The Djedi Project is not just the new mission to explore the pyramid shafts—it truly is the next generation in robotic archaeology. Beginning with Waynman Dixon’s iron rods, researchers have been probing the Great Pyramid’s mysterious claustrophobic passageways for 140 years. But now, using technology designed for uses as divergent as space exploration and terrestrial search and rescue, we are finally able to explore the chamber behind Gantenbrink’s Door.
Picking up where we left off with Pyramid Rover, this Em Hotep exclusive covers how the Djedi Team won the “Robot Olympics in the Desert”, the members who make up the team, the specifics of the robot’s design, and the results of Djedi’s maiden voyage up QCS and into the chamber behind the first blocking stone. Through interviews and exchanges with the Djedi Project manager, Shaun Whitehead, as well as other team members, this article promises to be the resource for the published Djedi material to date.
Last May the Project Djedi Team caught the world’s attention, and imagination, when they announced that the robot crawler designed to explore the southern shaft leading out of the Queen’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid had transmitted back images of markings left behind by the pyramid’s builders. Hidden behind a “door” that had either thwarted or limited previous attempts to investigate the shaft, the markings prompted much speculation about their nature and purpose.
The Djedi Project was back in the headlines at the end of December when New Scientist magazine named the discovery one of the Top 10 Science Stories of 2011. For the next few articles, Em Hotep will bring you up to date on the history of the exploration of the mysterious shafts in the Great Pyramid. This current article will cover the ground from Waynman Dixon up to the Pyramid Rover Project, with the next article focusing exclusively on Project Djedi. This will be followed by a couple of very special interviews you will not want to miss..
Hidden Hieroglyphs in the Great Pyramid:3D Video Report Dassault Systèmes—an excellent video produced by the wizards of 3D animation at Dassault Systèmes (posted to YouTube May 30, 2011)
The best article online regarding the Djedi Project, and I don’t just say that because I wrote it! This article covers how the Djedi Team won the “Robot Olympics in the Desert”, the members who make up the team, the specifics of the robot’s design, and the results of Djedi’s maiden voyage up QCS and into the chamber behind the first blocking stone. The result of interviews and exchanges with the Djedi Project manager, Shaun Whitehead, as well as other team members.
The history of the exploration of the pyramid shafts beginning with their discovery by Waynman Dixon through the Upuaut and Pyramid Rover Projects. A must-read if you want the full background leading up to the Djedi Project.
Em Hotep’s coverage of the release of the preliminary findings of the glyphs in the QCS chamber, and the excitement that followed.
Websites and Journal Articles
Zahi Hawass Official Website:The Djedi Team Robot—Zahi Hawass (no date listed)
I selected the Djedi team during a competition that I coordinated to pick the best possible robot to explore the shafts in the Great Pyramid. I decided on a team sponsored by Leeds University and supported by Dassault Systèmes in France.
Scoutek, ltd
The official website of Scoutek, the company founded by Shaun Whitehead, and which is providing management and systems engineering for the Djedi Project.“Scoutek is solidly based on over 40 years of experience in exploration and inspection technology, in the arenas of terrestrial, archaeological, space and subsea.”
3D Perspectives:Exclusive 3D reconstruction of the Djedi robot findings in the Great Pyramid—by Mehdi Tayoubi (May 31, 2011)
But 3D is not only a tool for engineers and we believe that the best way to experience this adventure for yourself is through 3D experiences we are able to deliver. We spent this weekend capturing images in real-time, in a virtual 3D world, to help the public -all publics- understand what the robot has seen.
Leeds University Faculty of Engineering News:Djedi robot expedition reports findings—no author listed (May 26, 2011)
Pictures from inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu, gathered by a robot explorer designed by University of Leeds engineers, together with Scoutek, UK and Dassult Systèmes, France, have been published…The team has committed to completing the work by the end of 2011. Full results of the work will be published in due course. The next report is expected to be issued in early 2012 after completion of the work.
