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Science

Pyramid Rover Finds A Third Closed Door 53

Posted by timothy from the monty-hall-is-on-hand dept.
eyefish writes "Well, following on this story and then on this one, we now get to this third story in the series: 'a camera thrust through the south shaft's door last week revealed what appeared to be another door on the other side of a 9-inch-square chamber, for a total of three so far in the pyramid.' This is getting more exciting all the time. I only hope we get to see what's behind the last door before my lifetime..."
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Pyramid Rover Finds A Third Closed Door More

Pyramid Rover Finds A Third Closed Door

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  • Now the Real Question.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by RaboKrabekian ( 461040 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2002 @12:27PM (#4319887) Journal
    If they decide to open Door Number 3 and nothing's there, do they have to forfeit all of their winnings?
    • Nothing! There's nothing behind Door Number 3!

      Stupid! You're so STUUUPID!
    • The trick is to switch doors after the pyramid reveals one of the incorrect doors. Ups your chances of winning.
    • If they decide to open Door Number 3 and nothing's there, do they have to forfeit all of their winnings?

      Actually lots of doors indicates that there is very likely something of importance there. The Tutankhamen coffin was surrounded by a set of 4 gilt doors. So door number 4 might lead to something interesting.

      Quite what that would be is anyone's guess. Anything that was put there would have been added during construction. Of course it could be that they thought that his soul could pass through a narrow gap but not robbers...

      • I forgot how it went and what the answer was but I know it involved a goat, car, and a presenter who automatically opened a door with a goat. Too lazy to do a google search..
      • " Actually lots of doors indicates that there is very likely something of importance there. The Tutankhamen coffin was surrounded by a set of 4 gilt doors. So door number 4 might lead to something interesting."

        1. A coffin surrounded by 4 doors would be discovered by opening any of those doors. I think door 2 is the one discovered recently by looking through/behind door 1, so we've already looked behind one door.
        2. We don't know if there might be something only behind the 4th door, nor do we know which door has what number. Even 4 doors in a row may not be helpful, as we're looking outward and the "last" door might be the innermost one -- and of course we've already seen the chambers which probably originally held the really interesting stuff.
        3. ...?
        4. Dynamite!

  • I hope they find... (Score:3, Funny)

    by blmatthews ( 231533 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2002 @12:32PM (#4319950)
    in the final room a mural on the wall with the Egyptian equivalent of a smiley face sticking its tongue out.

    I like playing practical jokes that sit dormant for months, imagine playing one that sits dormant for millenia!

    Brian
  • ...the rover also spoted hieroglyphs on either side of the chamber; one side had people dressed in various costumes, the other a character similar to Monte Hall.

  • Ummm.... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think you mean during your lifetime -- it's already twenty or thirty years too late for it to be seen before your lifetime...
  • And ten years later we find out that the hallway is circular, leading through an infinite series of doors...the robot ends up staring at their own asses from behind.

    This must get them a lot of PR and funding. I mean, how often can you make an archaelogical announcement that hits the big news sites that says "We found another door!" Normally, you have to find an unlooted pharoh's tomb or Viking traces in Florida or something.
  • Obviously Maytag appliances with a lifetime warranty.
  • This reminds me of those old adventure games where they made the game world seem bigger by putting you into a loop, so you could keep going in the same direction, and just go round the same locations over and over again...


    • > This reminds me of those old adventure games where they made the game world seem bigger by putting you into a loop, so you could keep going in the same direction, and just go round the same locations over and over again...

      You are in a maze of shutty little doors.

      "Drill" does not work here.

  • Now, lets see what's behind the door!

    NOTHING! Absolutely NOTHING! STUPID!

  • Space (Score:3, Funny)

    by tsa ( 15680 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2002 @01:08PM (#4320285) Homepage
    And when they open the next doors they will find a large space extending beyond the outer walls of the pyramid! It contains the answer to life, the universe and everything, written in hyroglyphics all over it's walls...
    • And when they open the next doors they will find a large space extending beyond the outer walls of the pyramid! It contains the answer to life, the universe and everything, written in hyroglyphics all over it's walls...
      42?

      • Re:Space (Score:2)

        by tsa ( 15680 )
        Well, you know, the society of Arthur Dent and Ford prefect was a lot more complicated than that of the old Egyptians. So 'everything' for the old Egyptians is a lot less than for them. Therefore I think for the old Egyptians the answer to life, the universe and everything lies around 35 or so.
    • Problem is, it is written in a different and incomprehensible dialect of egyptian unknown to anyone and, though we can translate enough to realize what it is that these writings contain, we cannot actually read them.

  • They're not all in a row (Score:5, Informative)

    by dschuetz ( 10924 ) <.gro.tensad. .ta. .divad.> on Tuesday September 24, 2002 @01:18PM (#4320376)
    Okay, I've been trying to figure out how they managed to get past the second door. They didn't. The article blurb implies that the third door was behind the second, but it's in a different shaft.

