Helwan University

Faculty of Tourism and Hotels

Guidance Department

The Complex of Khufu

Prepared by: Professor Dr. Abeer Amin

1
 Complex of the Great Pyramid

The Great pyramid of Giza of king Cheops (Khufu)

Cheops is the Greek name given to king Khufu or ″hw.f wi ″

that means he who protects me. It was king Cheops who chose
the Giza plateau which was in north of Dahshur to begin
building his own pyramid complex. Khufu's pyramid was an
astonishing leap forward. The area of the pyramid itself is about
13.1 acres.
The great pyramid contains about 2300000 blocks of stones
weighing an average between 2.5 to 15 tons. All of which are of
2
white tura limestone, on the other hand the large granite beams
(parts) roofing the king's chamber and the stress_ relieving
chambers above it have been estimated to weigh from 50 to 80
tons.
The Great pyramid like those built by Senefru consisted of
casing and core stones laid in horizontal courses, with packing
blocks in between. At the corners and towards the top higher
quality limestone was used because of the need for greater
control.
The angle of the pyramid is about 51°55 which is an acute
angle. It was built on a plan ground or a squara ground, it
consists of 4 sides each side is about 755 feet and each side
faces one of the cardinal points of the world.

The height of the pyramid was about 481 feet 146m. then 30
feet was missed (9m), so it became 451 feet or 137m.

It is mentioned that the pyramid was used as a quarry in later

eras, exactly in the 13th century A.D. onwards.

The pyramid is built of local limestone which was brought from

the quarry near the site, covered by tura limestone. The casing
of the pyramid as well as the upper part had felt down.

The pyramid was built on a square plan, the original entrance

was 55 feet, 18m above the ground and it is situated to the north,
it was used until the Roman period, but it was closed by sand,
rubble and stones. During the reign of Khalipha El-mamun in
the 9th century A.D. a new entrance was made in the 6th course
when they failed to find the original entrance, as they thought
that the pyramid was full of treasures, but undoubtedly it was
robbed by its contents long before them, perhaps during the 1st
intermediate period.
The Mamun’s hole was located under the original entrance.

According to Herodotus this pyramid was built in 20 years and

the rest of the complex were built in 10 years. These 10 years

3
were during the 20 years. He mentioned that about 100000 men
worked in the building of the pyramid, and that they worked
during the inundation season only.
Inside Khufu's pyramid we find developments that are unique in
pyramid evolution and remarkable in the entire history of
architecture.
It is accepted by many scholars Bochardt's suggestion that the
pyramid's three chambers represent two changes in plan, with
the abandonment of the subterranean chamber believed to be the
original intended burial chamber of the king, while the queen's
chamber in favor of the kings chamber. Later several clues,
combined to mention that the three chambers and the entire
passage system were planned together from the out set, as three
chambers were also the rule of the old kingdom.

From the original entrance the descending passage goes through

the pyramid with an angle 26°31 and length about 7.3m.(24
feet). This passage ends in the subterranean chamber. This was
the classic pyramid structure as seen in Meydum and other
pyramids, a descending corridor leading to a chamber at or
below ground level. But here for the first time, the chamber was
carved out of solid bedrock, though it was not completed.

So the descending corridor becomes horizontal then leads to an

unfinished burial chamber, the walls of which are in rough
condition. It measures about 46 feet (14m.) in length 27 feet
(7.2m.) in width and 11.6 feet (5.3m.) in height. There is a small
rough passage, considered to be astonishing, which leads to the
south. The purpose of this passage was thought before to
connect this chamber with another one similar to the two
chambers under the northern pyramid at Dahshur.
But this opinion was abandoned by some scholars, because the
subterranean chamber cannot serve for the king’s burial since
this was the last chamber of a series, moreover the descending
passage is simply too small to introduce a sarcophagus with the
size of that found in the king's chamber.

