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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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I will miss Melissa more than Sean
@CKC: she die?
@Quentin Moriarty: No
@Quentin Moriarty: she had one party trick …
@Greg Blake: was that the brilliant bridesmaids part?
He’s on his way out and still continues to lie.
He should team up with Chemical Ali and do a corporate lectures tour on defending the indefensible
I struggle to think of many people more odious and smug than Hannity.
@The Guru: one of the few faces that trigger my urge to punch it repeatedly until that smug look is knocked off.
“he’s an unbelievably gracious person”. “He’s always thinking of others”.
Are you sure you know who the current president even is?
His comedic interventions will be missed. Luckily with have Kelly-Anne (aka meth Barbie) to keep us enterained
Think Sarah Huckabee will be better taking on the hostile media as press spokesperson …How long more can they ask 70% of their questions on Russia….
@John003: as long as it takes.
@Deborah Behan: Or their rating do down….Whichever is first….
@John003: maybe, just maybe if they got an answer that wasn’t proven to be untrue they’d stop asking the same question. Think about it, every answer on Russia has changed repeatedly. “do you think Russia interfered in the election?” alternating “no” “yes” “maybe” “no” “with others” “Putin says no”. Another great example is Don Jr changing his story about the meeting with what he was told was a Kremlin lawyer on a daily basis which has now changed to him not talking anymore after it was revealed that there were up to 8 people in the meeting contrary to his statements saying there were 4. If they consistently gave the same answer there would be no need for clarification
@Paul Quirke: Ha ha. I call her Goebbels Barbie!
He forget the second C in cooks… just before the k there….
@Brian Guilfoyle: good one Brian.
@Brian Guilfoyle: coocks?
Fox News talking about media bias. Does it get any more surreal?
Too many Cooks and no ingredients,and no recipe,Lurching from one policy and legislative failure to another ,mired in intrigue with dubious people,let’s welcome him to Ireland he’ll fit right in
Not a shred of evidence to prove what psycho Trump and Spicer says is fake news.
@JimmyMc: One story means all media systematically makes up facts? Fox News is the real perpetrator of fake news.
@JimmyMc: one story where people had to resign and the victim of the story himself said “everyone makes mistakes” as he was graciously accepting their apology.
For a second there I was astounded- I thought it read ‘crooks’. Now that would have been a popcorn munching story!
Ill miss her. Such entertainment.
What a clown of a man still spewing out bulls#1t about fake media. I’d rather fake media any day over a nutcase president
Too many crooks more like…
think he meant too many crooks..
What else do you expect from liars and conmen, you’d hardly expect them to say they’re honest and provide real facts 99% of the time. When you’ve got idiots, stupid enough to vote for you and think you’re a God. You’re going to milk it, for what it’s worth and laugh at your supporters behind their backs.
Too many crooks or cooks?
have your say