Two Mysterious Cavities Found Inside Great Pyramid May Be Secret Rooms

Ancient Origins

A team of researchers that have used cutting edge technology to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt have discovered two previously unknown cavities inside the world-famous monument. Are they secret rooms or passages that have long been rumored to lie within?

The research team with the Scan Pyramid project applied a combination of infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging and elements of 3D reconstruction of the Great Pyramid. The results revealed two anomalies inside the construction that have been described as “cavities”.
The Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of two anomalies in Cairo on Thursday. The millennia-old pyramid has three known chambers, but researchers have speculated for many decades that there is much more to discover inside the 146-meter tall pyramid of King Khufu. According to Seeker, the researchers are able to confirm the existence of a 'void' hidden behind the northern side at the upper part of the entrance gate.  The void may be a corridor which runs inside the structure. The second cavity was discovered on the northeast flank of the pyramid.

Does the Great Pyramid contain hidden chambers? Source: BigStockPhoto

According to the statement by Scan Pyramids, muons are "similar to X-rays, which can penetrate the body and allow bone imaging" and "can go through hundreds of meters of stone before being absorbed. Judiciously placed detectors -- for example inside a pyramid, below a potential, unknown chamber -- can then record particle tracks and discern cavities from denser regions." The newly discovered spaces inside the pyramid may be the long expected lost element of the pyramid.
The work by the French researchers from the Scan Pyramids project has been made in collaboration with famous archeologist and former head of the Ministry of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass. The project had initially been led by Nicholas Reeves, who used radar scans to reveal possible unknown chambers in the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. However, that discovery was negated by Dr Hawass and other researchers, so Reeves didn't receive permission to excavate inside the tomb. Dr Hawass’ previous opinions about the scans make his appearance in the project rather surprising. As National Geographic wrote in May 6, 2016: ''After claiming that radar has never led to a single discovery in Egypt, Dr Hawass said, “We have to stop this media business, because there is nothing to publish. There is nothing to publish today or yesterday.''

Previously, but without the company of Dr Hawass, the same team examined the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur. The study became a huge success. As Natalia Klimczak from Ancient Origins reported in May 10, 2016:

''A team of researchers has presented the results of an analysis focused on the internal structure of the Bent Pyramid of pharaoh Sneferu (Snefru), a 4,500-year-old monument named after its sloping upper half.”

A 3-D cutaway showing the inside of the Pyramid of Sneferu. Source: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, HIP Institute and the Faculty of Engineering (Cairo University)

The study is based on three modern technologies: infrared thermography, 3D scans with lasers, and  cosmic-ray detectors. All of them have allowed the researchers to take better look inside the pyramids. Using the infrared thermography technique, the researchers measured the infrared energy emitted from the structures. The results of their testing were used to estimate the temperature distribution inside. Then, the team used lasers to bounce narrow pulses of light off the interiors of the Bent Pyramid. The last part of the research was locating cosmic particles, muons , within the structure, using detector plates.
Muons are formed at the moment when cosmic rays hit the Earth’s atmosphere. The particles rain down from the atmosphere, pass through empty spaces, and they can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces. They don't affect the human body, but if special detector plates are used, they can be tracked.

Kunihiro Morishima, from the Institute for Advanced Research of Nagoya University, Japan, placed 80 plates in the lower chamber of the Bent pyramid. They covered an area of about 10 square feet (0.93 sq. meters) and stayed there for 40 days. Following an analysis of these plates, the researchers were able to create 3D images of the pyramid, which revealed the shape of all of the chambers inside the pyramid.''
The size, shape and exact position of the newly-discovered cavities are now under investigation. To that end, the Scan Pyramids project has requested an extension of one year to complete the project.
Top image: A 3D cutaway view of the Great Pyramid of Giza revealing its interior chambers. Experts confirmed the existence of the mysterious cavities on Saturday after scanning the millennia-old monument with radiography equipment. Credit: Operation Scan Pyramids
By Natalia Klimzcak

Unraveling the Mystery of the Great Pyramid Air-Shafts – Part II

Ancient Origins

The Design

There are two air shafts each going out towards the North and the South direction in both King’s and Queen’s chamber. While, the King’s Chamber shafts go all the way to the external surface of the pyramid, out in the open, the Queen’ Chamber shafts are blocked some distance from the external surface. One of the reasons given is that the Queen’s Chamber was initially going to be the where Khufu would be interred but when the plan was changed to move the burial to what is the King’s Chamber, the shafts were blocked and their openings at the Queen’s Chamber were closed and sealed.

