Robot explores SECOND shaft, discovers matching door (Great Pyramid)

Yahoo (AP) ^ | Mon Sep 23,11:40 AM ET | By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer

[Thinkin' Gal]

Robot explores second shaft, discovers matching door

Mon Sep 23,11:40 AM ET

By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Scientists using a robot have discovered yet another door deep inside the Great Pyramid, Egypt's head archaeologist said Monday.

Friday's discovery followed the robotic revelation on live, international television Sept. 17 of a chamber behind a similar stone door in another shaft in the pyramid the pharaoh Khufu built more than 4,000 years ago.

"This find in the northern shaft, coupled with last week's discovery ... in the southern shaft, represents the first major new information about the Great Pyramid in more than a century," Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and supervisor of the pyramid exploration project, said Monday.

The pyramid, made of 2.3 million stone blocks rising to 137 meters (452 feet) and measuring 227 meters (756 feet) along its base, is the largest of three that form a group with the Sphinx in the desert outside Cairo.

"This is not `Raiders of the Lost Ark,'" Hawass said, scoffing at the idea hidden treasure — or even a conclusive answer about the intentions of the pyramid builders — would be found behind the north shaft's door. A camera thrust through the south shaft's door revealed what appeared to be another door on the other side of a small chamber, for a total of three so far in the pyramid.

Hawass said he would consult with other experts to try to determine whether the doors have symbolic or structural roles, and use those theories to map out further exploration. Both shafts start from a chamber at the heart of the pyramid that measures about 5-by-5-6 meters (yards).

The latest find is "an exciting thing," said Dieter Arnold, an expert on ancient Egyptian architecture. "We are all waiting for the continuation of Dr. Zahi's project."

Arnold, reached by telephone at a site he is studying in the desert near Cairo, said the shafts and doors could have symbolic meaning related to ancient Egyptians' religion. Their texts, Hawass said, speak of the pharaoh's soul encountering a series of doors before reaching the rewards of afterlife.

"Don't expect that I can tell you what's behind the stone" door, Arnold said. "We're all stunned. We have no parallel."

Researchers have been aware of the shafts, found in no other pyramids, for decades. The first door — in the south shaft — was found by a team using another robot in 1993. That door and the north shaft's door were each adorned with an identical pair of brass handles. What may be a second door in the south shaft had no handles.

One puzzle researchers are trying to crack is how the pyramid's engineers, using ancient tools, carved shafts just eight inches (20 centimeters) on each side — no bigger than the spine of a paperback book — that explorers today have been able to follow only with the help of high technology.

National Geographic ( news - web sites) had commissioned the Boston firm iRobot to design and build Pyramid Rover, a small robot that moves on two sets of treads, to explore the southern shaft.

A day after the Rover performed in the south shaft on live television, technicians sent it into the north shaft, this time away from the cameras. The south shaft rose at a 40-degree angle. The north shaft was an even greater engineering feat, turning sharply four times to skirt a second chamber in the pyramid.

The robot's second trip was more difficult because of the shaft's zigzagging path. It took several days to reach its door, Hawass said. He said the south shaft's first door and the door just discovered in the north shaft were the same distance — 64 meters (211 feet) — from the central chamber.

db

[Thinkin' Gal]

This one slipped under the radar. I didn't know that they were going to explore the other [Queen's Chamber] shaft. I haven't been paying attention... I tuned out after last's week's deja vu Al Capone rerun.

[EternalHope]

There's lots of research going on in the Great Pyramid that the Egyptian government is refusing to disclose. The extreme secrecy is adding to the speculation. Those few leaks that have come out are fascinating.

One thing I'm pretty sure of: This ain't no tomb.

[APBaer]

GREEN DOOR
(Marvin Moore - Bob Davie)
JIM LOWE (Dot 15486, 1956)

Midnight, one more night without sleepin'
Watchin' till the mornin' comes creepin'
Green door, what's that secret you're keepin?

There's an old piano
And they play it hot behind the green door
Don't know what they're doin'
But they laugh a lot behind the green door
Wish they'd let me in
So I could find out what's behind the green door

Knocked once, tried to tell them I'd been there
Door slammed, hospitality's thin there
Wonder just what's goin' on in there

Saw an eyeball peepin'
Through a smoky cloud behind the green door
When I said "Joe sent me"
Someone laughed out loud behind the green door
All I want to do is join the happy crowd behind the green door

Midnight, one more night without sleepin'
Watchin' till the mornin' comes creepin'
Green door, what's that secret you're keepin?

