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Photo: INAH
When archaologists lowered a small camera into an unexplored Maya pyramid, they saw this fascinating image: a 1,500-year-old blood-red funeral chamber.
The tomb was discovered in 1999, though researchers have been unable to get inside due to the precarious structural state of the pyramid above. Any effort to penetrate the tomb could damage the contents within, according to the team, which is affiliated with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Instead, the archaeologists lowered the 1.6-by-2.4-inch (4-by-6-centimeter) camera through a 6-inch-wide (15-centimeter-wide) hole in an upper floor of the pyramid.
National Geographic has more photos: Link
The Great Pyramid of Giza contains narrow passageways and chambers that have never been explored. A small robot was sent into an 8-inch wide chute in 1993 and 2002, but both expeditions ran into something impassable. Now a new robot called Djedi with the ability to take pictures around corners is making headway and sending back pictures of previously unseen hieroglyphs and architecture.
The winning robot, designed by Leeds University, has indeed gone further than anyone has ever been before in the pyramid.
The project began with the exploration of the southern shaft, which ends at the so called “Gantenbrink’s door.”
The robot was able to climb inside the walls of the shaft while carrying a “micro snake” camera that can see around corners.
Unlike previous expeditions, in which camera images were only taken looking straight ahead, the bendy camera was small enough to fit through a small hole in a stone “door,” giving researchers a clear view into the chamber beyond. It was at that time that the camera sent back images of 4,500-year-old markings.
“There are many unanswered questions that these images raise,” Richardson told Discovery News. “Why is there writing in this space? What does the writing say? There appears to be a masonry cutting mark next to the figures: why was it not cut along this line?” Roberston wondered.
Read more about the Djedi project at Discovery News. Link -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: Djedi Team)
This guy set out to build the biggest domino pyramid ever, with 13,482 dominoes. He spent five weeks, or 30 hours of work, and stacked 13,043 of the dominoes when the unthinkable happened. -via the Presurfer
Remember the record-breaking Penny Pyramid built by Marcelo Bezos? Well, Marcelo had built a "glow in the dark" pyramid featuring Neatorama:
Marcelo's selling the Penny Pyramid, along with the house it comes in:
How do you get a record 3,500 lb. Penny Pyramid out of a house before you sell it ?........ YOU DON”T, you list it as one of the many upgrades and amenities that comes along with it!
Welcome to the current home of the World’s Largest Penny Pyramid! The penny pyramid which was originally built in 2006 to raise awareness for colorectal cancer and the screening process will be auctioned off along with the house it was built in this winter to raise funds in support of the Penny Pyramid Project. Mr. Bezos, the creator and holder of the record is also the founder of the Penny Pyramid Project, a non-profit child philanthropy educational program that uses its signature world record penny pyramid in fundraisers used to support other charitable organizations in the greater Miami area. The Penny Pyramid Project was founded in 2007, it ran its first annual fundraiser that same year raising over 1,200 dollars in pennies alone. Unfortunately, the fledgling program was temporarily forced to go dormant during the 2008 school year. Mr. Bezos, “it is my hope that this unique approach to the sale of the house will generate enough local and national interest that will generate the necessary funding in order to bring back this really neat educational program for our school children.”
and…. if it does not sell?, well then each coin used in the pyramid will be encased in an aluminum outer shell, a lost art only a few companies in the US now can reproduce. In its hay day from 1900-1970, millions of these encased pennies were used to commemorate or used as a premiums to help advertise a company’s product. Mr. Bezos, This type of coining is just a really cool way to showcase what now is the Worlds Largest “Glow” in the dark penny pyramid!”
The current Pyramid has grown to just over 525,000 pennies. The accompanying video series has also been a viral sensation around the world receiving over 3,300,000 views and counting!
The latest work has caused the outer coins to glow in the dark turning the current structure into the Worlds Largest “Glow” In The Dark Penny Pyramid!
Link - Thanks Marcelo!
Update 11/3/09: Marcelo gave us further info on the Neatorama Penny Pyramid statistics:
The letters are made up of the following number of piles and coins
All pennies are uncirculated 2009 D Professional Series.
N= 57 piles 570 pennies
E= 63 piles 630 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
T= 61 piles 610 pennies
O= 40 piles 410 pennies
R= 56 piles 560 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
M= 65 piles 650 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
1. takes about 1min 30 to process each pile so it glows, (secrete process, last about 600 hours when subjected to continous UV light)
2. took about 5 hours to insert in pyramid
ok, that’s a total of 534 piles or 5340 pennies
Marcelo Bezos has been collecting pennies for the past 35 years, and when his father-in-law died from colorectal cancer, he decided to do something to raise awareness for the disease: building a record-breaking pyramid out of pennies!
Here’s the video clip of the Penny Pyramid Project from 2006 – the structure contained some 280,000 pennies (Marcelo’s most recent pyramid contains over 435,000 pennies):
[YouTube - turn your speakers down if you don't like O Fortuna from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, the techno version]
Thanks Marcelo!
This is the tallest pyramid of glasses I have ever seen – when the camera pans down, it just keeps panning and panning… it’s amazing. Watch as the guy puts the very last glass on top… will he make it? I was nervous for him.
Pyramid Of Glasses – Amazing videos are here
Here’s a papercraft for all of you who have learned to stop worrying and love the New World Order: the Illuminati Pyramid Papercraft, by Paper Replika.
Just be careful where you place the papercraft, because it surely contains printed microcircuitry with hypersensitive cellulosic fiber antenna that will transmit whatever it is you say to Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Link – via Super Punch
