The most exciting discovery I ever made was that of the secret doors deep inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. The story goes back to 1993, when I closed the Great Pyramid for a full year to prevent damage from any further humidity inside of the Pyramid. The humidity was being created by visitors wandering inside the amazing structure, each of whom was emitting 20 grams of water through breathing.

I thought I should create a ventilation system for the Pyramid, and for this reason alone I decided to close it.

I lived in a rest house near the Great Pyramid for years and quickly became accustomed to watching its magic at both sunrise and at sunset. Even when I entered the Pyramid in the evening to meditate or to observe the construction of the Grand Gallery, I wondered if it held any further secrets to be discovered — I even began to clean the five chambers located above the King’s Chamber to see the inscriptions they held, and removed stone rubble from the site. At the same time as we were doing this work, we found out that many New Age people and other pyramidiots, as I call them, were making up stories that I was actually hiding within the chambers things that belonged to some lost civilization!

Due to my interest in the Great Pyramid, I contacted my friend Rainer Stadelmann, who was then the director of the German Archeological Institute in Cairo, and asked that he design a special ventilation system for it. Rainer brought a man named Rudolf Gantenbrink to begin work in the shafts of the third chamber. The two shafts are located in the north and south of the chamber and measure approximately 20 centimeters by 20 centimeters each. Gantenbrink brought a robot that was only 9 centimeters tall and named Wepwawet, an ancient Egyptian name meaning ‘the one who opens the road (or way).’

The robot went inside with its onboard camera, which was connected to a screen in the chamber. It was amazing to see that the blocks inside of the Pyramid were each interlocked —I believe it is likely that this helped inspire the Arabs who, upon arriving in Egypt and seeing the Pyramids, exclaimed, “Man fears time, but time fears only the Pyramids.”

We then launched further investigations in the second chamber, which is often incorrectly called the ‘Queen’s Chamber.’ This was what the Arabs called it when they came to Egypt in the ninth century AD. They did not know at that time that the queens were entombed in small pyramids to the east of the Great Pyramid. Gantenbrink ran the robot into the north shaft of the second chamber and, after 60 feet, it could not proceed any further — it came to a dead stop because the shaft was bent and did not lead in a straight line as expected.

Courtesy of Zahi Hawass Hawass’ team used robots to explore the previously inaccessible reaches of the Pyramids.

The robot was then put into the south shaft of this same chamber. It made a journey of 200 feet, and then stopped in front of a door with two copper handles. A small piece of copper was also discovered in front of the door on the ground.

On the same day that Gantenbrink found this door, the followers of the god Seth appeared, as did the head of the antiquities authority at that time. This man was so jealous of my success that he began to attack me, even making the decision that I would be removed from Giza. I resigned my position and left Egypt for Los Angeles and took up residence at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), to do research. While I was there, that same head of antiquities was fired, so I returned to my job again, always dreaming of how I could uncover the true secrets of the Pyramids.

In 2001, National Geographic chose me as an Explorer in Residence, and I told them that my dream was to discover what was behind the doors in the shafts of the second chamber of the Great Pyramid. They signed a contract with an institution to construct a new robot that they called Rover. I decided to make this investigation a live event so that everyone could see that we were not hiding anything, to stop the spread of ridiculous rumors.

After proper preparation, we began our investigation by sending the robot into the south shaft opening at 4:50am. What was a surprise for all of us was that there was a second door after the first one! This discovery was an exciting surprise for me, but to others it was a disappointment because they thought we would discover gold and other treasure after the first set of doors.

Later, we sent the robot into the north shaft and found that the shaft bent to the left after 60 feet and then again right after another 24 feet. After 200 feet, the robot stopped in front of another door. I realized that the reason for the turns in the shaft was to avoid the Grand Gallery.

Courtesy of Zahi Hawass Dr. Hawass with Rover

I do believe that Khufu still hides in his burial chamber inside the Great Pyramid. Some scholars claim that the doors in the shafts are symbolic — that the king would metaphorically open them to travel to the other world, but I believe that the doors are hiding real secrets, including Khufu’s chamber.

Last month, I met a young man from Singapore University, and he showed us all the steps we could follow to reveal the secrets behind the doors. Is he right? Perhaps, perhaps not. We will continue to meet with other people until we come to the right ones, those who can reveal the secrets of the Pyramids. I believe that 2006 will be the year that what is hidden in the chambers of the Pyramids will be revealed.

Ipicked up the latest AUC Press offering from Zahi Hawass, Egyptology’s foremost archaeologist and a noted expert on the legendary King Tut, anticipating great things, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Hawass serves up an expansive and exciting look into the life, times and death not only of Tutankhamun himself, but of those who uncovered his tomb 3,000 years after his death. With a combination of rare and archival photographs, many unique to this publication, this tome is easily one of the hottest collectibles in print concerning Tut or antiquities in Egypt in general.

Hawass places Tutankhamun and all of his relatives in their place of importance as he sees them in both the ancient history of Egypt and in their impact on archeology as a science. Herein you will learn many of the secrets of the famous Valley of the Kings, of the heretical King Akhenaten and of Tut’s beautiful sister Nefertiti. Hawass’ honesty in approach to the subject suffers no fools, and it was hard not to laugh out loud as he dispatched many a myth that had surrounded the boy king since his uncovering by Howard Carter in 1922.

A more complete or more enjoyable read on the subject is unlikely to appear on shelves in our generation.

As the monumentally successful tour of Tutankhamun’s treasures makes its way around the sold out exhibition halls of North America, this book couldn’t have been released at a more appropriate time.

This month marks the first of Dr. Zahi Hawass’ monthly contributions to Egypt Today. On alternating months, Hawass will write a ‘From the Notebook’ column and, on off months, sit for an interview with a member of Egypt Today’s editorial staff to discuss current developments in archaeology.

As secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Hawass is a man of many interests, talents and honors, but the subject about which he is most passionate is the preservation and reclamation of Egypt’s ancient treasures.

In recognition of his contributions to modern archaeology and his quest to have stolen treasures returned to Egypt, Time magazine named him one of this year’s “100 Most Influential People,” saying he ranked among the “men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world.”

Hawass’ name appears on the list alongside the world’s most accomplished politicians, brilliant scientists and famous celebrities.  et