Transparent view of Khufu's pyramid from SouthEast. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The shafts in the Queen’s Chamber have been up for much speculation. In 1992, an exploratory expedition into the shafts of the Queen’s Chamber was conducted by German engineer Rudolf Gatenbrink via a robotic explorer named after the ancient Egyptian god of war “Wepwawet” or alternatively called “Upuaut”. The robotic explorer found a number of artificial items in the Queen’s Chamber northern shaft such as a hexagonal iron rod with threaded end, indicating it was more recent in history, perhaps left behind by discoverers of the shafts Dixon and others. Other items found were a green grappling hook, a small grey green stone ball and a broken off piece of square wooden slat.

Wepwawet giving scepters to Seti I, found at Temple of Seti I. Wepwawet is often depicted as a bluish or grayish haired wolf or jackal to avoid confusion with Anubis. (Roland Unger / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The Measurements

The openings of the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber have the same measurements with regards to height and depth of 21 by 21 centimeters or 8.4 inches by 8.4 inches. Flinders Petrie determined the angles of the northern and the southern shaft, using a goniometer, with northern shaft having a mean angle of 37 ° 28’ and that of the southern shaft having a mean angle 38 ° 28’. The northern shaft runs 190 centimeters or 76 inches horizontally before it turns upwards, similarly the southern shaft runs for 200 centimeters or 80 inches horizontally before turning up.  The southern shaft goes up to 208.66 feet and is blocked by a limestone slate fitted with copper handles on both obverse and reverse sides with a confirmed thickness of 60 mm. “The floors of the shafts are made of flat limestone blocks, the thicknesses of which are unknown.  The walls and ceilings are formed by sections of inverted u-blocks that resemble upside down gutters.  Although it is uncertain what the blocks above and below the shafts look like, the shafts run at a sloping angle through the horizontal layers of the pyramid, so it is believed that the u-blocks and basal blocks rest under and on blocks that are wedge-shaped.”

Opening to the King’s Chamber shaft. Morton Edgar, 1910. ( Public Domain )

Almost a decade after the ambitious “Upuaut” rover project, in 2002, the much hyped “Pyramid Rover” sojourn took place. Unlike the Upuaut rover, the Pyramid Rover was equipped with a drill bit and a camera. After a laborious climb of about 45 minutes, the rendezvous between the rover the limestone slab happened. This whole program was being broadcast live across the world with audience sitting in front of their televisions, waiting with bated breath, while the rover drilled a hole in the limestone slab. Once this was done, the camera was inserted and all that was to be seen was a recess blocked by another slab of unknown proportion and thickness. While the audience were disappointed, for the experts, the seemingly uninteresting view was encouraging. The Queen chamber’s northern shaft was also explored for the first time and it was reported “The ‘door’ appears to be identical to the one in the southern shaft that was already known. The doors are equidistant (65 meters/208 feet) from the queen's chamber. It is the third such block discovered within the shafts of the pyramid.”

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Then almost nine years later in 2011, the Djedi rover project was launched, which was a better designed robotic explorer, suitable to move in tighter confines of the southern shaft, given its articulate frame and its ability to expand and contract. The Dejdi rover was also equipped with a camera connected via a snake mount with the ability to bend and “see” behind itself. The project made discoveries such as, it imaged, in passing, what appeared to be workmen’s graffiti or glyphs of unknown meaning. It imaged the reverse side of the first blocking limestone plate, named “Gantenbrink’s Door”.

Gantenbrink’s Door. ( Image Source )

It discovered that the fractures on the roof of the shaft ran above the limestone plate and to the other side behind it. The camera also photographed some quarry marks left behind by workmen, “that have not been seen for 4500 years.”

The Purpose

Ever since the shafts were cleared of debris and the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber were discovered, claims as to the very nature and purpose of the shafts have remained dubious at best. Unfortunately, no contemporary text or evidence exists from the Khufu’s time that could explain this architectural anomaly. Like many other features in the great pyramid have baffled archaeologists, architects and engineers, the shafts continue mete out the same treatment to anyone who tries to study and interpret their function, symbolism and purpose. 

