The Khufu Cartouche Fraud
Egyptologists tell us that the pyramid was built by Cheops or during his reign, in the 26th century BC. The main evidence of this attribution are some cartouches found in some stones inside the pyramid.
They are all fake.
In 1765, British consul Nathaniel Davison discovered a hidden chamber directly above the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. He gained access to the chamber via a passage at the south end of the pyramid's Great Gallery. It seems that the passage leading to this chamber was already accessible during the construction of the pyramid.
The dimensions of the chamber floor were similar to those of the King's Chamber, although only about 90cm high.
As he explored the chamber, Davison found only a floor covered in bat dung: no hidden sarcophagus, no treasure and, as in the rest of the pyramid, not a single inscription.
Seventy-two years after Davison's discovery, Colonel Howard Vyse blasted his way into the four hidden compartments above the Davison Chamber using gunpowder. Thus four chambers came to light, known today as "Relieving Chambers". The new chambers were approximately the same size as the first one.
On the wall and roof blocks of these chambers were many painted inscriptions and, significantly, the name of the supposed builder of the pyramid, Khufu. The figure below shows the chambers and their location in relation to the King's Chamber and the overall structure of the Great Pyramid.
These signs, painted in ocher, are essential for Egyptology, because they offer the only empirical evidence that directly connects Cheops to the Pyramid. However, from the moment Colonel Vyse first presented these alleged painted quarry marks, questions have surrounded them and suspicions have grown, particularly around the various names of the king and whether or not they were fraudulently placed in the four rooms from Vyse and/or by one of the two of his closest assistants: Raven and Hill. The more we analyze the inscriptions painted by the chambers, the more errors and anomalies we find.
This topic has been treated by various authors and it has now been proven that the cartouches were inserted by a colleague of Colonel Vyse in the 19th century. The story has been treated comprehensively by Zecharia Sitchin in at least two of his books, "The Stairway to Heaven" (1980) and "Journeys to the Mythical Past" (2007).
In the first book Zecharia Sitchin demonstrates how the signs found by Vyse and Perring was grammatically incorrect, while in the second he provides a broader analysis of the criticisms received for his analysis.
Therefore the pyramid was not built by Cheops.
