Scientists Are Investigating a Puzzling Underground 'Anomaly' Near the Giza Pyramids [View all]
Last edited Thu May 16, 2024, 05:26 AM - Edit history (1)
Using remote-sensing technologies, researchers have discovered two connected structures in a previously unexplored area
Sonja Anderson
Daily Correspondent
May 14, 2024
Researchers used ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography to scan the graveyard near the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Archaeological Prospection
Without breaking ground, archaeologists in Egypt have discovered an anomaly beneath a royal graveyard near Gizas 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid. The pyramid, which is Egypts largest, was built to honor the pharaoh Khufu. Its neighboring ancient necropolis contains many aboveground monuments, or mastabas, dedicated to the pharaohs family members and high-ranking officials.
A mastaba is a type of tomb, which has a flat roof and rectangular structure on the ground surface, constructed out of limestone or mudbricks, according to a study published this month in the journal Archaeological Prospection.
These surface-level tombs have vertical shafts connected to underground chambers. Many of the sites mastabas were excavated in the 20th century, but one vacant area without any noteworthy aboveground features had been left unexamined.
Between 2021 and 2023, researchers from Higashi Nippon International University and Tohoku University in Japan and the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics in Egypt analyzed this empty area. Instead of a traditional excavation, they employed several non-intrusive imaging technologiesground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomographyto study the site. The resulting scans revealed something strange.
We believe we found an anomaly: a combination of a shallow structure connected to a deeper structure, write the researchers in the study. The shallow structure is clearly L-shaped, and the scans indicate it was filled in with sand after construction. At one point, it may have been an entrance to the deeper structure.
Giza's Western Cemetery, as viewed from the Great Pyramid of Khufu The Giza Project at Harvard University
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/alongside-egypts-great-pyramid-archaeologists-find-unmarked-underground-structures-180984355/