Several artifacts were reportedly found about the chamber, but a list was never released to the public. Later, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Hawass said that the artifacts retrieved dated the lower tomb, the so-called Osiris tomb, to the New Kingdom, around 1550 BC. Then a report released in 2003 by the Egyptian Antiquities Authority stated that the tunnels leading away from the tomb actually went nowhere, a view that was challenged by a group of Egyptologists in the September/October 2000 issue of Archaeology magazine. Surprisingly, neither Hawass nor any of his associates have ever responded to the charges that the tunnels do indeed proceed farther along under the Giza plateau, a silence that was very much out of character. Additionally, during the dig, it was rumored that the Giza plateau was closed to the public, guarded by both U.S. and Egyptian military units. Why were the U.S. and Egyptian armies placed on high alert while this excavation was going on? Surely, they were not mobilized just to deter thieves from raiding the tomb. This was an unprecedented move, for never before were American and Egyptian armies mobilized to protect an archaeological excavation, which suggests that more is going on here than the Egyptian authorities are willing to admit. Thus far, no outside entities, including historians and archaeologists, have been permitted to inspect the Osiris tomb, the Egyptian authorities citing that the Osiris tomb was “closed due to dangerous instabilities in the chamber ceiling” or high water levels, a move that supports the idea that there is something unusual about this tomb that Hawass wants to keep secret.
LINK: http://www.mysteriesmagazine.com/articles/issue13.html
This is what Hawass had to say regarding the Tomb of Osiris:
"I have found a shaft, going 29 meters [95 feet, approximately] vertically down into the ground, exactly halfway between the Chefren Pyramid and the Sphinx. At the bottom, which was filled with water, we have found a burial chamber with four pillars. In the middle is a large granite sarcophagus which I expect to be the grave of Osiris, the god,"
---ZAHI HAWASS, (Directed of the Giza Plateau, Egyptologist), In newspaper Extra Bladet (Copenhagen), January 31, 1999, "Sandpit Of Royalty", By Dorte Quist
This was during the the March 2nd 1999, FOX Network broadcast:
Hawass: "...I discovered that this is what Herodotus talked about, and I found that this is the 'Tomb of Osiris'. let's go and see what we're talking about."
ZH: "Suzy, this is the 'Tomb of Osiris'."
LINK: http://www.towers-online.co.uk/pages/shaftos3.htm
He then seems to have changed his mind in The Guardian article which is posted on his official site.
"The final chamber we found was most likely a symbolic tomb for the god Osiris; he was believed to control the underground tunnels and tombs of the kings."
LINK: http://guardians.net/hawass/osiris1.htm
The following is from a chat transcript:
11/05/01: Larry asks:"I would like to know more about the tomb of Osiris. Specifically: You know it is Osiris' tomb as it is written on the four stelae that he ordered this tomb to be excavated for him. But it must say more than just that. Also, how is the excavation of the two tunnels that lead off from the burial chamber going?"
Hawass' response: Dear Larry, "The Osiris shaft is a shaft that is located underneath the causeway of the pyramid of Khefra. When we discovered it, the shaft was filled with water. After we pumped the water out of the shaft we found 4 pillars and a large sarcophagus. We know from ancient Egyptian text that the Giza plateau was connected to the god Osiris, who was controlling the underground tunnels at the Giza plateau It only has one tunnel/shaft that we will explore later."
He obviously avoids answering the question.
LINK: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1203/hotline/hhawass.htm
The following was said by someone who claimed to have been present during the discovery of the tomb.
"The room was surprisingly clean, showing evidence of recent activities, and perhaps even having been cleaned for presentation purposes, as is usual with other Egyptian tombs of significance. This room was in a far better condition than the bottom of the shaft, which was intentionally left to be littered with rubbish.
Whilst we were going into our Time Gate night in the great pyramid, in early March, we were accompanied by the inspector, one of the first under the chain of command of Dr. Hawass. I spoke to him regarding the "well shaft" in the causeway, and that Dr. Hawass had made the discovery of the century, I asked when his book would be ready, the inspector was surprised, he told me :not many people know that he is writing a book", and then asked whose sarcophagus Dr.. Hawass thought it was; whether he had found Chefren's tomb? Without hesitation, and with 5 witnesses present, he stated, overtly "Dr.. Hawass thinks that it is the Tomb of the god Osiris," Randolph Barolet caught my eye, and then stated, so the inspecter could here, I am a witness to what he just stated."
LINK: http://www.akasha.de/~aton/HO-OSIRIS.html
The following may not seem like much to hold onto, but I believe this adds more substance to the idea that this in fact the Tomb of Osiris.
"Like them, he is exceptionally tall and always depicted wearing the curved beard of divinity."---Graham Hancock, (Author), In book Fingerprints of the Gods, 1995, "Gods of the First Time", pg. 391
"I found the enormous sarcophagus, large enough for a bull, and this one had a strange feeling about it. Several versions of the Osiris legends, have Ausir carried on the back of an Apis Bull in his "star journey" pathways of preparation.
There was a darkened sarcophagus leaping out of the left middle room. It was black, but yet it did not hold a resonance as forbading as the enormous one on the mirror side of the room."
LINK: http://www.akasha.de/~aton/HO-OSIRIS.html
More from the 1999 broadcast:
"How much would something like this weigh?"
[as they talk, Suzy and Doctor Hawass measure the length of the sarcophagus lid]
ZH: "Oh, the weight of this was eleven to twelve tons. What's the length?"
SK: "About nine feet."
ZH: "Nine feet. With the whole lid and the second part is about eleven to twelve tons weight."
In my views it could potentially be significatly heavier and larger in length than what was said.
A few comparison notes to Tutankhamun. He died young though he was reportedly at the age of nineteen at the point of death so it can be assumed he was already the average male height. Both sarcophagus were made of different material which accounts for weight differences, but having 10,000 pounds over Tut is enough to suggest the (Osiris) body inside is of considerable mass. I may be wrong of course.
Outer-Sarcophagus #1The young boy king was buried in “three” nested sarcophaguses. The outer-first sarcophagus measured 7.3 feet.
The estimated total weight of the funeral death mask, his mummified body and the three sarcophaguses was 3,000 pounds, a fascinating “1.36 metric ton” of splendid wood, crafted solid gold and precious stones!
LINK: http://www.treasuresofkingtut.com/kingtut-replicas.htm