Large chamber discovered in the Cheops pyramid

Newly discovered cavity is at least 30 meters long and eight meters high

Spectacular discovery: Inside the pyramid of Cheops, researchers have discovered an unknown cavity. It is a passage at least 30 meters long and eight meters high, located above the Great Gallery. Why this passage served and what it contains, is still puzzling, as the researchers report in the journal "Nature". They tracked down the new cavity with the help of muons, particles created by cosmic rays.

Inside the world-famous Pyramid of Cheops hides a previously unknown large cavity (white dotted) © ScanPyramids

The Pyramid of Cheops is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and is one of the largest man-made structures in the world. All the more puzzling to this day is how the workers of the Egyptian pharaoh Cheops, about 4,500 years ago, managed to erect this pyramid, which weighs more than six million tons and is 139 meters high. Even what is hidden inside this royal tomb, is only partially explored and known. Because the massive stone structure can not be easily X-rayed or radar screened.

Cosmic radiation as a helper

Archaeologists have therefore suspected for some time that further, undiscovered chambers or corridors could be hidden inside the Pyramid of Cheops. To detect these voids, Nagoya University's Kunihiro Morishima and his colleagues from the ScanPyramids project have now used cosmic help. They used three different detector technologies to illuminate the pyramid using muons.

Muons are elementary particles that form when cosmic rays strike the atoms of the upper atmosphere.

About 10.000 muons per square meter and minute hit the earth's surface at almost the speed of light, the researchers explain.

Thanks to their small size and high energy, these particles can penetrate even massive stone. The trick is that if the muons pass through cavities in the rock, they are less distracted or absorbed by them.

"Significant surplus"

The density of the particles therefore indicates whether a cavity is hidden in a building like the Pyramid of Cheops. For their project, the researchers determined the muon influx in the queen chamber of the pyramid over several months using two different muon detectors. In addition, they set up a third detector variant in front of the north wall of the pyramid, which can detect the particles by means of argon gas.

The sensational result: Inside the pyramid of Cheops, there is actually a large, previously unknown cavity.

We have detected an unexpected and significant excess of muons in a region almost parallel to the Great Gallery, Morishima and his colleagues report.

The values ​​suggest that this excess is created by a cavity above the Great Gallery.

30 meters long and eight meters high

The researchers estimate that the newly discovered corridor is at least 30 meters long and could be about eight meters high. Whether this "ScansPyramid Big Void" baptized passage, however, runs horizontally or similarly oblique as the Great Gallery, is still unclear. Also, the exact dimensions and structure of this cavity can not be clarified solely on the basis of the muon data. Here are now further investigations with other methods in demand.

This is the first major structure discovered since the 19th century inside the Pyramid of Cheops, Morishima and his colleagues note. These results are a breakthrough for our understanding of the Great Pyramid of Giza and its internal structure.

At the same time, the Ganges finding demonstrates how modern particle physics can provide new information about humanity's archaeological heritage. Already last year, using their muon detectors on the north side of the Cheops pyramid, the researchers had discovered a small, previously unknown corridor.

What the discovered great passage in the Pyramid of Cheops once served for and what it may still contain is still puzzling.

Source: Nature, 2017; doi: 10.1038