Inside the Great Pyramid Of Giza , there is a massive void . The room , sealed when the pyramid was fill out some 4,500 year ago , is of unknown purpose , though some have speculated it could be a secret burial chamber of the pharaoh Khufu , who ordered the Pyramids of Egypt to be built .

In 2017 , a team known asScanPyramidsscanned the Great Pyramid of Giza using muon tomography . Muon corpuscle are negatively - charged particles produce by cosmic ray which clash with mote in the Earth ’s upper atmosphere at around 10,000 per square measure per minute .

" Like X - rays , which can penetrate the body and allow bone imaging , these elementary particles can keep a quasi - linear trajectory while going through hundreds of metres of Lucy Stone before decompose or being absorbed , " the team explains in their study , published in Nature . " By put down the place and the guidance of each muon that traverses its detection surface , a negative muon detector can recognise enclosed space from Harlan F. Stone . "

All that is to say that they used a very cool way – involving cosmic irradiation , no less – to expect inside the Great Pyramid . And inside , they found a chamber that had never been see before .

" We cover the discovery of a turgid nihility ( with a hybridisation - section standardised to that of the Grand Gallery and a minimum distance of 30   metres [ 98 metrical unit ] ) situated above the Grand Gallery , " the team wrote . " This constitutes the first major inner structure found in the Great Pyramid since the 19th century . "

They named the big emptiness , rather aptly , the " big void " , and it was confirmed using three unlike muon detection technique . So far , it is not screw what the vacuum was for , though there have been suggestions . Kate Spence , archaeologist at the University of Cambridge , told National Geographicthat the void could be a effect of how the Great Pyramid was constructed , an internal incline used to move roof blocks into position , which was then left or filled loosely with rubble .

Another theory as to the room ’s determination is that it was a secretburial sleeping room of Khufu . When the pyramids were first opened and explored , nineteenth - century archaeologists find a number of chambers , including one contain a sarcophagus that was thought to comprise Khufu himself . However , when the sarcophagus was opened , it was empty .

The cadaver have long been , and preserve to be , presumed to be steal . However , the hypothesis that there was a secret fourth bedroom that contains the mummy of Khufu antedate the discovery of the fourth sleeping accommodation . In 2004 , two amateurish French Egyptologists , who used ground - penetrate microwave radar and architectural analysis to back up their claims , came up with a hypothesis that there was an extra bedroom .

The two argued that the Great Pyramid was n’t meticulously design forward , as believed by most , but evolved as construction hold out on . Gilles Dormion , the architect of the pair , intimate that the pyramid was conform as the builder take in certain chambers would not take the exercising weight of the sepulture sarcophagus . elephantine granite beams are present in the king ’s chamber , with with child cranny in them that have been attributed to quake since the pyramid was built . However , he believes that the sally happened during the building of the pyramids , as evidenced by traces of ancient plaster found within them .

" At the ending of the day , " Dormionsaid of the theory in 2004 , " the intact problem of the Great Pyramid can be add up up by this hypothesis : Khufu had three funeral sleeping accommodation built for himself . The first remained unfinished , the second was available and the third snap . Khufu was therefore interred in the 2nd . "

The amateurs think that the chamber where Khufu was interred carry from a hidden corridor from the pansy ’s sleeping accommodation ( a misnomer , as the chamber was probably used as a talent bedroom for Khufu ) , fairly far off from where the gravid vacancy was subsequently discovered ; however , until we get a better look at the null itself it ’s perhaps a little too optimistic to usurp it is a hidden burial chamber for the B. B. King , rather than a ramp used in the Great Pyramid ’s building . gratefully , a close flavour could be on the style .

In 2022 , a team announced their plans to image the pyramid using more sophisticated equipment .

" We design to field a telescope scheme that has upwards of 100 times the sensitivity of the equipment that has recently been used at the Great Pyramid , " theteam writes , " will image muons from nearly all angles and will , for the first clip , produce a true tomographic image of such a bombastic structure . "

The squad explained that once they have financial backing , it will take around two years to build the detectors .