4
The so-called queen's chamber (misnamed by the Arab
explorers) is higher up in the pyramid reached through the
ascending passage and a horizontal passage. It lies exactly on
the east west centre axis of the pyramid and was almost
completely finished.
In other words, it could be mentioned that most probably the
design of the pyramid was changed or enlarged; this change in
plan was known or called;

The second plan;

This change in plan was made by cutting a hole in the roof of
the descending corridor, this hole leads to an ascending corridor
which was cut upwards through the core of the pyramid, it
measures about 36m.long. This ascending passage leads to
another horizontal passage about 35m.long and 1.75m.high that
leads to the misnamed room known as the queen's chamber. The
junction of the ascending corridor with the horizontal passage
was originally roofed. The queen's chamber was therefore
totally closed off. The queen's chamber was built entirely of
limestone. It measures 5.2 by 5.7 meters and the maximum
height of it pointed roof is about 6 meters.

In the eastern wall of this room a large niche with a corbelled

roof is located. The occurrence of this niche together with its
characteristic of being closed off, pushed "Mark Lehner" to
describe this room as a serdab, in other words, a room for the ka
statue (the king's spiritual double).
Small holes in the north and south walls lead into narrow
channels that originally opened on the exterior of the pyramid.
These channels or shafts are usually referred to as "air channels"
, although some of the Egyptologists believed that they had a
religious significance related to the soul of the king.

5
After the construction of the great pyramid changed their plan
once again this was known as;
The third plan:
In this plan they enlarged the structure and built a higher burial
chamber. In the roof of the ascending corridor a hole was cut
which leads to the Grand Gallery that measures about47х 2.1m
and the height of which is 8.7 m. high, the roof is corbelled
similar to those of Meydum and Dahshur. Along the sides are
2.8 holes that were cut at regular intervals. These holes were
intended to receive ends of the wooden platform on which the
coffin of the king was dragged. The passage served as a store
place of stone plugs used for blocking the mouth of the
ascending corridor after the burial. The grand gallery leads us to
a horizontal passage this passage serves as an antechamber, it is
made out of granite and it measures about 8.4 meters long and
3.1 meters high.
Beyond the antechamber is the so called king's chamber, which
is lined, roofed and paved with finely dressed and polished
granite. It measure about 10.5 х 5.2 meters and its height is
about 5.8 m. its flat roof is formed of nine monolithic slabs of
granite, each weighs about 50 tons.
In the western part of this room is a lidless red-granite
sarcophagus finely policed, but un- inscribed. The northern and
southern walls each have an "air shaft" or "ventilation shaft",
one of them still functions and serves to keep the air of the
chamber fresh these shafts leads to the outer face of the
pyramid, they are oriented to the northern polar star, many
scholars referred them mainly to religious purpose.

Over the king's room "Five relieving chambers" they were

designed to lessen the pressure of the pyramid's upper portions
on the roof of the burial chamber. Each of these chambers is
built of limestone and roofed with granite and is about 1 meter
high. The first four chambers have flat ceilings and the upper
most one has corbelled roof. It is here in those chambers the
name of king Khufu (Cheops) was found, it records that, "in the
seventeenth year of Khufu's reign," showing that the building

6
had reached this stage at that time. Here are the only places
where Khufu's name occurs inside the pyramid. Although these
five rooms are made out of limestone, their roofs were made red
granite. These rooms are not connected to each other; the first
room could be reached through a hole cut into the upper south
wall of the grand gallery. We can reach these rooms by a tunnel
through the first room.
At the lower end of the grand gallery on the west wall, is the
mouth of an escaping tunnel, which was cut between the
descending and the ascending corridor. The purpose of this
tunnel was to enable the workmen who pushed down the stone
plugs to block the mouth of the ascending corridor to escape
from the pyramid without being trapped inside it after the burial
of the king.

1- Descending corridor.
2- Burial chamber of the 1st plan.
3- Burial chamber of the 2nd plan.
4- Ascending corridor.
5- Grand gallery.
6- Ante chamber.
7
7- Burial chamber.
8- Five rooms.
9- Ventilation shaft.
10- 30 F. missed from the pyramid.

