Scientists Discovered a Second Sphinx Buried Under The Sand!

Hi, it's Katrina! For centuries, the Great Sphinx has stood as the lone guardian of the Giza Plateau. But what if it's actually missing its twin? New satellite radar scans have just detected a massive, 100-foot-tall anomaly buried deep beneath a mound of hardened sand, and the symmetry is almost too perfect to be an accident. Today, we are looking at the scans that have the archaeological world in a frenzy and asking, have we finally found the second Sphinx? A second Sphinx found! I know, I know, you've heard it before. But this time is different. The big brain in charge was radar engineer Filippo Biondi. If that name sounds familiar, it's because you've been watching a lot of Origins Explained. I recently did a pretty big deep dive on the Khafre scans done by Biondi and his team, so if you missed it, be sure to check it out after this one. I won't do another super deep dive here, but I will give you some context before talking about the new Sphinx. Biondi and his team of scientists have been studying the pyramids obsessively. Their technology of choice has been Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR for short. When Biondi and his team scanned the pyramids of Giza, they uncovered massive structures hidden about 2,100 feet beneath the surface. These are huge structures that they say appear to be part of some buried city. The scans revealed tunnels, interconnected chambers, and a whole myriad of structures that simply cannot yet be identified. Some think it's an actual city. Others suspect it's a series of caves and tunnels. Others have suggested it's the legendary Hall of Records, where the survivors of Atlantis stored their eternal knowledge. And now, more scans have revealed a second Sphinx, which experts believe could have been the guardian to this vast underground metropolis. It is all connected. The discovery came thanks to a hunch. The Sphinx that everyone knows and loves sits at the end of some lines that jut out from the pyramids and can be seen in Biondi's scans. Maybe these were ancient footpaths, processional routes, who knows? But the lines point straight at the Sphinx. Biondi and the team notice that these lines also point to a mysterious mound of sand and earth, which has been the subject of some curiosity for years. Satellite images of the Giza Plateau show the dune rising out of the desert about 108 feet tall. Underneath it could be the second Sphinx. It wouldn't be that big of a surprise. Considering that barely more than a hundred years ago, the original Sphinx was buried up to its eyeballs in sand, you could walk across the sand onto the top of its head. So why couldn't a second Sphinx be buried just a little bit deeper in a place that no one's thought to dig up yet? It's absolutely within the realm of possibility, even for mainstream scientists. Biondi said this mysterious mound is made out of hardened sand instead of bedrock, so it's entirely plausible that something is locked inside of it. Also, Biondi said precise geometrical correlation between the Sphinx and the mysterious dune gives him 80% confidence that it is hiding another statue. 80% is pretty good, right? There is also the fact that the Sphinx we are all familiar with is currently sitting in a shallow depression. The mound is actually higher than the Great Sphinx, which would make the two monuments roughly on the same level. And the evidence just keeps going. Have you ever heard of the Dreamsteel? It is a massive granite slab standing in front of the Sphinx. On its face is a carving of two Sphinxes. Not one Sphinx, but two. Why would there be an image of two guardian cats if there was never a second sculpture? It just doesn't make any sense. The most logical explanation is that a second mythical cat is waiting to be revealed. I'd like to talk a little bit more about the Dreamsteel because it ties into the entire origin of the Sphinx. An origin that not many people know about. The hieroglyphs on the Dreamsteel relayed the story of Prince Thutmose IV when he was a young man. As the prince rested against the Sphinx, slumbering in its shadow, a deity appeared to him. The deity promised to hand him the throne of Egypt if he would simply clear off the sand entombing the Sphinx. The deity told him that the Sphinx was actually an ancient god, but that it had been forgotten and it was covered by the sands of time. Thutmose did exactly what the deity told him, and sure enough, he was given the throne of Egypt. Then, around 1401 BC, right when ancient Egypt was at its peak, he had the Dreamsteel commissioned and put in front of the Sphinx to commemorate his meeting with that nameless deity. About a decade ago, long before the explosion in scan technology, Egyptologist Bassam el-Shammah suggested the existence of a second Sphinx. He claimed to have found ancient Egyptian records describing how a lightning bolt hit the second Sphinx. Apparently, the lightning strike shattered the monument and the Egyptians thought it was done by an angry god. Maybe that's why they buried the other Sphinx, just to avoid any more lightning attacks from angry supreme beings. In 2021, Egyptian tourism official Rayda Abdel-Halim also suggested the existence of the second Sphinx, but he didn't just suggest it. He claimed he had found it and that it was the same size as the original. There is also the issue of universal balance. The Egyptians were nothing if not symmetrical. Egyptian