The following is a synthesized summary of academic papers links' provided at https://archaeologicalrescue.org/hawara/ and the institute Preservation and Recovery Master Plan/ This blog is edited by J. S. Jowett, compiled to assist the purpose of attaining UNESCO listing and funding immediate repatriation of the Egyptian site known to be suffering dam formed ground water erosion. For the interview with a founding member see Funny Olde World BIG NEWS : Archeological Rescue Project for Lost Labyrinth of Egypt!
The Maze Beneath the Mud: Why Egypt’s Greatest Wonder is Drowning in Silence
Humanity is often lulled into believing that the map of Egyptian antiquity is complete—that the shifting sands of the Faiyum have surrendered every secret to the prying eyes of the 21st century. We gaze upon the Giza plateau and see a finished story. Yet, beneath the unremarkable silt of Hawara lies a deeper truth: a structure once hailed by the ancients as a masterpiece that surpassed even the Pyramids of Giza, now vanished into the rising tide of the underworld. What happens when the greatest architectural achievement of the ancient world is hiding right beneath your feet, and we have inadvertently orchestrated its slow but inevitable destruction?
The Surprising Realities of the Hawara Labyrinth
1. It Surpasses the Pyramids
To the Greek historian Herodotus, who claimed to have traversed its upper halls in the 5th century BCE, the Labyrinth was the ultimate memorial, a structure that defied comparison. Today, the dissonance between his account and the site’s physical degradation is a tragedy of time.
"...this maze surpasses even the pyramids. It has twelve roofed courts with doors facing each other... the upper we saw for ourselves, and they are creations greater than human."
While the ancients stood in awe of its white stone pillars, the modern observer sees only the skeletal remains of the adjacent 12th Dynasty pyramid of Amenemhat III.
"Today, the pyramid is little more than an eroded, vaguely pyramidal mountain of mud brick."
2. The Ghost in the Satellite
Where the naked eye sees nothing, space-based remote sensing finds a "ghost" of the Labyrinth. Mark Carlotto’s analysis of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data provides verifiable evidence of an enormous subsurface complex. By utilizing C-band sensors (Sentinel-1) and longer-wavelength L-band sensors (ALOS/PALSAR), which can penetrate desert sands by 2 to 5 meters, we have identified "uncorrelated returns"—radar echoes that have no corresponding explanation on the surface.
The technologist’s "smoking gun" lies in Areas B and D: these show strong VV (vertical-vertical) polarization returns, which are typically sensitive to height and vertical features. Because these features appear in the radar data but are absent in optical Google Earth imagery, they suggest massive subsurface walls and structures that align precisely with the scale estimated by the legendary Flinders Petrie.
3. A 3,000-Room "Hard Drive" of History
The Labyrinth was not merely a building; it was a vast archive of 12 roofed courts and 3,000 chambers—half of them subterranean and forbidden to classical visitors. In 2008, the Mataha Expedition used ground-penetrating technology to confirm that these were not myths, but tangible limestone and mud-brick engineering.
"The vertical walls with an average thickness of several meters, are connected to shape nearly closed rooms, which are interpreted to be huge in number."
This network served as a permanent record, a stone "hard drive" designed to protect the memory and physical remains of kings and the sacred crocodiles of Sobek.
4. The 13th-Century Scar
The Labyrinth is not simply eroding naturally; it was impacted by infrastructure. A major waterway—the Bahr Sharqiyyah, now known as the Abdul Wahbi canal—was dug directly through the heart of the site. To provide water to the Faiyum, engineers unwittingly sliced across a masterpiece left to the sands of time.
"The Bahr Sharqiyyah was cut through the archaeological site of Hawara with a width of approximately 30 meters and a depth of approximately 13 meters for approximately one kilometer. The task of excavating this canal would have involved the removal of mud-brick remains, compacted stone debris from the remains of the Labyrinth, and a significant amount of limestone bedrock."
5. The Water Grave
The most immediate threat identified by the Massoud geophysical survey is a silent invasion of groundwater. Using Transient ElectroMagnetic (TEM) and Ground ElectroMagnetic (GEM) sounding, we have mapped a lethal water table influenced by the local lithology of variable grain-sized sand and gravel.
• The Depth of Danger: The water is shallowest (2.3–4.0 meters) at the cultivated "recharge" areas where flood irrigation is practiced. At the Labyrinth site itself, the water table sits between 4 and 7 meters below the surface.
• The Flooded Core: The entrance to the Hawara pyramid is already submerged under 6 meters of water, leading to a state of general instability.
Analysis: The Ultimate Vault and the "Inter-Planetary" Question
The Labyrinth was engineered as a fortress of passages; a defensive labyrinth designed to be impenetrable to human threats across millennia. However, when we consider Herodotus’s insistence that these were "creations greater than human," we must ask: what was of such high value that it required a 3,000-room subterranean vault?
If the logistical and architectural scale of the 12th Dynasty was pushed to its absolute limit to create this site, we must weigh the possibility that it was designed to house assets that redefine our understanding of the sacred. If the lower chambers contained something as significant as a craft or technology—an "inter-planetary" vessel of the gods—the mythical ark perhaps, then extreme secrecy mentioned by the ancient caretakers takes on a technological rather than purely religious dimension, and more reason to the madness of a highly destabilised modern society is clear.
"The Egyptian caretakers would by no means show them, as they were, they said, the burial vaults of the kings who first built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. Thus we can only speak from hearsay of the lower chambers."
If such a vault exists, the Labyrinth is not just a tomb; it is a decommissioned hangar for true history which will change everything.
Conclusion: An Imperative for Action
We must move beyond observation to intervention! The Hawara Labyrinth is currently enduring what researchers have described as a terminal state of decay. The Massoud paper, in its urgent assessment, notes:
"The area is experienced an entire threaten from the underground water invasion, which has been observed in the form of friable loose soil under the pyramid, general instability of the pyramid structure, and damage effect on the remaining walls of the labyrinth."
This is no longer a matter for academic debate; it is a crisis of heritage. To prevent the "unending marvel" from dissolving into the mud, lets propose the following:
• UNESCO World Heritage Listing: Immediate international recognition is required to take seriously an alternative history and mobilize the funding necessary for a site of this magnitude; demonstrating an early earth history beyond any ones imaginations at the turn of the 21st century.
• Funding and Collaboration: Continued formal partnerships between international institutes and the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to approve the emergency dewatering plan with fully optimized capacity.
• Hydrological Reform: Transition the surrounding cultivated lands from a flood irrigation system to dropping or spraying systems which will halt the subsurface percolation that is drowning the site.
The Labyrinth is the ultimate memorial of our collective human story—and perhaps a story that began far beyond our world. We cannot allow it to vanish into a drowning silence.
