(PresidentialWire.com)- On Thursday, Egyptian antiquities authorities announced the discovery of a nine-meter (30-foot) long subterranean passage adjacent to the main entrance of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza, which might lead to other discoveries.
According to an article published in Nature on Thursday, the find may shed light on the reasoning for building the pyramid’s gabled limestone structure, which lies in front of the hallway.
The tunnel was first discovered by scientists using cosmic-ray muon radiography, and subsequent photos were retrieved using a Japanese endoscope just 6 millimeters in thickness that was fed through a small crack in the pyramid’s stones.
Since 2015, the Scan Pyramids project has been using harmless technologies, including infrared, 3D technology, and the cosmic ray radiography, to gaze into the pyramid, the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still intact.
In 2560 BC, the Great Pyramid was built as a magnificent mausoleum during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu or Cheops. Initially reaching a height of 146 meters (479 feet), it was at one time the second-tallest man-made structure after Paris’ Eiffel Tower (completed in 1889).
According to Mostafa Waziri, the president of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the incomplete hallway was likely built to disperse the weight of the pyramid around either the main entrance presently utilized by visitors, approximately seven meters distant, or about another as yet unknown chamber or area.
Waziri said they would continue scanning to see what they could find underneath it or by the end of the hallway.
There are also rumors that the five chambers above the king’s burial chamber were added to the pyramid to help spread the colossal structure’s weight. Waziri said the pharaoh might have been buried in more than one location.
The Great Pyramid’s first significant interior structure was discovered in the 19th century, but in 2017 scientists from Scan Pyramids revealed the discovery of a vacuum at least 30 meters long within the pyramid.
