Archaeologists have discovered secret rooms under the pyramids

In the world of archaeology, few tools have revolutionized the field as much as ground-penetrating radar. This geophysical technique uses radar pulses to image the Earth's interior. Similar techniques have found Viking longships in Norway, lost civilizations in the Amazonian jungles, and even entire Roman cities without having to stick a shovel in the ground. Now the ground-penetrating radar has returned a result near one of the most excavated sites in the world - the Great Pyramids of Giza, Popular Mechanics reported. 
Using ground-penetrating radar - along with a method known as electrical resistivity tomography (ECT), an international team of researchers led by Motoyuki Sato of Tohoku University discovered what is described as an "L-shaped anomaly" in the Western Cemetery near the world-famous pyramids. According to the team's research report published in the journal Archeological Prospection, the structure is about 6.5 meters from the surface, has a length of 33 meters and was filled in after the construction of the pyramids.
"The Western Cemetery of Giza is known as an important burial site for members of the royal family and high-ranking officers. In the initial GPR and ECT survey, we found an anomaly in the northern part of the survey site. The area of the anomaly could be roughly determined, but its structure and location were unclear," the report said. 
Beneath this L-shaped structure was an anomaly located at a depth of 16 to 33 feet that the researchers described as "highly resistive." Such an anomaly could have several explanations, but the team identified two main possibilities - a mixture of sand and gravel or "sparse gaps with air cavities". While we know that the surrounding area is filled with flat-roofed tombs, known in Arabic as mastaba, the sandy area where the anomaly was discovered has not been so intensively excavated, largely because there are no impressive structures in the area that require a thorough study.
So what exactly could this L-shaped structure and its lower anomaly represent? Sato claims that the structure is probably not natural because the shape is too sharp.
"It is possible that it was a gateway to a deeper structure," Sato and his colleagues wrote in the paper. This deeper structure looks suspiciously like a tomb. "We think that the continuity of the shallow structure and the deep large structure is important. From the survey results, we cannot determine the material causing the anomaly, but it is possible that this is a large underground archaeological structure." 
Of course, as with almost all ground-penetrating radar surveys, archaeologists will have to start digging if they want to find out exactly what lies buried beneath the sand, a process the research team hopes to begin soon./BGNES