Egypt: The scientific mission "Scan Pyramids"

An ambitious project of solving the "secret" of the pyramids, which seeks primarily to unvail secret rooms in four Pharaonic monuments and to clarify, if possible, the mystery that is surrounding their construction, will be presented by Egypt.

An ambitious project of solving the "secret" of the pyramids, which seeks primarily to unvail secret rooms in four Pharaonic monuments and to clarify, if possible, the mystery that is surrounding their construction, will be presented by Egypt.

Scientists and architects from Egypt, France, Canada and Japan will use infrared technology and advanced sensors in order to map the pyramids of Khufu and and two of the pyramids of Dahshur, south of Cairo.

"They will study these pyramids to see if they contain secret rooms or reveal other secrets", said the Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damati, at a press conference in Cairo. "These engineers and these architects will use a non-destructive technology that will not damage the pyramids,"

The project, which will last until the end of 2016, and it will be known as "Scan Pyramids". Although there are many archaeological missions that have attempted in the past to reveal the construction techniques which were used for the construction of these monuments of ancient Egypt, architects and Egyptologists have yet to unravel the mystery.

"There had been a similar attempt 30 years ago, but today is the first project on an international scale and which uses the latest technology," said to AFP Mehdi Tayoubi, founder of the French Institute HIP (Inheritance, Innovation Preservation) involved in the project.

The advanced detectors that will be used to explore the four pyramids may also serve for detecting the tomb of Tutankhamun and test the theory of British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves, who believes that the Queen Nefertiti is buried there, in a secret chamber.

The Egyptologists have never found the mummy of the queen with the legendary beauty, who played a fundamental political and religious role in the 14th century BC.