The oldest of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, the Great pyramid of Khufu at Giza is still revealing its secrets four-and-a-half thousand years after it was constructed thanks to Djedi, a tiny robot explorer.
The Great Pyramids have fascinated me since I was a child but like everyone who has seen then up close, nothing can prepare you for their visual impact. It seems astonishing that the pyramid of Khufu, built as a tomb for the pharaoh over a period of twenty years, was completed in about 2,500BC. It is so old in fact that when one of the earliest descriptions of the Pyramid to have come down to us was written by Herodotus in the 5th century BC, the time period separating him and people living today was almost as much as that between the early historian and the construction period.
Towering over 480 feet high, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years, until Lincoln Cathedral was built in the 1300’s. It is more than 750 feet along each side and is built of an estimated 2.3 million blocks of limestone, weighing a total of about 5.9 million metric tonnes.
When the Great Pyramid was first completed, it was surfaced by white “casing stones” of highly polished limestone. As these were of the finest quality, long after the end of the age of the pharaohs nearly all of them were removed and reused elsewhere. In 1300AD, a massive earthquake loosened many of these stones, which were later taken byBahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan. In 1356 he used them to face mosques and a fortress, where they can still be seen. By the 19th century, the remains of these stones could be seen amongst huge piles of rubble at the bottom of the structure. They were subsequently removed, before early archaeologists started excavation work.
Within its massive interior, the Great pyramid contains three chambers, two of which have pairs of narrow shafts of mysterious purpose. Those in the King’s Chamber (discovered in 1872) slope upwards, eventually emerging on the outside of the structure but the ones in the Queen’s chamber are blocked before they reach the surface. It is these that have excited scientists and archaeologist’s interest for many years.
Several attempts have been made to explore these mysterious passages with tiny wheeled robots since the early 1990’s. The first in 1993 ended in failure for after climbing two-hundred and thirteen feet, the robot came to a stop in front of a mysterious limestone “door”, adorned with two copper pins. This was followed by another failed attempt by Egypt’s former Minister of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass in 2000, when his robot was blocked by the same limestone slabs.
“I dedicated my whole life to study the secrets of the Great Pyramid. My goal is to finally find out what’s behind these secret doors” said Hawass, Egypt’s former Minister of State for Antiquities in a recent interview.
In July 2011, a further attempt to solve the mystery was attempted when he initiated the Djedi project, named after the magician Khufu consulted before planning the pyramid layout. The new explorer robot was designed by Leeds University and incorporates a “micro-snake” camera that is small enough to fit through a hole cut through the stones and to look around corners. Now, the robot has come up with some never-seen-before images, including strange hieroglyphs and mason’s marks that may provide clues as how the pyramid was built.
The veteran archaeologist thinks that the pins that could have been used as handles. These have now been viewed from the back for the first time since they were put into place 4,500 years ago. Although the pyramid was originally capped with electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver) these pins represent the only metal ever found inside the structure. This he suggest, points to their supreme importance.
Dr. Kate Spence, an Egyptologist working at the University of Cambridge, suspects that the narrow shafts probably have no practical use and as such are likely to have a more esoteric purpose. She has been quoted as saying, “the metal pins look like symbolic door handles and the shafts from the Queen’s Chamber are oriented north-south not east-west; so I strongly suspect that their function is symbolic and relates to the stars”.
While the King’s Chamber originally contained Khufu’s sarcophagus, the Queen’s Chamber probably didn’t contain the remains of anyone, let alone a Queen as Khufu’s wives were interred in three small pyramids next to his own. Spence now believes that the void may have been built to contain a statue of the pharaoh for the purpose of housing Khufu’s ka or spirit. The shafts might then have assisted him to cross over to the afterlife.
By contrast, Dr. Hawass thinks that the door in the tunnel may lead to a “hidden” room. He has stated that “the King’s Chamber may have been a dummy room, since the most important thing in the mind of the ancient Egyptians was to hide the burial chamber. We have a story that the magician Djedi met Khufu, who was searching for the god Thoth so he could find the secrets of hiding his pyramid. Based on that maybe there is something hidden in the pyramid.”
Having visited the Great Pyramid many times, I have never ceased to be impressed by the creative imagination and technological knowhow of the ancient Egyptians. The chambers are so small in comparison to the overall size of the pyramid that any number of “secret” chambers and “hidden” passages could still be lurking in the depths of the last Ancient Wonder of the World. I for one would not be surprised if the eyes of the world were stunned by more astonishing discoveries in the next few months…
Only time will tell, as the investigation is ongoing and not expected to be completed until the end of this year.
If you would like to know more about the Great Pyramid of Khufu check out this link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14334046
