Hidden hall in Nice Pyramid of Giza seen for first time

Egyptian antiquities officers say they’ve confirmed the existence of a hidden inside hall above the primary entrance of the Nice Pyramid of Giza.

Video from an endoscope confirmed the within of the hall, which is 9m (30ft) lengthy and a couple of.1m (7ft) large.

The officers say it may have been created to redistribute the pyramid’s weight across the entrance or one other as but undiscovered chamber.

It was first detected in 2016 utilizing an imaging method referred to as muography.

A team of scientists from the ScanPyramids Project were able to sense density changes inside the pyramid by analysing how it was penetrated by muonsthat are by-products of cosmic rays which can be solely partially absorbed by stone.

The non-invasive method detected an empty house behind the northern face of the Nice Pyramid, about 7m above the primary entrance, in an space the place there’s a stone chevron construction.

Additional assessments had been carried out with radar and ultrasound earlier than a 6mm-wide (0.24in) endoscope was fed via a tiny joint in-between the stones that make up the chevrons.

The footage from the digicam was unveiled at a information convention beside the pyramid on Thursday. It confirmed an empty hall with partitions made out of roughly-hewn stone blocks and a vaulted stone ceiling.

“We’ll proceed our scanning so we’ll see what we are able to do… to determine what we are able to discover out beneath it, or simply by the tip of this hall,” mentioned Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Nice Pyramid, which is 146m excessive, was constructed on the Giza plateau in the course of the fourth dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, who reigned from round 2589BC to 2566BC.

Regardless of being one of many oldest and largest monuments on Earth, there isn’t any consensus about the way it was constructed.

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass mentioned the hall represented a “main discovery” that will “enter homes and houses of individuals all around the world for the primary time”.

He additionally mentioned that it’d assist reveal whether or not the burial chamber of King Khufu nonetheless existed contained in the pyramid.

He speculated that there may be “one thing vital” within the house under the hall, then including: “I am certain in a number of months from now we are able to see if what I am saying is appropriate or not.”

A second, larger void inside the pyramid was detected using muon tomography in 2017. It’s estimated to be 30m lengthy and a number of other metres in peak and is positioned straight above the Grand Gallery.