Original subtitles

The mysterious Egyptian pyramids.

4,500 years ago,

Pharaohs in search of immortality

built these spectacular mountains of stone

(dramatic music)

No royal mummies or funerary artifacts

have ever been found inside these gigantic tombs

For thousands of years, the most impressive of them all

Pharaoh Khufu's Great Pyramid of Giza

remained the tallest manmade structure.

The Egyptians managed to erect this architectural wonder

without wheels or iron tools.

It has always been suspected that mysterious rooms

were hidden within.

A papyrus tells of Khufu's obsession

with the secret chambers he wanted built inside his pyramid.

This old legend has been handed down over the centuries,

inspiring hundreds of explorers.

But is it still possible to discover unknown chambers

or corridors without disturbing a single stone?

An international mission called ScanPyramids

has taken on the challenge.

These scientists' motto is simple.

Just because a mystery is 4,500 years old

doesn't mean it can't be solved.

Their mission?

To see through the Great Pyramid of Giza

thanks to a multi-disciplinary team

that includes engineers and infra-red filmography,

experts in 3D modeling and simulation,

and researchers in particle physics.

What if tiny particles from outer space

made it possible to uncover the past?

These explorers from every horizon

have taken on this incredible quest.

Can they discover what so many

have failed to find for centuries?

One year after ScanPyramids

launched its scientific investigation

the mission is about to announce

its first astonishing findings

before a panel of Egyptologists.

Behind the north face of the Great Pyramid,

they've detected a new passageway.

Here, behind these blocks.

We can see mortar.

It's like blocked were pushed in to seal it.

We have now the proof that we have a void

behind this area.

The question is now to know if the void

is just behind this, or if it is a little bit lower.

(suspenseful music)

Behind these enormous stone chevrons

lies the main entrance of the pyramid.

The Descending Corridor.

Just above it, the team has detected something

that resembles the start of another corridor.

Where does it lead?

Is it connected to other passageways or secret chambers?

Maybe to King Khufu's mummy,

which has been sought after for centuries.

Thousands of years of looting have clouded the issue.

The only tomb belonging to a Pharaoh

that has ever been found nearly in tact

is that of Tutankhamen, King Tut, discovered in 1922

in the Valley of the Kings.

300 miles from Cairo.

Tutankhamen was born over a thousand years after Khufu,

ruled only a decade and left no monuments to posterity.

King Tut is famous today because his tomb is the only one

to be discovered in its original state and contained

one of the most fabulous treasures ever found.

Ironically no treasure or statue

of Khufu has ever been found.

This tiny ivory figurine is all we know

of the ruler who left us the most monumental pyramid of all.

If the first findings

from the Scan Pyramid's mission bear out,

the team could be on the verge

of the discovery of the century in Egypt.

(dramatic music)

Hany Helal and Mehdi Tayoubi are the two founders

and coordinators of the ScanPyramids project.

Thought they aren't Egyptologists,

they've both devoted years of their lives to exploring

and protecting Egypt's heritage.

How did they make these findings?

What allowed them to succeed

where so many other before have failed?

To grasp the importance of their new discoveries,

we must first travel back in time

and walk in the footsteps of those who came before.

For centuries the Great Pyramid of Giza remained sealed.

The enigmatic tomb wasn't opened until the year 833

by a Caliph with a passion for science and mysteries.

Caliph Al-Ma'mun was one of

the greatest patrons of his time.

He loved to surround himself with astronomers,

alchemists, geographers and scholars.

Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist based in Egypt

for the past 30 years, has delved into the accounts

of Arab historians from the era.

This is the entrance to the Great Pyramid,

but it wasn't always the case.

In the 9th Century AD,

the Caliph Al-Ma'mun decided he wanted to enter the pyramids

and in those days they looked completely different.

They were in fact covered with shiny white limestone.

He had heard rumors that inside

there were astonishing things,

there were maps of the world,

there were all kinds of treasures,

not really gold and silver so much,

but actually magical things and this for him

was of great interest because he was a scientist.

To open the Great Pyramid,

Al-Ma'mum assembled a large team of workers,

as well as the best architects and engineers of his day.

He thought of where it might be, the original entrance,

and started hammering away.

So they were using these metal tools that kept breaking.

And so he had knife sharpeners,

and metal smiths working 24 hours

as they tried to break their way into the pyramid.

But they couldn't achieve this.

So he opted for a very old fashioned method,

one that had been used by the Ancient Egyptians

when they were quarrying.

That was to light a very hot fire

and then suddenly dowse it with vinegar.

And what they did was, when the vinegar hit the rock,

it cracked and exploded

and therefore gave you a lot of fissures

and an easier way to batter yourself into the pyramid.

Try to imagine the dust,

the sound of the chisels, the shards of limestone,

the sweat-drenched workers gasping for breath

as they hacked their way forward for months on end.

Growing discouraged and then

they encountered another unexpected obstacle.

He was confronted by a huge block of granite.

So, they broke their way through that one

and then they found more.

Not just one, but it seemed to be several.

So what they did instead was

they made a very clever passageway around them,

hacking through the soft limestone

because, now, of course, they had hope,

they knew that there were things inside the pyramid

because there were passageways leading clearly somewhere.

(dramatic music)

They worked around these blocks of granite

until they finally reached the descending corridor

and ventured 100 feet underground

to discover an unfinished cavern,

dug right out of the bedrock.

But there was neither sarcophagus

nor treasure befitting the great tomb.

All they found was this room with black on the ceiling

so he knew that people had come here in

antiquity, maybe the Greeks or the Romans

had visited this place before him.

According to some Egyptologists,

this subterranean chamber was used in antiquity

as a place of worship, consecrated to Sokar, a sun god,

symbolizing rebirth.

Pilgrims and priests would have used the descending corridor

until it was closed and forgotten for centuries

beneath the sands, until the arrival of Al-Ma'mun.

