From: mstow@csc.liv.ac.uk (Martin Stower)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors
Subject: Hidden Chamber (really!)
Date: 17 Aug 93 17:31:44 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Liverpool University


Some recent news may make recent pyramid discussions redundant!

What seems to be a hidden chamber has been discovered in the Great Pyramid.

(I had to read it a couple of times to convince myself it was bona fide.)

The German Archaeological Institute in Cairo was engaged in a project to
improve the ventilation of the Great Pyramid.  The plan was to clear the
two small passages leading from the King's Chamber, which had become
clogged by rubble:

  German engineer and roboticist Rudolf Gantenbrink was given the task,
  achieved by the simple expedient of attaching a point to an old lorry
  axle and dropping it down the shafts; after which he used a small, tracked
  robot with a video-camera to study the shafts before fans were installed.
  He next requested permission to use his robot to explore a similar passage
  leading from the Queen's chamber, which lies lower down in the pyramid.
  And this is where the story gets interesting.

  The passageway is 20cm square and rises from the Queen's Chamber at an
  angle of 45 degrees.  It was previously thought to extend no more than
  eight metres, but Gantenbrink sent his robot up and it just kept on going
  (very slowly) for 65 metres.  Over the last couple of metres, the walls
  of the passage changed from rough to finely polished limestone, and then
  the robot came to a door.  This is possibly of alabaster or yellow
  limestone, with tongue and groove fittings suggesting that it might be
  raised or lowered.

  The door has two copper fittings near the centre, which have been
  variously described as handles or just plain strips.  A gap exists at the
  bottom of the door, too small for the camera to see through, and in front
  of this lies a scatter of black dust.  The robot is to be refitted with
  a fibre-optic lens and light-source later this year, which should be able
  to peer through the gap and show what lies beyond the door.

(_Fortean Times_, Number 70)

What's behind the door?

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Martin Stower                                               mstow@csc.liv.ac.uk
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