Dear Robert

I appreciate you finally finding the time in your busy schedule to respond to my papers and correspondence at least in a partly constructive manner, and it the constructive comments to which I will first respond. 

REPLANNING

My over-riding reaction  in this area is, unfortunately, that your suggestion that my own contribution is "selective at best and spurious at worst" is quite the most blatant piece of hypocrisy that I think even you have ever managed to conjure up. As usual it is your response that is wonderfully selective. When I originally planned my "Fundamental Flaws" paper I reconsulted Lehner's Complete Pyramids to remind myself what he had to say on the issue of replanning. Without wishing to be disrespectful to what is in many other ways an excellent reference work, his treatment of the logic underlying the layout of the chambers and passages in the Second and Third Pyramids is so superficial that I decided it did not even deserve a mention. This was a mistake on my part since you have decided, as I might have expected, to use it as the mainstay of your counter argument. So let us now look at what Lehner has to say in more detail.

With reference to the Third Pyramid, his comments are entirely logically inconsistent, as your two quotes so aptly demonstrate - although you clearly didn't regard this as a problem. On the one hand he acknowledges the possibility of replanning ("the upper passage was probably abandoned when the floor of the antechamber was lowered"), and on the other he ignores it. Furthermore his suggestion that the upper chamber was constructed merely to manoeuvre the granite blocks onto the ceiling of the lower one is not only inconsistent but ridiculous. Since all the chambers are well below ground level, all the blocks had to come down one of the descending passages first. Consequently there is no way that a chamber of the size of the upper one would have been required if this was its only purpose. And in any case we all know that there is an antechamber at the western end of the upper chamber which was used exactly for the purpose of lowering the ceiling blocks for the lower chamber, since they comprise its floor - and that this antechamber was then sealed off. Moreover, above all, although Lehner acknowledges the most important piece of evidence - that of the abandoned original passage terminating right underneath the superstructure - in the first quote, he completely ignores it in the second.

As to your own brief comment on this crucial piece of evidence, it is a masterpiece: "The upper abandoned passage... may well have been an original entrance passage, then again, it may not have been, certainly the argument can be carried either way and this in itself cannot therefore, be used to disprove a preconceived plan." Well, Robert, just for the benefit of those poor souls who are not quite as sharp and intuitive as yourself, perhaps you can expand on exactly why the upper passage may not have been "original" and "abandoned". Perhaps you think the AE's built it because they really liked banging their heads on a brick ceiling? (if that is the case I certainly know how they feel.)

Let us now turn to what Lehner has to say about the Second Pyramid. This is even more ridiculous. He is right to suggest that one of the possibilities is that it was shifted to the south but kept at the same size, and this is indeed one of the scenarios I put forward. However he also suggests that the pyramid may have been originally intended to be larger. This is the exact opposite of what the evidence of the positioning of the lower or original chamber, if it were to be under the apex of the edifice as usual, suggests. He is absolutely right to argue that "it is hard to imagine that there was an earlier plan for a larger pyramid", but there is every reason to suppose it may have originally been planned to be far smaller. He provides no explanation as to why there might have been "vacillation between two different passage systems in the course of the building", and, although it is actually Lehner that I am referring to in my original paper when I mention that some people regard the lower chamber as a "serdab", as I continue to emphasise there is no precedent for even a serdab to lie significantly away from the centre point of the structure. This is not an argument that Lehner even considers.

Robert, few people worth their salt are persuaded by someone's arguments just because they are an orthodox scholar. You of all people have used that line of attack time and again when it suited you. We take people's arguments on their merits. Lehner's comments on layout and replanning fall short of good scholarship - probably merely because his Complete Pyramids is intended primarily as an accessible summary work, and not one that focusses on the details of the Giza pyramids in particular. Meanwhile, you have completely failed to respond to, or even acknowledge, the views of Dr Edwards which I quote in my paper. Given that you are forever stressing how this "famous" Egyptologist with his "long-standing experience" contributed to the direction of your career, it is indeed a testament to your selectivity and inconsistency that you should ignore his far more detailed and considered comments on the replanning issue.