architecture is famous for its symmetry, for example, two obelisks at temple entrances. Theorists argue it would be highly unusual for such a massive guardian to stand alone without a twin to balance the energy of the plateau. A very important concept to the Egyptians was Akher, a deity represented by two lions, yesterday and tomorrow, that guarded the gates of the underworld. So it would make sense for there to be two. That's a lot of people claiming a second Sphinx exists. A second Sphinx has not been physically found, but the satellite data does suggest it. Biondi is pretty confident and argues that this anomaly sits in a perfect mirrored position to the Great Sphinx, suggesting the plateau was designed with a dual Sphinx layout. Mainstream Egyptologists, including the former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, have dismissed these claims as baseless fabrications. Radar can detect density changes, voids, harder rock or water, but it cannot produce a photograph of a statue underground. Without digging, it is impossible to distinguish a man-made statue from a natural limestone formation. So what do you think? Is there a second Sphinx? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I'd love to hear it. There is a lot of stuff going on in Egypt lately. First, the discovery of a mound that could contain the second Sphinx. And now, archaeologists have discovered the tomb of an unknown ancient pharaoh. Even more baffling is that it's the second discovery of its kind this year. This is the second pharaoh's tomb that's been dug up in Egypt in a matter of months. The first was the discovery of the tomb of Thutmose II. It was the first royal tomb found in Egypt since Howard Carter opened the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. Now, just months later, archaeologists have discovered the tomb of another king. The issue is that nobody knows which king the tomb belongs to. The discovery was made by a joint team of American and Egyptian archaeologists. They were conducting an excavation in the Mount Anubis Necropolis of Abydos, which was once the most important city in Upper Egypt. The tomb dates to one of the most turbulent eras in Egyptian history, a time known as the Second Intermediate Period. This era lasted from 1630 until 1540 BC. It was marked by the invasion and takeover of Egypt by outside forces. These forces were known as the Hyksos, which is a Greek term meaning rulers of foreign lands. Nobody knows exactly who the Hyksos were, only that they arrived in Egypt from Western Asia. They brought with them war and new technologies such as the horse and chariot. The Egyptians really loved the horse and chariot, as has been proven by the stash of chariots taken out of Tutankhamen's tomb. Scientists think he was such a chariot aficionado, he may have died in a chariot speeding accident. The Hyksos defeated the Egyptians. They completely took over Upper Egypt, while a small group of Egyptian kings ruled in the south. But they were also taken over by the Hyksos eventually, leading to widespread chaos. During this tumultuous era in Egyptian history, not much got written down. It was kind of like the Egyptians' dark ages. For example, in 2014, archaeologists discovered the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh named Senebke in Abydos. Nobody had ever heard of this king before, with his name not found in any of the records. It was a glimpse into this forgotten chapter, when Egypt was completely overrun by foreign invaders. This newly unearthed tomb dates to the height of the Second Intermediate Period, so it makes sense that archaeologists don't immediately know who was buried in it. Those records, if there ever were any, are long gone. The tomb was found over 20 feet underground, complete with a massive limestone burial chamber covered in mud brick vaults. The name of the king is inscribed on the wall, but it is so worn that it's illegible. The only names scientists have been able to make out so far are those of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Joseph Wagner, an Egyptologist from the University of Pennsylvania, who was in charge of the excavation, blamed grave robbers. Joseph said the hieroglyphic texts announcing the owner of the tomb were damaged when tomb robbers went in and stole everything. The best guess that Joseph and his team have right now is that the tomb belonged to a predecessor of King Senebke. But like I said, tomb raiders got everything. There's no mummy, no treasure, no sarcophagus. These guys didn't leave as much as a sandal for archaeologists to find. Not even a crumb big enough for a mouse. For now, the team has hit a bit of a dead end. They're hoping to find artifacts near the tomb that could help shed light on the identity of its owner. But until then, we just have to wait for more information. The Ruins of the Ancient Marsh Scientists have uncovered a massive mud brick building from 2,500 years ago. Unlike a lot of Egyptian discoveries that are found buried under the sand, this one was found buried under the waterlogged sediment of the Nile Delta, where it had been hidden under the mud for eons. How do archaeologists in Egypt find massive buildings buried under mud? They use non-invasive methods such as magnetometry and electrical recessivity tomography techniques. It was all part of a larger archaeological project from researchers in Poland to try and unlock the history of the Delta region. Egyptians