Egypt's tourism industry might win back visitors due to new discoveries in the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops)

Solving the mysteries of the Great Pyramids of Giza was the greatest challenge for Egyptologists over the decades.

Potential new discoveries in the Great Pyramid of Cheops make country's officials hope to revive tourism in Egypt, severely affected by latest dramatic incidents. Local hoteliers and tour guides also hope that the new discovery will bring back visitors and boost tourism in the region.

Years of political instability, the killing of eight Mexican tourists in December and the recent suspected terrorist attack leading to the plane crash in the Sinai peninsula have seriously affected the country's tourist-dependent businesses and economy.

Mamdouh El-Damaty, Egypt’s minister of antiquities announced the potentially ground-breaking discovery.

“The pyramids have lots of secrets. And today, Cheops will give us one of his secrets. I think this will be the start of a new science for Egyptologists”, he declared for the press.

An “impressive anomaly” was recently found by an international team of scanning archaeologists at the base of Giza's largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Cheops, as temperature differences between stone blocks point to the possibility of the existence of hidden chambers inside.

Egyptologists in Cairo who helped interpreting the findings are also very excited about what this progress might mean for breaking ancient Egyptian history's secrets. Salima Ikram, Egyptology professor at the American University in Cairo explains:

“It is amazing that there is yet another passageway—or more than one—inside the pyramid. It will help explain the method of construction of this monument. It might also be a physical manifestation of the religious ideas of the ancient Egyptians in terms of how they believed that the soul of the king would travel between this world and the next.”

“Of course this could just be large fissures, or a single chamber needed for construction”, she yet adds.

The Ministry of Antiquities announced that scan work at Giza site will resume in early December, as locals benefiting from tourism income are desperate to feed their families.