Assassin’s Creed: Origins takes place in ancient Egypt. The team wanted to give players a historically realistic feel when walking around the cities and towns caught in the cultural tide shifting between Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Any good open world adventure game worth its salt is going to have some kickass dungeons, and what better place to delve for treasure than the pyramids themselves.
Ubisoft
So the team at Ubisoft began designing the internal workings of the pyramid. Some rooms they knew already: the Queen’s Chamber is a small room, the Grand Gallery is a long hallway, the King’s Chamber is where Khufu, the pharaoh commemorated by the Great Pyramid, was laid to rest. But when it came to the rest of the tomb, head AC historian Maxime Durand and the design team relied upon Hardin’s controversial theory of internal construction. Which meant that above the Grand Gallery leading to the King’s Chamber, there would be another room that was pivotal in construction of the monument.
ScanPyramids
When the game launched, players were free to explore the pyramids and discover the room for themselves. Less than a month after the release of the game, scientists using advanced scanning techniques discovered a massive open space in the pyramid… right above the Grand Gallery. Hardin’s internal construction theory got a win and Ubisoft got to pat itself on the back for not only making another beloved open world game, but for allowing players to touch a piece of previously undiscovered history. Who says you can’t learn anything from video games?
Related: Insane Lore at the Heart of the Assassin’s Creed Series Explained
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