The empty pyramid

"The arabian chroniclers tell, that al-Mamun found "the corps of a man", wearing strange "suit of armor with precious stones". A fairy tale?"^{[27 ]}

to make then fun about the archaeologists telling that these stories are no evidence for a real mummy find. What now, Mr. von Däniken?
It is really interesting to see how Däniken exploits both parts of the story - "the sarcophagus was empty, so what was the pyramid for" and "there was a mummy, a veeery special one" - without it being noticed by his fans. That's the flexibility in alternative history.
Let us look now into the reports written down in the Hitat.

Ali B. Ridwan^{[28 ]}

"Al-Mamun let the pyramid opened at one point, inside they found a slippery passage leading up to a square, cube shaped chamber with a marble sarcophagus in its middle which still stands there today, no one was able to move it from its place.
Hence Galenus has reported, that the pyramids are tombs. ..."

This description coincides very well with reality.

Abu Jakub Muhammad b. Ishak an-Nadim:^{[29 ]}

"In the middle of this platform is a graceful, arched building, midst of it is something like a sarcophagus ... Between the two blocks stands a stone vessel, which was sealed with a golden lid When it was removed, a kind of odorless, dried pitch and a golden box was discovered; in it found after opening it fresh blood, which, when it was exposed to the air, curdled, such as blood would clot, dried up. On the coffin laid stone lids, after removing them they saw a sleeping man lying on the back of his head. He was well preserved and perfectly dry, his physical condition was clearly visible and his hair was still visible. At his side was a woman showing the same condition."

The stone vessel could have been a canopic chest, the other descriptions are a bit doubtful.

Abd ar-Rahim al-Kaisi^{[30 ]}

"They say they had ascended there at the time of al-Mamun and reached a vaulted chamber of small size, in which a statue of a man made of green stone, a type of malachite, was found. It was taken to el- Mamun and it was found that it was sealed with a lid. When opened they saw in it the corpse of a man wearing a golden coat of armor adorned with precious stones. ... The idol, however, from which they took this corpse, has been seen by me lying next to the gate of the royal palace in the year 511 in Misr."

I do not think much of Kaisi, as I already explained. The sarcophagus (511 is by the way 511 after the Hijra, and corresponds approximately to the year AD 1120) has been confirmed by other sources.

Abu t-Taijib al-Mutanabbi^{[31 ]}

"Inside, they found awful exciting stairways and shafts, where one could only walk with difficulty, and at the top he (El-Mamun) found a cube-shaped chamber, each side had a length of about 8 yards and in the middle of it stood a marble basin, the was sealed with a golden lid. When they had removed it they found in it only rotten bones about the bygone centuries had passed."

The description sounds quite credible again, because it describes the confusing inner workings and the grave chamber with a flat roof.

al-Makrizi^{[32 ]}

"They say they had found on the body that is buried in the pyramid a very dilapidated garment, of which only the golden threads were left, and the thickness of the layer of myrrh and aloes the body was covered with, have amounted to a thickness of a span."

Well, doesn't this sound like a mummy?

unknown author ^{[33 ]}

"They say they had found in the pyramid a statue of green stone, a type of malachite, made after the image of a man, closed with a lid, like an inkstand box. When they opened the lid they discovered a human corpse wearing a golden suit or armor adorned with precious stones. ... Some historians confirm that this green idol, in which they found the bones, stood until the year 611 (about 1220 AD) of the Hijra besides the royal palace of Misr."

This sounds like a summary of al-Kaisi, but al- Makrizi wrote, that several chroniclers confirmed that coffin.

Ibn Hurdadbeh^{[34 ]}

"The way that you use most frequently inside is a hallway with a slippery floor that leads to the highest part of the pyramid. There you will find a square room with a stone sarcophagus."

Hurdadbeh lived some 400 years after the opening of the pyramid and describes in his article "organized tourism" in the pyramids. That he found no more mummy remains is therefore not surprising.

In summary, there are seven descriptions from inside the pyramid or inside the grave chamber. All reports mention a coffin. Five of the reports describe unambiguously a mummy, two mention a statue that contained a man. This statue could e.g. have been an inner sarcophagus
Additionally, there are other reports about gold, statues and precious stones found inside the pyramid. With this concentration of similar descriptions, it is save to assume, that something has been found.

So how does EvD comes to his assertion, that nothing has been found? Especially since he later uses one of the descriptions I've listed above ([33 ]). Forgetfulness? Lost track? Or a cynical "My reader won't notice"?
This really gets funny when he writes in his chapter about the reports of the arabs^{[35 ]}:

"All a little too Oriental, so they (the archaeologists) are trying to get rid of it. To kitschy to be true. But how can we judge old reports from our modern view as untrustworthy?"

Yes, Mr. von Däniken, how do you come to this?