00:00Something strange is lurking beneath the sands of Giza, and scientists have no idea what it is.
00:07Archaeologists just found a hidden structure near the Great Pyramid using advanced ground scanning technology.
00:14What's inside? Nobody knows, but excavations are already underway.
00:19The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the most famous monuments on Earth.
00:23But it doesn't stand alone. It's surrounded by an ancient necropolis, a massive royal graveyard filled with tombs and monuments.
00:32They belong to pharaohs, nobles, and other high-ranking officials.
00:37Most of these tombs are above the ground. They're called mastobas, rectangular, flat-roofed tombs built from limestone or mud brick.
00:44And they've been studied for decades.
00:46But from old movies, we know that these weren't simple graves.
00:50They have deep vertical shafts leading to underground burial chambers, where the past was sealed away for eternity.
00:58And recently, archaeologists found one curious empty space in the cemetery.
01:03A completely unexplored patch of ground.
01:06No mastobas, no visible ruins, nada.
01:10For years, they ignored it.
01:12But between 2021 and 2023, they decided to investigate.
01:16They didn't dig, though. Instead, they used a technology that kind of acts like x-rays for the ground.
01:23These radars let scientists see the secrets hidden there.
01:26And there was something hidden beneath the sand.
01:29Something deliberately buried and forgotten.
01:32A two-part underground structure.
01:34One part was shallow and L-shaped.
01:37It's about 33 feet long and buried just 6 and a half feet deep.
01:41But below that, a deeper, more mysterious anomaly.
01:45A structure completely different from anything else in the area.
01:49They called it a highly resistive anomaly.
01:51Which means it's dense and solid.
01:54Likely made of stone, sand, or even metal.
01:57And still, no one has a clue what's inside it.
02:01Now, it's clear that humans made the L-shape.
02:04It wasn't formed by nature.
02:05And the shallower structure might have been an entrance to whatever is hidden below.
02:10But they only have some theories about what might be hidden there.
02:14It's also filled with sand and gravel.
02:17It was probably deliberately backfilled after its construction.
02:21Perhaps to preserve this.
02:23Why?
02:23Well, we don't know yet.
02:25The archaeological team will need to excavate to understand what exactly this thing was and why it was built.
02:32The first guess is a lost burial chamber.
02:35Many tombs in Giza have underground burial sites.
02:38But most have clear surface markers.
02:41This one, for some reason, has nothing.
02:44But it could be one of them.
02:46The second guess is an ancient offering chapel.
02:49Egyptologists know that some chapels were built in this shape.
02:52But usually, they were above ground, not buried like this.
02:57And finally, it might be something we've never seen before.
03:00If this turns out to be a new type of structure,
03:03it could rewrite what we know about the burials of pharaohs.
03:06The only way to know for sure is to dig it up.
03:10And that's exactly what's happening right now.
03:13Excavations are already underway.
03:15Archaeologists are racing against time to uncover the truth.
03:19But there's a real danger there, too.
03:22Giza's fragile ancient structures need to be handled carefully.
03:26Otherwise, they could be damaged beyond repair.
03:29So all we can do is wait for the truth.
03:31Now, these tombs always held fascinating mysteries.
03:36Unfortunately, we'll never learn tons of these mysteries because of some relentless tomb robbers.
03:42Egyptian tombs were built to guard the bodies for eternity.
03:46But that absolutely didn't stop people from breaking in and stealing everything valuable inside.
03:52They've been bothering these ancient sites for thousands of years, starting way back in pharaoh's times.
03:58Many of the most famous tombs, including those in Giza, Sacra, and the Valley of the Kings, were looted.
04:05It was a common practice in ancient Egypt.
04:08And they were serious about this whole thing.
04:10They dug secret tunnels to bypass traps and walls.
04:14Bribed or threatened tomb workers to get inside knowledge.
04:17Cracked open sarcophagi to grab gold, jewelry, and artifacts.