N.B.
1- The granite sarcophagus which was placed inside the burial
chamber is a lidless sarcophagus. The width of the sarcophagus
is one inch wider than the entrance of the passage, which was
explained by some scholars that may be it was placed inside the
chamber before being built. The lid of this sarcophagus was
missed.
2- The area of the pyramid itself is about 13.1 acres.

3- It is mentioned that all the stone blocks of the pyramid would

build two- thirds of the way around the equator.

4- The stones of the great pyramid and its neighbors contained

enough stones to build a wall 3 meters high and 1 meter
thickness, which would entirely surround France.

5- According to Herodotus the outer casing of the pyramid were

covered by Hieroglyphic texts.
6- The word pyramid is derived from one of the two theories:

a) The Egyptian word pr-m-ίs which means going up from the

ίs, we don't know exactly what the ίs means.

b) Derived from the Greek word pyramid which plural is

pyramids that means the wheaten cake.

8
w

9
 E
funerary
temple

Subsidiary pyramid

Cause way
Burial shaft of queen Valley
temple
hetepheres

The Pyramid Complex.

Temples of the pyramid complex.

10
 The funerary complex of king Cheops contains two temples
connected to each other by a causeway. These temples are the
valley temple and the funerary or mortuary temple. Both
temples and the causeway connecting them are situated to the
east of the great pyramid.
The Valley temple;
It is buried under the village of Nazlet El-Seman.
The functions of the valley temple;
1- Mummification.
2- Purification.
3- Opening of the mouth.
In the Old and the 1st half of the Middle kingdom the opening of
the mouth ceremony occurred on the statues, while in the 2nd
half of the Middle Kingdom up to the New kingdom, this
ceremony was held for the mummy.

The Causeway;
The causeway connects the valley temple with the mortuary
temple. It was built of limestone; it measures about 720 yards in
length and 60 feet in width. According to Herodotus, it was
roofed and its side walls were decorated with scenes.

funerary
Causeway temple

Valley
temple

It was intact in the last century except for some parts of its
foundation, but it is destroyed. Parts of its floor are intact. A
tunnel was cut near its middle in order to enable the people to go
from one side to the other instead of walking around the whole
complex; i.e. to lessen the distance or to shorten the tour around

11
the causeway, that is they made the tunnel from the right side to
the left side in order to cross the way.
Also there is a kind of bridge built at the point where it crossed
the edge of the plateau to the cultivation land or the valley in
order to be connected with the valley temple. That is the rear
part before the valley temple a mud-brick bridge was built to
lessen the slope of the causeway. Most probably the causeway
contained scenes as the mortuary temple.
The Mortuary temple;
It is now completely destroyed except for its floor (in the eastern
side) remains of its black basalt as well as its limestone rock –
foundation has enabled archaeologists to reconstruct its original
plan and general appearance. It is a rectangular building, built of
limestone with its longer axis running from east to west. It
measures 171 feet in length and 132 feet in width, the entrance
of the temple was situated on the eastern side which leads to a
court paved with black bazalt and surrounded on three sides by a
raw of granite pillars, all of which are square in shape except
those in the corners which were oblong in shape, they form a
kind of a porch or antechamber.

At the southern corner of the court there is a stair case leading to

the roof of the temple.
At the western side of the temple behind the court there was an
antechamber which was roofed, and the roof of which being
supported by twelve square pillars. The pillars are diminishing
that is eight pillars in the first raw and four pillars in the second
raw.
This porch or antechamber leads to a cruciform chamber which
may have contained five niches for the statues of the king.
Behind the cruciform chamber were perhaps the sanctuary and
two false doors. The sanctuary must have been consisting of an
altar with a round top stela on either side. According to Ricke,
the sanctuary stood in the open area between the back wall of
the mortuary temple and the base of the pyramid. A passage in
the North West corner of the court leads out to the enclosure of
the great pyramid. The walls of this court were decorated with

12
scenes carved in low relief.

