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Comment by avar | Hacker News Reader

This diagram shows a shaft going into this void from two sides. I was wondering why they don't send a robot down into those.

Seems the answer is that they have, but there's something blocking the shaft and they're not willing to destroy it any further for some reason:

http://guardians.net/hawass/articles/news_on_the_robot_Dec_2...

http://www.crystalinks.com/gantenbrink.html

http://www.gizapower.com/Articles/door2.html

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The diagram only shows the shaft intersecting the void because it is a 2D projection of overlapping 3D volumes. In reality the shafts pass next to, but do not intersect with, the purported void.

"...for some reason:" - they shouldn't be allowed to destroy such an important monument to satisfy their curiosity.

A) proper digging shouldn’t destroy the monument. B) removal of parts of the structure is how we know what’s in it at all. The same is true for any othe other monuments that are structures. We had to dig through the valley of the kings to find the tombs. If we don’t breech the obstruction, we won’t understand the thing.

It's at the very least, a double-edged sword. You're essentially condoning grave robbing.

Traditional archaeology is well documented, controlled, and destructive.

You two are not in contradiction.

Except 'grave robbing' implies a malice and questionable morality. There is great value in doing this and well documented/controlled excavation can minimize destruction to the very minimum.

This entire planet is one mass grave. We only respect the dead for a limited period of time. (No one who died over 20k years ago has much in the way of cultural defenders...) At the 3k+ range, I think we can get a pass...

It seems like this is itself a demonstration there are alternative techniques.

There are new techniques for discovering things. Once we know there is a void, at present, no number of muons will help us see details. Perhaps we’ll learn how they built the thing. There are a great many marvels from Egypt that defy our current understanding of their tech.

Also perhaps they're not sure that destroying the obstacle won't cause a tunnel collapse, or otherwise harm their research more than help it.

100% agree. Let's wait, been waiting for millennia already. Otherwise, next year another team has another curiosity that requires just a small hole...and 2000 years later the thing is crumbling.

I don't think that a 12 inch hole drilled big enough for a drone in a section of the pyramid that is protected from the weather and not visible to the public is "Destroying a monument".

Do you think that the DNA test of King Tut was also destruction?

If someone has the authorization to bore a hole, it will be much smaller than that (the current target would be 1-2 inches).

Given the wholesale robbery that early Egyptologists got up to (mummy-unwrapping parties were a popular social event in 19th-century England), one can perhaps excuse the Egyptian authorities for being a bit overprotective.

I was at the Vatican museum recently and was surprised to see most sculptures appeared to be permanently damaged for embedding a number label. (example: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hvqlG6iPcP8/UGzso1C3AcI/AAAAAAAAJF...)

I agree with you, let’s not be arrogant, like in the past, and destroy what we should save for future generations.

I was also there in april, and I am surprised the tourists and kids are left unattended, taking selfies, touching everything. It's an accident waiting to happen. Most tourists (ashamed to admit, but this includes me) don't actually appreciate or care about ancient art, it's more like been there, done that.

I'd encourage people to chide tourists that touch historic objects in museums. People should know better and while I suspect they dont care (from when I've done this many a time), it's worth trying!

Future generations will really appreciate that plugged shaft!

Is that part of the original sculpture? It looks like a modern pedestal constructed for it to me.

You are right, but that was just an example I found on the web. Here is another one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Sculptur...

A few more:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2693/4094114491_b9ae422af4_b.j...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4293/35910672716_90f1f62105_k....

Art is restored all the time. The places these labels were put are not where the valuable details rest. I grew up around antique collectors all my life. You are overreacting.

Indeed, plenty of famous art pieces have been 'fixed' and if you really wanted to revert a statue back to it's original form removing the number plate would be an easy job and do wouldn't take away from the real artistic parts of it. As they were placed on the flat base of the pedestal, not touching the primary artwork which is the statue itself.

Sure they could find far better solutions, and very likely would today. But I don't think this is a particularly big deal that it was done in the past.

you know, I never noticed the number labels, but I did notice all the fig leaves ...

https://realhousewifeadventures.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/fig...

Dude, I saw what appeared to be keyed names and tags on Raphael's wall paintings there. I couldn't believe my eyes.

What's the point of having monuments if you can't look at them?

Um, no. The diagram is 2D, pyramid is 3D; by losing one dimension, disjoint objects seem connected. Even in the image, shaft passes behind the void, not through it.

(In other words, this is not a girl with a tree growing out of her head, either: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/188/434949407_3271582421_z.jpg... )

Fair point, if a touch aggressive

Agree. Instead of just educate, gp decided to present him/herself as a superior person for noticing this "obvious" insight

How can you be so certain? The picture alone provides no clue. It would be unheard of for a tree to grow out of someone's head, but strictly speaking not categorically impossible. In fact, for the sake of argument the only reason you're able to make that statement at all is due to your previous experience. There's nothing at all in the picture that tells you she doesn't have a tree growing out of her head.

Not sure how highly I would rate crystalinks.com as a source, given that they also talk about how viewing repeated digits 'activates' your DNA... http://www.crystalinks.com/11.11.html

That last link of yours is worth reading through carefully. It puts forward the theory that the pyramid of Giza is a power plant. Pretty cool conspiracy theory!

This shaft is 4500 years old. I wonder how many people have been down it.

It seems arrogant to call the "big void" a discovery, being that someone actually built the big void.

I would expect this "discovery" has been discovered a few dozen times, considering the age of the pyramids, but previous discoveries were lost to history.

"discovery" in the sense that the modern world previously had no understanding that it existed. It is the same logic that Columbus discovered America-- obviously it existed but the discovery was revealing it to the rest of the world.

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