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The shafts were called “air channels” by earlier explorers such as Howard-Vyse, Piazzi Smyth and Flinders Petrie, who thought that these shafts were primitive climate control systems. Another known Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, has stated that these shafts were “gateways” to the stars, to guide the deceased king’s “Ka”. Rudolf Gantenbrink, the inventor and owner of Upuaut rover, rejects the notions of shafts being “air channels” or “gateways” to the stars. The dead have no need for proper air ventilation and the sky is not visible through the shafts from the King’s chamber so they cannot serve their purpose as gateways to the sky and the very fact that other pyramids (both preceding and succeeding the Great Pyramid) lack such shafts, casts shadows over the religious belief theory. Since the Great Pyramid has been stripped of its casing stone, it is not possible to ascertain whether the casing stone blocked the King’s Chamber shafts.
Then there are hundreds of other theories that make fantastic claims fantastic claims of shafts being conduits of power plant, a nuclear generator or an alien construction, a riddle set in stone. Until we discover an edict, a piece of papyrus that could explain the reason behind the shafts, the all theories about their purpose shall remain valid opinions of the experts and it is quite certain we may never be able to get to know their true purpose.
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Top Image:  Great Pyramid of Giza in the rays of the sun. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
By Rudra

Unraveling the Mystery of the Great Pyramid Air-Shafts

Ancient Origins

The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza near Cairo in Egypt is the last of the surviving Seven Wonders of the World. For more than forty centuries until the 19th century, it was the tallest and the most massive structure ever built by humans. Within itself, it enshrines disciplines of mathematics, trigonometry, engineering and geography. It is also one of the most complex pyramids ever built, with its system of passages, gallery and chambers, which makes it quite unique with respect to the other pyramids in Egypt and elsewhere.

The Great Pyramid has air-shafts or just shafts that lead outwards from both the Queen’s and the King’s chamber. The purpose of these shafts is not very well known. Some experts have theorized that these channels served as passages to let the air flow inside the chambers and keep them ventilated while others have suggested that these shafts merely served as passages for the “Ka” (spirit) of the deceased King to travel to the circumpolar stars, which practically never set, hence immortal.

All Giza Pyramids in one shot. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

So what were these shafts intended for? Why were these incorporated in the design of the pyramid? There are several questions such as these and many more. In this article, we will delve into the subject of these so-called “air-shafts”, go through their history, design and purpose.

Schematic cross-section of the Great Pyramid. (7 denotes Queen's Chamber and shafts/vents, 10 denotes King’s Chamber and shafts) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The History

It’s believed by Egyptologists that the Great Pyramid was originally built to serve as the tomb of the Old Kingdom’s Sixth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu (Khnum Khufwy) and was sealed with all the funerary equipment and other things needed by the deceased king in the afterlife.

Ivory idol of Khufu in detail. (Public Domain)

It remained intact for at least a couple of centuries after it was sealed. The Great Pyramid was broken into and deprived of its funerary items along with the royal mummy of Khufu sometime during the overlapping period at the end of the Old Kingdom and the start of the First Intermediate. Not only was the Great Pyramid violated, but also the pyramids of Djedefre, Khafre, and Menkaure were broken into and robbed too. The cult temples of Khufu and Khafra were also vandalized and had most of their statuary broken or carted away. The site of Giza lay in neglected and ruinous state for another two thousand years, though it was briefly revived during the New Kingdom under Thutmose IV, who erected the Dream Stele between the paws of Great Sphinx to avow that his ascension to Kingship was divinely ordained and another thousand years later it was revived as an ancient cult site by the Pharaohs of the XXVI dynasty.

Dream Stele, detail; reproduction at Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Sphinx and Great Pyramids of Egypt. (Source: BigStockPhoto)

The Giza plateau, already famous as an ancient site by the Roman period, was a popular tourist destination. Accounts left by Greek and Roman travelers such as Herodotus, Pliny the Elder and Strabo, of the Great Pyramid are useful in their own ways but it is interesting to note that the descriptions given by them of the Great Pyramid only talk about the descending passage and the subterranean chamber. Strabo also talks about the swivel door on the entrance to the descending passage on the outside of the Great Pyramid, which had to be lifted to open, and when closed, it lay flush, indistinguishable from the surrounding masonry.

