Technology

Did Google Earth Help Find Lost Egyptian Pyramids?

Putting privacy concerns aside, Google’s Street View and Earth features have become useful tools in a variety of situations. They have been used to spot odd satellite calibration targets in China’s Gobi Desert, let you take a virtual tour through the White House or on the Great Barrier Reef, and even helped a lost boy locate his hometown and family decades later.

Now, a satellite researcher is claiming to have used Google Earth to reveal lost Egyptian pyramids. According to Google Earth Anomalies, satellite archaeologist Angela Micol discovered two sites, which were verified as undiscovered prior to this time by Egyptologist and pyramid expert Nabil Selim. Other experts though say more work needs to be done to verify whether these are really pyramids or not.

Angela Micol Finds Desert Mounds on Google Earth Suggesting Lost Egyptian Pyramids, Experts Say More Research Needed

One of the sites found using Google Earth by Angela Micol. (Image: Angela Micol via Google Earth Anomalies)

Here’s more on the sites themselves:

One of the complex sites contains a distinct, four-sided, truncated, pyramidal shape that is approximately 140 feet in width.

This site contains three smaller mounds in a very clear formation, similar to the diagonal alignment of the Giza Plateau pyramids.

The second possible site contains four mounds with a larger, triangular-shaped plateau. The two larger mounds at this site are approximately 250 feet in width, with two smaller mounds approximately 100 feet in width. This site complex is arranged in a very clear formation with the large plateau, or butte, nearby in a triangular shape with a width of approximately 600 feet.

Angela Micol Finds Desert Mounds on Google Earth Suggesting Lost Egyptian Pyramids, Experts Say More Research Needed

A second site found by Angela Micol using Google Earth. (Image: Angela Micol via Google Earth Anomalies)

Angela Micol Finds Desert Mounds on Google Earth Suggesting Lost Egyptian Pyramids, Experts Say More Research Needed

A close up of one of the mounds. (Image: Angela Micol via Google Earth Anomalies)

“The images speak for themselves,” Micol said according to Google Earth Anomalies. “It’s very obvious what the sites may contain but field research is needed to verify they are, in fact, pyramids and evidence should be gathered to determine their origins. It is my hunch there is much more to these sites and with the use of Infrared imagery, we can see the extent of the proposed complexes in greater detail.”

The structures, which appear to have a truncated top (not the usual point you might expect) are being further verified by researchers. In a separate post on Google Earth Anomalies, it is reported the location of the ruins are near Dimai, a town which Discovery News notes peaked in the first and second century A.D. Google Earth Anomalies reports the color of the mounds are similar to that of the materials composing the walls of Dimai.

Gizmodo points out this isn’t the first time virtual tools have been used to find previously undiscovered pyramids. It notes Egyptologist Sarah Parack finding 17 pyramids using infrared satellite images last year. But Parack herself is questioning this latest discovery by Micol. According to NBC, Parack said in an email:

“These Google Earth reports are coming from someone who is neither an Egyptologist, an archaeologist, or a remote sensing specialist, and from an area where there is no earthly reason to have a pyramid — 8 miles to the west of the Nile Valley edge in upper Egypt. … I get emails constantly from people who have claimed to find features.”

NBC reports other experts saying that assuming these are pyramids is premature.

“It may well turn out to be a pyramid, but it may turn out to be another structure,” University of Hawaii archeologist Robert Littman told with NBC.

Comments (75)

  • _DzSoundNirvana_
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:32pm

    Gassing up the camels right now.

    Report Post » _DzSoundNirvana_  
    • piper22
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 8:11pm

      ” neither an Egyptologist, an archaeologist, or a remote sensing specialist, and from an area where there is no earthly reason to have a pyramid…”

      What is with the arrogance of scientists nowadays? So this Parack is the ONLY person who can legitimately find things, and she is the ONLY person who knows every place that Egyptians would have an “earthly reason” to put a pyramid. Why not be open to learning something NEW, or just understanding that science–by its very definition–cannot be settled!?!

