The site they examined is known as Buto (modern-day Tell el-Fara'in), a sprawling mound of layered history in the northwestern Nile Delta. To the ancient Egyptians, it was the sacred home of Wadjet, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, and one of the most religiously important cities in the pharaonic landscape.
Now, researchers have turned to noninvasive tools, including satellite imagery, to delve into the mysterious subterranean layers.
The geological profile of Tell el-Fara'in (ancient Buto) and the surrounding Nile Delta, showing the layered sequence of river sands and flood-plain clays from the last ice age and the settlement mound above. (Image credit: Abouarab et al.,Acta Geophysica (2026); CC BY 4.0)
To learn more without disturbing the site, the team ran 15 parallel lines of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) across an area of roughly 58,100 square feet (5,400 square meters). This technique reveals the underground landscape by passing electrical currents through the earth, measuring how they travel and creating a map that archaeologists can read.
Using pure sand as a stabilizing cushion was a brilliant, deliberate tactic — the ancient builders profoundly understood their environment.
Deeper still, between 10 and 20 feet (3 and 6 m), the researchers found a large mudbrick structure from the 26th dynasty (688 to 525 B.C.), also known as the Saite period. They were able to date this discovery based on its layer, the unique shape of the mudbricks and other artifacts such as pottery, which the team dated by style and their archaeological layer, with carbon-14 dating applied to associated organic material. The large structure may be a tomb, a house for priests or a religious shrine, the team wrote in the study, published in March in the journal Acta Geophysica.
That sand is the discovery within the discovery, the team wrote in the study.
A 2D electrical resistivity scan aligned with a partially exposed mudbrick wall — the colored subsurface anomaly matches the location of the visible structure above ground. (Image credit: Abouarab et al.,Acta Geophysica (2026); CC BY 4.0)
"By combining satellite radar with deep ERT profiles, we didn't just map the walls of this massive Saite-era structure — we were also able to analyze the subsurface layers," study co-author author Abdelaziz Elfadaly, an associate research professor at Egypt's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, told Live Science. "The detection of a significant, clean sand foundation layer beneath the mudbrick walls explains how these heavy structures survived the high water table and shifting clayey soil of Buto."
A 3-by-3 foot (10 by 10 m) excavation trench that was around 20 to 23 feet (6 to 7 m) deep confirmed the presence of thick mudbrick walls resting on that sand layer, and nearby, a spread of objects that hint at the site's sacred function. According to Elfadaly, these finds included ushabti and shawabti figurines — small servant statues typically placed in tombs to serve the deceased in the afterlife — and a limestone altar whose carved channels bore dried residues consistent with animal blood, pointing to offering rituals performed at the site. The study also noted a rarer find: a faience baboon figurine, the kind associated with Thoth, the god of wisdom.
Abouarab et al.,Acta Geophysica (2026); CC BY 4.0Abouarab et al.,Acta Geophysica (2026); CC BY 4.0Related storiesThe Saite period was a moment of cultural revival. After generations of Assyrian and Libyan domination, Egyptian pharaohs retook the throne and poured resources into restoring Egypt's religious landscape, particularly in the Nile Delta, which had been their power base. Buto, with its deep ties to Lower Egyptian identity, was a natural focus. The Saite kings ruled from the nearby delta city of Sais, so restoring Buto reinforced their roots and their claim to the throne.
The team is planning a return visit, this time using wider-spaced electrical resistivity surveys to reach deeper layers, along with specialists who study ancient plants and also understand how geological features changed over time, which may help reconstruct what the landscape around Buto looked like when these walls were first laid.
Are you a fan of mummies and hieroglyphs? Find out with our ancient Egypt quiz!
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