The granite blocks barring entry to the ascending corridor

kept ancient visitors from venturing

into the heart of the pyramid.

But Al-Ma'mun and his team managed to get around

the huge obstacle designed by the builders of the pyramid

to keep trespassers out.

They climbed the ascending corridor

and discovered another corridor

leading to another chamber

that was also empty.

They named it the Queen's Chamber,

assuming that Pharaoh Khufu had reserved it for his wife.

With only the light of their torches,

they explored the grand gallery,

25 feet high and nearly 165 feet long.

When Ma'mun and his team came in,

they were holding their torches aloft

and their pitchers, with bats flying every which way,

trying to hit them and avoid the torches and being burnt.

It must have been an extraordinary experience

coming into this amazing structure for the first time.

This is truly one of the most extraordinary

and amazing pieces of architecture in the ancient world.

At the end of this mysterious gallery

lay more astonishing proof of Egyptian architectural genius.

The so-called King's Chamber, with its flat ceiling

made entirely of magnificently calibrated granite blocks.

Nevertheless, Al-Ma'mun had hoped to find much more.

And at the end of the room, they found

the sarcophagus of the king.

Neither the room nor the sarcophagus had anything in it.

All were empty.

Some people had expected Ma'mun to find the body of the king

with a breastplate of gold and all kinds of jewels and gold,

as well as maps, both terrestrial and celestial.

But nothing like that seemed to have been here,

so I suppose that both Ma'mun and his people

were rather disappointed.

Since then, no other room

comparable to those discovered by Al-Ma'mun

has ever been found.

Yet, over the centuries, countless explorers

have continued to look for these mysterious chambers.

Why has the legend endured?

Perhaps the answer lies in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin,

where a papyrus from 1700 BC is carefully preserved.

The Westcar Papyrus contains legends

from the era of King Khufu.

One of them talks about the pharaoh's interest

in the plans for the Shrine of Tut, the god of knowledge.

Tut, depicted with the head of an ibis,

was also the patron of architects and astronomers.

The papyrus describes how Khufu summoned a magician

named Djedi to his court

so he could tell the pharaoh where the chambers

of Tut's shrine were located.

On the one hand, of course, we don't know

what these chambers are.

On the other hand, though, there's also

a comment of the narrator

and he says, "Well, the pharaoh has been looking

"for these chambers for quite a while,

"for his own horizon of Akhet, for his own horizon."

Khufu called his pyramid his horizon.

According to legend, he was inspired by the sacred

architecture of the god Thoth

and had secret chambers built into his pyramid

to house sacred books containing

all the esoteric knowledge of the time.

(dramatic music)

(wind whistling)

In the 19th century, European explorers and adventurers

resumed the search with greater intensity.

Some went so far as to use dynamite to explore the pyramids,

permanently scarring the sublime monuments,

both inside and out.

In the second half of the 20th century,

exploration of the Great Pyramid entered a new phase

thanks to technology.

In 1986, a French scientific mission called Operation Khufu

probed the pyramid for several months.

The architects running the project

were looking for a secret chamber

they believed was located beneath the King's Chamber.

But the hundreds of measurements

taken inside and outside the pyramid

yielded nothing in that area.

Instead, they seemed to point towards the corridor

leading to the Queen's Chamber.

They thought they'd located storerooms or antechambers.

Unfortunately, the samples they took

showed nothing but the presence of very fine sand

inside the structure.

Hany Helal, an engineer in rock mechanics at the time,

participated in the mission.

(speaking foreign language)

We didn't find what we were looking for,

but we did find sand

and that was kind of unexpected.

Nobody knew the ancient Egyptians put sand

between the blocks.

In the 1990s, the investigation continued

using miniature, specially-designed robots

to explore the small shafts branching off

from the Queen's Chamber.

At that time, no one knew where these so-called

air shafts led.

The first attempt used a German robot,

designed by engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink,

equipped with a tiny camera, adventured into the tunnel,

a mere eight inches wide.

After slowly progressing for over 200 feet,

the robot encountered a limestone slab

with two mysterious copper handles.

Egyptologists were intrigued by the discovery.

A few years later, Dr. Zahi Hawass

then head of Egyptian Antiquities,

took up the exploration himself.

It's very important to know that Khufu wrote a second book

and maybe this book is hidden behind this door.

(camera clicking)

He decided to pierce the door

to see what was hidden behind it.

A great moment of suspense was broadcast live

to millions of TV viewers.

Okay, the lights are on.

You can see the camera making its steady progress

towards the hole there.

Now, Zahi, talk us through what's happening.

Just, the camera is getting in the hole now

but they can't see anything.

Okay.

Now, oh my goodness, look at that.

What's this? We're hearing shrieks--

All they discovered

was a tiny, empty cubbyhole, a mere seven inches long

and not a single book by Khufu.

In 2010, a new, more sophisticated robot

named Djedi, after the magician Khufu consulted,

was sent into the same shafts.

It discovered graffiti left by the pyramid's builders.

A team lead by Mehdi Tayoubi collaborated on the mission.

(speaking foreign language)

We are confronted with reality,

especially in terms of transmitting data

from the robots to the engineers.

All those little obstacles we hadn't necessarily

planned for in virtual reality.

That's what spurred our desire during the Djedi Project

to say, "Okay, there are lots of theories

"about the ancient pyramids, aren't there any techniques

"that don't specifically come from Egyptology

"that might let us see through the pyramids

"without touching them to see if there are any

"unknown structures inside these great pyramids?"

Hany Helal and Mehdi Tayoubi met in 2013.

The two men immediately connected.

Formally the Minister of Higher Education and Research,

today, Hany Helal is a professor

at the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University.

(cars honking)

Founded two centuries ago,

the emblem of the institution is Tut,

god of knowledge and patron of engineers and architects,

the same figure that inspired Pharaoh Khufu.

Mehdi Tayoubi is an expert in strategy and innovation.

