The great pyramid passages and chambers

of the Descending Passage, was originally closed by a smooth limestone block similar to the other stones which form the roof of the Descending Passage, and in line with them —Plate XI. So effectually did this limestone block conceal the entrance of the First Ascending Passage, that none of the classic nations knew anything about the upper passages and chambers. Later, the little of what was once known by ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, was lost, for even the site of entrance to the Great Pyramid became forgotten. Consequently, when Caliph Al Mamoun, with the mistaken idea that the Great Pyramid contained treasures of gold and precious stones, desired to enter it and explore its wonders, there was only an indistinct rumour to guide him towards trying the northern rather than any other side of the monument. He selected a spot in the middle line on the seventh course of masonry, and, therefore, several feet below and to the right of the true Entrance. Here he caused his workmen to force a passage horizontally into the great solid mass of the Pyramid.

97 It is reported that after weeks of fruitless quarrying, the Caliph’s despairing workmen were disposed to abandon their task, when one day they heard a noise as if something had fallen in an interior space a few feet from where they were. They immediately set to work eastwards in the direction of the sound, and soon burst into the Descending Passage, thus forming the irregular opening already described. There they found that the noise had been caused by the falling of the large angular stone, which for ages had formed part of the roof of the Descending Passage, and had sealed up the entrance to the upper passages and chambers. In this way, this most important secret was revealed for the first time since the erection of the building ; and had it not been for the shaking of the masonry which caused the roof-stone to become dislodged and fall, the upper passages might even yet have remained unknown.

98 But the workmen, though they had discovered the First Ascending Passage, found that access into it was prevented by the Granite Plug, which is so tightly wedged that it is impossible to remove it entire, and so hard that it would have been extremely difficult to break it. Accordingly, they chose the easier plan of breaking up and removing the limestone blocks to the right or west of the Granite Plug, and so forced their way upwards into the passage above. This discovery of the upper passages was made in the year 820 A.D.; and as the Great Pyramid was built about the year 2170 B.C., their existence must have been unknown for practically three thousand years! The due time had arrived, however, when the Lord permitted these upper passages and chambers to be discovered, in order that their secrets might be revealed in the latter days of this Dispensation, and that, by means of the Great Pyramid as well as from the Bible, men might learn that the Lord is God, ‘declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure’—Isa. 46: 10.

99 It was many years after Al Mamoun’s attack on the inside of the Great Pyramid that there began, with the object of building the new Mussulman cities and mosques, that spoiling of its outside which resulted in the removal of the top-stone, and of nearly all the smooth, white casing-stones that formerly covered or encased the building. Prior to this act of vandalism, the shining white Pyramid must have presented a glorious sight. Professor Flinders Petrie points out that the stones at the summit of the Pyramid continued to be thrown down from time to time till so recently as the beginning

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