The enclosure wall;

The pyramid was once surrounded by a Tura limestone wall
over 8 m.(26ft) height, enclosing a court 10.2 m. (33ft) wide,
paved in limestone.
Tombs around the pyramid.
There are two kinds of tombs around the pyramid. The first type
is 3(three) subsidiary pyramids and the second type is the
mastabas.
1- The Mastabas around the pyramid.
The pyramid is surrounded from three sides by mastabas, only
the northern side is empty.
The mastabas around the great pyramid are outside its enclosure.
They were built for high officials and relatives of the king. The
mastabas were built of mud-brick, local stone and limestone. All
the mastabas around the pyramid were erected during the life
time of king Cheops and they were made out of stone.

These mastabas were arranged in parallel rows, several feet

apart on the east and the west sides of the pyramid, there is only
one raw of mastabas to the south of the pyramid.
In the Eastern side there are about 80 mastabas arranged in
rows, between every two there are some equal distances. These
mastabas are smaller in size than those in the west,
they belong to close relatives of the king.
In the western side there are 64 mastabas that belong to high
officials, arranged in rows with equal distance between them.
These mastabas are bigger in size, they were built of local stone
and covered by tura limestone, the outer faces of these mastabas
have suffered great damage and have lost their own casing.

The southern mastabas belong to both the relatives and the high
officials.
The occurrence of all these mastabas reflects the deifying of the
king at that time, as people wanted to be beside their king after
his death as they were before his death.

13
In the 5th and 6th dynasties smaller mastabas were built in the
areas between the rows of the original mastabas.
In the 26th dynasty people used Giza plateau as their burial
ground, they erected smaller mastabas all over the site and the
plateau was covered by a large number of them. As a result the
area lost its architectural cohesion.
The three subsidiary pyramid;
These pyramids are situated to the east of the great pyramid and
to the south of the causeway.
Each one of these pyramids has a funerary chapel situated on its
eastern side.
The first subsidiary pyramid;
It belongs to Mrt-ίt.s, the full sister and the chief wife of king
Cheops. It is also known as the northern pyramid. This small
pyramid is 45 meters square, its four sides incline at an angle of
51˚. It is built out of limestone. it's present height is about 6m.
it's entrance is cut in the middle of the northern face little above
the ground. The entrance leads to a descending corridor that
measures 16.5 m in length, this corridor leads to the
antechamber which in turn leads to another corridor or passage
that connects this antechamber to the burial chamber.

This pyramid was built of local stone, covered by tura

limestone, all of which are vanished. On the eastern side of this
pyramid there was a funerary chapel which is completely
damaged now a day.
On the southern side of the pyramid there is a boat pit which
was converted in later period into store rooms. This pyramid
was built on a square plan of 45m.square.

14
 Funerary
chapel

The second subsidiary pyramid;

Similar to the first one, built of local stone covered with tura
limestone, remains of the casing still exists on the eastern side.
At the beginning it was mistakenly attributed, by Herodotus, to
the daughter of king Cheops, but all modern scholars rejected
this and attributed the pyramid to one of Khufu's minor wives.
The entrance of the pyramid is located in the northern face little
above the ground. It leads to a descending passage which is
terminated with an antechamber. A descending corridor
connects the antechamber with the burial chamber. The height
of the pyramid is 9 m. it inclines to an angle of 52˚. It is similar
to the northern pyramid exception Its height. in the eastern side
there is a funerary chapel which is completely destroyed.

In the southern face of the pyramid there was a boat pit, this pit
was excavated in 1952, it is now filled with rubble and sand.

The third subsidiary pyramid;

It belongs to Hnwt.sn the half sister and the secondary wife of
king Cheops. In the 21st dynasty for unknown reason she was
deified and identified with goddess Isis and was called Isis

15
Henutsen, the mistress of the pyramid. This proves that the
eastern chapel was dedicated to goddess Isis this chapel was
rebuilt on a large scale during the 21st dynasty.
This pyramid is bigger than the other two and it is built of local
stone and cased with Tura limestone. Remains of the casing still
exist on the eastern and southern sides. It inclines to an angle of
51˚ and the length of it is 45m. square, it's present height is 11m.

