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Real life 'Iron Throne' may be hidden in Egypt

A hidden room in the Great Pyramid of Giza may also be home to a relic that's straight out of our pop culture fantasies.

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
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Eric Mack
2 min read
Giulio Magli

The most well known Iron Throne in popular culture may be in the fictional continent of Westeros from "Game of Thrones." Now, scientists think they may have found one in a legendary civilization here on Earth.

Last year, a very high-tech project that used subatomic particles to scan the internal structures of the Great Pyramid of Giza saw something interesting: a huge void as long as a football field. At the time, it was unclear what exactly the purpose of the expanse was or what it might hold.

Giulio Magli, an archaeoastronomy professor at  Politecnico di Milano in Italy, has a suggestion.

"There is a possible interpretation, which is in good agreement with what we know about the Egyptian funerary religion as witnessed in the Pyramids Texts," Magli explained in a release. "In these texts it is said that the pharaoh, before reaching the stars of the north, will have to pass the "gates of the sky" and sit on his "throne of iron."  

If there is a throne in a large, hidden room it might not be made of solid iron, however. Another throne from the pyramid was found to be made of wood covered with sheets of gold. It could be that an iron throne may have a similar construction but with a covering of thin iron sheets made from iron meteorites, a material that ancient texts indicate the Egyptians were aware of, according to the release.

The only way to find out for sure if the Iron Throne of ancient Egypt is real or another work of fiction could be through a long-awaited exploration of the pyramid's so-called "north shaft," which may connect to the recently discovered void. 

Unfortunately, the shaft is much too small for humans to explore and there are no such plans for any such explorations any time soon. But surely someone could build just the right robot for the task...

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