Richard Wies and the pyramids

At the end of 18 century new and new seekers of antiquities began to arrive in Egypt. Among these was the British colonel Richard Wies, after thirty-five years of military service, decided to study the Egyptian pyramids.

Hardly arrived in Cairo, Richard Wies rushed to the pyramids. A pedantic officer, Wies decided to study the contents of the pyramids in a calm and systematic way, not at all embarrassed that none of his predecessors could succeed in this. It was this pedantry that allowed the Visa to make its discovery, although he had to resort to this in a very barbaric way.

Especially in order to explore the pyramids, Wies was delayed in Egypt for almost two years. Together with the British Vice-Consul in Egypt, Sloan and Colonel Campbell, he founded a company to study the pyramids.

The first goal of Richard Wies chose Khufu-Cheops pyramid. His first goal was to select the burial chamber of the pyramid. His attention was especially attracted by the report of the researcher Davison that during his research works he had penetrated from the Great Gallery into the room, which had appeared above the ceiling of the burial chamber. The presence of this room allowed to conclude that the pyramid was not a "solid stone mass" - it probably could have other voids. And what if there are treasures hidden in these still unknown cells?

Reflecting on how to get to the unknown locations of the pyramid, Richard Wies drew attention to the "ventilation shafts" (such was their intended purpose) that led up from the Burial Chamber to the north and south. Wies believed that these mines come to the surface of the pyramid. Indeed, a few days later found the corresponding holes on the north and south sides of the pyramid. However, it was not yet possible to prove that these were the mouths of the very mines, since they were densely packed with soil. Then Wies ordered to begin clearing the mines from the lower holes. This hard work has not yielded any results. Then Wies ordered to simply blow up the ceiling of the burial chamber.

In the spring of 1837 the pyramid was shaken by a powerful explosion, the consequences of which can be seen in the burial chamber until now. However, everything worked out, and the results of this, in general, barbarous, operation turned out to be sensational. It turned out that there is one more camera over the "Davison's camera", the next one above it, and there are five such cameras. All of them were separated from each other by roughly processed stone blocks. The upper room was covered by two large blocks, which form a triangular giant massive roof.

Another discovery of the Wies was the blocks found in the two upper chambers with hieroglyphic inscriptions, which mentioned the name of the one for whom the pyramid was intended - Pharaoh Khufu. Perhaps it was written by some stonemason, so it was clear on which construction site this unit was to send. The inscription was made in red, and the hieroglyphs are legible.

This sensational news immediately flew around the world. Over time, however, fraud was revealed. Egyptologist Samuel Birsch, a connoisseur of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, discovered in the inscription of the name of Cheops signs, which in the time of this pharaoh did not yet exist in the Egyptian writing. Later an expert on ancient languages, Zacharia Sichin, established that Colonel Richard Wies simply wrote the name of Cheops himself, using the work published in 1828 on Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.