Better ground-penetrating radar is an under-developed area. Existing systems have terrible resolution. Multiple receivers, or synthetic aperture radar, might help.

Frankly, I'm still somewhat boggled by the fact that we have ground penetrating radar at all.

I don’t want to jinx it, but I was just watching Stargate SG-1…

Yeah, I suspect that someone familiar with the Stargate franchise couldn't have written that headline without being aware they were tickling those associations.

Ancient portal here means doorway to a deeper, unexplored structure.

Saved you a click.

They knew what they were doing. It would be funny if it wasn't so common.

Judging by the other comments, it would appear many people took the bait without even reading the article.

Then they didn't take the bait, right?

I am confused where the word “portal” comes from. Researchers used ground-penetrating radar to find a potential structure underground. What does that have to do with a portal?

"Portal" === "Door". If there's a structure somewhere, it probably has a door. If it's an ancient structure, it probably has an ancient door.

Yes, but door to which dimension and are the aliens who built the pyramids still there? /s

Pretty clickbaity headline

Lol popular science explains: “by ancient alien technology portal, we meant the technology is alien to us (modern Americans), and the portal is possibly to another adjacent room”. Obv the confusion is unfounded.

It’s a clickbaity headline. On purpose.

first thing coming to mind for me is elf power's step through the portal which is a jam

https://orangetwinrecords.bandcamp.com/track/step-through-th...

I honestly thought someone posted an old April Fool's article and this was a cheeky reference to the movie Stargate.

Amazes me that Popular Mechanics used to be a (mildly sensationalist but sort of) decent magazine. Now, it's straight up ancient aliens and after-death experiences.

Amazes me how people pass judgement without having read the article or considered the meaning of "portal"...

The headline is very obviously trying to reference Stargate without technically being false. That the article "explains" the headline doesn't make it any less shitty clickbait, in fact, that's the very definition of clickbait.

You're saying they intented to piss off easily triggered fans of a second rate 90ies sci-fi show? That would be hilarious, but I'm afraid you're giving Popular Mechanic too much credit.

I do and will continue to pass judgement for trashy clickbait titles.

It's only clickbait because of the general ignorance of the correct use of portal. If people actually knew and assumed that correct use of the word, instead of just for imaginary things like interdimensional alien technology or whatever, then it wouldn't be clickbait at all (though I'd still click, it's about ancient Egypt after all, and that's a fascinating subject)

If this were the only article, my judgment would be unfair. But have you read the web site of late?

Gotta make money somehow

Turns out nonsense is more popular than actual mechanics.

They could have made the title more click-baity by saying:

“Anomaly detected in the quantum fields near the pyramids…”

After all, radar is a quantum phenomenon at its hear, right?

in the sense that everything in the world is, yes. but radar is a classical technique

7th chevron encoded and locked.

Dang. I was hoping for a Stargate.

Yeah, we could vote Apophis 2024.

Unbelievably clickbait headline, shame on your Popular Mechanics. I remember when you were decent.

My grandfather had years worth of Popular Mechanics magazines from the 1960s and 70s at his house that I used to read as a kid.

Typical cover stories were how to build a tool shed, how to design and install a septic tank, how to dig a well, how to install an in-ground swimming pool, how to change the fluids in your car, and how to administer first aid.

This ancient aliens style content is a joke. I don't understand why PM ceded their how-to brand to random YouTube creators.

Does PM still print and mail a paper magazine, or have they gone "web-only"?

If "web-only" then the fact that "ancient aliens" would gather by far more internet clicks than "how to dig a well" would explain why they have gone in this direction. They are following the advertising dollar where it leads, and 'more clicks' means more advertising dollars, so their incentive is to put out stories that gather more clicks.

they could have a well building (pun intended) YouTube channel too tho.

They used electrical resistivity tomography to find something L shaped in the ground that is probably "a mixture of sand and gravel", that "may have been an entrance to the deeper structure".

It's ancient, but wtf does this have to do with aliens? ER tomography is super neat science!

edit: The issue appears to be the use of the word "portal" to describe an entrance. I'm not seeing the issue, but maybe because I'm an English speaker. Here's the definition:

    Portal: a doorway, gate, or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one.

In modern usage "portal" almost always appears alongside "to another dimension!!", so it's become associated with the paranormal almost by default.

Perhaps it's a good thing then that articles like this are using the term in a scientific context to describe something real instead of something make believe. Maybe this will reach at least one person who clicks this article thinking aliens and paranormal, and leaves with a new appreciation for how cool the real actual science and technology is instead.

The word portal was intentionally chosen to get the ancient alien click.

Again I say - good. If a person sees this headline and thinks aliens then they could use the dose of education that the article provides.

Well put.

I'd agree if it wasn't intentionally worded to manipulate these people into clicks. Flipping it to say that the clickbait is for their own good is grimy.

The problem is that this is a title, understood in the context of other terrible clickbait titles on the web; only in titles ancient aliens are a likely occurrence, while "portal" is an appropriate term for stone structures that wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in a paragraph of description.

The article is not referring to an "alien conspiracy time travel portal" but to an entrance.

capitalism basically.

more specifically - people are unwilling to pay for high quality media

We need Jack O'Neill for this one.

The actual paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/arp.1940

Seems like I recall reading about Egyptian tombs with a rock-cut outer chamber and a shaft leading to a lower burial chamber.

Hypothesis: It's a tomb. In a cemetery. Unrelated to the pyramids which are nearby.

Article OK, headline...not