Episode #085: The Upuaut Project

In this episode we do a deep-dive into German Engineer Rudolph Gantenbrink's exploration of the mysterious "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid, reading at length from his website where he meticulously records every detail of the project to use a robotic crawler to drive a camera up the shafts and inspect them up close, block by block, culminating in the discovery of the now infamous "secret door". So many interesting features were discovered by Gantenbrink and his "Upuaut" robot, most of which were so overshadowed by the "door" that these other details are rarely reported. We remedy that with this show. (All the pictures below come from Gantenbrink's website, www.cheops.org) Settling of the shaft blocks

 

"Dixon's Rod"

 

An illustration showing the partially completed shaft block, which the robot could not pass

 

Block assembly where one of the King's Chamber shaft ends on the exterior of the pyramid

 

Entering the "Mankiller" tunnel

 

Cleaning the access to exterior shaft point

 

The 100 year old wheeled "battering ram"

 

Installing the protective cover over an exterior shaft exit

 

Recessed niches in King's Chamber shaft. You can see the laser dots on the wall, inside the niches

 

Ventilator blower

 

Upuaut 2 entering a shaft

 

Lateral displacement of a shaft block

 

Static forces damaged the floor block of the shaft, making a giant "tank trap" step up to the next block

 

The infamous "door"

 

Close-up of the copper rods, with circular "seals" discoloration

 

Graphic showing shaft block arrangement

 

Shaft block assembly

 

Shaft block assembly, showing how the builders changed block sizes to keep the assembly from sliding down into the chambers

 

Strange vertical shaft seam(it looks tilted from the robot's perspective)

 

Dixon's "hook"

 

Black mark on the shaft wall, with horizontal chisel marks across it

 

Double vertical black mark with chisel marks

 

Object with two holes in it, beneath Dixon's Rod

 

Wooden square rod trapped beneath Dixon's Rod

 

Dixon's Rod curving to the right where it is jammed against the wall. To the left is the square rod, with a mysterious boxy shape barely visible at the far end of it

 

Very rough block surfaces

 

Horizontal "Scratch lines" along the block wall, just above floor level

 

Remnants of mortar glue stuck to shaft wall

 

More glue in a different area

 

Floor groove

 

A second floor groove

 

Graphic depicting saw being used to clean the sides of casing stones

 

Groove beneath casing stone seam

 

Broken piece of copper rod from the "door"

 

Fine Limestone natural veins visible in cieling

 

Remnants of gypsum on copper rod

 

Bottom right corner of the "door"