Are there columns under the Great Pyramid? What actually lies in the bedrock

This question is asked frequently, and it contains two confusions that are easy to resolve.

The first concerns the structure itself. The reports about columns, shafts, and halls underground that circulated worldwide in 2025 did not refer to the Great Pyramid, but to its middle neighbor. Anyone looking for columns under the largest pyramid is searching for something that was never claimed to exist.

The second concerns the status of these reports. They were based on a radar analysis for which no peer-reviewed publication exists, and the methodological work behind it has since been retracted. More on this below.

What actually exists is significantly less spectacular and significantly more interesting. Roughly thirty meters beneath the structure, cut into the living rock, lies a chamber. It is large, it is old, it is real, and it was never finished. Its floor is a rugged surface of partially removed stone, as if the stonemasons laid down their tools in the middle of their work.

A note in advance to help with context: Unfinished components are not an exception here, but a pattern. At the base of the third pyramid stands rough granite left unworked; the mortuary temple of the same complex was completed using mud bricks; and for the Sphinx, the associated temple remained unfinished. An abandoned room under the largest pyramid fits seamlessly into this picture rather than standing out from it.

That is likely what happened. And the question of why leads deeper into the construction process of this monument than any radar report ever could.

The descending corridor and the chamber

The path there begins at the same spot as everything else: at the original entrance on the north side.

From there, a descending corridor leads downward, initially through the masonry and then through the bedrock. It maintains the same gradient over its entire length, which in itself represents a significant surveying achievement: A corridor of over one hundred meters running through two different materials while remaining perfectly straight.

At the lower end, the bedrock chamber of the Great Pyramid opens up. It measures roughly fourteen meters in length and just over eight meters in width, with a height of about four meters. Thus, it is larger than the burial chamber in the upper section, but in a completely different state: The walls are rough, the ceiling is irregular, and the floor is a landscape of protrusions, pits, and standing rock.

Two further features belong to it. In the center of the floor lies a shaft driven partway into the depths before being abandoned. And from the south wall, a low corridor runs horizontally into the rock for about fifteen meters, where it ends without a chamber or any recognizable purpose.

Noteworthy is the contrast in execution. The corridor leading to it was designed with great care; the walls are smooth, and the gradient is constant throughout. The room at the end is the exact opposite. Anyone seeing both in succession immediately recognizes that work was not done sloppily, but stopped at a specific point. The precision of the access proves that the roughness of the destination reflects a decision, not a lack of skill.

Photographs, measurements, and excavation reports for this area are available in the digital archive of Harvard University, including images from times when access was still open.

Rerouted twice

The common explanation for this state is also the explanation for the entire layout of the monument, and it states: It was rerouted twice.

According to this reading, the bedrock chamber was the original intended destination. A burial chamber deep in the rock beneath the pyramid corresponds exactly to what was customary in earlier royal tombs. Work began, proceeded to the shaping of the room, and was then halted.

Afterward, a second chamber was created, this time within the masonry above the base. It too was not used as the final burial place. Only the third chamber, located high up in the structure, was completed, lined with granite, and fitted with a sarcophagus.

Why the plans changed remains open. One possibility is a change in religious beliefs during construction; another is a technical difficulty; yet another is simply that expectations regarding the remaining reign time changed. A king who realizes he has more time than thought can afford more elaborate arrangements.

The sequence of construction in the masonry also supports the theory of rerouting. The ascending corridor connects to the descending one at a structurally disadvantageous point, and it was partially cut later into already-set masonry. A path upward planned from the beginning would have looked different. Such traces are hard to dismiss because they represent additional effort that no one undertakes without reason.

However, there is a counter-position. Some experts do not consider the bedrock chamber an abandoned plan, but rather an intentionally unfinished space with its own meaning, perhaps as a representation of the underworld. Evidence for this is weak, but the theory explains why a room supposedly abandoned was fully excavated and accessed via a carefully surveyed corridor.

Are there columns under the pyramid?

Now to the columns. The question stems from spring 2025, when an Italian research group declared that satellite radar had found extensive structures beneath the middle building on the plateau: several similar structures connected by pathways, along with vertical shafts hundreds of meters deep.

Three things must be said about this, all verifiable. First, the claim did not concern the Great Pyramid. Those seeking underground pillars in Giza will find reports concerning the neighboring structure. Second, no peer-reviewed publication has appeared to date; it was presented at a press conference. Independent checks found no solid basis, and the Egyptian Antiquities Authority publicly contradicted the claims.

Third, and this is new: The work in which the same group described its radar method in 2022 was retracted by the journal on August 10, 2026. The editorial board cites serious methodological flaws and statistical errors following an investigation. The authors dispute this decision.

Furthermore, there is a factual argument that holds independently of all the above. Satellite radar penetrates dry soil only a few meters and practically not at all into solid rock. Structures at depths of hundreds of meters cannot be imaged by this method, regardless of how the data is subsequently processed.

Remarkable at this point is how stubbornly the confusion persists. Search queries for columns under the Great Pyramid are more frequent than those for the actually existing chamber. A claim about one structure thus migrates in public consciousness to the more famous neighboring structure, while the real finding fades into the background. This is not unique to this topic, but a fairly general characteristic of popular science reporting.

Thus, beneath the Great Pyramid lies what has been known since the 19th century: an unfinished room, an abandoned shaft, and a corridor leading nowhere.

You won't get there

For visitors, the answer is short: You won't get there.

The descending corridor branches off shortly after the breach tunnel and is blocked off. The walkable route goes in the other direction, upward through the ascending corridor and the gallery to the burial chamber. The lower area was accessible at times in the past, but has not been for a long time, and nothing is likely to change in the foreseeable future: The corridor is low, long, poorly ventilated, and has only one entrance and exit.

What you can see is the beginning. Upon entering the structure, you cross the point where the descending corridor continues. A brief glance down into this tube conveys the dimension better than any description, as it disappears into darkness without any visible end.

Those interested in the lower area must rely on documentation. There are measurements, photographs, and surveys from several centuries, and the chamber is among the best-documented inaccessible sites in archaeology.

A side effect worth mentioning. Because the lower area is closed, visitors do not disperse, and the ascending path is correspondingly crowded. If the bedrock chamber were accessible, there would be two routes and half as much head-on traffic. From both conservation and safety perspectives, however, everything argues against opening it: A single access point over a hundred meters long without a second exit is highly unsuitable for public traffic.

And perhaps this is the fitting punchline. The most spectacular question about this monument concerns a substructure that does not exist. The substructure that does exist has been surveyed for two hundred years and is hardly ever mentioned.