They might be ancient graffiti tags left by a worker or symbols of religious significance. A robot has sent back the first images of markings on the wall of a tiny chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt that have not been seen for 4500 years. It has also helped settle the controversy about the only metal known to exist in the pyramid, and shows a “door” that could lead to another hidden chamber.
Top secret mission on the Giza Plateau: Under the strictest of secrecy and on instruction of the controversial Egyptian minister for antiquities, Zahi Hawass, a new mini robot crept through the passageways of the Pyramid of Cheops on the 29th May 2010. Its aim: To search for previously undiscovered secret chambers of the Pharaoh.
Antiquity Lives:New robot set to explore mysterious shafts in Egypt’s Great Pyramid—by Aaron (no last name listed) (October 20, 2010)
A robotics team from the University of Leeds, working in conjunction with the Supreme Council and Dassault Systèmes in France, have already made two examinations and are currently waiting on the green light for a third.
Projects Magazine:Djedi robot to enter the Great Pyramid of Khufu—by Adelle Kehoe (August 08, 2010)
A research team from the University of Leeds is set to discover secrets from Ancient Egypt using a specially designed robot. The tunnels the robot are set to explore have not been entered for over 4,500 years.
Alan Alford’s Blog:Robot to probe Great Pyramid in 2009—by Alan Alford (December 25, 2008)
Fifteen years have gone by since Rudolf Gantenbrink’s robot unexpectedly revealed a copper-handled “door” in the southern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber during a routine survey of the Great Pyramid’s shafts in 1993.
News Articles
Dentistry IQ (via South China Morning Post):Dentist has to wait to get his teeth into history; Hong Kong practitioner’s search for pyramid’s last secret is put on hold by the uprising in Egypt—by Adrian Wan (May 29, 2011)
Because of the protests, Hawass has told the team to put off their exploration for safety reasons.But the Causeway Bay dentist for 30 years said he could not wait to get inside and resume work on the project of his dreams.”I’m not afraid of protesters .We’ll be working inside the very secure pyramid anyway,” he said. “We’ve been on the project for nine years and I really can’t wait to find out and show the world what’s behind it.”
Discovery News:Pyramid-exploring robot reveals hidden hieroglyphs:Written in red paint, the symbols may help Egyptologists figure out why the mysterious shafts were built into the pyramids—by Rosella Lorenzi (May 26, 2011)
“We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built,” Rob Richardson, the engineer who designed the robot at the University of Leeds, said. The study was sponsored by Mehdi Tayoubi and Richard Breitner of project partners Dassault Systèmes in France.
HK News Watch:Dentist digs deep to discover Giza secret—by Adrian Wan (December 28, 2010)
Team founder Dr Ng Tze-chuen - whose more than 30-year dental practice in Causeway Bay supports a passion for science that includes the designing of precision instruments for missions to Mars - is overjoyed at having the opportunity to help unlock the secrets of a section of the pyramid that, even at the time it was built, only very few could access.
University of Leicester eBulletin:Space inspiration in quest to reveal enigma of pyramid:Former University of Leicester space researcher turns to exploring Egyptian mysteries—no author listed (August 18, 2010)
In the imaginations of millions of people across the world, the mysteries of space are only rivaled by the mysteries surrounding the Egyptian pyramids.Both tantalize with glimpses of little-understood worlds that never quite seem to be within reach, at least until now.In a surprising link between the two, a researcher has taken the principles he learned in the University of Leicester’s world renowned Space Research Centre and applied them to cross the divide, not of the Universe, but of more than 4,000 years of history.
Egypt News:Robot could open door to Great Pyramid secrets—no author listed (August 11, 2010)
Nobody knows where two unexplored air shafts leading from that ancient room lead. The hope is that the remote-controlled robotic tunnel explorer-which can fit through holes less than one inch in diameter-can drill through the secret door blocking the shafts and gather evidence that determines their purpose.
An attempt to explore a shaft in the Pyramid of Khufu, one of the ancient seven wonders of the world,has stymied archeologists and once again they turn to robots for help.