Green door, what's that secret you're keepin?
Green door!

[dennisw]

All I know is there are some esoteric secrets hidden there. What they are I cannot sort out since there are so many theories and books about the pyramids.

[1Old Pro]

I tuned out after last's week's deja vu Al Capone rerun. 2 posted on 9/24/02 10:50 AM Eastern by Thinkin' Gal [

Time for MSNBC to send Whorealdo out there.

[mhking]

So what is at the center, a Stargate, or Apophos?

Paging Richard Dean Anderson...

[jz638]

That northern shaft is one bad mother...

[egarvue]

One puzzle researchers are trying to crack is how the pyramid's engineers, using ancient tools, carved shafts just eight inches (20 centimeters) on each side — no bigger than the spine of a paperback book — that explorers today have been able to follow only with the help of high technology.

I read a book years ago by a team of chemists who theorized that the blocks of the pyramid were not carved, but poured, as in concrete. They made their case on chemical analysis of the stone. I'm not saying that this theory is true, but a shaft like this could be more easily explained by it being made by a mold, rather than carving. Either way, its an exciting time to be a historian/archeologist/Egyptologist!

[jlogajan]

"Mister President! We must not allow a pyramid-shaft gap!" -- General Turgidson

[blam]

"Green door, what's that secret you're keepin? Green door!"

I remember when that song was at the top of the charts.

[Bikers4Bush]

Leaks like what?

[johnny7]

Of course it's not... its the cup size of Nurse Deisels bra. ;^[]

[Thinkin' Gal]

I am going through my notes and books... at first it appears that the Queen's Chamber northern shaft is much shorter, but it has to be this one... the King's chamber shafts open to the outside, whether by design or by force.

http://www.cheops.org/startpage/cyberdrawings/cheopsshafts.html

From the CAD illustration at the above link, it appears that the Queen's Chamber northern shaft starts a 45 deg bend to the west, when it approaches the vicinity of the Grand Gallery (~ 18 meters into the shaft). That's as far as they have northern shaft illustrated.

Do you subscribe to National Geographic?

National Geographic October Issue Includes Close-up of Beast/Sphinx Map of Middle East

On one of the links (to the map/pyramid overlay), the shaft lines are extrapolated beyond the pyramid. With this new information (and zoomed-in scale on the new NG map), I should be able to determine where these shafts 'stop' on the map. When I ran the numbers for the southern shaft, the stopping point was at a golden ratio distance between Medina and Baghdad, on the 30th parallel near the Saudi Arabian village of Al Markuz, in line with the gaze of the Sphinx.

[ZULU]

I read the same book. It sounded convincing at the time, but has since been proven incorrect.

There is a new book on the market today, written by a contemporary engineer and carver of large stone structures which gives some much better perspectives on how the pyramids could have been built using technology available at the time.

He doesn't feel they used ramps all the way. As the structure went up, they used projections from the underlying blocks to lever the next level of stones up. When the pyramid was completed, scaffolding was used to allow stone carvers to dress the exterior of the pyramid stones level from the top down. This explains Herodotus' curioous statement that they finished the pyramids from the top down. What the Egyptians were trying to explaiin to him was they finished the pyramids from the top down by smooth dressing the rough exterior projections from the top down. There are smaller incompleted pyramids showing this technique illustrated in the book. Apparently the Incas used a smiliar technique in construction.

He also says they actually used a primitive pulley gadget, remains of which have been found. It was a rounded stone with a groove carved into the top. A rope passed through it and was fastened to the weight, and crews pulled the rope, assisting the other crews who were levering the blocks up the side of the pyramid. He also said that the base cores of the pyramids were frequently full of rubble and partially composed of a rise of underlying bedrock.

I agree with Hawass when he refers to people who try to explain away the pyramids as the products of space men or unknown previous civlizations when he refers to them as "pyramidiots". (The guy who wrote the book on building the pyramids with loured blocks doesn't fall into this category - he presented a good argument based on sound principles - it just happens to be wrong. Von Daneken does represent a "pyramidiot".)

[Thinkin' Gal]

You might find post 15 interesting (new info in last paragraph). The diagram to which I refer is posted on my FR homepage. I'd post it into the thread except the bandwidth limit would soon be exceeded.

[Thinkin' Gal]

The answer to what's behind the door is here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/754817/posts?page=102#102

[jenny65]

Shut yo' mouth!

[JeeperFreeper]

I don't know what's behind these doors. I could ask my labrador retriever, Moses, cuz' he's gotta be some sort of egyptian what with all the large pyramids he leaves around the yard.