The great pyramid passages and chambers

561 When Professor Flinders Petrie made his discovery of the large granite block on the floor of the Descending Passage at the junction of the First Ascending Passage (he seems not to have known of the others), it occurred to him that it might have come from the Ante-Chamber. The three pairs of grooves on the sides of that chamber seemed to suggest the possibility of other Granite Leaves or portcullises stretching across between the walls like the present Granite Leaf—See Plate CXIX. It was the only likely place he could imagine; but he saw too many objections to this theory to advance it as anything more than a mere suggestion. Why, he asks, should there be a [four-inch] drill-hole through the block [and we have seen that the two next largest also have each a pair of drill-holes], if it originally formed part of another Leaf? He anticipates that some might claim that the hole was modern, made for smashing up the block more easily ; but objects that “ it is such a hole as none but an ancient Egyptian would have made, drilled out with a jewelled tubular drill in the regular style of the fourth dynasty [the period during which this Great Pyramid was built], and to attribute it to any mere smashers and looters of any period is inadmissible.”

562 The grooves in the Ante-Chamber are, in any case, too wide, being an inch more than the thickness of the stone. Professor Flinders Petrie remembers that the blocks of the Granite Leaf are also an inch narrower than their grooves; but seems to forget what he himself points out later, and as we have already seen (Par. 489), that the extra inch is filled in by corresponding projections or rebates on the blocks, which are wholly lacking in the block discovered by Professor Flinders Petrie; nor are any to be seen on the other blocks.

563 Without doubt, these granite stones with their unique drill-holes, form a mystery which must be left for some future investigator to make plain; we cannot think what was their original purpose, and are bound to confess as did Professor Flinders Petrie, that, to use his words, ‘something has been destroyed, of which we have at present, no idea.”

564 While John and I were thinking over these matters, we distinctly heard a voice © coming up the Well-shaft from 125 feet below, asking us if we were coming down to tea! Jack and Stanley had persuaded their mother to visit the Pit; and as Sayd had arrived with our customary four o'clock tea, they were now impatiently waiting for us to join them. We therefore caught hold of the knotted rope (which can be seen on the right-hand side in the photograph of the Grotto, hanging down against the north wall of the square shaft (Plate CLI), and began the descent. Seven feet or so brought us to the end of the second vertical part. Beyond this the shaft descends at a steep angle southward—Plate IX.

565 The average height of the roof from the floor in this inclined part of the shaft, is about 30 inches. The width between the walls at the roof is greater that the width at the floor, the former being about 25 inches, and the latter 22 inches. The roof, walls and floor of this shaft are not, however, so regularly cut in the rock as are the Descending Passage and Small Horizontal Passage leading to the Pit. In the angles between the two walls and the floor, rough portions of the rock have been allowed to remain, for the purpose of serving as footholds. These footholds, which are regularly spaced all the way, are not very deep or secure, especially to those unaccustomed to such places.

566 Our measuring operations took longer than we had provided for, and our stock

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