Thermal scans of Egypt's Giza pyramids from the last two weeks of Scan Pyramids' research have found numerous anomalies, according to CBC News. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty, along with technical experts, are working to determine the cause of these anomalies, including one located on the ground level of the eastern side of the Khufu pyramid.
"The first row of the pyramid's stones are all uniform, then we come here and find that there's a difference in the formation," said el-Damaty.
Thermal scanning of the pyramids was conducted each day at sunrise and sunset during periods when the pyramids where heating up and cooling down, respectively, according to Discovery News. The differences between the rates of heating up and cooling down are being used to determine anomalies such as a change in building materials and empty rooms.
"In cooling phase, the heat transfer is usually happening from the inside to the outside; while in heating phase, it is the opposite," the researchers said.
"This anomaly is impressive and obvious. We have several hypothesis, but no conclusion for the moment," said Mehdi Tayoubi, one of the researchers from Scan Pyramids. "We need now to build models and thermal simulations to test different hypotheses in order to understand what we have found."
Egypt's Giza pyramids are one the country's main tourist attractions and were used as sacred burial grounds in the past, according to Phys.org.
Republican presidential candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, however, believes the pyramids were not used for burial. Click here for more on that.
