CAIRO: As part of a seven-year international research project, the authorities announced on Thursday that they had discovered a secret passage within Egypt's Great Pyramid.
The antiquities ministry said in a statement that the passage is nine meters (30 feet) long and more than two meters wide.
At the ancient Giza site of the Khufu or Cheops pyramid, Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa told reporters that the "gabled corridor" with a triangular ceiling "was found on the northern face of the Great Pyramid of King Khufu."
The discovery was made as part of the ScanPyramids project, which was started in 2015 by a group of Egyptian experts and major universities in France, Germany, Canada, and Japan.
The committee in charge of the project is headed by archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who used to be Egypt's antiquities minister. He uses cutting-edge technology to see parts of the pyramid's interior that are hidden without having to dig them up.
Infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging, and 3D reconstruction are all included in the technology, which the researchers claim to be non-invasive and non-destructive.
With a height of 146 meters, the Great Pyramid is the largest structure in Giza and the only one of the seven ancient wonders still standing.
It was built around 4,500 years ago and, like other pyramids in Egypt, was meant to be a pharaoh's tomb. It has three known chambers.
At the pyramid on Thursday, Hawass told reporters, "There is a great possibility... the tunnel is protecting something." It is, in my opinion, safeguarding King Khufu's actual burial chamber.
ScanPyramids announced in 2017 the discovery of a cavity the size of a passenger plane. This was the first significant structure discovered inside the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.
