In the pyramid of Cheops, experts have discovered a previously unknown room, which may be a secret treasure vault or tomb. The room is located next to the tomb of the pharaoh and the main corridor of the pyramid.

When we saw this void zone, we realized that we had stumbled upon something very interesting and big, we abandoned all other projects and concentrated on studying this area, located directly above the corridor to the tomb of Cheops, the archaeologists said.

Over the past 200 years, scientists have been able to discover only three rooms in the great pyramid, in one of which the pharaoh himself was supposedly buried, in the other his wife, and the third was considered a bait or a trap for robbers.

But the mummies were never found, which gave archaeologists hope that the remains could be in the hidden rooms of the pyramid. Scientists have been looking for these rooms for a long time, and two years ago they were joined by physicists from the universities of Nagoya, Paris and Cairo.

Experts studied the structure of the pyramid using non-standard methods, namely, space telescopes within the ScanPyramids project. Archaeologists have adapted telescopes to find voids and hidden spaces in ancient architectural monuments.

The principle of operation of such a detector is very simple: it looks for streams of muons (charged particles) and determines the size of the space in which they are located. It is believed that in upper layers Earth's atmosphere produces millions of muons every second. They result from the collision of cosmic rays with gas molecules in the air.

These collisions accelerate muons to near-light speeds, due to which they penetrate tens and hundreds of meters deep into the surface of the planet. According to scientists' measurements, each square meter of the Earth's surface absorbs about 10 thousand of these particles.

Thus, the muon flux decreases in empty space much more slowly than when passing through rock or earth. With the help of such a telescope, you can determine where in the object there are empty rooms.

Last October, a detector found several voids inside the Cheops pyramid that could be hidden rooms.

Our measurements absolutely exclude that this void area could be due to differences in the properties of the stones or due to construction errors, as stated by Zahi Hawass. Voids of such size and configuration could not have accidentally appeared between the blocks, either from an engineering or any other point of view. The Egyptians were too good builders to make a mistake when building a pyramid, leave a “hole” in it and create a room or corridor somewhere else, said Hani Elal from Cairo University.

But this discovery caused a lot of suspicion and mistrust, so it was decided to continue the observations. A re-examination confirmed the guesses of scientists that above the main corridor of the pyramid there is a zone of emptiness 30 meters long, 8 meters high and about 2 meters wide.

However, experts are not yet sure what this space is, as it can be either a corridor or a series of rooms. Now a team of Egyptologists is being formed to further study the pyramid of Cheops and other structures of Giza.

A new way to study buildings with a telescope has inspired scientists, as it can give more information about the structure of the ancient pyramids.

This year, the pyramid of Cheops reveals more and more mysteries. So, the secret of the construction of the great pyramid has recently become known. Scientists learned about this thanks to the found papyrus: its text was written by an Egyptian overseer for 40 slaves who built the building.

Having deciphered the text, archaeologists learned that the Egyptians diverted water from the Nile and laid artificial channels through the Giza plateau, along which boats loaded with blocks moved.

In Egypt, the pharaoh was considered a god-man. It depended on him whether the sun would rise, whether the Nile would flood, whether the grain would ripen in the fields. And the God-man needs a tomb to match his divine majesty.

Around 2650 BC, a pyramid first rose above the earth - the pyramid of Djoser. This is the first known stone tomb in Egypt (mastabas were built before, but they were built of raw brick) and in general the first known stone structure of this size in the whole world. History has even preserved the name of its architect: Imhotep. His titles are carved in the stone of the pyramid next to the title of the pharaoh himself.

The Egyptian pyramids have given rise to many lies and misconceptions. Some, for example, suggest that they were built according to the ideal technology, which, in finished form, came from nowhere. In fact, one can trace how construction techniques improved from the early pyramid of Djoser to the brilliant pyramid of Cheops (Khufu), the last of the great pyramids. The pyramid that collapsed during the construction phase is also known. So the Egyptians did not fall ready knowledge- it was mined with the sweat and blood of thousands ordinary people who lost their health and even life for the sake of the greatness of the pharaohs.

It is also not true that the pyramids were built by slaves. In the era of the Old Kingdom, the role of slave labor in the economy was generally quite modest. The construction of these magnificent tombs was carried out by another class of the forced population - "meret", or "hemmu". They also worked for the owner under the supervision of overseers with sticks and, most likely, could not have their own land. And yet the meret could not be bought or sold, they lived in families and had some property. This is what distinguishes them from slaves ("bak").

Discoveries of new pyramids not yet studied by science, but quite a lot is already known about their construction. The towns of builders were found, as well as quarries, where the main material of these structures, limestone, was mined. Usually such a quarry was located near the construction site. True, more granite and basalt were required. They were brought from the south of Egypt along the Nile.

The Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu), aka the Great Pyramid, was the culmination of the great madness, highest point the aspirations of earthly kings to establish their divinity in stone. 140 meters high (for comparison, the pyramid of Djoser has only 60 meters). 2.3 million stone blocks, with every facet polished. The completion of construction dates back to around 2560 BC. The era of the great pyramids lasted only a century.

