The team that stunned the archaeological world in March with a report of vast underground structures beneath the Pyramid of Khafre now says it has detected matching shafts and chambers under the neighboring Pyramid of Menkaure. Lead radar specialist Filippo Biondi of the University of Strathclyde told the Daily Mail the new scan shows a “90 percent probability” that Menkaure “shares the same pillars as Khafre,” strengthening the view that the three Giza pyramids sit atop a single, colossal subterranean complex some 2,000 feet below the desert surface.
Biondi argued that the pillars beneath both pyramids display identical geometry, implying a dense web of tunnels linking “main subterranean structures.” Images supplied to the Mail appear to show spiral-like formations winding around massive, pillar-shaped voids. “The pyramids are only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Fierce pushback
Egypt’s former antiquities minister Dr. Zahi Hawass dismissed the claim outright, saying ground-penetrating radar cannot image thousands of feet below the plateau. Hawass branded the March announcement “bulls***” and repeated the charge this week, stressing that no peer-reviewed data have been released.
The same team’s earlier study proposed an entire underground city beneath Khafre. Researcher Armando Mei pointed to salt encrustations and alleged water-erosion marks on blocks near the Great Pyramid as evidence that Giza was once submerged in a cataclysmic flood. The group dates the complex to 38,000 years ago, contending that an advanced civilization was wiped out about 12,800 BCE by a comet-triggered deluge—a timeline mainstream Egyptology rejects.
Supporters of the comet hypothesis, such as UCSB geologist Dr. James Kennett, note impact debris at Abu Hureyra, Syria—about 1,000 km from Giza—as possible evidence of regional flooding. Independent researcher Andrew Collins highlights Temple of Edfu inscriptions describing a primeval flood that destroyed a shadowy “Eldest Ones” culture. Egyptologists counter that these texts are symbolic and unrelated to Giza.
Biondi’s team says it will release full tomography files “within months” and is seeking permits for coring tests at Menkaure. Until then, the claims remain unverified—and the debate over what, if anything, lies beneath the Giza plateau shows no sign of subsiding.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.