Social media users on X have been circulating a video in recent hours claiming to document the discovery of an entire underground city in Egypt.
اكتشاف مدينة كاملة تحت الأرض في مصر 🇪🇬 🇪🇬 pic.twitter.com/gdSt02RcCw
— الز؏ـيم (@0MTTT) January 9, 2025
The claim gained significant traction and widespread sharing. The fact-checking team at Al Masry Al Youm identified four accounts sharing the same video, which collectively garnered 414,000 views, 5,400 likes, and 1,100 shares.
Fact-checking the viral video
The fact-checking team investigated the circulating video and found it to be misleading. Through reverse image search, it was revealed that the video does not depict the recent discovery of an entire underground city in Egypt.
The team found that the video actually shows the archaeological site of Tuna el-Gebel, which was discovered approximately 87 years ago by the Egyptian archaeologist Dr. Sami Gabra. Additionally, the team searched the official social media accounts of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and other official sources but found no information confirming the discovery of an entire underground city.
Archaeological discoveries in Egypt
The recent claim about the discovery of an entire underground city in Egypt coincided with a series of actual archaeological discoveries in the country. Most notably, Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of the joint archaeological mission affiliated with the Zahi Hawass Center for Archaeology and Heritage, announced new archaeological discoveries in Luxor, including an ancient tomb dating back 4,000 years and artworks from the era of Queen Hatshepsut.
During a press conference held at the site in Qurnah on the West Bank of Luxor, Hawass confirmed that over three years of research and scientific excavations, the mission has made significant discoveries in the area at the beginning of the ascending path to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, specifically the valley temple. The mission uncovered a part of the temple’s foundation.
On January 7, 2024, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on its official Facebook page that a joint Egyptian-Japanese archaeological mission working at the Saqqara necropolis had discovered four tombs dating back to the end of the 2nd Dynasty and the beginning of the 3rd Dynasty, as well as more than 10 burials from the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom.
