a giant secret chamber has been
discovered in the ancient egyptian great
pyramid of giza
the 100 foot long room was found using
cosmic rays
particles that can be used to penetrate
stone and reveal hidden
internal voids without needing to
directly access the site
the great pyramid was built during the
fourth dynasty between 2580 and 2560 bc
during the reign of pharaoh khufu who
ruled the ancient civilization for
decades
the pyramid which is 450 feet high and
750 feet wide
is known as one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world
it is estimated to have taken tens of
thousands of workers up to 20 years to
build
scan pyramids is a project involving an
international team of researchers and
launched in october 2015
under the authority of the egyptian
ministry of antiquities
its goal was to use particle physics to
probe the internal structure of the
pyramids in a non-invasive way
the technology works by using muons
popularly known as cosmic rays
to detect anomalies and voids within the
pyramids
previously the scan pyramids team has
said their findings hint at the
existence of secret
hidden chambers within the great pyramid
the latest findings
published in nature are the first to
confirm the discovery of a large void
within the 4
500 year old structure researchers say
the void they have detected measures
around 100 foot in length and 26 foot in
height
it sits directly above the grand gallery
a 153 foot long room that connects the
chambers of the pyramid
including the queens and kings chambers
the newly discovered chamber has a
similar cross-section to the grand
gallery
indicating that the two are connected
the discovery could point to a new
undiscovered chamber or it could be a
void that was integral to the
construction of the pyramid
our understanding of which poses one of
the biggest archaeological mysteries of
all time
in a press conference the scan pyramid
scientists said there has been
no discussion on what the next steps are
in terms of drilling into the void
but said emerging technologies now
provide new ways to probe these spaces
while causing minimal damage to the
structure
one option could be a flying robot they
said
to understand the purpose of the void
they said researchers from other
disciplines
such as egyptologists will be needed to
provide context to their discovery
kate spence senior lecturer in egyptian
archaeology at the university of
cambridge
uk who was not involved in the study
tells newsweek the chamber is more
likely to be related to the construction
of the pyramid
rather than a hidden room full of
treasure what they seem to have found is
a linear anomaly above a gallery which
is a very complex piece of construction
in the center of the great pyramid
she says if you look at the cross
section of the pyramid
above the king's chamber the main burial
chamber
there are a whole series of little
chambers which are roofed with
incredibly heavy big granite blocks
my suspicion is what they are looking at
is the remains of a constructional ramp
which has been built within the pyramid
probably for getting those blocks into
place she says that what might have
happened is that once these huge blocks
were in place
the builders did not fill up the space
or it was filled sand or something that
less dense than rock
which would account for the results
presented the discovery
is very important for thinking that
through and providing information on how
the pyramid was actually built
spence adds while the newly discovered
chamber should help
experts better understand how the great
pyramid was built
many mysteries about the ancient
monument remain
one of the problems we have with the
great pyramid as there are no direct
parallels for the internal structure of
it
it's quite unusual and when it's unusual
and nobody has written anything down
about it it can be very difficult to
interpret what's going on
the grand gallery for example has a
sloping base and was used as an approach
to the burial chambers
however it has a very strange
arrangement as all the passages to get
to these chambers are very small
then you get to this huge space you can
walk through
what exactly it was for and why they
decided to do that
it is impossible to say at this stage
the scan pyramid
scientists said the structure of the
newly discovered void should now be
studied in more detail
there are still many architectural
hypotheses to consider
in particular the big void could be made
of one or several adjacent structures
and it could
be inclined or horizontal overall
this discovery calls for more
interdisciplinary collaborations to help
understanding the pyramid in its
construction process