{"it":{"id":"EGY-HAW","kind":"site","sub":"Africa","name":"Hawara Labyrinth & Pyramid of Amenemhat III","place":"Egypt","lat":29.273,"lon":30.899,"date":"12th Dynasty, Amenemhat III (c.1860-1814 BCE)","mat":"mudbrick pyramid core, limestone casing, quartzite burial chamber; limestone/granite…","facts":[{"a":"GPR survey","v":"GPR around Hawara pyramid","u":"text","r":50},{"a":"\"metallic\" object length (claimed)","v":"~40 m; \"Dippy\", tic-tac/shen-shaped; ~60-70 m deep atrium","u":"text","r":51},{"a":"Holocene gravel/sand thickness","v":"3-5","u":"m","r":52},{"a":"Eocene limestone depth","v":"12-15","u":"m","r":52},{"a":"Eocene surface above Selah canal","v":"1-3 (0.5-1.0 on S side)","u":"m","r":52},{"a":"VES soundings","v":"9 Schlumberger","r":53}],"nfacts":44,"tags":["Africa","Pyramids"],"sum":"Herodotus wrote that the Labyrinth at Hawara, in Egypt, held 3,000 rooms, 1,500 above ground and 1,500 below. Its site, beside the pyramid of Amenemhat III, covers about 304 by 244 m.","why":"Herodotus counted 3,000 rooms at Hawara. Half lie under groundwater, and Louis De Cordier says radar sees them.","src":[426],"nsrc":15,"yt":"Herodotus described 1,500 rooms underground at Hawara. If they exist, what might be down there?","rel":["EGY-015","GIZ-G1"],"hook":"Herodotus counted 3,000 rooms at Hawara, and 1,500 of them lie below ground."},"S":{"50":["Archaeologia Polona 53","https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/publication/92311/edition/86930"],"51":["Ben van Kerkwyk on JRE #2374 (relaying Akers)","https://singjupost.com/transcript-unchartedxs-ben-van-kerkwyk-on-joe-rogan-experience-2374/"],"52":["Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf"],"53":["Crossref abstract","https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004 ; https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004"],"426":["Wikipedia: Labyrinth of Egypt","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_of_Egypt"]},"rec":{"id":"EGY-HAW","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"labyrinth area (29.2722,30.8986)","a":"elevation (DEM SRTM 30 m)","v":"27","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"NASA SRTM via OpenTopoData","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"NASA SRTM via OpenTopoData","pg":"","url":"https://api.opentopodata.org/v1/srtm30m","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"pyramid-body point 35 m (structure)","id":"M3267"},{"f":"labyrinth","a":"footprint (Petrie)","v":"~1000 x 800 ft (~304 x 244 m)","u":"ft","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"chip-bed of destroyed temple","id":"M3268"},{"f":"pyramid","a":"base side (brick core, Petrie)","v":"3692 in (93.8 m)","u":"in","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3269"},{"f":"pyramid","a":"base side (original with casing, Petrie)","v":"4006 in (101.8 m)","u":"in","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3270"},{"f":"pyramid","a":"height (Petrie estimate)","v":"2284 in (58.0 m)","u":"in","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"derived from angle","id":"M3271"},{"f":"pyramid","a":"excavation history","v":"Petrie 1888-89 entered chamber via tunnelling; burial chamber single quartzite block","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3272"},{"f":"labyrinth (ancient description)","a":"rooms / courts (Herodotus 2.148)","v":"12 roofed courts; 3000 rooms (1500 above, 1500 below ground)","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Herodotus, Histories 2.148","yr":"c.430 BCE","m":"derived","c":"Herodotus, Histories 2.148","pg":"","url":"https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+2.148","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"Herodotus not allowed into lower rooms","id":"M3273"},{"f":"labyrinth (ancient description)","a":"halls (Strabo 17.1.37)","v":"as many courts as nomes (27); single-stone roofs; pyramid tomb at end","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Strabo, Geography 17.1.37","yr":"c.20 CE","m":"derived","c":"Strabo, Geography 17.1.37","pg":"","url":"https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+17.1.37","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"Strabo visited c.25 BCE","id":"M3274"},{"f":"survey 2008","a":"geophysical methods & areas","v":"GPR, ERT, VLF, GEM; 150x100 m + 80x100 m; 18 Feb-12 Mar 2008, SCA permit","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","pg":"","url":"https://unchartedx.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/labyrinthofegypt_com__printversion.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3275"},{"f":"survey 2008","a":"mudbrick walls depth","v":"1.5-2.5","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","pg":"","url":"https://unchartedx.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/labyrinthofegypt_com__printversion.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"GPR","id":"M3276"},{"f":"survey 2008","a":"high-resistivity grid depth","v":"8-12","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","yr":"2008","m":"derived","c":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","pg":"","url":"https://unchartedx.