Jakarta –
Egypt’s antiquities authority on Thursday announced the discovery of a hidden passage or corridor inside the 4,500-year-old Pyramid of Khufu, formerly known as the Pyramid of Cheops or the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The find was announced by archaeologist Zahi Hawass and Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa and is credited to scientists from the ScanPyramids project.
ScanPyramids is an international project using a variety of high-tech instruments that started in 2015, they use non-invasive infrared thermography, ultrasound, 3D simulation and cosmic ray radiography to study its structure.
Scientists say they used the technology to find a covered corridor above the main entrance to the pyramid. This corridor that cannot be accessed from the outside of the building is nine meters long and two meters wide.
After the discovery was successful, the scientists inserted a small-diameter (6 millimeter; 1/4 inch) Japanese endoscope through the gap between the rocks to obtain deep images of space.
Archaeologists want to know the contents of the hidden passage
Archaeologists say they don’t know what the corridor’s purpose was.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, suspects the corridor may have been designed to redistribute weight over the main entrance or around other chambers that have yet to be discovered.
Christoph Grosse of the Technical University of Munich, a leading member of the ScanPyramids project, said he hopes to uncover more hidden secrets. Speaking of the newly discovered corridor, he said, “There are two large limestone boulders at the end of the chamber and now the question is what is beyond the boulders at the bottom of the chamber?”
A major tourism magnet in a country that is struggling financially
The Pyramid of Khufu, named for the fourth dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 2509 to 2483 BC, is located just outside Cairo and is one of three structures that make up the Giza Pyramid Complex.
The structure is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that has survived to this day.
The Khufu Pyramid was originally built at 146 meters high and now stands at 139 meters high. It was the tallest man-made structure in the world until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed.
The question of how exactly the pyramids were built has puzzled experts for centuries.
The mystery surrounding them also makes the structures a major tourist attraction in Egypt, which is heavily dependent on tourism for its income.
The sector has suffered from political upheaval since strongman President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a 2011 uprising. Violence and the coronavirus pandemic have further crippled tourism in the financially-strapped country.
yas/ha (AP, Reuters)
See also ‘Chinese scientists find a giant hole with a depth of 192 meters’:
(it/it)
