Update me on the Pyramid Shaft Climbing Robots

Factual Questions
1

In October MSNBC reported that the Egyptians had approved a robot expedition to climb (one of two) a shaft inside the Great Pyramid (aka the Pyramid of Cheops/Khufu) which rises from an unfinished chamber inside the pyramid.

The robot was going to break through the panels discovered in one of the shafts in 2002 by a previous robotic expedition.

“I hope that we will do this work and in a few months from now we will really know what’s behind them,” Egypt’s top government archaeologist Zahi Hawass said

So. Has anything happend now, a few months later? Is anything planned? if not what happened?

2

I hope we get an answer on this. I remember watching the episode from the previous expedition. And they came to that big rock or whatever that was in the way. I was pissed because they couldn’t do anything else. I really wanted to know what was there.

Also, does anyone know anything about an entrance that was uncovered which supposedly led to a room under the Sphynx or something? I remember reading about it in 1996 and I think it was planned to be explored in Feb '97 or something like that. But I never heard about it again…

3

To take the questions in logical order:

That “door” was drilled through in 2003, only for the robot to find another blank wall/door a couple of inches behind that. jimmmy’s question is basically about what happened after that.

Zahi Hawass has his own homepage, which is usually the best source for up to date official news on such matters. According to that, it seems they’re still undecided whether to use the Singapore robot or the one designed in Hong Kong. As usual, it pays to be patient while the Egyptian authorities cautiously make up their minds.

4

Belatedly realising that Bear_Nenno’s followup question actually related to the Sphinx, no, there haven’t been any chambers found underneath it in the last decade, despite the issue having being widely raised (on various grounds) and people looking at the evidence on the ground with such theories in mind.

5

It should be noted that Zahi Hawass is pretty good about making information available as soon as it comes to light, and giving people access, whom most folks would normally scorn. When Art Bell visited Egypt Hawass gave him a pass which allowed Art to poke around anywhere he wanted to (Hawass stated this on Art’s show, so it’s not like Art was making it up). And no, Art didn’t find anything interesting.