In another jungle pyramid, but half a millenia earlier, one of the most dramatic traps of all time was being set in the tomb of the Red Queen of Palenque. The reclining Buddha on the Baphuon, reconstructed It’s got the reclining Buddha statue, only now the entire thing is reinforced with metal throughout. It wasn’t until 400 years later in 1960 when it was reassembled, and it wasn’t opened to the public until 2011. But the stones removed were not as ornamental as they seemed: they held back a massive wall of sand, which flooded out, destroying the reclining Buddha and the entire western side of the pyramid. Originally dedicated to Shiva when it was built in the 11th century, the 16m bronze and stone altar at the top was disassembled and turned into a statue of the reclining Buddha, on the west side of the second story. No collapsing temple from real life exemplifies this trope more than the enormous Baphuon, 34m (111) tall in its ruined state, 50m tall in its glory. One of the greatest tropes in all of fiction is the temple that, when desecrated, dramatically collapses. In a similarly hot, pyramid filled environment, but much wetter and 2500 years later, one of my favorite trapped buildings of all time was being constructed: the mighty Baphuon in the Khmer Empire’s capital of Angkor, in what is now modern day Cambodia. People living nearby were paid in perpetuity to replace the false floors as they were activated.Ī map of Amenhotep III’s tomb. But before any treasure seekers could even get to the false wall, they had to deal with a much more dangerous trap: a false floor concealing a deadly pit trap! A 6 meter (20 foot) drop down a featureless shaft was basically a death sentence for anyone unlucky enough to get fall in, unless they had some good friends getting them out. In reality, the false wall on the back hid a passage leading to the rest of the tomb. The tomb of Amenhotep III appeared to end in a relatively nicely adorned room with some moderate amount of treasure that was worth stealing. But the Pharaohs didn’t rely on supernatural protection alone: they also arranged for more mechanical means of defense. There are curses the world over, but none is more famous than the mummy’s curse, inscribed on doorways and statues warning would-be graverobbers of death by snakes, scorpions, and crocodile. Additionally, large stone blocks were lowered into place as the workers left, to seal off the path to the chamber and prevent tomb robbers from being able to gain access to the innermost parts of the Pyramid.See where the false wall has been removed on the right Workers would plaster over the entrance to the tomb chamber and paint the wall to make it look like the false chamber was the last, already robbed room. The most common method of deterring robbers was to make it look like the grave had already been robbed. The Egyptians realized that to make sure their Pharaoh's body and stuff stayed as intact as possible, it would need to be protected. However, such gilded finery and beautiful amulets were very valuable and therefore a common object of grave robbery. The Egyptians held the firm belief during the Old Kingdom that in order to ensure a successful afterlife, you needed to make sure the Pharaoh's body was mummified correctly and took what he needed (boats, slaves, etc) with him to accompany him on his journey.
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