BARNSLEY’S world-renowned Egyptologist Joann Fletcher has had her say on the likelihood of a vast city spanning directly beneath the iconic pyramids in Giza - after archaeologists claimed they had uncovered never-before-seen structures underground.
The bombshell claim - which many experts claim to have already debunked - comes from a study that used radar pulses to create high-resolution images deep into the ground beneath the structures, the same way sonar radar is used to map water depths.
It identified eight cylinder-shaped objects spanning more than 2,100 feet under the pyramids - which were also accompanied by an array of other unknown structures even deeper.
However, famed Egyptologist Joann revealed to the Chronicle that she would be surprised if there wasn’t something underground.
She said: “Like so much else connected with ancient Egypt, the current story that vast underground structures have been discovered beneath the pyramids of Giza is certainly proving very popular.
“So whatever this new discovery at Giza turns out to be, it won’t be the first time such underground structures have been found beneath the pyramids of Egypt.
“We know that they often built on top of much older structures to try and tap into the powers of their own impressive past, so in some ways we’d probably be more surprised if there weren’t anything there.”
According to Joann, for as early as circa 2650BC, Egypt’s earliest pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser at Sakkara, was not only home to the pharaoh’s burial chamber but also built over a vast network of tunnels and chambers stretching for almost six kilometres, or three-and-a-half miles.
“Located 28 metres, or 98 feet, underground, some of these were decorated with beautiful blue tiles and scenes of Djoser himself, intended as a kind of subterranean palace in which his soul could live forever,” she added.
“There were also more than 40,000 stone vessels found in some of these chambers, carved with the names of Djoser’s predecessors to effectively bring the royal ancestors into his burial place with him.
“Even as recently as 2016, our Egyptian colleague Dr Ramadan Hussein discovered an entire mummification workshop 100 feet beneath this same Sakkara pyramid site, calling in my partner, archaeological scientist Dr Stephen Buckley, to help analyse its contents.
“I was great to revisit the site only a few weeks ago, then travelling a few miles north to see the first tomb known to have been built at Giza itself.
“Created for Queen Mother Hetepheres whose golden grave goods were found at the bottom of yet another shaft, cut 27 metres down into the Giza bedrock, her tomb and its contents featured on our BBC2 documentary, ‘Egypt’s Lost Queens’.
“Even if we take away the usual media hype about ‘lost cities’ and the criticisms from certain specialists about this apparent discovery, it’s worth pointing out that the location of such labyrinth-like structures ‘beneath the pyramids’ is certainly nothing new.”
