Infrared

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The year is mainly devoted to the realization of Episode 2, including the updating of the theory and the integration of the funerary apartments imagined in 2003 by Jean-Pierre Houdin. Under the direction of Mehdi Tayoubi, an enormous amount of scientific 3D modelling and 3D animation in real time and in 3D is undertaken with Alain Dugousset and Pierre Gable and the entire Khufu Team, the same team who had already worked on "Khufu Revealed" in 2007. A new press conference at the Géode is scheduled for January 27, 2011 to present Episode 2, which has been called "Khufu Reborn".

At the beginning of March, the booklet "Khufu’s Pyramid Revealed ", written last year, is published in Cairo by Farid Atiya Press; it is translated into 6 languages and put on sale at the Cairo Museum store and at the Pyramids shop, thus helping to spread the theory to a large number of tourists.

 

On March 6, Mark Rose, editor of Archaeology Magazine's "Beyond Stone and Bone", writes an open letter to Dr. Hawass entitled "Time for the Great Pyramid?" For him, it is now time to authorize non-destructive research to confirm, or deny, the existence of the internal ramp. This is the first time an archaeological institution is openly committing itself to the theory. Unfortunately, this open letter will have no effect.

 

“Khufu Revealed" wins award at Amiens Documentary Festival, March 23-27.

 

On May 2, Jean-Pierre Houdin travels to Cairo at the invitation of the Centre Français de Culture et de Coopération (CFCC) for a lecture followed by the screening of the documentary "Khufu Revealed". It is also the first time that a French institution has undertaken such a project, as the CFCC is linked to the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO), which is at the origin of Egyptology. On site, and following an intuition he'd had while looking at an aerial photo taken in 1904 from a balloon by the photographer Edouard Spelterini, he investigates the Giza Plateau, summarizing his findings in a dossier entitled "Analyse critique du Plateau de Gizeh ". Part of this study shows that Khafre’s Monumental Causeway is built on a former ramp from the Khufu construction site, linking the port to the bottom of the external ramp of Khufu’s pyramid. This is supported by the presence, in the extension of its axis, of a very large void dug and then filled in the bedrock at its upper end (evidence visible today in the corridor leading to the burial chamber beneath Khafre’s pyramid), which would have served as a slide for a second counterweight. The problem of hoisting the granite beams and Turah limestone rafters of the structure above the King's Chamber is solved from the delivery port to the storage area at level +43m, the base of this chamber. The theory is the only one that can fully explain this sequence, which is the greatest challenge of the construction. An update of the counterweight system is included in the current Episode 2 project.

 

On June 17, Jean-Pierre Houdin travels to Boston and Harvard to meet Mehdi Tayoubi, who is preparing the GIZA 3D Project with Egyptologist Peter der Manuelian, director of the Giza Archives Project at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). This was created to manage and promote the thousands of documents and objects that the prestigious American Egyptologist Georges Reisner brought back from the excavations he undertook on the Giza Plateau between 1920 and 1940. This project, a 3D model of the Giza Plateau, is the result of his collaboration with Dassault Systèmes.

It is also an opportunity for him to "meet" Ankh-Af, the Vizier of the King's Great Works, who continued work on the Great Pyramid after Hemiunu's death.

On June 24, Jean-Pierre Houdin receives the Médaille d'Argent de l'Archéologie from the Académie d'Architecture for his work on Khufu’s Pyramid.

On July 22, lecture at the Colloque Ajaccio as part of the 4th Rencontres Science et Humanisme at Lazaret Ollandini.

 

On October 4, an educational conference is held at the Lycée Paul Langevin in Beauvais, in front of nearly 300 students. 

On October 8, conference at the Crillon Hotel in Paris for Directmedica as part of a sponsorship agreement with the ACGP.

In mid-October, following a contact established by Xavier Maldague, Director of the Chair at Université Laval in Quebec City, and a recognized specialist in the field of infrared thermography detection, Jean-Pierre Houdin travels to the University for an initial meeting. Following this visit, Dassault Systèmes invites the University to collaboration on the Khufu Project.

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After some 40 monthly presentations over 3 years, and more than 10,000 spectators at the Géode, Jean-Pierre Houdin and the Khufu Team call a halt to "Khufu Revealed" in May. As for the school program, it comes to an end in the summer, with surprising results: over 2 years, some 30,000 boys and girls will have seen the construction of the pyramid thanks to an internal ramp.