The Mystery of Ma' mun's Tunnel

Ma'mun's Tunnel

Before the time of the Abbasid Caliph Ma'mun - the year 832 to be precise - it was assumed (as far as we know) that the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the pyramid attributed to the Pharaoh Khufu, was, by design, the same as the others: namely, there was a descending passageway from an entry point above ground level down to internal chambers which were themselves at or below ground level. This is the standard design of Egyptian pyramids. Consider, for example, the Khafre pyramid, or the Menkaure pyramid:

Or consider, in the same manner, the so-called Red Pyramid, a close relative of the Great Pyramid both in chronology and conception:

In all these cases, you enter from a point some way up one of the sides and then descend through a sloping passageway to reach the interior rooms. The pyramid of Khufu was regarded as no different. It was well known to classical authors, and we must assume to a host of other people, that there was an entry point up one side and a descending passage leading down to a chamber dug into the bedrock beneath the structure, thus:

People must have gone down that passage countless times over the centuries ever since the pyramid was built, and since it conformed to the design of other pyramids there was no reason to suspect that the Great Pyramid was any different.

The only mystery was that in the case of the Great Pyramid the internal chamber - the subterranean chamber cut directly into the bedrock - was not only empty but in an unfinished and very rough state. A continuing passage from the chamber led nowhere, and the whole thing is incomplete. This was (and is) indeed perplexing because the pyramid above is so magnificent and finished to such a high degree of perfection. Why build such an extraordinary pyramid - complete with its original solid gold crown - but leave its internal chamber in such a crude state of incompletion? There was no mention of other chambers in the extant literature, and no reason to suspect there to be other chambers. The Great Pyramid follows the usual design, except that the inner chamber at the end of the descending corridor is unfinished.

All of this changed following the expedition of Ma'mun. In the last year of his life the Caliph - a bookish man and sponsor of esoteric learning and alchemy - decided to look further, and it was he and his men who discovered an ascending passageway leading to a series of other hitherto unknown chambers deep in the heart of the structure. Ma'mun demonstrated that the Great Pyramid was, in fact, an extraordinary departure from the standard design. He opened up the interior of the structure such as we know it today. According to the story, he and his men tunnelled - by force - into the side of the pyramid and caused so much vibration that a lintel fell in the ascending passage. Hearing this, his men dug in that direction and at length found the juncture where the ascending passage joins the descending one. Subsequently, they explored the internal cavities, namely the so-called Queen's chamber, the so-called Grand Gallery and the so-called King's chamber. However, the story also relates that these chambers were empty and that the Caliph left empty-handed and disappointed. There was a sarcophagus in the King's chamber, but it was empty too. No mummy. No treasure. Nothing. But at least the full design of the interior was exposed. It was a radical departure from previous designs, as one might expect in such an amazingly ambitious edifice. Here is the interior plan as we have known it since this famous undertaking by the Caliph:

The story of Ma'mun, however, is anything but satisfactory and it simply cannot be true. As we have said already, the descending passage was known throughout antiquity, and so too, therefore, its entrance. So why then would Ma'mun decide to smash his way in at a point just below that entrance? Are we really to believe that Ma'mun did not know of the natural entrance? Here is an illustration with the place of Ma'mun's tunnel marked:

As readers can see, the established entrance is just a bit higher up. (Only ten courses. Ma'mun's entrance is at course seven, the official entrance at course seventeen.) Yet, we are told, Ma'mun decided to tunnel in by force. As a man of learning - especially of Greek learning - and a sponsor of the same, he would surely have known the classical accounts which described the natural entry point even if (as seems unlikely)it had become closed off or lost in Ma-mun's era. Instead of spending time finding it, are we to believe he decided to go in by force, surely a much more laborious undertaking?

Moreover, the story of the falling lintel is quite plainly a fanciful narrative device. It explains how Ma'mun knew where to dig. It is exceedingly unlikely in itself, and in any case does not explain how - given the enormity of the whole structure - Ma'mun just accidentally chose to dig in the right place in the right direction to begin with! What amazing good fortune! Even before hearing the lintel fall he was apparently digging almost directly towards the aperture of the ascending tunnel and only had to deviate slightly to find it. The story has been told so often it has become canonical, but it is assuredly a tall tale. To this day people deride Ma'mun as a type of brainless vandal who bulldozed his way into Khufu's pyramid. Yet, in fact, he was a learned and cultured man - he established the famous House of Wisdom and promoted translations of Greek and Roman texts into Arabic. No buffoon or crass treasure hunter, it is much more likely that he knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going, and so we need to give a different account of his infamous tunnel digging. Just the idea that he dug his way in, rather than take the door, makes no sense.