04:21And by the time modern archaeologists got to most of these tombs, they had already been picked clean.
04:28The reigning pharaohs got tired of this infuriating nonsense.
04:32The Valley of the Kings, the famous burial ground of Egyptian royalty, was supposed to be the ultimate safe zone.
04:39Tombs were built deep underground, hidden in the desert.
04:43Passages were sealed with giant stone blocks.
04:46False doors and tramps were added to confuse thieves.
04:49Even curses were written on the walls, warnings of horrible endings for anyone who dared to disturb the tomb.
04:56Which is exactly where we got all those horror stories about mommies from.
05:00Spoiler alert, none of it worked.
05:03Most tombs in the Valley of the Kings were fully robbed within a hundred years of being sealed.
05:08Even King Tutankhamun's tomb, one of the most famous in history, was broken into twice in ancient times.
05:16Some of them decided to try and fight back.
05:19The New Kingdom rulers built hidden, unmarked tombs, in a way that should have prevented the looters from finding them.
05:25But didn't work.
05:27Some pharaohs, like Ramses II, were moved in secret to prevent their bodies from being stolen.
05:33Nope, didn't matter.
05:34The grave robbers always won.
05:36That's because tomb raiders weren't just random thieves.
05:39They were skilled, organized, and well-connected.
05:42They knew exactly where to look.
05:45Many were the ones who had built these sites in the first place, and they knew where the entrances were.
05:51If they couldn't smash through the doors, they'd dig through the walls, floors, and even ceilings to break inside.
05:57They also worked fast, often within a few years after the tombs were sealed, before anyone forgot where the valuable stuff was.
06:05The Khufu's pyramid, the one that's next to this newly discovered structure, was looted long before modern times.
06:13The one thing left inside when explorers got there?
06:16An empty granite box where the sarcophagus used to be.
06:21Unfortunately, it's not just about gold.
06:24History itself gets stolen during these raids.
06:27Ancient Egyptians wrote detailed records of what exactly and where they buried.
06:32So, when archaeologists compare these lists to what's found, they can see what's missing, which is often everything valuable.
06:40Most artifacts don't end up in museums.
06:42They just disappear into private collections, where they can never be studied again.
06:47Which is, of course, completely unfair.
06:50In fact, a few countries have had enough and started passing laws to take historical artifacts back from private collectors.
06:58In Italy, if you own an ancient Roman artifact, you must prove you got it legally.
07:04China is actively hunting down stolen artifacts, and they must find ways to retrieve it back from the Western collectors.
07:11In Egypt, they passed new laws making it illegal for private citizens to own any ancient Egyptian artifacts at all.
07:20Other countries, like the U.S., the U.K., Germany, or Switzerland, are completely fine with rich guys owning their history.
07:28The British Museum is built on looted things.
07:31European empires invaded half the planet and took whatever they wanted back home.
07:36Their museums are often full of such stolen artifacts, and unfortunately, they refuse to give most of them back.
07:44For example, the Rosetta Stone.
07:46It was taken from Egypt by Napoleon's army.
07:49Then stolen again by the British after they beat the French.
07:53Egypt has been demanding to return for years, but they still can't get it back.
07:58Or the Parthenon marbles.
08:01These magnificent massive Greek structures were taken from the Parthenon in Athens by a British lord in the 19th century.
08:09Greece has been begging for them back ever since, but the U.K. doesn't feel like it.
08:13Not to mention tons of Mesoamerican artifacts scattered in various museums across the world.
08:20European explorers raided Mayan and Aztec temples, took statues, jewelry, and sacred objects, and now Mexico is fighting to get them back.
08:29Well, wouldn't it be surprising, even if this mysterious underground chamber has somehow been looted already?
08:36But if it's a newly found place, could it be one of the few that escaped the hands of grave robbers?
08:43Could there still be ancient artifacts, untouched for 4,500 years?
08:47We can only hope that those guys didn't get there first.
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