      Report Post »  
    • yourpantsonfire
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:43pm

      hahahaha

      Report Post » yourpantsonfire  
  • froggy19510
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:24pm

    Nuts! I thought I hid them better than that!

    Report Post » froggy19510  
  • chips1
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:19pm

    It appears to be an old GM plant that was bailed out prior to moving to China.

    Report Post »  
  • blair152
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:19pm

    I love Google Earth.

    Report Post »  
  • cosmic dogma
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:08pm

    This is a very bad time to disclose information about pyramids. They will only be destroyed by islamists, for their perverted, insane, moronic, killer zombie religion.

    Report Post »  
    • Walkabout
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:54pm

      Beat me to it.

      Any writings found would shed light on kings, nobles & more on the old Dynasties. It would fill in a lot of gaps as to how & why people lived the way they did back then.

      But it looks we are to be denied that information by a bunch of idiots.

      Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:04pm

      The Fibonacci number seriers… obtain from Egypt… was the model to build Temples to the Gods… laiid out alike a Horizontal Pryamid… where the first Vertical Pryamids were Temple for Soul to the Underworld.

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • TeslanEdison
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:46pm

    Better hurry and hide the locations of those pyramids, the radical gihadis are putting together their pyramid busting bombs as we speak.

    Report Post »  
  • lukerw
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:07pm

    As you drive the Desert Roads of Egypt… you swear that you see unrecorded Pyramids out in the sand.

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • Patrick Henry
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:45pm

      You make no sense whatsoever my brother.

      Report Post » Patrick Henry  
    • Walkabout
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:05pm

      He does if he has been there looked out the window & asked himself what if.

      The Pyramids as we know them are not so many. These look like a cross between a Mastaba & a pyramid. Of the Mastabas there are probably hundreds inf not in the low thousands. A person might well wonder if a hill is an ancient pyramid, mastaba or perhaps a tell.

      Report Post »  
  • jackofiron
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:25pm

    Just what I was looking for!! Scientific evidence and backing for “remote viewing” — the pinnacle of scientific thought!!

    “These Google Earth reports are coming from someone who is neither an Egyptologist, an archaeologist, or a remote sensing specialist” — what’s-her-name’s approved search personell list.

    Report Post » jackofiron  
    • Chet Hempstead
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:44pm

      They’re not talking about a kind of clairvoyance. They’re talking about a kind of data analysis.

      Report Post »  
  • NineteenEighty4
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:22pm

    False. The Pyramids are a hoax. Anything that existed before Christianity is a lie. We have the truth, and these “experts” can’t fool us. I will not comply.

    Report Post »  
    • glennpatstu
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:51pm

      lol @ you. what an ignorant statement.

      Report Post »  
    • Twobyfour
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:51pm

      A nice try, but no cigar. That‘s Islam’s claim, not Christianity’s.

      Report Post » Twobyfour  
    • Twobyfour
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:04pm

      glennpatstu, it’s just trolling.

      Report Post » Twobyfour  
    • hi
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:11pm

      All archeological finds. Back up the Christian Bible .

      Report Post » hi  
    • nitnop
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:19pm

      I rate your troll 5/10 i’d usually give it a 3/10 but you had a few people fall for it so i deem your troll, meh.

      Report Post »  
    • Platonician
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:58pm

      You are probably a Muslim Obama troll. Christianity is not Islam. Christianity not only acknowledges history but moreover ancient history records were preserved, studied and reproduced by Christian monks. Regarding respect for other peoples’ culture, an example among many is the Jesuit, Matteo Ricci who was the first to introduce euclidean geometry in China, he also studied and admired Chinese civilization.

      Report Post » Platonician  
  • Naram-Sin
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:11pm

    Actually, these pictures don’t look like the “face” on Mars. It is unlikely that the square structure will change shape when you take the picture from a different angle. More importantly you can actually go and check these out.

    Infrared imaging is useful because it allows us to see things that are invisible to the human eye because it’s the same color or covered by sand. Building material such as brick will show up even when covered by drifting sand. One can see the outline of buried buildings.

