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205 noticed a gaping hole on the western side, where the ramp stone be- longing there had been smashed away (Fig. 68). It led via a short horizontal passage to a vertical shaft, which the Arabs assumed was a well. As they clambered down this "well shaft" (as it came to be called), they found that it was but the upper part of a long (about 200 feet) series of twisting and turning connected shafts that ended with a six-foot link to the Descending Passage and thus pro- vided a connection between the pyramid's upper chambers and passages and its lower ones (Fig. 66). The evidence indicates that the lower opening was blocked up and hidden from whoever had come down the Descending Passage, until Al Mamoon's men low- ered themselves through the length of the Well Shaft and discov- ered and broke open its bottom end. The Arabs' discoveries and later investigations have raised a host of puzzles. Why. when, and by whom was the Ascending Pas- sage plugged up? Why, when, and by whom was the twisting Well Shaft tunneled through the pyramid and its rocky base? +i. f : hy y | Freky 7 ant ‘fae dey HO Gat RAND & Fig. 68 The Prisoner in the Pyramid