    Briefly: There are two shafts. The southern shaft is very straight and has a door blocking it, discovered in 1993. They inserted a fiber-optic camera through a hole in the door and found another door behind it. The northern shaft has twists and turns, and they just now were finally able to get to the end of that with the new robot. That shaft, too, is blocked by a door.

    National Geographic [nationalgeographic.com] explains it a little better...

  • oh my... (Score:1, Funny)

    by andrew_lewis ( 534971 )
    it's full of stars!

  • Surprising that Bruce Schneier hasn't chimed in... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Peter T Ermit ( 577444 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2002 @02:21PM (#4320902)
    Isn't he an expert in crypt analysis?

    *rim shot*

  • I am curious, what in on the back side of the first "door" they passed through.
    All we get to see is the same side on all the "doors".
    There could be a clue on the back side...

    Or did I sleep through that showing? :(
  • Remember in Jurassic Park 3? The scientist guy fired some sort of blasting cap into the ground, and then used the resulting seismic waves to "see" the raptor skeleton below the ground. Now why on Earth (or in Egypt...) can't they use some similar seismic/sonar device to solve the innnevitably horrible punch line to this pyramid "door" joke? It seems like this wouldn't hurt anything, although maybe my grasp on reality might be a few fingers short, and that tech from the movie never really existed outside of the celluloid the picture was shown on...
    • Because nobody wants to chance going down in history as, "the guy who blew up the Great Pyramid"?
    • Actually, I went to a sensor data fusion conference back in 1994 in Florida and there were these guys doing sismic imagery. Basically, they were exploding caps which generated small sismic waves (sound waves) in the ground and, using an array of sismic detectors, were reconstructing in 3D the map of buried objects (it was a test field, objects they burried themselves, so they knew what to expect). The results were pretty amazing. Considering Jurassic Park 3 came out in 2001... maybe Crichton were in the room...

      Nevertheless, this technique looks to me like non-destructive archeology... (well let's say a lot less destructive than conventional archeology). I don't know if someone gave it a try in Egyptology.

      However, as stated before here [slashdot.org], someone already used Electromagnetic scanning to do Egyptology...
      • Crichton's a smart guy, but he's not that far ahead of his time. Back in the 60's, they used active seismometers on the moon, which detonated charges to create shockwaves in order to measure the depth of the regolith (outer layer of loose rock & dust). The 3D imaging bit is newer, but people have also done things like use the vibrations from earthquakes to measure the size and rough shape of underground cavities.
  • All of this is part of ancient popular game show called "Find the dying Pharaoh".

    "Find the dying Pharaoh! Brought to you by Amombophis the Tomb maker! Need a nice cosy place to spend eternity. Come to Amombophis the Tomb maker!

    Let experienced wrappers ease you into the after life within this luxury 250 rooms tomb complex while hundreds of participants are trying to find you.

    Choose between a huge selection of booby traps, colapsing walls and practical jokes. Try our new curse of the angry Pharaoh garantee to last a lifetime or your money back.

    Imagine your love ones walking and running through a maze of tunnel specially design for centuries of good ol' egyptian fun! First one who finds a live Pharaoh wins a free Sphinx.

    Reserve now! And take advantage of our Pharaoh-gonna-be rebate!

    With Amombophis, they know you're in there!"
  • The article says:
    "Arnold said the shafts and doors could be related to ancient Egyptians' religion. Egyptian texts, Hawass said, speak of the pharaoh's soul encountering a series of doors before reaching the rewards of afterlife."
    Then goes on to state:
    ""Don't expect that I can tell you what's behind the stone" door, Arnold said. "We're all stunned. We have no parallel.""
    Isn't it obvious? It's HEAVEN!!!
    • "We have no parallel to help us guess at what might be behind this door"?

      What about um, the other door? The one that we already know has another door behind it?

      I must admit, I'm not sure whether the northern shaft is strictly what you'd call parallel to the southern shaft, but gee, I dunno, another door sounds like a pretty BLOODY OBVIOUS guess to me!

    • and even more obvious than that? he obviously never found his way there.. the doors are still closed..

      The article says:
      "Arnold said the shafts and doors could be related to ancient Egyptians' religion. Egyptian texts, Hawass said, speak of the pharaoh's soul encountering a series of doors before reaching the rewards of afterlife."
      Then goes on to state:

      ""Don't expect that I can tell you what's behind the stone" door, Arnold said. "We're all stunned. We have no parallel.""
      Isn't it obvious? It's HEAVEN!!!
  • Am I just jaded or is a 9-inch-square chamber not much of a big deal to find on a 8-inch square shaft?
    • <I> Am I just jaded or is a 9-inch-square chamber not much of a big deal to find on a 8-inch square shaft?</i>

      /**
      Please insert smutty joke about 9 inch "chambers" and 8 inch "shafts" here.
      */


  • It's a trap!!!!
  • ... is a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth, and more, and the last one's wired to some ACME-brand TNT. I wonder if they're stubborn enough to open all those doors?...

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