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"