He heads numerous projects at the crossroads

of art, science, and technology at Dassault Systemes.

His team of virtual reality and 3D modeling engineers

are fascinated by Egyptian heritage.

In 2009, along with Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian,

they used virtual reality to recreate

the entire Giza Plateau, home of shrines

to Pharaoh Khufu and his Khafra,

the two largest pyramids ever built.

Thanks to Giza 3D and this type of method,

we can now ask new research questions,

we can look at Giza from new perspectives,

whether it's from up in the air,

or inside the Great Pyramid,

or even from underground, looking up towards the tombs.

My goal is to try to blend

this long history of Giza exploration

past, present, and future, and make it all

uniquely linked and accessible.

Hany Helal and Mehdi Tayoubi

co-founded the HIP Institute,

mobilizing scientific institutions,

industrialists, engineers, and artists

to study and preserve cultural heritage.

Their goal?

To see through the pyramids.

For two years, they researched and prepared

the best non-invasive techniques

adapted to these ancient monuments.

(speaking foreign language) We brought different

technological disciplines together

for the ScanPyramids mission.

The first was simulation in 3D,

notably with the engineers at Dassault Systemes

and our partners at Emissive

to prepare the mission as best we could through simulations.

And we brought in specialists in infrared thermography,

notably Jean-Claude Barre

and Laval University in Quebec

to observe the pyramids at different times of the day

and detect anomalies that could indicate

potential empty spaces behind the walls of the pyramids.

Above all, they called upon

experts in cosmic rays,

scientists specializing in the study of muons.

Muons are infinitely small elementary particles

that constantly bombard the earth

and can pass through matter.

These scientists use muons to see variations

in density inside buildings or volcanoes.

Muons allow them to observe rising levels of lava

and predict an upcoming eruption.

But it's much easier to detect magma inside a volcano

than tiny cavities inside a pyramid.

The biggest challenge is adapting their technology

and instruments to the pyramids of Egypt.

(speaking foreign language)

Then the Japanese

University of Nagoya joined us.

And also from Japan, the KEK.

And the CEA, the French Atomic Energy

and Alternative Energy Commission.

(speaking foreign language)

Our first challenge was assembling the team.

Imagine you have French teams, Canadian teams,

Japanese teams, and Egyptian teams

that all need to work together

but with their different cultures,

working methods, and approaches.

Imagine you need to file your request

with the Egyptian authorities and you have to justify

why your project needs such a big team.

(dramatic music)

Hany Helal and Mehdi Tayoubi's

efforts finally pay off.

The ScanPyramids mission is officially launched

before the international press.

It's a new breed of adventure that will unfold

under the aegis of the Ministry of Antiquities,

the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University,

and the HIP Institute.

(speaking foreign language)

We are a team of neutral scientists.

There are several theories about

how the pyramids were built.

We are not taking sides.

Our mission is to find proof, real evidence.

All our results will be submitted to

and analyzed by a group of Egyptologists

from the Ministry of Antiquities.

The goal is to use the latest,

most advanced technologies

and see if they work on the pyramids.

This is the challenge we've set for ourselves.

(audience clapping)

The entire international

ScanPyramids team is present.

The promise of future discoveries inside Egypt's pyramids

quickly makes its way around the world.

They hope advanced technology will help

where previous attempts have failed.

Egypt's ancient pyramids continue to hide many secrets,

but cosmic particles may help unravel their mysteries.

But where do these cosmic particles come from?

And how do they allow us to see through the pyramids?

In the far reaches of our galaxy,

when a dying star explodes,

it releases an incredible amount of energy

that radiates throughout the universe.

When the radiation encounters Earth's atmosphere,

it breaks up into several types of high-energy particles,

including muons.

About 10,000 muons per square yard

hit the Earth every minute.

Muons always move in a straight line.

Depending upon the density of

the material they pass through,

they gradually lose energy until they disintegrate.

A scientific mission wants to place muon detectors

inside the pyramids.

The sensors will record muons passing through

their field of vision, just like a camera captures photons

and this data will let scientists

make a kind of x-ray of the pyramids.

Dr. Kunihiro Morishima, from Nagoya University,

was chosen to get the muography mission underway.

An expert in particle physics,

Dr. Morishima is also a history buff

with a passion for pyramids.

I've known about the pyramids

since I was a boy.

And I've always been impressed by their size and shape.

We already know there are rooms inside the pyramids

that the pharaohs built, so,

why shouldn't there be others that are still hidden?

That's why the pyramids are so fascinating for people,

including me.

But before Dr. Morishima

can set up his equipment inside the Great Pyramid,

he must verify his technique

by proving he can see a chamber in another pyramid

whose inner architecture is already known.

(dramatic music)

This pyramid, located about 20 miles outside Cairo,

was built by Khufu's father, Pharaoh Sneferu.

It's called the Bent Pyramid, due to its unique shape

with two angles of inclination on its slope.

Dr. Morishima developed a motion film to detect muons.

The films are highly fragile and need

to be protected from the heat.

The Japanese scientists get suited up

to brave the dust that has accumulated inside the pyramid,

which has never been open to the public.

(speaking foreign language)

They're really enormous.

Only 1% of the muons can penetrate the pyramid,

but it's still basically the only technology

that can produce images of the inside.

So, I'm really excited about using this method to take on

such a mysterious monument.

Like most pyramids, the main entrance

is located on the north face.

At the end of this corridor,

a ladder allows them to climb to the lower chamber.

This is where they will place the muon detectors.

The stairs lead to the upper part of this chamber,

where there is a tunnel cut through the limestone blocks.

(wind rustling)

The tunnel, which dates from

the construction of the pyramid,

leads to the other burial chamber, the upper chamber.

If the technique works as planned,

the muon films ought to be able to detect it.

(bats chittering)

This is really amazing.

4,500 years.

Even in the ceiling, the blocks are put together well.

And to think this room has been here all this time.