However, at the end of the day it is fatuous to trade quotes from the experts. I have interpreted what I regard as overwhelmingly the most likely reason for certain features of the internal layouts of the Second and Third Pyramids. If you want to prove me wrong, forget the quotes and consider the evidence for yourself. Give me valid and more likely alternative reasons for these features. Then I will listen to you. For once this is actual physical evidence I am talking about, and any attempt to take the attention away from that is a red herring. I wouldn't care if noone else, expert or otherwise, had ever even considered the replanning evidence. It is still there in stone, and no amount of fatuous argument will make it go away.

Intriguingly, and as something of an afterthought, you also accuse me of using a circular argument when my perfectly logical deduction from the replanning evidence is that the Plateau could not have been laid out according to some grand master plan. Quite how you arrive at this astounding logic escapes me, apart from the fact that you seem to assume that because certain "independent researchers have put forward theories based upon a unified plan for Giza" having used "unimpeachable mathematics", they must be right and I should use this as a prerequisite for my own arguments - an astounding approach to scholarship, even for you Robert. What you do not explain is that most of these researchers, although perhaps using similar geometric approaches, come up with different interpretations and conclusions - and yet you seem to imply that they are all correct. Even less do you address the issue that their work is entirely incompatible with your own theories, since it is not even remotely likely that the AE's adopting a detailed geometric/esoteric layout for the Plateau, and then made sure that the three pyramids mirrored Orion's Belt - as my private discussions with at least one of the researchers you mention infer.

But never fear, because if all else fails, Jean Kerisel is on your side. Perhaps rather than just quoting his opinion as if that should be enough to silence any doubters, you could ask him to consider my replanning evidence in detail, and attempt to use his experience to rebut it. At least he might do a more thorough and logical job - but then again he might just accept it because I doubt he has such an entrenched position to defend.

THE RELATIVE BRIGHTNESSES/SIZES OF THE STARS AND PYRAMIDS

Once again, you have completely side-stepped the real issues I have raised. You say "I really do not wish to comment on such a circular argument which I truly feel is unworthy of serious discussion. It is a form of pedantry disguised as scientific investigation." So here you are accusing me of circularity again, for equally mystifying reasons. You then proceed to make out that I am only regurgitating the work of others, when your subsequent quotes make it quite clear to anyone with even half a brain that my arguments are quite separate and distinct. Is this really the best you can do, Robert?

I do not agree with Paul Jordan's suggestion that the three pyramids are "too far apart", or John Legon's clearly contradictory suggestion that they are too close together. Indeed this should be abundantly clear from my diagram, which you reproduce, in which I quite clearly allow the relative distances apart to match up. Furthermore, I have stated quite clearly and repeatedly that I would not expect the AE's reproduction to be exact when any attempt at matching  "the above" with "the below" would be esoterically motivated. What I have said is that you would not expect the discrepancy in the relative size of the Third Pyramid to be so marked, whereby it is at least, say, 50 per cent smaller than one might reasonably expect.

As for Ivan Verheyden's comments specifically on the relative brightness issue, I am not sure whose work he is referring to and whether or not Jordan and/or Legon have ever raised it, but I am afraid his "who-are-we-to-question" argument does not cut much ice with me if the question is a fair and reasonable one, as I believe mine is. If we all adopted that approach throughout history we would have learnt nothing, 

THE SHAFTS

At least I have now managed to make you accept that the the northern shafts do not deviate laterally to avoid the Grand Gallery, and that is an achievement in itself. I trust at least that you won't peddle this misconception any longer. As to your inconsistency in describing the incredible precision of the AE's when it suits you, and then falling back on their symbolism when it doesn't, judging from my correspondence I am not the only person who finds this far too convenient an approach for you to adopt. Nevertheless, to suggest that I am "incapable of appreciating the basis of symbolic architecture" is about as reasonable as me suggesting that you are incapable of appreciating the basis of a logical argument - although on second thoughts, perhaps it isn't. In any case I am perfectly aware of the AE's use of symbolism, and do not discount it at all in the shafts, as I have repeatedly stated. As far as I am concerned the important thing is that people are aware that there are a lot of questions left to be answered about them, not least about where the northern QC shaft ends up. 

