A mysterious “void” within Egypt's iconic Great Pyramid could contain priceless treasures from a Pharaoh who ruled in the 26th century BC.
The massive space at the heart of the massive 481ft structure was first discovered in 2017 and was shrouded in mystery – with no one knowing what was inside.
But new details are emerging as scientists use a revolutionary scanning technique to probe its secrets.
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Muons – incredibly tiny cosmic particles that constantly bombard the Earth from space – are being used to “X-ray” the pyramid and explore its inner structure.
And they recently discovered that the chamber is 10 metres bigger than first thought, making it 40 metres in length.
Matthew Sibson, from archaeology podcast Ancient Architects, offered some theories to what the space could be.
He said: “Some believe the big void is one or more antechambers, where Khufu stored precious royal and religious objects that he would use in the afterlife.
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“We could even be looking at three separate Chambers side by side and one of them could even be the final resting place of Khufu.”
There’s also speculation that this previously undiscovered gallery could house mummies of some of Khufu’s ancestors such as Sneferu, Hunt and even Khan, who reigned almost 5,000 years ago.
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Recent analysis from Japanese expert Yukinori Kawae suggests that the hidden space does not run parallel to the sliding Grand Gallery, as originally thought, but is in fact a level chamber four metres wide and four metres tall.
His colleague Kunihiro Morishima says he finds it hard to believe that a single chamber would be so enormous, and speculated that the scans actually show two rooms side-by-side.
Experts now think that the chambers could have been accessed by that mystery corridor discovered back in 2017, and that there could be two completely independent sets of rooms within the pyramid.
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Scanning expert Sebastien Procureur added that there are tiny passages – too small for any human to fit through – that lead from the King’s and Queen’s chambers to some unknown spot deep within the pyramid.
“These are still a mystery even after multiple robotic explorations,” he said. “They are definitely man-made. It leaves something for future generations to understand.”
However, he added: "We still have some unpublished findings about the void which we will release in the near future”.
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