An Egyptologist thought a pyramid might have hidden rooms. It took almost 200 years and lidar to prove him right.

Jenny McGrath
Thu, October 19, 2023 

An Egyptologist found a passageway in a pyramid almost 200 years ago.


The pyramid is badly damaged, and it was difficult to fully excavate.


Recently, researchers used Lidar to map the pyramid's interior and found previously hidden rooms.

In 1836, Egyptologist John Shae Perring was excavating the Pyramid of Sahure (also known as Sahura) when he noticed a debris-filled passageway.

An expert on floor plans for these types of structures, he surmised there might be storage rooms beyond.

But it would take another nearly 200 years to finally confirm his suspicions.
The hidden storage rooms

The area was so damaged it was impossible to enter, so Perring had no way of knowing if he was right.

Decades later, German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt ignored Perring's claims when he was excavating the site in the early 1900s. If he'd looked closer, history might have been different.

Now, a joint Egyptian-German team working to restore the pyramid has shown Perring was correct.

Using lidar, a method that applies laser pulses to penetrate obstacles like tree canopies or walls to see what lies beyond, the researchers mapped the exterior and interior passages and chambers.


Temperature changes, high humidity, and windy conditions have helped cause certain parts of the pyramid to collapse over the centuries.

Clearing some of the rubble and creating 3D maps have allowed the researchers to get a better sense of the structure, including eight previously hidden rooms off the passage Perring found.

The newly discovered chambers are likely storage rooms, meant to hold burial objects belonging to royal rulers, according to Egyptologist Mohamed Ismail Khaled from Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg, who led the restoration team.
Sahure's Pyramid

The structure is located in the Abusir pyramid complex, just south of Giza.

The mortuary temple and Pyramid of Sahure at the Necropolis of Abusir.

DeAgostini/Getty Images

Sahure was a pharaoh who ruled during the Fifth Dynasty, around 2,400 BCE. One document suggests Sahure wasn't of royal lineage, but was said to be the son of Ra, the sun deity. As with other pharaohs, his pyramid stood as a monument to his rule.

The pyramid of Sahura has been excavated numerous times in the last couple of centuries.

Borchardt left a decent portion of the pyramid unexplored. In 1994, a new excavation began, uncovering huge limestone blocks covered with multi-colored images. One shows Sahure sailing on a boat, with a fleet of boats behind, with some bows decorated with lion or eagle heads.
The pyramid is falling apart

Part of the reason the pyramid is in such disrepair is due to the original construction techniques.

The core contains bits of limestone, pieces of pottery, sand, and other rubble. While it cut construction time and cost, the technique may have left the pyramid more prone to collapse, according to a 2022 study.

The latest conservation project started in 2019. The team is working to stabilize the structure, replacing crumbling supports with retaining walls.

The hope is to clean and secure the chambers and potentially open the pyramid to the public in the future.

Ancient New Year's scene from Egypt uncovered on roof of 2,200-year-old temple

Owen Jarus
Thu, October 19, 2023

Restored ceiling in ancient Egyptian temple. Image displays iconography of the gods Orion, Sothis/Sirius and Anukis, above them the sky goddess Nut swallows the evening sun.


A stunning New Year's scene painted by ancient Egyptians has been uncovered by researchers restoring artwork on the ceiling of the Temple of Esna — a temple built around 2,200 years ago that underwent a major renovation about 2,000 years ago when the Romans controlled Egypt.

The paintings show the Egyptian deities Orion (also called Sah), Sothis and Anukis on neighboring boats with the sky goddess Nut swallowing the evening sky above them — a mythology that details the Egyptian New Year, according to a statement from the University of Tübingen in Germany, which jointly led the restoration with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.


In the depiction, Orion represents the constellation of the same name, while Sothis represents Sirius, a star which was invisible in the night sky in ancient Egypt for 70 days of the year before becoming visible again in east, that day marking the ancient Egyptian New Year, Christian Leitz, an Egyptology professor at the University of Tübingen who is part of the team, said in the statement. The Nile seasonally flooded at this time, and the ancient Egyptians believed that about 100 days after the appearance of Sirius, the goddess Anukis was responsible for the receding of the Nile's flood waters.

Related: See gorgeous ancient Egyptian 'mummy portraits' from nearly 2 millennia ago

The ancient Egyptian New Year would have occurred in mid-July on our calendar, Leitz told Live Science in an email.

The New Year's artwork is the latest of several discoveries scientists have made at the Temple of Esna, whose paintings were obscured by two millennia's worth of soot, grime and even bird droppings. For the past five years, scientists have been cleaning the ceiling, revealing a variety of imagery including depictions of the ancient zodiac and various astronomical constellations, mythological goddesses and more than 200 inscriptions that were previously unknown, according to the statement. The temple does not appear to be dedicated to a single god and analysis of its remains may allow scholars to better understand more about the meaning and purpose of the decorations.

Fiery wind

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As the team finished cleaning the ceiling, they restored several other paintings. One of them— a representation of a lion's body with four wings and a ram's head — represents the "south wind," according to an inscription. In ancient Egypt, the south wind was associated with scorching heat and it's possible that the "lion represents the power of the heat," Leitz said in the email.

Now that the ceiling's restoration is complete, the team is cleaning the temple's walls, columns and pronaos (the front area). This restoration is expected to reveal new colors and details of images that can faintly be seen through the grime, such as the "thrones of the gods" and details about their clothing, Leitz said.