have been living in the Nile Delta since time immemorial. However, modern archaeologists have had a nightmare of a time studying the region because of the high water table. Almost all the monumental buildings, ancient structures, and archaeological material here has been destroyed by the constant water. Which is precisely why finding a monumental building of this size is such an exciting discovery. The site itself is known as Tell el Balamun. Archaeologists never physically excavated. They only used their scanning techniques to see beneath the mud. They don't know exactly how old the structure is but believe it was probably built in the 26th dynasty. Long before it was covered in mud, Tell el Balamun functioned as a frontier outpost in the north of the nation. It was a key religious center and also a hub for bureaucrats. This massive building reflects the city's previous importance. Egyptologists think it served as either an elite residence or an administrative center for government employees. When you think of the Egyptians, you think of them living in desert cities but they also lived on marshy terrain. The entire Nile Delta is kind of like a swamp but the Egyptians figured out how to masterfully build their cities right on it. They used building techniques that scientists still don't understand today. The Egyptians became so good at building in the marsh that their structures survived the brutal floodwaters of the Nile every single year. Hopefully, when scientists learn more about this new structure, they'll also learn what techniques were used to live in such a damp, squishy place. What about you? Would you rather live in a swamp or the desert? Ancient Ancestor Egypt is not just a country of ancient temples, monumental pyramids, and weird cat deities. It's also home to what might be the closest ancestor of all apes. Pieces of a jawbone and a few fragments of teeth have recently been identified as belonging to an early ape that lived in Egypt 17 million years ago. It's already received its own fancy scientific name. Meet Masripythicus mograensis. This new ape is completely changing the timeline of our own species. Scientists used to think apes first evolved in East Africa. But now, it looks like our earliest ancestors may have come from Egypt. It was already the cradle of early civilization. Now, Egypt is going to go down in history as the birthplace of monkeys. The journey to this discovery began in 2023, with archaeologists working at Wadi Mogra. The leader of the study was Sharukh al-Ashqar from Mansur University. She and her colleagues worked tirelessly through the year and into 2024 before they had finally gathered a little trove of ancient bones. In total, Sharukh and her team found four specimens belonging to two prehistoric individuals. They discovered the front of a along with a separate mandibular fragment from the other. After closely analyzing these fragments, scientists made an incredible announcement. An announcement so big it could take years for the scientific community to fully accept it. Sharukh claims her newly found ape is the oldest known ancestor of every single great ape alive today. That includes everybody. I mean, we are all technically apes. It also includes chimps and gorillas, gibbons and sea mangs. The whole ape conundrum has puzzled scientists for years. They used to think that the earliest apes evolved in East Africa before branching out into Europe and Asia about 16 million years ago. Finding such a primitive animal in North Africa from before 16 million years changes the game. And they figured it all out from some scraps of jaw. It's crazy how much they can learn about an animal species just by looking at a tooth. Sharukh said the clincher for confirming that M. mogryensis was an ancient hominoid was the mandible. Particularly the place where two halves of the mandible join, known as the symphysis. It was found to be similar to the symphysis in later apes. But this version was clearly more primitive. And that suggests that the ape was at a very early stage of evolution. Was it the first ape? Probably not, but likely close. Is it the oldest one ever found in Africa? Yes it is. They found out a lot more from those tooth fragments as well. They learned that the ape weighed about 55 pounds, making it about the size of a modern female chimpanzee, though on the smaller side. They also identified both individuals as male and believed they primarily ate fruits but may have chewed on nuts and seeds as well. There's not much more that I can tell you right now since the discovery was only announced a few days ago. But mark my words, this new ape is going to become a big deal in the coming months and years. The secrets of our very evolution are hidden in its old, worn-out teeth. The oldest Egyptian genome ever discovered. DNA has been recovered from a man who died in Egypt 4,500 years ago. It is the oldest DNA fragment ever recovered from Egypt. In a world first, scientists from Liverpool John Moores University sequenced his entire genome. Not that scientists haven't sequenced an entire genome before, but they have never sequenced an Egyptian man's genome from this far back in history. What it's revealing to scientists is downright shocking. Have you ever wondered where the Egyptians came from? Graham Hancock has theorized they were survivors of Atlantis, but this new genomic study reveals precisely where the true ancestors of Egypt came from. And it wasn't a mythical island