Scot Walker--Trapped Inside The Great Pyramid

Trapped Inside The Great Pyramid

Scot Walker

© Copyright 2026 by Scot Walker

Photo courtesy of the author.

Photo courtesy of the author.

What school child doesn’t dream of climbing the pyramids? And who has never dreamed of standing in their shadow or even walking inside and searching for the lost sarcophagus of King Khufu or perhaps discovering a lost treasure—or some artifact that will explain how a group of men created the largest monument on earth?

Let me update this with facts from this guy called my co-pilot lives in my computer:

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) around about 4,500 years ago and consists of about 2.3 million individual blocks of limestone and granite, with weights ranging from 2 to 30 tons apiece. Some of the largest granite blocks in the King’s Chamber weigh up to 80 tons.

Construction Details

Materials: Most blocks are local of limestone from the Giza Plateau. While higher-quality limestone for the casing was imported from Tura, and granite blocks for the King’s Chamber came from Aswan.
Mortar: Around 500,000 tons of mortar were used to bind the stones together.
Casing Stones: Originally, the pyramid was covered with 144,000 polished casing stones, each weighing approximately 15 tons, which reflected sunlight and made the pyramid shine

Construction Scale

Timeframe: Estimates suggest the pyramid was built over roughly 20–26 years.)

Let’s be fair and put this in perspective ranking the timelines to build these structures by posting a chart showing the world’s other longest construction times:

The Great Wall of China was built from 400 B.C. to the 17^th century and took about 2,000 years to finish
The Cathedral at Cologne took 630 years
The Temple of Zeus took 600 years
Chichen Itza took about 600 years in phases
Milan Cathedral took 580 years
Winchester Cathedral took 250 years
Notre Dame Cathedra took 200 years
Sagrada Familia in Barcelona look 150 years
Cathdera of Santa Maria del Fiore took 140 years
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome took 120 years

Yet. The Great Pyramid took only about 25 years!

Now, to my diary:
December 29 Friday, 1978

After a long crazy trip along from Aswan and Abu Simbel to the Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Luxor and sailing down the Nile to Cairo (I’ll post that adventure in the future), I was finally going to see the Great Pyramids! I guess my tour company wanted to save them as my desert dessert. (Sorry for the pun but it was aching to be released).

So, first thing in the morning, we headed off to the pyramids of Cheops, Khephren and Mycerinos, which are among the most unbelievable sights I have ever seen. We walked around and took a dozen photos and visited the papyrus factory where I was tempted to buy one but decided against it when I saw the price. Then we entered the Great Pyramid, and I explored the Queen's Chamber and headed up the huge Grand Concourse to the King's Chamber which totally astounded me because I had no idea—anyone could climb stairs inside a pyramid—but there they were! But just as I came out of the chamber, the lights went out and it was surreal because all I could see was the sunlight shining down the two shafts that were created so the soul of the pharaoh could go out and have meals with his people—if he had been a good pharaoh that is, however—if he was a bad pharaoh his soul would fly out of his pyramid and eat dirt for the rest of eternity! However, I ached to have been Pharaoh Khufu (AKA Cheops) honored and worshiped by such hard-working, creative, loving people to build such a monument for my eternal resting place. . . but at that exact moment my peace was disturbed as I heard a distant voice shouting up from the bottom of the passageway, "Mr. Scot, Mr. Scot Walker." I didn't answer. I assumed if it was the Lord he knew where I was and if it was my guide he would wait for me. The power came back on a few minutes later and I wandered back down to a frightened guide who thought I might have rented a camel (he’d warned us earlier that if we did, the driver would smack the camel and it would dash off into the dessert and not return until dusk when it was feeding time.

All was good and if I can use the term “happy ending” that’s what it was when my guide and the other four travelers in my group, met me—and such a hug it was!

Then I took a camel ride around the Great Pyramid down to the Sphinx. I longed to have spent more time at the pyramids and think, just for an instant, that the soul of the pharaoh smiled at me as I stood in awe of the lion in the dessert—the Spinx of mystery.

That evening we returned for the light and sound show which was stupendous and narrated in English telling the story of Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops. After the show, we wander among the salesmen, T and I bought a 3-foot-high rabbit fur-covered camel which was 3 feet high. That evening we returned for the light and sound show which was stupendous and narrated in English telling the story of Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops. After the show, we wander among the salesmen, T and I bought a 3-foot-high rabbit fur-covered camel which was 3 feet high. The next day I carried it on the plane with me from Cairo to Geneva to New York to my home in Washington, D.C. and had actually made it through the Cairo airport without a hitch, dragging my plastic-wrapped camel through the airport yelling, “Children and camels first, please, children and camels first.”

Photo courtesy of the author.

Photo courtesy of the author.

The mobs parted faster than the Red Sea had, I imagined, when Moses held up his sweaty armpits. In fact, I kept that camel for many years until I noticed that my cat, Merryweather, had been licking it and the fur was beginning to come off.

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