Giza Necropolis and Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie Also called Pyramid of Khufu or Pyramid of Cheops, was

built in period of 20 years sometime around 2560 BC. It is believed by Egyptologist that pyramid was supposed to be tomb for Pharaoh Khufu from 4th dynasty. With height 146.5 meters it was highest man made structure for more than three thousand years. Inside of pyramid in Kings Chamber is made of huge granite blocks with weight 25 80 tons. Rest of the pyramid is made of limestone blocks carefully stacked up in various patterns what caused stones to interlock and hold together with some use of mortar. Thanks to this system builders were able to construct corridors, halls and shafts by using different pattern. Upon its completion surface of the pyramid was covered by additional layer of casing. Casing stone also known as Tura stone. It is white limestone quarried in Tura, city on the other side of Nile southeast from Giza. Tura stone had high value for Egyptians because of its softness thus it was easier to work with. Only few other pyramids and monuments were build using this particular stones. Unfortunately, almost all remaining casing stone had been removed from surface of pyramid and used for building mosques by Arabs. This also applies to other two pyramids at site of Giza plateau. Both Khafres and Menkaures pyramid was once covered by Tura stone but they met same fate as Khufus pyramid and all casing stone was stolen and used for building houses. Pyramids alongside with sphinx represent Egyptians as great nation with technology to build great monuments using just simple tools. After years of excavations and research done about pyramids and sphinx there is lots of unknown and they are clouded in mystery. The Djedi Team is currently working inside the Khufus pyramid in Queens chamber and they are trying to uncover mystery about two shafts leading from chamber towards the surface. First attempt to do this happened in year 1992 and then in 1993 by team called The Upuaut Project lead by Rudolf Gantenbrink. This campaign sent mobile robot through one of the shafts and they found block sealing shaft so they were unable to continue. Now the Djedi team continue in their work with help from France company Dassault which assembled robot and whole team is composed from international Egyptologist from England, China and Canada and is managed by Leeds University. Project started in 2009 when they did preliminary studies about shafts. Team continued from 2011 and further results are expected in early 2012. Team sent robot through one of the shaft, robot was armed with core drill and pinhole camera and positioning system to determinate orientation, second mini robot that can fit into the hole to further explore room behind the stone. Team discovered unknown marking in sealed room and also in the shaft itself. This team in pursue to uncover mystery behind sealed air shaft used technology, science and robotics which is common in archeology to search in tight places where human cannot fit or places too dangerous to explore due to instability or just because it is easier and safer to let robot do the job first. But this project is ultimate because robot of this kind was never used before thus this one was constructed especially for this purpose. This server as good example that there always is something to explore and to find means on how to do it the best way. In year 2011 we still cannot come to verdict what is true purpose of pyramid itself. And why there are no wall writings and painting as in other tombs since most Egyptologist consider Khufus pyramid to be tomb. I would also like to mention Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie pioneer in work he did on Khufus pyramid and lots of other excavations around Egypt. He was pioneer of systematic

methodology in archaeology and preservation of artifacts and developed Contextual Seriation. This is relative method of dating artifact when absolute dating like Carbon dating is not possible. It is based on assembling artifact from same culture but from different sites or places in one place to chronological order where concentrations of certain design styles had the shortest duration across the sequence. For Frequency Seriation we assume that styles follow curve of popularity where they start slowly than grow to a peak and then die away as another style becomes popular. This provides the basis for frequency seriation. This also means that design popularity will be similar from site to site within the same culture. In addition to this, it is vital that the lifespans of the different design styles overlap. So while popularity of one design is dying other must rise in same time. Based on these rules, an assembling of artifacts can be placed into sequence so that sites with the most similar designs of certain styles are always together. Reason why Flinders Petrie came to Giza was to survey Giza Plateau and measure pyramids to truly investigate how they were constructed. He published report about his triangulation survey, and his analysis of the architecture of Giza therein, it was unique in its methodology and accuracy, and it still provides much of the basic data regarding the pyramid plateau to this day. This man inspired me by his work and strong will to do what he believed in. He was Columbus of his own time in Archaeology and Egyptology circles. He looked at thing from different perspective than everyone else and accomplished truly amazing things. Famous Discovery of Merneptah Stele which is considered as his best one, but I admire him not for his discoveries but for his approach on things that were unknown. Places he visited and worked on inspired me to follow this path and one day be proud of myself that I continued in his work or used his research to do mine. He was first to use seriation in Egyptology and I know I wont be the last one. His approach to study of artifacts set new standards in archaeology. He said: "I believe the true line of research lies in the noting and comparison of the smallest details." Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie