The ancient Egyptians are known for their extraordinary works of art and architecture, yet, experts are also interested in the gaping voids they left behind.
Indeed, deep within the Great Pyramid of Giza , there exists a massive, sealed space which, though empty, continues to fascinate archaeologists.
The purpose of the room, which dates back to when the iconic pyramid was completed some 4,500 years ago, has remained a mystery since it was discovered in 2017.
Back then, a team known as ScanPyramids scanned the Great Pyramid using something called muon tomography, which basically uses cosmic rays to penetrate hundreds of metres of stone and detect what lies within.
By using this tech, the researchers unearthed the strange chamber that had never been seen before.
"We report the discovery of a large void (with a cross-section similar to that of the Grand Gallery and a minimum length of 30 metres [98 feet]) situated above the Grand Gallery," they wrote in a paper on their findings, published in the journal Nature .
"This constitutes the first major inner structure found in the Great Pyramid since the nineteenth century."
They christened the chamber aptly the "big void", and it now represents a gap in our understanding of the iconic Egyptian landmark.
A number of theories now exist as to the purpose of the space, with some suggesting it was a secret burial chamber for the pharaoh Khufu, who ordered the pyramid to be built.
When the pyramids were first opened and explored back in the 19th century, archaeologists uncovered a number of chambers, including one containing a sarcophagus that was thought to contain Khufu himself.
However, when the sarcophagus was opened, it was empty.
It was, therefore, largely assumed that the remains of the king had been stolen. And yet, some experts had been positing for years – long before the “big void”s discovery – that somewhere in the pyramid existed a secret, fourth chamber containing Khufu’s mummy.
In 2004 , two amateur French Egyptologists, put forward the theory that there was an extra chamber – using ground-penetrating radar and architectural analysis to back up their claims, as IFL Science notes.
The pair argued that rather than being carefully designed in advance, the pyramid evolved as construction went on.
One of the duo, architect Gilles Dormion, suggested that the pyramid’s builders had to alter their plans after realising that certain chambers wouldn’t take the weight of the burial sarcophagus.
Dormion pointed to the existence of large cracks in the giant granite beams that line the king’s chamber, which have long been attributed to earthquakes that occurred following the pyramid’s construction. He, conversely, theorised that, instead, these cracks may have emerged during the building process.
Nevertheless, whilst experts haven’t yet been able to confirm whether or not the “big void” is, indeed, a secret Khufu burial chamber, they might soon be able to.
In 2022, a team led by Alan Bross, a staff scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, announced their plans to image the pyramid using more sophisticated muon technology.
"We plan to field a telescope system that has upwards of 100 times the sensitivity of the equipment that has recently been used at the Great Pyramid," the team wrote in a study published in the Journal for Advanced Instrumentation in Science .
This, they said, "will image muons from nearly all angles and will, for the first time, produce a true tomographic image of such a large structure."
Two years on, their work has yet to be carried out. So the whereabouts of Khufu’s remains and the purpose of that hidden chamber remain a “big void” in our knowledge of the Great Pyramid.
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