The third dynasty of pharaohs, who built the most famous pyramids, paid dearly for their pride. Her last pharaoh was probably overthrown: his name was not preserved, and the pharaohs of the next - fourth - dynasty erected their genealogy not to their predecessors, but directly to the god Ra. Since that time, such majestic pyramids have not been built.

And the pyramid of Cheops, the last and greatest monument of bygone legendary times, still captures the eyes of mankind. And although the burial chamber and the sarcophagus have long been found and the largest rooms of the pyramid have been explored, the ancient tomb has not yet revealed all its secrets.

November 2, 2017 in the journal Nature was published, which reports the discovery in Great Pyramid previously unknown cavity. In a new discovery, space helped mankind.

Scientists have discovered a long, hidden, narrow void in the Great Pyramid that could finally unlock the secrets of the 4,500-year-old wonder of the world. For the study of the riddle were used Newest technologies, and we are again approaching the solution of the mystery of the Great Pyramid!

The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for thousands of years. The Pyramid of Khufu is the only Wonder of the World that has survived to this day. Scientists around the world have been trying to solve the mystery of the pyramid for hundreds of years, and now it has become possible thanks to the latest technology.

Scientists have made a grand discovery with the help of particles that penetrate the rock. Detectors installed inside the entire pyramid, including in the Royal Chamber. found an empty space, which was called the ScanPyramids Big Void.

"The ScanPyramids Big Void is not a room or a chamber - we don't know if it's horizontal or vertical, it's made up of one or more successive structures, but it's big," says author Mehdi Tayoubi, president and co-founder of the HIP Institute

The find is located above the Grand Gallery, which connects the two chambers of the pyramid. Although the exact name is not known, this is the largest discovery since the 19th century.

The researchers argue that the space may be on a slope, which means that it could be used to transport huge blocks to the center of the pyramid, experts suggest.

For the study, 3 methods were used:
1. Infrared thermography
2. 3D scanning with lasers.
3. Cosmic ray detectors.
It was cosmic ray detectors that helped to get a general picture of the mysterious cavity.

Muons are created when the atmosphere reacts with cosmic rays, creating a stream of particles, some of which decay into muons. Elementary particles, which weigh 200 times more than electrons, can pass through any structure very easily, even large and thick rocks such as mountains.
Researchers at the ancient Egyptian ministry's scientific committee suggest it could be a "gap in construction" - part of a trench that allowed workers to access the Grand Gallery and the Royal Chamber while the rest of the pyramid was built.

This find can finally explain how this pyramid was built. Scientists are confident that modern particle physics can shed light on the archaeological heritage of the world

After exploring the pyramid, scientists using computer technology tried to recreate the appearance of this room.

It is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids.

An international group of scientists, which included specialists from Egypt, France and Japan, discovered the existence of a cavity in the pyramid of Cheops, the purpose of which is still unknown. The room, the existence of which has been proven using muon radiography, reaches 30 meters in cross section.

The Pyramid of Cheops is the largest pyramid in Egypt (its height reaches 139 meters) and the only one of the "Seven Wonders of the World" that has survived to this day. The age of this building is estimated at about 4,500 years, and it is believed that for a long time it was the tallest man-made object on Earth.

Last year, experts already reported that they had discovered two previously unknown empty areas in the Cheops pyramid, but then many of their colleagues were rather wary of this statement. A new study suggests with even greater certainty that people have not yet explored all the rooms inside the famous pyramid.

The method of muon radiography is a method of probing materials, which consists in recording the process of scattering or absorption of a muon beam as it passes through the substance of the object under study. Muon - unstable elementary particle with negative electric charge. On Earth, muons are registered in cosmic rays - they are created by the interaction of particles of cosmic radiation with the earth's atmosphere. Three independent experiments have shown that there is indeed a hidden camera in the pyramid. As noted, the probability that the result obtained is not true is less than one percent.

In size, the "secret room" is comparable to the Great Gallery - an inclined tunnel leading to the Pharaoh's Chamber.

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They found a previously unknown area of ​​\u200b\u200bemptiness in the pyramid of Cheops, which may be a secret tomb or a passage to it, according to an article published in the journal Nature.

"When we saw this void zone, we realized that we had stumbled upon something very interesting and big, abandoned all other projects and concentrated on studying this area, located right above the corridor to the tomb of Cheops. Now we are sure that it really exists, and this the first find of this kind in the pyramid of Cheops since the Middle Ages, when it was opened by Caliph Al-Mamun in the 9th century," said Mehdi Tayoubi from the HIP Institute in Paris (France).

Secrets of the pharaohs

The Pyramid of Cheops, one of the seven wonders of the world, was built in the middle of the third millennium BC, during the time of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), a representative of the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, at the same time when all the "great pyramids" ancient egypt. With a height of 145 meters and a width and length of 230 meters, this structure remains one of the tallest and largest structures ever created by mankind.

