September 17, 2002

3:22 AM

In August, we had Pyramid Rover. Now we know what's behind that door. Another door.
posted by monkey closet (15 comments total)

i'm officially stoked. can't wait to see what's behind that other door. as long as it's not geraldo.
posted by donkeyschlong at 3:28 AM on September 17, 2002

Umm, I'll take "Door Number 3" please!

Seriously, do you think they could have milked it for any longer than they did? And have a built-in sequel to boot?

I think I'll go back to surfing the Theban Mapping Project for my regular non-media hyped dose of Egyptology...
posted by Jade Dragon at 3:39 AM on September 17, 2002

I loved how exciting they thought that second door was. Wow, a door, just like the first! This is the first time in thousands of years that people have been able to say "Look! Two doors!"

I left the room after the first tease-and-switch and came back an hour later, expecting someone to be able to tell me what they found. Nope. It took them over an hour to get from "we'll see, right after this!" to actually showing it. It was obvious they weren't going to find anything--they didn't have time left to find anything.

Dr. Zahi Hawass grates on the nerves, too. I have no reason to dislike the man, but I can't stand him.
posted by Nothing at 4:11 AM on September 17, 2002

How about this:

In the article posted, the man in charge is named Zahi Hawass.

In 1904 Aleister Crowley "channeled" a book called the book of the law from a spirit named Aiwass...

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but have studied many an occult tome in my day. Could the opening of this second door bring about an end to the aeon of Horus?

For those unable to unlock the correlation from my rubiks-cube-of-a-mind notice the similarities between Hawass and Aiwass, and witness the effect of no sleep on my poor head meat.
posted by phylum sinter at 4:29 AM on September 17, 2002

Perhaps this is a prank that heas taken a millenia to find fruition.
posted by Man Mountain Marko at 6:09 AM on September 17, 2002

Gah, I watched the whole thing. Very annoying. Dr. Hawass, yes, grating man, with an agenda to prove the pyramids weren't built by slaves. OK, so maybe they weren't, but showing how the workers ate well and lived with their families proves nothing. And then he tears off the cover of the tomb, starts dropping shit in there, touching the bones. Sheesh. I WANT MY TWO HOURS BACK!
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:46 AM on September 17, 2002

The ads for this show were hilarious and full of Fox badness. They tried to make the whole thing look creepy and dangerous. Instead we had another door behind the Secret Door and an unadorned skeleton in a box. Don't get me wrong, these are interesting finds in and of themselves, but I doubt the average viewer was very impressed.

That Dr. Hawass guy was a schmuck, yes. He wasn't really listening to the hosts' questions, just rambling on and trying to be impressive, but coming off as a smarmy blow-hard.
posted by picea at 7:04 AM on September 17, 2002

I don't know what everybody's problem was... I thought it was really exciting myself. It doesn't matter what's behind the door (granted, some stuff would be more exciting than others), anything or even nothing would yield more information than what we have now, and that's the point of it all.

Anybody who was dissappointed after watching this show just doesn't get what science is about.

I think Dr. Hawass was just too much in love with his work, and I honestly can't fault him for that. I also think the show should have aired on something like the Discovery Science channel, but I can see the allure of putting it on broadcast television.
posted by LuxFX at 7:08 AM on September 17, 2002

Perhaps this is a prank that heas taken a millenia to find fruition.

That's exactly what I thought. Since Egyptians had such a strong belief in the afterlife, they probably thought they'd be able to enjoy the joke.

My prediction: there will be at least three more doors, becoming increasingly smaller in size. When the last door is opened, the robot will find a can of delicious mixed nuts...
posted by frykitty at 7:23 AM on September 17, 2002

What a gyp. And they knew there was nothing interesting behind that first door. Why else would they peep through at the very last three minutes of the show!? They knew they had absolutely nothing to elaborate upon.
posted by freakystyley at 7:34 AM on September 17, 2002

As the "mystery chamber" is relatively close to the surface of the pyramid, whay can't they use sonar or ground penatrating radar to determine if there's something there? Something about drilling through a magnificent bit of ancient engineering seems rather crude. Indeed, it's almost offensive.
posted by aladfar at 8:27 AM on September 17, 2002

I love this link from the BBC site, "Click here to see how the robot would have explored the Great Pyramid "

And he would have too, if not for those pesky Egyptians and their "double door" security system.
posted by tdstone at 8:39 AM on September 17, 2002

aladfar -

They did use ground-penetrating radar, which required putting as much as 40 psi of pressure against the door (that's what they said last night). In doing so, they discovered two things - the door was only about 3 inches thick and so something was beyond it, and the door wouldn't move. Drilling was the only option, and they did numerous tests with different kinds of stone to make sure the whole thing wouldn't crumble before they did the actual drill.

I enjoyed the show. I agree with LufFX, Dr. Hawass is simply too much in love with his work. He's also speaking English as a second language, and attitude and context can seem strange in cases like that - even "smarmy" or "blow-hard".
posted by starvingartist at 9:07 AM on September 17, 2002

I thought the male announcer was on the verge of losing it at times...maybe a combination of the small space and late hour, but he looked pretty nervous when Hawass said that if there were ancient germs in the coffin they just opened, they would make a beeline right for him, as Hawass was off to the side of the opening. Ha!

I was pretty excited to see what was beyond the door. I remember watching a special on the Upuaut Project several years ago and being utterly fascinated. I hope they get to the second door soon, but with Egyptology politics, it could be a few years.
posted by kittyloop at 9:41 AM on September 17, 2002

I popped in every now and then to see and I too was annoyed at all the teasers. However, I didn't find Dr. Hawass annoying, instead I was ready to go to Egypt to strangle the horrible announcer. He interrupted Dr. Hawass and seemed to get in the way of what was going on. Plus he had that terrible sensationalistic voice thing going on. Ugh! Why can't reporters speak normally?

But yes the second door was in a way a fitting end to this overly-produced show. My husband came in at the last second and saw that it was another door and saw how excited everyone was and he couldn't stop laughing. At them. He just found the whole thing quite amusing (esp. after hearing bits of the sensationalism).

Oh, and I hope they never do another live event. Totally gets in the way of things. The Dr. has to WAIT to open the coffin even though he's ready just so we can watch a segment on life back then? I would have ripped someone's head off if I were him.
posted by evening at 10:39 AM on September 17, 2002