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A PASSENGER PLANE-sized “void” has been discovered in the middle of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, where it has lain secret and untouched for 4,500 years, scientists revealed today.
The space is one of four cavities, along with the king and queen’s chambers and “Grand Gallery”, now known to exist inside the giant monument constructed under pharaoh Khufu of ancient Egypt.
“It is big,” said co-discoverer Mehdi Tayoubi of the ScanPyramids project, which has been exploring Khufu’s pyramid since October 2015 with non-invasive technology using subatomic particle scans.
“It’s the size of a 200-seaterairplane, in the heart of the pyramid,” Tayoubi told AFP of the discovery, published in science journal Nature.
Towering over the Giza complex on Cairo’s outskirts alongside smaller pyramids for kings Menkaure and Khafre and the Great Sphinx, the Khufu’s pyramid is the oldest and only surviving construction among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and one of the largest buildings ever erected on Earth.
The cavity is the first major structure found inside the Great Pyramid since the 19th century, the research team said.
“There have been many theories about the existence of secret chambers inside the pyramid,” said Tayoubi. “But none have predicted anything this big.”
The exact shape and size of the void is fuzzy – its purpose and possible contents a mystery.
But it is thought to be at least 30 metres (98 feet) long, and located above the “Grand Gallery” – a sloped corridor almost 50 m long and 9 m high which links Khufu’s burial chamber at the pyramid’s centre to a tunnel leading outside.
Untouched for 4,500 years
The monument – 139 metres high today, and 230 metres wide – was erected as a tomb for Khufu, also known as Cheops. To this day, nobody knows quite how it was built.
The void, said co-author Kunihiro Morishima from the Nagoya University in Japan, “was not known by anyone until now, from when the pyramid was built 4,500 years ago”.
“The big void is completely closed,” he added, which means anything inside it would not have been “touched by anyone after the pyramid (was) built”.
The pharaohs of ancient Egypt built these monumental tombs for themselves, complete with sarcophagus to hold their embalmed mummies, and stocked with everything they could require for the afterlife – food, clothing and jewellery.
Khufu’s pyramid was plundered long before it was visited by modern archaeologists, and no relics remain from any of the known chambers.
For this reason, the new cavity may be “very exciting,” said Morishima, though it is not known if it contains anything at all.
The team used a technique called “cosmic-ray muon radiography”, which allowed them to visualise “known and potentially unknown” voids in the pyramid without having to touch a single stone.
Muons are charged, heavy particles formed from the interactions of cosmic rays with atoms in the upper atmosphere.
Similar to X-rays which can penetrate the human body and allow bone imaging, these particles can follow a mostly straight line through several hundreds of metres of stone before decaying or being absorbed, the team said.
By recording the position and direction of each muon as it travels through the pyramid, muon detectors can distinguish cavities from stone.
High confidence
“We will continue to conduct muon imaging for revealing the detail” of the void, said Morishima — including its dimensions and inclination, and whether it consists of a single, large cavity or a complex of several.
“Our muon imaging technology can’t confirm (whether) there are some artifactsor not,” he added. Anything inside would be “too small for muon imaging.”
The team is already turning its attention to new technology for the next step — possibly a miniature robot that can travel through tiny holes to examine the inside of the void without disturbing anything.
The discovery, named simply “Big Void”, has been confirmed using three different muon technologies and three independent analyses, verifying its existence with “high confidence,” the authors said.
“While there is currently no information about the role of this void, these findings show how modern particle physics can shed new light on the world’s archaeological heritage,” the authors wrote in Nature.
- © AFP 2017.
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More like the floorboards creaking from the weight of the bullsh*t they were all spouting last night
Too much bending over backwards to “Good Republicans”.
Ah Diarmuid will ya ever leave off we get it you’re not a fan of SF no need to slate them on every f*cking article
Why shouldn’t he? Why don;t you call out the shinnerbots and paid SF shills on here for covering for his BS every fcuking article?
And here’s the other one who’s popping up on every article! Ye’re all equally dopey. Ye are acting like a bunch of children teasing each other. Yourself and Diarmuid have a go at Adams the SF trolls have a go at Kenny and ye all claim the moral high ground. A bunch of adults acting like a bunch of kids.
If the place wasn’t overrun with shinnerbots for the last 4 years there’d be no need for anyone to counteract them.
And if your so upset numpty, reading the comments section on political articles any not only this, but any online publication in Ireland, certainly is not the place for you.
Bit of originality wouldn’t go amiss though. Every comment is ‘good republican’ or slab or sf/ira.
how is this news and enda admitting lying about the McNulty affair is swept under the carpet.
