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'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."

5 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Well duh by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's the teleportation chamber to link with the alien starships when they're in orbit!

    1. Re:Well duh by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Arabs and women....

      The ancient Egyptians were not Arabs. The Arabs arrived in the 7th century ... from Arabia. The pyramids had been built more than 3000 years earlier.

  2. Re:The clues for this have been around for a while by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nonsense. It is easily the hyperbole of the century.

  3. Re:Maybe it's a safe space by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I always thought that the Pyramids had all the architectural genius of a pile of dirt.

    And that is where you would be wrong. To a lot of laymen looking at the pyramid as nothing more than a stack for block stacked on top of each other. Then they give it no more thought.

    There was a lot of thought that went into the shape of the pyramids before they build the 3 big ones. It took a lot of trial and error before they could get the 45 degee slope in the those. All around Egypt there are actually dozens of pyramids where the Egyptians where trying to figure that out. Lots of the attempts failed.

    The first step would be getting the blocks there, most of them weighing several tons, from far away locations by barge. Then there is the moving of those stones across land, up ramps and positioning them in place. Did you know that each stone was shaped for the position that it was being placed in. Think about that for a moment. The stones themselves had complex coding systems that said where they went. The even have markings on them that say "this end up."

    Then there is the grand gallery itself. The load bearing stones around that that keep the gallery open are holding up thousands of tons of stone. The shape and fitting of the support stones has to be nothing short of perfect or the whole thing would come down.

    We should talk about the moving parts of the pyramids. Yes, the pyramids have or had moving parts. Once the pyramids where closed up they did this by sliding 100+ ton blocks into place. Blocks, as in more than one. You know those scenes in the Indiana Jones movies where they would break the rock, sand pours out, and the big door comes down? That is probably how they did it.

    I could go on and on but I think you see what I mean. There was the aligning of the pyramids with he stars. Did you know the pyramids had a outer limestone coating? When they where built the pyramids where coated in limestone and the sides where smooth and bright white. The case stones where fitted with such perfection that you couldn't get a playing card between the seems.

    The building of the pyramids for the Egyptians was a task that was on par with the moonshot of the '60's.

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  4. Re:Maybe it's a safe space by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While I'm pretty sure you are being funny, so the following rant isn't directed at you.

    This is really one of the things that pushes all the wrong buttons I have. Attributing something like the pyramids or Stonehenge to aliens because they think early man was to stupid to figure out how to do it, or some such bullshit. The Egyptians where primitive, not stupid. They where just as intelligent as anyone alive today.

    Actually, now that I stew on it, calling them primitive is bullshit too. They Egyptians at the time had and extremely complex society. They had a complex social order, economic system, and production capacity. What they didn't have was technological advancement.

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