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74 Physics
A 9-metre-long corridor successful the 4500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza that was discovered successful 2016 has present been mapped, and researchers person utilized a tiny camera to adjacent inside
2 March 2023
The Great Pyramid astatine Giza, Egypt, has a hidden corridor that has present been mapped utilizing cosmic rays MuYeeTing/Getty Images
A antecedently hidden corridor buried heavy successful the 4500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza successful Egypt has been mapped successful item for the archetypal clip – and researchers person besides taken a glimpse wrong utilizing an endoscopic camera.
The corridor was archetypal discovered successful 2016, but researchers did not privation to harm the monument to summation access. The pyramid is the lone 1 of the 7 wonders of the past satellite inactive standing, and was – until the 1889 operation of the Eiffel Tower – the world’s tallest human-made operation astatine 146 metres. It was built astir 2560 BCE during the reign of the Pharoah Khufu.
Using a method called cosmic-ray muon radiography developed by academics astatine the University of Nagoya, Japan, the researchers could corroborate that the corridor was 9 metres long, with a transverse conception of astir 2 metres by 2 metres.
Cosmic-ray muon radiography tracks the level of radiation passing done the pyramid walls. In the technique, radiation is fired done the pyramid and researchers measurement the fig of muons that get astatine detectors placed astatine assorted points astir the monument. Muons are partially absorbed by chromatic utilized to physique the pyramids, which means the method allows researchers to place wherever determination are cavities wrong the structure.
The method has been utilized to representation retired the interior structures of pyramids since 1971, erstwhile it was archetypal utilized astatine Giza.
The known corridors and rooms wrong the Great Pyramid Procureur et al. Nature Communications
Using their precise representation of the corridor, the researchers identified an opportunity. “We realised that it was truthful adjacent to the aboveground that an endoscopy was possible,” says Sébastien Procureur astatine the University of Paris-Saclay successful France.
They inserted a tiny camera akin to those utilized successful aesculapian procedures to seizure the archetypal glimpse of the corridor successful thousands of years.
“We knew the cavity was there, but of people it’s wholly antithetic erstwhile you spot it,” says Procureur. “We felt unusual erstwhile we saw this.”
Still, Procureur was gladsome of 1 thing. “It’s a arguable opinion, but I’m relieved the cavity was empty. I wouldn’t person liked to enactment successful opening a tomb.”
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