Installing the films is relatively simple,

since no electricity is needed.

A lot of thought went into selecting each spot

during the planning phase of the mission,

but to make sure the data is reliable,

the task requires concentration and meticulousness.

The plates must be perfectly horizontal

to ensure flawless results.

(speaking foreign language)

(speaking foreign language)

In the Bent Pyramid,

conditions weren't conducive at all

to setting up our emulsion films.

It was totally dark, plus there were bats

and lots of dust.

If calculations are correct,

the films will pick up everything above them

in a hundred degree field of view

and, notably, the upper chamber.

If they don't detect it, if the test fails,

it'll be the end of the mission.

But muography requires a lot of waiting.

Exposure to the muons takes 40 days.

40 days, while the ScanPyramids team

worries anxiously over the results of this

initial muography detection.

(overlapping chatter)

Meanwhile, the young engineers at Cairo University

prepare the next phase of the mission.

(dramatic music)

They use 3D scanners to record the exact dimensions

of the pyramid's external and internal architecture.

The data is then sent to Paris.

There, Pierre Gable retrieves it

and uses it to create extremely accurate

3D models of the Great Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid.

At this point, the expertise lies in

preparing the media so it can be used and simulated.

Particularly in the one Benoit is developing,

so there's still a lot of work to do.

Engineer Benoit Marini was involved

with the scientific preparations of the mission.

Now, he's developing a simulator

that will help the muography experts analyze the results.

(speaking foreign language)

The way the simulator works is

we use what we know about the internal structure

of the pyramid to create the image, which,

in theory, the sensors should see.

Then we look and say, "Hey, right here,

"there's a spot that's different,"

which means there's a void in that spot.

The tool is a real asset

because, unlike other existing simulators,

this one operates in real time.

(suspenseful music)

Dr. Morishima has just retrieved the films

he left for 40 days in the Bent Pyramid.

He takes them immediately to a lab

provided for him in the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum.

It's urgent to stop the film's exposure

so they'll only show traces of the muons

taken inside the pyramid.

Only 10 more seconds.

Five, four, three, two, one,

zero.

To do this, he has to develop them

like photographic film.

The process is much like silver elite film development.

Chemicals, fix, wash, dry.

(overlapped chatter)

Today, we will finish? Yes.

(speaking foreign language)

Oh, that's not good.

To guarantee the quality of the results,

the procedure must be carried out precisely.

It's better than I was expecting.

Dr. Morishima's hunt for muons can begin.

I'm glad the films aren't damaged.

That's what I was most worried about.

The muon moves in a straight line.

As we change depths, we can see it going up.

It moves like this.

The films have recorded

millions of muon trajectories.

It's perfect.

They must now be analyzed in detail

and there's only one place on Earth where this can be done.

Back in Japan, the Nagoya team scans the films one at a time

using a machine that exists nowhere else but in their lab.

It's both a scanner and a microscope.

Mehdi Tayoubi and Benoit Marini

have come especially all the way from France

to observe the cutting edge process.

So what is the total resolution of?

The approximate size, 0.5 microns.

So does this kind of make a picture?

Yes. Okay.

(speaking foreign language)

With its 70 sensors,

this machine creates perhaps the world's highest definition

image in one shot.

This machine picks up the minuscule traces

left by the muons that passed through the pyramid.

It records all the information needed

to reconstruct their path.

Using algorithms and immense computing power,

all the traces left by the particles that weren't muons

are automatically filtered out and dismissed.

So that's why you have 36 computer?

Each computer-- To sensor.

To sensor, okay.

Despite the power of this unique machine,

it takes over four weeks to scan all the films

from the Bent Pyramid.

Four weeks during which Dr. Morishima's students

work around the clock in shifts

until the first muographic image of the pyramid

finally emerges.

It's reloading.

We're going to be able to see something.

Hopefully a room.

Here we go.

It's coming, it's coming.

I'm opening it.

Are we going to see the upper chamber?

Here I go.

The fate of ScanPyramids depends on this image.

There's the pyramid.

You can see the edges.

This is the flux.

The X shape is very clear.

It's weaker at the top.

We recognize the four faces of the pyramid

and the summit is clearly visible in yellow at the center.

But what really interests Dr. Morishima's team

is invisible to the untrained eye.

Here's a spot

where a lot of muons penetrated.

So that must be it.

We see the same thing over here, even if we have less data.

We can confirm that we do indeed see a room.

Could this handful of red pixels

represent the upper chamber

that the films were meant to detect?

Could they also reveal a previously unknown cavity?

Next, once we can

see this chamber more clearly,

we'll be able to see if there are others elsewhere.

Then, regarding the volume and the position

we see in our data, we need to compare it to the simulation.

Dr. Morishima's team

discovers the work Pierre Gable did

with his 3D reconstruction of the interior architecture

of the Bent Pyramid.

Next, it's Benoit Marini's turn

to present his muography simulator.

The simulator makes it possible

to produce theoretical muographic results

and compare them to the actual results.

For example, if we imagine the existence of a chamber

of a certain volume within the pyramid,

we can create its muographic trace.

(speaking foreign language)

I didn't think it would work this well.

The simulator confirms

that the Nagoya team has indeed detected

the upper chamber with muons.

On the other hand, no new cavity has been found.

The entire ScanPyramids team heads to Cairo

to present their first results to the Egyptian authorities.

The task of briefing the permanent committee

of the Ministry of Antiquities

on this groundbreaking technology

that is new to Egyptology falls to Hany Helal.

(speaking foreign language)

Over the 40 days

the emulsion films were exposed to muons

in the Bent Pyramid,

they recorded 10 million muons.

I tell you this to give you an idea

of the volume of data that needs to be processed.

He must convince the members of the committee

that muography doesn't harm the pyramid's integrity

in any way and is able to produce credible findings.

It's as if you were

lying on your back, gazing up.

Imagine you're where the films were placed,

like you're lying on the floor of the room.

