Egypt has discovered a 9-meter chamber inside the Great Pyramid

Cairo, Egypt. On Thursday, Egypt’s antiquities authorities unveiled a recently discovered sealed chamber inside one of the Great Pyramids at Giza, near Cairo, that is about 4,500 years old.

The corridor – on the north side of Khufu’s pyramid – was discovered using modern scanning technology. It is 9 meters long (nearly 30 feet) and 2 meters wide (more than 6 feet) and is located above the main entrance to the pyramid.

Archaeologists do not know what was the function of the camera, which is not accessible from the outside. In 2017, scientists announced the discovery of another enclosed corridor, a 30-meter chamber – or about 98 feet – also inside Khufu’s pyramid.

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and the country’s Tourism Minister Ahmed Eissa announced the discovery on Thursday at an opening ceremony near the pyramid. The find has been attributed to the Scan Pyramids project, an international program that uses scanning to study unexplored sections of the ancient structure.

The opening was attended by scientists from the project, which began in 2015.

According to Christian Gross, a professor of non-destructive testing at the Technical University of Munich and a lead contributor to the project, a variety of scanning methods were used to detect the camera, including ultrasonic measurements and ground penetrating radar. He hopes these methods will lead to further discoveries inside the pyramid.

“There are two large limestones at the end of the chamber, and now the question is what is behind these stones and under the chamber,” Grosse said.

The Pyramid of Khufu, named after its builder, a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 2509 to 2483 BC, is one of the three pyramids that make up the Great Pyramid complex at Giza. This is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that has survived to this day.

Experts differ on how the pyramids were built, so even relatively small discoveries are of great interest. Authorities often advertise the discoveries publicly to attract more tourists, a major source of foreign exchange for this cash-strapped Middle Eastern nation.

Egypt’s tourism sector has endured a long downturn following the political unrest and violence that followed the 2011 uprising that toppled the country’s longtime dictatorial president, Hosni Mubarak, and further setbacks following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

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