(ORDO NEWS) — Historians, archaeologists and tomb raiders have been exploring the Great Pyramid of Giza for more than a millennium, but unknown details are still being discovered in it.
The Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu) is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids and the only one of the seven wonders of the world that has survived to this day.
For the first time in written sources, Herodotus mentions it – in the 5th century BC.
He retells what he learned from the locals: according to their ideas, the pyramid for the second pharaoh of the IV dynasty of the Old Kingdom was built for 20 years and the nephew of the ruler led this protracted project.
The period of construction, of course, the ancient Greek historian dated the period of the reign of Cheops.
Since the time of Herodotus, technology has advanced significantly, but Egyptologists still do not have a common opinion about the start date for the start of a grandiose construction.
In Egypt, there is even a national holiday in honor of the start of construction, which, according to the authorities of this country, fell on August 23, 2560 BC.
Alas, the radiocarbon method gives a spread from 2850 BC to 2650 BC, that is, even before the beginning of the reign of the entire IV dynasty.
An explanation for this riddle has not yet been invented, so the celebration of the start of construction was “lowered from above”.
It is difficult to say when the first intruders entered the Great Pyramid.
We know for sure that in the 9th century AD, after the Arab conquest of Egypt, the caliph ordered to gouge a side tunnel – he hoped to find treasures inside.
And I found: a whole pot of gold coins. True, no gold coins in the era of Pharaoh Khufu simply did not exist.
Undoubtedly, it was only by chance that there was just so much gold in the pot that it was enough to pay for the work performed.
Such an unexpected coincidence led to the assumption that the gold was tritely planted: to avoid a riot on the part of the workers.
Beginning in the 18th century, European scientists began to explore the Great Pyramid. The wonder of the world turned out to be very generous: almost every expedition found something new.
What no one could find was the remains of the pharaoh himself. Yes, oddly enough, there is no Cheops himself in the Pyramid of Cheops, as well as evidence of his burial there.
We do not yet know where this ruler was buried. It would seem that by our time there can no longer be anything new there, but this is not so.
In 2016, an international team of scientists using the muon tomography method found that there are voids in the largest and most famous Egyptian pyramid, which are still unknown to researchers.
These voids were located under the Great Gallery at the northern wall of the pyramid, and, perhaps, once there was an exit from the hidden room: in this place the stones were laid in a kind of arch.
Later this work was continued by scientists from the Technical University of Munich (Germany). Now they reported that they managed to look into the “secret room” of the pharaoh.
First, using radar and ultrasound, they determined the exact location of the voids, and then carefully examined the very masonry in the form of an arch.
As a result, they managed to find a small hole between the stone blocks, through which the researchers were able to pass the pipe into the hidden chamber.
They then used this tube as a guide for the lens of an endoscopic video camera. The camera confirmed the existence of a hollow space.
The room turned out to be larger than the authors of the previous work had expected. Initial measurement data indicated the existence of a corridor at least five meters long.
However, according to new estimates, its length is at least nine meters. An endoscope failed to see footprints or other evidence of human activity inside the premises.
Thus, the researchers suggest that no one has seen this “secret room” for the past four and a half thousand years.
Determining the former purpose of the found room and what is behind the back wall of the room will require additional research.
The confirmed results highlight the need for further exploration of the Egyptian pyramids and in particular the use of a combination of different technologies and methods.
We still cannot rule out that some kind of burial chamber is there – it just has not been found yet.
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