Auguste Mariette

Atlantis Left Its Technology in Egypt

The Why FilesNov 6, 2026

In 1850, French archaeologist Auguste Mariette followed a buried avenue of sphinxes into the Egyptian desert and uncovered the Serapeum of Saqqara, a tunnel holding twenty-four colossal granite boxes. The boxes are cut from stone quarried almost six hundred miles away, and their surfaces are reportedly so flat and their corners so square that modern granite companies say they cannot match them. The Why Files argues the Egyptians found these boxes rather than built them, possibly as leftover technology from Atlantis, and asks why the builders left the last one half finished.