


Osiris Hall temple frieze depicting Osiris,
Egyptians, Djeds and hieroglyphics

Osiris Hall Plate 8

Isiris Hall Plate 8aOsiris Hall Plate 8c

Osiris Hall Plate 8cOsiris Hall Plate 8e

 Figure 9. Scenes depicting Djeds, Gods, and Egyptians from Osiris Hall, The Temple of Seti 1 at Abydos.

Djeds, Wass, Ankhs, and a frieze depicting
an Egyptian pouring water on the base of a Was

Djeds and Was with water
Figure 10. Djed styles are varied and often portrayed alongside Was and, Ankh amulets that probably served in establishing an electrical ground for DC circuits to discharge low-voltage through electroluminescent minerals. The scene to the right from the Ramses III mortuary complex shows water being poured on the base of a Was connected to an 'incense burner' that also glows on the end closest to the holder (from www.pinterest.com/pin/455708056044458846/)

~3500 B.P. Portable Djed with intact copper wiring
Walter's Art Museum Djed Pillar
Figure 11. Mineral fragments found in ancient ceramic vessels found on a 15th century-BCE shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea are good candidates for copper-doped zinc-sulfide minerals that electro luminesce with a bluish-white light when excited by low-voltage, DC current. Mineral fragments such as these were removed from the portable Djed held privately by the Walter's Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Note the copper-wired circuitry preserved on its back and in the vacated sockets.


1987 National Geographic documenting a 3100 B.P. shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea holding the required electrical components
Shipwreck
Figure 12. A 3100 B.P. shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea contains a sizeable stock of the raw, refined, and processed earthen materials that were likely used for generating electricity and making medicine. 15-cm rolled-glass (sinter) discs called 'Mekku stones' are likely candidates for the glass-and-copper electrical capacitors.
Animation of Khufu's construction stages

5 stages of pyramid construction
Figure 13. Five representative stages of pyramid construction reflecting the different, observable tiers of stacked stone (T1-T5).

3D, X-RAY views of the pyramid-construction machine
The pyramid construction machine
The pyramid construction machine
Figure 14. Two overviews of the pyramid construction machine utilizing the ascending passage and base of the Grand Gallery as a ramp with a block-and-tackle system operating out of the antechamber.


3D, X-RAY Profile and oblique details of the
pyramid-construction machine

The pyramid construction machine
The pyramid construction machine
Figure 15. West (top) and SW (bottom) views of details surrounding the 3-pulley block-and-tackle system used to hoist massive dimensional stone. The three-pulley system was anchored in the Antechamber where the lower course of the granite sleeve provided rope tension. The group of rectangular sockets lining the base corners of the Grand Gallery received a blocking apparatus that was incrementally advanced up the ramp to prevent the load from sliding backward upon slacking of the pull ropes during each regroup of the pull team.


A hypothetical pull team of 24 adults
Two-dozen humans
Figure 16. The large granite beams and other major construction elements were likely hoisted to upper tiers using the base of the grand gallery as a ramp and a 3-pulley block-and-tackle system run out of the antechamber that incorporated a ratcheted blocking system to prevent the load from slipping back while the pullers regrouped for each pull to advance a load 1.7 meters upgrade. This would have required very long ropes and probably used wheeled carts to reduce drag, although material or written evidence of any of these hypothetical components have not been reported or recognized.


Animation of the Great Pyramid
construction machine rev.1.0

Animated construction machine
Figure 17. The Great Pyramid was built in stages necessary to focus efforts on the respective internal components starting from the bottom with the subterranean and Queen's chambers followed by the King's and Relieving Chambers. The pyramid-construction machine of the Great Gallery and Antechamber were used to construct the mid-level King's Chamber and probably represents a major construction stage. Focused structural damage occurring in the uppermost granite beams of the Relieving Chamber may stem from using them to leverage and hoist other dimensional blocks during subsequent constructions stages of completion which agree with ancient Greek accounts of the process including altered or stepped tiers and some 'top down' approaches that are not portrayed here.

The Queen's Chamber 'air shafts'
relationship with π

Khufu as an antennae
Figure 18. Air shafts of the Queen's Chamber may have housed interconnected copper wiring that comprised a 'rabbit-ear' antennae for receiving electrically-charged atmospheric ionic radiation as a supplemental DC-power source. The most effective antennae have demonstrable circular geometry incorporating π, the mathematical constant derived by dividing a circles' circumference by its diameter.  The center of the circle encompassing the air shafts lies at the bottom of the centrally located Queen's Chamber where a 'receiver' would have been situated.


Aspects of The Queen's Chamber 'air shafts'
Shaftstuff
Figure 19. A robotic probe drilled through a door blocking the upper end of the southern shaft as illustrated to the left from an on-line YouTube video that also depicts two, corroded metal pins running through the blocking door. Two of the artifacts found in rubble heaps at the base of the shafts include the bronze grapple hook and granite ball shown to the right from a British Museum. The utility of these artifacts is unknown.

