Touching The Void

DAVID HAMBLING looks at scientific attempts to probe the mysteries of the Great Pyramid

- David Hambling

The Great Pyramid is a focus for theories about occult wisdom, lost technology and alien interventions; hardly surprising given that it is the oldest and only surviving member of the original Seven Wonders of the World. Even in the 21st century, its massive size and geometric precision overawe visitors, and engineers still puzzle over how it was built with nothing but Bronze Age technology and muscle power.

The so-called King’s Chamber, which contains an empty sarcophagus, might have been a dummy to distract robbers. Many have suggested that there is a hidden chamber which holds the key to the mystery: an intact pharaohs’ tomb filled with riches, Edgar Cayce’s ‘Hall of Records’ left by Atlanteans, or even an alien spacecraft. Hence there is immense excitement when scientists announced that they had discovered just such a chamber, reporting their findings in November’s Nature magazine.

The discovery was made with imaging technique using cosmic rays. These are high-energy particles striking the Earth’s atmosphere from space – and for a long time a scientific mystery themselves. Cosmic rays produce a shower of particles known as muons, which, like X-rays, can travel through solid matter with only a few being absorbed on the way. Muons are even more penetrating than X-rays, and with a long enough exposure they can provide images through even the Great Pyramid itself.