in the middle of the sea. It turns out, the earliest Egyptians came from two distinct parts of the world, North Africa and Mesopotamia. The mystery man's body was uncovered near Nuwairat in Egypt's north. He died right at the beginning of the Old Kingdom, the most ancient part of ancient Egypt, if we aren't counting the pre-dynastic period. The way this person was buried suggests he was important. His corpse was discovered inside a sealed ceramic pot. At the beginning of the Old Kingdom, sarcophagi hadn't quite made it into funerary customs yet. People were still being buried in pottery. I'd like to mention that this particular individual has proven extremely hardy even in death. His skeleton was found in that ceramic pot in 1902. It was transferred to the World Museum in Liverpool where it survived bombings in the Second World War. In life, this man made it to anywhere between 44 and 64 years old. Either way, he was ancient for that era. People didn't typically live into their 60s, and if they did, they were in rough shape. None of this information was particularly exciting to archaeologists and historians. What was exciting was when the team examined his DNA. Once they fully sequenced his genome, they were able to tell exactly where his ancestors came from. 80% of this mystery man's genetic code matched populations from North Africa. The other 20% was traced back to Mesopotamia, specifically to modern Iraq. 4,500 years ago in Mesopotamia, civilization was undergoing a massive transformation. New cities were being developed, centralized power structures were starting to form, and trade between neighboring regions was becoming more and more important. It shouldn't come as that big of a surprise that migration between Mesopotamia and Egypt was a common occurrence. It turns out a lot of the earliest Egyptians were also migrants from Mesopotamia. And if a similar study were to be done in Mesopotamia, I have no doubt that scientists would find the DNA of ancient Egyptians. While these results were somewhat anticipated, what scientists didn't expect was such a high level of population movement. Scientists have studied farming practices, burial rituals, and daily life in ancient Egypt, but there is very little known about the mixing of populations. At the end of the day, it's just human nature to want to move somewhere else. The grass is always greener on the other side of the Nile. The Lost Pleasure Boat of Alexandria A luxury vessel has been found by archaeologists off the coast of Alexandria, and it is amazing. The ancient boat matches the description given by Greek historian Strabo after he visited Egypt 2,000 years ago. That was back when the lighthouse of Alexandria and the library were still standing. In antiquity, Alexandria was one of the most magnificent cities in the world. The best way to experience this wonder of culture would have been on a pleasure boat. You could sit in your luxury barge, be fed by servants, and gaze out at Alexandria's sweeping coastline. It's something you can still do today, only the view probably isn't what it was two millennia ago. The pleasure boat dates to the first half of the 1st century, meaning it was probably still seaworthy when Jesus was conducting his ministry on the other side of the Red Sea. It was found right off the edge of the submerged island of Antirhodos, which was once part of Alexandria's Portus Magnus, or Great Port. When Strabo visited the Egyptian city around the year 29 BC, he would have arrived at Portus Magnus. He wrote about luxurious vessels docked all along the port, typically used by the royal court for a little R&R. Strabo wrote that during public festivals, crowds of revelers would go down to the canal and watch as the people on the pleasure boats loitered in the bay. At night during these festivals, the entire bay was full of people on boats playing flute music and dancing. The excavation was done by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, led by Egypt's most famous underwater researcher. His name is Frank Gaudio, and he's not Egyptian but French, but he's been in Egypt for decades, ever since 1992. Bringing treasures to the surface from underwater, Frank has discovered a ton of stuff. He has found a lost section of Alexandria that fell into the sea over 1,500 years ago. He's found temples, busted boats from the port, statues, you name it, Frank's found it. And now, he has discovered a boat. He told the Guardian it's an extremely exciting discovery, saying it's the first time ever that a boat like this has been found in Egypt. And what a boat it was! It appears to have had a breadth of about 20 feet and probably took more than 20 rowers to move. The boat was buried over 20 feet beneath the water's surface and another almost 10 feet beneath the sediment. It really goes to show just how much of the ancient city of Alexandria is buried in the bay. If only there was some way to suck all the water out, archaeologists would be able to find more relics than they could fit in the new Egyptian museum, which is the size of a small city. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out because it is massive. One of Frank's biggest discoveries came in 2000 when he revealed the sunken city of Tones Heraklion, along with fragments of the city of Kenobis. It is still considered one of the top archaeological finds of the last 30 years. This newest find came during the excavation of the Temple of Isis, which appears to have been destroyed sometime around the year 50 AD. Alexandria was assaulted by a series of earthquakes and tidal waves, which wrecked the Portus Magnus and pulled entire sections of coastline into the sea. Palaces were engulfed in water like God had just unleashed the flood 2.0. Now it's up to Gaudio and friends to dig up those ancient cities, the lost port, and all the treasures that were claimed by the waves. A Lost Book of the Dead There is no book from ancient Egypt quite as captivating as the Book of the Dead, which is why when archaeologists just found a 43-foot-long copy, they kind of freaked out. The Egyptian Book of the Dead was essentially a handbook for the recently departed. It contained spells and instructions to help the spirit of a newly dead person navigate the afterlife and make it to their eternal reward. There are a lot of copies of the Book of the Dead around, and not all of them in book form. Lots of them were scrawled on temple walls, the ceilings of tombs, and even on mummy wrappings. It didn't need to be in a book the way you and I imagine a book today. The Book of the Dead worked just as well written on the inside lid of a coffin. Let's take a look at what scientists have found. While excavating a lost cemetery from 3,500 years ago in the Al-Guraifa area, researchers found a wealth of treasure. They found artifacts, statues, mummies, and an exceptionally rare copy of this morbid book. It's in the form of a 43-foot-long papyrus scroll, a book you can roll up like all of those band posters you had on your bedroom wall when you were a teenager. The cemetery dates to between 1550 and 1070 BC, and doesn't appear to have been for anyone of royal significance. These may have simply been everyday citizens who had enough cash for a fancy burial but weren't important enough to be on the pharaoh's guest list. Along with the ridiculously long scroll, archaeologists found other items synonymous with funerary rites. Most excitingly, Ushabti figurines. These itty-bitty figures, almost like tiny miniatures from a board game, were supposed to represent servants. Egyptians believed that if they were buried with these Ushabti figurines, they would come to life as eternal servants in the world beyond. Because honestly, who wants to go to the afterlife and have to do chores? I sure as heck don't. So let's get back to that book. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is not one defined text, but rather a group of different texts from different times and places, all jammed into one custom document for an individual. It's a little confusing, so let me break it down even further. There were a lot of different funerary texts designed to help people move more easily into the next life. These texts evolved over thousands of years, being tweaked and perfected by Egyptian priests and scribes. The texts included everything from instructions to prayers, magical formulas and special wards to protect the dead from dangers on their journey through the underworld. When you died in ancient Egypt, you didn't just magically teleport to either hell or heaven, it was a whole process, with the newly deceased having to embark on a journey through the underworld. Only when they made it to the other side could they finally be judged, and only then did they find their final resting place. But not if they had been naughty in life. One of the most famous parts of the Book of the Dead is the judgment. When the deceased reached the end of their journey, their heart was weighed against a feather by the god Maat. Maat was the daughter of the sun god Ra, goddess of truth, balance, morality and justice. If your heart was heavier than her feather, you were deemed an immoral sinner and unworthy of the afterlife. Your soul was tossed into a dark pit and consumed by a terrifying monster. Egyptians feared this non-existence, so they tried their best to be good people. Everyone feared the judgment of Maat, as well as fearing the journey through the underworld. But knowing that they were going to be laid to rest with a copy of the Book of the Dead made them feel better. Some copies of the book were illustrated with drawings of gods, monsters and fantastical scenes of the afterlife. But they weren't all the same. And not everyone got one either. First of all, you had to have money. Only someone who could afford to have a copy of the book made for their burial would get one. And that's where the differences in the books come into play. They didn't just sell generic Books of the Dead at the Egyptian chapters. You had to have one of these books made, by hand, and it was incredibly expensive. What you received was peace of mind, with a Book of the Dead that was catered specifically to you, using all of those spells and instructions with a personal twist. We call it the Book of the Dead in English, but that's not what the Egyptians called it. They called it Spells of Coming Forth by Day. I'm not sure which title I like most. What do you think? If you were to die today and meet the goddess Maat standing before you with her scales, would you pass the test? Would your heart weigh heavier than Maat's feather? Or would the scales balance, indicating you lived a moral life? Let me know in the comments and thanks for watching. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and come back soon for more secrets of the ancient Egyptians. New discoveries are happening all the time so always check back for new videos. See you later, bye!