Egypt: discovered new corridor inside the pyramid of Cheops
Archaeologists discovered a new tunnel inside the Pyramid of Cheops, one of the most famous monuments of ancient Egypt
Egypt has announced the discovery of a corridor inside the Cheops pyramid, the largest, oldest and most iconic of the three Giza pyramids in Cairo.
The announcement was made at a press conference held near the great pyramid. It is therefore confirmed that behind the main entrance of the great pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) there is another "corridor", "a tunnel" about 9 meters long, 2.10 wide and 2.3 high.
The presence of the tunnel was hypothesized in 2016, when scientists from France, Germany, Canada and Japan as well as experts from Egyptian universities and the Supreme Council of Antiquities had identified an empty space behind the main entrance to the pyramid, called "Sp-Nfc", abbreviation for "ScanPyramids North Face Corridor".
To avoid damaging the pyramid, archeologists set up a project that lasted several years. First they used muon radiography, a non-invasive technique developed at the University of Nagoya in Japan.
Then they filmed the cavity on the north side of the great pyramid by using a Japanese probe, a sort of "endoscope", a tiny camera introduced through a few millimeters gap in the rocks.
Thus, finally scientists were able to explore this tunnel.
The tunnel features monoliths that form a sloping ceiling: actually, the chevron blocks of the main entrance continue into the pyramid forming a roof. The corridor looks somewhat clean and in good condition although it does look unfinished and was probably never meant to be finished because the stones on the left and the right look rough.
"The last time it was seen was 4,500 years ago"
said Hany Helal, the coordinator and manager of the ScanPyramids project who made the discovery, noting that those released now are the first images of the mysterious chamber.
"Don't ask me why this corridor is here"
Helal said, fueling the mystery after Hawass predicted that "it will lead to other secrets being revealed."
Scientists explained that the "inverted v" shape of the ceiling of the corridor, called the "chevron technique", was introduced for the first time precisely in the pyramid of Cheops and serves to protect "large rooms from the considerable weight of the stones above": in short, it is a structure to discharge the strength and protect "maybe" a hidden room.
According to Mostafa Waziri, director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, it is possible that it was built to relieve the weight of the pyramid on the main entrance and redistribute it throughout the structure.
The research project, which has been underway for eight years, aims to study the pyramids of the Old Kingdom using "non-invasive techniques" such as "muon radiography" which in 2016 detected the "ScanPyramids North Face Corridor" (Sp-Nfc) of whose characteristics have now been specified.
I'm sure that a lot more analysis will be done in the next future but what it proves though is that the muon scanning technology does work! Now it's all world eyes on the big void above the grand Gallery the Great Pyramid.
The researchers published two scientific papers, accessible here:
- Localization and shape determination of a hidden corridor in the Great Pyramid of Giza using non-destructive testing https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963869523000245
- Precise characterization of a corridor-shaped structure in Khufu’s Pyramid by observation of cosmic-ray muons https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36351-0
The idea of a horizontal Corridor in and around the Chevrons on the North Face of the pyramid is not something new. Julian Bruchet speculated about a space in 1965.
Gilles Dormion and Jean-Patrice Goidin in 1986
and also the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin.
The exact positioning of a speculated Corridor was not always correct but the strange masonry on the North Face has always hinted there is something more to find.
The presence of the corridor was also speculated in 2022 by Filippo Biondi and Corrado Malanga in their publication: Synthetic Aperture Radar Doppler Tomography Reveals Details of Undiscovered High-Resolution Internal Structure of the Great Pyramid of Giza https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/20/5231
