Exploring the Great Pyramid Mission & the future of Egyptology
[Music] welcome to history for granite join me to explore ancient egypt together we'll uncover secrets that only stones from antiquity can reveal please subscribe to the channel to show your support for this line of inquiry that drives me to make more of this content for you [Music] since its creation the great pyramid of giza has never ceased to be a focal point of wonder and curiosity despite receiving more attention than perhaps any monument on earth there are still new investigations and discoveries that are proceeding in the present day the focus of this channel will continue to be stonework of the old kingdom but i do want to discuss current events relating to the pyramids when they are relevant to this analysis after an overview of these new developments we'll then put it into historical context and speculate what might come from this new research right now there is a new muon scanning project in the planning stages called the exploring the great pyramid mission following the surprising and fascinating results of the scan pyramids mission in 2017 revealing the big void and north face corridor the egyptian ministry of antiquities requested proposals for a follow-up study the exploring the great pyramid mission or egp mission as it can be referred to was then approved in 2018. the egp mission intends to dramatically increase the amount of muon data captured much greater than that of the scan pyramid's mission the theoretical improvement in resolution is up to 100 fold furthermore the scanning will be conducted on the entirety of the north south and east-west axis of the pyramid giving a 3d tomographic image of the entire monument this is all very exciting of course but according to information presented in late 2020 the mission still requires a substantial amount of funding in order to build their muon telescopes there will certainly be some technical and also personality driven obstacles that this mission will face but i am optimistic that this mission will proceed especially if it can be demonstrated that there is a large amount of public support for such an endeavor they have already assembled an impressive group of institutions and experts in high energy physics and like the scan pyramids project we can be confident that the muon tomography will meet the highest standard of confidence that such experiments can offer in order to improve resolution data by two orders of magnitude the egp mission will use much larger detectors than the scanned pyramids plates which only took up a few square meters of space and could fit within the chambers and corridors of the pyramid itself in contrast the new muon telescope arrays will consist of temperature-controlled cargo containers stacked in a 2x2 formation each container holding 40 modules of scanning detectors there will be two separate telescope arrays configured around the pyramid one on the east-west axis and one on the north-south these arrays will be moved along the entire length of their respective axes of the pyramid so as to get a complete 3d picture of the monument amazingly these telescopes will use 1 000 square meters of active detector surface and are designed to capture events numbering 2.71 times 10 to the 10th power a truly staggering amount of data unprecedented in archaeological research the new high-resolution muon tomographic image is anticipated to not only differentiate between stone and air as the scanned pyramids mission did but also measure variations in density as small as 30 percent the proposed minimum size for void detection is as small as a single pyramid block about one cubic meter however in order to accomplish these results the muon imaging technique will need further optimization than what has yet been achieved additionally it is expected that about two and a half years of scanning will be required to achieve that high level of detail now let's talk about some logistical hurdles the exploring the great pyramid mission will need to overcome in order to accomplish their goals of course funding is a critical factor and alan bross estimated the total cost of the project at 5 million dollars with an upward threshold of 10 million dollars due to unforeseen costs associated with working in egypt at the time of brass's presentation in late 2020 everyone on the mission team was working for it in their spare time without being paid the budget for the egp mission is actually very small by the standards of high energy physics experiments but much higher than a typical archaeological mission which is usually under fifty thousand dollars the mission is looking for private funding rather than governmental bodies but the reason for this strategy was not clarified needless to say if any of you watching are associated with organizations that could fulfill a funding role please do get in touch if you're not sure how send an email through my about channel tab and i'll make sure to make that connection before we speculate about what the egp mission might discover it's important to discuss the history of pyramid scanning and clarify the controversies in egyptology about hidden spaces within the structures understanding this history will explain why some influential personalities are adversarial towards scanning and hopefully help the egp mission avoid mistakes that have occurred in previous missions the modern story begins in 1970 when muon scanning was conducted on coffrey's pyramid this pyramid's internal structure is fairly simple with all of the corridors and chambers directed into the bedrock and nothing within the masonry itself except the outer portion of a descending corridor it was quite reasonable to wonder if there might be hidden structures in coffray's pyramid given the contrast between it and khufu's pyramid with a complex system of upper chambers and galleries the mission of scanning khafre's pyramid yielded no signs of hidden features within the structure these results may be correct but even if they aren't the technology at the time probably didn't have the necessary resolution or computing power to get a positive result from corridors or chambers of a standard size in the mid-1980s a different approach to scanning was conducted using a technique called microgravimetry this technique detects minuscule changes in the force of gravity in a localized area the idea is that a lower pull of gravity means less matter and thereby an empty space nearby according to alan bros's presentation these scans were only requested by the ministry of antiquities out of concern about the cracks in the ceiling of the king's chamber the ministry wanted to know if nearby empty spaces were causing this stress and looking for secret chambers or corridors wasn't the cause of the investigation as it so happens in order for microgravimetry to work you need very good data on the density of the structure you are scanning and so the entire pyramid was scanned and some interesting results led to other localized investigations near the queen's chamber in 1986 architect researcher jill dormian conducted a mission to follow up on scans that indicated the presence of empty space west of the horizontal corridor leading to the queen's chamber this horizontal corridor also has unusual masonry with its non-staggered joints staggering blocks is an absolute rule of design for all pyramid construction and this corridor is the only exception dormian's mission was given permission to drill three holes in the western wall of the corridor hoping to penetrate to hidden anti-chambers or unknown pyramid features i must add in dormian's defense the size of the drill bits was much larger than he desired limitations in the available technology required the drill holes to be quite conspicuous unfortunately for dormian the press caught wind of his mission before drilling commenced and thus expectations were set ridiculously high for the experiment when no hidden chambers were discovered it was considered bad press for egypt and nobody has been allowed to excavate in the great pyramid since completely overlooked was that in the third drill hole there was homogeneous quartz sand not native to the giza plateau while less exciting than golden coffers it's actually an important clue to pyramid construction that i will be analyzing in detail in a future video dormian later proposed another area for a hidden chamber near the queen's chamber in his 2004 book the chamber of chaos he proposed small exploratory drilling at the ninth international congress of egyptologists when it came to france that same year zahi hawas who had risen to secretary-general of the supreme council of antiquities famously denied his request newspapers report him saying that he also rejected their proposals in 1999 and 2003 exclaiming quote there are 300 theories concerning hidden rooms and other things inside the pyramid but if i let them all test their theories they will do untold damage to the pyramid which was built with the blood of egyptians end quote hawas lost his government position in 2011 with the arab spring revolutions but still holds much influence in egyptology he currently serves as an ambassador for the world tourism organization in 2015 the scan pyramids mission was approved by the ministry of antiquities to proceed with various non-invasive scanning techniques including infrared thermography muon radiography and 3d reconstruction the mission presented its first results with a test run in the bent pyramid proving that the upper chamber could be seen with muography they were then granted permission to scan the great pyramid as well however according to the pbs documentary scanning the pyramids the scan pyramids mission was required to present its next findings to a committee led by zahi hawas in interviews at the time hawas proclaimed his skepticism and concerns summarized in this sound bite actually i don't believe on all these type of techniques personally i hope that i would be wrong and they will show me something accurate because all the science that has been done with pyramid for the last 100 years it's a result of the air because we know inside the great pyramid there is cavities there is i really believe that cube's burial chamber is still hidden inside i do hope that i am wrong and these techniques will bring something the essence of hawass complaint is that previous scans have not produced data that was completely reliable the microgravimetry in particular wasn't completely accurate because the different densities of limestone mortar sand and masonry joints are of unknowable quantities in the pyramid lacking the technical knowledge to evaluate each scanning technique on its individual merits he simply dismisses them all the first cavities detected by the scanned pyramids and muography were empty space behind the chevrons above the great pyramid entrance and a void near a notch on the northeast corner high up in the structure when presenting these findings to the committee led by hawas the pbs scanning the pyramids documentary states quote this time the meeting with egyptologists is held behind closed doors no cameras allowed and quote in the end the committee authorizes scan pyramids to continue their work on the khufu pyramid but barely the committee calls the two discoveries mere anomalies end quote mehdi tayubi of the scan pyramids mission then explains that the committee is skeptical that muography can actually differentiate between open air and lower density regions created by smaller stones interestingly at this time the scan pyramid's mission had already detected the big void but chose not to present those findings until they gathered additional data during this time zahi hawas and mark laner collaborated on a book they titled giza and the pyramids the definitive history it was published in 2017 and contains a few pages about the scan pyramids mission at the very end in this book they cast out that any detected voids are significant stating quote after 44 years of investigations we are here to tell you that the pyramid core masonry is more analogous to swiss cheese than cheddar and quote building ahead of the pyramid core or building into an existing trench in the pyramid core would have left gaps between the standard core work and the arrangement of lintels rafters and the descending passage end quote with these statements a trap has been set that any detected voids with mourography can be dismissed as mere construction shortcuts i must add here that the analogy of swiss cheese is extremely poor and there is no evidence to back up such claims in fact all available evidence shows that the great pyramid is quite solid despite the irregular stonework that makes up the bulk of the structure the only empty space visible that was possibly a construction shortcut is the cave behind the notch on the pyramid's northeast corner but this could have been excavated of loose debris and small masonry by explorers long ago shortly after the publication of hawas and laner's book the scan pyramids mission published their next muon scan discovery of the big void in the prestigious scientific journal nature this was done at the same time as their presentation to hawass's committee the ministry of antiquities and tourism has strict rules about publishing information on archaeological excavations before they get the final word on what is admissible however strictly speaking the nature article doesn't discuss anything about egyptology or archaeology rather it simply reports the results of the physics experiment which met the highest confidence in which these experiments are evaluated the big void is there according to physics and egyptology can interpret that however it wants to an article was immediately published on the egyptian news site aram online expressing the ministry's displeasure quoting minister mustafa waziri as saying quote these experts have previously said that the existence of void spaces inside the pyramids is not a new thing and this is a well-known fact among egyptologists and quote it was too early at this stage in their study to publish that there was a new discovery end quote when zahi hawas was interviewed by the associated press for a comment about the big void this was his response if you understand how the pyramid was built you will know that inside the pyramids there is many harrows and mini gaps avoid doesn't mean a room avoid does it mean a discovery what they have been announcing today is not a discovery they they cannot build the ground gallery within a solid structure they have to have holes around it to build it and therefore the 30 meters void is already existed it's already mentioned by little arnold 25 years ago the work hawas is referring to is a landmark book written by dieter arnold in 1991 titled building in egypt there is nothing about a big void nor any suggestion that empty space would be required to remain around the grand gallery in fact the topic isn't even discussed hawas is actually citing himself and mark laner from their just published book as i quoted earlier considering hawas's previous sound bite where he states he believes khufu's burial is still hidden in the great pyramid you would think he would take the opportunity to say si i've been saying for 20 years khufu is still inside this must be the real burial chamber hawas hadn't anticipated anything like the big void and was left to fall on his predetermined excuse that there's just empty space everywhere inside of course the big void being so enormous and close in size and orientation to the grand gallery itself it cannot be explained away as a bad masonry job that didn't stop archaeologist david lightbody however who also immediately set out to discredit the scan pyramid's findings his 2018 journal article questioning the void is the result lightbody seems to have borrowed the grand gallery explanation from hawas adding a 2d reconstruction of how gaps around the grand gallery could create the illusion of the big void there are many problems with this explanation but the largest is that lightbody has to throw out the data from the third muon detector angled outside towards the grand gallery which also detects the void and triangulates its three-dimensional position there's also conspicuously no citation of dieter arnold in this paper with no good reason to ignore one-third of the data light body is left to fall back on the swiss cheese quote from hawas and laner which he cites in the paper however the scan pyramids paper on the big void gives the highest degree of confidence to all of their detectors alan bross of the egp mission confirms this in his 2020 presentation stating quote outside they put a micro mega tracker built by a team from france and imaged along the grand gallery to make sure that they weren't getting any ghosting of the existing voids to produce this artificially and quote if you look at the paper there is a five sigma effect and there is clearly something there end quote unfortunately the damage from light bodies paper proliferates as it is cited in other