Scientists Discover A Huge, Secret Space Hidden In Egypt's Great Pyramid

November 2, 2017

huge empty space found in pyramids
Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Scientists have discovered a huge, secret space hidden within the the Great Pyramid of Giza's ancient walls.

The cavity is the first major inner structure discovered in the pyramid since the 1800s. Until now, despite centuries of study, no one knew this space was there.

Scientists claim the space is about 100 feet long, according to a report in the journal Nature.

"All we know is that we have a void, we have a cavity, and it's huge, which means possibly intentional and certainly worthy of further exploration," says Peter Der Manuelian, an Egyptologist at Harvard University.

huge empty space found in pyramids
Image credit: National Geographic / Source: Morishima

The new discovery comes out of the ScanPyramids project, an international mission under the authority of Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities. The project aims to non-invasively peer into Egypt's pyramids using a variety of technologies.

The void was discovered using an imaging technique that involves muons, which are tiny particles, like electrons. Since muons pass more easily through empty space than through solid materials, arranging multiple muon detectors in and around a structure lets scientists map the structure's solid and empty parts.

"The good news is the void is there. Now we are sure that there is a void. We know that this void is big," says Mehdi Tayoubi, president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute behind the ScanPyramids project.

"I don't know what it could be. I think it's now time for Egyptologists and specialists in ancient Egypt architecture to collaborate with us, to provide us with some hypotheses."

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