Ever wanted to visit Egypt’s Pyramids but never had the chance? Well now you can do the next best thing and go on a virtual reality tour of the inside of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Using 3D technology the Scan Pyramids Project team allows visitors wearing headsets to explore the Queens Gallery and other ancient rooms not normally accessible to the public, without leaving Paris.

“Thanks to this technique, we make it possible to teleport ourselves to Egypt, in the pyramid … and what is new in the world of virtual reality is that from now on you are not isolated but there are several of us, you’re in a group, you can take a tour with your family. And of course you can access places which you usually can’t in the real pyramid,” Explained Mehdi Tayoubi who is the Co-Director of ScanPyramids Mission.

While partly designed as a fun experience the project allows researchers to improve investigative technologies

So-called muon particles, which originate from interactions with rays from space and atoms in Earth’s upper atmosphere, are able to penetrate hundreds of metres through stone before being absorbed. That allows for mapping inside stone structures.

“Muon tomography has really improved a lot due to its use on the pyramid and we think that muography will have other applications in other fields,” said Tayoubi. “But we also wanted to innovate and imagine devices to allow the wider public to understand what this pyramid is, understand it from within.”

It lead to the announcement earlier in November of the discovery of a mysterious space deep inside Egypt’s largest and oldest pyramid.