Robot to Reveal Great Pyramid's Secrets


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(Aug. 17) -- Archaeologists attempting to unlock the secrets of the Great Pyramid of Giza have a new helper: a drill- and camera-toting robot designed to peer into the magnificent structure's unexplored nooks and crannies. It's hoped that this high-tech explorer -- built by researchers at England's Leeds University, together with France's Dassault Systemes and U.K. robotics firm Scoutek -- will aid Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities in their decades-long attempt to unravel one of the pyramid's most enduring mysteries.

As any good Egyptologist knows, there are two main rooms at the center of the Pyramid of Khufu: the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber. (Khufu was the pharaoh who ordered up the monument some 4,500 years ago). Located on opposite walls of the King's Chamber are two shafts that shoot out at 40-degree angles and lead to the pyramid's outer face. It's thought that they were designed to allow the ruler's spirit to fly out and travel with the Sun God in the day, and take his place among the stars at night.

There are also two similar shafts in the so-called Queen's Chamber. (Despite the name, there's no evidence the room was ever associated with a female monarch.) But unlike their counterparts in the King's Chamber, these 8-inch-square tunnels don't lead to the outside world. Exactly where they go, and what purpose they were supposed to serve, has bemused generations of explorers.

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forget about the doors, what's down the shaft with the 45 degree turn?

also... they can design circular bot swarms to explore Martian caves but not send a couple to explore a tunnel?

why didn't they just blast x-ray or something against the doors anyways?

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forget about the doors, what's down the shaft with the 45 degree turn?

also... they can design circular bot swarms to explore Martian caves but not send a couple to explore a tunnel?

why didn't they just blast x-ray or something against the doors anyways?

What exactly do you think just blasting x-rays at a door would do ? are you forgetting a key principle of x-ray photography ?

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I am excited to see what they can find in these chambers.

I can tell you, it's....

Dust, sand and cobwebs.

These shafts are probably just for air circulation. Someone had to go down to paint the illustrations by (flaming) torch light so that smoke needed to go somewhere.

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