Egypt: Hidden corridor in Great Pyramid of Giza seen for first time

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Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities handout photograph  showing the interior of a hidden corridor recovered  supra  the main   entranceway  of the Great Pyramid of Giza (2 March 2023)Image source, EPA

Image caption,

Video footage from an endoscope showed an bare corridor with a vaulted ceiling

Egyptian antiquities officials accidental they person confirmed the beingness of a hidden interior corridor supra the main entranceway of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Video from an endoscope showed the wrong of the corridor, which is 9m (30ft) agelong and 2.1m (7ft) wide.

The officials accidental it could person been created to redistribute the pyramid's value astir the entranceway oregon different arsenic yet undiscovered chamber.

It was archetypal detected successful 2016 utilizing an imaging method called muography.

The non-invasive method detected an bare abstraction down the bluish look of the Great Pyramid, astir 7m supra the main entrance, successful an country wherever determination is simply a chromatic chevron structure.

Further tests were carried retired with radar and ultrasound earlier a 6mm-wide (0.24in) endoscope was fed done a tiny associated in-between the stones that marque up the chevrons.

Image source, EPA

Image caption,

The endoscope was pushed into the bare abstraction down a chevron operation connected the pyramid's wall

The footage from the camera was unveiled astatine a quality league beside the pyramid connected Thursday. It showed an bare corridor with walls made retired of roughly-hewn chromatic blocks and a vaulted chromatic ceiling.

"We're going to proceed our scanning truthful we volition spot what we tin do... to fig retired what we tin find retired beneath it, oregon conscionable by the extremity of this corridor," said Mostafa Waziri, caput of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Great Pyramid, which is 146m high, was built connected the Giza plateau during the 4th dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu, oregon Cheops, who reigned from astir 2609BC to 2584BC.

Despite being 1 of the oldest and largest monuments connected Earth, determination is nary statement astir however it was built.

Image source, EPA

Image caption,

The Great Pyramid, seen successful the background, is the largest of the 3 pyramids located astatine Giza

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said the corridor represented a "major discovery" that would "enter houses and homes of radical each implicit the satellite for the archetypal time".

He besides said that it mightiness assistance uncover whether the burial enclosure of King Khufu inactive existed wrong the pyramid.

He speculated that determination mightiness beryllium "something important" successful the abstraction beneath the corridor, past adding: "I'm definite successful a fewer months from present we tin spot if what I'm saying is close oregon not."

A second, larger void wrong the pyramid was detected utilizing muon tomography successful 2017. It is estimated to beryllium 30m agelong and respective metres successful tallness and is located straight supra the Grand Gallery.

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