Discoveries

December 15, 2023

The Secret Chambers

Listen to Today's Edition

In 1836, archaeologists exploring the Pyramid of Sahura in Egypt noticed a series of passages full of “debris and rubbish.”

They suspected that the passages would lead them to some special store rooms, but nobody actually bothered to investigate – until now.

Recent conservation and restoration work in the pyramid unveiled the existence of a number of previously hidden storage rooms within the 4,400-year-old burial site, Popular Mechanics reported.

Meanwhile, researchers surveying the monument said they were able to properly determine the pyramid’s original dimensions: Over millennia, the pyramid’s initial floor plan had deteriorated and the old walls gave way to new retaining walls.

“Although the northern and southern parts of these magazines, especially the ceiling and the original floor, are badly damaged, remnants of the original walls and parts of the floor can still be seen,” they explained.

To get a better view of the secret rooms, they used 3D laser scanning with a portable LiDAR scanner, which gave them a thorough picture of the site’s interior.

The team is now planning to restore these chambers, a process which they say will “revolutionize the view of historical development of pyramid structures and challenge existing paradigms in the field.”

The Pyramid of Sahura sits at the Abusir complex, a site near the Nile River for pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.

This story originally appeared in the December 15, 2023 newsletter, Political Whiplash.