What lies below? 4,500-year-old hidden Giza pyramid chamber found in Egypt

It measures nine metres in length and is two metres wide, perched above the main entrance of the pyramid.

Archaeologists do not know what the function was of the chamber, which is not accessible from the outside.

In 2017 scientists announced the discovery of another sealed-off corridor, a 30-metre chamber also inside the Pyramid of Khufu.

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and the country’s tourism minister Ahmed Eissa, announced the discovery yesterday at an unveiling ceremony at the pyramid.

The Scan Pyramids project, an international program that uses scans to look at unexplored sections of the structure, was credited with the find. Scientists from the project – which began in 2015 – attended the unveiling.

Professor Christian Grosse of the Technical University of Munich and a leading member of the project, said various scanning techniques were deployed to locate the chamber, including ultrasound measurements and ground penetrating radars.

He hopes these techniques will lead to further findings.

“There are two large limestones at the end chamber, and now the question is what’s behind these stones and below the chamber,’’ Prof Grosse said.

The Pyramid of Khufu – named after its builder, a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh who reigned from 2509 to 2483 BC. – is one of three pyramids that make up the Giza Pyramids complex.

It is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that has survived to this day.

Experts are divided over how the pyramids were constructed, so even relatively minor discoveries generate great interest.

Authorities often publicly tout discoveries to attract more tourists, a major source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped Middle East country.

Egypt’s tourism sector suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed the 2011 uprising which ousted the country’s long-time autocratic president Hosni Mubarak, and further setbacks following the outbreak of Covid.