Scientists have discovered a nine-meter-long hidden passageway inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid — also known as the Pyramid of Cheops — as part of an international research project, it said Thursday. authorities.
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The passage is nine meters long and more than two meters wide, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement.
Present at the Giza site, Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa told reporters that the “gabled corridor”, with a triangular ceiling, “was discovered on the north face of the Great Pyramid of King Cheops”.
This discovery was made through the ScanPyramids project, an international scientific mission that studies the interior of the pyramids, as part of a collaboration between French, German, Canadian and Japanese universities and a group of Egyptian experts.
Since late 2015, the mission has been peering into the belly of the pyramid using state-of-the-art non-invasive technologies that allow you to see through the monuments to discover any voids or little-known internal structures and learn a little more about the construction methods. always shrouded in mystery.
High-profile Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who heads the scientific committee overseeing the project, told reporters at the site on Thursday that it was “highly possible” the tunnel was “protecting something.” In my opinion, it protects the real burial chamber of King Cheops.”
The pyramid of Cheops is the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing and the largest of the three pyramids of Giza, in the suburbs of Cairo.
4,500 years old, the 139 meter high and 230 meter wide monument sits on the Giza plateau, alongside the Sphinx and the pyramids of Chephren and Mykerinos.
In 2017, scientists from the ScanPyramids project revealed the presence of a huge cavity the size of an airliner at the heart of this pyramid.