The Search for Hidden Chambers on the Giza Plateau, Part I

Tour Egypt ^ | Last Updated: June 13th, 2011 | Jimmy Dunn writing as Alan Winston

[SunkenCiv]

...One of the earliest uses of nondestructive investigation was a joint US and Egyptian project to uncover chambers in the Second Pyramid at Giza belonging to Khafre. In 1965, a scientific proposal was submitted to a group of Egyptian physicists and archaeologists using cosmic-ray detectors (nuons technology). The American team, led by Dr. Luis Alvarez, suggested that, since there were two chambers in the superstructure of Khufu's Great Pyramid, and also two in the pyramid of his father, Sneferu, there should also be chambers located in the superstructure of Khafre's pyramid, who was Khufu's son...

The Joint Pyramid Project was established on June 14, 1966...

By 1970, the Joint Pyramid Project had explored only 19 percent of the total volume of the Second Pyramid, but this amounted to an area 35 degrees from the vertical. Hence, the team reported that:

"If the Second Pyramid architects had placed a Grand Gallery, King's Chamber and a Queen's Chamber in the same location as they did in Cheops' {Khufu's) Pyramid, the signals from each of these three cavities would have been enormous. We therefore conclude that no chambers of the size seen in the four large pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty are in our 'field of view' above the Belzoni Chamber.

We can say with confidence that no chambers with volumes similar to the four known chambers in Cheops' and Sneferu's pyramids exist in the mass of limestone investigated by cosmic ray absorption."

[SunkenCiv]

Combination of the muon, muons, muography, muontomography, and LuisAlvarez keywords, sorted, duplicates out:

• New Scans of the Great Pyramid Confirm Major Discovery Inside [09/28/2022]
• Muons spill secrets about Earth's hidden structures [04/23/2022]
• New cosmic-ray scan of the Great Pyramid of Giza could reveal hidden burial chamber [03/16/2022]
• New Force of Nature? Tantalizing Evidence for New Physics From CERN's Large Hadron Collider [10/29/2021]
• Evidence of Exciting New Physics From U.S. Department of Energy's Muon G-2 Experiment -- "Today Is an Extraordinary Day" [04/07/2021]
• Egyptologist Reveals Whether Truth About Great Pyramid of Giza May Ever Be Dug Out [09/21/2020]
• Researchers consider whether supernovae killed off large ocean animals at dawn of Pleistocene [12/11/2018]
• This 4,500-Year-Old Ramp Contraption May Have Been Used to Build Egypt's Great Pyramid [11/01/2018]
• Giza Pyramid mystery chamber may hold Pharaoh's 'meteorite throne' [01/15/2018]
• Secret of the Great Pyramid...hidden chamber is set to be revealed by an inflatable robotic blimp... [12/14/2017]
• Egypt archaeologist criticises pyramid void 'discovery' [11/06/2017]
• Archaeologists discover mysterious void deep within Great Pyramid of Giza [11/03/2017]
• Great Pyramid of Giza's hidden chamber is revealed [11/02/2017]
• Archaeologists discover mysterious void deep within Great Pyramid of Giza [11/02/2017]
• Particles Could Reveal Clues To How Egypt Pyramid Was Built [01/20/2016]
• Thermal scans of Egypt's Great Pyramid reveal anomalies [11/10/2015]
• 'ScanPyramids' project hopes to decipher ancient secrets [10/27/2015]
• Giant 50-foot magnet to make cross-country trek for physics experiment [05/09/2013]
• Great Pyramid May Hold Two Hidden Chambers [02/02/2011]
• Update: Return to the Great Pyramid [ Bob Brier & Jean-Pierre Houdin ] [07/14/2009]
• Egyptologists use high-tech software to analyze construction of Great Pyramid [10/21/2008]
• Muons Meet the Maya [12/09/2007]
• Muons Meet Maya [12/08/2007]
• Architect Says Pyramid Built Inside Out [03/31/2007]
• Architect claims to solve pyramid secret [03/30/2007]
• French Egyptologists Defend Pyramid Theory [09/04/2004]
• Uncovering The Secrets Of The Great Pyramid [08/29/2004]
• Space dust to unlock Mexican pyramid secrets [03/18/2004]
• Muons To Unlock Secrets Of Teotihuacan [02/05/2004]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day 8-6-02 [08/06/2002]

[SunkenCiv]

Ernest Lawrence, a pure experimentalist, reacted to the famous theta-tau puzzle almost instantaneously. One night Ernest dropped in on Lynn Stevenson, Frank Crawford, and me as we were measuring the lifetimes of various kinds of K particles on the Bevatron floor... After Lynn had explained the puzzle in some detail, Ernest said, "You mean to tell me that all these particles have very nearly the same mass and the same half-lives and yet they aren't the same particle?" Lynn said the theorists had reasons why the particles couldn't be the same. Ernest said, "Don't you worry about it — the theorists will find a way to make them all the same." And that, of course, is what Lee and Yang finally did, but long after Ernest had disposed of the problem in his characteristically intuitive way. [p 184]