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The Hunt for Treasure and Knowledge

As per the written history and oral traditions, the first forced entry into the Great Pyramid was conducted by Baghdad Caliph Abdullah al-Mamum. Abdullah al-Mamum was taken in by the tall stories of pyramids containing unaccountable treasure and priceless documents relating to ancient science. For the next thousand years, Great Pyramid had only a few visitors summoning enough courage to go inside its dark and seemingly dreadful passageways.
There was a resurgence of immense interest in Ancient Egypt during the Renaissance Period. In 1638, English astronomer John Greaves visited the Great Pyramid to collect data that would help him get accurate measurement of the Earth with respect to its circumference, dimensions and other geographical properties. He is credited to be the first visitor who undertook the scientific measurements of the Great Pyramid. He published his findings in his book, “Pyramidographia: Or A Description Of The Pyramids In Aegypt”. The book was well received within the academic circles and the subsequent discussions led to speculations about some sort of air ventilation system being present in the Great Pyramid.
George Sandys, an English traveler and a poet, who visited the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid in 1610 at least 28 years before Greaves, had noted “In the walls on each side of the upper Room there are two holes, one opposite to another; their ends are not discernable, nor big enough to be crept into; sooty within, and made as they say, by a flame of fire which darted through it.” George Sandys at that time was not sure about structure or purpose of the air-shaft openings and they did not excite him enough to probe any further.
John Greaves also makes mention of the openings of the air-shafts inside the King’s Chamber in his book. He states “This made me take notice of two inlets or spaces in the south and north sides of the chamber, just opposite to one another, that in the north was in breadth 700 of 1000 parts of English foot. In the depth of 400 of 1000 parts, evenly cut, and running in strait (sic) line six feet and farther, into the thickness of the wall; on the south is larger, and somewhat round, no so long as the former, and, by blackness within it, seems to have been a receptacle for burning lamps.” Even though Greaves had a lively discussion with Dr. William Harvey about the quality of air inside the Great Pyramid, (which is presented as a footnote in the later editions of his book), it never occurred to him that the air-shafts might have served as conduits for ventilation inside the building.

Transparent view of Khufu's pyramid from SouthEast. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Excavating the Pyramid

It was not until two hundred years later, in 1837, when under the supervision of Colonel Howard-Vyse, extensive excavations and explorations were conducted in Giza pyramids. Colonel Howard-Vyse initially thought that channels in the King’s Chamber were conduits to hitherto unknown chambers in the Great Pyramid.  Also, the drawings of Great Pyramid made at that time showed no air-shafts leading outwards from the Queen’s Chamber, as these were discovered much later. On May 15th 1837, when the northern shaft was finally cleared of debris and rubbish that had accumulated in its passageway and by means of boring rods and water, it was confirmed that the shaft directly served as a conduit from the outside to the King’s Chamber.

Scrapbook page containing an annotated photograph showing six men positioned around the entrance to the Cheops pyramid. The page also includes a labeled diagram showing the interior chambers and passageways of the pyramid, and their dimensions. Circa 1860 – 1890 (Public Domain)

The workmen found the opening of the southern air-shaft by going around the pyramid and finding it within the same location on the southern face as they had found the opening on the northern face. Howard-Vyse’s assistant, Mr. Hill found a stone blocking the southern air-shaft and with some effort managed to remove it. “Upon the removal of this block the channel was completely open; an immediate rush of air took place, and we had the satisfaction of finding that the ventilation of the King's Chamber was perfectly restored, and that the air within it was cool and fresh. This is how the shafts in the Pyramid came to be known as air channels, thought to be ancient climate control mechanism built in the design of the pyramid.

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The shafts in the Queen’s Chamber were not discovered until thirty-five years later, in 1872, by Waynman Dixon. “….In that year, Waynman Dixon and his friend Dr. Grant found a crack in the south wall of the Queen's Chamber. After pushing a long wire into the crack, indicating that a void was behind it, Dixon hired a carpenter named Bill Grundy to cut through the wall. A rectangular channel, 8.6 inches wide and 8 inches high, was found leading 7 feet into the pyramid before turning upward at about a 32º angle. With the two similar shafts of the King's Chamber in mind, Dixon measured a like position on the north wall, and Grundy chiseled away and, as expected, found the opening of a similar channel.”

Top Image:  Great Pyramid of Giza at night (CC BY-ND 2.0)
By Rudra