NEW: Five Things We Could Find Behind Great Pyramid's Hidden Door

Hello everybody and welcome to Ancient Architects. Please subscribe to the channel for regular content on ancient architecture as well as all the latest news from the world of archaeology. Following on from my last video, where I looked at what could be waiting to be discovered in the Great Pyramid Big Void, today I'm turning my attention to the door at the end of the is because the same team investigating the big void will first be looking behind this door to see what, if anything, lies beyond it. And this mission is more than 20 years in the making. The door was discovered during the Pyramid Rover mission of 2002, a continuation of the work started by Rudolf Gantenbrink in the 1990s. Gantenbrink first sent his robot called Upoar II up the Queen's Chamber southern channel and he famously discovered a door at the end, now known as Gantenbrink's Door, and this surprised everyone. But because of the winding nature of the opposing northern channel, his robot could only go so far. Sadly, and for various reasons, Gantenbrink was not invited back to Egypt to continue his work, and so Pyramid Rover, a collaboration between the Egyptian authorities and National Geographic, took over. Pyramid Rover not only reached the end of the northern channel and discovered another almost identical door with copper pins, but it also drilled through Gantenbrink's Door in the southern channel and looked beyond it. And this was screened live around the world, and I think the somewhat forced excitement from Zahi Hawass when he sees what he calls a second door will live in infamy. We can see another sealed door. Another sealed door? And what are these markings on the door? There seems to be a black mark or is that a crack? It's a crack, it's a crack. Wow. In another sealed door. He said on air that behind the door of the southern shaft was in fact another door, but it clearly wasn't. Beyond the door at the end of the Queen's Chamber southern channel is nothing more than a small space, and then we get the standard pyramid core masonry. It was a dead end, and the door was likely nothing more than a temporary cover to keep out the dust, sand, rain and creatures during construction. Unlike the channels emanating from the King's Chamber, the Queen's Chamber southern channel did not reach the edge of the pyramid, and it also did not lead to any kind of secret compartment or chamber. We just have a small space, and the camera on Pyramid Rover could only see straight ahead. Another decade would go by before we took another look inside, and this time it was thanks to the Jedi mission. It took over from where Pyramid Rover left off, and this time the camera on the rover could look around the space behind the door. There were no objects on the floor, but there were a number of red ochre markings, workers markings that were just left in situ. In all honesty, it was a somewhat anticlimactic ending to the Queen's Chamber southern channel saga, but for me that's okay, because it's still important work worth doing, because it solved yet another pyramid mystery. No longer did we have to wonder and speculate as to what was hiding behind the Ganton Brink door. Now we all knew the answer definitively, and pyramid theorists now had more concrete data to plug into their models. We now had to come up with a viable explanation as to why the pyramid builders went to so much trouble to carefully construct this narrow passage, but only for it to lead nowhere. It is a true pyramid mystery, but explanations have been given by various researchers, including myself. So now we turn to the Queen's Chamber northern channel, because we have a second door at the end, identical to Ganton Brink's door. It was discovered more than 20 years ago, and nobody has ever seen beyond it. So what's it hiding? Is it just another small, empty space, or could there be something else? Of course, we can all speculate, but until we find out for sure, we'll never know with any certainty. Therefore, for the rest of this video, I'll give you 5 possibilities as to what lies beyond the door at the end of the Queen's Chamber northern channel. Number 1. Another Small Space. When the camera finally looks behind this door, it's very possible we'll just find another small, empty space, just like what we see with the Queen's Chamber southern channel. The space could be bigger, it could be smaller, or it could be the same, with the channel being blocked off with the standard pyramid limestone. And this to me, is the most likely option, because it means the northern channel is the same as the southern channel. Both emanate from the Queen's Chamber, and both were blocked at both ends. At the higher end of each channel is a door with copper pins, and at the lower end, they were both blocked by the limestone wall blocks of the Queen's Chamber. After their chance discovery in the 1870s, Wayman Dixon and James Grant had to smash through the limestone wall blocks to open up the