By Alton Parrish.
Under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, and HIP.Institute (Heritage, Innovation and Preservation Institute) launched, on 25 October 2015, the #ScanPyramids project aiming at scanning over a year, some of the Egyptian Pyramids: Khufu, Khafre, the Bent and the Red Pyramids.
The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is pleased to announce the launch of an egyptian – international Project using non-invasive and non-destructive surveying techniques for the scanning of Egyptian Pyramids under the title “ScanPyramids” project.
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The Bent Pyramid
Just because a mystery is 4500 years old doesn’t mean it can’t be solved…” This could be the motto of the exceptional scientific mission launched October 25, 2015, under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, initiated, designed and coordinated by the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo and the French HIP.Institute. Radiographic muons, aka cosmic particles, infrared thermography, photogrammetry, scanner and 3D reconstruction: the most innovative technologies will be used by researchers of international renown and three major universities: the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University, Université Laval of Quebec and Nagoya University of Japan.
Their goal: to probe the heart of the largest pyramids of Egypt, without drilling the slightest opening. Four millennia after their construction, these ancient giants are far from having yielded their secrets.
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The Pyramid of Khafre in Giza, Egypt in 2015
The first mystery concerns their construction, especially Khufu, the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still existing: it is still impossible to describe with certainty how this stone monument, the largest ever built by humans, was erected. The “ScanPyramids” project has already been approved by the permanent committee of the Ministry of Antiquities and has obtained all necessary permissions from concerned authorities. With a base of more than 5 hectares, its original height of almost 150 meters and a mass of 5 million tons, how was it possible to construct such a wonder in only 25 years?
Another mystery: the internal structure of the pyramids. When comparing the plans of different pyramids, we encounter inexplicable anomalies. Being the last home of the pharaohs in the Old Kingdom (2575 – 2134), they had to be inviolable. Builders have therefore multiplied tricks and obstacles to protect the remains of their sovereigns. Thus various explorations conducted in the past, with less sophisticated means than today, have caught strange images that could correspond to hidden chambers.
Muons radiography survey has begun in Bent Pyramid in Dahshour Following a test session in November that allowed #ScanPyramids team to calibrate the sensitivity of Muons emulsion films to the local environment inside the Bent Pyramid (temperature and humidity), Dr Kunihiro Morishima and his team from Nagoya University have just completed the installation of the Muons detector plates in the lower chamber of Bent Pyramid in Dahshour. They are composed of 40 “regular” plates representing a surface of 3m² containing 2 emulsion films that are sensitive to Muons. Those emulsion films will allow the detection of various types of muons naturally penetrating the pyramid.
The complete installation of the muon detector films inside Khufu pyramid is expected to be done in a later stage in 2016. The analysis of the Bent Pyramids Muons emulsion films will be taking place in Cairo and in Japan during the first weeks of 2016. Minister Dr. Mamdouh Eldamaty surrounded by Muons ScanPyramids team
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Khufu pyramid, a.k.a., The Great Pyramid of Giza
Muons come naturally from the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere where they were created from collisions between cosmic rays of our Galactic environment and the nuclei of atoms in the atmosphere. They fall to the ground at nearly the speed of light with a constant rate of about 10,000 per m2 per minute.
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The difficult aspect of this technique is to create highly sensitive detectors – either gels like the ones used for silver prints or scintillators. Then to accumulate enough data (in several days or months) to emphasize the contrasts. Muons radiography is now frequently used for the observation of volcanoes, including research teams from the University of Nagoya. More recently KEK developed a detection approach based on electronic scintillators which are resistant to nuclear radiation, unlike chemical emulsions, in order to scan inside the Fukushima nuclear
