[1]Chamber A of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, said to hold a large part of the riches that gave the temple a tentative valuation of Rs 10 lakh crore, was opened on Thursday.
Lore has it that the rarest gems and jewellery offered to the Lord over centuries has been stocked in Chamber A.
The decision to open the chamber was taken after a thorough evaluation of the technical rrangements by the evaluation committee led by archaeology expert M. Velayudhan and the monitoring committee chaired by Justice M.N. Krishnan.
State-of-the-art equipment had been imported from Germany and Belgium for the purpose. Architecturally, Chamber A is the most protected of the six chambers.
The documentation team had to first open a thick teak double door and then an iron door to enter the chamber. The treasure was reportedly protected in thick clothes and large iron boxes.
The team will assess the an-tiquity, purity and weight of each of the items. The team is formed of experts handpicked from Keltron.
Each step will be videogr-aphed, and 3D pictures taken. All information will be stored in the served specifically created for the purpose by ISRO.
The documentation of D and C chambers, which mostly contained gold and silver utensils used for daily rituals, had been completed.
The documentation of the E and F chambers are being carried out simultaneously.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/adityajpgcropdisplayjpg-369