More Secrets and Questions from within The Osiris Shaft
SO ! Do you think this right-angled pyramid shape occurs naturally in rock ? Later you will get a better look
and your chance to make a guess ! It is from within the Osiris complex & is part of something larger,
but you will have to climb down with us now to get to the bottom of it !!
First : The position of the Osiris Shaft on the Giza Plateau... (North is right)
This is the closed top of the Osiris shaft from the causeway, circled above
Entrance to the tunnel under the causeway from the South side. In the right hand pic.
R/hand you can just see where the corner of the Osiris Shaft is rising out of the causeway.
Here looking up along the North side of the E/West causeway towards Kephre.
Entrance to the tunnel under the causeway - and therefore the Osiris Shaft, is where the figures are seen
The Causeway on the right, heading down towards the Sphinx. The Tunnel starts under the
causeway to the Osiris Shaft - but here showing a side niche on the left of the entrance.
Elsewhere in this pic. it is possible on the original, to plainly see the drilling rigs near the tree and
the village; and to see the new harbour excavations as they run around to the cemetery.
A better view of the L/hand side niche... and a look at some of the craftsman electrical work !!
Here is the door into the causeway tunnel. Look right and you will see the guard -
rail around the start of the Osiris Shaft - from within the causeway tunnel behind the grille.
And at last, from within the causeway tunnel, here is looking down into Shaft (A) of the Osiris system.
My Sketch Impression of the Osiris system for you to use for orientation throughout.
This accurate drawing/rendition of the system was published / issued by Zahi Hawass
This taken from the first chamber looking up past the tunnel level to the grille above on the causeway level
In line North/South and at the other (N) end of the featureless first chamber, the second shaft (B) begins
13.35 M. seems a long way down, clinging to one of the twin iron ladders in the dark!
On the second chamber level there are 2 cells which accommodate the shaft up / down; plus there are six other similar sized cell/Chambers. Two of these still contain a sarcophagus. One has had a sarcophagus removed, and there is a pit in yet another. Remaining rooms are undetermined and can be fixed from the following accurate drawing from Zahi Hawass plus the following photographs. {Shaft B in the pics above}
Check the letters of the chambers against the following pictures.
Chamber (G)
Chamber (D)
Chamber (E) Chamber (C)
As per the drawing above, rotate right from shaft (B) cell, to then decend the ladder of shaft (C)
At last we get to look into the depths of the partially flooded Osiris Chamber. From the access shaft, there is a timber walkway which has been constructed to allow passage to the other side of the Osiris chamber where the Mud tunnel commences.
This walkway is very close to the ceiling and forces you to crawl along until it opens up higher again. Otherwise the contents of the chamber are on the left of the timber walkway, under several inches of water.
The water is crytstal clear and it is possible to see the sarcophagus in place plus the corner pillars. A couple of anonymous older photos are mixed in here to give better perspective.
We discovered the right angled triangular decoration embedded here as part of a larger decoration. We will not identify exactly where it is because we only discovered it from photo analysis. When we return to the chamber, if no-one else has interfered with it in the meantime, we will investigate it much further.
Also we tentitavely wish to state, we think that just like the NC2 cave system, there may be pictographs etc under the top layers of the rock surface in a couple of specific places. As with NC2, this potentially vital aspect will require specialist camera recording equipment.
In due course if our forthcoming donation facility provides for us, we will obtain and use the equipment ourselves. That way at least YOU are assured of the complete unfettered results from it. Please enjoy the chamber pics now and presently play hunt the glyphs !!
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The walkway across the flooded chamber
First impressions... down to the right hand side of the walkway.
First impressions coming down the ladder to see to the left of the walkway and the submerged sarcophagus
The back end of the chamber
A much better view below water level to the supported stone lid
Looking Back along the walkway to the entrance.
Showing most of the chamber plus two of the four pillars protruding above the water, and the unusual niche far side.
A very similar angle but with our old friends the orbs again !
The pictures above were taken from the wooden walkway which went into the corner you see below. This is an old picture from when the Osiris chamber was drained of water, and you can see a boy in the entrance to the so-called Mud Tunnel. Notice also clearly how the tunnel is following a deep fissure. We will map any fissures on our next visit, which appear to the ground surface over 100 feet above.