For 4,500 years, the Great Pyramid at Giza has enthralled, fascinated and ultimately frustrated everyone who has attempted to penetrate its secrets.
Al-Ahram:The three secret doors and the magician Djedi—by Zahi Hawass (December 5-11, 2002)
Some believe these doors have a symbolic meaning because it is written on the Pyramid Text that the Pharaoh must travel through a series of doors to reach the Netherworld. But, I feel from the shape of the second door that it has another function.
Copyright by Keith Payne, 2011. All rights reserved.
Who built the Great Sphinx? Why did they build it? How did they build it? These questions and more are addressed in Riddles of the Sphinx, by the PBS series NOVA.
Featuring Mark Lehner, Zahi Hawass, Rick Brown, Gunter Dreyer, Richard Redding, Rainer Stadelman, and Fathi Mohamed.
Was King Tut murdered? Did Akhenaten have both a male and female physiology? Did incest and inbreeding lead the Eighteenth Dynasty down a genetic dead end? Last month the Family of Tutankhamun Project attempted to answer these questions—and more—with the publication of a two-year forensic study of sixteen mummies of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
This article is the first of several in which we will attempt to put the research into layperson’s terms. First we will take a look at the what, who, where, why and how of the study itself.
In the first part of January the media began breaking the news that the old yarn about slaves having built the pyramids had finally been dispelled. Dr. Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that three large tombs had been newly discovered very close to the pyramid itself. As the final resting place of some of the overseers of the workforce, both the structure and location of the tombs made it clear that these were no slaves.
Dr. Hawass’ statement that “These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves” (source) was widely repeated in the press under headlines announcing that the belief that slaves had built the pyramids could now be retired. But Egyptologists have long known that the Slave Hypothesis was pure Hollywood.
Along with Hawass, Egyptologist Mark Lehner began uncovering the truth of the pyramid builders more than 20 years ago. Lehner was consumed with the question of where such a large workforce could have lived. After conducting the first detailed “to scale” survey of the Giza Plateau, he narrowed his focus to the area around the enigmatic Wall of the Crow, a colossal wall with no apparent related structures.
Lehner hit pay dirt, and his dogged pursuit of these ancient builders led to the excavation of the very city where they lived and worked—a large complex of barracks and permanent housing, distribution centers, industrial sites, and scribal workshops. The recently discovered tombs tell us something of the status of the workers, but the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders gives us the everyday details of their lives.
Most of Em Hotep’s readers will be familiar with Dr. Lehner and his work. But if you are not, then his total absence from the recent news stories may have left you with an incomplete picture of just how strong the case against the Slavery Hypothesis really is. In this three-part series we will take a look at what Lehner discovered about the pyramid builders. We will examine the evidence that the workforce had a surprisingly modern division of labor, followed by a tour of the city itself.
News is beginning to pop up about a new tomb discovered in the Saqqara area of the Memphis Necropolis, and it’s a big one! Actually, two tombs have been discovered, and while they seem to have already been looted, archaeologists have found artifacts, including human remains.
King Tut is known as the Boy King for two reasons. The first is the young age at which he assumed the throne—around eight or nine. The second is that he died at around nineteen, so he never really reached adulthood. Why he died so young is a question that has been with us since his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
In 2005 a team of top radiologists conducted a series of CT scans on Tutankhamun’s mummy, and when the results were announced the following year at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the results were not 100% conclusive. Most of the team felt they had settled the question of what had caused Tut’s early death, but there were some holdouts.
So when Zahi Hawass announced last August that he was on the verge of announcing the exact cause of Tut’s death, Em Hotep! took notice. So does a new article and video on Dr. Hawass’ website finally put the question to rest?
The Great Pyramid of Khufu has baffled professional Egyptologists and everyday people for millennia, but architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has proposed what many feel is the most likely, and certainly the most sensible, theory about the construction of Khufu’s Pyramid to date. This week France-5 of France Télévision aired a new documentary on Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work called Khéops Révélé.
