An international research team has discovered a previously unknown chamber in the famous Egyptian Cheops pyramid at Giza.

The existence of an astonishingly large chamber was confirmed by an endoscope that was passed through a narrow gap between stones, said the Technical University of Munich (TUM), which was involved in the work with a team. For years, measurements had pointed to a hidden cavity.

The TUM scientists explained that the find is particularly significant because the Egyptian pyramid is one of the best-studied structures in the world.

"Discovery of a cavity something special"

According to initial estimates, the new corridor above the actual entrance to the pyramid even exceeds the originally assumed size of at least five meters in length.

Discovering a cavity in a pyramid is something special - even more so in this size, said Christian Große from the Chair of Non-Destructive Testing at TUM. Since 2019, the Munich-based company has been part of the international research team called ScanPyramids, which has been examining Egyptian pyramids with different means and technologies since 2015.

Measurements with muon tomography, an imaging method for three-dimensional imaging of large-volume objects, had suggested the existence of a cavity. For a closer examination, the TUM team used large methods such as radar and ultrasound, which made a significant contribution to the discovery, it said.