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210 and D? When and why was the irregular, twisting section C forced through the masonry? And what about the granite plugs: Why were they needed if there had been no funeral and no burial? To these questions there has been no satisfactory answer, neither by pyra- midologists nor by Egyptologists. Yet the arduous and zealous measuring and remeasuring by both groups hold the key to the answers: the essential segments of the Well Shaft, we believe, were indeed executed by the original builders, but neither as an afterthought nor in response to an emer- gency. They were, rather, the fruit of forethought: features in- tended to serve as architectural guidelines in the construction of the 4 pyramid. Much has already been written over the centuries of the Great Pyramid's wonderful proportions and remarkable geometric ratios. However, because all other pyramids have only lower inner pas- sages and chambers, the tendency has persisted to view the whole upper system as a later-phase development. As a result, little atten- tion was paid to certain alignments between upper and lower fea- tures of the pyramid, which can be accounted for only if the upper and lower parts were planned and executed at one and the same time. Thus, for example, the point at the Grand Gallery where the floor rises abruptly to form the Great Step Up (U). the central axis of the "Queen's Chamber" (Q), and a Recess (R) at the lowest short horizontal passage—are all placed exactly on one line, the pyramid's center line. Also, an enigmatic Down Step (5) in the up- per Horizontal Passage is aligned with the point marking the end (P) of the Descending Passage. And there are more such puzzling alignments, as our next diagram will show. Were all these alignments coincidences, architectural freaks—or the result of careful planning and layout? As we shall now show, these and other hitherto unrecognized alignments flowed from the ingenious, yet simple, planning of the pyramid. And we will also prove that the original segments of the Well Shaft were integral ele- ments not only in the execution but also in the very planning of the pyramid. Let us begin with segment D, because we believe that it was the very first one. It is now generally agreed that the rocky knoll on which the pyramid was erected was flattened out in a stepped man- ner. The lowest face of the rock (which can be seen outside) formed the Base Line; the uppermost face of the rock is at the Grotto level; there, the bottom layer ("course") of the pyramid's masonry can be seen. Since segment D lies below this masonry, it THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN