Infra-red imaging reveals lost pyramids

The scientists could identify more than 1,000 tombs, 3,000 ancient settlements and 17 lot pyramids using infra-red images. Preliminary excavations have confirmed some of the findings, including two suspected pyramids.

"We were very intensely doing this research for over a year,” said leader of the study Dr. Sarah Parcak. “I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the "Aha!" moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we'd found and I couldn't believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt.”

Parcak and her colleagues analyzed images from satellites orbiting 700km above the earth, whose cameras can locate objects less than 1m in diameter on Earth.

The infra-red imaging highlighted materials and objects under the ground, the state-funded BBC reported.

The shapes of houses, temples and tombs can also be seen in the pictures because ancient Egyptians built their structures out of mud brick, which is much denser than the surrounding soil.

"It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements," said Dr. Parcak adding that more sites would be discovered using this method.

"These are just the sites [close to] the surface,” she said. “There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt.” “This is just the beginning of this kind of work."

Egyptian authorities were not initially interested in Parcak's findings, but they started test excavations when she told them that she had seen two potential pyramids in Saqqara.

For Dr. Parcak, however, the most exciting moment was visiting the excavations at Tanis.

"They'd excavated a 3,000-year-old house that the satellite imagery had shown and the outline of the structure matched the satellite imagery almost perfectly,” she said. That was real validation of the technology."

Egypt plans to use the technology to help protect the country's antiquities against similar incidents which happened during the recent uprising against Hosni Mubarak's regime.

"We can tell from the imagery a tomb was looted from a particular period of time and we can alert Interpol to watch out for antiquities from that time that may be offered for sale," Dr. Parcak explained.