The Great Pyramid at Giza, just outside of Cairo, contains a recently found, sealed-off chamber that dates back 4,500 years. This information was made public on Thursday by Egypt's antiquities authorities.
Modern scanning techniques were used to find the passage, which is located on the northern side of the Pyramid of Khufu. It stands above the pyramid's main entrance and is almost 30 feet long and over 6 feet broad.
Policemen are silhouetted against the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, in 2012.
The compartment is inaccessible from the outside, therefore archaeologists are unsure of its purpose. In 2017, archaeologists found a second, similarly-sealed passageway inside the Pyramid of Khufu, measuring 30 meters (98 feet) in length.
At an unveiling ceremony outside the pyramid on Thursday, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and the nation's minister of tourism, Ahmed Eissa, declared the discovery. The discovery was attributed to the Scan Pyramids project, a global initiative that uses scans to investigate at unknown areas of the ancient building.
The event was attended by scientists from the project, which got underway in 2015.
According to Christian Grosse, a key project participant and professor of non-destructive testing at the Technical University of Munich, the chamber was located using a variety of scanning techniques, including ground penetrating radars and ultrasonic measurements. He anticipates that these methods will result in additional discoveries inside the pyramid.
At the end room, there are two sizable limestones; the matter at hand, according to Grosse, is what lies beneath the chamber and behind these stones.
The Pyramid of Khufu is one of three pyramids that make up the Great Pyramids at Giza complex. It is named after a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 2509 to 2483 B.C. The only remaining example of the original Seven Wonders of the World are the Egyptian pyramids.
Even even insignificant finds are of great interest since experts disagree on how the pyramids were built. To increase tourism, a key source of foreign currency for this cash-strapped Middle Eastern nation, authorities frequently publicly highlight finds.
Following the political unrest and bloodshed that followed the 2011 uprising that toppled the nation's longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, as well as additional setbacks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Egypt's tourist industry saw a protracted decline.
