Egyptologists Find Another Mystery Door in Pyramid

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Egyptologists Find Another Mystery Door in Pyramid

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

A mini-camera-equipped robot has found a mysterious door in the northern shaft in the Queen's Chamber of the Great Pyramid, matching one found only a few days earlier in another shaft, the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities said on Monday.

The specially designed robot, dubbed the Pyramid Rover, discovered a stone block with two copper handles attached to it 65meters deep inside the shaft, Zahi Hawass, the council's secretary general, told reporters.

He said the block was similar to the one discovered by the robot on September 17 in the southern shaft in the Queen's Chamber and expressed his surprise that the northern shaft was at the same distance as the southern one.

During its National Geographic Society sponsored exploration along the southern shaft last Tuesday, the Pyramid Rover found a sealed stone behind a block, also 65 meters along the shaft.

The Great Pyramid, built some 4,500 years ago by Pharaoh Khufu, has four shafts, with two in the King's Chamber.

The Queen's Chamber shafts, unlike the ones in the King's Chamber, were originally sealed at both ends, stopping eight centimeters short of penetrating the chamber walls.

The shafts were discovered by a combination of intuition and luck by Waynman Dixon in 1872 and opened up by him. Before then, no one knew of their existence.

In 1993, Rudolf Gantenbrink, a German archaeologist, sent a custom-built robot into the Queen's Chamber shafts to explore, record images and gather data.

The robot traveled the southern shaft for 65 meters before it was stopped by what appeared to be a stone block with two cooper handles. Gantenbrink's discovery further added to the enigma of the pyramid standing on the Giza plateau overlooking Cairo.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Skeleton Found in 4,500-year-old Egyptian Sarcophagus