EGYPT: Even after more than 4,500 years, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is still dropping fascinating historical tidbits from its centuries-old mystique.
Secret passageway discovered in pyramid in Egypt
Recently, a secret passageway nine metres (30 feet) long has been found near the pyramid’s main entrance. Officials from Egypt’s antiquities ministry conveyed on Thursday that the most recent discovery might lead to more discoveries.
The discovery inside the pyramid was made under the auspices of the Scan Pyramids project. The research, which was initiated in 2015, has been using non-invasive technology to look within the building, such as infrared thermography, 3D models, and cosmic-ray imaging.
The discovery may help explain how the pyramid was built as well as the function of the gabled limestone building that stands in front of the passageway, according to a Thursday report in the journal Nature.
According to Mostafa Waziri, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the incomplete hallway was built to rebalance the weight of the pyramid around either the main entrance or another, as of yet undiscovered room or area.
After a news conference in front of the pyramid, he informed reporters, “We are going to continue our scanning, so we will see what we can do to figure out what we can find beneath it, or just by the end of this hallway.”
Under the time of Pharaoh Khufu, the Great Pyramid was built as a colossal mausoleum in about 2560 BC. It was the tallest man-made building until the Eiffel Tower in Paris was erected in 1889.
A modern technology called cosmic-ray muon radiography was used by researchers to find the passageway. Then, they were able to extract its image by inserting a Japanese endoscope that was 6mm thick through a narrow joint in the pyramid’s stones.
According to Scan Pyramids researchers, a hollow at least 30 metres long was uncovered inside the Great Pyramid earlier in 2017—the first significant inner structure to be discovered since the 19th century.
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