A team of researchers has ignited a firestorm of debate with a bold claim that could rewrite the history of the Giza Plateau | the discovery of a sprawling underground city beneath the Khafre Pyramid, one of the three iconic pyramids in the complex alongside Khufu and Menkaure.
Led by Corrado Malanga from the University of Pisa, Filippo Biondi from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, and Egyptologist Armando Mei, the group presented their findings at two press conferences in Italy last week, asserting that this subterranean network—stretching over 4,000 feet deep—was constructed 38,000 years ago by an advanced civilization predating dynastic Egypt by tens of thousands of years. Their claims, which link the pyramids to the legendary lost city of Atlantis and suggest origins tied to ancient Nubia, have sparked both fascination and fierce skepticism from the scientific community and Egyptian authorities alike.
The Giza Pyramids, long regarded as marvels of ancient engineering, are traditionally dated to around 4,500 years ago, constructed during Egypt’s Old Kingdom as royal tombs for pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Their sheer scale—Khafre’s pyramid alone stands 471 feet tall—and the precision of their construction have puzzled historians for centuries, given the presumed technological limitations of the era.
Mainstream archaeology attributes their creation to the ancient Egyptians, who used rudimentary tools, ramps, and an organized workforce to achieve this feat. However, Malanga, Biondi, and Mei challenge this narrative, proposing that the pyramids were not built by Egyptians but by a far older civilization from Nubia, a region south of Egypt known for its own rich history but not typically associated with Giza’s monuments. They further claim that this underground city, hidden beneath Khafre’s pyramid, predates even the oldest known artificial structures, such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, which dates to around 11,000 years ago.
The researchers’ methodology centers on advanced radar technology, specifically a technique they describe as Doppler tomography, which uses radar pulses to generate high-resolution images of subsurface structures. They employed two satellites to send radar signals toward the Khafre Pyramid, analyzing the way the signals scattered to create three-dimensional maps of what lies beneath.
According to their findings, the underground network includes eight descending wells, each 33 to 39 feet in diameter, extending at least 2,130 feet below the surface. These wells are surrounded by stair-like structures, which the team interprets as access points to a larger system. At the bottom of each well, they identified massive rectangular enclosures, each measuring 260 feet per side and containing four vertical axes descending even deeper. They also detected a water system over 2,100 feet below the pyramid, with underground paths leading to depths exceeding 4,000 feet. “When we magnify the images in the future, we will reveal what can only be described as a true underground city,” Malanga told the DailyMail.com, hinting at a labyrinthine network of structures that could redefine our understanding of ancient history.
To support their dating of these structures to 38,000 years ago, the team turned to ancient Egyptian texts, which they interpret as historical records of a pre-existing civilization destroyed by a cataclysmic event. They cite Chapter 149 of the Book of the Dead, which describes “14 abodes of the uncle,” as a reference to the remnants of this advanced society. Additionally, they reference the Royal Canon, an ancient Egyptian document listing kings, including gods and demigods, who supposedly ruled before the first recorded pharaohs.
The researchers argue that these “gods” were real kings of a lost civilization, potentially linked to Nubia, that thrived long before dynastic Egypt. They also tie their findings to the legend of Atlantis, a mythical island mentioned by the Greek philosopher Plato, who claimed to have learned of it from Egyptian priests in Saida during a visit by Solon around 600 BCE. Plato described Atlantis as an advanced society destroyed by a cataclysm 9,000 years before his time—roughly 11,600 years ago—though the Italian team pushes this timeline back even further to 38,000 years, suggesting a connection between Atlantis and the Giza structures.
The researchers propose that this ancient civilization was wiped out by a global catastrophe, possibly a massive asteroid impact that triggered climate change and mass extinctions. While geological evidence, such as ice cores from Greenland and sediment data from the Atlantic Ocean, supports the idea of a significant event around 12,900 years ago (the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis), no definitive asteroid crater has been found, and the theory remains controversial. The team’s claim of a 38,000-year-old city pushes this timeline into even more speculative territory, as mainstream archaeology holds that humans during that period—roughly the Upper Paleolithic—were primarily hunter-gatherers living in caves, with the earliest known cities emerging around 9,000 years ago in regions like Mesopotamia.
Professor Lawrence Conyers, a radar expert at the University of Denver who was not involved in the study, called the idea “really strange,” noting that even the earliest large villages, such as Çatalhöyük in Turkey, date back only about 7,000 years. “People didn’t start living in what we now call cities until about 9,000 years ago,” he told the DailyMail.com, casting doubt on the feasibility of such an advanced society existing 38,000 years ago.
The study has also drawn sharp criticism from Egyptian authorities and independent scientists. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former antiquities minister and a prominent Egyptologist, dismissed the findings as “completely wrong” and lacking scientific basis in an interview with The National. Hawass, who has long defended the traditional narrative of the pyramids’ construction, argued that no radar devices or modern technologies have been used inside the Khafre Pyramid, as claimed by the team, and that the Supreme Council of Antiquities has not granted permits for such work.
The research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, a critical step for validation, further fueling skepticism. Independent experts have acknowledged that the team’s radar techniques—using satellite-based radar pulses converted into sound waves for 3D imaging—are scientifically sound in principle, but they question the interpretation of the data. Conyers noted that the technology cannot penetrate as deeply as 4,000 feet into the ground, calling the idea of an underground city “a huge exaggeration.” He suggested that smaller structures, like shafts or chambers, might exist beneath the pyramids, as the Giza site was considered sacred long before the pyramids were built, similar to how the Maya in Mesoamerica constructed pyramids over ritual caves.
Despite the skepticism, the researchers stand by their findings, emphasizing that their data comes from “objective measurements” using advanced radar signal processing. Niccole Ciccolo, a spokesperson for the team, told the DailyMail.com that the ancient texts provided crucial guidance, not only in locating the structures but also in dating them to a pre-dynastic civilization. She highlighted the Royal Canon’s references to a pre-existing society destroyed by a cataclysm, which the team interprets as evidence of historical reliability in these scriptures.
The researchers’ narrative aligns with fringe theories that have circulated for decades, including claims that the Giza Pyramids are connected to Atlantis or were built by an advanced, lost civilization. However, mainstream Egyptology, supported by decades of archaeological evidence, attributes the pyramids to the Fourth Dynasty pharaohs, with Khafre’s pyramid dated to around 2570 BCE.
The controversy continues to simmer, with the Italian team’s claims drawing both intrigue and derision. Their work, while not yet peer-reviewed, has reignited debates about the origins of the Giza Pyramids and the possibility of undiscovered history beneath their ancient stones. Whether their findings will be validated or relegated to the realm of pseudoscience remains to be seen, but for now, the idea of a 38,000-year-old underground city beneath Khafre’s pyramid stands as a provocative challenge to everything we thought we knew about humanity’s past.