The Giza Pyramids as representative solar-system bodies

My first lecture at the start of each semester teaching introductory geology at a local college is a review of western cosmological principles to help students place Earth into a temporal and spatial perspective with respect to our Solar system and the Universe. Relevant historical points are covered with reference to the beginning of the Gregorian Calendar year at time 0 (zero). Prior events are noted using the standard modifiers BCE (before the common era) and antecedent ones as CE (common era). Standard cosmological texts currently credit first-century BCE Greeks for the first solar-system model (Aristarchus ~270 BCE) and accurately determining the circumference of Earth (Eratosthenes ~200 BCE). The telescope is currently reported as having been modified and effectively implemented by Galileo based on the work of a 17th-century German optometrist. Imagine my surprise when a friend sent me a video short featuring Graham Hancock describing the scaling relationship of the largest of the Egyptian Giza pyramids to Earth and asking what I thought about it. I hadn't heard of this before, so I checked the facts using Google Earth and a calculator, and sure enough, the height of the Khufu (Cheops) pyramid and it's base-perimeter length equals the polar radius of Earth and it's equatorial circumference when using a 43,200 scale, the number of seconds in a half-day (fig. 1)! That meant that the Kings of the 4th Egyptian dynasty not only knew that the Earth was round and its size nearly 2500 years before the Greek proclamations, but by incorporating a second-based scale in the pyramid design they also used the same measure of time that we do 40 centuries ago. This further inspired me to began investigating what other physical aspects are incorporated in the other pyramid designs.  Having not studied Egyptology to any great extent before, it became clear early on that the size of the challenge reflected the immensity of the pyramids themselves. 

I soon after began searching the internet for history, diagrams, pictures, narratives, and explanations of how the pyramids were designed and built. I purchased books on line and borrowed more from the public library. I spent a few COVID-19 days delving into information surrounding one of the seven ancient wonders of the world and building a SketchUp Pro 3D model of the the monumental architectures left behind by Egypt's Old Kingdom.   A snapshot of the Giza plateau was first used from stock aerial imagery provided by Google Earth's (GE), but soon after I began a using higher-resolution 2002 Quickbird satellite image of the plateau retrieved from the internet. A couple cups of coffee and a few hours later emerged a model of most of the inner planets of our Solar system scaled in the same manner as Earth, but quite unexpectedly with inter-planetary distances scaled by the number of seconds in 1000 days (fig. 1)! Pyramid G3C also comes statistical close to representing the Moon if it's spacing from Khufu is factored by the number of days in 10,000 years (fig. 1).  Therefore, the Giza Pyramids are spatial and temporal representations of heavenly bodies. This spurred me further into studying the pyramid's internal designs and construction details, focusing first, on the grandest of all, Khufu the physical representation of Earth. There had to be more to this.

Khufu as a DC Power Facility

As will be seen below, there aren't any scientifically acceptable explanations for how ancient Egyptians suddenly began doing what they did at such scale while utilizing such advanced scientific and engineering concepts. Close scrutiny of Khufu's internal design (fig. 2) and reported physical characteristics (fig. 3) reveal that it was designed and built as a gigantic galvanic cell that generated and stored direct-current (DC) electricity (fig. 4). Somehow,  near the dawn, if not at the start of the Bronze age, in a geological instant, Egyptians began refining Earthen materials and became aware of their electrochemical properties, because they were generating electroluminescent light and using standard industrial processes including metal doping, glass making, and electroplating. This may seem like just more outrageous hypotheses, but below is the physical and virtual proof that is consistent with every aspect of Egyptology surrounding this that I have encountered so far.

After constructing the simple model of the three largest pyramids on the plateau, Khufu's internal design and core architectural elements were added from a 3D SketchUp model downloaded from the SketchUp Model Warehouse by stahlmanDesign (2014). I attest to its high fidelity with respect to reported measurements of the pyramid's core elements, and I very much appreciated the modeling help. However, many internal details were refined and added for the King's, Queen's, and Relieving chambers, and the Grand Gallery, Antechamber, and Ascending Passage. Model augmentation relied on descriptions and dimensions of three internal passages provided by Kingsland (1932), Siliotti (1997), and Sibson (2019). To begin, two internal features were added that are original structures, whereas another added element is of an invasive, exploratory origin.  The original features include a small rectangular, passage connecting the top of the Grand Gallery to an air space located on the bottom level of the Relieving Chamber (fig. 3), and a recently explored sub vertical, rectangular shaft descending downward to an uncertain location beneath the King's Chamber beginning beneath the floor in the northeast corner of the chamber where the walls are the most stained and discolored from chemical processes (fig. 4).  The latter continues to an undetermined depth and location, but is speculatively arranged in the model as connecting with the a dead-end shaft located on the bottom of the west well of the Queen's chamber. The rational for this alignment is elaborated below. The third added element is an exploratory, internal passage excavated along the southeast corner of the relieving chamber by Colonel Howard Vise in 1837 starting from the end of the small connecting passage to the grand gallery (fig. 3). This passage was not part of the pyramid's original design, but excavated to gain access to the entombed part of the relieving chamber in an effort to locate potential loot in concealed spaces. Interestingly, the only thing worth reporting from this exploration are 'workers' hieroglyphs clustered in the upper air chambers, one of which is King Khufu's cartouche (Kingsland, 1932).

