Hidden Secrets of Giza's Depths Unveiled by Advanced Radar Spark New Debates on Ancient Egyptian Engineering

“The megastructure they just found underneath the Giza Pyramids is probably the most important discovery to ever be made in our lifetimes,” wrote a user on X, summing up the feeling of amazement that swept through scientific and popular communities in March 2025. The trigger: a group of Scottish and Italian researchers, spearheaded by Corrado Malanga and Filippo Biondi, revealed radar-based proof of an enormous underground complex below the famous pyramids one that, if authenticated, would change our conception of ancient Egyptian engineering and civilization itself.

Central to this assertion is a technological breakthrough. Classic ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been an archaeological survey mainstay for years, but its depth is limited seldom going beyond a few meters in dry, hard rocks. The Giza researchers, though, used advanced combinations of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Doppler tomography, utilizing satellite-based sensors and advanced signal processing to image previously inaccessible depths. As Biondi explains, their proprietary algorithms, which were developed at the University of Strathclyde, “convert standard radar signals into ‘sonic’ or vibration-based tomographic images,” allowing voids and chambers to be detected by interpreting the micro-vibrations caused by ambient seismic waves instead of wave penetration directly.

This method, which was outlined in a 2022 peer-reviewed paper, has the pyramid and bedrock beneath treated as a colossal music instrument. As seismic energy travels through, it creates tiny oscillations on the order of millimeters or smaller within stone as well as within any underlying voids. By measuring faint phase shifts and Doppler frequency shifts in radar echoes, the researchers mapped a three-dimensional image of the subsurface at meter-scale resolution. As Biondi and Malanga described, “Khnum-Khufu (the Great Pyramid) becomes transparent when observed in the micro-movement domain” enabling high-resolution reconstruction of internal objects.

The findings are nothing short of remarkable. The radar survey identified a network extending almost two kilometers below all three principal pyramids Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure comprising five multi-story structures close to the foundation of Khafre’s pyramid, each linked by geometric tunnels. Below these, eight columnar shafts, lined by spiral ramps, go down to depths of up to 648 meters twice the Eiffel Tower’s height. At the base, two enormous cube-form chambers, each 80 meters square, seem to hold the system down, with additional tunnels branching out across the plateau.

This sort of architectural aspiration, if real, requires a revolution in estimating ancient Egyptian capabilities. The geometric accuracy and scale of such features imply sophisticated surveying, stonework, and knowledge of structural integrity at depth never previously credited to the Old Kingdom. Dr. Armando Mei, the Egyptologist for the project, made comparisons with ancient writings detailing the mythic “Halls of Amenti” legendary repositories of knowledge which were said to be located beneath Giza. “The existence of vast chambers beneath the earth’s surface, comparable in size to the pyramids themselves, has a remarkably strong correlation with the legendary Halls of Amenti,” stated project representative Nicole Ciccolo, according to The Sun highlighting the otherworldly similarity between radar findings and ancient myth.

But the implications go beyond legend. The architectural sophistication and lack of burial artifacts in the newly photographed areas have fueled arguments regarding the original function of the pyramids. For many years, alternative theorists such as Nikola Tesla and engineer Christopher Dunn have hypothesized that the pyramids were actually energy machines, tapping into the natural vibrations of the Earth or, in some theories, producing piezoelectric energy from compressing quartz-rich granite and limestone a property utilized today in electronics. The recently found vertical shafts and huge chambers, with their ability to resonate and transfer energy, only served to encourage such speculations. “The structures strongly correlate with energy-production models,” the team explained in their press releases, hypothesizing that the wells might have transmitted energy, water, or air, and that the cubic rooms could have stored or stabilized that energy in the underground complex.

However, the assertions have not remained unchallenged. Most Egyptologists and geophysicists have expressed their reservations, citing that SAR and other radar technologies are normally great at imaging shallow features, with penetration boundaries usually being in the range of tens of meters in hard rock. “The details they announced could not have been detected using such methods,” Egypt’s former Minister of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass, denounced the study as “baseless” and without scientific evidence as per Asharq Al-Awsat. Critics further point to the lack of peer-reviewed validation and the failure to conduct physical excavation limitations exacerbated by Egypt’s past reluctance to allow intrusive research at Giza.

Technical controversy aside, the find has generated renewed public interest in the pyramids’ engineering enigmas. The application of SAR Doppler tomography an algorithm whose effectiveness has been proven in other applications, from structural health monitoring to environmental imaging is a major leap beyond standard archaeological techniques. Unlike GPR, which is constrained by soil moisture and conductivity, SAR tomography can take advantage of the vibrational “signatures” of subsurface structures, transforming what would otherwise be noise into usable information by combining micro-Doppler effects from multiple satellite passes. This method, recently justified by theoretical analysis of the resonant modes of large stone structures, holds out new possibilities for non-invasive investigation of ancient monuments and in principle could be used to differentiate between natural cavities and artificial chambers.

The controversy surrounding the Giza mega-complex is really a controversy regarding the limitations of ancient and modern technology. If the radar images are borne out by future excavations, they would suggest that the builders of the pyramids possessed a level of architectural planning, geological knowledge, and organizational capacity far beyond what has been credited to the Old Kingdom. Others, such as Malanga, have speculated as far as a lost civilization existing before the Pharaohs, explaining the magnitude and depth of the buildings as proof of an earlier, advanced period potentially as old as 38,000 years.

For the moment, the Giza Plateau remains a mystery. The radar surprises have charged up the archaeological community, prompting demands for specific ground surveys and, ultimately, excavation. As Dr. Biondi noted, “These revelations challenge conventional understandings of Egypt’s history and raise intriguing questions about the origins of human civilization” prompting both skepticism and awe. The potential of non-invasive deep imaging technologies such as SAR tomography guarantees that the sands of Giza will still be parting to reveal new secrets one frequency shift at a time.