Pyramid of Giza: Its secrets could soon be revealed

This particular technique should allow the Great Pyramid of Giza's secret chambers to be discovered.

Pyramid of Giza: its secrets revealed thanks to this technique
© Hossam M. Omar
Pyramid of Giza: its secrets revealed thanks to this technique

The Great Pyramid of Giza, which was built in the 26th century BC, holds the bones of Pharaoh Kheops and is still hiding many secrets. Some of its rooms are inaccessible, but the risk in uncovering the secret chambers was too much to risk. So, a team of archaeologists came up with new techniques to uncover the mysteries.

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New tech using cosmic rays

The archaeologists utilized muon-based technology to scan the Great Pyramids of Giza, as accurately as possible. Muons are elementary particles that are comparable to electrons but are much bigger. They are used in tomography because they penetrate deep into solid structures, even deeper than X-rays do.

Cosmic ray muons are created when cosmic rays collide with the Earth's atmosphere. Muons are inherently unstable, decaying in milliseconds or millionths of a second. However, they move at a speed near to that of light, allowing them to penetrate deep before dissolving.

Note: There is an inexhaustible source of muons from the cosmic rays that constantly bombard the Earth, which makes it a very interesting resource for conducting experiments such as this.

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Reconstructing parts of the pyramid

Muon tomography is being used by the Explore the Great Pyramid (EGP) initiative to go even further in recreating photographs of the Great Pyramid. Archaeologists discovered a massive hollow in 2016 using  'non-invasive' techniques, but it has yet to divulge all of its mysteries. 

EGP, like ScanPyramids, will employ muon tomography to capture the insides of the ancient structure.

EGP, on the other hand, claims that its muon telescope will be 100 times more powerful than prior muon images and adds:

We plan to commission a telescope system with 100 times the sensitivity of equipment used recently at the Great Pyramid, which will produce images of muons from almost any angle and which, for the first time, will produce a true tomographic image of a structure of this size.
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