Background
In 1972 my colleagues and I in the Radio Physics Laboratory of SRI International in Menlo Park California undertook basic
research to see if radar could be used for probing beneath the surface of the earth. We had just concluded an extensive R&D
project using spark gaps to generate tens of megawatts of peak pulse power at HF and VHF.
We were familiar with the standard geophysical equipment used in locating oil, natural gas and minerals. Most of the methods
originating in the '30's and '40's were intended for large scale exploration where grid size is measured in miles or tens of
miles. What could we do at an archaeological area where resolutions of a few feet were needed? We also knew that
resistivity was being used in England and in Europe with some success for the exploration of archaeology sites. The Viet
Nam War and the Korean War had brought attention to the military need for better means of detecting tunnels--and many of
these tunnels were small. (Later on, our group took the leadership in the development of a family of ground-penetrating radars
which were the forerunners of radars used commercially and by the military today).
Our first GPRs used spark gap techniques so that we had a megawatt of peak pulse power available for our first field season
in Egypt in 1974. Our biggest problem was antenna design. Much effort was spent in trial and error antenna design and
testing. We built cavity-backed slot antennas, and large aluminum foil "fat" dipoles as well as large Delta-shaped dipoles
which were made by spraying molten metal on cloth (so the antennas would be flexible). It was not until after our field season
in 1974 that Dr. Roger Vickers joined our lab staff and developed a family of small resitively loaded antennas that worked so
well they are still used today.
In 1973 while we were field testing our first radars at an old coal mine near Mt. Diablo in the San Francisco Bay Area that I
received a phone call from Physics Professor and Nobel Laureate Luis Alvarez of the University of California in Berkeley.
Prof. Alvarez and a team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley labs and scientists from Ain Shams University in Egypt
had been conducting cosmic ray experiments in the Pyramid of Chephren at Giza. By counting the number of cosmic rays
arriving in the chamber versus angle and time of day, the team had a shadow gram showing the additional absorption caused
by the remaining outer cap stone on the pyramid. Looking to the North and East they also saw a shadow cast by the top of the
neighboring Pyramid of Cheops. The method was crude but the results were striking. Unfortunately the chambers in Cheops'
Pyramid were well above the base of the pyramid, unlike the burial chamber in Chephren's Pyramid so the method was not
well-suited to any other pyramid.
Prof. Alvarez put me in touch with an engineer at the Hewlett-Packard Corporation who gave me a sample of pyramid
limestone which could be tested in the laboratory for dielectric properties. I flattened the sample of stone into a rectangle and
silver painted two faces to form a capacitor. I then measured the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant of this
"capacitor" to get an idea of how we might expect the pyramids to look when probed with radar. My lab tests showed the
rock had low radio-frequency losses--the pyramids should be radar transparent.
Prof. Alvarez then graciously introduced us to Mr. Selim Selcuk at the National Science Foundation who obtained a special
grant which allowed us to conduct our first experiments in Egypt in 1974. Our work was done in partnership with Aim Shams
University.
In the intervening years repeated questions and requests for information concerning this very early work keep coming to
members of our original team. The pyramids and Sphinx continue to be the objects of both legitimate and pseudo-scientific
studies. Since our reports have been out of print for some time, they are being made available here as Internet documents.
(Lambert Dolphin, July 22, 1999)
Note: An excellent recent book on Egypt which thoroughly explores the legends, as well as the legitimate and
not-so-legitimate explorations of many "researchers" in Egypt is Giza: The Truth by Ian Lawton and Chris Ogilvie-Herald,
published in 1999 by Virgin Publishing Ltd., Thames Wharf Studios, Rainville Road, London W6 9HT, England.
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