Egypt Is Still Revealing Its Secrets: 2,600-Year-Old Egyptian Complex Found From Space

Egypt never stops surprising us.

This week, Egyptian researchers revealed a building roughly the size of a football field. It has lain beneath the Nile Delta for around 2,600 years - and they found it from space.

Egypt's story is still being written. And you can be part of it.

What was found

The site is Buto, known today as Tell el-Fara'in, in the northwestern Nile Delta.

It was the sacred home of Wadjet, the cobra goddess who protected Lower Egypt.

For decades, digs here stopped at groundwater. Only the later Ptolemaic and Roman layers could be reached.

Spotted from space

So the team looked down instead of digging.

Radar from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite revealed a buried oval shape, about 128 by 62 metres.

Electrical scans then mapped what lay below, without disturbing a thing.

The result: a huge mudbrick building from the 26th Dynasty (the Saite period), 3 to 6 metres underground.

It may have been a tomb, a house for priests or a shrine.

Clever ancient engineering

Under the walls sat a thick layer of clean sand - placed there on purpose.

Delta clay swells and shrinks with water, slowly cracking anything built on it. The sand spread the weight and let water drain away.

It's the same idea behind modern foundations, used over 2,500 years ago.

Clues to gods and rituals

A test trench turned up:

• Ushabti figurines - servant statues for the afterlife
• A limestone altar with traces of animal offerings
• A faience baboon, linked to Thoth, god of wisdom

The Saite pharaohs ruled from nearby Sais and restored the Delta's temples. A grand building at sacred Buto fits their story.

Meet these gods on tour

Buto isn't on the usual visitor route. But its gods and traditions are everywhere on our 10-day Gods of Egypt tour.

• Wadjet: spot the rearing cobra on royal headdresses at the Grand Egyptian Museum
• Thoth: find him in temple reliefs along the Nile
• The Ptolemaic era: explore Edfu and Kom Ombo on your Nile cruise
• Mudbrick homes: visit a colourful Nubian village near Aswan
• Hidden tombs: step inside the painted tombs of the Valley of the Kings

Local graduate Egyptologists guide you throughout, bringing headlines like this to life.

Tour at a glance

• 10 days, Cairo to Cairo
• Pyramids, Sphinx and the Grand Egyptian Museum
• Fly to Aswan for Philae Temple
• 3-night, 5-star Nile cruise
• Luxor, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings
• 2 days on the Red Sea in Hurghada
• 5-star hotels, max 18 travellers

Add-ons: sunrise balloon over Luxor, Abu Simbel, or Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis.

See it for yourself

Departures every Saturday, year-round.

Next departure: 19 December 2026. Secure your place with a deposit.

Explore Gods of Egypt

Discovery details as reported by Live Science on 2 November 2026, based on a study in the journal Acta Geophysica.