A pair of French Egyptologists who suspect they have found a previously unknown chamber in the Great Pyramid urged Egypt's antiquities chief to reconsider letting them test their theory by drilling new holes in the 4,600-year-old structure. Jean Yves Verd'hurt and fellow Frenchman Gilles Dormion, who has studied pyramid construction for more than 20 years, are expected to raise their views during the ninth International Congress of Egyptologists in Grenoble, France, which starts Monday. They also published a book about their theory this week. Standing in their way is Zahi Hawass, the director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, who heatedly rejected the theories during a Cairo press conference this week.

"There are 300 theories concerning hidden rooms and other things inside the pyramid, but if I let them all test their theories they will do untold damage to the pyramid, which was built with the blood of Egyptians,'' said Hawass. "I will not let Egyptian blood be damaged by amateurs.'' He said earlier requests from the same pair were turned down in 1999 and 2003.

View: Full Article | Source: The Guardian

Why is it that whenever there is the possibility that new information about the ancient Egyptians is about to be discovered, the Egyptian Government always pulls the plug on those doing the research?

Why are they so afraid of what might be discovered? Because it might be more evidence that they weren't built by Egyptians as they existed at the time Orthodox thought has them being built? Is it because and OLDER civilization may have built them?

Don't they realize that knowledge can't be held back- it always gets discovered.

*shakes head*

Hawass has built his career, fame and fortune about an orthodox version of history, and has little to gain if he is wrong or something disproves his held beliefs. On the otherhand, he does have a point, you can't just let anyone drill holes in an ancient structure like that just because they have a book to promote.

If there is to be little damage, and if the information might prove valuable, I would give them a shot- and this project would be doing more than promoting a book... it would be increasing the warehouse of knowledge about who we are, where we came from... and possibly where we're going.

This isn't the first time he's pulled the plug on projects like this. The first robot exploration for instance, minor excavations around the Sphinx that uncovered evidence that the Sphinx could very well have been made 10,000 years earlier than thought (at the end of the last ice age), deep sonar projects at the Sphinx that seems to indicate a squareish cavern under the front paws of the Sphinx.

He's not helping Egyptologists and historians with his refusals... he's hindering the advance of knowledge so that Egypt can keep it's status as a Founding Civilization, and his own status as a pre-eminient Egyptologist.

This is getting rediculous. The hall of records could be there or something. we really need this knowledge.

Sigh, humans just love to only hear/accept the version of history that is most beneficial to themselves. They have to let thos frenchmen have a go, they have no right to stop work into uncovering our amazing past!