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'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#81

Post by kbenson »

jacobush wrote: post #30
dredmorbius wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuff in the middle of a lot of not-stuff is fairly findable. Particularly if it has a strong signature on radar or microwave imaging.

I was thinking in the case the civilization lost access to a lot of basic data. Then finding the magic satellite without magic radar, maybe without even knowing about the magic satellite amongst all the other satellites up there.

A deep cave structure on the moon, and large triangles formed into the lunarscape visible from telescope on earth pointing towards the entrance. Bonus: You'll probably spur space development technology faster than normal for any civilization that can see it.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#83

Post by virmundi »

bertomartin wrote: post #80
avar wrote: post #58

This diagram shows a shaft going into this void from two sides. I was wondering why they don't send a robot down into those. Seems the answer is that they have, but there's something blocking the shaft and they're not willing to destroy it any further for some reason: http://guardians.net/hawass/articles/news_on_the_robot_Dec_2... http://www.crystalinks.com/gantenbrink.html http://www.gizapower.com/Articles/door2.htm…

"...for some reason:" - they shouldn't be allowed to destroy such an important monument to satisfy their curiosity.

A) proper digging shouldn’t destroy the monument. B) removal of parts of the structure is how we know what’s in it at all. The same is true for any othe other monuments that are structures. We had to dig through the valley of the kings to find the tombs. If we don’t breech the obstruction, we won’t understand the thing.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#84

Post by dkersten »

iamben wrote: post #40
dkersten wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope they're recording all of the data on stone tablets in cuneiform, instead of in some digital format for which reading hardware will be obsolete in a few years... ;-)

I remember reading about this a while back (probably on HN). They're storing a bunch of data along with the OSs and devices to read it in a bunker in Switzerland, so if we do leave a bunch of digital data, future generations can actually access it. Tried to find a decent article, but this was about the best I could do: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363904,00.asp

How long does a turned off device stay operational? (main circuitry itself, screen, battery, storage -- whatever the devices they're using have) Also, we were able to decipher cuneiform because there were a lot of clay tablets available to study, but will people in, say, 2k to 4k years from now be able to decipher how to work the devices, its OS and access the library of data? Even my iPhone requires a surprisingly large amount of knowledge to access my various bits of data, if it were 4,000 years in the future and nobody understands English anymore, I can imagine it would be difficult to decipher. Perhaps we should be leaving a load of stone carvings somehow explaining how to operate the devices (and to read english, or whatever language)

From the linked article:

> "If we can nail the next 100 years, we figure we will be able to nail the next 100 years as well," Farquhar said.

Except.. if there is a massive disaster event of sorts (WW3 was mentioned in the comments here), it may be longer than 100 years before somebody is in a position to access this archive. It may then be too late. Or the country is in crisis and the facility gets decommissioned or abandoned.

I'm not saying they're not doing a great thing -- they are! I'm just concerned that it relies on a bit of luck.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#85

Post by contingencies »

radiorental wrote: post #56
kevindqc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Egypt's main pyramid sites in Giza are accessible to the general public every day, all year long. Although you can go inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu when you visit, one of the smaller two pyramids usually is closed for restoration work. To further complicate your tourist plans, at the time of publication, only 300 tickets are sold per pyramid, per day. You must arrive early to secure your visit inside

I've also read that given the economic instability in Cairo, it's just a royal PITA to visit. Tourists get aggressively hassled to buy stuff, camel rides, tours, etc. I've been to New Grange and Stonehenge. While it's pretty neat to go there, it's just a structure. The real value and interest for me is reading up on what the researchers have found out. Let the plinths for Stonehendge were quarried 150 miles away in w…

After I met a well educated Nigerian fellow earlier this year who described how he studied in Cairo and was raped by a gang of Egyptians who pulled a knife on him before entering the subway, I concluded it probably wasn't worth it to visit.

Full disclosure because interesting: He claimed to have returned a couple of days later, preparing by filling his backpack full of stones as a defense mechanism, and killed one of them when they attempted to attack him again. I didn't doubt the story, because he really had no reason to impress anyone, didn't seem the type, seemed genuinely shaken by the memory, and the subject of Egypt came up tangentially.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#86

Post by dkersten »

qubex wrote: post #74
f_allwein wrote: post #14

Interesting how the pyramids have been around for 4500 years and we still don't know all about their structure... Fun fact: there's a Neolithic site in Ireland, Newgrange, that's actually older than the pyramids. Fascinating and worth a visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

Imagine if they find an opened chamber, and that it contains artefacts that can be carbon-dated, and they turn out to be thousands of years older than conventional Egyptology expects. (I expect there will be artefacts, and I expect their dates will coincide with what we already expect, but I’m always holding out for ”new science” that needs to be explained.)

There are thousands of sumerian cuneiform tablets left to translate, if you're bored ;-) Many of these predate the pyramids by a thousand years or so. Most translated ones contain mundane enough stuff, so its likely that the rest are similar, but if you're looking for something ancient to discover something in, I can't think of a better place to look given their age and that they're already found (ie available to read).

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#88

Post by Piskvorrr »

avar wrote: post #58

This diagram shows a shaft going into this void from two sides. I was wondering why they don't send a robot down into those. Seems the answer is that they have, but there's something blocking the shaft and they're not willing to destroy it any further for some reason: http://guardians.net/hawass/articles/news_on_the_robot_Dec_2... http://www.crystalinks.com/gantenbrink.html http://www.gizapower.com/Articles/door2.htm…

Um, no. The diagram is 2D, pyramid is 3D; by losing one dimension, disjoint objects seem connected. Even in the image, shaft passes behind the void, not through it.

(In other words, this is not a girl with a tree growing out of her head, either: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/188/434949407_3271582421_z.jpg... )

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#89

Post by SkyMarshal »

bertomartin wrote: post #80
avar wrote: post #58

This diagram shows a shaft going into this void from two sides. I was wondering why they don't send a robot down into those. Seems the answer is that they have, but there's something blocking the shaft and they're not willing to destroy it any further for some reason: http://guardians.net/hawass/articles/news_on_the_robot_Dec_2... http://www.crystalinks.com/gantenbrink.html http://www.gizapower.com/Articles/door2.htm…

"...for some reason:" - they shouldn't be allowed to destroy such an important monument to satisfy their curiosity.

Also perhaps they're not sure that destroying the obstacle won't cause a tunnel collapse, or otherwise harm their research more than help it.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#90

Post by auxbuss »

radiorental wrote: post #56
kevindqc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Egypt's main pyramid sites in Giza are accessible to the general public every day, all year long. Although you can go inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu when you visit, one of the smaller two pyramids usually is closed for restoration work. To further complicate your tourist plans, at the time of publication, only 300 tickets are sold per pyramid, per day. You must arrive early to secure your visit inside

I've also read that given the economic instability in Cairo, it's just a royal PITA to visit. Tourists get aggressively hassled to buy stuff, camel rides, tours, etc. I've been to New Grange and Stonehenge. While it's pretty neat to go there, it's just a structure. The real value and interest for me is reading up on what the researchers have found out. Let the plinths for Stonehendge were quarried 150 miles away in w…

Hire a driver/guide. He'll navigate around any hassle -- you'll be left in peace -- and he'll sort all the tickets for you. It's probably a one in a lifetime visit, after all.

We lucked out. Our driver turned out to be a Coptic Christian, and he had much to say about (what was then) the recent Arab Spring from a different angle.

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