GIZA /
Inside the Khufu
This is the best part of the interior of Khufu; the beautiful corridor, "Great Gallery", leading up to the king's chamber.
End of the staircase, the tomb is through the door to the left.
Coming as far as the centre of Khufu (Khufu) pyramid is actually a bit of a walk. You make your way through low corridors which don't come recommended to claustrophobias. These corridors are dimly lit, enhancing the reddish colours of the stones, that are cut to one another so tight that a piece of paper can't make its way through. When you're half they way, perhaps a bit scrubbed, short breathed, you enter the main corridor having a real staircase, and 8,5 metres of space above you (top photo). It feels twice as long as its real 47 metres. The walls are made from limestone cut in the Muqattam hills, overlooking modern Cairo. The corridor is hot and airless. Up on the top you have to bend over again, just to find yourself in the emptiest room imaginable, which is the king's tomb (bottom photo). There is only one piece left here, the simple sarcophagus of Khufu, but this simply enhances the emptiness. There is no grandeur here, but walls are as smooth as marble, while they really are made of red granite. Its rectangular, that's all. 5 metres wide, 11 metres long, 6 metres high. That's when you start saying to yourself: "Well, but I'm here. And this is it. So it must be good." Despite its simplicity the chamber has fostered many myths and fantasies, some have believed that its dimensions could be read as a prophecy of historical events in modern times. Adolf Hitler had a replica created under the Nuremberg Stadium, to have a place to prepare before holding his exalted speeches.
You see some of the sarcophagus in the lower left corner.
There are two more chambers to see, if you still have the strength. The easiest to reach is the Queen's Chamber, which probably never really contained the body of a queen. It was never really completely finished, but more than the unfinished chamber which is located in the ground, and almost 160 metres below the apex of the pyramid, and 90 metres below the King's Chamber.
