There are few more iconic buildings on Earth than the ancient pyramids of Egypt.
Soaring up from the ground, their pointed tops piercing the sky above, they mark some of the
most incredible landscapes found anywhere on the planet. But, while everyone knows what these
iconic structures look like from the outside… what’s happening inside is much more mysterious.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re uncovering the real reason why you can’t explore the pyramids.
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First things first, of course you can visit the pyramids, to at least view them from the outside,
and they’re a bucket list destination for so many travellers. But it’s not a free rein once
you get there, and with good reason. The Great Pyramid site in Giza, for example,
where probably the most famous pyramids of all time can be found, is thought to be around 4,600
years old. And there are other pyramids that are even older than that. These incredible monuments
are true, tangible history, then, that’s still standing strong before us… which is amazing,
but it also means that they’re subject to all kinds of rules and laws to protect and
preserve them for many more years to come. For example, while there have been various
daredevil climbers that have done so, it’s illegal to climb the pyramids in Egypt. Especially just
for the thrill of it. But also, while some parts of them are accessible to the public,
the pyramids’ internal chambers tend to be mostly closed off, too. Tickets to venture into those on
the Giza site, for instance, are often limited… and those who do get inside usually recall
seeing only a few dusty corridors and darkened rooms. Again, given the historical significance
of these places, it’s perhaps unsurprising that those maintaining them want to avoid a
public free-for-all. But, what’s a little more surprising, is that exploring the pyramids is
hard, as well, for actual explorers. There are a few reasons for this.
One is that the pyramids are (and were) first and foremost tombs. Built for the pharaohs of
Ancient Egypt, they’re the last resting places for the most powerful people of their time. The
Great Pyramid of Giza, for example, is a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty, who reigned
during the twenty-sixth century BCE. There is, then, an overriding desire to respect these sites,
rather than just breaking them open for anyone to gaze upon. And, also, because they are tombs, many
of the chambers and rooms within them were sealed off when they were built… so it’s not as though
someone could just open a door into them, anyway. Nevertheless, another reason as to why exploring
the pyramids is difficult in modern times… is because that respect perhaps hasn’t always been
there in the past. Many of the pyramid sites have been visited by grave robbers
(or tomb raiders) throughout their history, with unknown artifacts seemingly removed in many cases
long before any kind of organized, archaeological survey could take place.
Unsurprisingly, the authorities are keen to avoid this happening in the future, and so there are
various legal hurdles to overcome before anyone can get beyond the standard tourist walkways.
But, arguably more than anything else, exploration of the pyramids is difficult
because the authorities (and most explorers) are desperately keen not to damage anything.
Maintaining the structural integrity of these things is of paramount importance to everyone,
and so the prospect of large-scale drilling to get into them, for example…
just doesn’t satisfy anybody. The pyramids have stood for more than four thousand years,
but they could still be brought crashing down within moments… and that’s the primary concern.
As a result, the pyramids do continually rank as some of the most mysterious places on planet
Earth. While we do have maps of their inside layouts, featuring estimates and projections for
some of the chambers that could be there… there’s precious little of any particular detail. They’ve
been here for so long, but there’s still so much that we don’t know about them… and, because of
that, any discovery that is made is automatically headline news. Because, while it is difficult
for us to physically explore these monuments ourselves, science and technology is now enabling
us to find at least some answers from afar. For decades now, researchers have been sending
remote controlled robots into the pyramids, to have a look around and send back footage - often
to screens setup outside the pyramid itself. Not only is a single robot far less intrusive than an
army of even well-meaning archaeologists, but it can also usually fit through smaller gaps… through
tiny shafts, for example, between one ancient room and another. In early 2020, for instance,
news broke of a lightweight, five-kilogram robot that was used to again explore the Great
Pyramid in Giza. It carefully traveled down a sixty-metre-long, recently discovered, square
tunnel, measuring only about twenty centimeters across. Eventually, its way was blocked by a stone
(perhaps purposefully placed there) which meant that it still couldn’t fully explore the expected
room that lay beyond. But naturally, this mini breakthrough should lead to greater research
and efforts to work out how to get past that stone, and further down the tunnel.
Aside from robots, though, modern exploration of the pyramids has increasingly made use of particle
physics to improve our view. The world leading “ScanPyramids” mission, which was started in 2015,
employs an entirely non-invasive process known as muon tomography to generate accurate, 3D
images of what’s happening inside. Its most famous discovery to date came in late 2017,
when a massive, previously unknown space was found in (again) the Great Pyramid, just above the Grand
Gallery (a key room that was previously known about). This mysterious or hidden “void”, as it
was widely dubbed, is at least one hundred feet long. While many Egyptologists have claimed for
years that there should be hidden spaces and gaps within the pyramids that we don’t yet know about,
this particular find forced everyone to take note. The dimensions are for something as significant as
another hall or chamber, although work is ongoing to figure out exactly what the void’s purpose is.
As we move forward, the hope is that new technology like that employed by “ScanPyramids”
(as well as the fast-improving explorer robots) could well take us into a new golden age for
discovery in Egypt. A great sense of mystery has hung over these spectacular monuments for
literally thousands of years, while the unanswered questions have mounted up for modern minds over
the last few centuries, during which the pyramids have been subject to more and more speculation.
Famously, there are various “alternate” theories around that claim the pyramids might
be more than just ancient tombs. That they might have in fact been put here by a higher power,
or an extraterrestrial being, for some other reason… rather than built by hand (by thousands
of dedicated workers) as conventional science and history continually says.
Some of these more “out there” ideas are likely born out of the fact that so much about the
pyramids is still unknown, though. And physically exploring them up close is often impossible.
But, if we were to reach a time when all pyramids are one hundred percent scanned, so that there are
no more “hidden voids” to uncover, perhaps then we’ll finally have a better grasp on the truth.
Between now and then, however, and especially as we learn more and more about the pyramids
through modern technology, the calls to enable deeper exploration by hand are sure to grow.
What’s your verdict on the direction we should take from this point forward?
Is it more important to drill through to hidden chambers, even if it means risking
wider damage to the pyramids themselves… or should we continue as we have been doing,
leaving those chambers untouched, but maybe never knowing for sure what’s inside them?
Perhaps one day in the future there will be no mystery left to solve when it comes to these
magnificent places… because we’ll have come to know them as well as we know the buildings of
today. We’ll have walked through them and marveled at all the artifacts that they might still hold.
But, equally, perhaps one day in the future the pyramids will no longer be standing… and not
because of some devastating natural disaster, but because our curiosity - our need to know - will
drive us too far, and we’ll destroy them. Everything has its time on Earth,
and the pyramids have certainly had longer than most… but it’s little wonder that there’s
a feeling of caution whenever the idea of probing deeper into them is debated. What’s clear is that
we’ll never see their like again. And that’s the real reason why you can’t explore the pyramids.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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