SPENCE'S ORIENTATION THEORY

Robert, all I can say is that all this obfuscating must wear you out - it certainly does me. Quite why Kate Spence, who uses the cardinal alignments to date the pyramids, should have to give you credit for having used the completely different and in my view far more unreliable mechanism of the supposed shaft "alignments" to date the GP, is quite beyond me and most other rational observers. Perhaps she should also have given neon-light credit to Mark Lehner for his radio-carbon dating work, and even to Khufu for leaving his quarry marks for us? As to suggesting that she has "allocated" your theory to herself, I suspect she would be very unhappy to be saddled with your particular dating mechanism.

Meanwhile, you have definitely saved the best till last. In suggesting that the implication of Spence's theory in relation to precession "can be construed as being quite the very opposite", I can only assume that it is by using so "very" many extra words that you hope to "quite" persuade everyone of the logic of your position. If you or anyone else can provide an explanation as to how the AE's could have a full knowledge of precession, and then choose to ignore it when accurately aligning their pyramids to the north, then I would love to hear it... no, on second thoughts, I really wouldn't.

AND FINALLY...

Turning to your introductory comments, it is no surprise to me that you continue to attempt to patronise, but for those who are following our discussions and are actually interested in your politicking and ploys, a few words of clarification.

First, in no sense am I similar to you, and I'm afraid I cannot see my way clear to taking your remarks as a complement. As you say, your were "desperately trying to make known your findings on the Giza Pyramids". I am not "desperate" to rebut your theories at all - I merely wish to point out where possible that I believe they have fundamental flaws in the interests of ensuring that the matter is properly considered. In fact, to respond to your quite apposite point about concentrating on my own theories and research rather than rebutting that of others, I am highly focussed on continuing my research into what the ancient texts from around the world reveal about mankind's past and the whole issue of "origins", and on publishing the same. My discussions with you, such as they are, are merely a minor distraction. In fact I would not bother with this at all had you not been so very successful in selling your theory to the general public, and on this at least you should be congratulated for your perseverance. I have never suggested that your theory has not gained widespread recognition, maybe even acceptance. The problem, however, is have you badly misled the public? That much I do care about.

Second, for what it is worth I have had a number of constructive discussions with the eminent scholars that oppose your theory, like Ed Krupp, Tony Fairall and Kate Spence, but since they are mostly in agreement with me anyway I hardly regard this as a major feat of scholarship on my part. You are the main proponent of the Orion Correlation theory, and I fail to understand why you regard it as strange that, that being the case, I should press you to respond to my rebuttals. I have no problem if somebody wants to put my paper forward for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, but I am not going to expend significant energy and time on this side-show myself.

Third, to the extent that I have been "miffed" by your avoidance of my arguments, it is not because I have an unduly inflated ego or a persecution complex, as my correspondence with many other people on this matter will testify. I have never suggested that you avoid responding to criticism per se - that would have been ridiculous and clearly wrong. What I have accused you of is intellectual cowardice in responding to criticism as selectively as you have in the past. However, since you have finally deigned to respond to my arguments as well, however unsuccessfully, I withdraw my accusation.

Fourth, as for your suggestion that Chris and I are the "Doug and Dave of the Orion theory and the age of the Sphinx debate", you seem to be conveniently forgetting that, in the light of the constructive and compelling evidence produced by Colin Reader, we were not afraid to change our stance on the age of the Sphinx in the paperback version of G:TT. If only you had some equally persuasive evidence to answer my rebuttals of the OC theory, I would accord you and your theory the same respect. 

And on that note I will leave you in peace to carry on your crusade....  

Best regards

Ian