The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

NOTES

above representation indicates the Zodiac began with Virgo and finished with Leo (Lion); that is to say, the astronomical year formerly began with the autumn equinox, and this is the zero of time reckoning given in the Great Pyramid’s time-chart, and was the system in use in ancient times. The word Sphinx comes from the Greek o¢iyyw—to join or bind together—and is thus used to show where the two ends of the Zodiac were joined.

Note X : THE SPHINX AND THE GREAT PyRAMID (page 89)

In connection with the tradition of underground passages connecting the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, the following from a magazine article on the Great Pyramid, written about 1895, or perhaps earlier, is of interest. The writer thereof, quoting from an old manuscript (date, unfortunately, not stated), says: “ In a tomb behind the Sphinx, from the mouth of a mummy-pit eighty feet deep, the echoes, prolonged, of a gun fired in the heart of the (Great) Pyramid were heard, while the gun fired at its base was hardly audible. This fact proves a hidden labyrinth beneath the table-land.”’

Note Y: CoNSTRUCTION CHAMBERS OVER THE KING’s CHAMBER IN THE GREAT PYRAMID (page 93)

The lowest of these chambers is known as Davison’s Chamber, from its first discoverer, Nathaniel Davison, British Consul at Algiers, in 1765, who entered it by the forced passage from the top of the Grand Gallery. He is also credited with being the first to represent the Great Pyramid as it was before dilapidations began.

It was left to Col. Vyse to discover the other chambers above it, and the gabled roof surmounting them, and forming the true roof of the chamber. This he did by tunnelling a small passage vertically upwards past each in turn, his chief object in doing so—clearly a very difficult and dangerous task in such a confined space in addition to being overhead work—being that he expected to find the real burial place of Cheops, whom he supposed was buried somewhere in the Great Pyramid, above Davison’s

129 K