Archaeologists discover secret chamber in Great Pyramid of Giza

March 2, 2023

Perhaps it could lead to a real-life Chamber of Secrets.

A 30-foot-long hidden corridor was discovered by scientists Thursday near the main entrance of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, Reuters reported.

The pyramid — considered the last of the seven wonders of the world still standing — has been undergoing regular searches using infrared and cosmic-ray imaging since 2015 as a part of the Scan Pyramids project.

Officials said the newly unearthed hallway could lead to more knowledge about the structure.

“We’re going to continue our scanning so we will see what we can do … to figure out what we can find out beneath it, or just by the end of this corridor,” said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Great Pyramid was constructed as a monumental tomb around 2560 BC during the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops. Built to 479 feet, it now stands at 139 metres and was the tallest structure made by humans until the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.

The pyramid, which is the last of the seven wonders of the world still standing, has been undergoing regular searches using infrared and cosmic-ray imaging since 2015 as a part of the Scan Pyramids project.

Five rooms atop the Pharaoh Khufu burial chamber in another part of the pyramid are also thought to have been built to redistribute the weight of the massive structure, according to Nature journal.

It is also possible the pharaoh had more than one burial chamber, Waziri added.

The Great Pyramids were built in 2560 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu (reign circa 2551 B.C. to 2528 B.C) and stood at a whopping 479 feet -- the tallest man-made structure until the Eiffel Tower in 1889. — The Great Pyramids were built in 2560 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu (reign circa 2551 B.C. to 2528 B.C) and stood at a whopping 479 feet — the tallest man-made structure until the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

"We're going to continue our scanning so we will see what we can do ... to figure out what we can find out beneath it, or just by the end of this corridor," said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. — “We’re going to continue our scanning so we will see what we can do … to figure out what we can find out beneath it, or just by the end of this corridor,” said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Waziri also revealed that the corridor could be used to help balance the weight or contain a secret chamber within the structure.

The Great Pyramids were built in 2560 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu (reign circa 2551 B.C. to 2528 B.C) and stood at a whopping 479 feet — the tallest man-made structure until the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

This secret passage is not the first thing to be discovered within the structure. In 2022, scientists released a study that showed two “mysterious voids” within the pyramid from a 2017 scan.

“We plan to field a telescope system that has upwards of 100 times the sensitivity of the equipment that has recently been used at the Great Pyramid,” wrote the researchers.

“Since the detectors that are proposed are very large, they cannot be placed inside the pyramid, therefore our approach is to put them outside and move them along the base.”

“In this way, we can collect muons from all angles in order to build up the required data set.”

— With Post wires.