Scientists have discovered a hidden passage in the Great Pyramid of Giza

Egyptian antiquities officials said a hidden nine-meter passage has been discovered near the main entrance to the 4,500-year-old pyramid of Giza, and that could lead to more discoveries. Thursday.

The discovery inside the pyramid, the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing, was made as part of the Scan Pyramids project which since 2015 has been using non-invasive technology including infrared thermography, 3D simulations and endoscopes to look inside the structure.

The Great Pyramid was built as a massive tomb around 2560 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu or Khufu. Built at a height of 146 meters (479 ft), it was the tallest building made by humans until the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.

Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the unfinished corridor was likely created to redistribute the pyramid’s weight either around the main entrance, about 7 meters away, or onto another yet-to-be-discovered room or space.

“We’re going to keep scanning until we see what we can do…to see what we can discover underneath, or just by the end of this corridor,” he told reporters after a news conference at the front. pyramid.

It is also believed that five chambers above the king’s burial chamber in another part of the pyramid were built to redistribute the weight of the massive structure. Waziri added that it is possible that the pharaoh had more than one burial chamber.

Scientists confirmed the existence of the corridor using radar and ultrasound, before retrieving images of it by feeding a 6 mm telescope from Japan through a small joint in the stones of the pyramid.

In 2017, Scan Pyramids researchers announced the discovery of a void at least 30 meters deep inside the Great Pyramid, the first major internal structure to be found since the 19th century.

Reporting by Aidan Lewis. Editing by Mark Heinrich

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