A Picture Tour of the Great Pyramid of Giza - Part 5
Explore the Queen's Chamber with its mysterious salt-encrusted walls, the enigmatic Niche, the air shafts with the famous unknown door, and descend to the Subterranean Chamber.
(12) Queen's Chamber - showing entrance door (center), air shaft (left), and part of Niche (right)
The Queen's Chamber has a rough floor and a gabled limestone roof. The name Queen's Chamber is a misnomer. The custom among Arabs was to place their women in tombs with gabled ceilings (as opposed to flat ones for men), so this room came to be labeled by the Arabs as the Queen's Chamber. The walls of this chamber are mysteriously encrusted with salt as much as 1/2 inch thick. The chamber dimensions are 18 feet 10 inches by 17 feet 2 inches. It has a double pitched ceiling 20 1/2 feet at its highest point, formed by huge blocks of limestone at a slope of about 30 degrees.
(12) The Niche in the east wall of the Queen's Chamber
(The passage through the back of the Niche is an excavation made by Colonel Vyse in 1837.)
The Niche was originally 3 feet 5 inches deep but a passage has been hacked through the back for several yards. The Niche is just over 16 feet high.
(12) Opening to Northern Air Shaft in the Queen's Chamber
The airshafts from the King's Chamber were found to exit to the outside of the pyramid. It appears that the Queen's Chamber airshafts do not lead to the outside but may terminate at an entrance to a secret chamber within the pyramid.
(12) The Unknown Door at the end of the southern air shaft
copyright Rudolf Gantenbrink
Rudolf Gantenbring in 1993 sent a small robot with a camera up the southern air shaft in the Queen's Chamber. After traveling about 200 feet up the air shaft it came to a small door complete with copper handles. The air shafts are about 9 inches square. As far as we know, this door has not been opened and what is inside remains unknown.
(13) Lesser Subterranean Chamber and Subterranean Chamber Passage
The distance of the descending passage to the beginning of the horizontal Subterranean chamber passage is about 344 feet. This shorter horizontal section leads to a small lesser subterranean chamber and then continues into the large subterranean chamber.
(14) The Lower eastern half of the Subterranean Chamber as viewed from the upper western half
This large chamber is a strange place, measuring 46 X 27 feet with a height of about 11 feet. It is cut deep into the bedrock almost 600 feet directly below the apex of the Pyramid. Its ceiling is smooth and the floor is cut in several rough levels, making it look unfinished. It has also been referred to as the "upside down room".
(14) The Pit in the Subterranean Chamber
In the center of this chamber on the east side is a square pit which is known as the "bottomless pit". It is called the "bottomless pit" since at the time of its discovery, it was not known how deep it was.