Friday March 29th, 2024
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Secret Chamber Found in Great Pyramid

UK researchers have become the first people to see the hidden chamber in 4500 years.

Staff Writer

Secret Chamber Found in Great Pyramid

A team of engineers from the University of Leeds has shown the world its first glimpse of what appears to be a secret chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. Two 20cm x 20cm tunnels extend from the north and south side of the Queen’s Chamber, and they are blocked by small stone doors, the purpose of which has remained a mystery to archaeologists and Egyptologists the world over. Previous attempts have led to mixed results, with a 1993 attempt with a small robot finding metal pins set in the small stone doors.

Recently, the Leeds effort, led by Rob Richardson, sent a flexible fiber optic camera into the tunnel, the benefit of it being its ability to traverse all the bumpy nooks and crannies of the 4500-year-old opening, and they found something rather interesting. Red hieroglyphics and carvings in the stone itself were found, probably put there during the initial building of the last standing man-made wonder of the ancient world.

The camera also gave the researchers the opportunity to see the metal pins from an angle never before seen by modern man. Their ornate carving implies that they were put there for aesthetic purposes rather than a practical use. Kate Spence of the University of Cambridge said that she believed the pins to be “symbolic door handles.”