Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa early on Thursday announced a new discovery inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, largest Egyptian pyramid and the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still exists.
It is a corridor on the northern face of the Great pyramid, with a length of 9 metres and a width of 2.10 metres.
The pyramid — also known as Khufu’s Pyramid — was built on the Giza plateau on the outskirts of Cairo by Khufu, a 4th Dynasty (2509 to 2483 B.C).
The discovery was made by team of ScanPyramids project, an international research team launched in 2015, under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, initiated, designed and coordinated by Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering and the French HIP Institute (Heritage, Innovation and Preservation).
Issa added that the project is considered an important research in which advanced scientific technology was used in cooperation with the international universities from France, Germany, Canada and Japan, with a group of Egyptian experts from Egyptian universities who worked hand in hand with their colleagues from the Ministry and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) under the supervision of an international scientific and archaeological committee headed by famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass.
The team will continue work and do scientific research using advanced and completely safe technological and scientific methods, to uncover more secrets of the ancient Egyptian civilisation, one of Egypt’s strengths, the minister said.
ScanPyramids project has been using five complementary non-invasive and non-destructive techniques to scan the Pyramids and detect unknown significant voids; these methods are infra-red thermograph, muons detection, 3D architectural and digital simulation, ultrasound measurement and ground-penetrating radar.
Mostafa Waziry, SCA Secretary General, expected that this discovery will lead more to discover artefacts related to Khufu.
“Artefacts related to all kings were revealed except Khufu,” he said. “This newly discovered corridor may distribute the pyramid’s weight and pressure on what? We do still know anything. This will be revealed in time.”
Hawass, head of the international scientific mission, said that this discovery is regarded as the most important finding in the 21th century. “Technology can reveal lots of secrets,” he added.
He added that Khufu is the only pyramid which has three levels, the second is 21m, the third is 43 m and the ground is not complete.
Mark Lehner, American archaeologist and one of the scientific committee team told The Egyptian Gazette that “this discovery is really very important”.
“We need much more information and we are waiting to know and announce about it soon.”
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