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/labyrinthofegypt_com__printversion.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"\"granite-like\" is the team's interpretation of resistivity","id":"M3277"},{"f":"survey 2008","a":"groundwater effect","v":"groundwater + salinity degraded deeper data","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","pg":"","url":"https://unchartedx.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/labyrinthofegypt_com__printversion.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3278"},{"f":"VLF-EM survey","a":"anomalies","v":"elongated & square conductive anomalies at shallow depth","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Near Surface Geophysics 8 (2010)","yr":"2010","m":"derived","c":"Near Surface Geophysics 8 (2010)","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"peer-reviewed","id":"M3279"},{"f":"pyramid surroundings","a":"GPR survey","v":"GPR around Hawara pyramid","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Archaeologia Polona 53","yr":"2015","m":"derived","c":"Archaeologia Polona 53","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/publication/92311/edition/86930","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"Polish mission","id":"M3280"},{"f":"substructure","a":"groundwater: chambers flooded","v":"Bahr Selah canal seepage (δ18O); saline","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Geoarchaeology 22 (2007)","yr":"2007","m":"as stated","c":"Geoarchaeology 22 (2007)","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20171","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3281"},{"f":"site","a":"groundwater depth (25 ERT profiles, 235 m, ~35 m penetration)","v":"1.5 (recharge zone E/NE) - 10 (discharge zone)","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Delta J. Science 2024","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Delta J. Science 2024","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.21608/djs.2024.326216.1197","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3282"},{"f":"central atrium (claimed)","a":"\"metallic\" object length (claimed)","v":"~40 m; \"Dippy\", tic-tac/shen-shaped; ~60-70 m deep atrium","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Ben van Kerkwyk on JRE #2374 (relaying Akers)","yr":"2025","m":"derived","c":"Ben van Kerkwyk on JRE #2374 (relaying Akers)","pg":"","url":"https://singjupost.com/transcript-unchartedxs-ben-van-kerkwyk-on-joe-rogan-experience-2374/","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"claim from 2015 commercial satellite interpretation by Tim Akers (Merlin Burrows); no data released; SAR depth limits few m","id":"M3283"},{"f":"pyramid casing","a":"slope angle (best piece)","v":"48 45' +-3'","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Petrie reads as rise 8 on base 7 = 48 48' 51\"","id":"M3292"},{"f":"pyramid casing","a":"slope angle (alt piece 1)","v":"49 51'","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Petrie: \"the angle is not well fixed\"","id":"M3293"},{"f":"pyramid casing","a":"slope angle (alt piece 2)","v":"52 25'","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"disagreeing casing fragment","id":"M3294"},{"f":"pyramid casing","a":"casing thickness","v":"~65","u":"in","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"foot ~157-160 in from brick core","id":"M3295"},{"f":"pyramid","a":"base survey method","v":"theodolite","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3296"},{"f":"burial chamber","a":"monolith inner dims","v":"267.5 x 94.2 x 73.9","u":"in","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"single quartzite (\"hard sandstone\") block","id":"M3297"},{"f":"roof","a":"roof slabs","v":"3 slabs >4 ft thick; one ~45 t lowered to close chamber","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3298"},{"f":"roof beams","a":"limestone beam mass","v":"~55","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Petrie estimate","id":"M3299"},{"f":"trapdoors","a":"first trapdoor mass","v":"~22","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3300"},{"f":"trapdoors","a":"third trapdoor dims / mass","v":"44 x 61 x 138 in; 18 t","u":"in/t","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3301"},{"f":"trapdoors","a":"other trapdoor dims / mass","v":"62.5 x 30 x 136 in; 11 t","u":"in/t","o":"","unc":"","by":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3302"},{"f":"burial chamber","a":"burial chamber monolith mass","v":"~110","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Petrie 1890; Wikipedia Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"Petrie 1890; Wikipedia Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawara","b":"V","bb":"2 independent sources","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Petrie \"over 100 tons\", brought from Upper Egypt; Wikipedia 110 t","id":"M3303"},{"f":"burial chamber","a":"roof slab mass","v":"~45","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Petrie 1890; Wikipedia Hawara","yr":"1890","m":"as stated","c":"Petrie 1890; Wikipedia Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawara","b":"V","bb":"2 independent sources","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Petrie