The muography results demonstrate

that Dr. Morishima's emulsion films

were able to detect the upper chamber.

We demonstrated that the technique works

and that's what convinced them the technology was valid.

So they let us continue working on the Khufu Pyramid.

The committee gives the green light

for the mission to continue,

but it makes another decision as well.

ScanPyramids must present its next findings

to a team of Egyptologists led by the most famous

of them all, Dr. Zahi Hawass.

When Dr. Zahi Hawass

was appointed to head a committee of Egyptologists,

I was a little surprised at first

since the aim was to provide evidence

supporting the presence of structures

and then have the Egyptologists interpret it.

But I didn't imagine Egyptologists

would be able to judge scientific procedures

derived from particle physics.

So, at first I was a little surprised.

But I thought it was an opportunity

to open a dialogue with them a little earlier

than initially planned.

(dramatic music)

After the test run in the Bent Pyramid,

the team can at last tackle the most mysterious

tomb of them all, the pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu.

Before the muography experts

take possession of the premises,

infrared thermography specialists

will try to detect anomalies on the

surface of the Great Pyramid,

areas that could point to the

presence of potential cavities.

Jean-Claude Barre, a specialist in infrared thermography,

and Clemente Ibarra-Castanedo,

from Laval University in Quebec,

spend several days surveying the pyramid.

Pyramid base southeast towards southwest.

32 east north, 31 full face from the corner,

33, 34.

At two different spots in each pyramid,

there's an almost identical temperature difference,

as if there were a difference in density in both spots.

There's a density difference here

between there, there, and there.

If the monument shows abnormal thermal activity

in certain areas, if some zones

are warmer or cooler than the surrounding blocks,

it could signal the presence of a void inside the pyramid.

The sun's going to hit the top of the pyramid

and then go down, so we program the software

to record one image every minute for about two hours.

We're starting with Khufu.

So, recording.

Don't move, I'm recording.

Acquisition.

I was on Khafre, now I'm tracking over

to compare Khufu to Khafre.

To unravel the secrets of the pyramid,

we need to take readings during the day,

at night, in the morning, and evening.

We don't see the same thing at four in the morning

at eight in the morning, in the afternoon

or when the sun is setting.

The time of day is important.

There's something here.

Let's go up.

It's all quite extraordinary.

Horizontal to the chevrons and on the right,

there's cold air coming up.

I don't know why, but the temperature

varies by six, eight, or 10 degrees celsius,

whereas the overall temperature

is currently stable at 24 degrees.

So something's there.

The blue zones are much colder.

We already saw this down on the ground

but from here, at 15 meters, it's even more striking.

In just a few days, Jean-Claude Barre

has detected several anomalies,

but the most significant of all is here,

around the chevrons on the north face of the Great Pyramid.

Could the differences in temperature

point to the presence of an unknown cavity?

Clemente Ibarra-Castanedo is going to take

more infrared thermal readings of the north face.

To increase the accuracy of the findings,

other instruments will be used

to record the slightest variation in wind

and surrounding temperatures.

Observation periods are set in 24 hour cycles.

Despite blustery overnight winds

and extreme daytime temperatures

that wreak havoc with sensitive cameras,

Clemente manages to complete three full observation cycles.

The results of the extended analysis

confirm the presence of a thermal anomaly

around the chevrons.

You have to imagine that

when the pyramid was finished 4,500 years ago,

it was perfectly smooth.

The chevrons were hidden, so they quite probably

had some internal structural purpose.

Inside the pyramids,

ancient Egyptian architects used chevrons

to protect rooms and keep their roofs from collapsing

under the thousands of tons of stone

weighing down upon them.

Theoretically, stone rafters, or chevrons,

indicate the likely presence of a room beneath.

Inevitably, we asked ourselves

a lot of architectural questions.

Why are there so many chevrons

to protect a descending corridor that slopes down?

It seems like a lot of work for such a small passageway.

It's an area that raises lots of questions.

So, then, when Jean-Claude Barre

found thermal anomalies and Laval confirmed them,

we knew we needed to explore further

and there's the descending corridor,

which isn't open to tourists, so we can set up our plates

and no one can touch them.

So let's do it, let's observe.

(dramatic music)

No bats here, like in the Bent Pyramid.

The Nagoya team simply needs to weave its way

through the tourists to carry in their precious

muon detection films.

Following the clues from the infrared thermography mission,

first priority goes to the zone behind the chevrons,

where the large variations in temperature

suggest the presence of a cavity.

With this setup, no cavity located

behind the chevrons should go undetected.

As they had planned from the start,

the team also installs films in another protected area

inside the pyramid: the Queen's Chamber,

off limits to the public.

(light music)

Dr. Morishima has improved the emulsion of his films.

They are now even more resistant to heat and humidity

and can record muons for over 70 days.

Placing the muon detectors in the center of the pyramid

allows them to cover a large part of the monument,

where well-known volumes, such as the Great Gallery,

where the King's Chamber are located.

But the setup in the Queen's Chamber isn't finished.

The ScanPyramids team has asked

Dr. Morishima to place more films

in a small tunnel dug by looters.

(muffled chatter) (dramatic music)

The scientists hope that by combining the muography

from the Queen's Chamber with results from this tunnel,

they can detect the location and size of new chambers.

If we position the films in just one spot,

our vision is limited.

It makes it harder to calculate

the depth of the detected void and also its height.

If we install the plates in two different spots,

we can see from two different angles

and we can estimate the height of what we find.

Meanwhile, back in France,

the team is preparing the next

phase of operations at the CEA,

with Dr. Sebastien Procureur,

specialist in elementary particles and muons.

There are two types of thin traces,

the ones that zig zag a little are electrons,

the traces that are practically straight are the muons.

Sebastien Procureur and his colleagues

are just completing three muon telescopes

specifically designed for the mission.

These ultra sensitive detectors

must be assembled in a dust-free, clean room.

