ELI5: Why haven’t we fully explored the pyramids yet?
ELI5: Why haven’t we fully explored the pyramids yet?
I was watching a documentary where they were talking about a void within the great pyramid and how we don’t know what’s inside it! How come we haven’t we been in and had a nose around?
I'm still fascinated by the 20 cm by 20 cm shaft in the Great Pyramid that they sent a robot in to explore: https://www.techexplorist.com/robot-reveals-inside-great-pyramid/30245/
The void isn't like a room we simply haven't entered, it's more like the equivalent to an empty space inside the walls of your home. It's there, but there are no passages leading to it. About 75-80% of the interior volume of the pyramids is solid stone as far as we know so it's much less like a modern building and more of a huge pile of stones that happens to have a few open spaces with passages leading to them.
Here's an article that includes an illustration showing just how solid they are as well as the recently discovered void and more info on how they found it using cosmic rays of all things: https://www.science.org/content/article/cosmic-rays-reveal-unknown-void-great-pyramid-giza
There is a great YT channel called "History For Granite" that discusses the pyramids. His (and many others)posit that Zahwi Hawas, who is (or was) the director of antiquities in Egpyt, is a roadblock to many studies because they may differ with theories that he has backed. Bascially the guy has extreme bias.
There is technology that can use existing alterations that have been made to the pyramid (drilled holes) to explore the void you are speaking of... but Hawas wont allow it. He has denounced valid research as quack science, even when it has been vetted by other researchers... again due to his personal bias.
While I agree somewhat with the supposition that Egypts ancient history was plundered by the west... Hawas, from what I can tell, just basically blocks research for no real reason, other than he doesnt want it to happen.
I am sure there is more nuance to the situation than this... but this is what Ihave put together... However, I am about as far away as i can get from being a scholar on the topic.
Because why? The pyramids are not a fun park or escape room, they are a piece of art. How would you feel if we'd tear Mona Lisa apart to check if there's some older painting below the outside layer and the canvas?
If we could do it without hurting the painting any further and still learn more about then I'd be all for it. Kinda... like this
Simply, because that would involve disassembling them, potentially causing collapse and destroying more than we would find.
So I just learned this recently, but apparently after the whole Victorian "smash and grab" thing where Britain stole all the art that was or wasn't nailed down (there's a lot of feet and footless statues lol), archeologists went to sites and realized how much knowledge was destroyed by their predecessors who only cared about impressive finds they could show off
Technology and techniques are always improving, so now when they find an archeological site, they excavate only a fraction, leaving the rest for future generations who will have better tools.
Obviously, non-destructive methods are still on the table, but I found that pretty interesting
Couldn't they have found something like that ages ago?...
How on earth is this just happening in 2023. Ultrasound, xrays, whatever. SOMETHING would have shown this cavity.
Surely thats how this void was found in the first place with external measurements. As to why probably struxtural damage and potentially a cavein?
Not sure how old the program was OP watched but they found one void in 2017 using cosmic rays. I'm guessing the pyramids are way too solid for ultrasound or x-ray to work.
https://www.science.org/content/article/cosmic-rays-reveal-unknown-void-great-pyramid-giza