one slab ~45 t; Wikipedia 3 slabs x 45 t","id":"M3304"},{"f":"substructure","a":"entrance flooding","v":"flooded to ~6 m; canal ~30 m away","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Hawara","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Hawara","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawara","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3305"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"instruments","v":"SIR multifrequency + RAMAC 100 MHz unshielded","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"as stated","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"survey 17 Mar 2008, 12 transects at 10 m spacing","id":"M3306"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"max profile depth","v":"20","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"as stated","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3307"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"Holocene gravel/sand thickness","v":"3-5","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"as stated","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3308"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"Eocene limestone depth","v":"12-15","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"as stated","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"beneath Eocene claystone/mudstone","id":"M3309"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"Eocene surface above Selah canal","v":"1-3 (0.5-1.0 on S side)","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"as stated","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3310"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"groundwater above canal","v":"3.4 (N,E); 0.7-1.5 (S)","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"as stated","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"water under pyramid ~1 m above canal","id":"M3311"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"anomaly N1","v":"water seepage","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"derived","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M3312"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"anomalies E/S","v":"possibly architectural","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"derived","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M3313"},{"f":"GPR 2008","a":"labyrinth conclusion","v":"\"nothing to support the idea that this was Herodotus's labyrinth\"","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","yr":"2015","m":"derived","c":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","pg":"","url":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M3314"},{"f":"VLF-EM 2010","a":"authors / journal","v":"Khalil, Abbas, Santos, Mesbah; Near Surface Geophysics 8 (Jan 2010)","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Crossref abstract","yr":"2010","m":"as stated","c":"Crossref abstract","pg":"","url":"https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004 ; https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Crossref metadata; earthdoc returned 403","id":"M3470"},{"f":"VLF-EM 2010","a":"grid spacing","v":"2","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Crossref abstract","yr":"2010","m":"as stated","c":"Crossref abstract","pg":"","url":"https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004 ; https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"profiles and stations","id":"M3471"},{"f":"VLF-EM 2010","a":"VES soundings","v":"9 Schlumberger","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Crossref abstract","yr":"2010","m":"as stated","c":"Crossref abstract","pg":"","url":"https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004 ; https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"3D resistivity inversion","id":"M3472"},{"f":"VLF-EM 2010","a":"filters","v":"Fraser + Karous-Hjelt","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Crossref abstract","yr":"2010","m":"as stated","c":"Crossref abstract","pg":"","url":"https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004 ; https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3473"}],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"wall_batter","r":"no published batter survey in free sources"},{"a":"orientation","r":"no published azimuth reached"},{"a":"corner_precision","r":"no published precision survey in free sources"},{"a":"levelness","r":"no published levelling survey in free sources"},{"a":"geochem_petro","r":"not found in free sources reached"},{"a":"quarry_source","r":"not found in free sources reached"},{"a":"mortar","r":"dry-stone construction or no binder analysis in free sources"},{"a":"tool_marks","r":"no tool-mark study in free sources reached"},{"a":"dating","r":"no absolute date extracted"},{"a":"volume_labor","r":"no volume/labour estimate in sources opened"},{"a":"construction_phases","r":"no phase sequence in sources opened"},{"a":"lab_date_material","r":"no lab date with dated material in sources opened"},{"a":"magnetic_radiation","r":"no published magnetic/radiation survey found (searched site name + magnetometry/radiation; Wikipedia, Google Scholar snippets)"},{"a":"artifacts_found","r":"no