Vast ancient city may be buried beneath the Pyramids of Giza
Archaeologists are stunned after discovering what they believe could be an ancient city under the pyramids of Giza.
A vast, prehistoric city buried beneath the Pyramids of Giza.
It’s an extraordinary claim. But a group of Italian researchers claim they have the requisite extraordinary evidence.
The team, from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and the University of Pisa, Italy, have fanned the flames of debate over a postulation they first presented in 2022.
They said then that their unique interpretation of ground-penetrating radar signals had laid the interior of the Great Pyramid of Giza bare. Now they say it has exposed an extensive network of chambers and halls extending up to 2km below the Giza historic site.
It’s a claim likely to add fuel to a social media Egyptmania fire being stoked by high-profile conspiracy theorists, including The Joe Rogan Experience.
Last month, Rogan interviewed a high-profile former Egyptian Minister of State for Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass.
It resulted in an uncomfortable standoff.
Rogan wanted to know all about the pyramids. But not the stuff built out of the rubble, dust and hieroglyphs of intricately recorded evidence-based archaeology.
He wanted to know the interesting stuff.
About aliens. Atlanteans. Anything but ancient Egyptian labourers.
When presented with a March press release from the Italian researchers claiming to have found vast vertical shafts extending beneath the Pyramids, Hawass replied:
“Bull---t”.
Project pyramid
To some, it’s the biblical truth that these are the great grain silos of Joseph, as told in the book of Genesis.
Others say that it marks the location of the Garden of Eden, with the Great Pyramid built to form an ethereal “tree of life” out of rays of light.
Earlier this year, another researcher insisted his interpretation of sacred geometry blows all other ideas out of the water. It’s the tomb of Christ and the vault for the Ark of the Covenant.
The Pyramids have a long history of … pseudohistory.
This included Nazi Heinrich Himmler, who was among those convinced the Gaza Plateau was evidence of an ancient (white) civilisation of Atlantis that once ruled the world.
Then there are those who have seen them mirrored in grainy old images of Mars. And those who insist they’re celestial bus stops for hyper-evolved beings.
Mostly, though, they’re celebrated as high-profile examples of the extensive ruins left behind by one of humanity’s first and greatest civilisations – the Ancient Egyptians.
But true believers want to believe.
And, this time, the ancient Atlantean and alien artefact crowds have been thrown a bone.
Lead researcher Professor Corrado Malanga, Synthetic Aperture Radar Technology Specialist Dr Filippo Biondi, and Egyptologist Dr Armando Mei claim to have found the fabled Halls of Amenti and the secret chambers of the Book of the Dead.
What lies beneath?
Speculation has lingered for decades about an underground secret at Giza. First, it centred on the Great Sphynx. It was supposed to guard tunnels leading to lost libraries of arcane knowledge – the Halls of Amenti of Egyptian mythology.
Those tunnels have never been found. Even after extensive restoration works.
Now, that speculation extends to the entire ancient Pyramid complex.
Dr Biondi, from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, claims his radar survey has found a second set of hidden tunnels
This time it’s under the smallest of the three Great Pyramids, that of Menkaure. The first set, announced in 2022, was under the Pyramid of Khafre (Cheops).
“The measurements reveal pillar-like structures with consistent characteristics,” Dr Biondi states.
He and the Khafre Project team point to blurry pixelations on what they say are ground-penetrating radar surveys as proving these structures burrow between 500m and 2km beneath the surface.
While the space-based radar data is commercially available. But Dr Biondi says what makes this scan different from the rest is the interpretative software he programmed himself.
And that has pulled a new signal out of the noise: a vast, interconnected network of underground tunnels and chambers 10 times larger than that covered by the pyramids themselves.
“These new archaeological findings could redefine our understanding of the sacred topography of ancient Egypt, providing spatial coordinates for previously unknown and unexplored subterranean structures,” Professor Malanga said in a media presentation.
“[This] groundbreaking study has redefined the boundaries of satellite data analysis and archaeological exploration.”
Professor Malanga is an Italian chemist turned alien abduction specialist who claims to uncover buried memories via hypnosis. He says his team has mapped the varying shades of blue pixels from radar returns into an ancient megastructure that celebrates the elemental powers of earth, air, fire and water.
