Cosmic rays will reveal the secrets of the Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza dominate the desert Egyptian for over 4,500 years. Some 2.3 million blocks of granite and limestone. And somewhere in its center, the famous chamber of Cheops. This exceptional pyramid, archaeologists have excavated it. Mapped. But it still hides secrets that researchers will try to reveal thanks to cosmic rays.

The muons who make up these cosmic rays constantly raining down on our Earth. And since they interact differently with stone or with air, analyzing them after passing through the Great Pyramid of Giza reveals the details of its internal architecture. Already in 2017, such analyzes had shown two hitherto unknown gaps. The archaeologists hope this time to obtain a definition hundred times higher.

See inside the Great Pyramid of Giza

They want to probe a void discovered on the north face of the Great Pyramid of Giza. But above all, the great void 30 meters long and 6 meters high identified above the great gallery which leads to the chamber of the famous pharaoh Cheops. Thanks to the sensitivity of their detectors, the researchers believe they can reveal the presence of artifacts in this void. pottery or pieces of wood or of metal. And even more, understand if this void corresponds to a single or multiple rooms. Why not, even if it could be an antechamber of the tomb from pharaoh cheops.

For now, archaeologists helped by physicists are still working to develop the instruments that will be used to study the Great Pyramid of Giza. They are also looking for the funds that will allow them to build them. They estimate that it will take them two years for this. Then two to three years of observation should be needed to scan the pyramid and perhaps reveal new secrets.

Pyramid of Cheops: a large cavity discovered inside

The largest pyramid of Giza contains in its heart an empty space that has remained unknown until now. This vast cavity was discovered thanks to the collaboration of particle physicists and archaeologists. What is it about ?

Article of Xavier Demeersmann published on 02/11/2017

The great Egyptian pyramids are still far from having revealed all their secrets. At the start of the XXI^and century of archaeologists associated with three teams of muographers have made a surprising discovery inside the Cheops pyramid built more than 4,500 years ago by the Pharaoh Khufu (Kheops is his transcription Greek), between 2613 to 2494 BC, the largest of those on the Giza plateau.

Through different approaches that are specific to them, three teams that have distributed sensors of muons inside or outside the 139 meter high structure from December 2015, came to the same conclusion: an empty space at least 30 meters long, located 21 meters above the ground, extends above the great gallery, or descending corridor. For now, they are struggling to define whether it is parallel to the hallway or horizontal. The location is curious because it is located above the funerary structures known until then and constituting a “monument within the monument”.

A cavity probably voluntarily created

This space is inaccessible. Taking care not to speculate on the nature of this void inside this building which, let us remember, was the tallest in the world for 38 centuries, physicists leave it to archaeologists to interpret. Be that as it may, it seems to them very likely that this void was deliberately created. Indeed, the possibilities of a collapse or crevices created by wear have been abandoned. The muon technique can only detect large spaces and not small holes. In addition, the authors of this study which has just been published in Nature point out that their measurements resemble those obtained at the level of the Grand Gallery.

So what is it? The hypothesis of a hidden chamber is not excluded by the archaeologists of the ScanPyramids project. But it is still too early to tell. The big question now is: how to find out more? The area seems isolated. Is it necessary to dig an access at the risk of damaging the building (destructive soundings are also in principle not authorized)? A tiny robot such as the one being developed by Jean-Baptiste Mouret, a member of ScanPyramids, could make a careful exploration of it… Initially, it is above all envisaged to make additional measurements with muons, to gain precision and possibly detect objects or accessories.

The discovery is in any case a fine example of interdisciplinary collaboration. With some 2.3 million blocks, the Cheops pyramid still keeps many secrets and, who knows, treasures buried in his heart.

Two hidden voids discovered in the pyramid of Cheops

Article of Jean-Luc Goudet published on October 17, 2016

By tracking muons, that is to say with the help of cosmic rays, the international team of the ScanPyramids project suspects the presence of two unknown cavities. One could be a hidden coin and the other matches one of the predictions of the thesis very well.architect Jean-Pierre Houdin.

The team of ScanPyramids presented the latest results of his “muography” analysis of the Cheops pyramid. Launched in October 2015, this program brings together numerous scientific teams and companies such as Dassault Systèmes, for its software simulation, and Iconem, for its know-how in terms of drone archaeological. Modelization 3D and infrared thermography are among their weapons, but here it was the muons that did the talking, as explained by the ScanPyramids press release.

Produced by cosmic rays when they collide with atoms and molecules from the high atmosphere, they then cross everything that is in their path like wall passages, except when, all the same, some of them are absorbed by matter. If we can intercept it, it is possible to exploit this kind of natural scanner. The sensors are plates ofaluminum covered with a sensitive film which is arranged for example in a pyramid. If a cavity is present, the density of harvested muons will not be homogeneous, indicating a deficit of matter along the path of the muons. This technique is known and had already been used by the same team on the rhomboidal pyramid at the Dahshur site.

.

A room or a set of hallways

For the Cheops pyramid, the ScanPyramids program focused on two places. The first is part of the north face stripped of its stone blocks (over the centuries and not for the studies, which must be strictly non-destructive). This hole reveals four large herringbone Stone. They are above a small corridor which descends and which is aligned with the large inclined gallery joining the burial chambers. Two infrared thermal analyzes had shown a anomaly at this place, compatible with a hidden cavity. The hypothesis is plausible because rafters of this kind exist in this pyramid above the king’s chamber and that of the queen. They are therefore not decorative motifs but support structures overhanging a large cavity. So why install it far above a simple little hallway?

In June 2016, researchers from the University of Nagoya (Japan) placed three muon-sensitive plates at the bottom of the descending corridor, and left them for 67 days. Result: there is indeed an excess of the flow of these particles in a certain direction, pointing towards a vacuum of rectilinear shape. In the language of physicists, the measurement is reliable to more than 5 sigma, which means that the probability of a signal obtained by simple chance is less than 0.0001%. “We can confirm the existence of a cavity, hidden behind the north face, which suggests one or more superimposed corridors which sink into the heart of the Great Pyramid », concludes the press release. On the other hand, the dimensions and shape of this structure remain to be specified and will perhaps be so thanks to the 12 new plates installed this month in the same place.

Discoveries are coming as research continues

The other discovery concerns the northeast ridge with a study by muography of three “notches” known for a long time. On one of them (“N2”), the detection detected a cavity (“C2”)… which was already known, which had the merit of validating the method. The detection of a cavity C1 behind the notch N1, unknown this one, is a real discovery. Can’t help but think of the architect’s theory Jean Pierre Houdin (see our file) which provided for such cavities at the level of the edges. His hypothesis is that of an interior corridor, just behind the facades, built while the pyramid was rising and which served, quite simply, to mount the blocks.

With software from Dassault Systèmes, Jean-Pierre Houdin had built a building simulationwith reconstitution of the construction site, taking into account the means of the time, the human force and the working times, as well as the construction itself, with calculation of the mechanical stresses and the necessary dimensions. It appeared that at the level of the edges, the men had to rotate their cart by 90°, which required a widening of the tunnel to form a maneuvering platform: here is a hypothesis for cavities C1 and C2…

These conclusions are by no means definitive, but these results demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques currently in use. They must have strongly motivated the teams and the research is continuing. A muography analysis is also in progress at the level of the queen’s bedroom, which could be flanked by another room.