The Great Pyramid is 454 feet high or (5478 pyramid inches above mean socket level), which is equivalent to a modern day 48-story building. It covers a little over 13 square acres or 568,500 square feet with a volume of 90,000,000 cubic feet. There are 201 courses or steps to its summit, another 31 feet 8 inches above this summit is the geometric apex formed by the corner edges of the projected casing masonry (shown in red).

“If the average thickness of the missing layers of masonry were the same as the average of 24 of the layers now forming the summit, there must have been 218 courses originally when the monument was completed, counting the top-stone, or head-stone itself as one course. It is generally supposed however that the Great Pyramid’s “chief corner stone” was a larger stone than the above average implies; Professor C. Piazzi suggested that its vertical height was around 100 inches (8 foot 3 inches). But unless a reasonable theory is propounded which can convincingly prove what the dimensions must have been, nothing short of the actual discovery of the stone itself can settle its size.” (Great Pyramid Passages, Page 268)

“The exact number of stones was originally estimated at 2,300,000 stone blocks weighing from 2-30 tons each with some weighing as much as 70 tons. Computer calculations indicate 590,712 stone blocks were used in its construction.”

It appears that the Great Pyramid was never finished since the top is flat, and not pointed, as it should be. It has a truncated summit which is coarse and uneven and measures about 30 square feet.

This is a close-up of the center of the Pyramid’s summit.

Most likely the top few courses including the top-stone itself were constructed of the same beautiful white Tura limestone as that of the rest of the casing stones found at the base of the Pyramid, and thus being highly prized by both the Egyptians and Arabs alike were most likely removed long ago.

“It was many years after Al Mamoun’s attack on the inside of the Great Pyramid that there began, with the object of building the new Muslim cities and mosques, that spoiling of its outside which resulted in the removal of the top-stone, and of nearly all the smooth white casing-stones that formerly covered or encased the building. Prior to this act of vandalism, the shinning white Pyramid must have presented a glorious sight.” (Great Pyramid Passages, Page 65)

Glancing at those beautiful white casing stones picture in your mind what a wondrous sight to behold the Pyramid must have been at one time when completely covered by them. The joints between these stones were so tight that from but a short distance away they would all but disappear, especially if you were on the side in which the sun was directly shining. The ancients referred to the Great Pyramid as “ikhet” meaning “glorious light”, a name most fitting both literally and spiritually speaking.

The casing stones weighing as much as 20 tons were placed with an accuracy of 5/1000ths of an inch, and an intentional gap of about 2/100ths of an inch for mortar. The mortar used is of an unknown origin. It has been analyzed and its chemical composition is known but it can’t be reproduced. It is stronger than the stone and still holding up today. One of the largest remaining Casing stones is nearly 5 feet high by 8 feet at the bottom, and weighs approximately 14 tons.

“There are supposedly 144,000 casing stones, all highly polished and flat to an accuracy of 1/100th of an inch, about 100 inches thick and weighing about 15 tons each with nearly perfect right angles for all six sides. Computer calculations indicated 40,745 casing stones were used averaging 40 tons each before the face angle was cut.”

These so-called computer calculations are by no means precise as they fail to take in consideration the vast variations in size of the stones, for example the “header stones”. Yes it may be possible to calculate each course of masonry if one were to assume that all the stones used on a particular course were of the exact same size in length, height, and width, but this is not the case as can be readily discerned especially in regards to the casing stones as noted in the photo below.

Personally I am of the belief that these white casing stones represent the members of the body of Christ cut, chiseled and polished so as to precisely conform to the dimensions of the “chief corner stone” (Luke 20:17), thus it is likewise my belief that there were originally 144,000 casing stones, these stones having slowly disappeared, the few remaining (presently) picturing the last of the feet members this side of the Vail.

In his book The Egyptian Pyramids: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference, J.P. Lepre wrote:

“One very unusual feature of the Great Pyramid is a concavity of the core that makes the monument an eight-sided figure, rather than four-sided like every other Egyptian pyramid. That is to say, that its four sides are hollowed in or indented along their central lines, from base to peak. This concavity divides each of the apparent four sides in half, creating a very special and unusual eight-sided pyramid; and it is executed to such an extraordinary degree of precision as to enter the realm of the uncanny. For, viewed from any ground position or distance, this concavity is quite invisible to the naked eye. The hollowing-in can be noticed only from the air, and only at certain times of the day. This explains why virtually every available photograph of the Great Pyramid does not show the hollowing-in phenomenon, and why the concavity was never discovered until the age of aviation. It was discovered quite by accident in 1940, when a British Air Force pilot, P. Groves, was flying over the pyramid. He happened to notice the concavity and captured it in the now-famous photograph (The first picture to the left below).”

This last remark in regards to the time of the discovery of this special feature of the Pyramid is in dispute as it is claimed that it was illustrated in La Description de l’Egypte Volume V, pl. 8 in the late 1700’s. Though it is apparently more easily observed from the air, the concavity is measurable and is visible from the ground under favorable lighting conditions.

Although only observable from specific sight lines, meticulous measurements taken by Sir Flinders Petrie demonstrate indentations in the center of each side of the Pyramid, as shown in the diagram below.

We will continue with our examination of the Great Pyramid in our next post.