Mystery behind the only three objects ever to be recovered from inside the Great Pyramid of Giza

There are only three objects that have been recovered from the Great Pyramid of Giza that remain a mystery to this day.

Taking things way back into Egyptian folklore now, the most famous pyramid of the Giza pyramid complex and the largest in Egypt.

The Pharaoh Khufu, the second Pharaoh of the fourth Dynasty, built the pyramid, which is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the ancient World. Much of it remains intact.

Nonetheless, there's a lot of facts we are unaware of when it comes to this pyramid, in particular why only three objects have been recovered from it.

This came as a bit of a surprise for scientists due to the sheer size of the pyramid. To be very specific, the pyramid measured 481 feet tall with a base of around 755 feet square.

The original pyramid of Giza is the largest of the group (Nese Ari/Anadolu via Getty Images)

So, when eager historians jumped in to see what was inside, they were surely expecting historic artefacts and objects to be discovered.

However, archaeologists and others have yet to find anything other than three specific objects - which are just as mysterious themselves.

The objects were first discovered in 1872 in the Queen's Chamber of the Great Pyramid by 19th Century British explorer Waynman Dixon.

And they've continued to baffle experts to this day.

Dixon discovered a stone ball, copper hook-shaped object and a wooden fragment or rod - the three artefacts soon becoming known as the Dixon Relics.

The ball and the hook were donated to the British Museum, but the whereabouts of the wooden fragment were unknown for decades.

Two of the Dixon Relics (The British Museum)

According to the University of Aberdeen, them rod was donated to the university's museum in 1946 following a man named James Grant's passing - the doctor having befriended Dixon on his exploration into the pyramid.

However, the wooden rod was never classified and couldn't be located for over 70 years, until curatorial assistant Abeer Eladany searched the items located in another of the University's collections in 2019.

An experienced archaeologist who worked on 'digs in Egypt,' Eldany 'instantly knew' what the 'small fragment of wood' - which had since been broken into 'several pieces' - was.

But what were the objects doing in the pyramid in the first place?

Well, when Dixon first discovered them, British newspaper The Graphic reported in December 1872, as quoted by The University of Aberdeen, that the objects were likely 'weights and measures in use by the builders of the pyramids' - the ball like a hammer and rod and hook other tools.

A lot of mystery surrounds the three objects (The University of Aberdeen)

"The position in which they were left shows that they must have been left there whilst the work was going on, and at an early period of its construction," it reported at the time.

However, others believe the items were 'deliberately deposited as happened later during the New Kingdom, when pharaohs tried to emphasise continuity with the past by having antiquities buried with them,' as Head of Museums and Special Collections at the University of Aberdeen, Neil Curtis, explained.

It was ultimately resolved the wood dates back to 'somewhere in the period 3341-3094BC - some 500 years earlier than historical records which date the Great Pyramid to the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu in 2580-2560BC'.

This 'supports the idea that - whatever their use - the Dixon Relics were original to the construction of the Great Pyramid and not later artefacts left behind by those exploring the chambers,' the university added.

However, Curtis ultimately resolved: "It will now be for scholars to debate its use. [...] This discovery will certainly reignite interest in the Dixon Relics and how they can shed light on the Great Pyramid."

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