Egyptologists from the AERA collaboration found out how the passages in the Cheops pyramid were arranged and restored the security system that protected the tomb of the pharaoh from tomb robbers, according to Live Science.
“I believe that the burial chamber of Cheops has not yet been discovered by us, and that all three tombs we know were built in order to confuse potential thieves. The pharaoh's treasures still rest inside the pyramid,”said Zahi Hawass, a former Egyptian minister of antiquities, quoted by Live Science.
The Pyramid of Cheops, one of the seven original wonders of the world, was built in the middle of the third millennium BC by Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), a representative of the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, during which all the "great pyramids" of Ancient Egypt were built. This structure, 145 meters high and 230 meters wide and long, remains one of the tallest and largest structures ever created by mankind.
Over the past two centuries, scientists have discovered three rooms inside the pyramid, in one of which the pharaoh himself was supposedly buried, in the other his wife, and the third was considered a bait or trap for robbers. In the walls of the corridors that lead to the tomb of Khufu, unusual channels and structures were found, which today scientists consider to be elements of a "security system" that protected the pharaoh from the defilers.
A team of archaeologists from the AERA collaboration led by Mark Lehner analyzed the structure of these channels and the blocks that were supposedly installed in them, and restored, while in the virtual world, the construction of the world's first "safe".
According to scientists, the tomb of Cheops was protected from robbers by two levels of protection. The first of them was located at the entrance to the very tomb of the pharaoh - it was closed by three monolithic stone slabs, which were raised above its entrance with the help of systems of grooves and blocks, and, probably, were held in place by some supports.
The second obstacle for thieves was installed in the so-called inner sanctuary, inside which was the entrance to the tomb of Cheops. The entrance to it was closed in a similar way, with the help of stone slabs, which were lowered down through the grooves and channels in the walls of the pyramid.
All these measures did not save the pyramid from being plundered - when scientists began to study it in the 19th century, the entrance to the tomb of Cheops was already open. On the other hand, according to some archaeologists, a fourth chamber may also be hidden in the pyramid, the entrance to which has not yet been found. Now archaeologists from the AERA collaboration and engineers and physicists are studying the Cheops pyramid using a "cosmic" muon scanner that can see voids a meter or less.
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Scientists expect that the first data on the Giza pyramids will be received in early July, when muon photographic plates accumulate a sufficient number of collisions with "cosmic" particles. This data will help us understand how true is the hypothesis of Zaha Havas, which he began to talk about three years ago.