publications such as miroslav verner's comprehensive 2020 book titled the pyramids now with a history of pyramid scanning covered let's circle back to the egp mission and what lessons we can apply to future efforts as mentioned in my video on the great pyramid entrance vault the current position of mark laner is at the scan pyramid's big void and north face corridor are simply weight relieving spaces most likely it's dead space that they framed in to relieve the weight of the pyramid on the roof of the grand gallery the consequence of what he frequently calls over engineering out of an abundance of caution they were over engineering because they had never really done this before notably this narrative of over engineering is diametrically opposed to the concept of a swiss cheese pyramid hastily built with large gaps everywhere the only thing these two arguments have in common is a dismissal of the importance of new discoveries an argument put forth by hawas lightbody and others in egyptology is that only credentialed experts in fourth dynasty pyramids are qualified to evaluate the muography data to determine if empty or low density space is a significant finding but anyone possessing a modest familiarity with the pyramids of the fourth dynasty will tell you that the overwhelming majority of great pyramid features are entirely unique the five spaces above the king's chamber the grand gallery the well shaft and grotto the entrance vault the queen's chamber and the shafts have no obvious similarity to other pyramids in which to evaluate them were any of these features still hidden they too could be dismissed as masonry gaps or an important relieving space in alan bross's presentation he cites h.d bowie's book imaging the keop's pyramid and an interesting high density anomaly near the pyramids apex but if voids discovered near known chambers and galleries can be dismissed certainly egyptologists will not take an anomaly that high in the pyramid seriously because there is nothing to compare it with in existing pyramids i must emphasize that the scan pyramids discoveries and anything new the egp mission might detect within the superstructure will have no precedence and thus nobody can say with any certainty what is significant or not as of 2020 monte carlo computer simulations for the egp mission show a high confidence of detecting voids with a resolution of six meters in diameter a modest ability at three meters and questionable results at one meter fourth dynasty pyramid corridors are a little larger than one square meter in size and so the maximum potential for the new scanning is right at a critical threshold for seeing them in the pyramids this suggests caution is warranted in projecting what can and cannot be accurately visualized if the data is accurate enough to see density differences between the rougher fill limestone masonry and finely dressed blocks with minimal joints then perhaps we'll finally get an answer to the method of construction for the great pyramid at the very least we'll be able to eliminate a large number of theories about it as long as the tomographic image gives accurate dimensions of spaces such as the big void the design of the ceilings can then be inferred and some of their functional purpose can be deduced while the potential for understanding the great pyramid may be dramatically increased with this new data it seems wise to under promise what we can know with certainty already i have seen articles online quoting alan bross as stating the project quote may even be able to detect artifacts inside the hidden voids with such detail that they can distinguish the types of material pottery metals stone or wood of which they're comprised end quote that statement is probably just salesmanship but bros needs to be aware of what he's up against the egp mission should probably frame its presentation solely within the bounds of a physics experiment and get assurance that it can release its data publicly afterwards egyptology can then debate what it all means at least then the public can get an unbiased visualization and decide for themselves what is important had the scan pyramid's mission not done this the public may never have been informed that the big void existed at all at the very least we can be confident that if the egp mission proceeds we will get a much better understanding of what the big void looks like and its exact position in the pyramid this should be the primary mission goal and anything else that is revealed can be considered a happy bonus framing the project any other way is setting it up for failure given the resistance seen on previous scan missions and finally the ministry of antiquities and tourism should view the egp mission as an opportunity to promote egypt's history to the world alan bross mentions that the ministry is sensitive to the large container telescope arrays getting in the way of tourist activities but there's no reason why such lemons can't be turned into lemonade how special would it feel standing next to the detectors knowing the muons whizzing past are forming a history defining picture seems like a pretty good selfie opportunity to me a proper campaign to inform the public of the exciting science taking place would enhance giza as a tourist site not detract from it it's my sincere wish that this mission moves forward and a better understanding of our ancient past can be brought into focus like never before thanks to everyone who watched this video to the end please subscribe to the channel to see more of this content give a like or comment as you see fit and above all remember to ask your friends if they take their history for granted [Music] you
2022-03-28 05:43
