Update on research at the Great Pyramid

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El Aref)

Nevine El-Aref has been looking at the progress made by Djedi, a joint international-Egyptian team so named after the magician whom King Khufu consulted when he planned the layout of his pyramid.

Djedi recently began making a study of the world's most famous monument in an attempt to uncover some of its mysteries.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told Al-Ahram Weekly that the purpose of the project was to send a robotic tunnel explorer inside the two air shafts of the Great Pyramid in an attempt to gather evidence to determine the original purpose of the shafts.

Hawass continued that he selected the Djedi team by means of a competition to find the best possible robot to explore the shafts. The team is sponsored by Leeds University in the United Kingdom and supported by Dassault Systems in France, in addition to independent researchers in space robotics.