channels, and hence proving they would never open in history. In form, the Queen's Chamber channels pretty much mirror those that emanate from the King's Chamber above. But whilst the latter run from the King's Chamber and all the way to the exterior, the former are like two abandoned channels lost in the pyramid masonry. And I do think I know why. And it's all to do with how the pyramid was built. I believe the Great Pyramid was built in stages, with Stage 1 being the stepped core structure, Stage 2 was turning the stepped structure into a true pyramid with the addition of backing stones, and Stage 3 was adding the casing. When Stage 1 was complete, all the chambers, passages and channels of the Great Pyramid were complete. I believe the four channels of the Great Pyramid all reached the edge of the Stage 1 stepped structure, like this, but none of them opened into their respective chambers. Then it was decided how to finish the pyramid. Many believe the Queen's Chamber was nothing more than a contingency burial chamber, built in case the bold plan of the King's Chamber failed. But at the end of Stage 1, it was clear the King's Chamber was a success. The enormous granite beams were structurally sound, and so the architect decided the Queen's Chamber was no longer needed. The Queen's Chamber air channels did not need to continue through the backing stone of Stage 2 and also the casing stone of Stage 3. They also did not need to be opened up into the chamber. The chamber was never going to be used. The small doors with copper pins, aka the sand, rain and dust covers used during construction, were just left in situ, and the channel terminations were just covered up with backing stone, the Stage 2 stone that was added to turn the stepped structure into a true pyramid. Meanwhile, in the King's Chamber, the channels were extended through the backing stone, and by chiselling through the granite they were also opened up in the King's Chamber. So, this is exactly why I think there's nothing to find beyond the door in the Queen's Chamber Northern Channel. To me it's clear they were abandoned during the pyramid's construction, and I do believe we will find another small empty space. Number 2. Workers' Markings Whether or not I'm right or wrong about what's behind the door, whether there's just a dead end or something else, just as we see behind the door in the Southern Channel, it is possible we find red ochre workers' markings. As we've seen in the relieving chambers above the King's Chamber, and also behind the door in the Queen's Chamber Southern Channel, workers' markings were left on the stonework, and I believe this is because they were parts of the pyramid never meant to be seen. They didn't need a fine finish and they didn't need to be cleaned. The blocks of stone could be left as they were placed, because as I mentioned in my last video, the builders of Ancient Egypt were nothing if not efficient. And by workers' markings, all we might find is lines and symbols, but if we got lucky we could get the names of a workers' gang or even a cartouche of the King, and this of course would be a very exciting find. It may be hard to understand the meaning of some of the red ochre markings, but if there is legible ancient writing, it could give us something new to help us date the pyramid. Number 3. The Big Void Because of the orientation of the Queen's Chamber Northern Channel, I've seen people speculate that it could lead into the yet unseen big void above the Grand Gallery. And this would be incredible, giving us a direct access point into the void for robotic exploration, even a way to get a drone inside. But is this really a credible idea? Well, the first problem we have is that I'm yet to see the Northern Channel perfectly mapped onto a 3D diagram of the Great Pyramid, and this is important because this channel is very different to the other three in the Great Pyramid. It bends considerably, and also a number of times at different angles and inclinations. Measurements and the degree and orientation of the bends were published in writing by the Pyramid Rover team in 2002, but it is hard to visualise these measurements in relation to the known pyramid chambers and also the big void. I think in a 2D cross section it could look something like this, meaning there is a slim possibility the two structures could join up, but only if the big void turns out to be horizontal or near horizontal. If the big void is inclined like the Grand Gallery, then there's no way the two structures are connected. But my diagram is very rough and ready. The positioning of the void and the Northern Channel are mere guesswork based on written observations. So instead, if we use the published diagrams by the Scanned Pyramids mission, what do we see? Well, according to the Scanned Pyramids team, the big void and the end of the do not marry up in any way, shape or form. In their diagrams, whether the big void is horizontal or inclined, it completely misses the end of the Queen's