CAIRO -- The powerful head of Egypt's antiquities department Tuesday ruled out any onsite tests to check the veracity of a new French theory about the building of the Great Pyramid.
"It makes sense, but not great sense," Zahi Hawass said. "Everybody can have a theory, you have 300 people and 99 percent of them are non-specialists, I cannot let them all go onto the site."
French architect Jean Pierre Houdin put forward a theory on the construction of the Great Pyramid in March, suggesting that it had been built using an internal spiral ramp, rather than an external ramp as had long been suggested.
Using 3-D technology from Dassault Systems, the architect built a model of the 4,500-year-old structure with the internal tunnel and he has said that he wants to test the veracity of his theory on site.
Houdin proposed mounting a joint expedition of Egyptian antiquities experts and French engineers to examine the pyramid using non-invasive methods, such as infrared and radar.
"I cannot allow these people to check their theories unless they have a well-known institution backing them," said Hawass.
In the past, Hawass has been reluctant to allow the various theories about the construction of Egypt's pyramids or the presence of secret chambers within the massive structures to be tested.
But he announced that teams from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Manchester are competing to develop camera-toting robots to explore a series of small shafts, blocked by doors leading off the Queen's chamber in the Great Pyramid.
A decision will be announced in three months, he said.
Source: Middle East Times
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070411-035121-2808r
Zahi Hawass is a complete
Zahi Hawass is a complete joke and not open to any new theories that challenge the traditional views. He also won't let anyone test the Sphinx for water erosion.
He's become completely obsessed with self promotion, all the way down to wearing an Indiana Jones hat on those Fox networks Egypt specials.
Maybe not quite
"I cannot allow these people to check their theories unless they have a well-known institution backing them," said Hawass.
Sounds more like it would be a dangerous precedent to give credence to a theory that does not come from the official club.
If someone, not an Egyptologist, is right and comes up with a groundbreaking solution to a problems the club could not come with itself, it suddenly reinforces other alternative theories and weakens the select few's authority.
They rather seem to be protecting their territory.
On the other hand, the argument is sound, you don't want to have the site assaulted by an army of well wishing eluminated without risking a total cacophony on site and in the news.
They are also protecting what they believe is their national pride. Egyptians have to be at the source of the monumental structures otherwise, they lose prestige. This is more in line with doctor Schoch's work for instance though.
secrets
Zahi, and even more so Egypt, make tons of money from the secret of the pyramids. So the secret cannot be revealed, lest the tourist money dries up.
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Historical monuments
That is one other point you are pointing out Earthling.
There surely are quite a number of people who feel attracted to Egypt for metaphysical reasons and were the Pyramid or the Sphynx recognized as being solely of historical interest as we are told today, a number of those people might turn to other places.
On the other hand, I will wager that no matter what, they would not buy the official story.
Nevertheless, yes the mystery of Giza is a great tourist attractor.