I must reiterate my feeling that experimentalists always welcome the suggestions of the theorists. But the present situation is ridiculous. Theorists now sit on the scheduling committees at the large accelerators and can exercise veto power over proposals by the best experimentalists. [p 199]

No group of peers would have approved my building the 72-inch bubble chamber. Even Ernest Lawrence told me he thought I was making a big mistake. He supported me because he knew my track record was good. I believe that U.S. science could recover from the stultifying effects of decades of misguided peer reviewing if we returned to the tried-and- true method of evaluating experimenters rather than experimental proposals. Many people will say that my ideas are elitist, and I certainly agree. The alternative is the egalitarianism that we now practice and that I've seen nearly kill basic science in the USSR and in the People's Republic of China. [p 201]

"Alvarez: adventures of a physicist" by Luis W. Alvarez (1987)

During World War II, Luis W. Alvarez participated in the Allies' development of radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. He then worked as an experimental physicist on cyclotrons, particle accelerators and bubble chambers at UC-Berkeley with Ernest Lawrence. Later in life, he used cosmic rays to "X ray" an Egyptian pyramid, developed a new theory about the extinction of the dinosaurs, and won the 1968 Nobel prize in physics for his work on elementary particles. In this autobiography, Alvarez shares insights on the process of scientific discovery, risk-taking in science and how theoretical and experimental physics interact.

[Track9]

I presume being collapsed would account for no signal.

[SunkenCiv]

Khafre's pyramid was built on a natural rise, and the sides are a sharper angle, to make it appear larger than Khufu's, but it has less than half the mass. The original entrance was rediscovered in the 19th century, but the broken lid of the sarcophagus was on the floor, left there by the tomb robbers, perhaps/probably in antiquity.

The limestone casing stones were stripped by Ramses II "The Great", for use in the construction of a temple elsewhere. Ramses II had a habit of having older pharaohs' images repurposed, and with Khafre, a number of the (at least) fifty-two life-size statues were recarved with Ramses' cartouche. He did the same to King Tut's colonnade at Luxor, but thanks to poor lighting near the ceiling (which is now long gone), one of Tut's cartouches were missed, rediscovered during the modern day recording of the inscriptions there.

[ArtDodger]

A New Theory for the Great Pyramid: How Science is Changing Our View of the Past – New Dawn: The World’s Most Unusual Magazine (newdawnmagazine.com)

[ArtDodger]

https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/a-new-theory-for-the-great-pyramid-how-science-is-changing-our-view-of-the-past

[hecticskeptic]

Did they find any of the famous Giza sheets in those chambers?
And were they on a two for one deal? https://www.mypillow.ca/giza-dreams-bed-sheets-bogo

[SunkenCiv]

Uh, no.

[SunkenCiv]

Muslin sheets for non-muslims?

[Tallguy]

We can say with confidence that no chambers with volumes similar to the four known chambers in Cheops' and Sneferu's pyramids exist in the mass of limestone investigated by cosmic ray absorption."

I guess it was hard to get "good help" toward the end of the 4th Dynasty?

[SunkenCiv]

There are gross similarities, but none of the pyramids are alike, which is weird, eh? None of the New Kingdom Theban tombs are identical either. Probably due to pharaoh’s preferences, or changing fashions/beliefs, or budgets, or lines of traditions in rival tomb-building families.

[Track9]

I used to think how marvelous it would be to explore Egypt but ever since hrc sec. Of state disasters, I have no desire to set foot in any mooslime country. Maybe the Abraham Accords will eventually get rid of the violent grifters the left so dearly loves and gives our tax money to. Until then, your posts are appreciated. Thanks!

[Fred Nerks]

Makes sense, it’s a PUMP!

[SunkenCiv]

Current regime is as good as it’s gonna get, but I’d worry for a change about my health risks of travel there. Also, not be cheap. Also, no wish to indulge the pickpockets and perverts of the TSA.

[SunkenCiv]

Nah.

[Glad2bnuts]

Just play Assassins Creed Origins. There are a lot of hidden things inside these structures.

[SunkenCiv]

:^) I think that’s the game with the JP Houdin internal ramp.

[Fred Nerks]

Nah? That’s a shame, back to the drawing-board...tomb it aint, so it has to have had a purpose...if thousands of workers lived on bread and onions, there must have been fields of agriculture nearby. Wheat and onions need water don’t they? lol...

[SunkenCiv]

Of course it’s a tomb, it was built as a tomb, but (like 99% of the royal and other posh tombs of Egypt) it was plundered, probably in antiquity.