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But what if he didn't dig his way in? What, rather, if he dug his way out? This is the proposal - based on wholesome lateral thinking - of the modern pyramid buffs, Ellis and Foster. As they point out, a tunnel is a two-way affair: it goes not only inwards, but outwards, and they ask if, perhaps, Ma'mun had some reason to dig a tunnel out of the structure, having gone in through the usual entrance. Perhaps the tale of the falling lintel, and the whole story of Ma'mun's tunnel, is entirely apocryphal? They present a very compelling alternative to the canonical version of events. To summarize, it goes as follows:

Ma'mun, a clever fellow, with teams of even cleverer fellows at his disposal, had come to know that there were other chambers in the Great Pyramid besides the unfinished and empty subterranean chamber. There are several ways he and his scholars might have established the possibility of this, quite apart from simply noting that there are granite plugs in the limestone structures of the descending passageway, such plugs marking and sealing another passage. The canonical story has his team of diggers accidentally chancing upon these plugs at the juncture of the two passageways, but that is superfluous - he could simply have gone down the descending passage, entering through the normal doorway, found or gone around the plugs, removed them and thereby opened up the ascending passage, no digging required. He then explored the interior chambers. However, these turned out to be as empty as the subterranean chamber. The Holy of Holies, the King's chamber, was empty too, except for the sarcophagus which at that time was sealed with a stone lid. Ellis and Foster suggest that Ma'mun ordered the sarcophagus opened by force - and thus today we see it somewhat damaged in one corner. But it too was empty. Thus, the only thing not nailed down in the entire complex was the lid of the sarcophagus. Ma'mun decided to take it.

The damaged and lidless sarcophagus in the 

King's chamber of Khufu's pyramid.

This therefore explains why the broken sarcophagus today has no lid - one of the many mysteries of the King's chamber. Yet removing the lid from the pyramid proved difficult. Firstly, it was, of course, very heavy, and secondly it was too big to fit through the established exits. In particular, there was a danger it would slide down the descending passageway, and it would not fit around the juncture of the passageways. What to do? Ma'mun ordered his men to dig a tunnel out of the structure at the juncture of the passageways, so that they could remove the sarcophagus lid. This is why they needed to dig a tunnel. Not to get into the building, but to remove something too large to get through the established exit. We might suppose that Ma'mun found other things in the pyramid and simply told no one about it, but the problem we are addressing is why he dug a tunnel. What was so large and cumbersome that he needed to create a tunnel out? Ellis and Foster have established that, given its supposed dimensions, the lid - on its side - could just be squeezed out of the King's chamber, and it could easily traverse the Grand Gallery, but it could not be taken around the corner at the passage junction. Ma'mun's tunnel solves this problem precisely.

This hypothesis actually solves three riddles: the riddle of why Ma'mun dug a tunnel, the riddle of how the sarcophagus in the King's chamber came to be damaged, and the riddle of the missing lid. It is a very neat hypothesis that, on the face of it, has more going for it than the canonical story. Once we entertain the notion that Ma'mun' tunnel was made not to get into the building - a very unlikely proposition in itself - then we are left wondering why he made a tunnel at all. The obvious answer is so that he could remove something large and awkward that he had found inside. What could that be? As far as we know, there is only one thing missing from inside the pyramid - the lid to the sarcophagus in the King's chamber. The question of how the sarcophagus was placed in the pyramid has always been a problem to modern students. It is too big. It is made from a single stone, so it was not assembled. Some people suggest that the pyramid must have been constructed around it. It clearly once had a lid. There are the lugs and runners for a lid. Where did the lid go, especially since if it was too big to get into the building it must have been too big to get out? Here is a tidy solution. Ma'mun stole it. Why? Why not? There was nothing else to steal.

All of this seems to the present writer to be a solid and highly plausible case. There are, no doubt, problems that arise - what became of the sarcophagus lid? - but many other problems might be solved in the process. For example, large amounts of rubble were found at the bottom of the descending passageway by modern investigators: this would be consistent with the idea that Ma'mun's tunnel was dug from the inside out and not the other way around. The story of the Caliph strong-arming his way into the edifice, neglecting the real entrance only a few courses away, makes no sense. We need a different explanation for Ma'mun's tunnel.

Harper McAlpine Black