The question of how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built is one of the most hotly-debated topics in ancient history. Maverick French architect and self-styled “Mr Pyramid” Jean-Pierre Houdin is determined that he has the answer – the the 4,569 year-old monument was, he argues, erected from the inside-out, using an internal ramp built into the fabric of the structure. Others are skeptical of his theory, but Houdin is certain he has the proof.
Here he gives some exclusive insights into his life and work (a decade-long obsession), launches a broadside at the Egyptology fraternity that he feels still regards him as an “outsider”, and rebukes comments made by Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), in a recent interview with Heritage Key.
HK: You’ve dedicated many years to your internal ramp theory, self-financing much of your work along the way. What makes you so passionate about your theory, and proving it?
JPH: Yes, I have spent all my wealth in this adventure, being near bankrupt in 2003. I sold everything I had. I always told my father I’ll resolve this problem and that I’ll be able, one day, to give an explanation to any question regarding Khufu’s pyramid. So I jumped in like in a police investigation. But the most important part was intuition: [the pyramid was built] inside-out. After that, it’s like a wool ball – once you have found one end of the yarn, everything comes apart when you pull it.
And you become passionate because you discover human beings from 45 centuries ago who were amazing people. This gives you the desire to go always further. The truly genius guys were these Egyptians. And now, I’m “chatting” with these guys, sometimes, I ask to myself: “[Were] these guys clever enough to do this or that?” Be sure that the answer is yes. That is a tremendous reason to be passionate, believe me.
HK: The initial idea of the ramp being built internally was your father’s. How did he first come up with the theory? And how did you come to help him in trying to prove it?
JPH: On January 1st 1999, my father was watching a documentary on TV about how the pyramids were built, because he had a friend (Jean Kérisel) who was interviewed in the programme. My father is a civil engineer who has a strong background in civil construction (dams, bridges, buildings etc). This friend – whom he encountered while working on a bridge in the Ivory Coast in 1957 – became an Egyptologist when he retired, because he spent a lot of time in Cairo for the construction of the subway and fell in love with the pyramids. He told my father to watch the documentary. It was based on three main ideas: frontal ramp, outside spiral ramp and machines.
My father had this genius idea at the end: “If I had to build a pyramid, I would build it from the inside!” The billion dollar answer – for free. So he started to draw some plans, and remembered he had an architect son. So he asked me: “You are designing 3D with your computer, could you draw me some plans?”
At the end of 1996, I closed my architectural office to take a break, to think about my life. I was turning 45, and had worked for more than 22 years building. The main thing was that I came to New York for a sabbatical year with my wife. I learned 3D designing; it was at the beginning of the internet and I was looking for an “idea”. I found [my father’s] idea so genius. It was what I was looking for for many years. I’ve the background to think about construction. I’m an architect before anything. So an architect with an intuition, which opens the way of understanding – that’s a very good cocktail.
HK: One Egyptologist, University College London professor David Jeffreys, has voiced skepticism about your theory on the grounds that it’s “far-fetched and horribly complicated”. Is it really as complicated as he suggests, or is it actually quite simple?
JPH: I don’t want to fight against that kind of assertion. But what is more complex: to build a three or four feet large, one mile long internal ramp inside the pyramid (40 feet long to go from one course to the next – so two or three weeks work at most) or to build a one mile long ramp outside, [the volume of which] would be the same, at least, as the pyramid? Two pyramids to keep only one? Nonsense!
I would give a piece of advice to Professor David Jeffreys: first carefully learn about my theory and speak afterwards. Don’t give your advice with just a [little] knowledge. I spent 10 years to be there. [It would be good] for him to spend a few hours.
HK: Egyptologist Bob Brier assisted you in writing a book on your studies, The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man’s Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Mystery. How did he end up supporting your theory and helping to try and prove it?
JPH: Bob is what I call a guy with guts. He has nothing to do with the [politics of] archaeology. I sent him an e-mail, and he replied: “come to visit me”. I think that from day on, Bob understood that I was coming up with something that was worth trying to understand. Bob was not an easy guy to convince, but he was open-minded and asked a lot of questions. My answers were always “steps” cleared for him. Bob has nothing to prove – he is already “Mr Mummy” and he is slowly becoming “Mr Pyramid Two” (I’m “Mr Pyramid One”!).
Bob is a smart guy – fresh air in the middle of a topsy-turvey world. And when Bob went in the room behind the notch, I think he got the cherry on the cake. I was asking to go there for six years, Bob got the authorisation to climb and not me. I stood at the base. In one hour, the pyramid problem got a big boost toward its solution.
HK: Zahi Hawass told Heritage Key that he now thinks your theory is “completely wrong”. In the past, he has given it some credit, and described it as “interesting and potentially promising”. Do you have any idea what has caused him to change his mind about your internal ramp theory?