The most infamous, invasive passage of exploratory origin was not added to the model and stems from the first successful, historical breaching of the Great Pyramid sometime around 832 CE by occupying Islamic Persians in attempt to obtain knowledge and potential loot. It wasn't added to the computer model because it has no bearing on the hypothetical utility of the pyramid. It is however illustrated in figure 5 using a digital image captured from  Kingsland (1932) as an example of the pyramid details provided by him. Also, one historical account of this breeching supports a critical premise supporting the hypothesis that the pyramid functioned as a gigantic battery. The earliest, historical Islamic narratives of breeching of the Great Pyramid dating from the 8th to 10th centuries offer conflicting narratives of the adventure, no doubt from the 'slow gestation of the stories' written decades to centuries after the event (Smith, 2007). The most popular versions attributes the first breeching to Caliph al-Ma'mūn (or Anglicized 'Mamoun') sometime during a military campaign in Egypt to quell 'the last great Coptic revolt' (Wikipedia). The resulting cavity begins near the original entrance with the resulting "Robbers' Tunnel", serving as the tourist entrance today. Other accounts attribute the invasive work to Ma'mūn's father and brother, but one that I find particularly compelling is:

"when he went to Egypt and came upon the pyramids wanted to destroy one of them so that he might know what was inside it. He was told: "That is impossible." He responded: "I must open a portion of it." So there was opened for him a breach which is even now open. This was done by means of fire being lit, vinegar sprinkled, pickaxes, and ironsmiths knowledgeable about this [kind of undertaking]. It came to the point that they had expended a great fortune in this undertaking. They found that the width of the walls was close to 20 cubits, and when they reached the end of the wall they found behind the bore-hole a green purification room, in which was minted gold . . . Al-Ma'mūn was amazed at this gold and its excellence, and he then ordered a tally of what he had spent on the breach. It was found that the gold which he acquired did not exceed what he had spent, nor did it fall short of that amount either. He was greatly amazed by their information about the measure of what he spent upon it, and about how what the ancients left in the place equaled that measure."

Other versions of this account can be found, but it is impossible to say what is true and what is not. But for certain, the mineral staining and wear of the King's and Queen's Chambers seen in photographs belies stages where chemical reactions were taking place (fig. 4). A gold-filled coffer or chamber is the perfect candidate for a galvanic cathode soaking in it's own salt solutions and connected to an anode (figs. 4 and 6), but the room with the gold wouldn't have been green, but rather the dull, dark gray seen in figure 4 as a result of the chemical-reduction processes. On the other hand, if copper was used as the other galvanic component, or anode, then it's very possible that a room housing refined copper ingots soaking in a salt bath could assume a green, encrusted appearance from the oxidation of copper. Is it possible that the two features encountered were simply mashed together in the retelling?

Upon assembly and further refinement of the computer model, and armed with my knowledge of geological material properties, geophysics, and background narrative offered through published and on-line historical documentation, it became clear to me that rulers of the Old Kingdom not only understood their place in the inner solar system, but they also knew about Earthen material properties to the point where they were obtaining, processing, and refining elemental raw metals and glass, the basic components of modern electrical batteries, capacitors, and electrical transmitters. Thus, the resulting hypothesis plainly stated is, the rulers of the Old Kingdom began generating electricity and illuminating electroluminescent minerals as artificial light sources 4500 years ago!  They were building enormous (as in the-great-pyramid-scale) direct-current (DC) power sources using stored electrical energy held in capacitors made of Earth materials to illuminate interior spaces of ancient monumental structures. And they left pictographs showing us how they did it. Let's examine how. Then we'll later ponder other poignant questions including How did they learn to do this?

The grand, Khufu (or the Greek 'Cheops') pyramid's name in Egyptian is Ta Khut meaning The Light. As Kingsland (1932) summarized, it's exterior was clad with polished white, fine limestone that reflected sunshine brightly making the pyramid a "veritable Pillar of Light", and that the structure of it "hath been the labor of an exquisite hand" (attributed to professor John Greaves in 1638). Not only did it shine on the outside, it powered the modern-day equivalent of LEDs that lit interior spaces of nearby temple complexes, and provided the energy needed for metallurgy and electroplating processes. Khufu is, at a minimum, a single-source, electrical, direct-current (DC), power-generating station with internal chambers that likely housed a cache of gold (cathode) and copper (anode) coins or ingots bathing is separated chambers that together comprised a gigantic galvanic cell capable of generating and storing electrical energy (figs. 4 and 6).  What remains to be determined is if they coupled the galvanic process with a second DC energy-generating source by harnessing captured atmospheric, ionic radiation at N30o latitude like Nikolas Tesla did. I'll also discuss this aspect in a concluding section, but first we'll examine the details surrounding the layout and design of the galvanic battery that Khufu is, or rather, was. Also, it is worth noting here the following version of an often recounted challenge that was inscribed into the polished limestone exterior reported by a 10th century Arab historian (Smith, 2007)that has since been prophetically destroyed:

"We built these, so whoever maintains equality with us in sovereignty, attainment of power, and fulfillment of the charge of dominion, let him destroy these pyramids and efface their inscriptions, although to destroy is easier than to construct, and taking apart is easier than to put together."

King's and Queen's Chambers  

A simple galvanic cell uses metallic native elements having varying electrical potentials (anodes and cathodes) that transfer electrons when placed apart in baths of their own salt solutions and interconnected by conductive metal wiring for the electron exchange (fig. 6). A permeable conduit called a salt bridge is also needed for transferring positively charged molecular radicals in order to to the balance the electrical exchange (fig. 6). In the Great Pyramid, the copper (Cu) anode gives up electrons to the gold (Au) cathode having an electrical potential roughly three times higher (fig. 6) . Copper wire was historically reported to have been found on the floor of the salt-encrusted Queen's chamber upon breeching. This would indicate that the Queen's Chamber housed the copper anode and the King's chamber housed the gold cathode; gold having the highest negative electrical potential of any natural metal (and about three times greater than copper). Electron flow which can be metered, discharged into appliances, and stored in electrical capacitors (figs. 7 and 8). The generated voltage reflects the volume of material used, but the electrical components need to be periodically replaced or replenished for continual operation owing to the oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions, and the use of 'fuel'. Both the King's and Queen's chambers have fluid-solution stains rising up to a meter or two above floor level, and in the King's chamber, above the top of the granite, empty sarcophagus that has never been shown to have had a lid, but containing vertical pin holes on the back lip of the vessel. These were likely receptive holes for metal rods serving as electrical leads from the most highly charged part of the cathode. This will be discussed more below in the concluding discussion.

