Who else could’ve built the pyramids?

Why are we so quick to assume humans aren’t good enough at anything?

With more than 500,000 British tourists visiting the pyramids annually, the Pyramids of Giza have fascinated us since its creation. With fascination comes countless pyramid theories about their construction and purpose. 

The Theory

While mainstream archaeology credits the ancient Egyptians with their creation, alternative theories of course, persist. Joe Rogan’s podcast features an episode dedicated to his musings of the pyramids, saying: “we don’t know how they made it”. As of April 2025,  two Italian scientists said they discovered 38,000-year-old cylindrical structures buried deep beneath the pyramids.

Scientists, history enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists, Egyptologists and everyone in between might all have differing opinions on how the Pyramids were made, and whether or not there’s more to (or under) the landmarks. But what does the evidence actually say, and who built the pyramids?

Who Built Them

Dr Kath Slinger, an Egyptologist from the University of Manchester, provides her insight. While one of the most persistent idea is that the pyramids were built by extraterrestrials, Dr Slinger dismisses these claims. She points to archaeological evidence of a well-organized Egyptian workforce.

“The sheer scale of the pyramids and amount of effort required to build such incredible structures has led to misconceptions that the pyramids were built by slaves or even aliens.”

“It’s clear that there was once a substantial pyramid town close by Khufu’s Valley Temple, which housed the pyramid workforce.”

This “pyramid town” was a service and residential area that housed skilled laborers, administrators, and their families. Excavations have revealed bakeries, a fish-processing unit, and even a copper workshop. 

Dr Slinger said, “The town’s dead men, women, and children were buried nearby in a desert cemetery whose tombs and graves, including miniature pyramids, step-pyramids, small mastabas, and beehive-shaped tombs incorporate stone elements ‘borrowed’ from the king’s building site.”

Another source of speculation are the “air shafts” in the Great Pyramid. These narrow passageways inside the pyramids, aligned with celestial bodies like the Orion constellation and the northern pole star, have fueled ideas about advanced ancient knowledge or alien intervention. 

Dr Slinger explains, “The purpose of these passageways is unknown, although they would have supplied very little air to the pyramid builders and it seems likely that they had a ritual rather than a practical function, perhaps associated with the ascension of the king’s spirit to the heavens.”

Egyptian officials said there was a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid revealed in 2017, after the ScanPyramids project (led by Cairo University) used cosmic-ray muon imaging to discover a large void above the Grand Gallery inside the Pyramid of Khufu, dubbed the “Big Void.” 

Naturally, there were people who accredited the construction and purpose of these chambers to our friends in space.

New Technology

With advancements in technology, more is being discovered about the pyramids that we may not have previously known about. Dr Slinger explained the Giza pyramids stand on a natural plateau, with hidden chambers carved deep into the bedrock.

Beneath the Great Pyramid also lies its unfinished Subterranean Chamber (rediscovered in 1817). Khafre’s and Menkaure’s pyramids contain their own descending corridors, burial chambers, and additional underground spaces. Natural caves also wind beneath the Sphinx. Last year, ground-penetrating radar revealed two underground structures near the Western Cemetery, which are likely undiscovered mastaba tombs. An Egyptian-German team has also uncovered eight previously unknown storage chambers in Sahure’s Pyramid at Abusir, using 3D laser scanning to map its hidden layout.

So, lots of chambers, caves and tombs. 

In response to the Italian scientist’s claims, radar expert Professor Lawrence Conyers from the University of Denver called it a “huge exaggeration,” arguing that satellite radar couldn’t penetrate deep enough to confirm such structures being 38,000 the pyramids. 

Dr Slinger also cautions against jumping to conclusions.

The Conclusion

Dr Slinger says: “The existence of any other underground structures beneath the Giza pyramids is yet to be proven. The discovery of an underground network announced by Italian researchers earlier this year is unverified.”

“Publications of new archaeological discoveries should always be peer-reviewed in order to verify their credibility. If an article has been published by a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, then we can assume that it is a reliable source. Most extraordinary claims are either found on non-academic websites or have not been peer-reviewed.”

While the pyramids still hold mysteries, the evidence as of now supports human construction. Dr Slinger notes, “Discoveries of textual evidence and archaeological discoveries are made available to the public as soon as possible. New discoveries are being made all the time.”

So, were the pyramids built by aliens? Mmm, if the historians, Egyptologists and archaeologists have been proving othering claims wrong, the answer is probably not. That doesn’t mean it’s not exciting, however. With advanced scanning technologies revealing new details, who knows what secrets we might uncover next?