The world watched as a tiny robot attempted to decipher some of the Great Pyramid's secrets. But Tuesday's live archaeology event, reports Nevine El-Aref, may have actually left onlookers even more perplexed than before Click to view caption The event was being broadcast live from the Giza plateau to 141 countries around the world. Produced by National Geographic TV, Tuesday's "live archaeology" show began at 3am Cairo time, or 8pm prime time on the US East Coast. The event's focus would be a unique attempt to probe a blocked shaft in the last surviving wonder of the ancient world: Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza. At the Mena House Hotel, nestled right next to the Great Pyramid, a large group of journalists, photographers and curious spectators had been invited to watch the feed on a large screen TV. "I have many apprehensions," Tim Kelly, president of National Geographic's television and film division, told Al-Ahram Weekly before the show. There was "a lot that could go wrong", Kelly said. "The robot is a very sensitive device." Called the Pyramid Rover, the robot would be travelling 65 metres down a 20cm by 20cm shaft which has puzzled researchers since its discovery in 1872. As the robot drove in, its path was illuminated by a blue-tinged light and broadcast live to the world. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), explained to viewers that the first high-tech investigation of the so- called Queen's Chamber shafts was undertaken, in 1993, by Rudolf Gantenbrink and the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo in association with the Giza inspectorate. A custom-built robot was sent into the shafts to explore, record images and gather data. It travelled through the southern shaft for 65 metres but was forced to stop by what appeared to be a stone block with two copper handles affixed to it. This time, a finger-width-sized hole would be drilled through the door by the new robot in an attempt to find out what was behind it. According to C Richard Allen, the president and CEO of National Geographic Ventures, it was "very important to provide answers to one of the lingering questions, which is why these shafts exist and what is behind the so-called blocking stone". Giza Plateau's Chief Inspector Mansour Radwan told Al-Ahram Weekly that, "some people think nothing will be found behind the 9cm thick block. They think it was just a chunk of limestone pushed into the shaft by the Pyramid builders after they used it as a polishing tool. Others have suggested that the shaft might contain valuable items such as papyrus documents, building tools, or perhaps even a statue of Pharaoh Khufu, or it might contain nothing at all." It was precisely these speculations that Tuesday's show was set to shed light on. Anchors Jay Schandler and Laura Greene took viewers on a trip through the perplexing history of the plateau, home of the world's most spectacular examples of ancient human construction. Scenes of the men and women who laboured on Egypt's national project were visually recreated with advanced computerised 3-D graphics. The show also highlighted the work being done by Mark Lehner, director of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, who is uncovering an entire Pyramid builders' city, complete with cemeteries and bakeries, copper works and colonnaded halls that were probably dormitories supporting a population of 20,000 who were housed and fed there. "The workers drank beer, ate bread and fish, and there was social order," Lehner told viewers. During the show, archaeologists also, for the first time, lifted a sealed lid off a 4500-year-old limestone sarcophagus that belonged to the man who oversaw most of the workers who helped construct the Great Pyramid. The deceased was the overseer of the administrative district of the Pyramid builders. But while the hype made viewers think he may have taken some of the secrets of building the Pyramids into his grave, only a well-preserved skeleton was found inside the sarcophagus. After two hours of such fare -- suspense interspersed with historical speculation -- the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived. The robot had reached its destination, bored a hole through the door, and viewers could now see what was behind it: a second stone slab also blocking the way. "I am really happy that we have found another sealed chamber," Hawass said. "This great discovery is very important because it will let the mystery of the Pyramid continue. It will never stop." Hawass told reporters that the newly- discovered door looks very fragile because it has cracks all over it. "For the moment, it is impossible to tell what might lie behind it. Maybe something that belongs to Khufu is hidden behind it, or maybe there is nothing," he said. For his part, National Geographic's Kelly said the importance of the show was "to get across everything we knew and learned about the construction of the Pyramid... The next step is not yet outlined but I could imagine that exploring the northern shaft could be more useful while the required scientific studies are conducted, before drawing up another plan for a future probe to look beyond the newly discovered door in the narrow shaft." What is certain is that "entering the Pyramid was not an easy task", according to Abdel-Hamid Qutb, the engineer who was in charge of the technical work. "It was too dangerous and risky to dig inside the Pyramid without taking the type of precautions we have made. Any small mistake could damage the Pyramid." Qutb said a replica of the Queen's Chamber, the shaft, the blocked passage and the doorway -- detailed even down to the cracks -- were built on the plateau and equipped with the same percentage of humidity that was inside the real thing. It took five attempts before the experiment with the robot using the replica shaft was successful. "One trial, where we used regular tools to make a hole in the doorway, failed. But the other four, where we used the latest technology, were a success," Qutb said. For many of the Egyptian and foreign journalists watching the event at the Mena House, however, the fact that they were peering through one door only to find what looked like another elicited a united groan of disappointment.
