fr_freak, while you’re right that the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (formerly the Supreme Council) tightly regulates digs to protect these sites—permits are required for all fieldwork, with detailed rules for both local and foreign teams, including background checks, project outlines, and artifact handling protocols. But they’re not shutting down legit research; they actively collaborate on it.
Take the ScanPyramids project—it’s an international effort with teams from Egypt, Germany, France, and more, using non-invasive tech like muography and radar to scan without damaging anything. Just last month (November 2025), they announced air-filled cavities in the Menkaure Pyramid that might indicate a second entrance, all cleared and hyped by Egyptian officials. Earlier this year, they revealed a 30-foot hidden corridor in the Great Pyramid, announced by Zahi Hawass himself alongside the tourism minister.
The idea that they’re blocking stuff to hide a “pre-Pharaoh civilization” building the pyramids or Sphinx? That’s more conspiracy than reality—no solid archaeological evidence supports that. The pyramids date squarely to the Old Kingdom (around 2600–2500 BCE) based on inscriptions, worker villages, and carbon dating. As for those “underground structures” detected by satellite radar, experts have called them out as pseudoscience; the tech can’t penetrate that deep or image like claimed, and there’s zero follow-up excavation because the data doesn’t hold up.
If the methods were as sound as you say, why hasn’t any peer-reviewed journal backed them, and why do radar specialists say it’s impossible?
Bottom line: Exploration is happening, but it’s methodical and evidence-based, not wildcat digging. If there’s something real down there, the Egyptians are the ones leading the charge to uncover it—tourism boost and all.
Lots of de Nile on this thread.