There, there's something.

So, if there's a speck of dust

or defect somewhere--

We'll try to burn it

without taking everything apart.

We can't short circuit the detector.

Oh, because?

If it short circuits, it's all over.

Oh, okay.

Each telescope is equipped with four sensors.

An argon-based gas mixture flows inside the sensors

and allows them to detect muons.

The gas can be dangerous if it leaks out.

In the interest of safety, the team decides

to install the CEA telescopes outside the monument.

(speaking foreign language)

The CEA prototypes

made it through security at Egyptian customs.

(dramatic music)

For now, the telescope is pointed at

the center of the pyramid, but in terms of height,

we want to point it at the notch,

which is about two-thirds up the northeast edge,

so we need to tilt it above the horizon about

45, 50 degrees, then, visually, we're good.

First, the CEA instruments

will be pointed at a mysterious notch,

which has never been clearly understood.

To get a closer look at the notch,

the mission got special permission to climb the pyramid.

(dramatic music)

It's a dangerous business.

Some of the limestone blocks can crumble under foot.

I guess the safety equipment

wasn't such a bad idea.

From up here, the feat accomplished

by the pyramid builders seems more impressive than ever.

Behind the notch platform lies an intriguing hollow

of roughly a hundred square feet.

It's small.

What could this room have been used for?

Was it designed during the construction of the pyramid?

Or created centuries later?

It seems to go pretty far there.

Where?

There, near the top.

Mehdi, Kunihiro, and Sebastien

have brought along an endoscope

to peer behind these large blocks.

What's interesting about this room is that

between the big blocks, we see

orifices with much smaller stones.

We get the impression that some passages extend rather far,

so, it's interesting to try to see as far as possible

what's hidden back there, if there are more big stones or

other structures.

Some architectural theories

suggest there are corridors behind the walls of this room.

Whatever the case, the CEA's telescopes

must first detect this small cavity

in order to prove their effectiveness.

It's their calibration test.

If there are other cavities in this area,

their instruments ought to detect them as well.

The telescopes will be in place for several months

and must remain in exactly the same position

at the same angle of inclination.

The CEA team installs a total of three telescopes

in two different locations on either side

of the northeast edge.

(speaking foreign language)

They must deal with several

unexpected technical problems linked

to the terrain and the heat

which can reach up to 110 degrees at midday.

If the plastic expands, it'll move a bit

and the instruments and detectors won't be in

exactly the same spot, and they won't end up

pointing in the same direction over time,

so we need reinforcement to make it more stable.

The gas mixture takes longer than planned

to circulate through the detectors,

which worries Sebastien Procureur.

What's happening is weird.

We switched it on, it's got power.

I'm trying to connect it with my computer,

but it's not working.

You can stop filming.

After three days,

the technical hiccups have been resolved.

The first traces of muons captured

by the CEA's telescopes begin to appear in real time.

Each dot on the image

is actually the path of a muon.

We've reconstructed about 100,000 muons in eight hours

and the telescopes weren't even at full power.

The fact that we can see the pyramid

after seven or eight hours is pretty promising.

Obviously, it's too early to look for things

because we still have very little data,

but in a few weeks, we'll have

hundreds of times more than what we've got here

and then it will really get interesting.

We're gonna see things.

The scientists are relieved.

Finally, everything's working.

Then, comes a surprise visit

from the Ministry of Antiquities, along with the famed

Dr. Zahi Hawass, now heading the committee of Egyptologists

in charge of examining the mission's results.

The delicate task of making the case

for the mission's techniques

falls to Sebastien Procureur

and Yasser Elshayeb, from Cairo University.

How can I-- Yes?

Trust that this type of things can be accurate?

You can say, "Okay, here there is a cavity,"

because we have more muons, less absorption

and here we don't have any cavity

because we have more absorption.

And you are CEA?

Yes, we are from CEA, France.

All the team are from CEA?

Yes, all the French team are from CEA.

And the other teams?

Japanese are from Nagoya. They are not here today.

Yeah, not here, they're inside the pyramid.

They're inside the pyramid?

Working with the first technique.

Exactly.

But what, really, we need is

when you have a report of the result of the work here.

Yeah. You should

present it to the minister

and the minister will give it to the committee.

The Scientific Committee will evaluate it.

And after that we can think

based on his decision what can we say about

any result inside the pyramid.

We don't want to make balloons.

From a scientific point of view, we are

99% sure that this technique is valid,

this technique will show us everything.

But of course, I mean, we need to--

I have knowledge of,

I'm working in our careers for 45 years.

Technology never showed to me anything convincing at all.

Well, maybe-- How many,

you know, the technology has been done

by ancient universities and Berkeley

and we have many results of rooms inside the pyramids,

but we need, really, something accurate this time.

Okay.

If not, you will completely screw the subject of science

and archeology.

We hope that this technique could be accurate.

Actually, I don't believe

in all this type of techniques, personally.

I hope that I will be wrong and they will show me something

accurate because all the science

that has been done with pyramids for the last 100 years,

it's a result in the air.

Because we know, inside the Great Pyramid there is cavities,

there is, I really believe that

king's burial chamber is still hidden inside.

I do hope that I am wrong and these techniques

will bring something back.

Thank you. Thank you.

(muffled chatter) (laughing)

The visit lasts only 20 minutes,

but it will be reported by every journalist

summoned for the occasion.

(suspenseful music)

Under pressure from the Committee of Egyptologists,

the mission shifts into gear to focus their efforts.

They decide to place the detector brought in by KEK,

the third muography team, inside the Queen's Chamber.

To make room for Professor Takasaki's team

to set up their instrument, Dr. Morishima

has retrieved the first set of films

that was placed there 70 days earlier.

This approach will double their muography findings

and allow them to be compared,

a strategy to obtain unquestionable

and irreproachable scientific results.

(gasping)

We have six people working for

this device and all our assets.

