A purported ‘vast underground city’ in Egypt is tens of thousands of years older than the Giza pyramids, scientists have shockingly claimed.

If true, it would turn Egyptian – and human – history on its head, though independent experts have called it ‘outlandish’ and ‘crazy talk.’

Last week, Italian researchers revealed groundbreaking findings suggesting the presence of extensive wells and chambers reaching heights of several thousand feet beneath the Khafre Pyramid.

The Giza pyramids, constructed approximately 4,500 years ago, stand as a testament to ancient engineering prowess, characterized by their monumental size and intricate construction techniques that continue to perplex modern investigators.

The recent study asserts that these concealed underground formations, stretching over 4,000 feet in length, date back around 38,000 years, far surpassing the age of any previously known human-made structures of similar nature by tens of millennia.

The team has based these claims on ancient Egyptian text that they interpreted as historical records of a pre-existing civilization that was destroyed during a cataclysmic.

Professor Lawrence Conyers, a radar expert at the University of Denver who focuses on archaeology and was not involved in the study, told DailyMail.com: ‘That is a really outlandish idea.’

He added that at that time in human history people ‘were mostly living in caves’ 38,000 years ago. ‘People did not start living in what we now call cities until about 9,000 years ago,’ he said. ‘There were a few large villages before that but those only go back a few thousand years from that time.’

Scientists claim to have identified evidence of a city below the Khafre Pyramid (left), which is one of three in the complex. The other two are Khufu (center) and Menkaure (right)

Now, the team told DailyMail.com that the structures are around 38,000 years old. The pyramids were built around 4,500 years ago

Not only have the claims been criticized by scientists, but also the state of Egypt itself.

Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, told The National the entire study was ‘completely wrong’ and lacked any scientific basis. 

The work by Corrado Malanga from Italy’s University of Pisa, Filippo Biondi with the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and Egyptologist Armando Mei has not yet been published in a scientific journal for the review of independent experts.

The team has held two press conferences in Italy to discuss the research.

They claim to have identified the hidden structures using radar pulses to create high-resolution images deep into the ground beneath the structures, the same way sonar radar is used to map the ocean’s depths.

Independent scientists said the techniques used are legitimate, but the results are unverifiable due to the way the data is presented.

‘They are using all kinds of fancy proprietary data analysis software,’ said Professor Conyers.

The radar expert also noted that it is not possible for the technology to penetrate that deeply into the ground, making the idea of an underground city ‘a huge exaggeration.’

However, Professor Conyers suggested that it is conceivable small structures, such as shafts and chambers, may exist beneath the pyramids, having been there before the pyramids were built, because the site was ‘special to ancient people

He highlighted how ‘the Mayans and other peoples in ancient Mesoamerica often built pyramids on top of the entrances to caves or caverns that had ceremonial significance to them.’

The team told DailyMail.com that they used guidance from ancient texts to not only find the structures, but also date them to a pre-existing civilization.

The team identified eight descending wells about 33 to 39 feet in diameter, extending at least 2,130 feet below the surface. Right image shows the wells and right features points on where they are located under the pyramid

They said chapter 149 of the Book of the Dead describes 14 dwellings of the divine which team interprets as describing remnants of an advanced civilization existing before dynastic Egypt.

Ciccolo said the team also used the Turn King List, or Royal Canon, which is an ancient Egyptian document that features the name of rulers, including gods and demigods, who supposedly ruled Egypt before the first recorded dynasties. 

Researchers believe that the god and demigods were actually living kings long before the first recorded pharaohs.  

Ciccolo said these ancient texts ‘provide a whole series of references that a pre-existing civilization’ lived in the region before ‘a cataclysmic event.’ 

The event is a theory that a massive asteroid hit the Earth, causing global climate change and extinction worldwide.

While ice cores in Greenland and other geological data in the Atlantic Ocean point to such an event, scientists have largely dismissed it due to never finding an asteroid crater.

At the end of the wells were massive rectangular enclosures, each measuring approximately 260 feet per side. According to the researchers, each of these enclosures contain four shafts that extend from the top and descend downward

Researchers believe there are other structures reaching more than 4,000 feet below the surface. The scans captured structures extend along the northern side with a tuning fork shape

To conduct the new study, researchers used a new method to ‘see’ below the Khafre Pyramid.

They beamed radar pulses from two satellites in space down to the pyramid and analyzed how the signals bounced back. 

The signals were then converted into soundwaves to create 3D images of hidden underground structures, including eight descending wells about 33 to 39 feet in diameter that extended at least 2,130 feet below the surface. 

The results also captured staircase-like structures wrapping around each of the eight wells, which Ciccolo said appeared ‘to serve as access points to this underground system.’

At the end of the wells were massive rectangular enclosures, each measuring approximately 260 feet per side. According to the researchers, each of these enclosures contain four shafts that extend from the top and descend downward.

During the news briefing released Saturday, the researchers also said a water system had been identified beneath the platform, located more than 2,100 feet below the Khafre Pyramid, with underground pathways leading even deeper into the earth. 

The team believes there is ‘an entire hidden world of many structures’ more than 4,000 feet below the pyramid.

‘When we magnify the images [in the future], we will reveal that beneath it lies what can only be described as a true underground city,’ said Corrado Malanga from Italy’s University of Pisa in a statement translated to English.

However, Dr Hawass said: ‘The claim of using radar inside the pyramid is false, and the techniques employed are neither scientifically approved nor validated.’

The team said while they ‘have the utmost respect for Egyptologists,’ their ‘findings are based on objective measurements obtained through advanced radar signal processing.’

They used radar to generate ‘high-resolution pseudo-tomographic images of the subsurface, which provide valuable insights into underground structures.’

‘The data was acquired using advanced Doppler tomography, a technique that reconstructs subsurface images [based on the change in frequency of scattered signals],’ Ciccolo said.

This method has shown to be effective in detecting vertical shafts and identifying structural anomalies.