The Great Pyramid in Egypt has come under a new round of scrutiny by researchers who may be on the cusp of a revelation,
A few kilometres south-west of Cairo stands the largest and most enigmatic ancient structure in the world: the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Built more than 4,500 years ago, it is the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, and for centuries, everyone from amateur archaeologists to professional treasure hunters have tried to investigate its mysteries.
Now, 21st century science may have uncovered the first hint of something spectacular.
This month, researchers from the international Scan Pyramids Project began studying the Great Pyramid and its neighbours using state-of-the-art technology to peer inside these multimillion tonne structures.
The strategy involves looking for anomalies in the way that heat and radiation flow through the pyramids, indicating the presence of hidden vents, corridors and possibly even chambers. Just two weeks into the project, the researchers have already found something potentially significant: a hot-spot at the foot of the Great Pyramid itself.
The anomaly was detected using infra-red cameras trained on the sides of the pyramid as it mopped up the sun’s heat at sunrise, then cooled down again at night. By mapping the temperature differences across the walls of the pyramid, the researchers can get insight into how heat flows in and out of the structure, which in turn can reveal the presence of structures behind the walls.
As expected, the team found temperature differences of up to half a degree at various places on all the pyramids, probably from the different types and conditions of stone blocks.
But near the base on the eastern side of the Great Pyramid, a section of several blocks appeared much warmer.
While excited by the discovery, the team – from Cairo University and the Paris-based Heritage, Innovation, Preservation Institute – has so far declined to say what they think the cause could be.
“We need to build models and thermal simulations to test different hypotheses in order to understand what we have found,” HIP Institute founder Mehdi Tayoubi told Discovery News.
Inevitably, the find has sparked speculation that the anomaly is the result of a hidden passageway into the pyramid.
And that has refocused attention on the whole mystery of why and how the pyramids were built.
In the case of the Great Pyramid, archaeologists generally agree its construction was ordered by the pharaoh Khufu about 2580 BC, and that it took about 20 years to complete.
Since at least the time of the ancient Greeks, the pyramid has conjured up images of thousands of slaves cutting out more than two million blocks from quarries under the lash of gangmaster, transporting them along the Nile and dragging them up ramps day and night for years.
Yet like so much about the Great Pyramid, the perception and reality are hard to reconcile.
Archaeologists have pointed out that the image of Khufu as a tyrant comes from the historian Herodotus, and is contradicted by a wealth of evidence.
In any case, even the pharaohs lacked the means to control so vast an army of slaves for so long and complex a project. Instead, the consensus now is that they were most probably willing workers, taking direction from highly skilled foremen.
Certainly, the result was the single most impressive man-made structure on the planet – and, at over 140 metres, also the tallest for almost four millennia.
The precision of their handiwork is breathtaking. The base of the Great Pyramid is 230,364 metres long and is entirely level, to plus or minus about 15mm.
Indeed, some have claimed such accuracy is evidence of assistance from extra-terrestrials – a claim disputed by historians, who have shown that care and a bit of human ingenuity is enough. For example, simply digging a lined trench around the base and filling it with water would have given the builders a level reference point.
Even so, those thousands of labourers were clearly determined to do a first-rate job in building a tomb for their pharaoh.
But is that really what it was?
Again, the evidence is contradictory. There is a sarcophagus in the king’s chamber, the highest of three known to exist within the pyramid.
Yet as anyone who has made the claustrophobic journey up into the chamber knows, it’s a disappointing affair. There’s no sign that the chamber ever held a body – let alone treasure.
Certainly Caliph Al Ma’mun of Baghdad, whose workmen made the narrow tunnel up in the 9th century, came away empty-handed. His only luck was to have picked a route that led, more or less, straight to the main passage that reaches the king’s chamber.
The obvious explanation for the Caliph’s failure to find treasure is that tomb-robbers had beaten him to it. Yet on breaking through into the passage to the king’s chamber, his workmen found their path blocked by gigantic granite plugs, apparently designed to prevent raids. As these were still intact when the Caliph’s men arrived, it was clear they had been the first to get to the chamber – and it had always been empty.
At least, that's the standard story, but it too has been challenged. After studying Arabic chronicles, historian Dr Mike Dash, of Smithsonian.org, has found that the earliest reports of the Caliph's work were written centuries after the supposed break-in, and have been greatly embellished. It's far from clear the Caliph himself had anything to do with the tunnel attributed to him.
Dr Dash suspects the whole story of the “Caliph’s tunnel” hides a more plausible but less romantic truth: that it was dug centuries earlier by tomb robbers who knew exactly what they were doing – perhaps because they had knowledge of the original design plans.
The researchers at the Scan Pyramids Project are now hoping technology will give them the same insights. Over the next year, they will continue with thermal imaging – and combine it with data gathered using natural radiation striking the pyramid.
Radiation from deep space creates particles high in the atmosphere called muons, which can blast through even solid rock. By placing muon detectors inside the known passageways and chambers, the team hope to reveal the presence of hidden structures using this “cosmic X-ray” technique.
What they will find is anyone’s guess. If past studies of the pyramids are any guide, however, the most likely revelation will be that the ancients were even smarter than we thought.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
Robert Matthews is Visiting Professor of Science at Aston University, Birmingham
