Robot runs into hurdle inside Giza pyramid

Hopes of unlocking the mysteries of Egypt’s biggest pyramid hit a new snag on Tuesday when a robot crawling up a narrow shaft to peek t...

Hopes of unlocking the mysteries of Egypt’s biggest pyramid hit a new snag on Tuesday when a robot crawling up a narrow shaft to peek through an ancient limestone door found a second stone slab blocking the way.

‘‘Pyramid Rover’’ climbed about 65 metres up one of two passages stretching from a chamber inside the pyramid of Cheops to peer through a hole in the door which some thought might conceal secret chambers, statues of the pharoah or ancient scrolls dating back 4,500 years.

‘‘We found a space. We found another sealed chamber,’’ the head of Egypt’s Supreme Antiquities Council, Zahi Hawass, said during a live television broadcast of the expedition sponsored by National Geographic Channel. Hawass also lifted the lid of a 4,500-year-old sarcophagus near the site of the Great Pyramids on the Giza plateau near Cairo to reveal the skeleton of a man who he said was the mayor of a village of pyramid builders.

The fresh obstacle blocking the probe inside the pyramid of the pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu, is sure to vex archaeologists, who have been puzzled by the two shafts in the giant structure since they were first discovered in 1872.

Hawass said it was impossible to tell what might lie behind the newly discovered door in the 145-metre-high pyramid. ‘‘Maybe something belonging to Khufu is hidden behind the second one. Maybe there is nothing,’’ he said after Pyramid Rover finished shooting footage of the space between the two slabs using a fibre-optic camera.

More investigation and scientific work were required before drawing up any plan for a further probe to look beyond the second door in the narrow shaft. (Reuters)