    Notice the arrogance of Sarah Parack who dismisses the photos not because of analysis, but because the person who saw them first “is neither an Egyptologist, an archaeologist.” I saw this attitude again and again as a archaeology student. While many such claims are dead ends the “trained archaeologist” will often refuse to look because they think they’re smarter. (Apparently, untrained people are blind.) As or the naive claim that these structures are in “an area where there is no earthly reason to have a pyramid”, it should be noted that the Nile has moved considerable distances over time. 5000 years ago this area may have been much different and a good place to build. In any case, 8 miles is not that remote, it isn’t that had to climb in a jeep and go look.

    Report Post »  
    • face.chewer
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:28pm

      Good post. That Sarah Nutsack really does seem to be a know it all.

      Report Post »  
    • Silvertruth
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:43pm

      Many, many things have been found by ‘amateur’ searchers with satellite imagery. For a ‘professional’ to doubt a claim by an amateur just because they are an amateur demonstrates a distinct lack of professionality.
      The point about the Nile shifting is true, also, weather patterns were distinctly different back then and the region had different living areas than now. The deserts shift and move. You go back far enough and the whole area was a tropical paradise.
      Another interesting thing to note is that NOBODY knows the true extent of the Egyptian development in the region. They continue to find site after site where there should be ‘nothing’. It has led many ‘real’ Egyptologists to stop making assumptions about border boundarys and just go back to ‘looking’ like they used to in the early days of Egyptian Archeology.
      A quick helicopter ride to the sites would confirm natural vs. manmade.

      Report Post » Silvertruth  
    • Kaoscontrol
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:22pm

      Clearly Sarah Parack is in De-Nile.

      Report Post » Kaoscontrol  
  • rickg62
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:11pm

    I love the arrogance of this expert, Sarah Patrick, dismissing the findings before any investigation. Nobody is making any spectacular claims here. These anomalies were seen and suggestions made to investigate. Her nose is out of joint because how dare anybody not in one of her exalted fields of so-called expertise find something in an area she hasn’t looked. Check out the sites then come to a conclusion before getting snippy.

    Report Post »  
  • RightThinking1
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:03pm

    I just want to be able to spot the yellow jacket nests in my back yard.

    Report Post »  
    • OUTRIDER WRITER
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:00pm

      @RightThinking1
      Yellow Jackets?! Got a lawn mower? Always does the trick for me……..

      Report Post »  
    • sWampy
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:48pm

      I want a lawn mower that detects them, and sounds a siren, so you can get the hell out of the way before they pop you.

      Report Post »  
  • watashbuddyfriend
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:43am

    Another find where Slave Labor was used to construct?

    Report Post »  
    • MrFantastic2323
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:14pm

      It’s generally accepted now that Egyptian people were paid in beer, food and lodging for their families (the most important forms of payment at the time) and were doing what was considered and honorable thing by society and did not think of themselves as slaves but as people working toward a worthy cause for their “god”. There’s no need to gin up fake guilt over the downtrodden people of 5,000 years ago.

      Report Post »  
  • lembrandt
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:20am

    Notice how much these photos look like similar aerial shots of Mars? Especially the Martian “face”?

    Report Post »  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:09am

    Not sure why they are using infrared. How does that help?

    Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • DRsnapper
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:25am

      maybe ,mud bricks or rock blocks cool at different rates than sand at different times of day or night?
      that’s my guess

      Report Post »  
    • realistic_01
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:40pm

      They‘re looking for the left over heat signatures from when the Goa’uld motherships last landed on them.

      Report Post »  
  • capitalismrocks
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:18am

    Wow – that is great, now the muslim brotherhood will know where they are too and will blow those up and destroy those along with all of the other truthful and real history of Egypt so they can create their own fake more-ham-mud islam history

    Report Post » capitalismrocks  
  • oldduffer
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:02am

    Better get there fast before the peaceful people from the peaceful religion blow them up just like they’re planning for the ones outside Cairo.

    Report Post »  
  • Mandors
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:58am

    You fools, these are all natural geological formations. Oh, wait that only works on Mars.

    But seriously, google or bing “cydonia,” and compare those pictures to these.

