Research

Lets add another piece to the puzzle.

Tapering of vertical grooves in antechamber

Tapering depicted here in red

Here I want to explore the vertical grooves on the south wall in the antechamber.

As seen here to the left, this is probably how it looked before any damage occurred and any restoration was done. When first discovered there were damage on the lowest part of the grooves in form of a triangle.

Early pyramid explorer Sir Flinders Petrie wrote 1883 in his book, ”The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh”:

The south wall has four vertical grooves all up it, which have been hitherto supposed to have extended down to the top of the passage to the King’s Chamber. This was not the case, however; for, though much broken away, it is still clear that they became shallower as they neared the bottom, and probably ended leaving an unbroken flat surface over the doorway.

This damage section were later restorated in such way that the grooves were open all the way down. Not as they probably were in the original state.

One theory for the function of the antechamber is that it could have acted as a flow regulator, controlling water flowing into the kings chamber. Petrie’s findings can give support to this theory.

Lets add a block sitting in the south ridge (depicted in red se below) that could move up and down (controlled by ropes). This would control the flowing of water into the kings chamber. The blocks shape with triangular top can also explain the damage mentioned earlier.

Without the tapering in the grooves and the block in its blocking position (down), water could spill over through the open grooves (not tapered) and reach into the pathway leading to the kings chamber.

Conclusion

So for the water flow theory to be accurate the tapering must have been there.