The Pyramid of Cheops Revealed
Pyramids have always represented a gigantic enigma about which we know some things, assume others, and ignore everything else.
In particular the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of all, has defied all attempts to even know how they were built or if there are other chambers yet to be discovered inside.
It is believed that it was built more than 45 centuries ago and it is estimated that 4.3 million blocks were used in its construction.
An ancient Egyptian papyrus, dated 1700 BC, states that inside the Pyramid of Cheops there are several chambers that are described as magical!!
The Excavation of Al-Ma'mun
In 833 the Caliph Al-Ma'mun's team had a tunnel dug from the north face using fire and vinegar to weaken the limestone rocks.
1. Entrance with descending corridor
2. Entrance cut by grave robbers (Caliph Al-Ma'mun's team)
3. Subterranean chamber
4. Grand Gallery
5. King's chamber, relieving chambers, granite portcullis slabs
6. Queen's chamber
7. Shaft
8. Limestone plugging the air shaft A= "Air shafts". The height of the core of bedrock is only known at the places where the shafts and corridors intersect and at the corners of the pyramid. It might be higher than on this illustration.
The team found some inclined granite rocks that they identified as a supposed entrance and by prolonging the tunnel they managed to access an original corridor inside the pyramid.
The corridor descended to the basement, under the center of the pyramid, and there an empty chamber was found.
An ascending branch led to a new horizontal fork at the end of which another empty chamber was found. They called it the Queen's Chamber.
And following the ascending corridor one entered the Great Gallery that at the end allowed access to a third chamber, the King's Chamber.
Inside there was a stone sarcophagus, without a lid and with nothing inside.
There were no bodies. There were no treasures, no grave goods or furnishings of any kind.
Al-Ma'mun's disappointment was great, but he decided to take advantage of the pyramid by stripping it of the shimmering limestone cover and taking it to the city of Cairo to use it in the construction of palaces and mosques.
Muon radiography
In the 19th century, other archaeologists, trying to access other possible chambers, used dynamite to excavate the inside of the pyramid.
Such atrocities have luckyly not been carried out again. Modern archaeologists use micro-chambers and robots that penetrate the deepest recesses of rocks, but so far no more chambers have been discovered than the three already known.
To search for those possible chambers, modern archaeologists use more advanced, non-destructive techniques such as infrared thermography.
A team of physicists has decided to use a new technology consisting of radiographing the pyramid using muon capture.
Muons are particles smaller than electrons, originated in the atmosphere by colliding cosmic rays from the galaxy, from the explosion of supernovae, against air molecules.
They are very penetrating and capable of traversing several hundred meters of rock.
About 8.500 muons per m 2 reach the earth's surface every minute. They are very few compared to the electrons and photons that come from the Sun, but with an exposure of several months, thousands of muons can be captured from all directions in space.
And by analysing the collecting-plates placed inside the pyramid, an estimate can be made of how much rock mass the muons have passed through from all directions above the plates.
Given the shape of the pyramid, more muons should be detected from closer to the center of the faces and fewer from the corners or the top. And if there are hollow chambers, they will be revealed by letting a greater number of muons pass than their surroundings.
A single detection site would indicate in which direction there is a possible gap, but by placing two detectors at two different sites, you can capture the three-dimensional perspective and also know how far away it is.
To test the system, the Egyptian authorities allow a test-experiment on the pyramid.
The experiment shows that there are two hidden chambers, one on top of the other. By placing the sensors in the lower chamber for 40 days, egyptologists detect the shape of the pyramid and the void corresponding to the upper chamber.
The system shows that it works.
Now they have to try it in the Cheops's Pyramid.
Inside the Great Pyramid
Using infrared sensors, the outside of the pyramid has been examined, measuring the temperature at each point on the surface and observing how it changes throughout the day and night.
Near the entrance of Al-Ma'mun, where the chakras of the possible original entrance of the pyramid are located, an area about 4 or 5 degrees cooler than its surroundings was detected. It is believed that it could be a cold air outlet from the interior, but the origin of that outlet cannot be located.
KAK scientists place 151 muon detection plates distributed at various strategic points inside the Cheops's pyramid. Several were placed at the beginning of the descending ramp. Most are placed in the Queen's Chamber. As the King's Chamber is above the Queen's Chamber, its detection is expected to represent a method of confirming and calibrating the presence of other possible cavities.
The Enigma of the Pyramid Ramps
On the northeast edge of the pyramid an irregularity was observed. Several of the blocks have fallen from the structure revealing that under it there was a small room of about 8 m 2 . If the room communicates through corridors with other interior rooms, it is not known, since the possible entrances are blocked with more rocks.
In 2000, the architect Jean-Pierre Houdin proposed that this room was part of a system of interior ramps by which the stones were raised to the pyramid.
Archaeologists and egyptologists have always thought that large stone blocks should be climbed by ramps, but they assumed that they would be external ramps, either surrounding the pyramid or extending in a straight line from several km away.
Against these theories it has been argued that the volume of a straight ramp would end up being much larger and voluminous than the pyramid itself, and there is no evidence that it existed. As for the ramp surrounding the walls of the pyramid, there is no way that a ramp could be anchored on the sloping walls of the pyramid with enough width and solidity to be able to ascend it and, above all, to avoid the corners.
Jean-Pierre Houdin proposed that as the pyramid was built, floor to floor, a sloping corridor was left inside the pyramid platform. Before reaching a corner there was a room in which the rock was rotated to direct it to the next ascending corridor, until it reached the level of the building.
As the final platform was raised, the ramp was roofed and construction continued, leaving the tunnels open at their ends. At the end of the work, when the ramp was no longer necessary, the corner rooms would be closed, completing the pyramid.
Latest Preparations and Results
Another scientific team, taking advantage of the permission of the Egyptian's authorities, prepares scintillation detectors to capture, from the outside, the internal structure of the pyramid. Its system is not as penetrating as that of the muons, but it would allow us to examine the edge of the pyramid in which the room that is part of the supposed internal ramp is located.
And once all the observation equipment is in place, the data collection process begins, which will last several months.
The results are analysed and processed on powerful computers and new discoveries begin to emerge.
Some 30 m above the ridge room, a cavity appears to exist, although it is not visible from the outside. This correlates to the theory of the internal ramp.
Two possible new cavities are also identified, one of them near the entrance to the chakrons. The other one more in the center, somewhat above the King's chamber.
The data is significant but not decisive and permission is requested to carry out a second scan, this time from the thieves' tunnel, near the King's Chamber and the other in the tunnel excavated by Al-Ma'mun.
The results confirm that behind the tunnel, about 17 ~ 23 m above the ground, there is a cavity. The instruments are not precise enough to determine the shape or the inclination, but it is believed that it could be a sloping structure similar to the Great Gallery.
And above and to the North of the King's Chamber another possible cavity is detected, the Great Void, of more than 400 m 3 at about 60 ~ 70 meters above ground level, and with a length of about 30 m (to get an idea, that could be a 3 X 5 X 30 meter room). Similarly, neither the exact shape nor the inclination can be specified.
The results seem to confirm that, indeed, there appear to be cavities still to be discovered inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
It is possible that in some of them are the grave goods of the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu. Or, even if it is not like that, at least they will allow us to know much better the interiors of this gigantic construction.
And the development and improvement of the techniques used promises that increasingly accurate and relevant discoveries will be made in the future.
