4,500 years on, the Giza pyramid’s new secret
Hidden chamber discovery
curses, hidden treasures and boy kings – ancient egypt has thrown up many tantalising mysteries over the years.
The latest riddle is a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza that could shed light on how the 4,500-year-old wonder was built.
Discovered using a scanning technique involving cosmic rays, the vast ‘void’ lying deep within the structure has been hailed as the biggest find there since the 19th century. The chamber is more than 220ft high and almost 100ft long, but so far there is no clue as to why it is there.
egyptologists believe it may have been a ramp used by thousands of workmen to move the 80-tonne stone slabs which form the pyra- mid’s colossal burial chamber. But there is a smaller chance the mysterious void may be a ‘decoy’ burial chamber built to deter looters. Or it may once have contained jewels and statues buried with a pharaoh to take with him to the afterlife.
The Great Pyramid – the largest of the three at Giza, near cairo – is the only one of the ancient seven Wonders left standing. using a newly- developed technique, experts tracked the paths of particles known as muons – by-products of cosmic rays – as they moved through the mammoth granite and limestone structure.
researchers said they had developed ‘the right technique at the right time’ to be able to identify the void, which has been hidden since the pyramid was built. The pyramid, made during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu and sometimes known by his name, was the world’s tallest man-made structure for thousands of years.
It is already known that the 480ft high monument opens into a Grand Gallery, leading to Khufu’s burial chamber, and that there is also an unfinished ‘Queen’s chamber’. However the reason behind the new void has baffled experts.
Dr Kate spence, senior lecturer in egyptian archaeology at cambridge university, said: ‘The most likely
explanation is that this was a ramp built to get the 80-tonne red granite slabs laid above the roof of the burial chamber and prevent it from collapsing onto Khufu’s body inside.
‘An internal ramp would have made life easier for the tens of thousands of men working on the pyramid for decades as they dragged blocks high up onto the structure. It could have been a very elegant solution to the building problems faced in creating this ingenious structure.’
Dr Roland Enmarch, of the University of Liverpool, said: ‘In Egyp- tology we never say never, and the void could conceivably have been a deliberate extra chamber. Other pyramids sometimes contain decoy burial chambers to trick looters, but these were hundreds of years later so that is more unlikely. Generally, royal burial chambers would have been stocked with jewels, gilded furniture and clothing, as well as maybe statues of the gods.’
Experts from France and Japan began scanning for what is now dubbed the ‘Big Void’ in 2015. Muon detectors may now be used at other archaeological sites.