The Queens chamber probably had copper ingots laid out out the floor in solution bath whose depth was controlled by the step rise into the Queens passage that served as a spillway and drain for saltwater to spill down to subterranean levels and the groundwater table (fig. 4).  Note that the 'air shaft' on the south side of the King's chamber lies physically below the stained (fill) line in the chamber which means that salt solutions could have been replenished from the outside by pouring it down through an shaft from the outside. The excess fill would drain via the Grand gallery and descending passages into the subterranean chamber (figs. 2 and 4).

Relieving Chamber / Chambers of Construction (Air capacitor)

The 'Relieving chamber' as its commonly referred to, was also called  'the Chambers of Construction' by Kingsland (1932).  As he described, it's not really a chambers, but the spaces left by the builders between the large granite beams, five of which at the base form the superimposed ceiling for the King's Chamber, and a top, fifth tier "pointed of limestone." (fig. 3). The entire King's Chamber and overlying structure are roofed by massive, gabled limestone blocks sloping 25o.  But as Kingsland points out, the exact details of the chamber construction and the manner in which the granite blocks terminate upward with the entombing limestone is unknown, as it has never been accessed for characterization.

The King's chamber is therefore capped by the the monumental structure comprised of stacked, quartz-rich, Aswan granite slabs that are thought to lessen the overburden load on the king's chamber, but in actuality constitute a massive air-capacitor for storing DC energy (figs. 4 and 7). This structure uses the varying electrical permittivity of granite and air to store the galvanic DC electricity (negatively charged electrons) that accumulated in the granite beams in direct electrical connection with the King's Chamber. The granite blocks are stacked like Jenga blocks, but with sizable air gaps between them and around them, and differ in design from modern, stacked capacitors having dielectric layers alternately interlayered (fig. 7).  Khufu's design appears to utilize the natural, positive, electrical ground with Earth provided by the stacked limestone blocks encapsulating the negative space inside the King's Chamber and capacitor where electrons accumulate in quartz-rich granite slabs through electrical conduction from the gold-attracting electrons (and robbers) in the King's chamber. The negative charge would have accumulated up to a limit imposed by the physical breakdown of air that results in arcing of electricity, that is unless the accumulated DC energy was systematically discharged through connected appliances or an electrically grounded connection (fig. 8).  A confirmatory aspect of having the 'relieving chamber' once serving as an air capacitor is that a commonly stated caveat in modern technical literature, is that for an air capacitor to effectively work and provide suitable voltage needed as as a prolonged power source, they have to be very large, as in Great-Pyramid large.

Some lingering questions surrounding this massive structure remain. First, I'm uncertain about the interconnectivity of the granite beams constituting the capacitor with the encapsulating limestone blocks. Various reports depict it differently. Also, I am uncertain of the electrical consequences of having a stacked set of granite slabs that the require electrical disconnection from a ground to accumulated a negative charge, and the consequences of having direct contact between the granite and encapsulating limestone blcoks. As portrayed in the computer model, the structure capped by a gabled limestone cella (fig. 7). At this stage, I don't know to what extent there is physical contact between the granite and encapsulating limestone of the King's Chamber-capacitor composite structure (fig. 7).  It is also important to note that the construction design of the chamber is different for the uppermost level in transitioning from the granite to the 'regular' blocks of limestone used for the bulk of the pyramid.  I am uncertain why, but perhaps it may have served as a protector for systematically grounding electrical surges arising during thunderstorms.   Or maybe that's how they limited the upper threshold of a stored electrical charge. Sophisticated geophysical modeling and testing may help determine that. But in order to physically test it at full capacity,  one would have to reinvigorate the pyramid power plant, or build a new equivalent which practically impossible now.

Lighting and electroplating of indoor temple space

When first piecing this puzzle together, it was challenging to imagine what the ancient Egyptians could have used electricity for. But that question was quickly answered by the plethora of lore surrounding their use of light and electroplating. Literature and tales of Djed pillars and Dendera lights abound. Elaborate temple scenes from the 29th Dynasty in Osiris Hall at Abydos that are are over one-thousand younger than Khufu, depict the Goddess Osiris handing a Djed to an Egyptian that depicts its use, but not definitively as a light source (fig. 9). Rather, throughout the New and Old Kingdoms a Djed's use is commonly depicted in association with royalty, or their escorts, and in conjunction with the other common, Egyptian amulets, the Ankh and Was (fig. 10). Together, they appear to have been the tools of the artificial light trade which gave the Kings their royal status, because as supreme rulers, they harbored the knowledge and use of light and power. Isn't it interesting in referring back to the aforementioned challenge inscribed on the Great Pyramid cladding, that it includes the phrase "attainment of power". The manner in which they used Earthen materials in combination with stored DC electricity is not only brilliant, but just recently realized again in 'modern times' through the invention of solid-state circuitry and light-emitting diodes (LEDS). I still find much of this difficult to believe myself, but all of the pieces are there. Following is a short list summarizing key aspects.

