ABSTRACT
Most ancient theatres are now mere heaps of ruins but we can still, during the summer festival at Orange for example, imagine how their architecture swelled the voice of the tragic actor.
There is at least one place where reality comes to the aid of the imagination: it is the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the holy of holies of the largest ancient monument that has survived to our day over nearly forty-five centuries.When one enters, one is impressed by the harmony of the proportions17 and the nobility of the red granite that covers the walls and ceiling – “the finest specimen in the world of polished granite worked down”, as the nineteenth century archaeologist Howard Vyse noted. It enables sound waves to reverberate with an increase in loudness, producing a most impressive acoustic effect. Just before I entered the Chamber for the first time, there was a minor accident that fused the electrical lighting, leaving the interior of the Great Pyramid in total darkness. There was just the sound of a group of Muslims who continued their chanting in the King’s Chamber.The sound reached me as I stood at the top of the Grand Gallery with wonderful purity and loudness.When the electricity came back on I walked into the Chamber and was amazed to find a single Muslim humbly prostrated in a corner. Astonishing amplification.
