Image source, EPA Image caption,

Video footage from an endoscope showed an empty corridor with a vaulted ceiling

By David Gritten

BBC News

Egyptian antiquities officials say they have confirmed the existence of a hidden internal corridor above the main entrance of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Video from an endoscope showed the inside of the corridor, which is 9m (30ft) long and 2.1m (7ft) wide.

The officials say it could have been created to redistribute the pyramid's weight around the entrance or another as yet undiscovered chamber.

It was first detected in 2016 using an imaging technique called muography.

A team of scientists from the ScanPyramids Project were able to sense density changes inside the pyramid by analysing how it was penetrated by muons, which are by-products of cosmic rays that are only partially absorbed by stone.

The non-invasive technique detected an empty space behind the northern face of the Great Pyramid, about 7m above the main entrance, in an area where there is a stone chevron structure.

Further tests were carried out with radar and ultrasound before a 6mm-wide (0.24in) endoscope was fed through a tiny joint in-between the stones that make up the chevrons.