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by Rossella Lorenzi
August 10, 2012
from
NewsDiscovery Website
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The site near Abu Sidhum
contains four mounds with a larger,
triangular-shaped plateau.
Credit: Angela Micol
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Two possible pyramid complexes might have been found in Egypt,
according to a Google Earth satellite imagery survey.
Located about 90 miles apart, the sites contain unusual grouping of
mounds with intriguing features and orientations, said satellite
archaeology researcher Angela Micol of Maiden, N.C.
One site in Upper Egypt, just 12 miles from the city of
Abu Sidhum
along the Nile, features four mounds each with a larger,
triangular-shaped plateau.
The two larger mounds at this site are approximately 250 feet in
width, with two smaller mounds approximately 100 feet in width.
The site complex is arranged in a very clear formation with the
large mound extending a width of approximately 620 feet - almost
three times the size of the Great Pyramid.
"Upon closer examination of the
formation, this mound appears to have a very flat top and a
curiously symmetrical triangular shape that has been heavily
eroded with time," Micol wrote in her website Google Earth
Anomalies.
Intriguingly, when zooming in on the top
of the triangular formation, two circular, 20-foot-wide features
appear almost in the very center of the triangle.
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Enhanced image of the
150 foot wide,
four-sided mound near
the ancient town of Dimai.
Credit: Angela Micol
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Some 90 miles north near the Fayoum oasis, the second possible
pyramid complex contains a four-sided, truncated mound that is
approximately 150 feet wide.
"It has a distinct square center
which is very unusual for a mound of this size and it almost
seems pyramidal when seen from above," Micol wrote.
Located just 1.5 miles south east of the
ancient town of Dimai, the site also contains three smaller mounds
in a very clear formation,
"similar to the diagonal alignment of the
Giza Plateau pyramids," Micol stated in a press release.
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"The color of the mounds is dark and
similar to the material composition of Dimai's walls which are
made of mudbrick and stone," the researcher wrote.
Founded in the third century B.C. under
the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309 B.C. - 246 B.C.), Dimai was built on top of an earlier neolithic settlement.
Also known as Dimeh al-Siba, Dimeh of the Lions, the town is
surrounded by a mudbrick wall that stretches up to 32 feet high and
16 feet thick, and features at its center a ruined stone temple
dedicated to the crocodile god Soknopaios.
Indeed, the town's Greek name, Soknopaiou Nesos, means "Island of
Soknopaios."
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The site also contains
three smaller mounds
in a formation
similar to the diagonal alignment of the Giza Plateau pyramids.
Credit: Angela Micol
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Well known to scholars for the amount of papyri and other inscribed
material found among its ruins, Dimai reached its peak during the
first and second century A.D. thanks to a major trade route.
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It was
abandoned during the mid-third century A.D.
According to Micol, both sites have been verified as undiscovered by
Egyptologist and pyramid expert Nabil Selim, whose findings include
the pyramid called Sinki at Abydos and the Dry Moat surrounding the
Step pyramid complex at Saqqara.
Selim found that the smaller 100-foot mounds at the site near Abu
Sidhum are a similar size as the 13th Dynasty Egyptian pyramids, if
a square base can be discovered.
"The images speak for themselves.
It's very obvious what the sites may contain but field research
is needed to verify they are, in fact, pyramids," Micol said.
The researcher has previously located
several possible archaeological sites with Google Earth, including a
potential underwater city off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula.
She believes the use of infrared imagery will allow scientists to
see the extent of the complexes in greater detail.
The sites have been sent to Egyptologists and researchers for
further investigation and "ground truthing," she said.
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