Dear John

I would like to respond briefly to your comments on my recent correspondence with Robert Bauval regarding the Orion Correlation Theory, posted to Greg at TDG.

First off, I must apologise for not realising that you had indeed raised exactly the point about the relative brightnesses of the stars as against the size of the pyramids that I raise in G:TT, and had published it well before. I was genuinely unaware of your work, and while that is no excuse I will ensure that in any future edition this omission is corrected. I have now read your paper at http://www.legon.demon.co.uk/, and whilst I do not agree with everything therein the similarity of our analysis on this point is quite clear.

Having said that, I would like to turn to your objections to my replanning theory. I cannot agree with your initial assertion that if the final execution of the Giza site plan demonstrates a unified geometry, then any replanning that might have occurred is purely incidental and can be ignored. I think any normal standards of logic would suggest that extensive replanning after construction had already begun, and not just tinkering around the edges, mitigates heavily against the idea of any sort of grand, unified master plan - and I do not think that any number of finely sculpted sentences can detract from this essential point.

However, the question remains as to whether there is evidence of replanning in the first place. Whatever the more general position might be, I find your suggestion that Prof. Edwards' work in this particular area has been substantially refuted by Mark Lehner entirely unconvincing. As I have pointed out in previous correspondence with Robert Bauval, Lehner's comments about the rationale behind the internal structures, at least in The Complete Pyramids, are so brief and contradictory that they hardly merit serious comment. If I am guilty of ignoring papers where he has more fully explored these issues, then I am sure you will correct me and we can take it from there. Similarly if Maragioglio and Rinaldi have specific points to make on these issues, rather than just general disagreements with Edwards' interpretations, then I would be happy for you to point me towards them for further consideration.

Meanwhile you do provide some detail of Stadelmann's thoughts on the matter, so let us now turn to them. His assertion that "the lower chamber in Khafre's pyramid can never have been planned as the original burial chamber, but was merely an antechamber", without any supporting analysis, is hardly a thoroughbred piece of logic. Is there something I have missed - perhaps you could fill in the gaps, because I am afraid I do not have ready access to Stadelmann's work. You then suggest that "it is indeed obvious from the arrangement of the connecting passages and the positioning of the 'turning recess' that the lower chamber was nothing more than an adjunct to the actual burial chamber situated close to the centre of the pyramid". Again, please enlighten me, since I am obviously missing the essential piece of logic that supports this statement. You do suggest that the "turning recess" is incorrectly shown in my diagram, but you do not say why - for what it is worth I photographed and measured it for myself, and although my diagrammatic reproduction is not 100 per cent accurate it should be sufficient for these purposes. Do you, or for that matter Stadelmann, accept that it was for turning a coffer? And if not, what was it for? At present you have presented nothing to properly support your contention that "the lower chamber was never intended to function as a burial chamber", other than the summary opinions of two out of the three Egyptologists mentioned (ignoring M&R for the moment), and these remain, at least at present, lacking in any supportive analysis. Your final logical leap in suggesting that my "argument that the lower chamber should have been located beneath the centre of the pyramid in an earlier plan, with the implication that the pyramid-base must have been shifted southwards in a change of plan, thus falls to the ground" is similarly baffling, because you have not actually provided any reason as to why the architects of the Second Pyramid might have departed from the precedent that all substantive chambers, whether burial or otherwise, are more or less centrally located.

As for the Third Pyramid, you indicate that "Stadelmann maintains that the upper entrance passage was a working passage which was used during the construction of the granite chamber". If you are interpreting him correctly, I can see no reason why the upper passage should have been particularly useful in the construction of the lowest granite chamber, although it is undoubtedly the case that the antechamber at the west end of the upper chamber was hollowed out to assist the manoeuvring of the granite blocks for the lower chamber, which lies beneath it. Nevertheless I have had some recent correspondence that would support the idea that the upper passage was used to assist the general excavation of all the chambers, with precedent provided from certain mastabas, and this may well be what Stadelmann is getting at. Indeed I have published this recently, even though it goes against the replanning theory, because it is a well-supported argument that in my view offers a reasonable alternative explanation. However it is only an alternative, in my view no more or less valid than my own interpretation (and that of Edwards), while of course the enigmas of the Second Pyramid also remain to be answered.

I would accept that, in the light of these further discussions, my original assertion that there is "incontrovertible" proof of replanning to the Second and Third Pyramids is too strong. However I would argue that there is still a "strong case" for this which deserves further consideration and discussion, and that if it is proved right then my contention that this had a considerable effect on the external dimensions and positions of these pyramids, and by implication on the likelihood of a grand master plan for the site, still stands.

Best regards

Ian Lawton