They are well-trained, their expertise.

We're all top cross, to be honest.

I'm not exaggerate.

Professor Takasaki's team

has 20 years experience with

another type of muography instrument,

called a scintillator because it operates

with a special plastic that scintillates

when a muon penetrates it.

This proven technique was used to radiograph

the Fukushima reactors.

After the nuclear accident in 2011,

Professor Takasaki went on site

and, with his scintillators, managed to locate

nuclear waste inside one of the damaged reactors.

For this new mission, Professor Takasaki

has built a scintillator adapted

to the size of the Queen's Chamber,

much more compact than the ones he generally uses.

(muffled chatter)

My main concern is a power cut.

Other than that, everything seems to be going well.

The KEK scintillator

will also observe the upper part of the pyramid.

Will the two Japanese teams see the same thing?

Once the scintillator is in place,

Dr. Morishima positions new emulsion films

in the Queen's Chamber.

The more data they gather, the more reliable

their findings will be.

Now, all the muon detectors are in place.

The KEK scintillator and the Nagoya University films

are set up inside the pyramid

and the CEA telescopes are pointed at the northeast edge.

In photography, it only takes a millisecond

for billions of photons to form an image,

but in muography, it takes several months

to obtain an image, especially with a pyramid

as huge and as dense as this

Now, the only thing to do is wait.

Wait for the muons to reveal

this vessel of immortality's innermost secrets.

For months, Egyptian students

trained in muography techniques monitor the equipment.

They transmit data and sort out issues

with the gas and the internet connection.

They are the guardians of these cosmic ray detectors.

After the long period of data collection,

it's finally time for the marathon of analysis and results.

At the CEA, they analyze the data

from the telescopes pointed at the northeast edge

of the Great Pyramid.

(speaking foreign language)

This is the image we got

with the first telescope.

Over three million muons were reconstructed.

We now have a relatively clear view of the notch

that's two-thirds up along the northeast edge.

The telescopes begin to detect

the cavity behind the notch.

Their technique works perfectly,

but they spot an anomaly above the cavity.

So maybe there's another kind of notch

hidden here.

Maybe.

So if there's another notch here,

we should see even more muons accumulating

right along the edge.

That's it.

After three months of collecting

and analyzing data, Sebastien Procureur

confirms that the CEA's telescopes

have detected another cavity

about 365 feet high and roughly 100 feet

above the notch they visited.

The volume of this new cavity

is similar to the one already known, about 16 cubic meters.

This mission is really a first,

the first time we've detected very tiny voids

at such great distances.

So the cavity behind the notch

is not the only one

and these empty spaces date from the time

the pyramid was constructed.

What was their use?

Did they have a structural function?

Or a symbolic one?

(dramatic music)

Meanwhile, at Nagoya University,

the first films that are scanned and analyzed

are the ones that were placed in the descending corridor

behind the chevrons.

I've aligned them for the first time.

There seems to be something on the vertical axis.

What could it be?

If that shape remains even after

we compare it to the simulation,

it means there could very well be something there.

Could there be something abnormal

in this zone behind the chevrons?

Did the infrared team get it right?

What do you think?

There does indeed

seem to be something there towards the middle.

The Nagoya team is perplexed.

Dr. Morishima doesn't dare believe

he may have found something.

So he heads to Paris to discuss the findings

with the other members of the ScanPyramids mission.

(laughing)

They zero in on a small surplus of muons

that hint at a startling discovery.

The results are compared to Benoit Marini's simulator,

as well as two other simulators used in particle physics.

They spend three days and nights

analyzing and comparing all the data and their simulations.

The team doesn't want to declare victory

before they've checked it several times.

And in the end, they reach the same conclusion.

We have found a big space.

Yes! (laughing)

They have indeed detected a cavity

behind the chevrons.

The rate of certainty?

99.9999%.

To the first discovery of ScanPyramids!

Made by Nagoya University

and Dr. Morishima team!

(overlapping chatter)

Congratulation.

The question is to try to find a shape.

A shape. That could

fit with this animate.

And here we can make live, 3D imports.

But this first discovery brings new questions.

What is the exact shape of the cavity?

What type is it?

A room, a corridor?

If the latter is the case, how far

into the pyramid does it lead?

But Dr. Morishima has more big news.

The films from the Queen's Chamber have detected

another huge anomaly.

You can see, I'm just on our search.

This our result.

And the one little bit.

Yes.

That's the anomaly

and we see it almost all the way to zero.

In terms of length that means.

To explore further,

they must get permission to place more muon films

in other parts of the pyramid.

But before, the team must present their first findings

to the Ministry of Antiquities

and the Committee of Egyptologists

headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass.

It's been a year since the ScanPyramids mission began.

Now it's time to take stock of what has been accomplished.

They must make a convincing case

to obtain the authorizations they need to continue work.

Hany and Mehdi decide to present their first two findings,

the cavity behind the chevrons

and the cavity along the northeast edge.

But they keep the huge anomaly

detected higher up in the pyramid to themselves,

since the scientists haven't had time to analyze it yet.

This time, the meeting with the Egyptologists

will take place behind closed doors, with no cameras.

Can, please, can just you go outside?

That's enough, we are going to begin the conference now.

Leave.

(suspenseful music)

The Committee delivers a mixed decision.

Work on the Great Pyramid may continue

but the two findings are designated as simple anomalies.

Dr. Zahi Hawass and the Committee of Egyptologists

aren't convinced.

The question Zahi Hawass

and the other Egyptologists asked us

was whether the detected voids might be due to a subdensity,

for example, stones that are smaller than others.

In fact, they didn't actually believe that there are voids.

So we had what I call the big stone

versus the little stone episode

and it took some time before we could actually convince them

that muography confirms the presence of voids

and the volume of those voids.

Nevertheless, armed with their new permit

and a detailed plan, the mission teams

head back into the field.

