Underground Anomaly Detected in Giza’s Western Cemetery

CAIRO, EGYPT—An L-shaped structure was detected using ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography about six feet beneath Giza’s Western Cemetery by a team of scientists from Tohoku University, Higashi Nippon International University, and Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, according to a Live Science report. During the Old Kingdom period (ca. 2649–2150 B.C.), members of the royal family and high-ranking officials were buried in stone or mudbrick structures called mastabas in the Western Cemetery. The underground anomaly, which measures about 33 feet long, was identified in an area where no aboveground structures have been found. Motoyuki Sato of Tohoku University suggests that the shape of the anomaly is too sharp to have come about through a natural phenomenon. The geophysical readings also indicate that the space had been backfilled with a mix of sand and gravel, he added. The survey also suggests there is a second, deeper structure at the site that was perhaps accessed through the L-shaped structure. Excavation of the site has begun. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Archaeological Prospection. For more on Giza and the construction of the pyramids, go to "Journeys of the Pyramid Builders."