Cairo: Egyptian antiquities officials announced on Thursday the discovery of a hidden nine metre-long corridor behind the main entrance of the Great Pyramid of Giza that they said could lead to further findings.
The find was made under the Scan Pyramids project that since 2015 has been using modern technology including scans and endoscopes to peer inside the pyramid, the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
The unfinished corridor was likely built to relieve the weight of the pyramid on either the main entrance, seven metres below, or on another as yet undiscovered chamber or space, said Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The Great Pyramid was built as a monumental tomb around 2560 BC, during the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops.
It stands at a height of 146 metres (479 feet), the tallest structure built by humankind until the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.
(Reporting by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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