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Fact number eight.
The attention to detail in the interior is as carefully planned and
executed as that on the exterior.
It's no less a wonder than the exterior is, as a matter of fact.
The exact interior plan shows several different carters
including the Grand Gallery.
A magnificent space with a spectacular ceiling soaring
86 feet high without any visible means of support.
It used the advanced method called Corbeling and
in this type of roofing system each succeeding layer slope gently
inward as its path lead to the burial chamber.
In the interior are three chambers, the upper most of which housed
Khufu Sarcophagus and it was to this room that the grand gallery lead.
On the walls of the King's chamber are two narrow shaft leading out from it.
Unlikely to have been a source of air for the workers,
they were incorporated into the walls of the upper and lower chambers.
The ones that you can see in the plan of the King's chamber penetrated to
the outside, perhaps to be used for
the spiritualized state of Khufu to ascend to the heavenly stars.
One in each chamber was oriented to the northern pole stars,
thus supporting such a suggestion.
To protect the interior rooms and their contents,
architects have included three port columns or blocking stones.
These devices would slide into place before the tomb was sealed.
And it was hoped that the triple blockage would prevent thieves from breaking in.
Designers also built five areas of stress relief above the burial chamber in order
to distribute the weight of the structure baring down towards the burial chamber.
Cracks have occurred in almost all of them illustrating the success
of the mechanism that the architects used.
Workers' graffiti inside the top one,
represent again that native Egyptians worked on the pyramid.
A few scholars have suggested that the sphinx was not part of
Khafre's pyramid, but that of his father Khufu.
Most Egyptologists these days, however think rather,
that it was the monument of of his son Khafre.
Fact number nine.
Khufu had two boats buried on the side of his pyramid.
The two large boat graves were dug near the south side of the pyramid.
And each had buried inside it a large wooden vessel,
which may have been a part of the funerary ritual when the king was buried.
And they might have been understood to be of use to the king in the afterlife.
The one that has been completely excavated revealed a vessel that
was originally over 150 feet long.
Incredibly, it has survived almost intact.
It was dismantled after the burial of the king and placed in the grave.
And when it was discovered and
then reassembled in more modern times about 60 years ago.
Its grand scale and state of preservation was and still is breathtaking.
It is hard to believe but most of what you see is original except for only one oar.
As spectacular as this find was, it was not the first time that
a ruler included boats as part of the funerary equipment.
In early dynastic times,
large boat burials did occur in the south of the country.
At the site of Abydos they would appear to be
the forelearners of Khufu's monuments at Giza.
It was a Penn expedition at Abydos, under David O'Connor,
that discovered a set of 14 boat burials there.
While these examples did not survive the boat shape rip pits in which they were
placed has been preserved.
And the residue remaining in each indicates the original presence of wood.
They were situated between tomb that likely dates to the first dynasty, and
slightly later which will enclosure of the second dynasty.
That structure belonged to the Pharaoh secondly.
At this point in time the burial and
the designated area of ritual were not in the same location.