finds row yet"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA048","a":"~40 m metallic object in deep central chamber","who":"Tim Akers (Merlin Burrows, 2015 satellite interpretation; NDA briefings) -> Ben van Kerkwyk/UnchartedX (YouTube; JRE #2374 3 Sep 2025, #2417 25 Nov 2025); X virality Oct 2026 (@GrassiTrevor, @JoeyPepperonii); NRIAG/Ghent Mataha 2008 (Abdallatif, De Cordier)","main":"unpublished 2015 commercial satellite interpretation; SAR cannot image tens of m down; deepest published anomaly 8-12 m","ms":"https://ancientnerds.com/news-archive/metallic-object-claim-traces-to-satellite-imagery-interpretation-not-excavation-7620 ; https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","st":"unresolved","n":"no instrument data released, so cannot be tested either way; physical limits make claim implausible but no measurement contradicts it directly","nl":1},{"id":"AA049","a":"intact labyrinth walls survive underground","who":"Tim Akers (Merlin Burrows, 2015 satellite interpretation; NDA briefings) -> Ben van Kerkwyk/UnchartedX (YouTube; JRE #2374 3 Sep 2025, #2417 25 Nov 2025); X virality Oct 2026 (@GrassiTrevor, @JoeyPepperonii); NRIAG/Ghent Mataha 2008 (Abdallatif, De Cordier)","main":"temple foundations / mudbrick structures; Petrie: superstructure quarried","ms":"https://ancientnerds.com/news-archive/metallic-object-claim-traces-to-satellite-imagery-interpretation-not-excavation-7620 ; https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf","st":"unresolved","n":"2008 GPR/ERT walls at 1.5-2.5 m and resistive grid 8-12 m; no excavation; groundwater degrades data","nl":20}],"ac":[{"v":"large (~40 m) metallic object in a deep central chamber under the Hawara Labyrinth","who":"Tim Akers (Merlin Burrows, 2015 satellite interpretation; NDA briefings) -> Ben van Kerkwyk/UnchartedX (YouTube; JRE #2374 3 Sep 2025, #2417 25 Nov 2025); X virality Oct 2026 (@GrassiTrevor, @JoeyPepperonii)","url":"https://singjupost.com/transcript-unchartedxs-ben-van-kerkwyk-on-joe-rogan-experience-2374/","b":"I","ce":"no instrument data, paper, or depth model released; satellite SAR/optical cannot image metal 60 m down in saturated saline ground; Mataha 2008 found nothing metallic; no SCA/MoTA statement found"},{"v":"massive intact underground labyrinth (walls to 8-12 m) exists under Hawara","who":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha 2008 (Abdallatif, De Cordier)","url":"https://unchartedx.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/labyrinthofegypt_com__printversion.pdf","b":"I","ce":"buried walls at 1.5-2.5 m and resistive grid at 8-12 m reported; no excavation; groundwater degrades data"}],"me":[{"v":"unpublished commercial interpretation; deepest published anomaly 8-12 m (resistivity)","ev":"Ancient Nerds (De Cordier quoted skeptical); ancienthistoryx SAR-depth analysis","s":"https://ancientnerds.com/news-archive/metallic-object-claim-traces-to-satellite-imagery-interpretation-not-excavation-7620"},{"v":"Petrie: temple largely quarried away; remaining foundations; mudbrick structures expected","ev":"Petrie 1890; NSG 2010","s":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf"}],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"12th Dynasty, Amenemhat III (c.1860-1814 BCE)","dm":"king-list / inscriptions (INTERPRETATION)","lab":"NO","weak":"","unesco":"","dens":"STUB"},"co":{"lat":"29.27300","lon":"30.89900","src":"Wikidata/enwiki (Q3825160)","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"Wikidata/enwiki Labyrinth (Q3825160) vs OSM way 89036022 (Hawara pyramid) delta 0.0012 deg (~0.13 km); labyrinth lies just S of pyramid","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/89036022"},"src":[{"id":null,"t":"NASA SRTM via OpenTopoData","u":"https://api.opentopodata.org/v1/srtm30m"},{"id":null,"t":"W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara","u":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"Herodotus, Histories 2.148","u":"https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+2.148"},{"id":null,"t":"Strabo, Geography 17.1.37","u":"https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+17.1.37"},{"id":null,"t":"NRIAG/Ghent Mataha expedition (Abdallatif et al.) via De Cordier print","u":"https://unchartedx.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/labyrinthofegypt_com__printversion.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"Near Surface Geophysics 8 (2010)","u":"https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004"},{"id":null,"t":"Archaeologia Polona 53","u":"https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/publication/92311/edition/86930"},{"id":null,"t":"Geoarchaeology 22 (2007)","u":"https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20171"},{"id":null,"t":"Delta J. Science 2024","u":"https://doi.org/10.21608/djs.2024.326216.1197"},{"id":null,"t":"Ben van Kerkwyk on JRE #2374 (relaying Akers)","u":"https://singjupost.com/transcript-unchartedxs-ben-van-kerkwyk-on-joe-rogan-experience-2374/"},{"id":null,"t":"Petrie 1890; Wikipedia Hawara","u":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flinders-petrie-kahun-gurob-and-hawara.pdf ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawara"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia Hawara","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawara"},{"id":null,"t":"Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","u":"https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"Crossref abstract","u":"https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004 ; https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2010004"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: Labyrinth of Egypt","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_of_Egypt"},{"id":"VEGY-HAW-16","t":"Archaeological Rescue Foundation: Hawara Project","u":"https://archaeologicalrescue.org/hawara/"},{"id":"VEGY-HAW-17","t":"Petrie 1889, Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoe (Internet Archive)","u":"https://archive.org/details/hawarabiahmuarsi00petruoft"},{"id":null,"t":"Herodotus, Histories 2.148, trans. G. C. Macaulay (1890). Project Gutenberg.","u":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2707"},{"id":null,"t":"Strabo, Geography 17.1.37, trans. H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer (1857), vol. 3. Project Gutenberg.","u":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44886"},{"id":null,"t":"Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.19, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1857), vol. 6. Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof06plinrich"},{"id":null,"t":"K. R. Lepsius, Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia and the Peninsula of Sinai (1853), Letters X–XI, 1843. Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/lettersfromegypt00lepsuoft"},{"id":null,"t":"W. M. F. Petrie, G. A. Wainwright & E. Mackay, The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Mazghuneh (1912), ch. X. Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/ERA21"},{"id":null,"t":"W. M. F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara (1890), ch. 1–3. Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/kahungurobhawara00petr"}],"sum":"In 1889 Flinders Petrie spent days wading through salty water inside a pyramid. He had tunnelled into the mud-brick pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara, on the edge of Egypt's Fayum, and found the burial chamber flooded. The room itself was cut from a single block of stone, quartzite in modern accounts, sandstone in his, weighing more than 100 tons, about 110 by one estimate, lowered into a pit before the pyramid was built over it. The king's sarcophagus lay inside, uninscribed. Beside it was a second burial, named on an alabaster offering table: Ptahneferu, a daughter of Amenemhat III unknown until then. That flooded chamber is a small foretaste of the greater puzzle beside it. Next to this pyramid, the ancient world said, stood a building greater than the pyramids themselves, and half of it was underground.\n\nThe Greek historian Herodotus walked through it in the fifth century BC and wrote that \"the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids.\" He counted twelve roofed courts and 3,000 rooms, 1,500 above ground and 1,500 below. He was allowed into the upper half only. The caretakers would not show him the lower rooms, he wrote, because they held the tombs of the kings who built the Labyrinth and of the sacred crocodiles. He placed it a little above Lake Moeris, near the City of Crocodiles, which Petrie identified as Crocodilopolis, later Arsinoe, the old capital of the Fayum. The geographer Strabo also saw it, around 20 AD, and called it \"a work equal to the Pyramids.\" What struck him was the roofing: each room was covered with a single stone, with no timber anywhere, and when he climbed on top he saw \"a stone-field\" of slabs. Its covered passages were so tangled, he said, that no stranger could get in or out without a guide. Pliny the Elder, working from older reports, added that some doors opened with \"a dreadful sound like that of thunder,\" that many halls had to be crossed in total darkness, and that passages led down to \"subterranean palaces.\"\n\nThe pyramid beside it belongs to Amenemhat III, a king of the Twelfth Dynasty who reigned around 1860 to 1814 BC. Petrie's survey gives it a base of about 102 metres a side with its casing, 94 metres for the brick core, and an estimated height of 58 metres. Inside, the passages were guarded by sliding stone trap-doors, the first of about 22 tons. Petrie admitted that how it was moved \"is hard to see.\" Only the first had been closed; the rest were left open in their recesses, and robbers broke past the first. The chamber was roofed with slabs more than four feet thick, one of about 45 tons lowered to close it, under limestone beams of about 55 tons.