The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: May 29, 2011

Official News page 7


REAL LIFE NEWS: INFRA-RED SATELLITES FIND ANCIENT PYRAMIDS

by Hazed

Now a story how cutting edge technology helps with the search for ancient ruins. Archaeologists must be so excited by this story! Seventeen lost pyramids have now been found, thanks to a new satellite survey of Egypt.

Infra-red images taken from a satellite have revealed more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements, buried and impossible to see from the surface. Excavations have started and the first digs confirm the finds, including two of the suspected pyramids.

"To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist," said Dr Sarah Parcak. She is an Egyptologist at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and she pioneered the work. The research went on for over a year, and only now has it revealed the whole picture showing just how many buried sites there are all over Egypt.

Infra-red images were taken by cameras on satellites orbiting 700km above the Earth. The cameras can pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter on the surface of the Earth, and they can highlight different materials under the surface. The mud bricks which ancient Egyptians used as building materials are much denser than the soil surrounding it, so the shapes of houses, temples and tombs can be seen on the images.

Take a look at some of the images, and read more about the research, here.


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