Tutankhamun’s tomb lasted undisturbed for thousands of years, but after mere decades of constant visitors the most famous burial site in the world is on the endangered list.
It would seem we have found the infamous Curse of King Tut, and it is us…
Almost everybody knows what the Great Sphinx of Giza is, but how much do we really know about it? In this article we will be looking at the role of sphinxes in Egyptian mythology—what they are, what they mean, and what they did. We will also be taking an in depth look at the history of the Great Sphinx. Who may have built it and why? When was it built? Do we really know?
We will also look at how the Great Sphinx’s significance in both religion and politics has changed over the many centuries of its known lifetime. From the ancient days of early Egypt, when little is really said about the Sphinx and its existence seems to be taken for granted, to the height of Egyptian culture, when the Sphinx was synonymous with the great solar deities and had the power to legitimize a king’s reign, the more we learn about the Sphinx, the more we know about Egypt.
The University of Zurich’s Swiss Mummy Project, headed by anatomist and paleopathologist Dr. Frank Ruhli , has succeeded in mummifying a human leg. Well, two legs, actually. Ok, to be honest, the test subject didn’t go so well, so I guess it was one leg after all.
The French Culture Ministry has agreed to return the fragments taken from the wall of a tomb located in the Tombs of the Nobles section of the Theban Necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River, across from the city of Luxor. The tomb (TT 15) belonged to Tetaki, an Eighteenth Dynasty official, and depicted his journey to the afterlife. The fragments were removed in 1980 and purchased in 2000 and 2003 by the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
October just got busier for Egypt’s prize fighter, Zahi Hawass, as another contender steps forward. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has taken up the cause of one of his subordinates at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), charging Hawass with using his position to muzzle dissenting opinions.
Last May the Project Djedi Team caught the world’s attention, and imagination, when they announced that the robot crawler designed to explore the southern shaft leading out of the Queen’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid had transmitted back images of markings left behind by the pyramid’s builders. Hidden behind a “door” that had either thwarted or limited previous attempts to investigate the shaft, the markings prompted much speculation about their nature and purpose.
King Tut is known as the Boy King for two reasons. The first is the young age at which he assumed the throne—around eight or nine. The second is that he died at around nineteen, so he never really reached adulthood. Why he died so young is a question that has been with us since his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu has baffled professional Egyptologists and everyday people for millennia, but architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has proposed what many feel is the most likely, and certainly the most sensible, theory about the construction of Khufu’s Pyramid to date. This week France-5 of France Télévision aired a new documentary on Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work called Khéops Révélé.
Tutankhamun’s tomb lasted undisturbed for thousands of years, but after mere decades of constant visitors the most famous burial site in the world is on the endangered list. 
Almost everybody knows what the Great Sphinx of Giza is, but how much do we really know about it? In this article we will be looking at the role of sphinxes in Egyptian mythology—what they are, what they mean, and what they did. We will also be taking an in depth look at the history of the Great Sphinx. Who may have built it and why? When was it built? Do we really know?
We have a status report on the effort to repatriate Nefertiti, thanks to 
The University of Zurich’s Swiss Mummy Project, headed by anatomist and paleopathologist Dr. Frank Ruhli , has succeeded in mummifying a human leg. Well, two legs, actually. Ok, to be honest, the test subject didn’t go so well, so I guess it was one leg after all. 
The French Culture Ministry has agreed to return the fragments taken from the wall of a tomb located in the Tombs of the Nobles section of the Theban Necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River, across from the city of Luxor. The tomb (TT 15) belonged to Tetaki, an Eighteenth Dynasty official, and depicted his journey to the afterlife. The fragments were removed in 1980 and purchased in 2000 and 2003 by the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
October just got busier for Egypt’s prize fighter, Zahi Hawass, as another contender steps forward. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has taken up the cause of one of his subordinates at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), charging Hawass with using his position to muzzle dissenting opinions.