Djeds (Lamps) and Mekku Stones (Electrical capacitors) - An original passage was built to provide regular access from the top of the Grand Gallery into the lowest level of the Relieving Chamber where the strongest induction of electromagnetic energy would occur relative to the cathode located in the King's sarcophagus (fig. 7). This compartment likely served as a charging station to place portable electrical capacitors, perhaps comprised of rolled 'glass' and copper-wire, that could have powered Djeds (figs. 8 to 11). Djeds are apparently the stuff popularized in science-fiction movies, as in the laser-sword-wielding Jedi Knight of Star Wars fame (George Lucas was likely on to this concept). A Djed is not merely an amulet, but a DC-powered light-generating device that housed gravel-sized pieces of electroluminescent minerals wired in sequence with fine copper wiring connected to either a capacitor or battery (galvanic) source.  When I first began studying their design I was struck by their physical resemblance to modern ceramic insulators seen on telephone poles. Figure 8 schematically depicts how Djeds would have worked with different power sources at different scales. The Djed light concept is largely based on a series of photographs captured from an on-line, digital archive by the Walter's Art Museum in Baltimore that possesses an authentic, hand-held Djed having fine, copper-wire circuitry still clearly intact on the back and woven through the excavated cavities where photo luminescent mineral fragments were plucked some time ago (fig. 12). By compartmentalizing the fragments in stacked, wood-insulated tiers by design, they together compose a multi-filament light source.

Gray-, blue- and green-colored, gravel-size mineral fragments of the type needed to make the Djed glow were located in on-line photographs from a 1987 National Geographic Article by George Bass (1987) detailing Bronze-Age splendors alongside other critical electrical components on the worlds' oldest-known shipwreck (fig. 11). The wreck was found in the Mediterranean Sea off the the coast of Turkey at shallow depths by sponge divers and upon scientific studying revealed "splendors of the Bronze age" that were radiocarbon dated to around 1100 BCE or ~ 3100 B.P.  Disordered zinc sulfides (Short and others, 1956) 'doped' with copper (or impregnated with copper) will photoluminesce in the 400-600 nm visible-light spectrum (bluish- to greenish-white light) that is commonly depicted in hieroglyphics and perhaps representing what is currently interpreted as burning incense in scenes of Royalty offering amulets to the Gods or deceased inside dedicated temples (fig. 10). Natural, mineralized rock fragments composed of zinc-sulfide (sphalerite) were likely wet-doped, in Cu-salt baths like that filling the bottom of the Queen's Chamber, and upon drying, electrified (fig. 9).  This concept also clues us in to the meaning of the common Egyptian triangular hieroglyph depicting a small, bluish-white triangle (light) within a larger triangle (pyramid) so commonly adorning temple walls (fig. 9), and symbolically depicting the lighting of indoor-pyramid space. Northern Africa is rife with the native elements of magmatic and hydrothermal origin that comprise the physical components necessary to make this happen. Natural zinc-sulfide mineral fragments are found in most active tectonic regimes where there are often mined from mineralized fault zones like those found in the active rift valleys.

The wreckage also contained other DC-light-generating components including refined-copper ingots, scrap gold, and Mekku Stones, slightly tapered rolled, 15-cm (6") diameter blue-sinter (crude glass) discs called glass ingots by Bass (1987).  I called the University of Texas A&M to see if might speak to Dr. Bass about the wreck and various components, particularly the stones to see if they had been examined closely and tested for any fine copper wire that might be rolled up and threaded through them. On January 5, 2021 I managed to contact him at is Texas home and we had a very pleasant talk about his past adventure and work with Dr. Cemal Pulak who started as a young, local diver on the salvage efforts and now, many decades later, is a full professor and coordinator of the university nautical-archaeology program. I then contacted Dr. Pulak who was very gracious about my inquiry and informed me that they are closely examining all materials, but with respect to the stones, 120 were collected with many having deteriorated from weathering and only a handful preserved intact as featured in the magazine article. They are working on a professional publication detailing their study results, but he said they come from an unknown location in Egypt based on a geochemical analysis of mold clay still attached to a specimen. He also reported that other some analyses returned comparatively high concentrations of elemental copper, but he had not seen any evidence of copper threading. I asked him to please check between the rolled layers once more just to be certain that there aren't copper filaments. I am eager to see the results of their analyses because although they may not have copper threading, they still may serve a capacitor function in some yet-to-be-determined manner. If they are indeed cobalt-infused, then cobalt like iron is ferromagnetic, and they were made using sophisticated metallurgical and sintering processes to get to this point. Sintering is the process of forming solid material from silica powder through slow metamorphosis upon heating silica powder to its melting point when the material becomes plastic. For ordinary quartz that temperature is above 870oC under atmospheric pressures. When allowed to cool, these capacitors would have consisted of thin quartz sheets inlayed, or infused, with conductive metal so that when rolled up and cooled they form an electrical capacitor made of contrasting materials of varying electrical permittivity that can accumulate and hold electrons when charged (fig. 8). Early furnaces may have only been able to achieve sintering temperatures because the production of specialty glasses requires kilns generating temperatures about double that needed to sinter quartz, but they got by just fine with what they had. A solar-energy company's web site provides potential proof of such material obtained from a recent dig near the Great Pyramid at new shopping plaza. They depict blue sinter threaded with copper wire (fig. 8 -lower right) but I have yet been able to verify this source and they claim that this composite material may be early solar-collection devices.  Nevertheless, this is the type of proof needed to show that Mekku Stones were electrical capacitors used to power portable lighting systems, powered by Ta Khut.

