Geophysical Prospecting in Egypt: An Overview

Among the methods of archaeological geophysics used to the study of Ancient Egypt, magnetometry is the most widely applied. This is due to the dry climate and geological conditions (a large part of the sites are located in a desert environment), which make electrical resistivity measurements difficult and time consuming. GPR and EMI were used sporadically so far, and with no convincing result. The good results provided by magnetometry is due to the magnetic properties of the mud deposited by the river Nile, which is the basic raw material for the production of sundried bricks, the basic building material in the Nile Valley to the present day. The results obtained so far have provided some excellent examples of the effectiveness of magnetometer surveys in revealing city and settlement plans, production sites, cemeteries, and cult places. These investigations have also provided extremely useful observations for the reconstruction of the development of settlement taking place not only on a site, but also on a wider scale (e.g. reconstruction of palaeolandscape).