Chamber Northern Channel. Therefore, I'm afraid to say that I don't think the big void is hiding behind this small door. 4. The Mummy of Khufu I believe it was Zahi Hawass who once speculated we might find the mummy of King Khufu in a chamber behind this door. But saying that, and over the years he's also said it could be beneath the Queen's Chamber, beneath the North Face Corridor, inside the big void and of course in the King's Chamber. Hawass seems to live in hope that Khufu is still hiding inside the Great Pyramid and although I could well be wrong, I do think it's one of his motivations to explore the newly discovered spaces inside the Great Pyramid, to try and make that elusive discovery of King Khufu. And although the probability of finding Khufu behind this door is, in my opinion, less than 1%, whatever the motivations of Zahi Hawass, I am glad he's finally agreed to push forward and take a look. Because whatever we think or whatever we hope is hiding behind the door, at the end of the day we just need to take a look, end any speculation and also add to our ever-expanding Great Pyramid dataset. 5. A Secret Chamber In the past 30 or so years since Gantenbrink found the first door with copper pins at the Queen's Chamber Southern Channel, there was always speculation of a possible hidden chamber behind it and we also had the same speculation with the discovery at the Northern Channel door. But now the Pyramid has been nuanced scanned, this idea can pretty much be put to bed. Because only the North Face Corridor and Big Void appeared on the scans, there were no other hidden chambers waiting to be discovered. There are also no known chambers or passages near the termination of the Queen's Chamber Northern Shaft and so it would be strange if the only entrance into a secret chamber is this small channel. A channel that has the same width as a stretched out human hand as we can see right here. I guess the probability of a chamber at the end all comes down to how you interpret the channels and so anyone promoting the idea of a secret chamber behind the door would need a solid explanation as to what the function of the Queen's Chamber channels was, why there would be a secret chamber over here and how people got into it. All in all, I think it is very, very unlikely we'll find a secret chamber behind this door but trust me when I say I'd love to be proven wrong. So in my opinion, they are the 5 possibilities of what lies beyond the door at the end of the Queen's Chamber Northern Channel. But in my opinion, I feel about 90% sure that option 1 is correct, that we're going to find another empty space and I also think it's very possible we could see some red ochre markings on the walls, ceiling or floor. I really don't think it will lead to a secret chamber, the big void or the mummy of Khufu and although the truth is likely to be far more mundane than some hope, once again, I do think the mission to see behind the door is super important because it puts a line under another pyramid mystery. If we don't explore it, there will always be speculation and all that credible pyramid researchers really want is more hard data and facts to work with because that's the only way our knowledge can grow and the only way we can solve the mystery of the Great Pyramid. And we should get to see behind the door in the Northern Channel this year, more than 20 years after it was discovered. The mission is now full steam ahead as explained by Matt Bell in a And for me, this is quite a big deal. Pictures of the interior of this channel had been lost ever since the Pyramid Rover mission of 2002, with only one or two pictures floating around the internet. But in 2021, after reaching out to various people, I was able to get my hands on 52 images of the Queen's Chamber Northern Channel. Pictures that documented every part of this hidden structure that culminated with the door. And for me personally, this was a big deal, because it felt like I'd finally contributed something real to pyramid research and I was more than happy to publish the images free on YouTube for everyone to see. And in my opinion, this is exactly what all pyramid researchers should be doing when they have new data, to share it with the world. I'm glad the team exploring behind the Northern Channel door in the big void will be sharing their findings, and 2026 could well be one of the most exciting years for those interested in the Great Pyramid. My own opinions of what lies beyond the door and also what's inside the big void may be a little cautious and mundane, but it's better to play it safe and avoid disappointment. Whatever the experts find, they will be making history. They'll be looking at parts of the Great Pyramid that have remained hidden for 4,500 years and I for one can't wait to see what they find. Thank you very much for watching this episode of Ancient Architects. If you enjoyed the video, please subscribe to the channel, please like the video, and please leave a comment below. Thank you very much!