Another old view of the same W-N/W corner of the Osiris Chamber
The same corner today with the wooden walkway giving access from the chamber shaft on the opposite side.
Now we are at the actuial entrance. The previous picture with the boy gives scale but just like the NC2 Tube/Tunnel - this one also narrows to 4 feet roughly round or even smaller.
The following pics were taken in sequence as I crawled up the incline of the tunnel as far as I was able to go without safety gear. It rises at about 40 degrees, and after a few meters swings to the left - which would be somewhere in a rough Westerly direction.
I was able to distinguish that there may have been a branch in the tunnel to the right, but I was unable to get deep enough to confirm. As you will see in a subsequant pic, there are certainly undetermined shaft anomalies on the surface which would tie up with the mud tunnel direction !
Read also from the links at the end of our article to see how Zahi Hawass has licencenced Japanese researchers to map the whole tunnel. As with so many other promising research initiatives, whatever was really found is being kept for Zahi Hawass attention only !!
Following this article you will be able to go to our colleague Bill Brown's site for a continuation of this story and possible reasons for the deep subterfuge which has strangled it.
Crawling up the Pipe ... & snapping as I went !
By the time I got to this point the tunnel was quite narrow. I was in street clothes. The tunnel base was covered as you see in dark sandy mud sludge, which I found later covered me ! I was desparate to go further but sensibility warned me of big trouble if I got stuck due to lack of correct equipment or safety contingencies.
The tunnel had been cleared out... an easy task even for my brain !!! (EG. Water Pump and hosepipe !)
So the eminent Dr Hawass plus the feted Japanese, knew for sure already where the tunnel went, and maybe also its purpose. (It WAS deliberate!) However as previously intimated.... from the GPR scans held by our colleague Bill Brown, along with other information... perhaps we can yet help to unravel another unnecessary mystery.
And once again back to the right angled upside-down triangle. Do you agree it is not natural ? It 'is' embedded here in the wall. It is not very big - but so what ! ....If it is unnatural it is unnatural ! Here is the first section again...
Here is what it is a part of : (the whole embedded object ?) We also noted and photographed other potentials
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF IT ?? PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO RESPOND ON OUR FRONT PAGE MESSAGE BOARD.
SOMETHING? OR NOTHING?
Zahi and entourage sitting on the walkway in front of the Mud Tunnel entrance
A boy explores the narrow tunnel at the lowest level of the Osiris shaft.
One interesting feature of the Osiris Shaft is a narrow tunnel that extends from the northwest corner of the lowest level. This tunnel is only large enough to admit a young child at its entrance, and further along, it becomes filled with mud.
In 1999, I sent a boy into the tunnel to explore it. He was able to go only 5 meters before it became too narrow for even his slight frame.
In the November of 2008, television producer Richard Reisz supplied the SCA with an endoscopic camera to continue the exploration of this small tunnel.
The team who carried out this effort were able to insert the endoscope only 10 meters into the tunnel before the mud inside made it impossible to go further.
In December, the team returned with two self-propelled “rovers” equipped with cameras, which were able to travel further into the tunnel.
At about 6.5 meters, the team discovered a branch that split off the tunnel. They were able to send the camera 10.5 meters into this branch before it became too narrow and muddy for the rovers to go any further.
The team also found that the main tunnel continues to a total length of about 21 meters, where it seems to end, although it was impossible to determine this with certainty.
I have been in touch with a Japanese team who plan to bring in an even more advanced robot, which should be able to continue past the points where the earlier machines were forced to stop.
On Thursday, June 9th, 2009, we will begin the work of sending the new robot into the tunnel in the hope of finding out where it leads. Hopefully, we will be able to find out why it was carved out of the rock so deep underground.
Solving this mystery will truly be an amazing adventure, and I hope that you will enjoy learning the answer to the secret of the Osiris shaft along with me and my team!
"In his lecture, Dr. Hawass stated that two months prior he had brought in a Chinese researcher who had a 150-foot tube-fed camera, but they had only managed to get 100 feet due to the mud. After some adjustments, they returned last month and were able to get the full 150 feet without reaching the end. The next step is to use a snake robot, and he is already in contact with a Japanese research team for that purpose."
So if we take the information from above and plot it into a previous picture.. we get this :
One more time for your assistance : The Layout so far.
