The launch of the ScanPyramids Mission

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On February 10, 2015, the mission project is presented to the Permanent Committee for Egyptian Antiquities. 

 

On June 7, Dr. Mamdouh Mohamed Eldamaty send a letter to Professor Hany Helal confirming that the Permanent Committee of Egyptian Antiquities has approved the selected techniques, and inviting him to forward the list of equipment to be used, the CVs of team members and their passports for security purposes.

 

On June 8, the association HERITAGE, INNOVATION, PRESERVATION INSTITUTE is administratively created, the articles of association being signed by the President, Mehdi Tayoubi, and the General Secretary, Jean-Pierre Houdin, the association opting for the acronym HIP.Institute. ACGP President Laurent Chapus is appointed Treasurer.

 

In June, BeauxArts magazine publishes a special issue dedicated to Edgard P. Jacobs' 2 comic-book heroes: Blake & Mortimer face aux grands mystères de l'humanité. For the mystery of the Great Pyramid's construction, the internal ramp theory is the most plausible.

 

On October 15, Jean-Pierre Houdin is invited to the "Osiris et la Pyramide" conference given by Christian Jacq at the Institut du Monde Arabe to mark the release of his latest book: "J'ai construit la Grande Pyramide" (I built the Great Pyramid). He thanks Jacq for basing his novel on the construction of the Great Pyramid using the constructive processes he has been proposing for the past 17 years: an external ramp, an internal ramp and a counterweight in the Grand Gallery.

 

On October 25, at a major press conference at Mena House at the foot of the pyramids, the ScanPyramids mission is launched by HIP.Institute and the Cairo Faculty of Engineering. The event takes place on the 1st anniversary of Henri Houdin's death.

The first sentence of the press release from the Ministry of Antiquities reads:

"The ScanPyramids project was approved by the permanent committee at the antiquities ministry and has obtained all the necessary permission from security agencies and other concerned authorities."

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That said, the mission obtained its authorizations on condition that it is "agnostic" and that data from any discoveries would be made freely available to researchers. 

 

Consequence for Jean-Pierre Houdin: he is excluded from the mission because of his work on the Khufu pyramid, and will not appear in any documents published by ScanPyramids. As he often says, "the stones speak, and it's the pyramid that will give us the answers". 

 

Consequence for the ACGP: after having worked for a dozen years for the creation of an official non-destructive mission on Khufu’s Pyramid, it must make way for the HIP.Institute within the ScanPyramids mission. That said, the presence of Jean-Pierre Houdin and Laurent Chapus in two of the three positions on the HIP.Institute Board is the guarantor before HISTORY of the genesis of this mission and the reasons for future discoveries.

 

On November 9, 2015, ScanPyramids announces the discovery, thanks to infrared thermography by the Université de Laval team and expert Jean-Claude Barré, of a first anomaly at the base of the East face, at the back of the High Temple of the Pyramid of Khufu. Unfortunately, this discovery is not fully appreciated; the discovery, a few days later, of a second anomaly in the chevron zone above the entrance to the North face immediately catch the attention of infrared specialists and put an end to any further research into the first.