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Thanks to cosmic rays, secrets of the last remaining Wonder of the Ancient World are being revealed. The Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of Egypt's famous landmarks, has stood tall for around 4,500 years. But the 2 million blocks that make up the tomb and fortress have not been impenetrable. Looters robbed the structure of its ancient treasures thousands of years ago and scientists have probed its interiors either by studying its corridors or with more advanced measuring techniques like thermal scanners. The structure still holds many secrets, but since 2015 an international team of scientists, the ScanPyramids team,...

Scientists uncovered a hidden nine-meter long corridor near the main entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza, officials said Thursday. The discovery was made as part of the Scan Pyramid project, which has been using non-invasive technology to study the structure since 2015, Reuters reported. Researchers used a mixture of infrared thermography, 3D simulations and endoscopes to explore inside of the structure, which is assumed to be 4,500-years-old (though the age of the Great Pyramid, and all others, is hotly contested). Mostafa Waziri, who heads Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the corridor was presumably created to help redistribute the...

Explanation: The early morning planet parade continues. Visible the world over, the planets Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn have been lining up in the pre-dawn sky since mid-April. In the featured image taken last month, these planets were captured over the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the Saqqara necropolis of Egypt, the pyramid was constructed in the 27th century BC and is one of the oldest pyramids known. The two-image composite includes a foreground image taken during evening blue hour, and a background image captured from the same location the following morning. The morning...

The largest of the two voids is located just above the grand gallery — a passageway that leads to what may be the chamber of the pharaoh Khufu — and is about 98 feet (30 meters) long and 20 feet (6 m) in height, according to previous pyramid scans. Archaeologists are uncertain as to what they will find in the void, which could be one large area or several small rooms, they said. They also hope to find out the function of that void; the most fantastic possibility is that the opening is the hidden burial chamber of Khufu. A...

Salma al-Shimi, who has thousands of followers on Instagram, last week posted images of herself in ancient Egyptian garb with pharaoh-like accessories near the 4,700-year-old Step Pyramid of Djoser, according to the Guardian. The busty model and lensman Houssam Mohammad allegedly took part in the shoot “without authorization in the Saqqara archaeological site,” They were released on bail pending the results of a probe of what local media described as “provocative and offensive” images, according to the outlet. ... Shimi had appeared before a public prosecutor and argued that her goal had been to promote tourism rather than offend Egypt......

This video continues our study of ancient construction techniques. It presents the argument that the base casing stones of the most familiar pyramids may have been molded by some technology which used geopolymers (stone slurry?) This is similar to the speculation that the Incan stone walls were constructed using a similar process.

Of all the chambers in the Great Pyramid, the subterranean chamber is the largest, as well as the most mysterious. It is 46 feet long, 27 feet wide, hewn into the limestone bedrock, and difficult to describe. The descending passagewayÂ’s entrance to the subterranean chamber is near the floor at the northeast corner. A six-foot-wide square pit shaped like a funnel has been tunnelled in the middle of the floor, near the east wall. This square-shaped pit is actually the mouth of a shaft that is eleven feet deep, although in 1816 the Italian explorer Count Caviglia drilled into the...

Archaeologists have long wondered exactly how the ancient Egyptians constructed the world's biggest pyramid, the Great Pyramid. Now, they may have discovered the system used to haul massive stone blocks into place some 4,500 years ago. They discovered the remains of this system at the site of Hatnub, an ancient quarry in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The contraption would have been used to transport heavy alabaster stones up a steep ramp, according to the archaeologists working at the site, from the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (French Institute for Oriental Archaeology)in Cairo and from the University of Liverpool in England....

I mention here that not long after the excavation many began to describe the Great Boat of Khufu as the black box to the construction of the pyramids, and that its contents would reveal all the information that would bring us in proximity to the solution of the great mystery. With this I am in complete agreement, if only because this strange water vehicle, or I should say construction machine, plays a central role in my own theory. While I quite understand if you are somewhat mystified, I beg of you to continue on this exciting road of discovery. Perhaps...

A huge void discovered inside the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt late last year may hold an iron throne carved from meteorites, according to new analysis of ancient religious texts. Giulio Magli, Director of the Department of Mathematics and Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the Politecnico di Milano, studied the Pyramid Texts, religious writings carved into pyramid walls around 2400 BC. Based on his studies, Magli proposes that it’s possible the throne of Pharaoh Khufu – or ‘Cheops’ – lies inside the chamber. ================================================================================================================================ “Of course it would not be melted iron but meteoritic iron, that is, fallen from the...

