German archaeologists are currently embroiled in a dispute with Egypt’s antiquities ministry after they allegedly removed samples from the Great Pyramid and subsequently announced that the construction date of the Great Pyramid is wrong .

According to latest reports, the three German archaeologists concerned will not be penalised for allegedly removing artefacts from the Great Pyramid because they apparently obtained three official permissions from the Supreme Council for Antiquities tourism company. Nevertheless, if it is indeed the case that they stole a cartouche from a small compartment within the pyramid, this is a despicable act that should have big consequences.

But we turn our attention now to another controversy that has emerged out of this dispute. It is said that the German archaeologists removed the artefact and smuggled it to Germany for study, where their research cast doubt on the construction date of the Great Pyramid and consequently the Pharaoh for whom it was built – King Khufu.

Their results suggested that the pyramid was built in an era before Khufu's reign. It also suggests that the Pyramid is not the burial place for a king but a centre of power.

It is of no surprise that the Ancient Egyptian section of the Ministry of State of Antiquities vehemently refuted such results, brandishing the archaeologists as “amateurs”, and reemphasising that the Great Pyramid belongs to King Khufu, the second king of the fourth dynasty, and that it was built during his reign to be used as his royal burial place for eternity. They refer to evidence presented by Colonel Howard Vyse in 1837, in which an inscription was found in a small room bearing Khufu’s name.

However, the German archaeologists are not the first to question the mainstream consensus that the pyramid was constructed under the orders of Khufu.

Some archaeologists have pointed out that most Egyptian funerary structures abound with texts and inscriptions inside them to assist the passing of the dead pharaoh into the underworld, but the Giza pyramids, including Khufu, were devoid of decoration and hieroglyphics. Many have argued that if Khufu had indeed commissioned the building of a pyramid for his tomb, his name would appear prominently inside it. On the contrary, his name appears only once, clumsily scrawled in red paint on a wall tucked away in a small room that was blocked from all access.

If the pyramids of Giza were mistakenly dated based on the period of reign of King Khufu and other pharaohs, it is possible that the pyramids are in fact much older. Curiously, the shafts inside the pyramids of Giza and the positioning of the pyramids themselves, correspond exactly with the constellation of Orion. But the perfect alignment between the pyramids and the constellation only occurred in the year 10,500BC. Likewise, the Sphynx corresponds with the constellation of Leo and its alignment also occurred in 10,500BC.

The German archaeologists were very wrong to steal from the pyramids but this does not necessitate that their research or conclusions were invalid. Science only progresses by keeping our minds open to alternative hypotheses.

By April Holloway