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The Search for Hidden Chambers On the Giza Plateau, Part Iby Jimmy Dunn writing as Alan Winston
Not infrequently, the term "Hidden or Secret Chamber" is invoked by someone referring to one monument or another on the Giza Plateau just outside of Cairo, Egypt. This term of course implies something very mysterious and excites the general public's imagination which is, of course, the reason why more than a few wish to visit Egypt.
Actually, any chamber inside most Royal Egyptian tombs, whether with a pyramid superstructure or not, were meant to be hidden. Egyptian Kings learned very early on that there were always going to be unscrupulous people who were ready, willing and resourceful tomb robbers. After all, Pharaohs and other royalty usually took considerable wealth to their graves. Rarely have any royal tombs managed to hold their secrets from ancient robbers.
In fact, at one point or another, all the chambers of all the great pyramids at Giza were hidden to the general public and early explorers. These early explorers tunneled and sometimes even blasted their way into the pyramids in order to discover what lay within, and eventually discovered the inner structures we now ascribe to the Giza Pyramids.
Even though most of the chambers inside pyramids and tombs, and elsewhere on the Giza Plateau, have rarely given up great wealth, having been robbed in antiquity, there is also always the suggestion of great knowledge or riches. In the early part of the 20th Century, Edgar Cayce is well known for his reference to "The Hall of Records" of Atlantis, which was supposed to contain a library of mankind's early knowledge: In position this lies - as the sun rises from the waters - as the line of the shadows (or light) falls between the paws of the Sphinx, that was set later as the sentinel or guard and which may not be entered from the connecting chambers from the Sphinx's right paw until the time has been fulfilled when the changes must be active in this sphere of man's experience. Then [it lies] between the Sphinx and the river.
Hence, all the New Age thinkers wanted to dig all about the Great Sphinx to find this prize. Now, in 2004, we have several French researchers who claim they have located the real, hidden burial chamber in the Great Pyramid of Khufu, which will hold all of his undisturbed burial equipment, if only they could drill a few holes to verify their claims. The search for hidden chambers continues, and will probably do so for some time in the future. Eventually, the mystery in and around known monuments will almost certainly play out, particularly as non-intrusive investigation methods become more and more advanced. Prior to the mid-1960's it was impossible to mount a search for undiscovered chambers without physically assaulting a monument. In fact, the use of nondestructive techniques will and in fact is creating somewhat of a renaissance in archaeological investigation, even though this new science has yet to reach maturity.
The Joint Pyramid Project
One of the earliest uses of nondestructive investigation was a joint US and Egyptian project to uncover chambers in the Second Pyramid at Giza belonging to Khafre. In 1965, a scientific proposal was submitted to a group of Egyptian physicists and archaeologists using cosmic-ray detectors (nuons technology). The American team, led by Dr. Luis Alvarez, suggested that, since there were two chambers in the superstructure of Khufu's Great Pyramid, and also two in the pyramid of his father, Sneferu, there should also be chambers located in the superstructure of Khafre's pyramid, who was Khufu's son.
This experiment was no minor effort, nor was it the work of New Age thinkers. The Joint Pyramid Project was established on June 14, 1966 as a collaborative effort between physicists from the Ain Shams University of Cairo, the University of California and archaeologists from the Egyptian Antiquities Organization. Furthermore, it had the support of the US Atomic Energy Commission, who helped design the detection equipment, the Smithsonian Institute, the IBM corporation, Hewlett-Packard, the National Geographic Society and the Egyptian Surveying Department. Finally, Dr. Alvarez himself was a giant of physics himself, who flew aboard the Enola Gay when it dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but who was horrified at what he saw. Later, he helped developed the theory of a giant asteroid as the reason dinosaurs were killed of 65 million years ago, and he even worked with the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy.
Cosmic rays originate in space, and have the ability to penetrate dense materials such as rock, but along the way, they lose some of their energy. The denser the material they must pass through, the more energy they lose. The idea behind the project was to use cosmic-ray detectors in the known chamber of the pyramid to detect the density of the structure above it. The information collected from the detectors would be recorded on magnetic tapes and analyzed by computer. These rays would pass through an average of about 100 meters of limestone blocks and, theoretically, should they pass through a void in the structure of the pyramid, the collection device would record a slightly larger energy value than would otherwise be indicated when passing through solid core construction. If such a reading was indicated, the researchers planned to drill a borehole through the limestone and use optical equipment to see what lay within.
The experiment actually had to be delayed because of the outbreak of the Six Day War, but by the end of September, 1968, enough data was collected to analyze on the Ain Shams university computer, while additional data was later examined by the Berkeley Laboratories.
At first, the experiment seems to have resulted a pyramid mystery. A report in the London Times, at least as quoted by Peter Tompkins, states that:
Actually, the report was apparently accurate, though as it turns out, there was no mystery. The geometry was wrong. As the team members revealed in an article in Science magazine, the computer program relied upon extremely accurate measurements of the pyramid's geometry, as well as the exact positioning of the data collection devices. However, there were problems with some of these measurements which apparently resulted in anomalies. Later, when adjustments were made to the data, it revealed nothing but solid core material. However, because of the initial confusing results, the conspiracy theorists, who seem to believe that the scientific community is always hiding amazing finds, soon stepped in. Erich von Daniken in his Return of the Gods said of the experiment:
Of course, the information reported by von Daniken was inaccurate, but it is just this sort of thing that, ever since, causes the Egyptian Antiquities people to flinch whenever secret chambers are mentioned.
By 1970, the Joint Pyramid Project had explored only 19 percent of the total volume of the Second Pyramid, but this amounted to an area 35 degrees from the vertical. Hence, the team reported that:
Thus, the first of many nondestructive investigations came to a close, and not to an unsuccessful conclusion as some might suppose. To professional Egyptologists, all information is important, including the lack of chambers in this pyramid. However, more such research would soon follow, and today, it is being used to make important new discoveries which will undoubtedly advance our knowledge of ancient Egypt. The science has moved on to new and improved technologies that, while not perhaps completely perfected, are today becoming a mainstream tool in many archaeological excavations inside and outside of Egypt.
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Last Updated: June 13th, 2011 |