Batteries and capacitors differ because the former uses elements of varying electric potential in a self-contained apparatus to generate a current of electrical energy whereas capacitors store electrical energy that is generated elsewhere for subsequent, controlled, electrical discharges. Historical record of the world's oldest batteries date to much younger periods, although like the glass technology needed to do what is shown here, archeological evidence of these materials and industrial processes mostly stem from younger periods around the time of the shipwreck when trade in such commodities was flourishing around the Mediterranean. It is very likely that most archeological records of the Bronze age stem from those periods when the material abounded and was being traded around the region with routes touching the island ports of Malta, Sicily, Crete, and Cyprus that served as gateways to the respective, mainland regions.  Interestingly, the 'world's first batteries' referred to as "The Baghdad Battery" are currently believed to be the world's oldest electrical cells, consisting of clay jars, measuring around 13-cm (5") long filled with a copper cylinder and iron rods, along with signs of acidic corrosion date that reportedly dating back to around the dawn of the common era (Guinness World Book of Records). But if Old Kingdom Egyptians also produced smaller-scale versions of the galvanic processes demonstrated to have taken place in Khufu, then all traces of any gold- and copper laden, portable vessels must have disappeared long ago. It is preposterous to assume that there was no portable 'proof of concept' of the galvanic cell that Ta Khut was. Many old murals and scenes depict zigzagged lines being 'poured' from clay pots that are commonly interpreted as 'milk', but from what I've seen, they used smooth lines to depict fluid flow of milk or water that differ from the zigzagged ones. Could the latter represent arced or 'invisible' electricity? Khufu, the second ruler of the Old Kingdom and builder of the Great Pyramid, was unpopular for closing temples to the public, and it's likely that he needed to because he began electroplating indoor temple-wall scenes with gold that was later scraped off by grave robbers and fortune seekers; those that destroy.

Was staffs and Ankhs (Grounding devices) - Two other, iconic amulets depicted in Egyptian art commonly associated with the Djed include the Was and Ankh (figs 8 to 10). The Ankh is the hand-held, loop-headed cruciform amulet used prolifically in Egyptian art and representing a 'symbol of life' dating back to the Early Dynastic Period (ending 4600 B.P.). The Was is a barbed scepter symbolizing power and dominion; an emblem of authority. It is thought to have been introduced during the subsequent Old Kingdom, but the Djed, Ankh, and Was are typically portrayed together. The many carved reliefs, palettes, and frescos depicting the Gods and Egyptians wielding Djeds together with Was and Ankh amulets are prolific because together they comprised the electrical circuitry and grounding apparatus necessary to generate artificial light (fig. 8 and 10).  Note in figure 10 that a scene from Ramses III mortuary complex depicts the King offering incense to a being (cut off on the left) holding a Was.  The apparatus used to burn incense show's it burning on the left, but to its right, a light shines above the other end. With his other hand, the King is pouring water onto the base of the Was being held by the God such that the top of the scepter is in contact with the incense burner. This depicts the use of water to ground a DC circuit to generate electroluminescent light. Remember, that  indoor temple space will not be illuminated simply with burning incense, but glowing light sticks would have provided the artificial light required to see in otherwise pitch darkness. 

The Pyramid Construction Machine

After studying the construction details of the Great Pyramid and scrutinizing every aspect that I could with respect to the aforementioned hypothesis, there were many unique and unexplained aspects of the design of the Ascending Passage, Grand Gallery, and Antechamber that left me wondering what their functionality could have been? Why does the Antechamber have three barren, semi-circular sockets mounted atop grooved-granite wanes coating, and a detached granite sleeve consisting of two halves perched in the chamber, with the upper half having a protruding semi-circular knob on one side? Why are there a series of 27 vertical, rectangular recesses hugging the gallery walls? Why the gallery gutter? Why is the riser and step down from the Antechamber into the gallery gouged, smooth, and worn? There were no suitable answers in anything that I have read. I have also come across many references and theories on how the pyramid was constructed, but nothing that ties all of these mysterious components together. And so I began pondering the possibility that they  served as integral components of the pyramid-construction machines recounted below from Wikipedia, and stemming from the ancient Greek Herodotus around 430 BCE.  This same source states that Leonardo daVinci supposedly sketched a version of the machine based on some version of this description that also has been lost.

The pyramid was built in steps, battlement-wise, as it is called, or, according to others, altar-wise. After laying the stones for the base, they raised the remaining stones to their places by means of machines formed of short wooden planks. The first machine raised them from the ground to the top of the first step. On this there was another machine, which received the stone upon its arrival and conveyed it to the second step, whence a third machine advanced it still higher. Either they had as many machines as there were steps in the pyramid, or possibly they had but a single machine, which, being easily moved, was transferred from tier to tier as the stone rose — both accounts are given and therefore I mention both. The upper portion of the Pyramid was finished first, then the middle and finally the part which was lowest and nearest to the ground.