JPH: Dr Zahi Hawass knows about pyramids, history, religion. I’m not quite sure he really knows about construction. That seems obvious to me. He is very famous, a TV star, a very good salesman for Egyptology, someone surely happy to be in charge of the SCA and what that means – and certainly a good archaeologist on the field. I’ve known Dr Hawass for many years (since 2004) and had meetings with him, even a very private dinner in Cairo.
I’ve always been very respectful about people, even when sometimes I could be a little upset by some comments made. I deal with it. That kind of answer in Indianapolis – “the theory is completely wrong” – is a little strange when you have just read [a quote from Hawass] a few days before saying something quite different, in Al-Ahram Weekly (“The only debate now is about the nature of the ramp used in building the Pyramid. Was it outside the Pyramid, or inside as a French scholar has suggested?”).
HK: You have made an application to carry out non-invasive surveys of the pyramid. Do you think you will be given permission to carry out your surveys of the Great Pyramid soon?
JPH: The problem is that I even never got the authorization to just apply for a survey, even though Dr Hawass told me each time: “Jean-Pierre, you should do this, do that, get this one in, get that one in…” [The application file] is near 1.5 inches thick! As advisers I have two of the most famous pyramid specialists in the world (Dieter Arnold and Rainer Stadelmann)!
I say that because I was not the only one to ask: we asked Dr Hawass to lead a survey to find the internal ramp. Dr Hawass declined because he thought it was not his project. I know on the other hand that Dr Hawass “dreams to reveal the secret of the Great Pyramid…” So, maybe the problem is just there?
And I can tell you that my – our – invitation to Dr Hawass to lead a simple survey with non-destructive techniques is still on the table. Dr Hawass told [Heritage Key] that he will be leaving, by law, the SCA next year. That survey could be his last and most remarkable discovery while at the head of the SCA.
I don’t know when I’ll get permission. But let me tell you – time is on my side.
HK: You said to National Geographic: “A green light from Cairo and the Great Pyramid mystery is over.” Is proving the existence of an internal ramp within the pyramid really that simple? How will you do it?
JPH: 18 hours spent around the pyramid (at two or three hundred feet), from noon to 6:00am the next day, with a high resolution and cooled infrared camera (0.04C° difference of temperature) and it’s over. Preferably [we’ll do it] in winter, when you get big differences of temperature between day and night.
Zahi said once that he will not allow anyone to dig holes in the pyramid, and said then: “What would the French think if I was going to dig holes in Notre-Dame of Paris?” We went to Notre-Dame (when it was full of tourists) and did a survey with a simple infrared camera. Nothing destructive, nothing annoying for the tourists.
HK: Do you hope that it might one day be possible for you to access and even enter the internal ramp? If so, can you imagine how will you feel when that day comes?
JPH: In the room inside the notch there is only one row of blocks between the room and the internal ramp. Not far, is it?
What would I feel? Some satisfaction. Why not? Once the internal ramp is found in Khufu’s pyramid, then we move onto the other four pyramids!
HK: You’ve staked a huge amount on proving that there really is an internal ramp. Suppose though, for a moment, that your theory might somehow prove to be incorrect – how hard would that be to take, after dedicating so much to it over the last 10 years?
JPH: Don’t worry, after 10 years I’ve enough clues in my drawer to be truly confident.
Now my question: as an architect, am I an “outsider” regarding construction? I’ve spent 10 years now, reading, learning, digesting everything written, studied or proposed about these 4th Dynasty pyramids. I could have attended an Egyptology school and would be now a certified Egyptologist. But that’s not my first preoccupation. My passion is to understand what nobody has ever understood up to now, and why.
These marvels were built by human hands following designs from human brains. That’s the only point – nothing more, nothing less. The problem about the construction of the pyramids is not the problem of the ancient Egyptians – they built these pyramids and they are still there, 45 centuries later. The problem is our problem, because we are unable to explain the way they were built, mostly because we deny them the skills and knowledge they had. We think they were too “ancient” to be smart. Wrong!
Be sure that the Ancient Egyptian civilization was amazing in everything from art to religion, from science to buildings. It’s a fact. Unfortunately, the problem has been kidnapped by the Egyptology world. These people think they are the only ones who have the rights to deal with [it]. The result: for two centuries, the pensée unique was that the pyramids were built from the outside. All the Egyptologists know that these theories don’t work, but they keep teaching these because it’s easier to skip the true problem.
[It was] my father, a retired engineer with a bright career who had this genius idea: inside-out. And everything became clear to me. It’s far from an “overnight success” – 10 years, everyday, 10 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. 6,000 hours of 3D drawings, thousands of trials, sketches, and a strong help from top engineers – world leaders in 3D simulations.
Here I talk about only 50% of what I know. Episode two will be dynamite. And episode two is coming!
Jean-Pierre Houdin picture (top) by Hannah; 3D Great Pyramid of Giza by Dassault Systemes; Great Pyramid of Giza by Milos Novakovic. All rights reserved.
