Discovery News has an update on the investigation of the “doors” at the end of the “air shafts” emanating from the “Queen’s Chamber” in the Great Pyramid (wow, I had to put quotes around three different things describing elements of the pyramid, due to us not really knowing what they actually were). The unrest in Egypt over the past year had brough a halt to the robotic exploration project, but the Djedi Team are now keen to get back to it in the post-Zahi era:
Now the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), once led by the controversial yet charismatic Zahi Hawass, is slowly returning to granting permits for excavations and archaeological research.
“As with other missions, we have had to resubmit our application to be allowed to continue. We are currently waiting for the various committees to formalise the approval,” project mission manager Shaun Whitehead, of the exploration company Scoutek UK, told Discovery News. “Once we’re allowed to continue, I have no doubt that we can complete our work in 2012,” he added.
…Equipped with a unique range of tools which also included a miniature “beetle” robot that can fit through a 0.74-inch diameter hole, a coring drill, and a miniaturized ultrasonic device that can tap on walls and listen to the response to help determine the thickness of the stone, the Djedi team was ready to continue the pyramid’s exploration last August. But the political turn of events in Egypt halted the project.
Whitehead is confident that the robot will reveal much more once the team is allowed to resume their research. “The plan is the same as it always was. We will completely survey the shafts leading from the Queens Chamber and look beyond the first and second blocking stones in at least one shaft,” Whitehead said.
Also: according to the article, the red markings seen on the other side of “Gantenbrink’s Door” may be “hieratic numerical signs that record the length of the shaft”.
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