Archaeologists uncovered what is believed to be the remains of a "lost labyrinth" below the sand of a famous pyramid site, in what was previously thought to be a mythical structure. Known also as the Labyrinth, the Pyramid of Hawara (built by Amenemhet III) was the most visited sites of the ancient World. Herodotus claimed to have counted three thousand rooms in the pyramids funeral complex during the 5th century BC.

There are many discoveries beneath the surface of our planet which could potentially change the way we look at history itself. One of them is a forgotten world of underground chambers and tunnels that have remained unexplored for centuries. Mentioned in ancient texts and local legends, these mysterious chambers have been considered as a myth up until they were actually discovered.

The ‘Lost Labyrinth of Egypt’ is without a doubt one of those incredible ancient sites that are a lost jewel in today’s history.

This I have actually seen, a work beyond words. For if anyone put together the buildings of the Greeks and display of their labours, they would seem lesser in both effort and expense to this labyrinth… Even the pyramids are beyond words, and each was equal to many and mighty works of the Greeks. Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. Herodotus (‘Histories’, Book, II, 148),

This mysterious underground complex of caverns and chambers was described by authors such as Strabo and even Herodotus who had the opportunity to visit and record the legendary labyrinth before it disappeared into history. According to writing by Herodotus I the IV century BC: the labyrinth was “situated a little above the lake of Moiris and nearly opposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles” (‘Histories,’ Book, II, 148).

The labyrinth (as it has been called by some in the distant past) is said to be an extraordinary underground complex which could hold the key to mankind’s history. It is said that there, we could find details about unknown civilizations in history, great empires, and rulers that lived on the planet before history as we know it began.

“When one had entered the sacred enclosure, one found a temple surrounded by columns, 40 to each side, and this building had a roof made of a single stone, carved with panels and richly adorned with excellent paintings. It contained memorials of the homeland of each of the kings as well as of the temples and sacrifices carried out in it, all skilfully worked in paintings of the greatest beauty.”

Based on the descriptions of ancient texts such as those from Herodotus, and others who visited the magical labyrinth in the distant past, a 17th century German Jesuit scholar called Athanasius Kircher, created the first pictorial reproduction of the enigmatic labyrinth just as Herodotus described it: “It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one another, six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining on one to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and the other above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen hundred. […]The upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, but the chambers underground we only heard about. For the passages through the chambers, and the goings this way and that way through the courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter for marvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to other courts. […]Over the whole of these is roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are covered with figures craved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillars of white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of the labyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of fourty fathoms, upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way made under ground. Such is this labyrinth.”

Reconstruction of the Egyptian Labyrinth by Athanasius Kircher (copper-plate engraving) 1670.

According to these authors, the underground temple consists of over 3000 rooms which are filled with incredible hieroglyphs and paintings, the enigmatic underground complex is located less than 100 kilometers from Cairo at Hawara. There, in 2008 a group of researchers from Belgium and Egypt arrived to investigate the enigmatic underground complex, with the aid of ground penetrating technology which was used to study the sand in hopes of finding and solving the mystery behind the mysterious underground complex. The Belgian-Egyptian expedition was able to confirm the presence of the underground temple not far from the Pyramid of Amenemhat III.

With no visible remains, the story was thought to simply be a legend passed down by generations until Egyptologist Flinders Petrie uncovered its “foundations” in the 1800s, leading experts to theories the labyrinth was demolished under the reign of Ptolemy II, and used to build the nearby city of Shedyt to honour his wife Arsinoe. Without a doubt, the expedition led by Petrie stumbled upon one of the most incredible discoveries in the history of Egypt, and they did not even need to excavate in order to confirm the finding.

But, in 2008, archaeologists working on the Mataha Expedition made a stunning find below the sands, researcher Ben Van Kerkwyk revealed on his YouTube channel ‘UnchartedX’. The results of the expedition ere published in 2008, shortly after the discovery in the scientific journal of the NRIAG and the results of the research were exchanged in a public lecture at the University of Ghent, which Media from Belgium attended. But the finding was quickly suppressed since the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (Egypt) put a hold to all further communications about the discovery due to Egyptian National Security sanctions.

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Mr Van Kerkwyk went on to detail what the area may have looked like some 2,000 years ago.

He added: “Unknown until 12 years ago, the discovery was suppressed and today the incredible potential of this site is being slowly and irrevocably destroyed by both inaction by authorities and by the water table in the area that’s rising. Compared with Giza, or any of the other well-known ancient Egyptian sites, there really isn’t a lot to immediately take in.”

Mr Van Kerkwyk detailed how Mr Petrie first stumbled across the find.

He added: “Some fragments of once-mighty granite columns carved in palm or lotus shapes along with other small fragments of ancient stonework are left lying in a small, open-air museum. The site is dominated by the remains of the pyramid of Amenemhat III with only the mud-brick internal structure remaining to see. The remains of the labyrinth have been discovered in the sandy areas to the south of the pyramid. The first to find any real evidence of this was the great Flinders Petrie, who, in the late 1800s, discovered the remains of a huge stone foundation, more than 300 metres broad around four metres beneath the sand. He concluded that this was the remnants of the foundations for the labyrinth, with the structure itself being long since quarried and destroyed.”

Archaeologists found evidence of a huge structure hiding below the sand in 2008, but Mr Van Kerkwyk said the area has never been excavated. He continued: “However, new evidence collected in modern times is challenging his conclusion and it now seems likely that what Petrie found was not the foundation, but instead was part of the ceiling or roof. These same areas were scanned in 2008, using ground-penetrating radar, by the Mataha Expedition, a collaboration between Egyptian authorities, the Ghent University of Belgium and funded by contemporary artist Louis De Cordier. The results of this expedition clearly indicate the presence of grid-like and ordered structures deep beneath the sand in levels much deeper than Petrie ever excavated. Although this expedition was conducted with the full cooperation and permission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the official results and conclusion of this legitimate scientific study have never been released.”

The Pyramid of the 12th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenemhat III at Hawara.

Louis de Cordier, the lead researchers of the expedition waited patiently for two years for the Supreme Council to acknowledge the findings and make them public, regrettably, it never happened. In 2010, de Cordier opened a website in order to make the discovery available to the entire world. Even though researchers have confirmed the existence of the underground complex, mayor excavations need to take place in the future in order to explore the incredible finding. It is believed that the treasures of the underground Labyrinth could hold the answers to countless historic mysteries and the ancient Egyptian civilization.