Egyptologists have downplayed claims by two French archaeologists who have announced that they had found evidence of the precise location of the entrances to some of hidden passages in the largest of Egypt's pyramids, Khufu (Cheops) on the Giza Plateau, according to a report by Egypt Revealed.com.
Recently, two French archaeologists, Jacques Bardot and Francine Darmonthe, said they used a sophisticated architectural database of royal funeral sites from the first through the sixth dynasties, and macrophotographic techniques to closely examine hundreds of meters of walls within the pyramid, the French researchers are now so certain of their findings that they are prepared to present them to the Egyptian government and request a joint Franco-Egyptian team investigation, said the report.
However, Zahi Hawass, the Undersecretary of State for the Giza Plateau told Egypt Revealed that he does not know about any evidence of hidden cavities, and that he does not believe that any such cavities exist. Hawass went on to say, "If the director of the pyramids knows nothing about what they are saying, it means that it is not true.”
Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, an Egyptologist with the Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale (IFAO) based in Cairo, who is not associated with the researchers, was unavailable for comment when contacted by the online news service. However, he was recently quoted in an ABC News Online Sci-Tech article as saying 'the two archaeologist's claims should be treated with "the most extreme caution."
The ABC also reported that the department of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre museum in Paris "did not know" the two scientists in question - Jacques Bardot and Francine Darmon, said the report – Albawaba.com
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