Sphinx, Khufu
and erosion

​

At the very beginning of the year, Jean-Pierre Houdin suggests that Florence Tran, director of the documentary "Khufu Revealed", who has been a frequent visitor to Cairo for almost 2 years, contact Hany Helal. From the very first meeting at the Faculty of Engineering in Cairo, he is enthusiastic about the idea of a new research mission. Several Teleconferences follow with Mehdi Tayoubi, Jean-Pierre Houdin and the Khufu Project team. Hany Helal contacts the Minister of Antiquities, Dr Mohamed Ibrahim, about the project.

 

At the end of February, a meeting is held at Dassault Système with François Levieux, Chairman of the ACGP's Scientific and Technical Committee, to take stock of the non-destructive techniques available: infrared, muon radiography and microgravimetry are analyzed. For François Levieux, the last technique would give the best results, but its cost is exorbitant. One solution would be to select the first two to demonstrate the presence of voids.

​

On May 13, Jean-Pierre Houdin completes a 3rd update of his study "Critical analysis of the Giza Plateau" dated February 18, 2010; it is enriched by an examination of the water runoff erosion visible in the area around the Sphinx, supporting his theory that the latter represented King Khufu.

​

At a meeting on June 21, Keith Payne, Marc Chartier and Jean-Pierre Houdin decide to publish this latest version in the form of a very long interview conducted by Marc Chartier for "Pyramidales", translated into English by Keith Payne for "Em Hotep!". It is published simultaneously during July on these 2 blogs in the form of a three-part serial. Statistics show that almost 50,000 people read this interview, proving the importance of these 2 blogs in reaching the public.

 

On July 1st, meeting at Dassault Systèmes with Hany Helal, Mehdi Tayoubi , Jean-Pierre Houdin and several members of the Khufu team.
The Faculty of Engineering in Cairo will be proposing a precise mission plan and intervention schedule to the Egyptian authorities; doctoral students will be taking part in the mission and will be monitoring the experiments in real time.
The mission will bring together Université Laval in Quebec City (Infrared), the University of Tokyo (Muon Radiography) and the Faculty of Engineering in Cairo. Jean-Pierre Houdin indicates that it would be a good idea to incorporate Jean-Claude Barré, a specialist in infrared thermography who was part of the first mission project in 2005, into the Laval team for a very short exploratory mission.

During the summer, Dr Hiroyuki Tanaka is leading a Muon X-ray mission to the Prambanan Temple in Indonesia, in the hope of detecting an unknown chamber in the upper part of the monument. A positive result could definitively validate this technique and could have a positive influence on the Egyptian authorities.

On September 15, Jean-Pierre Houdin is interviewed for almost an hour by Swiss journalist Johanne Dussex for the radio program "Monumental" on RTS 1ère (Radio Télévision Suisse). He had already been interviewed in 2011 following the "Khufu Reborn" press conference.
Also in September, Jean-Pierre Houdin meets Dr Bob Brier in New York, who confides in him his desire to re-launch the dissemination of the theory through scientific articles. On the 20th, he also gave his second lecture in 4 years at the Webb Institute on Long Island, where Bob Brier is giving courses in Egyptology. 

​

In the autumn, McGrawHill publishes in the USA Robert W. Messler, Jr.'s book "ENGINEERING, Problem-Solving 101", about solutions to engineering problems. In his conclusion, the author uses the internal ramp theory as a typical example of a perfect solution to a given problem.

 

On November 28, Jean-Pierre Houdin gives a lecture in Aniche (Nord) as part of an exhibition dedicated to Ancient Egypt organized by the town hall.