Slashdot Mirror
'Discovery of the Century': Mysterious Void Discovered In Egypt's Great Pyramid (nationalgeographic.com)
New submitter klgds writes: The cavity is the first major inner structure discovered in the pyramid since the 1800s. Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza -- one of the wonders of the ancient world, and a dazzling feat of architectural genius -- contains a hidden void at least a hundred feet long, scientists said. The space's dimensions resemble those of the pyramid's Grand Gallery, the 153-foot-long, 26-foot-tall corridor that leads to the burial chamber of Khufu, the pharaoh for whom the pyramid was built. However, it remains unclear what lies within the space, what purpose it served, or if it's one or multiple spaces. The void is the first large inner structure discovered within the 4,500-year-old pyramid since the 1800s -- a find made possible by recent advances in high-energy particle physics. The results were published in the journal Nature. "This is definitely the discovery of the century," says archaeologist and Egyptologist Yukinori Kawae, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. "There have been many hypotheses about the pyramid, but no one even imagined that such a big void is located above the Grand Gallery."
It's the teleportation chamber to link with the alien starships when they're in orbit!
Using the phrase "of the Century" is a very strong indication it's time to stop reading and move on because it's probably something irrelevant and uninteresting.
It's probably where she wants to bury Donna Brazile after today.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774
I wonder whether, in today's climate of tearing down statues of famous slavers and imperialists (Jackson, Rhodes etc), people would advocate tearing down the pyramids which, for all their architectural genius, were built at a cost of thousands of lives. They're like Qatari football stadia x1000.
I thought that when the robot that was looking to the end of one of the "Star Shafts" (back in 2002), a chamber like this was hypothesized because the robot came to the "door" at the end of the shaft.
I haven't keep up with the research for a while, but I think saying that this is the "discovery of the century" is simple hyperbole.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Nonsense. It is easily the hyperbole of the century.
Physicists are proud of their new portable mountain scanning X-ray machine, let them have their moment.
There have been theories of more chambers in the great pyramid for over a hundred years. There are also theories about chambers beneath the Sphinx.
The problem is the politics with government Egypt and it's people. They are a very proud people. They want their own scientists to make all discoveries. They want to promote the theories of their own scientists. They are a Muslim nation researching ancient blasphemous religions.
Next you have international archaeological politics. There are lots of crack pots out there and there are many fringe theorists that are yet to be proven right. "Science" isn't very scientific and it full of politics and prideful people that decree acceptable theories. The crack pots are the ones that are usually on to something but not for the reasons they thought and are usually not allowed near the pyramids unless they have money.
When it comes to making discoveries the Egyptian authorizes move slow even when they know they are there. They currently know about many potential chambers. While it's good not to rush things they take it to the extreme. No one gets near the pyramids to make discoveries without a sizable donation to Egypt.
Dictionary: void = a space containing no matter
So they found literally nothing? Must be certainly the discovery of the century.
Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
One of the remarkable facts of Egyptology is how nearly impossible it was to prevent tombs from being robbed over the course of thousands of years. There's never been a tomb found that hasn't been robbed at some point, even Tutankhamen's tomb. Most are picked clean of anything that might be of interest to anyone other than an archaeologist.
But it always seemed to me, given the scale of the pyramids, that there was an obvious option for deterring robbers: make the scale of the engineering project necessary to find and reach the burial chamber more costly than the value of the goods in the chamber. It's not unreasonable; the cost of even a small pyramid must have outweighed the cost of the funerary goods in it by thousands of times. I'm not talking about sealing the burial chamber with a ten ton slab of rock; I'm thinking in terms of hundreds of thousands of tons.
It has to have occurred to anyone who's pondered the pyramids that there might be things still left hidden inside all that volume. The thing is there is no way to investigate such speculation without some means of being able to see through solid stone. For that reason the matter of undiscovered chambers in the pyramids has become to Egyptology a bit like questions about perpetual motions machines are to physicists. I even saw one Egyptologist say in response to this news that there was "zero chance" of anything remaining undiscovered in the Great Pyramid.
But maybe speculation isn't so pointless, now that we in the 21st century actually *can* in a fashion see through solid stone.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
They never learn, do they? Some things are better left alone, such as a mysterious void in the Great Pyramid.
You are welcome on my lawn.
From TFA:
> “There have been many hypotheses about the pyramid, but no one even
> imagined that such a big void is located above the Grand Gallery.”
Shouldn't that be long void?
long void is to void as long int is to int.
C'mon guys. Let's have consistency on this.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
What you say may be true of smaller pyramids, but the Great Pyramid does have internal passageways and rooms. With 2.5 million cubic meters there's plenty of room.
The medieval castle analogy is apt; to a first approximation the Great Pyramid is solid rock. But you can leave plenty space for a burial chamber and it would still to a first approximation be solid rock.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.