Zahi Hawass, who heads the ScanPyramids science committee overseeing the project, said there was no new "discovery". He said he had met other scientists from ScanPyramids who "showed us their conclusions, and we informed them this is not a discovery," he told AFP. "The pyramid is full of voids and that does not mean there is a secret chamber or a new discovery," he said. In a statement on Friday, the head of the government's antiquities council Mustafa Waziri also criticised the announcement. "The project has to proceed in a scientific way that follows the steps of scientific research and...

Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious enclosure hidden deep inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The massive cavity stretches for at least 30 metres and lies above the grand gallery, an impressive ascending corridor that connects the Queen’s chamber to the King’s in the heart of the historic monument. It is the first major structure found in the pyramid since the 19th century. It is unclear whether the void is a chamber or a corridor, or whether it played any more than a structural role in the pyramid’s construction – such...

The structure, also known as Khufu's Pyramid, is the sole survivor of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World. ... The scientists made the discovery using cosmic-ray imaging, recording the behaviour of subatomic particles called muons that penetrate the rock. Detectors were set up inside the pyramid, including in the so-called Queen's Chamber. This allowed the pyramid's insides to be seen without physically disturbing it, as the results showed empty space differently from rock. The presence of the space, dubbed the ScanPyramids Big Void, was confirmed using three different detection technologies over several months after first being spotted, the paper...

Muon-detecting sensors have revealed a huge hidden cavity hidden within the pyramid – the first major structural find since the 19th century Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious enclosure hidden deep inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The massive cavity stretches for at least 30 metres and lies above the grand gallery, an impressive ascending corridor that connects the Queen’s chamber to the King’s in the heart of the historic monument. It is the first major structure found in the pyramid since the 19th century. It is unclear whether the void...

The thermal scanning was made at sunrise as the sun heats the structures from the outside, and then at sunset when the pyramids are cooling down. The speed of the heating and cooling phases was used to uncover "anomalies" such as empty areas in the pyramids, which could be internal air currents or different building materials. Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told reporters at a press conference, which was held Monday night at the step of the Great Pyramid plateau, that the result of the infrared thermography scan on the first row of the pyramid’s limestone blocks shows that all...

An Egyptian citizen, identified as "Nagy" by Arabic news site Ahram.org, was illegally digging in his backyard when he found a tunnel leading to the Pyramid of Khufu. The pyramid, nicknamed the Great Pyramid, is the oldest and largest of the three Giza Pyramids. Nagy, a resident of the El Haraneya village, near the Giza Plateau, dug 33 feet beneath his house before he found the corridor, made from stone blocks. Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities sent archaeologists to the scene, and a committee confirmed the passage to be the pyramid's legendary causeway.

Saqqara, in Egypt, is the oldest stone complex ever built by humans—and within it sits the oldest pyramid in Egypt. It’s a piece of irreplaceable history that’s been crumbling for 4,600 years. But according to one local report, it’s currently being destroyed by the company hired to “restore” it. In fact, the company hired by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities may have even committed a crime in its restoration. According to the Egypt Independent, preservation laws require that any new construction be less than 5 percent of the preserved structure. Instead, the company—which has reportedly never worked on a preservation project...

A man paragliding over Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza on Monday spotted the jaw-dropping sight of a barking dog atop the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the World. The footage of the Egyptian landmark — built more than 4,500 years ago — shows Marshall Mosher soaring in the desert sky in a paramotor when he zooms in on the top of the pyramid to find a dog casually having his day. “A dog climbed all the way up the Great Pyramid of Giza!” Mosher wrote in amazement, with his clip going viral on Instagram. Many on the platform joked...

Cairo (AFP) - The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is showcasing for the first time the earliest writing from ancient Egypt found on papyrus, detailing work on the Great Pyramid of Giza, antiquities officials said Thursday. The papyri were discovered near Wadi el-Jarf port, 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of the Gulf of Suez town of Zafarana, the antiquities ministry said. The find by a French-Egyptian team unearths papers telling of the daily lives of port workers who transported huge limestone blocks to Cairo during King Khufu's rule to build the Great Pyramid, intended to be his burial structure. One document...

Astonishingly, the papyri were written by men who participated in the building of the Great Pyramid, the tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu, the first and largest of the three colossal pyramids at Giza just outside modern Cairo. Among the papyri was the journal of a previously unknown official named Merer, who led a crew of some 200 men who traveled from one end of Egypt to the other picking up and delivering goods of one kind or another. Merer, who accounted for his time in half-day increments, mentions stopping at Tura, a town along the Nile famous for its limestone...