They discovered a hidden passage in the Great Pyramid of Giza

(CNN) – Egyptian antiquities officials said Thursday that a hidden passage 30 feet (9 meters) long has been discovered near the main entrance to the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza, and that could lead to new discoveries.

discovery inside the pyramid, Another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Still standing, it was carried out within the framework of the Scan Pyramids project which since 2015 has been using non-invasive technology including infrared thermography, 3D simulation and cosmic ray imaging to observe the interior of the structure.

A research paper published in the journal Nature on Thursday said the discovery could contribute to knowledge about the construction of the pyramid and the purpose of building a limestone gabled structure facing the passage.

Tourists ride camels through the plateau of the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, in December. Source: Amr Abdullah Dalsh / Reuters

The Great Pyramid was built as a massive tomb around 2560 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu or Khufu. Built at a height of 146 meters (479 ft), it now stands 139 meters high and was the tallest man-made structure until the arrival of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.

Mostafa Waziri, the head of the council, said the unfinished corridor may have been created to redistribute the pyramid’s weight around the main entrance now used by tourists, roughly 20 feet away, or around a room or other space that has yet to be discovered. The Supreme Court of Egyptian Antiquities.

“We will continue our survey to see what we can do … to see what we can find below or just at the end of this corridor,” he told reporters after a news conference in front of the pyramid.

Tourists at the Giza Pyramids necropolis located on the southwestern outskirts of Cairo on Thursday. Source: Khaled Desouky/AFP/Getty Images

It is also believed that five chambers were built over the king’s burial chamber in another part of the pyramid to redistribute the weight of the massive structure. Waziri added that it is possible that the pharaoh had more than one burial chamber.

The scientists detected the passage through X-rays of cosmic ray muons, before recovering the images by inserting a 6-millimeter-thick telescope from Japan through a small crosshair in the pyramid’s stones.

In 2017, Scan Pyramids researchers announced the Void discovery At least 30 meters inside the Great Pyramid, it is the first major internal structure to be found since the 19th century.