The Khafre Project team describes five distinct underground structures radiating from the base of the Khafre Pyramid. They’ve dubbed these “Kings Chambers”.
Professor Malanga explains that spiral staircase structures then appear to lead to a vast underground lake. Beneath that lake he sees two enormous, 80m cubic chambers.
“The computer, with the help of artificial intelligence, reconstructs these two big cubes … and tells us, ‘look, they are made like this,’” Professor Malanga states.
“It’s very improbable that this was done by nature,” he adds, stating that the radar has identified man-made symmetrical, angular features.
Somehow, the radar also tells the Khafre Project team the complex is 38,000 years old.
That’s significantly older than the 4500-year date scientifically attributed to the Pyramid of Dyoser – the first of the “stepped pyramid” structures that would evolve into the iconic Great Pyramids.
Sifting the sands
Critics of the research say the findings are impossible. Ground penetrating radar generally only elicits a result from depths of about 1.5m to 2m.
The Italian researchers, however, claimed to have results from as deep as 2km.
Professor Malanga says the Khafre Project software makes solid granite “more transparent than glass” and that its high resolution allowed them to extrapolate three-dimensional models of the subsurface.
“This isn’t a theory that needs more confirmation,” Professor Malanga insists. “These are photos. Like a photo of the Tower of Pisa, you don’t need 500 people to say it’s real.”
The Gaza plateau, however, is mostly limestone. The granite blocks used to coat the surface of the Pyramids themselves were hauled from distant quarries.
Former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh al-Damaty has told the Egypt Independent that the claims of an underground city were “utterly baseless”.
He added that centuries of explorers and decades of archaeological research have produced no evidence to support the idea.
Ground penetrating radar works on a principle similar to that of nautical sonar. A radio energy pulse is blasted into the ground. And the distortions recorded in the pulse’s reflection can indicate the properties of what was in its path.
However, interpreting those reflections can be difficult.
And, as with grainy or pixelated photos, people have a tendency to see what they want.
A 2015 radar scan was interpreted as showing a chamber hidden behind the walls of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. A 2016 follow-up found nothing. Another, in 2017, “conclusively” ruled a hidden chamber out.
The Italian researchers are yet to release their latest findings in draft study form. The procedures and evidence behind this must be peer-reviewed for formal scientific journal publication.
All are needed to legitimise their conclusions.
The original 2022 study was roundly criticised in the attached peer review component. They pointed out the lack of explanatory methodology and standard result validation processes.
However, similar radar surveys have produced tangible, verifiable results.
Last year, University of North Carolina Wilmington scientists found a 65km long buried canal linking the Nile River with the Gaza pyramid site. This could have provided a transport corridor for massive stone blocks to be delivered to construction workers.
Pick your myth
The Italian researchers are up against some tough new competition when it comes to offering an alternate explanation of the Pyramid complex’s origins and purpose.
British anthropologist Dr Paul Warner claims his study of the alignment of ancient sacred sites points to the Great Pyramid as the burial place of Jesus Christ and the Ark of the Covenant.
He also claims to have used advanced scanning technology to peer beyond the structures’ stone blocks to “discover” hidden chambers.
Then there’s a study from computer engineer Dr Konstantin Borisov.
In an “exploration using biblical texts, medieval scholars’ works, and contemporary scholarly research”, he claims the Tree of Life and Garden of Eden are contained within the Great Pyramid.
Khafre Project team Egyptologist Dr Mei is, for now, focused on local mythology. Descriptions found within ancient Egypt’s Emerald Tablets and Book of the Dead describe the buried Halls of Amenti as a repository of lost, secret knowledge. Dr Mei also says the tales tell of expansive wells that bring “light and water from above”.
But Professor Malanga is historically more inclined to say aliens.
He’s the author of several books attempting to link human history, mythology and technological advances to interactions with interstellar beings.
Dr Hawass is unimpressed.
“Such claims are merely attempts to undermine the grandeur of ancient Egyptian civilisation. However, these attempts are futile, and such baseless rumours will ultimately be consigned to the dustbin of history,” he said in a statement about the Italian researchers’ findings.
His similar response to Rogan brought down the internet influencer’s ire.
“That might have been the worst podcast I have ever done, but maybe a good one too,” Rogan said. “Just to see this closed-minded fellow that’s been in charge of Gatekeeping all the knowledge about Egypt.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
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