As part of a seven-year multinational study initiative, researchers have
found a secret passage inside Egypt's Great Pyramid, the authorities
revealed on Thursday.
The tunnel is more than 2 meters wide and 9 meters long (30 feet),
according to a release from the antiquities ministry.
The "gabled hallway" with a triangular roof was "found on the northern face
of the Great Pyramid of King Khufu," Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities
Minister Ahmed Issa told media at the historic site in Giza, also known as
the Khufu, or Cheops, pyramid.
The finding was
made as a result of the
ScanPyramids
initiative, which was started in 2015 as a partnership between a group of
Egyptian experts and prominent universities in France, Germany, Canada, and
Japan.
The group in charge of the project, which employs cutting-edge technology
to visualize secret portions of the pyramid's interior without having to
excavate it, is led by archaeologist Zahi Hawass, a former antiquities
minister of Egypt.
Infrared
thermography, muon
radiography imaging, and 3D modeling are all combined in this technology,
which the
experts claim
is non-invasive and non-destructive.
With a height of 146 meters, the Great Pyramid is the tallest building in
Giza and the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is
still intact.
It was constructed about 4,500 years ago, has three known levels, and like
other Egyptian pyramids, was meant to be a pharaoh's mausoleum.
On Thursday, Hawass informed media at the pyramid that "There is a strong
likelihood that the passageway is defending something. In my view, it is
safeguarding the real burial chamber of King Khufu".
The first significant building
discovered inside
the Great Pyramid since the 19th century was a passenger plane-sized cavity,
which was located in 2017, according to ScanPyramids.
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