Back pain or not Adams picked up on the Mcnulty gaffe by Enda.Theres so many fg scandals at this stage we’re losing track of them.
It wasn;t swept under the carpet. The IT and Indo ran with it in analysis
It wasn’t swept under the carpet at all, it was brought up on the afters show last night, it was on newstalk this morning, in the papers and on news sites like this.
@ luke: Just read 2 seperate analyses in the indo about the debate last night. One mentions kenny saying McNulty was NOT his call (contradicting what he said in the debate tself) and the other refers to the leader of the state revealing, live on national TV, that he misled our house of parliament as a ‘faux pas’.
Just heard the 12.30 news on the Jonathan Healy show on newstalk and it was the lead story in the bulletin.
Read them again FC.
“Miriam O’Callaghan was most effective when asking about cronyism. Kenny faltered over the appointment of John McNulty and admitted for the first time his responsibility.”
IT
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/five-takeaways-from-the-leaders-debate-1.2545950
You mentioned the indo, I checked. Can you post a link to the analysis article in the indo for us?
I thought it was the echoes of all the whingers in Enda Kennys head.
He has a pain in his back from the Indo trying to mount him. 40 minutes after the debate last night they came out with a Gerry headlined article.
Rubbish! It was “Joans handbag creaking”. She had just picked up her pension early on the way to the debate.
We sure someone didn’t forget to oil Endas brass neck ?
Why exactly is this news?
as SF supporters would say “It’s the “lamestream” media, vested interests, DOB, RTE and the universe’s attempt to make fun of our dear leader Gerry and derail the political process”.
It was the creaking of the imminent collapse of this corrupt establishment
Ha ha , I thought it was Joan Burtons gee string.
“Who is Senator Cahill?”
Was funny too. But not for Gerry.
back from carrying all that shame…
Senator Cahill. Is that the wee lass who was in the IRA who was appointed by the government to represent them by any chance?
Poor Gerry’s back. Can he not have surgery on it in the States, paid for by a benevolent sympathiser to “the cause” again?
Surgery on his back???? You dont know much about back pain do you daisy. He has had a bad back for decades.
What is so ridiculous about surgery for back pain?
Well Jane it depends on the cause of the back pain. Where is the pain coming from. (ie). Is the pain spinal? (ex) lumbar or disk. Is it upper or lower back. Or is the pain muscular? Will surgery for the pain do more good or bad longterm.
He’s just trying to droim up a bit of sympathy.
In fairness, it is a long time for anyone to be standing up, they should really be given seats. The 4 of them have a combined age of 253 after all!
I thought that the creak was coming from Miriam’s questions we had heard in previous debates. Pity that there wasn’t a live audience to judge the party leaders on their ‘last gasp’ performance.
I have seen the medical edivence, it was movement in rods up the three amigo’s backs. Spineless leaders from spineless parties.
Backsides not backs, curse you keyboard, it’s ruind.
My back is also killing me from carrying the country single handedly through this FF led recession.
Jess can we as a country not come together instead of all this crap. What would be wrong with a government being formed from all elected tds, share out cabinet posts on % ratio per party, if independents have 30% cove then their share. Make them all work for us, for our country instead of this continous tribal nonsense and one party pushing is manifesto. The best person for the job, then everybody is represents at some level and proportionally. Willingness is all that’s required, enough blaming and childish carry on
Poxy predictable text
Well said Joe. Makes a lot more sense than anything we heard last night.
It was not a sore back that prevented this poser from taking part in a TG4 leaders’ debate. His lack of fluency in Irish is only matched by his lack of fluency in English.
Can’t be as bad as the pain in a certain part of my anatomy that listening to his waffle causes!!
I too have a bad back, and people often think I am fidgeting when I am just having to move in order to try relieve some of the pain. I feel sorry for Gerry that he has to suffer from one too, people often fail to realise how bad a back injury can be and the affect it can have on a person.
Warning! Naked trampolining with a dog can lead to back problems in the over 60s.
It was Mary Lou sneaking up on him
I wonder what all the whingers will be moaning about come the weekend when we have our new government? Zzzzzzzzz
They will be saying ‘meet the new boss,same as the old boss,”
Irish govn made Maria Cahill a senator
I remember they took the McCartney sisters to the dail and White House
Why don’t our victims of abuse feuds etc all over the republic get this special treatment
Thousands suffering in silence because they aren’t worth anything in getting votes and all the rest of it
I think Miriam o Callaghan done very well last night and came across impartial. In the past she hasn’t always been able to hide her pro establishment and anti left thoughts, sometimes quite shockingly. Why can’t she behave like that all the time. She’ll get respect from all quarters if she can.
have your say