Dr. Morishima places new films

next to the granite blocks and in Al-Ma'mun's passage way

to determine the exact location of the start of the corridor

detected behind the chevrons.

Most importantly, he places new films

in a tunnel dug by treasure hunters

and located just before the King's Chamber,

a key position that should allow him

to visualize the huge anomaly detected

in the upper part of the pyramid.

The anomaly is gigantic.

If the scientists confirm that it is indeed a cavity,

then it could be comparable in size to the Grand Gallery.

No theory has ever supposed a void of this dimension

in this spot.

To reinforce Dr. Morishima's findings,

Hany Helal and Mehdi Tayoubi

ask the CEA to point their three telescopes

towards the center of the north face.

The goal is to have the three muography teams

confirm the presence of the huge cavity

by observing it from different angles,

including from the exterior.

What the scientists don't know yet

is that it will take months more

of unremitting work to verify this discovery.

For months, each team gathers as much data as possible,

working independently, so as not to influence each other.

Now it's the KEK team's turn

to detect the intriguing anomaly.

I don't know yet

whether it's an unknown structure

but I get the impression there's something unusual.

Once their analysis is sufficiently advanced,

all the teams meet in Paris to compare their results.

(muffled chatter)

When we highlight the anomaly,

we see this elongated shape appear.

That means by looking upwards from these two spots,

we found a huge cavity stretching

in the same direction as the Grand Gallery.

This is the proof that we found a large cavity

above the Grand Gallery.

When we moved the scintillator

to the second location, we were able to find

this new structure that confirms Nagoya's findings.

So we need to take out anomaly

and write cavity now!

The CEA has even managed

to detect the cavity from the exterior

and confirms the existence of the enormous void.

The results of Nagoya University,

the KEK, and the CEA are consistent

and all point towards the same spot.

I think this is the first time

telescopes have managed to see structures

very deep inside a pyramid from the outside.

They found a gigantic void

of roughly 520 cubic yards, located between

170 and 230 feet up.

The void is comparable to the volume

of a 200 seat airplane and is at least 100 feet long.

We know we've got a large void here

equivalent in volume to the Grand Gallery.

We know this volume may be accessible from the north face

and maybe we're going to find other cavities,

so basically, we found a new circuit within the pyramid.

We've made discoveries in the pyramid

and we're going to stop talking about

big stones and little stones.

We're finally going to update the map of this pyramid

with major discoveries.

(clapping)

The discovery of this enormous cavity

is a genuine success for the entire team.

(triumphant music)

The young scientists from Nagoya, in particular,

savor their victory.

For two years, they worked nonstop,

developed over 1,000 muon films,

and made some 20 trips to Cairo.

Since no one's been in these chambers

for 4,500 years,

I hope we find old papyrus scrolls,

or even maybe Khufu's mummy.

In any case, what would be amazing

is to find something no one ever even imagined.

Before announcing the news to the entire world,

the team shares the discovery

with Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian,

from Harvard University.

Mehdi and Peter have known each other for nearly a decade

and worked together on the model of the Giza Plateau

as it was 4,500 years ago.

Peter, let me introduce you to Dr. Horishima,

Kunihiro Morishima.

A great pleasure. Nice to meet you.

Peter is an Egyptologist

passionate about new technologies,

just as Mehdi's high tech team

is passionate about ancient Egypt.

They've chosen to present their findings to him

in augmented reality.

(laughing)

I'm seeing a massive area.

Can you explain this one?

It just between 55 meter from the ground to 70 meter.

We find those data.

We don't know if this cavity is horizontal or oblique,

but what I can tell you

is that this cavity is between 400 and 500 cubic meter.

Wow, so you're talking Grand Gallery size.

This is a second cavity that is

potentially as large as the Grand Gallery.

Yes. Incredible.

So now we need to know what the shape of this thing is

and hopefully that would lead to

what the purpose of it is.

Exactly.

So, what we did was Pierre, with him also is Benoit,

is that we have simulated some architecturally purposes.

At this point in their analysis,

there are several potential hypotheses.

One room or many rooms, horizontal

or sloping like a second Grand Gallery.

The second big discovery is this corridor just here,

behind the north face.

The team has managed to determine

that the corridor behind the chevrons

is located 55 to 75 feet above the ground

and is either horizontal or ascending.

Our dream would be that those two discoveries

are connected to each other.

So now, it's a game of relationships.

What's the relationship between these two discoveries?

Absolutely.

So what is this giant new room?

Is it architectural, is it ceremonial, is it religious?

What kind of purpose did it serve?

Was it a store room for burial equipment?

Will we discover furniture

like that found in the tomb of Khufu's mother?

Is the room still intact, like King Tut's tomb

when it was discovered?

Is there some truth to the legend

described in the Westcar Papyrus?

Might it contain Pharaoh Khufu's scrolls

and new insight into the era of the ancient empire?

Today we know that there's a corridor

behind the north face of the pyramid.

We know it starts two meters from the facade,

so maybe it's time to develop some exploratory methods

and, in fact, we have actually started

to come up with some new ideas.

Jean-Baptiste Mouret,

one of the world's top researchers in robotics,

has joined the ScanPyramids mission.

He develops tiny robots that could

fit through a hole barely one inch in diameter.

These robot cameras could photograph

the space inside the cavity behind the chevrons

then explore it by air.

To prepare the next phase of the mission,

the team has also developed a virtual reality experience

that explores the Seventh Wonder of the World

and its new discoveries.

What's great about this mission

isn't just discovering and learning what's

inside the pyramid, but also the fact

that it advances technology and science at the same time.

Any object or scroll

discovered in rooms that have remained untouched

for 45 centuries would be an exceptional discovery.

But already, the detection of these new cavities

is a major advance.

This is the first time since the Middle Ages

that such large structures have been detected

inside this enigmatic monument.

Anyone who tackles this pyramid

endures the test of time and patience

as we get ever closer to solving the mystery of Khufu.

(dramatic music)