Paranormal
You are most probably aware of the existence of the Pyramids of Gizeh. But do you know when they were first 'discovered'? Can you recall when the Great Pyramid was first penetrated? Not much is really known about the history of the excavation of the pyramids, as it is a seemingly lackluster topic, but this too can prove to be interesting if one pays proper attention to it.
The Great Pyramid we see today is not the same Pyramid that the ancients had seen. In their time, it was covered with a fine, white, smooth and polished limestone casing on each of its four sides. It reflected the sun's light with such brilliance that it was also known as The Light. The beds and sides of these blocks were worked to a perfect surface and fitted together with such precision that the cemented joints were almost impossible to see. The entire pyramid was covered in hieroglyphs, so many that they could have occupied well over six thousand pages.
It was in this state of purity until the end of the twelfth century. Towards the end of the twelfth century, an earthquake rocked Cairo, leaving the majority of the city in shambles. The residents of Cairo then descended upon the Great Pyramid for building material, to rebuild their broken city. They stripped off the white lining blocks, and carried them off to Cairo. It's very much possible that a certain mansion, palace or fort of Egypt may be hiding within its walls the same inscriptions that once covered the Pyramids. There are enough stone blocks in the Pyramids to build a fair sized town, but they found that the cost and labor involved in simply unwedging a single block was so enormous, they decided to leave it be. However, this realization had come only after they had removed the topmost courses of masonry, thus depriving the Pyramid of its apex.
The entrance which visitors use today isn't the entranceway that was used by the ancient Egyptians themselves. After the pyramid was sealed, several millennia ago, the location of the entrance eluded the Greeks and Romans, though its legend persisted.
It was in the year 820AD that the Caliph Al Mamoun made his engineers, architects and workmen to labor away to find the entrance. They had no chart or plan, and worked only by the tradition that the entranceway was on the north side of the pyramid. As a side note, this Caliph was the son of Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, the same character of the book "Arabian Nights."
The men began by attempting to break away at the stone casing. They would light small bonfires against the stones, and when the stones were red hot, they threw vinegar on the stone until it cracked. Today, one can still see the blackened surfaces on the Pyramids. The difficulty of penetrating such a hard mass of masonry with tools as primitive as chisels was bearing upon the workers, and they had tunneled inwards for more than a hundred feet. They were about to openly refuse to work any longer, when the sound of a heavy stone falling out of place came to their ears. It had come from some point interior, and nearby. Thereafter, they managed to find the location of the entrance and broke through.
To get an idea of where they entered from, take a look at this image below, the various points will be referenced further in the article:
When they broke through and descended a tiny passage, and found a hidden door. The door was very cleverly concealed, with the exact same color as its adjacent stones, and could not be detected easily. The door was really a movable stone flap, self replacing, and tightly fitting into the opening. When opened, it wheeled around on its own length, revealing a cavity. It was finely balanced and worked on a pivot. It had to be opened with a strong push at one end, and a powerful pull at the other end. The visitor could then squirm his way inside, into the passage behind, after which the stone flap swung back, concealing the entrance once again. That was not all, a heavy wooden locked door also blocked the way. Throughout the first excavation of the pyramid, ten heavily barred doors were found. All of these doors, including the stone flap disappeared during the pillage that took place during the earthquake.
The men were now at the junction of the entrance passage (1) and the passage leading upwards from it. They crept up this corridor(5), 26 degrees slope, less than four feet high and around three feet high. They went forward until they reached the point where it became horizontal. Here it was a junction again, one that led to a huge upward sloping hallway. They went horizontally(4), and found themselves in a large room, which was disappointingly empty. Its walls were plain, and bore no inscriptions. This is the Queens Chamber (7)
Going back to the junction, they then headed upwards to the large corridor, whose height was seven times its width. This is the Grand Gallery (3). It went upwards for about 150 feet, and ended in an antechamber. A few more steps, and they were in another room (9). The King's Chamber, as it was bigger and thus named, was walled with huge granite blocks, and its ceilings were formed of nine huge beams, each weighing seventy tons. This room too, contained an open, empty coffin.
It seems surprising that the Egyptians had built such a huge structure, and just left it empty. They proceeded to then hack away at the floor and the walls in their vain attempt to find a hidden room or door. Later, continuing exploration, they went back to the descending passage (6), which descended at a rapid rate and ended in a rough chamber (8), with a low roof and an unfinished rocky floor. It was named, "The Pit." It contained only dust.
Then remained the shaft (going upwards from the area between 6 and 8). This they decided to explore by going downwards from the junction of the Grand Gallery, lowering one man at a time. The only significant part was that they came across a small chamber, actually an enlargement of the shaft. This was named "The Well."
Thus ended the Caliphs adventures with the Pyramid. Centuries rolled by, and legend had surrounded the Pyramids with superstition and horror, so the local residents left it alone. Then came Nathaniel Davison, who whilst exploring the Kings Chamber noticed a curios echo that returned more than once when he shouted loudly. He suspected that beyond this room lay another chamber. The echoes seemed to be coming from overhead, so he hoisted a ladder and found an opening had already been created. Climbing through, he came to a chamber, twenty feet long. This came to be known as the Davison's Chamber.
Colonel Vyse found four rooms immediately above the Davison's Chamber, each of these rooms were low and confined in space. They were gabled ceilings of sloping limestone beams, and it was determined that their purpose was to relieve the ceiling of the King's Chamber of the overwhelming pressure of the thousands of tons of stones directly above it. These slopes were acting as a cushioning device. Another curios thing Vyse found was the only hieroglyphs found in the Pyramids. It was in these same five construction chambers. It was several marks, and among these marks were the cartouches of three royal names: "Khufu," "Khnem Khufu," and "Khnem." They weren't inscribed either, but drawn in red paint.
Egyptologists could only guess as to the meaning of Khnem, but knew that Khufu was the Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh to whom the Greeks had given the name Cheops. So it was also determined that Khufu had built the Great Pyramid and none else. Yet nowhere has Khufu's mummy been found.
Finally, for the more intersted reader, here is a more detailed cross section with dimensions:
