A new satellite survey of Egypt has discovered 17 lost pyramids.  The work has been pioneered at the University of Alabama at Birmingham by US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.  The BBC report that more than 1000 tombs and 3000 ancient settlements were also revealed by the infra-red images.  The satellites orbited 700km above the earth and were equipped with cameras that are able to pin-point objects less than 1m diameter on the earth’s surface.  Following the observations, test excavations took place:

Ancient Egyptians built their houses and structures out of mud brick, which is much denser than the soil that surrounds it, so the shapes of houses, temples and tombs can be seen.

“It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements,” says Dr Parcak.

And she believes there are more antiquities to be discovered:

“These are just the sites [close to] the surface. 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.”

• The full article and details of  the ‘Egypt’s Lost Cities’ broadcast can be found on the BBC website.