CAIRO: Scientists have discovered a hidden passage inside Egypt Great Pyramidauthorities announced Thursday, as part of a seven-year international research project.
The passage is nine meters (30 feet) long and more than two meters wide, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa told reporters at the ancient site of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops, that the “gabled corridor” with a triangular ceiling “was found on the north face of the Great Pyramid of King Cheops“.
The discovery was part of the ScanPyramids project, launched in 2015 as a collaboration between leading universities in France, Germany, Canada and Japan and a group of Egyptian experts.
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, leads the committee overseeing the project, which uses advanced technology to view hidden parts of the pyramid’s interior without having to excavate it.
The technology is a mix of infrared thermography, muon X-ray imaging and 3D reconstruction – which the researchers say are non-invasive and non-destructive techniques.
The Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza, 146 meters high, and the only surviving structure of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Built around 4,500 years ago, it has three known chambers and, like other pyramids in Egypt, was intended as the tomb of a pharaoh.
Hawass told reporters at the pyramid on Thursday that “there is a great possibility…that the tunnel is protecting something. In my opinion, it is protecting the real burial chamber of King Khufu.”
In 2017, ScanPyramids announced the discovery of a cavity the size of a passenger plane, the first major structure found inside the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.
The passage is nine meters (30 feet) long and more than two meters wide, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa told reporters at the ancient site of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops, that the “gabled corridor” with a triangular ceiling “was found on the north face of the Great Pyramid of King Cheops“.
The discovery was part of the ScanPyramids project, launched in 2015 as a collaboration between leading universities in France, Germany, Canada and Japan and a group of Egyptian experts.
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, leads the committee overseeing the project, which uses advanced technology to view hidden parts of the pyramid’s interior without having to excavate it.
The technology is a mix of infrared thermography, muon X-ray imaging and 3D reconstruction – which the researchers say are non-invasive and non-destructive techniques.
The Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza, 146 meters high, and the only surviving structure of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Built around 4,500 years ago, it has three known chambers and, like other pyramids in Egypt, was intended as the tomb of a pharaoh.
Hawass told reporters at the pyramid on Thursday that “there is a great possibility…that the tunnel is protecting something. In my opinion, it is protecting the real burial chamber of King Khufu.”
In 2017, ScanPyramids announced the discovery of a cavity the size of a passenger plane, the first major structure found inside the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.