Because the pyramid virtual components were already built and accessible in the Giza SketchUp model, I took the time to add other details included in Kingsland (1937), and after a couple of weeks of trying different designs and studying pulley mechanics, my own version of the pyramid-construction machine has emerged that explains most everything seen (figs. 13 to 17). The design of the construction machine is exquisite.  I don't believe that what I am proposing composes the entire machine described by Herodotus, but it certainly conforms with observable features of a primary component and advances the concept. I suspect that the 'planks' he refers to may have been the blocking apparatus used to stop the hoisted load from slipping back on the ramp after each tug by the pulling team (figs. 16 and 7). A recent geophysical remote-sensing study of Khufu has revealed another, previously unidentified 'void' in the upper tier that parallels the Grand Gallery and echoes its shape.  This feature is is positioned directly above the Grand Gallery and therefore may be a slightly shorter version of the Antechamber-gallery lift system used for assembling the upper pyramid tiers in a similar manner as demonstrated for the lower ones. I doubt if this is an actual void, but more likely a pocket having a material-density contrast because of the architectural heterogeneity stemming from having a built-in lift system that was filled in and built over as the pyramid was completed. More 3D modeling is necessary to test this concept further with resect to intermediate stags of construction that could utilize a feature in this position as demonstrated herein for the grand gallery. One needs only to exercise their imagination to allow for ancient Egyptians to utilize sophisticated block-and-tackle pulley system to lesson the burden of hoisting 8-ton beams of granite 60 meters above ground level. After all, they built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world as the main component of a scaled solar-system model that also could generate electricity and light. What's a block-and-tackle system compared to that?

Transfer of the enormous dimension stones from one level to another could have also utilized a system of wooden poles (or sticks?) with guide ropes that today comprise what are known as 'stiff-legged cranes' as used by early stone-quarry workers before the advent of steam and diesel-driven lift systems. Such primitive cranes use a two- or three-pole system anchored at their bases that when strung (or cabled) together and arranged in either a V shape or as a tripod can hoist and swing large dimensional stones relative to a base platform. We have already seen that they likely had mastery over pulleys as part of block-and-tackle systems which are in integral components of the antechamber-gallery mechanism (figs. 14-16). Stiff-legged cranes are portable and could have been used to reposition and hoist the large granite beams and limestone blocks lofted to the head of the Grand Gallery many meters further in heights above temporary, incremental, base platforms like the one depicted in figure 13. But the core machine element appear to have been the Grand Gallery with the ratcheted blocking system that provided a means for the incremental, methodical advance of bulk loads up a moderate incline of nearly 100 meters equaling a vertical lift over 40 meters using a relatively small team of pullers (fig. 16) and block handlers. Note that the illustrated depictions presented here  don't include the handful of laborers manning the gallery to systematically advance the blocking apparatus each time the load was advanced about 1.7 m up the ramp by each tug by the pulling team (figs. 16 and 17). Lastly, the aforementioned incursion by Vyse into the Relieving Chamber (fig. 3) reportedly found that the uppermost tier of blocks in the chamber were cracked and the most structurally compromised (Kingsland, 1932). Such structural damage likely arose from using them during  latter construction stages of Khufu to hoist other large dimensional stone blocks to the uppermost pyramid tiers. Of course other natural factors like earthquakes and physical weathering may have contributed to or were key compromising agents.

Discussion

Ancient Egyptian art commonly include scenes of Egyptians (painted red-brown) and the deceased (painted light blue) in elaborate scenes depicting the transfer of technology from the outstretched arms of Gods (painted gold), 'handing off' Djeds and demonstrating associated practices that today commonly relate directly to methods of grounding electric circuitry and lighting fixtures (figs. 8 and 10).  Hieroglyphics together with carved and painted temple scenes depict such practices throughout Old Egypt. These people not only knew there cosmological place in our solar system at the dawn of Bronze Age, but also figured out ways to transfer the knowledge to successive generations capable of understanding what they built and depicted. I suppose this is just part of the processes of deciphering it. I have realized now from many years of living, that there are two categories of people that are echoed in the aforementioned, prophetically inscribed challenge insofar as there are those those that build and those that destroy. Old Kingdom Egyptians were builders and attempted to convey their methods and technology to anyone willing to learn. Thankfully, the great pyramids are too immense to have been completely destroyed.

Khufu as a dual-source DC generator

Besides the possibility of Khufu serving as a gigantic battery, another possibility is that it was built as a dual-source DC generating station by also harnessing atmospheric, electrically charged ionic radiation at N30o latitude, i.e. Nikolas Tesla style. Tesla was capturing ionized atmospheric radiation at his electricity-research facilities in Colorado and New York located at the same exact latitude where the Giza pyramids are situated.  I have heard that Tesla was fascinated with the Giza pyramids but after having read much about him, I haven't seen that. Nevertheless, as the foremost genius of his times and perhaps in all of recorded history, I don't doubt that he studied them. Recent scientific research has proven that pyramid-shaped antennae are very efficient at capturing electrically charged atmospheric ions as common at mid-latitudes as thunder and lighting storms.  A 2011 USA patent was issued to Peter Grandics for a working  pyramid-shaped electrical generator built as a scaled-down version of Khufu. But his model was clad with electro-conductive metal sheathing making the entire structure an antennae. Although the concept is proven, what is not proven is if Khufu has systematic metallic wiring running through the bulk structure that would constitute a pyramid-shaped antennae. No reports of wiring or metallic sheathing occur in narratives accounting for the removal of the exterior, finely polished white marble that is certainly a poor electrical conductor being a metamorphic rock with negligible quartz and a comparatively low, electrical permittivity.  In Grandic's work, the pyramid is shown to be a very efficient rectilinear (not curved) antennae but Tesla's energy-collection-and-transmission towers were capped by mushroom-shaped antennae that conform more with the spiral waveforms of ionized radiation descending to Earth from the various atmospheric sources. Pyramid-shaped antennae may be the best-rectilinear form, but after readings about Tesla's work, I'm convinced that his round antennae are more efficient. But then it's much more difficult to cut round dimensional stones than fit together to form a round monumental structure than a square one.  Nevertheless, a curious aspect of the pyramids that may relate to this concept stems from the mysterious, plugged air shafts of the Queen's chamber. 

