EGYPT – Secrets were hidden within the Great Pyramid of Giza around 4500 years ago, the largest structure ever created by Early Man. As of last week they may be more.
Nature, a reputable science journal, published a story last week that has the archaeological world abuzz. They announced the discovery of at least one large void space never accessed since the day it was hidden within the massive structure 4500 years ago. There has not been a discovery of this kind since the 19th Century.
Researchers made the discovery using the latest generation of ground penetrating electronic devices that accurately reads cosmic rays to penetrate the biggest of the pyramids.
Some Egyptologists are not yet ready to accept the find as anything more than a possible waste pit for refuse from the construction of the main chamber. Others say the engineers of the pyramid structures built voids above chambers to reduce the weight above the burial chamber void as a counter balance.
The 30-foot void shows on the monitor as a cloudlike space about 30 feet above what is known as the Queens Chamber with the blessing of a very strict Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
“It’s the size of a 200-seater airplane, in the heart of the pyramid,” Mehdi Tayoubi of the ScanPyramids project told AFP of the discovery, published in science journal.
The non-invasive scan will not result in any invasive means of getting to the new chamber, but researchers would rather wait until there is a technology that can literally see through thousands of tons of rock to see what, if anything, is inside.
“Even if it is a different team with the same technology,” Ministry of Antiquities spokesman Mohamed Ismail insists. “Any intrusive technique is out of the question.”
Personally, he has his doubts.
“There is no scientific, archaeological or historical evidence that corroborates this,” he said. “If there is another burial chamber, there would have been an entrance to it.”
But if in fact it is a secret chamber of some sort, Ismail is not opposed to any further research and invites Egyptologists to input their opinions or evidence that may change his mind.
They are already responding with various theories about what the void is and why it was constructed.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built during the rule of the Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops, whose reign lasted from 2509 to 2483 B.C. It stands around 139 meters high and 230 meters wide, the largest of the pyramids. Tourists enter the pyramid from a tunnel that was dug at the behest of Caliph al-Ma’mun around A.D. 820.
There has also been speculation about a possible chamber inside and beneath the Sphinx. At this time, there is no plan to investigate those theories with this new Cosmic Ray technologies, but that day may come soon.
During one of his trances, the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce, who died in 1945, saw that refugees from the lost city of Atlantis buried their secrets in a hall of records under the Sphinx and that the hall would be discovered before the end of the 20th century. Well he missed the target date but some still believe the “prophetic vision.”
The Sphinx is only a stroll away from the great pyramids.
There is good reason for Egypt being as careful with their artifacts as they are. Since Napoleon, these national treasures have been destroyed or stolen by successive conquerors as well as homegrown black-market artifact thieves have given up many priceless artifacts.
