It would seem that Bob Brier has discovered a previously unknown room in the Great Pyramid, and has also made some new discoveries about when exactly the cracks appeared in the pyramid.

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Originally posted by NewsDay.com
An Egyptologist at C.W. Post has solved one of the mysteries of the Great Pyramid -- when and why cracks occurred in one of the world's great wonders. Bob Brier, along with an architect and a team of software specialists, has determined that huge support beams inside the Great Pyramid at Giza cracked as final construction was under way 4,500 years ago.

The team used 3-D modeling software that measures stresses in buildings, cars and airliners and found that the pyramid cracked up when three things happened: One wall of King Khufu's burial chamber settled, stone rafters in a room above the chamber slipped, and the height of the pyramid reached 392 feet.

The team found that the pyramid's architect, Hemienu, cut a tunnel into a sealed space above the burial chamber to assess the damage and filled the cracks with plaster that would indicate if the cracks were widening. The ancient fix-it job worked, the beams held and the pyramid was complete.

The cracks had been a well-known but poorly understood fact about the pyramid since the 1880s. Brier, who will present his findings at the Microsoft Innovation Management Forum in Redmond, Wash., on Tuesday, also found and photographed a room high in the pyramid that had been previously unknown. Brier and French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin have released a book called "The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery" (HarperCollins, $24.95), which is available in bookstores and online.

Brier will appear Oct. 27 at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Old Brookville to discuss their findings. There are 100 seats remaining for the lecture; all reservations, which are on a first-come, first-served basis, must be made by e-mail to neighbor@liu.edu.

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