Us humans, also known as the most intelligent species on the face of the planet, are still having a hard time discovering some things, which for the time being seem beyond our reach. It’s even more surprising when we find ourselves not being able to fully comprehend what some of the people before us managed to construct. This is why, about 4,500 years after the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza, we’ve yet to discover its secrets. Of course, large teams of people have attempted to discover more about the Pyramid, known as the Pyramid of Khufu, after the king who built it around 2,560BC. But the Pyramid wasn’t going to give up its mysterious appeal and secrets so easily. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only wonder of the ancient world still standing. Inside the pyramid there are two rooms, known as the King’s Chamber and the Queen’s Chamber which are both known to leave outside the pyramid. Still, in the queen’s chamber, two further shafts, discovered in 1872 do not lead, as the others, to the outer face of the pyramid and no one has discovered so far what they are for. Back in 1992 a camera sent up the shaft leading from the south wall of the queen’s chamber revealed a limestone door with copper handles that was blocking it. In 2002 an expedition managed to drill through the door, only to discover a second door 20 centimeters behind it.
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The second door is unlike the first. It looks as if it is screening or covering something,” said Dr Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council who is in charge of the expedition. The north shaft bends by 45 degrees after 18 meters but, after 60 meters, is also blocked by a limestone door.
If people can’t make this discovery happen, they’re now attempting another approach, making use of a smart invention of man, the robot. Leeds University in the UK has teamed up with the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and several international engineers to build a remote-controlled robot which could be used to explore the tunnels in the Pyramid of Giza. The bot is dubbed ‘Djedi’ after the magician who helped Khufu with planning the pyramid. The small robot is equipped with a mini ultrasonic device which can tap on walls and determine the thickness and condition of the stone based on the response. Djedi also features a coring drill which can penetrate the rock, if it proves needed, as well as a precision compass and inclinometer to measure the orientation of the shafts and a micro ‘snake camera’ that can fit through small spaces and see around corners like an endoscope. A miniature ‘beetle’ robot is also included and can be used to fit through a hole of 20 mm diameter for further exploration in confined spaces.
According to The Independent the team plans to continue the expedition until it reaches the end of the shafts. The Djedi team hopes that their robot will manage to go past the second door, hopefully by the end of this year, to reveal what’s behind it, whether amazing artifacts or nothing at all. Let’s just hope they don’t run into yet another door.
