By Ebi Kesiena
Scientists working to unravel the mysteries of Egypt’s Great Pyramid found a hidden passage that could lead to new discoveries, the authorities announced on Thursday.
The antiquities ministry said in a statement that the passage is 30-feet long and more than two-and-a-half feet wide.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa told reporters at the ancient site in Giza, also known as the Khufu, or Cheops, pyramid, that the “gabled corridor” with a triangular ceiling “was found on the northern face of the Great Pyramid of King Khufu”.
The discovery was part of the Scan Pyramids project, launched in 2015 as a collaboration between major universities in France, Germany, Canada and Japan and a group of Egyptian experts.
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former antiquities minister, heads the committee supervising the project, which uses advanced technology to visualise hidden parts of the pyramid’s interior without having to excavate it.
The technology is a mix of infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging and 3D reconstruction – all of which the researchers say are non-invasive and non-destructive techniques.
The Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza, standing 479-feet tall, and the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Built some 4,500 years ago, it has three known chambers, and, like other pyramids in Egypt, was intended as a pharaoh’s tomb.
It is widely believed the pyramids were intended as a pharaoh’s tomb
Mr Hawass told reporters at the pyramid on Thursday that “there is a great possibility… the tunnel is protecting something. In my opinion, it is protecting the actual burial chamber of King Khufu”.
In 2017, ScanPyramids announced the discovery of a cavity the size of a passenger plane. It was the first major structure found inside the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.
Experts are divided over how the pyramids were constructed, so even relatively minor discoveries generate great interest.
Authorities often publicly tout discoveries to attract more tourists, a major source of foreign currency for this cash-strapped Middle eastern country.
Egypt’s tourism sector suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted the country’s longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, as well as further setbacks following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
