An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs...It's unclear whether these caves are actually "under the pyramids" or just in the plateau that includes the pyramids. I would like to be excited by the news, but there may be less to it than meets the eye, if this is primarily prepublication hype for a forthcoming book.
Collins, who will detail his findings in the book "Beneath the Pyramids" to be published in September, tracked down the entrance to the mysterious underworld after reading the forgotten memoirs of a 19th century diplomat and explorer...
With the help of British Egyptologist Nigel Skinner-Simpson, Collins reconstructed Salt's exploration on the plateau, eventually locating the entrance to the lost catacombs in an apparently unrecorded tomb west of the Great Pyramid...
Indeed, Giza was known anciently as Rostau, meaning the "mouth of the passages."
On the other hand, Zawi Hawass' dismissal of the discovery seems equally inappropriate, perhaps just reflecting his own not insubstantial ego:
Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has dismissed the discovery. "There are no new discoveries to be made at Giza. We know everything about the plateau," he stated.Via NAACAL.
I'm for anything Zahi Hawass is against! That man is a jackass....
ReplyDeleteDidn't Lord Kelvin declare around the end of the 19th century that there was nothing left for science to discover?
ReplyDeleteGot to agree with anon -- Hawass is an ass. Anything that's discovered becomes "his" discovery by virtue of his position as the head of Antiquities in Egypt. But you can't argue he hasn't helped increase tourism in Egypt! He's a promo machine!
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