A team of Egyptian and Japanese researchers working in Giza, Egypt, has identified what may be a previously unknown “L”-shaped structure beneath the sand: it may have served as the entrance to a tomb. The discovery was made using ground penetrating radar technology in an ancient cemetery next to the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The find was published in the journal «Archaeological Prospection». Researchers from Higashi Nippon International University, Tohoku University and Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics carried out a scan beneath the surface of the sand in a previously considered empty area of Giza’s western cemetery. According to the researchers, the Western Cemetery is “an important burial site for members of the royal family and high-ranking officials”, densely populated with mastabas, a type of tomb with rectangular funerary chapels that give access to shafts connected to burial chambers underground.
However, in the center of the cemetery there was an empty space, devoid of surface structures and on which no noteworthy excavations had been conducted. Over the course of two years, starting in 2021, the team conducted a geophysical survey, using a combination of ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography to see beneath the surface. The surveys revealed anomalies which they believe “may be vertical limestone walls or shafts leading to a tomb structure.”
The team of archaeologists, Adnkronos reports, then carried out a further series of surveys using another type of ground-penetrating radar to determine the shape of the large anomaly. The findings indicated an “L”-shaped structure measuring approximately 3.5 meters by 3.5 meters, which was located six and a half meters below the ground. Researchers are still unsure of its purpose. It may have been the entrance to a tomb or a construction site subsequently filled with sand. However, it appears to be connected to another 33 by 33 meter structure up to five feet below the ground. Without further excavation, its function remains ultimately unclear.