Over the past two centuries, scientists have discovered three rooms in 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 a trap for robbers. In the walls of the corridors that lead to the tomb of Khufu, unusual channels and structures were found, which scientists believe are elements of a "security system" that protected the pharaoh from defilers.

The mummies of the pharaoh and his wife were never found, which is why many archaeologists believe that in fact their tombs are still hidden in the thickness of the pyramid. Two years ago, scientists from the universities of Nagoya, Paris and Cairo began searching for these secret rooms, studying the pyramid using cosmic particle detectors and telescopes as part of the ScanPyramids project.

Breath of space

Every second, millions of muons are formed in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere - charged particles resulting from the collision of cosmic rays with gas molecules in the air. These collisions accelerate muons to near-light speeds, due to which they penetrate tens and hundreds of meters deep into the surface of the planet. According to scientists' measurements, each square meter of the Earth's surface absorbs about 10 thousand of these particles.

French archaeologists and physicists, together with Japanese scientists, have adapted telescopes capable of "seeing" muons to search for voids and hidden spaces in monuments of ancient architecture.

This technique works very simply - the muon flux decreases in air and in empty space much more slowly than when passing through the thickness of rocks or the earth, which makes it possible to search for secret rooms by bursts in the muon background.

Last October, the ScanPyramids project participants announced sensational discovery- they managed to find several previously unknown voids in the pyramid, which may be the secret tombs of the "master of two houses" and his wife. This discovery caused a sharp rejection among archaeologists and Egyptologists, who accused physicists of misinterpreting the data.

Physics and lyrics

These allegations forced scientists to repeat measurements using three different muon telescopes at once. This time, the observations, as Tayubi emphasized, were carried out according to the same rules and principles by which the Higgs boson and other particles unknown to science were searched for at the LHC and other accelerators.

“Our measurements absolutely rule out that this void area could have arisen due to differences in the properties of the stones or due to construction errors,” states Zahi Hawass. The Egyptians were too good builders to mess up the construction of the pyramid, leave a hole in it and create a room or corridor somewhere else,” said Hany Elal (Hany Helal) from Cairo University Cairo.

Checking whether this is true or not, scientists installed a set of films sensitive to the action of muons in the alleged tomb of the wife of Cheops, and semiconductor particle detectors were placed in the lower part of the pyramid. A few months later, they collected data, processed it and compared it with how muons should move through the pyramid if there are no other voids in it, except for the already known corridors and rooms.

If the initial results of scanning the pyramid of Cheops were erroneous, then, as Elal notes, the "pictures" obtained by different muon telescopes would not match. In fact, they turned out to be the same, which confirmed the assumptions of physicists and refuted the insinuations of archaeologists.

The photographs showed that above the main corridor of the pyramid there is a zone of emptiness thirty long, eight meters high and about two meters wide. As Tayubi noted, it can be either a solid corridor running parallel to the ground, up or down, or a suite of rooms. So far, physicists do not have enough data to rule out the first or second option.

Scientists emphasize that they do not interpret their discovery in any way and do not claim that they managed to find a secret room - this task, according to them, should be dealt with by Egyptologists.

Jean-Baptiste Mouret, a physicist at the University of Paris, hopes that his team's discovery will convince Egyptian historians that they were wrong in their assessments and start a discussion about whether to try to penetrate this void zone, and if yes, how to do it.

A new round of history

In the near future, as scientists noted, they plan to continue studying the void zone, as well as other departments of the Cheops pyramid, including the tomb of the pharaoh himself, and will begin to scan other pyramids that may hide secret rooms and unknown voids.

These data, physicists hope, will help to understand exactly how the pyramids were built and whether it is possible to trust the descriptions of their construction, which have come down to our time in the writings of Herodotus.

At the same time, as scientists noted, muon scanners can not reveal all the secrets ancient history. For example, according to Tayubi, they cannot be used to search for the secret tomb of Nefertiti in the tomb of Tutankhamen, the existence of which was recently announced by the famous British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves.

"Muon scanners cannot be used to study the tomb of Tutankhamun and other burials in the Valley of the Kings, for the reason that we do not know how voids are distributed in the rocks located above them," the scientist explained, answering a question from RIA Novosti.

Such studies, as Sebastien Procureur, a colleague of More, added, are further complicated by the fact that man-made particle accelerators cannot be used to scan the pyramids and other ancient structures, since their delivery to Giza or the Valley of the Kings will entail unacceptably high costs.

"In short, this is simply not feasible. Muons cannot be created directly - they arise from the decay of kaons and pions, and there are too few particle accelerators in the world that can accelerate them to the required speeds. In addition, they are all very large - at least 700 meters in length. It would be easier for us to transport the pyramid to such an installation than to try to build it in Giza or in other parts of Egypt. Therefore, we have to rely on space in such observations," the agency's interlocutor concluded.