Scientists Discover A Hidden Corridor In The Great Pyramid Of Giza

CAIRO, March 2 (Reuters) – A nine-metre-long hidden corridor has been discovered near the main entrance to the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza and it could lead to further discoveries, sources said. said Egyptian antiquities officials. THURSDAY.

The discovery inside the pyramid, the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing, was made as part of the Scan Pyramids project which since 2015 has used non-invasive technology including infrared thermography, 3D simulations and endoscopes to look inside the structure.

The Great Pyramid was built as a monumental tomb around 2560 BC. AD under the reign of Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops. Built at a height of 146 meters (479 feet), it was the tallest man-made structure until the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.

The unfinished corridor was probably created to redistribute the weight of the pyramid either around the main entrance, nearly 7 meters away, or on another chamber or another space not yet discovered, said Mostafa Waziri, head of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities.

“We will continue our analysis to see what we can do … to understand what we can find below, or just down this corridor,” he told reporters after a press conference in front of the city. pyramid.

Five chambers atop the king’s burial chamber in another part of the pyramid are also believed to have been built to redistribute the weight of the massive structure. It was possible that the pharaoh had more than one burial chamber, Waziri added.

Scientists confirmed the corridor’s presence using radar and ultrasound, before capturing images of it by feeding a 6mm-thick endoscope from Japan through a tiny joint in the stones of the pyramid.

In 2017, Scan Pyramids researchers announced the discovery of a void at least 30 meters long inside the Great Pyramid, the first major internal structure discovered since the 19th century.

Reporting by Aidan Lewis; edited by Mark Heinrich

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