The entrance is in the northern side and it leads to a

substructure, which is very similar to the substructure of the
other two pyramids.

16
 Tomb of Htp Hrs

It was discovered in 1924, 1925 by Risner Hetep Heres lived

after her husband Senefru had died and she took the title of the
king's mother, she died most probably in the 15th year of reign of
King Cheops.
We are not sure about the original tomb of this queen. It was
said that the original tomb of Hetep Heres was probably located
near the northern pyramid of king Senefru at Dahshur. Where
she was buried in one of the subsidiary pyramid which is
situated to the south of the northern pyramid at Dahshur. This
suggestion is rejected because the burial chamber in the
southern subsidiary pyramid is too small to contain the funerary
furniture. It is now generally accepted by most scholars that
king Senefru was buried in the northern pyramid at Dahshur and
not in the bent pyramid, however, Fakhry believed that king
Senefru was buried in the bent pyramid.

17
In February 1925 professor Resiner discovered the secret
secondary burial of queen Hetep Heres which was situated to the
south of the causeway of the greet pyramid of king Cheops, her
son , her sarcophagus, which should have contained her mummy
was found empty of its contents. This tomb took two years of
careful work to be cleared, all the funerary objects found in
these tomb were transferred to the Cairo museum. Resiner
believed that the original tomb of Hetep Heres at Dahshur was
broken into by the thieves after a short period of her burial and
her mummy was damaged or taken away by the thieves seeking
the jewelry. News of this robbery must have reached her son,
King Cheops, so he ordered her reburial in a new tomb to be
built near his pyramid at Giza.

Heminu the vizier and the overseer of all king's work, the sun of
Nefermaat of Meydum was the one responsible for building her
tomb and her reburial. No one even Heminu was able to tell
Cheops the full details of this robbery and the disappearance of
her mummy. Both the empty sarcophagus and other tomb
equipment were transferred from Dahshur to a chamber at the
bottom of a deep shaft, in the 15th year of the reign of King
Cheops who never knew about the disappearance of her
mummy.
This tomb is situated to the east of Cheops's pyramid, it consists
of a deep shaft that runs to a depth 99 feet, the width is 2.37
meters and the length is 1.75m at a depth of 7.47m. There is a
niche, cut in to the west wall of the shaft. This niche was
blocked by pilaster. The niche measures 2.10 meters in length
and 1.67m. in depth. The niche contained a horned skull, three
leg bones of a bull wrapped in a mat and two wine, jars. The
width of the shaft gets smaller as it goes down. At the bottom of
the shaft to the south side is the burial chamber which measures
5.22 m. in length and between 2.67m & 2.77m in width and
1.95m. in height. This tomb never had any super-structure to
indicate its place and it was intended as a secret tomb.

18
 Tombs around the pyramid

There are two kinds of tombs around the pyramid; the first type
is 3 subsidiary pyramids and the second type is the mastabas.
The 3 subsidiary pyramids are situated to the east of the great
pyramid and each one of them has a funerary chapel on its
eastern side, while the mastabas are situated on the east, west
and south sides of the pyramid, as mentioned the first type is
three subsidiary pyramids.

Solar. Boats
Boats around the pyramid
w

s n

19
Five pits were found for the solar boats around the great
pyramid two of these pits were situated to the northern and the
southern sides of the mortuary temple.
Another pit was to the north of the causeway these three pits
were empty when discovered. The 4th pit is situated in the south
east of the pyramid, while the 5th one is situated in the south
west.
The south east pit was the one that was opened; it was
discovered in 1954 by Kamal El Malakh. It was sealed by liquid
of mud out of this pit, the boat was produced, and this boat
consists of 651 elements and 1224 pieces.
This ship was reconstructed in 12 years by Ahmed Yossef and
was exhibited in 1980.

20