No credible evidence supports claims of vast underground structures found beneath Egyptian pyramids (2025)

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Claims that researchers discovered previously unknown structures beneath the Pyramid of Khafre — the pyramid situated in the center of the Great Pyramids of Giza — using radar technology circulated online in March 2025.

The purported discovery was that of "five identical structures near the Khafre Pyramid's base, linked by pathways, and eight deep vertical wells descending 648 meters underground."

Users took to social media to express their excitement over the alleged findings, posting on social media platforms likeX (archived),Instagram (archived) andTikTok (archived). Somereferred to the discovery as "a vast underground city." OneYouTube video sharing the claim stood at over 35,000 views as of this writing.

Perplexity added some validation and additional details:

SAR Scanning of the Khafre Pyramid: Sources and Research Documentation

The team of Corrado Malanga, Armando Mei, Filippo Biondi, and Nicole Ciccolo has indeed released information about Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)… https://t.co/wR2W6ehcLj

— Leonard Murphy Personal Account (@lennyism) March 18, 2025

Despite the popularity of the claim, there is no evidence to support it. In addition,no credible news outlets or scientific publicationshave reported on this rumor.

Rather, this appears to be a spin on already questionable research conducted in 2022 that was subsequently embellished by a variety of right-wing content creators like conspiracy website Infowars contributor Greg Reese, who publishesThe Reese Report, listed as a source for many of the claims pertaining to this topic. Infowars founder and well-known conspiracy theorist Alex Jones shared a version of the same claim onX (archived).

In short, the Reese Report theorized the alleged discovery supported the idea that the pyramids were not built as tombs but as a sort of ancient power plant, writing:

The cylindrical wells could be conduits for energy or sound waves, and the cubic structures might serve as energy storage or stabilization units, akin to components in a large-scale weapon or generator. And the detection of vibrations in the pyramid's internal structures, reflects all of these ideas.

The Khafre Project hopes to plan an excavation in order to discover more about this underground structure, but history shows that this will be very difficult to get approval for.

The "power plant" theory is not new. A 1998 book by Christopher Dunn called"The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt" presented a similar idea that has been the subject offringe science theories ever since. Dunn deepened the conspiracy theory with a 2024follow-up book alleging connections between pioneering scientist Nikola Tesla's research and the purported "Giza Power Plant," none of which has been substantiated bya credible source.

The alleged research behind the claims

The researchers named in the recent claims, Corrado Malanga and Filippo Biondi, did publish apaper andbook about their work using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to explore the Giza pyramid in 2022.

According toNASA, SAR is "a type of active data collection where an instrument sends out a pulse of energy and then records the amount of that energy reflected back after it interacts with Earth."

However, it does not appear that this research has been peer-reviewed or corroborated by credible archaeologists. Additionally, the research alludes to fringe theories about ancient civilizations and otherworldly intentions for the structures, which aligns with Malanga'swell-documented interest in UFO and alien abduction research as well as Dunn's "power plant" theory.

Additionally, one of the most popular images being shared in support of the claim, depicting a cross section of the pyramid and the alleged structures, was generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

Uploading the image to the AI-detection platform Hive Moderation resulted in a 99.9% chance the image was generated using AI.

(Hive Moderation)

Further, the Khafre Project does not appear to exist beyond aYouTube channel of a woman named Nicole Ciccolo, who posts frequent unsubstantiated theories about the pyramids. We could find no website or further information about the organization.

In avideo posted on Feb. 7, 2025, Ciccolo claimed an event would be happening at the Hotel Castello Artemide Congressi in Bologna, Italy, on March 15, 2025, where the Khafre Project would reveal their recent discoveries and share a press release following the event.

We found advertisements for the event onFacebook (archived) and the website forArcheoares, an Italian museum group, claiming it was sold out, but we could locate no evidence of the press release or video from the conference. While thesocialmedia pages for Archeoares share frequent photos of their events, none from the purported Khafre Project conference were publicly available.

However, Biondi did appear to post about the event onLinkedIn (archived), saying, "I am truly humbled by the overwhelming number of shares and discussions following my recent conference at the Hotel Artemide Congressi in Bologna. During the event, we explored the Giza Plateau and the application of the technique I developed—Doppler Tomography, generated through Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)." Biondi did not immediately respond to inquiries about the claim.

While these particular claims about the Khafre pyramid are false, there have indeed been recent discoveries in the area.

A May 2024 article published inSmithsonian Magazine showcased an "anomaly" discovered by researchers from Higashi Nippon International University and Tohoku University in Japan, as well as the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics in Egypt. The team used "non-intrusive imaging technologies," not unlike the SAR described in the false claims. However, the structures don't match the description of those in the claim.

The article reads:

"We believe we found an anomaly: a combination of a shallow structure connected to a deeper structure," write the researchers in the study. The shallow structure is clearly L-shaped, and the scans indicate it was filled in with sand after construction. At one point, "it may have been an entrance to the deeper structure."

…

While the researchers aren't sure of the deeper structure's contents, they say it could be empty or filled with materials such as sand and gravel.

So while there have been new discoveries in the vicinity of the Giza pyramids, there is no evidence to support the existence of "five identical structures near the Khafre Pyramid's base, linked by pathways, and eight deep vertical wells descending 648 meters underground."

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