    Report Post » Mandors  
    • Chet Hempstead
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 3:03pm

      Well, don’t forget that smart people always realized that the Martian ”face” was a natural formation, because we noticed that much of the illusion in the original photo was created by the round black dot that happened to fall in the exact right spot to look like a nostril, but that it was the same size and shape as the other black dots that appeared scattered randomly throughout the background, suggesting that it was an accident of the grain of the film which indicated how tiny an area of the photo this constituted and how much it had been enlarged.

      These pictures, however, seem to be taken from low orbit, and the sites are relatively close to the equator, so the pictures were taken from a near-perpendicular angle. I have never heard of nature creating a perfect square, so I think there might be something there.

      Report Post »  
  • BrotherWill
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:57am

    Wow. Maybe we could use google Earth to find Obamas real birth certificate?

    Report Post » BrotherWill  
  • sWampy
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:56am

    This technique works, I used it to find 30k of these horse circles as I call them in mississippi, and close to 300k us wide, http://goo.gl/maps/GttHH . These are mostly horses tied to stakes/trees/tractors/water buckets used as cheap long mowers by lazy uncaring folks a true abuse of these animals, but peta seems to look the other way, since these are mostly minorities doing this. I’m sure there are many, many, many more to be found when better quality imagery becomes available.

    Report Post »  
  • nattybrooks
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:33am

    pretty cool. i hope in my lifetime the tech to truly explore our oceans becomes available

    Report Post » nattybrooks  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:08am

      It would be cool to see what all is under water, perhaps a city or two, and all the sunken boats and planes.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • watersRpeople
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:31am

    People look at the Pyramids through the eyes of children. Just as Americans don’t see how the U.S shows you the decay that came over the world like since from the beginning. The Pyramids show you how Socialism doesn’t work in any form, and it will never work. But people get preoccupied with the nooks and crannies, treasure, and wanting to take DNA from mummies – when the reality is you might unleash a once dormant disease.

    Report Post »  
    • Sol Invictus
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:09am

      If we re-arrange the words does your post make sense or is it encoded?

      Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • RedManBlueState
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:43pm

      The Pyramids are a symbol of a people with diminishing goals.
      The original plan was for a big, square building.

      -Gallagher

      Report Post » RedManBlueState  
  • amerbur
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:18am

    Will the new Muslim Brotherhood allow anyone in to investigate and when they fine evidence of someone other than Ala being worshiped, will they destroy the sites?

    Report Post »  
  • Bruce P.
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:14am

    Science is bad-ass.

    Report Post » Bruce P.  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:50am

      It sure is. Aren’t you grateful God gave us the intelligence to use it?

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • sWampy
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:57am

      Dude, this isn’t science, it’s engineering.

      Report Post »  
    • AMENDMENT
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:22am

      “Programming Language Theory” is a branch of [computer science] that deals with the design, implementation, analysis, characterization, and classification of programming languages and their individual features. It falls within the discipline of [computer science], both depending on and affecting mathematics, [software engineering] and linguistics. It is a well-recognized branch of [computer science], and an active research area, with results published in numerous journals dedicated to PLT, as well as in general [computer science] and [engineering publications].

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SBR_SnrEiI

      Report Post » AMENDMENT  
    • OUTRIDER WRITER
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:05pm

      @Amendment
      Great post. Logical and user friendly! Now I can go out and build whatever the*ell you’re talking about myself.

      Report Post »  
    • Rayblue
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:56pm

      Bruce P….You’re half right.
      Either one.

      Report Post » Rayblue  
  • randy
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:10am

    And how long do you think it will take for Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy all the Pyramids?

    Report Post » randy  
    • riseandshine
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:16am

      I don’t think they will…but we’ll see.

      Report Post » riseandshine  
    • 4xeverything
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:17am

      My thoughts exactly.

      Report Post » 4xeverything  
    • T-2
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:18am

      It’ll make good target practice.

      Report Post »  
    • sWampy
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:00am

      Depends on how much oil money they get, as soon as they don’t need the tourist $ anymore, some of the whack jobs will figure out they can use the stone to make a new monument to them, and we will have new wonders of the world made from past wonders of the world.

      Report Post »  

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