Talking about the pyramids of Egypt is talking about the Great Pyramid of Giza. That of Cheops is the most colossal, the best preserved, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the only one that still stands. However, it is accompanied by two other vestiges of the past: that of Mycerinos and that of Khafre. That of Mycerinos, or Menkaura, is the smallest of the three, and for years we thought it had only one entrance.
We couldn’t be more wrong.
The hypothesis. It seems incredible that three of the most studied monuments in the history of humanity continue to keep secrets, but what the ancient Egyptians did with these three pyramids was colossal. They continue to surprise us both inside and out, and every so often, as exploration technologies advance, we discover something new.
However, although the large one attracts all attention, an archaeologist had his sights set on the Mycerinos. The reason is that, on the north side, the stones that represent the entrance are perfectly aligned and appear more polished than those of the rest of the structure. However, researcher Stijn van den Hoven realized that there was another set of exceptionally polished granite blocks on another face of the pyramid. And, in 2019, he hypothesized an additional entrance to the structure.
Non-destructive exploration. Since science is not done alone and must be done, an international team of archaeologists from Cairo University and the Technical University of Munich set to work to investigate the idea of Stijn. This group is part of the ScanPyramids project, which analyzes pyramids with non-destructive measurement techniques.
To do this, they use techniques that are also being used in other places in the world (for example, to discover the secrets of the Mayans). Thus, the ScanPyramids team analyzed the Mycerinos pyramid with the latest non-invasive analysis technology:
- ERTor Electrical Resistivity Tomography. This detects subsurface resistivity variations that reveal cavities or materials of different density thanks to electrodes that penetrate the structures and are computed using three-dimensional inversion algorithms.
- GPR or georadars. Through electromagnetic waves that penetrate materials and are reflected, anomalies can be found.
- UST or ultrasounds. They measure the reflections of sound waves to examine the interior of structures without causing damage.
Excavations have revealed these much more polished stones
Air-filled anomalies. It is not the first time that this combination has been used at the site, since in 2023 a hidden corridor in the Great Pyramid of Cheops was confirmed using these techniques. And in Micerinos it has also worked. Specifically, two air-filled cavities located directly behind the area of polished granite that van den Hoven observed.
- The Anomaly 1 It is a cavity located 1.4 meters deep from the eastern surface and would have dimensions of 1.5 meters wide by one meter high.
- The Anomaly 2 It starts at 1.13 meters deep and measures about 0.9 meters wide by 0.7 meters high.
From the Technical University of Munich, archaeologist Christian Grosse has stated that these techniques allow us to develop “very precise conclusions about the nature of the interior of the pyramid”, stating that “the hypothesis of another entrance is very plausible” and commenting that these results go in the direction of confirming said entrance.
The alleged cameras
Next steps. Independent researchers who were not involved in the study have stated that the entrances to the pyramids from this era are located on the north face, but that further exploration will determine whether these voids are an anomaly, part of a second entrance as the ScanPyramids team suspects, or “something else.”
Now, although these techniques allow us to recognize the interior very precisely, they cannot determine the extent of the cavities due to limitations in the penetration capacity of the tools. They have suggested that the next steps should go in the direction of using techniques such as infrared thermography or muon tomography with cosmic rays in order to have more precise information.
Implications. In the end, all of these works are supervised by the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, who are very interested in making these discoveries (due to tourism issues) while complying with the standards of care for heritage research.
Grosse comments that technology allows us to make discoveries that were unthinkable not so long ago and, when the analysis is completed and it is determined what those air-filled cavities are inside Mycerinos, it could transform the understanding we had until now of the architectural design of this 4,000-year-old monument.
Images | ScienceDirect, TUM
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