# Great pyramid: new chamber discovered **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 3, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569 "2017-11-03T01:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/21 "2017-11-03T19:49:27Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Could it be just skimping on material? I mean, there doesn’t seem to be a terribly good reason to build the whole thing solid Other than needing some serious engineering skillz to keep it from collapsing if it is full of voids. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/22 "2017-11-03T20:00:52Z")
Well, the #1 reason for building it solid is that you don’t want the damn thing to fall down on you. Building a solid pyramid is easier than building a shell because the shape of the pyramid itself lends to the stability. The #2 reason is that, this is the home of the God on Earth and the seat of his power & resurrection. if you screw it up, your heart will be eaten by a crocodile after you die. People were a lot more literal about that five thousand years ago. In general, the Egyptians did _not_ screw it up. The pyramids are reknowned for the precision of their work and the overall trueness of their placement. And they were hip to the implications of the weight of the thing hanging above them. They took steps to reinforce the voids that needs to exists for the chambers and tunnels. The walls of those chambers are granite, which is harder than the basic limestone that makes up the bulk of the building. (And don’t forget - this is a bronze age society we’re describing. No iron or steel tools for chiseling that granite). That said, the interior limestone blocks of the pyramid were much rougher than the outer layers. They were shaped into roughly the right size and put in place. Their edges didn’t fit correctly. Gaps in the interior stones were filled with rubble & limestone chips (of which they had buckets) and mortar. And even the rough shaped ones are still enormous fucking blocks of stone. To the guys who humped them up the mountain, I’m sure they looked perfectly strong and secure. Those guys - it would have taken hundreds of thousands of people_decades_ to build that one pyramid. Assuming they finished in twenty years, they would have needed a steady stream of stones, shoved in place at a rate of about 12 an hour. If you get a cracked block you can’t just send it back to your supplier. So say you’re halfway up the pyramid, you’ve got a steady stream of rough blocks coming, and you get a couple that are weak or damaged - you can either shut down the whole process, somehow carry the busted blocks back down the mountain, make the whole block train back up, deal with the paperwork, deal with your overseer, lose who knows how many days of scheduled, probably get a whipping, probably get some other dudes in trouble … Or you can just shove them in place, patch it up with the rubble & mortar, which you’re going to use anyway, and get on with the job. Yeah. And it would have been fine, probably for millenia. But the mortar ages and the crack widens under the stress of the other half of a mountain. And limestone isn’t the most rugged rock to begin with. The rocks settle, and little by little, the rubble starts to shift and rub. And it’s so damn old. So yeah, it could be a material problem. That’s what I suspect. On the other hand, there are several long tunnels built into Khufu’s Pyramid - tiny little tunnels, that have only been explored with robots and camera snakes. These tunnels have doors at the end of them, with copper handles. A few years back, someone got a camera past them and found a chamber with heiroglyphs written in red ink. So who knows. If I win the lottery I’m going to buy the whole Giza complex and take it apart one rock at a time (carefully numbered of course, so it can be reassembled.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/23 "2017-11-03T20:11:01Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > if you screw it up, your heart will be eaten by a crocodile after you die. [Lihippodile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammit). ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/24 "2017-11-03T20:13:30Z")
So how long do we have to wait until they run a borescope into this thing? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/25 "2017-11-03T20:53:49Z")
I vote–Pie. Everybody likes Pie. Pie is my favorite Vitamin. Vitamin Pie. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/26 "2017-11-04T06:18:41Z")
Never a Lihippodile around, when you need one. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/27 "2017-11-04T07:12:17Z")
Air storage. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/28 "2017-11-04T07:46:58Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > In general, the Egyptians did _not_ screw it up. The pyramids are reknowned for the precision of their work and the overall trueness of their placement. Well, they did screw up a couple early pyramids. The [pyramid at Meidum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meidum#Pyramid) apparently collapsed during building. Perhaps because of this or maybe it was showing signs of instability, they reduced angle of the sides of the [Bent Pyramid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent_Pyramid) in the middle of construction. Call lthose learning experiences. > [@](#): > > So who knows. If I win the lottery I’m going to buy the whole Giza complex and take it apart one rock at a time (carefully numbered of course, so it can be reassembled.) If you do, remember to film it all and then play it back backwards. That way we can see how they built it… ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/29 "2017-11-04T15:47:43Z")
It’s the engine room. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/30 "2017-11-04T16:34:05Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > On the other hand, there are several long tunnels built into Khufu’s Pyramid - tiny little tunnels, that have only been explored with robots and camera snakes. These tunnels have doors at the end of them, with copper handles. A few years back, someone got a camera past them and found a chamber with heiroglyphs written in red ink. I hadn’t heard about this! Do you have a link? > [@Merneith](#): > > So who knows. If I win the lottery I’m going to buy the whole Giza complex and take it apart one rock at a time (carefully numbered of course, so it can be reassembled.) OK, Conrad. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/31 "2017-11-04T17:20:03Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Never a Lihippodile around, when you need one. I’m wondering if I should or should not be surprised that I’m [only the third](https://www.google.com/search?q=Lihippodile&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8) person on-line to invent that term? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569/32 "2017-11-04T17:31:45Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I hadn’t heard about this! Do you have a link? [Here](http://www.guardians.net/hawass/articles/secret_doors_inside_the_great_pyramid.htm) is an article on the “door.” [This one](https://www.sciencealert.com/robot-captures-first-images-of-great-pyramids-secret-chamber) has a photo of the red hieroglyphs, which [aren’t that big a deal](http://www.guardians.net/egypt/pyramids/GreatPyramid.htm): > [@the article I linked](#): > > When blocks were cut at the various quarries they were organized and cataloged in order to prepare them for transportation to the site and final placement during assembly. The blocks were marked in red ink to fulfill this purpose and these markings would include the placements information and often also the name of the work-gang that would be directly working with the blocks. When the blocks were placed the markings were rubbed off of any surface that would be showing. Fortunately, they often did NOT remove these markings on surfaces which were not intended to be exposed. This has left us with some examples of these markings which can be seen on many sites. We will see many examples of these types of markings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-pyramid-new-chamber-discovered/800569.md?page=1)