Nobuko Kitagawa, Emmanuel Guerriero, Nicolas Serikoff, Yoshikatsu Date, P. Magnier, Vincent Steiger, Yasser El-Shayeb, M. Riallot, H. Fujii, Simon Bouteille, Christopher Filosa, David Attié, Fumihiko Takasaki, Kohei Hayashi, Pierre Gable, Hany Helal, Mehdi Tayoubi, Kunihiro Morishima, Kotaro Satoh, D. Calvet, Makiko Sugiura, Shigeru Odaka, Mustapha Ezzy, Mitsuaki Kuno, Yuta Manabe, Tamer Elnady, S. Procureur, Jean-Baptiste Mouret, Akira Nishio, Hideyo Kodama, Bernard Charles, I. Mandjavidze, Benoit Marini, M. Moto, Department of Physics [Nagoya], Nagoya University, KEK (High energy accelerator research organization), Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (IRFU), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay, Institut HIP (Héritage – Innovation – Préservation), Emissive, NEP [Tokyo], Suave images [Tokyo], Cairo University, Université Ain Shams, Lifelong Autonomy and interaction skills for Robots in a Sensing ENvironment (LARSEN), Inria Nancy - Grand Est, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Department of Complex Systems, Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (LORIA - AIS), Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications (LORIA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications (LORIA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Lorraine (UL), Dassault Systèmes, ANR-11-IDEX-0003,IPS,Idex Paris-Saclay(2011), Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications (LORIA), and Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
The Great Pyramid or Khufu's Pyramid was built on the Giza Plateau (Egypt) during the IVth dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), who reigned from 2509 to 2483 BC. Despite being one of the oldest and largest monuments on Earth, there is no consensus about how it was built. To better understand its internal structure, we imaged the pyramid using muons, which are by-products of cosmic rays that are only partially absorbed by stone. The resulting cosmic-ray muon radiography allows us to visualize the known and potentially unknown voids in the pyramid in a non-invasive way. Here we report the discovery of a large void (with a cross section similar to the Grand Gallery and a length of 30 m minimum) above the Grand Gallery, which constitutes the first major inner structure found in the Great Pyramid since the 19th century. This void, named ScanPyramids Big Void, was first observed with nuclear emulsion films installed in the Queen's chamber (University of Nagoya), then confirmed with scintillator hodoscopes set up in the same chamber (KEK) and re-confirmed with gas detectors outside of the pyramid (CEA). This large void has therefore been detected with a high confidence by three different muon detection technologies and three independent analyses. These results constitute a breakthrough for the understanding of Khufu's Pyramid and its internal structure. While there is currently no information about the role of this void, these findings show how modern particle physics can shed new light on the world's archaeological heritage., Comment: Nature (2017)