Scientists believe that they have discovered hidden chambers in the Great Pyramid of Giza. A group called ScanPyramids—which began working last October—uses non-invasive infrared technology, muon radiography imaging, and 3D reconstruction to look for undiscovered rooms inside pyramids in Giza and Dashur. The work is paying off; recent scans of Egypt’s largest pyramid have shown two previously unknown voids.
The 4,500-year-old structure is 480 feet high, was built for King Khufu as a pharaoh’s tomb, and up to this point, scientists knew about three different chambers. With this recent discovery, the organization reports, "We are now able to confirm the existence of a 'void' hidden behind the north face, that could have the form of at least one corridor going inside the Great Pyramid." A second cavity was also discovered on the pyramid’s north-east flank. Exactly how big, the shape, and the position of each void is under further investigation.
But the Egyptian antiquities ministry who oversees the work of ScanPyramids is more cautious. In 2015 the Ministry had to backtrack after publicly confirming a nonexistent hidden chamber in Tutankhamun’s tomb in southern Egypt. Faced with ScanPyramid’s latest announcement, the Ministry wants further testing before they declare that the new rooms or voids exist. Zahi Hawass, former Egyptian Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs and Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation told Seeker, "I think there are no secret rooms and these anomalies have to do with the way the pyramid was built."
In order to conduct more research, the Ministry of Antiquities approved the ScanPyramids request to extend the project for another year.