Bizarre underground 'anomaly' near the Pyramids of Egypt triggers worldwide interest

The pyramids of Egypt have long captivated archaeologists, especially for the wealth of historical artifacts hidden beneath them. Past excavations have offered insights into ancient life, but a recent study in the Archaeological Prospection journal reveals something even more intriguing—a mysterious structure beneath the Western Cemetery near the Giza pyramids. This research team included experts from Higashi Nippon International University and Tohoku University in Japan, along with Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) in Helwan.

The exploration of the Western Cemetery utilized ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) from 2021 to 2023. These technologies are commonly used for finding archaeological anomalies before the excavation begins so that they can figure out the exact site that has undiscovered objects buried in them. The research team utilized the GPR and ERT technologies to explore Western Cemetry particularly because of the valuable artifacts that were previously found in the region. Also, the place was the burial ground reserved for the royal family of King Khufu and the high-ranking officials and it was mostly filled with a rectangular tomb called "mastaba." 

The geophysical exploration of the Western Cemetery revealed a dense population of mastabas measuring 560 meters from east to west and 370 meters from north to south. However, one particular unexplored area amid the mastabas having no above-ground structure caught the attention of the researchers. That is where the team found a mysterious "anomaly" which was "an L-shaped structure of about 10 meters by 15 meters at a depth of 0.5 to 2 meters." The shallow structure was filled with "homogenous sand" and the authors of the study assume that "a void was filled with sand after construction." The region also indicated the presence of a "highly resistive anomaly," at a deeper depth.  

"We conclude from these results that the structure causing the anomalies could be vertical walls of limestone or shafts leading to a tomb structure. However, a more detailed survey would be required in order to confirm this possibility," the authors explained in the report. "We believe that the continuity of the shallow structure and the deep large structure is important," they added. Currently, based on the GPR and ERT survey results, the researchers "could not determine the material causing the anomaly," but they assume it could be a "large subsurface archaeological structure."

Even in the past, the 4500-year-old Giza pyramids have revealed several crucial secrets about the ancient Egyptian civilization. In March 2023, a 30-foot-long mysterious hidden corridor was found close to the main entrance of the Great Pyramid of Giza, as per CNN. Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities told the news channel that the unfinished corridor could be built to redistribute the pyramid’s weight around either the main entrance that is just seven meters away and currently used by tourists, or around another as yet undiscovered chamber or space. The scientists were executing infrared thermography, 3D simulations and cosmic-ray imaging hoping to find what lay beneath or at the end of the corridor.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on 5.14.24. It has since been updated.