\n\nWhere the Labyrinth stood, almost nothing is left. When the Prussian scholar Karl Richard Lepsius surveyed the ground in 1843, he was elated: \"We literally at once find hundreds of them,\" he wrote of the chambers, and he found column fragments bearing Amenemhat III's name. Petrie, digging in 1888, disagreed. Lepsius's brick rooms, he concluded, were houses of a Roman village built by the people who wrecked the temple, and the real building had been taken apart for stone and lime, generation after generation. Pliny confirms that it was being quarried in his own day. What Petrie found was its footprint, a bed of rammed limestone chips and foundations about 1,000 feet long and 800 wide, roughly 304 by 244 metres. On that space, he calculated, you could set the great hall of Karnak, the temples of Mut and Khonsu, both temples of Luxor and the Ramesseum. \"The plan of the building,\" he wrote, \"is lost for ever.\" In a later season, reported in 1912, he cut through chip deposits 15 to 24 feet deep along the pyramid's south face and found two red granite shrines of about 8 and 13 tons and a giant quartzite door jamb on the axis.\n\nThe mainstream reading follows from all this. The site sits exactly where Herodotus and Strabo put it; Amenemhat III's name is on the columns; Pliny describes the quarrying, and Petrie found the quarry waste. The Labyrinth, on this view, was the king's vast mortuary temple, demolished in Roman times. Even its later history fits power and opportunity. Lepsius suspected the full enclosure, perhaps the twelve courts, belonged to the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, more than a thousand years later, and Herodotus himself credited twelve joint rulers of about his own era. A complex this large invited later rulers to add to it, and later builders to carry it away.\n\nWhat it does not answer is the lower half. Herodotus never saw the 1,500 underground rooms; he was told they existed. Petrie mostly cleared the upper layer of chips across the site, often only two to four feet deep. And the ground now holds water. Petrie noted that the water level around Hawara had risen at least four feet since the old tombs were cut. The pyramid's entrance has flooded to about six metres, with a canal about 30 metres away, and a 2007 study traced the seepage to the Bahr Selah canal. The Archaeological Rescue Foundation blames a canal built in 1820.\n\nSince then the ground has been scanned. In 2008 the Mataha expedition, a joint project of Egypt's NRIAG research institute and Ghent University, led by Louis De Cordier with Abdallatif and colleagues, ran radar, resistivity and electromagnetic surveys over two areas of the site. They reported mud-brick walls at 1.5 to 2.5 metres and a grid of high resistivity at 8 to 12 metres, though groundwater and salt degraded the deeper data. De Cordier and Trevor Grassi of the Archaeological Rescue Foundation present these scans as views of the Labyrinth itself. A separate radar study by Szynkiewicz, profiling to 20 metres, found anomalies to the east and south that were possibly architectural, but \"nothing to support the idea that this was Herodotus's labyrinth.\"\n\nThe boldest claim comes from elsewhere. Timothy Akers of the firm Merlin Burrows, working from a 2015 commercial interpretation of satellite data, has described a deep central gallery at least 40 by 100 metres holding a free-standing metallic object about 40 metres long. The claim has been relayed widely online and on popular podcasts. It has never been published with data. Critics point out that satellite radar of that kind cannot see tens of metres into the ground, and the deepest published anomaly is 8 to 12 metres. Nothing measured contradicts the claim directly, but nothing measured supports it, and it cannot be tested until someone releases the data.\n\nWhat stands, then, is a thousand-foot rectangle of chips, a flooded pyramid, and the testimony of two men who saw a building they ranked beside the pyramids. The pyramids still stand. The building they ranked beside them was taken apart, room by room, while its lower half, if it ever existed, went quietly under the water. If 1,500 rooms do lie down there, who will pump out the Fayum's groundwater and look, and what will they be allowed to tell us when they do?","qs":["Herodotus described 1,500 rooms underground at Hawara. If they exist, what might be down there?","Groundwater floods the site. Who should pay to drain it, and who should be allowed to dig?","A 40 m metal object is claimed from private scans. What would make you believe it?"]},"img":null,"md":{"h":"img/m/EGY-HAW-16x9.webp","w":1600,"hh":900,"alt":"Hawara Labyrinth & Pyramid of Amenemhat III, Egypt — The Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara","by":"Einsamer Schütze","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","lu":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","p":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawara_Pyramid_05.JPG","g":false,"ct":false,"cap":"","sec":[]},"hh":[{"v":"~40 m","u":"text","h":"\"metallic\" object length","s":[158]},{"v":"3-5","u":"m","h":"Holocene gravel/sand thickness","s":[159]},{"v":"12-15","u":"m","h":"Eocene limestone depth","s":[159]},{"v":"1-3","u":"m","h":"Eocene surface above Selah canal","s":[159]}],"hs":{"158":["Ben van Kerkwyk on JRE #2374 (relaying Akers)","https://singjupost.com/transcript-unchartedxs-ben-van-kerkwyk-on-joe-rogan-experience-2374/"],"159":["Szynkiewicz, Archaeologia Polona 53:383-386","https://rcin.org.pl/Content/86930/WA308_92311_P357_GPR-research-around.pdf"]}}