An Egyptian archaeologist has sought to dispel claims of an underground city underneath the Pyramid of Khafre in Giza made by a team of researchers from Scotland and Italy that gained traction on social media.
Zahi Hawass, a renowned Egyptian archaeologist and former Minister of Tourism and antiquities, said that claims of an underground city were “completely wrong and has no scientific basis”, in comments carried by Ahram Online.
He further threw doubt on claims of the use of radar to locate the city as “false”, noting that the techniques were “not scientifically approved nor validates”, according to The National.
The intervention from Hawass comes after a paper published in October 2022 by researchers Filippo Biondi and Corrado Malanga on using radar to discover eight deep vertical wells extending 2,100 feet into the ground.
As well as the eight wells, the researchers claim the discovery of five-multi-level structures above the pillars, while below 4,000 more structures are believed to be hidden.
Alongside Hawass’s intervention, however, another scientist has also cast doubt on the paper, which is according to The Sun is awaiting peer-review.
Professor Lawrence Conyers at the University of Denver specializing I radar told the Daily Mail that the technology was not possible to detect that far underground, while calling the claims of an underground city “a huge exaggeration”.
The claims took off on social media, however, with users of site X fueling amplifying the claims getting millions of views and shares.
The Great Pyramids of Giza are believed to be 4600 years old, and draws in millions of tourists to Egypt every year.
