5 days ago 6

Going underground: Experts clash over 'hidden city' beneath Egypt pyramids

A heated debate has erupted among Egyptologists after researchers claimed to have found an “underground city” beneath the Pyramids of Giza. Is the discovery, based on radar images, groundbreaking or exaggerated?

Italian researchers, led by Prof. Corrado Malanga from the University of Pisa, say they’ve uncovered a vast underground network beneath the Egyptian pyramids.

They claim the radar images show massive vertical shafts, spiral staircases, channels resembling pipelines for a water system, and a hidden world of structures more than 2,000 feet (610m) beneath the surface. They even suggest that the legendary Hall of Records, a purported library tied to ancient Egyptian lore, could lie within this underground complex.

“When we magnify the images [in the future], we will reveal that beneath it lies what can only be described as a true underground city,” the team said at a press conference.

But not all experts are convinced. Radar expert Prof Lawrence Conyers from the University of Denver called the claims a “huge exaggeration,” stating that the technology used – radar pulses from a satellite, similar to how sonar radar is used to map the ocean – couldn’t penetrate that deep into the earth.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he cast doubt on the idea of an underground city, but acknowledged that smaller structures may be found beneath the pyramids, underscoring how “the Mayans and other peoples in ancient Mesoamerica often built pyramids on top of the entrances to caves or caverns that had ceremonial significance to them”.

In a similar vein, Egyptian archaeologist Dr Zahi Hawass told The National that the researchers were "completely wrong”, and argued that their so-called discovery lacks any scientific basis.

The work by Prof Malanga and fellow researchers Filippo Biondi and Armando Mei was discussed during a briefing in Italy last week, but the scientists’ findings are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The team concentrated on the Khafre pyramid, one of the three pyramids in the Giza complex, alongside the Khufu and Menkaure pyramids. These iconic structures are believed to have been built around 4,500 years ago and are located on the west bank of the Nile in northern Egypt.