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"