The Great Pyramid of Giza can collect and concentrate electromagnetic energy in its chambers and at its base, scientists have discovered.

The 139m (456ft) construction was built by the ancient Egyptians more than 4,500 years ago and is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Experts are still working to solve the mysteries of the pyramid, which is believed to have been built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops.

Its ability to concentrate electric and magnetic energy was discovered by a team of researchers led by scientists from ITMO University in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

They created a model of the pyramid to measure its electromagnetic response.


The model was used to see how wave energy is scattered or absorbed by the pyramid and the group tested the interactions with waves of resonant length - ranging from 200m to 600m.

If the pyramid's ability to concentrate energy can be recreated on a nanoscale size, researchers say the same science could be used to create more efficient sensors and solar cells.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physics, says: "In general, one may conclude that pyramidal objects located on a substrate and supporting multipole resonances can significantly suppress the reflection of incident electromagnetic waves.

"In the earth conditions, this could be used for controlling the radio-wave propagation and reflection.

Image: The Great Pyramid is believed to have been built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu

"Due to the scaling properties, such a behaviour can be realised in different spectral ranges for suitable material and geometrical parameters."

Dr Andrey Evlyukhin, scientific supervisor and coordinator of the research, said: "Egyptian pyramids have always attracted great attention.

"We as scientists were interested in them as well, so we decided to look at the Great Pyramid as a particle dissipating radio waves resonantly.

"Due to the lack of information about the physical properties of the pyramid, we had to use some assumptions.

"For example, we assumed that there are no unknown cavities inside and that the building material with the properties of an ordinary limestone is evenly distributed in and out of the pyramid.

"With these assumptions made, we obtained interesting results that can find important practical applications."