Unlike the air shaft stemming from the King's Chamber, those sprouting from the Queen's chamber were originally blocked on both ends so that they fall short from having direct connection to either the atmosphere or the Queen's Chamber. They were originally walled off from the chamber as discovered by Wayman Dixon in 1872 from systematically probing the chamber walls by inserting wire between mortared joints. The southern one was found first, followed by the northern one by applying predictive geometry based on the other's location.  His team also characterized the geometry and upper blockage of the shafts and discovered a few artifacts lying in small heaps of rubble accumulated near the base of each shaft (fig. 19). They include a loose, small bronze grapple hook, a small granite ball, and a short, rectangular fragment of a cedar stick now held by a British Museum. It has been speculated that the grapple hook was mounted on the end of a wooden pole, perhaps of the type embodied by the short, broken, stick.  Sadly, the stick was lost somehow before the advent of radiocarbon dating. The nature of the blockage on the upper end of the northern shaft are detailed from a series of modern archeological efforts that utilized remote-controlled, custom-built robots designed to fit inside the shaft and crawl upward about 40 meters to the shaft end while providing live-video feeds. A series of such investigation resulted in the finding that this shaft terminates at two blocking stones, the first of which is called the Gatenbrink door, a comparatively thin limestone block polished on the exterior side and having two, looped bronze (or copper) pins (or rods) running through it such that they have been referred to as 'handles' on a small door. This block was robotically drilled through to allow passage for a thin, flexible video camera  to be snaked through to peer into a small chamber containing a smattering of ochre hieroglyphics as chronicled by an Ancient-Origins website detailing the process and discovery (fig. 19). This blog aspect is probably the most speculative and loosely constrained, but there had to have been a utility for these small passages in addition to, or rather than only providing air ventilation because of their design and association with the aforementioned artifacts.

Perhaps the most confounding aspect of this upper blockage are the corroded copper (or bronze) rods facing inward and downward on the Gatenbrink door that are an extension of the looped pins forming the 'handles' on the exterior side (fig. 19). Corrosion of metal rods is a result of chemical weathering and it confounds me how such weathering would occur within a sealed, dry space unless they were used as electrical components. For example, the leads on standard batteries left in place in an inactive apparatus will corrode like that seen on the rod ends. The video footage shows signs of water seepage of unknown age and origin around the door, and I am going to need more time scrutinizing the video feeds to determine how and perhaps relatively when the shafts were built. But it's likely that these shafts served a dual utility, first providing air ventilation into the Queen's Chamber during early construction stages, then later sealed and strung with copper wire running the length of the shafts and connected through an intermediately positioned receiver (Queen's salt bath?) that would constitute a classic 'rabbit-ear' antennae like those still used today to receive atmospherically broadcast television and radio signals (fig. 18). This aspect remains to be determined, as does on-site chemical testing of the pyramid sarcophagus, chambers and shafts needed to prove their use in galvanic processes. These features have been greatly altered since they were used, but their should be trace elements supporting the premises outlined above.

On a final note regarding the aforementioned shipwreck, the largest product hauled by volume reportedly were raw, natural medicinal elements. So it is also apparent that advanced herbal and pharmaceutical applications were also likely emerging at that time, and from my amateur-archeological perspective, ancient Egyptian scenery depicting what Egyptologists refer to as 'opening of the mouth ceremony' probably depicts early dentistry using very small stone adzes, levers, and prosthetics that were used on living people for health-care management, rather than only for the deceased. Why restrict gargantuan technological leaps to only cosmology and industrial processes?

How did they learn to do all of this?

With respect to the overbearing question resulting from this research, that is, How did they learn to do all of this? There are only four possibilities: 

1) Human original ingenuity.
2) Transfer from more technologically advanced humans from outside the region.
3) Transfer from advanced, corpuscular extraterrestrial beings  (ABs).
4) Divine inspiration from ethereal sources.

The first two fall within the realm of acceptance for probably all of humanity if grounded with established scientific methods. principles, and data that can be shared through traditional scientific outlets like periodically published and accredited scientific journals. In contrast, the latter two categories have no chance of scientific acceptance, and maybe general acceptance by half of the world community. Therefore, in treading anywhere into the realm of the latter two in attempting to explain how such sudden and enormous scientific and engineering leaps were realized and conveyed, there is no chance publishing any material as accredited scientific work if it raises the prospect of divine or extraterrestrial origins. Western science draws a line in the sand of acceptance regarding extra-terrestrial contact (No. 3) or divine innspiration (No. 4) just to be clear. So at this point, only three months and 8500 words later, I will save any further speculation on this matter to another post after I've done the research needed to better understand if No. 3 can be logically accepted, because it is impossible to prove divine inspiration, as that leaves no physical traces. At this time the first three are all in play until disproven. And just as I have shown above, sometimes proof is facing and challenging us this entire time. I have no doubt that any further incursions into this realm will be as enlightening and amazing as this brief journey has been.

This entry does not by any means represent the final words regarding these non-mainstream hypotheses. There are many untested aspects and others that undoubtedly will surface following these considerations, and that await confirmatory physical testing in order to elevate hypothesis to theory. But for now, thank you for your time.  Please email me if you have any comments, questions, concerns, or contributions to this effort.

References

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Greshko, M., 2017, Mysterious Void Discovered in Egypt's Great Pyramid: National Geographic internet post November 7, 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/11/great-pyramid-giza-void-discovered-khufu-archaeology-science/.

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https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1155273/egypt-mystery-great-pyramid-giza-alien-news-khufu-river-nile-bettany-hughes-spt