Beneath the limestone of Giza, where the oldest of the Seven Wonders has stood for some four and a half millennia, a nine-meter passage that no living eye had seen was announced this Thursday by Egypt's antiquities authorities. It was found without a single stone being cut, by reading the pyramid's hidden density with cosmic rays and then peering through a hairline seam with a slender endoscope. Its purpose, as far as officials can tell, was to share the monumental load of the pharaoh's tomb, though the question of what it might still be guarding remains open. In a long human story of ambition
Scientists Reveal Hidden Nine-Meter Corridor Inside Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza
A corridor unnoticed for roughly 4,500 years
Mark
Nine meters of corridor in a pyramid that size. Why does it matter?
Mimi
Because it's near the main entrance that tourists use, about seven meters away, and nobody knew it was there. It suggests there is still structure in the building we haven't mapped.
Luke
Careful, though. What's actually confirmed is the corridor itself. They detected it with muon imaging and then got endoscope images through a joint in the stones.
Mark
And what's its purpose?
Mimi
Waziri said it was likely built to redistribute weight, either around the entrance or around some other undiscovered space.
Luke
Note the word likely. That's an interpretation from officials, not a settled finding. And the other space is a possibility, not a discovery.
Mark
What about the limestone structure in front of it?
Mimi
Nature's article says the find could help explain its purpose. Could, again.
Luke
Right. Nothing in the reporting says what that structure was for.
Mark
Waziri also floated more than one burial chamber.
Mimi
He said it was possible. It sits alongside the five rooms above the king's chamber, which are also thought to relieve weight.
Luke
So the honest summary is one confirmed corridor, several open questions, and more scanning planned.
Der Puls
- A corridor nine meters long, sealed inside the Great Pyramid for about 4,500 years, has surfaced beside its main entrance.
- Researchers had to read the stone without breaking it, using cosmic-ray muon imaging to detect the void before anyone could see it.
- An endoscope no thicker than 6mm was threaded through a tiny joint between blocks to capture the first images of the unfinished passage.
- Officials believe the corridor was meant to redistribute weight, but scanning continues to determine whether an undiscovered chamber lies beneath it or beyond its end.
Beneath the limestone of Giza, where the oldest of the Seven Wonders has stood for some four and a half millennia, a nine-meter passage that no living eye had seen was announced this Thursday by Egypt's antiquities authorities. It was found without a single stone being cut, by reading the pyramid's hidden density with cosmic rays and then peering through a hairline seam with a slender endoscope. Its purpose, as far as officials can tell, was to share the monumental load of the pharaoh's tomb, though the question of what it might still be guarding remains open. In a long human story of ambition and ingenuity, it is a reminder that even the most studied monuments keep silences of their own.
On Thursday, March 2, Egyptian antiquities officials stood before the Great Pyramid of Giza and revealed a corridor nine meters long, hidden inside the monument near its main entrance. It had lain unseen for roughly 4,500 years, and officials suggested it could open the way to further discoveries.
The find came from the Scan Pyramids project, which since 2015 has studied the monument without cutting into it. The team first detected the passage using cosmic-ray muon radiography, then gathered images by guiding a slim Japanese-made endoscope through a narrow joint between the stones. A paper in Nature published the same day said the discovery could shed light on how the pyramid was built and on a gabled limestone structure in front of the corridor.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the passage was never finished and was probably meant to redistribute the pyramid's weight. It may have protected the entrance tourists use today, or some space not yet found. He pointed to five rooms above the king's chamber that serve a similar purpose, and he suggested the pharaoh may have had more than one burial chamber.
Scanning will go on. The team hopes to learn what lies beneath the corridor or at its far end, and whether another chamber waits there.
On Thursday, March 2, Egyptian antiquities officials stood in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza and announced that a corridor nine meters (30 feet) long had been found hidden inside it, close to the main entrance. The passage had gone unnoticed for roughly 4,500 years, and officials said it could lead to further discoveries.
The find comes from the Scan Pyramids project, which since 2015 has been studying the monument without cutting into it. Its toolkit includes infrared thermography, 3D simulations and cosmic-ray imaging. The Great Pyramid is the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
The method behind this particular discovery had two stages. Scientists first detected the corridor through cosmic-ray muon radiography. They then obtained images of it by feeding a 6mm-thick endoscope, made in Japan, through a tiny joint between the pyramid's stones. An article published the same day in the journal Nature said the finding could add to what is known about how the pyramid was built, and about the purpose of a gabled limestone structure that sits in front of the corridor.
The pyramid was built as a monumental tomb around 2560 BC, during the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops. It was originally 146 meters (479 feet) tall and now stands at 139 meters. It remained the tallest structure made by humans until the Eiffel Tower went up in Paris in 1889.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the corridor is unfinished and was likely built to redistribute the pyramid's weight. It may have been meant to protect either the main entrance, which tourists use today and which lies almost seven meters away, or another space that has not yet been found. He noted that five rooms above the king's burial chamber, in a different part of the pyramid, are also thought to serve a weight-bearing purpose. He added that it was possible the pharaoh had more than one burial chamber.
The announcement follows earlier work by the same team. In 2017, Scan Pyramids researchers reported a void at least 30 meters long inside the Great Pyramid, the first major inner structure identified since the 19th century.
Speaking to reporters after the press conference, Waziri said scanning would continue. The aim, he said, is to work out what lies beneath the corridor or at its far end. Whether either holds another chamber remains to be determined.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
We're going to continue our scanning so we will see what we can do to figure out what we can find beneath it, or by the end of this corridor.— Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities
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