Experts have taken a look inside a hidden space in the Great Pyramid of Giza, last seen 4,500 years ago. It's a vaulted corridor found behind the north face of Khufu's Pyramid and has archaeologists wondering whether an undiscovered chamber remains concealed beneath it, per Reuters. About 6.5 feet tall and wide and stretching on for 30 feet, the corridor lies behind chevron blocks visible on the pyramid's north face, which have been the subject of much debate since they were revealed in the Middle Ages. These large blocks—first seen in this pyramid—distribute considerable weight, allowing for the construction of large rooms below.
The corridor is the first major inner structure of the pyramid discovered since the 19th century. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former minster of antiquities, heralds it as the most important find at the ancient site in more than 20 years, per Insider. It was first identified in 2016 through a project called Scan Pyramids, which uses non-destructive techniques to look inside Egypt's oldest structures. Cosmic-ray muon radiography—which tracks particles coming from the atmosphere as they penetrate solid objects, giving an estimate of density—was used to reveal the hidden void. But we now know much more about it with the release of survey results, per NBC News.
Indeed, we can look inside the hollowed area with video footage obtained in fishing a tiny camera through a joint in the pyramid's massive stones, per Reuters. The corridor, which might have a slight upwards slope, either serves to redistribute weight around the main entrance, about 23 feet away, or another space, perhaps an undiscovered chamber, says Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, per Reuters. Chevron blocks have also been found above the king and queen’s chambers, according to a study on the finding published Thursday in Nature Communications. Scanning continues "so we will see … what we can find out," says Waziri. (More Pyramids stories.)
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