Editing Great Pyramid of Giza (section)

===King's Chamber===
[[File:Kheops-chambre-roi.jpg|thumb|Axonometric view of the King's Chamber]]
The King's Chamber is the upmost of the three main chambers of the pyramid. It is faced entirely with [[granite]] and measures {{convert|20|royal cubit|m+ft|1|bits (|)|abbr=on|disp=x}} east-west by {{convert|10|royal cubit|m+ft|1|bits (|)|abbr=on|disp=x}} north-south. Its flat ceiling is about 11 cubits and 5 digits ({{convert|5.8|m|ft|1|;||abbr=on|disp=x}}) above the floor, formed by nine slabs of stone weighing in total about 400 tons. All the roof beams show cracks due to the chamber having settled {{Convert|2.5–5|cm|in|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Maragioglio|Rinaldi|1965a|p=48}}

The walls consist of five courses of blocks that are uninscribed, as was the norm for burial chambers of the 4th dynasty.{{sfn|Kanawati|2005|p=55}} The stones are precisely fitted together. The facing surfaces are dressed to varying degrees, with some displaying remains of [[lifting boss]]es not entirely cut away.{{sfn|Maragioglio|Rinaldi|1965a|p=48}} The back sides of the blocks were only roughly hewn to shape, as was usual with Egyptian hard-stone facade blocks, presumably to save work.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lehner|url=https://www.academia.edu/36580864|title=Notes and Photographs on the West-Schoch Sphinx Hypothesis|year=1994}}</ref>{{sfn|Maragioglio|Rinaldi|1965b}}

==== Sarcophagus ====
[[File:Chambre-roi-grande-pyramide.jpg|thumb|Sarcophagus in the King's Chamber]]
The only surviving object in the King's Chamber is a [[sarcophagus]] made of a single, hollowed-out granite block. When it was rediscovered in the [[Early Middle Ages]], it was found broken open and any contents had already been removed. It is of the form common for early Egyptian sarcophagi, rectangular in shape with grooves to slide the now missing lid into place with three small holes for pegs to fix it.{{sfn|Petrie|1883|p=84}}{{sfn|Maragioglio|Rinaldi|1965a|p=50}} The coffer was not perfectly smoothed, displaying tool marks matching those of copper saws and tubular hand-drills.{{sfn|Stocks|2003}}

The internal dimensions of the sarcophagus are roughly {{Convert|198|cm|ft|abbr=on}} by {{Convert|68|cm|ft|abbr=in}}, the external {{Convert|228|cm|ft|abbr=on}} by {{Convert|98|cm|ft|abbr=on}}, with a height of {{Convert|105|cm|ft|abbr=on}}. The walls have a thickness of about {{Convert|15|cm|ft|abbr=on}}. The sarcophagus is too large to fit around the corner between the Ascending and Descending Passages, which indicates that it must have been placed in the chamber before the roof was put in place.{{sfn|Maragioglio|Rinaldi|1965a|p=52}}

==== Air shafts ====
In the north and south walls of the King's Chamber are two narrow shafts, commonly known as "air shafts". They face each other and are located approximately {{convert|0.91|m|ft|abbr=on}} above the floor, {{Convert|2.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} from the eastern wall, with a width of {{Convert|18 and 21|cm|in|abbr=on}} and a height of {{Convert|14|cm|in|abbr=on}}. Both start out horizontally for the length of the granite blocks they go through before changing to an upwards direction.{{sfn|Dormion|2004|p=296}}

The southern shaft ascends at an angle of 45° with a slight curve westwards. One ceiling stone was found to be distinctly unfinished, which [[The Upuaut Project|Gantenbrink]] called a "Monday morning block". The northern shaft changes angle several times, shifting the path to the west, perhaps to avoid the Big Void. The builders apparently had trouble calculating the right angles, resulting in parts of the shaft being narrower. Now, they both commute to the exterior. Whether they originally penetrated the outer casing is unknown.

The purpose of these shafts is not clear: they were long believed by Egyptologists to be shafts for ventilation, but this idea has now been widely abandoned in favour of the shafts serving a ritualistic purpose associated with the ascension of the king's spirit to the heavens.{{sfn|Jackson|Stamp|2002|pp=79, 104}}

The idea that the shafts point towards stars or areas of the northern and southern skies has been largely dismissed as the northern shaft follows a [[Dog-leg (stairs)|dog-leg course]] through the masonry and the southern shaft has a bend of approximately {{Convert|20|cm|in}}, indicating no intention to have them point to any celestial objects.<ref name="Upuaut">{{Cite web|last=Gantenbrink|title=The Upuaut Project|url=http://cheops.org|url-status=deviated|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806133148/http://cheops.org/|archive-date=2020-08-06}}</ref>

In 1992, as part of the Upuaut project, a ventilation system was installed in both air shafts of the King's Chamber.<ref name="Upuaut" />