According to Egyptian antiquities authorities, a hidden corridor nine meters (30 feet) long has been found near the Great Pyramid of Giza’s main entrance, and this could lead to further discoveries. The pyramid is 4,500-year-old.
The Scan Pyramids initiative has been using non-invasive technology to peer inside the structure since 2015, using infrared thermography, 3D simulations, and cosmic-ray imaging. The pyramid inside which the discovery was made, is the last existing structure of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The non-invasive method discovered a vacant area behind the Great Pyramid’s northern face, about 7 meters above the entrance, in a location where there is a stone chevron building.
An endoscope’s video captured the interior of the corridor, which is 9 meters (30 feet) long and 2.1 meters (7 feet) broad. Using the imaging method muography, it was first discovered in 2016.
Before a 6mm-wide (0.24in) endoscope was inserted through a small gap between the stones that make up the chevrons, additional tests using radar and ultrasound were conducted.
The discovery may cast light on the building of the pyramid and the function of the gabled limestone building that stands in front of the corridor, according to an article published on Thursday in the journal Nature.
On Thursday, the camera’s video was revealed at a press gathering next to the pyramid. It displayed an empty corridor with rough-hewn stone block walls and a stone roof.
During the rule of Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, the Great Pyramid was built as a colossal tomb in about 2560 BC. Up until the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889, it was the tallest man-made building, rising to a height of 146 meters (479 feet), though it is now only 139 meters.
According to Mostafa Waziri, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the incomplete corridor was probably built to rebalance the weight of the pyramid either around the main entrance, which tourists now use and is located nearly seven meters away, or around another as of yet undiscovered chamber or space.
It is also believed that five rooms atop the king’s burial chamber in a different section of the pyramid were constructed to distribute the weight of the enormous construction. Waziri added that it was conceivable for the pharaoh to have more than one burial chamber
Cosmic-ray muon radiography was used to find the passageway, and images of it were recovered by feeding a 6mm-thick endoscope from Japan through a small crack in the pyramid’s stones.
The Great Pyramid’s first significant inner structure to be discovered since the 19th century was a void that was at least 30 metres long, according to Scan Pyramids researchers, who revealed their finding in 2017.
