Egyptian Pyramid Mysteries to Be Explored Live on TV

Nancy Gupton
for National Geographic News
September 13, 2002

With modern technology and a little bit of luck, archaeologists hope to solve two of ancient Egypt's mysteries next week in a live television broadcast.

The scientists will attempt to probe the inside of a blocked shaft in the Great Pyramid of Giza, and will also open the oldest intact sarcophagus found in modern times.

Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's antiquities and a National Geographic explorer-in residence, stands beside the oldest intact sarcophagus found in modern times.

Both have been sealed for more than 4,000 years, their contents unknown.

In Pyramids Live: Secret Chambers Revealed, presented by the National Geographic Channel, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and his team will use a customized robot similar to those used to search for survivors of last year's attack on the World Trade Center to peer into a narrow shaft that opens into the queen's chamber of the Great Pyramid.

The space has been blocked for centuries by a chunk of limestone that has copper handles and may have been wedged into the shaft by pyramid builders after they used it as a polishing tool.

The archaeologists speculate that the shaft might contain valuable artifacts such as papyrus, builders tools, or perhaps even a statue of Pharaoh Khufu, the pyramid's builder. Or it may contain nothing at all.

For Hawass, director of Egypt's antiquities program and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, solving the mystery is important no matter what the investigation uncovers. "I would just like to reveal what's behind it," he said. "If nothing, it's fine with me."

"Since this stone was found," said Hawass, "people have talked about the mystery and what's behind it, what the pyramid has hidden, what kind of treasures are there. This is the first time actually that something will be solved." The executive producer of the TV special, John Bredar, also said he would be satisfied even if it's discovered that the shaft holds only air. "In archaeology there's no such thing as a dry hole," he said. "Everything holds information."

Mummy in Sarcophagus?

During the live broadcast, scheduled to premiere in the United States on Monday, September 16, on Fox Television, Hawass and his team also will visit a recently discovered village of the pyramid builders less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away from the Great Pyramid.

There, the group will open for the first time the sealed sarcophagus of a man identified by hieroglyphics as Ny Swt Wsrt, believed to be the overseer of the pyramid builders' village.

The sarcophagus is important because its contents have never been revealed and because it's the coffin of a common man, not a king or nobleman. At more than 4,000 years old, it's the oldest intact sarcophagus ever found by modern archaeologists.

"I've been excavating in this cemetery for ten years and I have not found anything intact like this," Hawass said. "This man looks to be very important because of the construction of the tomb, because of the way that they wrote his title—the overseer of the administrative district or the mayor of the city of the pyramid builders."

Hawass thinks the sarcophagus likely contains a mummy, but he is cautious in his hopes. "You cannot be confident of anything, but I believe that the reason they sealed it is because there is something important inside," he said.

The tomb of the overseer is one of many exciting recent finds in the pyramid builders' village, south of the Sphinx.

Archaeologist Mark Lehner, director of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, believes that as many as 20,000 people moved in and out of the village while building the pyramids. Dormitory-style buildings appear to have held sleeping quarters for as many as 2,000 people. Diggers also have found evidence of copper-making and cooking facilities.

"All the evidence points to a very large lost city of the Pyramids that hadn't been known before we started working," said Lehner.

Mysterious Shaft

In Khufu's Great Pyramid, Hawass's team has set up camp in the erroneously named queen's chamber. (The room may never have been used, and its function remains unknown.)

Inside the chamber are two shafts. Scholars aren't sure about the purpose of these shafts, which were unique to pyramids built during the Old Kingdom period (2575 to 2150 B.C.), but one theory is that they were built as passageways for the pharaohs' journey to the afterlife.

"It's thought that the so-called air shafts are really conduits for the king's soul," said Lehner.

The first modern investigation of the shaft in the queen's chamber occurred in the 1990s, when archaeologist Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a robot into the passageway. The machine was blocked by the limestone block after traveling 213 feet (65 meters) into the shaft.

Further hampering the exploration, the interior of the shaft is only 8 inches by 8 inches (20 centimeters by 20 centimeters) and the shaft bends in several places.

On Monday, Hawass and his team will use a different robot to try to find out what, if anything, is hidden behind the limestone block. It is hoped that the custom-built Pyramid Rover (see sidebar) can peer around the stone and transmit images of the shaft's interior.

Do Hawass, Lehner, and the television crew know in advance what the audience will see on Monday?

Bredar said even the research and production teams are in the dark. "It's do-or-die that night," he said. "We don't know exactly what's going to happen."

The TV program, which will include three-dimensional recreations of the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx, illustrates the "excruciating nature of hard-core field archaeology," said Bredar. "It offers just a glimpse of what people like Mark [Lehner] go through in a field season."

The National Geographic Channel special Pyramids Live:

Secret Chambers Revealed airs in the United States on Fox Television on Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The same show will air worldwide later in the week under a different title, Egypt: Secret Chambers Revealed, on the National Geographic Channel. Check local listings for more information.