Insight into the Construction, Meaning and Exploration of the Great Pyramid of Giza (Operations Manual)

The massive blocks of the gable vault were removed in ancient times for reuse. A lengthy hieroglyphic inscription on the right upper monolith of the arch, just visible here, was created by the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius. The exposed joints in the masonry beside the vault, and all the lower abutment wall interfaces, suggest that the vault does not extend further into the pyramid and originally only covered the descending passage for at most 5.4 m, or around 10 cubits, from the outer entrance.

The thickness of the stone beams is 80 cm with only slight variations. Calculations indicate that there were originally seven pairs of beams in the lower set and four pairs of beams in the upper set, which was set further back. A long hieroglyphic inscription adorns the western face of the upper set, but it was actually inscribed in the early 19th century by the German explorer Karl Richard Lepsius as a tribute to his Kaiser, Frederick William IV, King of Prussia (1840–61).

The existence of the vault poses a problem for archaeologists, as it appears to serve no real purpose in protecting the ascending passage, which was only 2 cubits in width, or just over 1 m. It is unclear whether the vault had a symbolic significance or was primarily functional, such as reducing stresses on the access corridor. Nonetheless, the elaborate structure created an imposing entrance to the pharaonic tomb.

The Great Pyramid presides over a vast collection of ceremonial buildings and subsidiary tombs, the majority of which belonged to senior officials, members of the court, and Khufu's immediate family. A necropolis, or "city of the dead," developed on two sides of the Great Pyramid, while zones directly to the north and south were kept clear, as was a 130 m-wide strip close to the western side of the pyramid enclosure that now accommodates a modern road.

A humpbacked temenos wall, 3.1 m thick at the base and around 8 m high, once encircled the pyramid at a distance of 10 m. On the east side, the wall connected to the north and south sides of the mortuary temple, which was built close to that side of the pyramid. The entire ground-level surface inside this wall was paved with limestone slabs, incorporating long channels designed to remove surface rainwater.

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