by Egyptian antiquities officials say they have confirmed the existence of a hidden internal passage above the main entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Video from an endoscope showed the inside of the corridor, which is 9 meters long and 2.1 meters wide.
The officials say it could have been created to redistribute the weight of the pyramid around the entrance or some other yet undiscovered chamber.
It was first discovered in 2016 using an imaging technique called muography.
A team of scientists from the ScanPyramids project was able to observe density changes in the pyramid by analyzing how it was penetrated by muons, by-products of cosmic rays that are only partially absorbed by rock.
The non-invasive technique detected an empty space behind the north side of the Great Pyramid, about 7 meters above the main entrance, in an area with a stone chevron structure.
Further testing was done with radar and ultrasound before passing a 6 mm wide (0.24 in) endoscope through a small joint between the stones that make up the chevrons.
The footage from the camera was revealed Thursday at a press conference next to the pyramid. It showed an empty corridor with walls made of roughly hewn stone blocks and a vaulted stone ceiling.
“We’re continuing to scan, so we’ll see what we can do … to find out what we can find underneath, or just at the end of this corridor,” said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Court. of Antiquities.
Standing 146 meters high, the Great Pyramid was built on the Giza Plateau during the Fourth Dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, who reigned from about 2609 BCE. to 2584 B.C.
Despite being one of the oldest and largest monuments on Earth, there is no consensus on how it was built.
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said the corridor represented a “great discovery” that would “penetrate homes and homes of people all over the world for the first time.”
He also said it could help reveal whether King Khufu’s burial chamber still existed in the pyramid.
He speculated that there could be “something important” in the space below the hallway, adding, “I’m sure in a few months we’ll see if what I’m saying is correct or not.”
A second, larger void in the pyramid was detected in 2017 using muon tomography. It is estimated to be 30 meters long and several meters high and is located directly above the Grand Gallery.
