A mysterious “pyramid” has been spotted below the ice in Antarctica, sparking a frenzy online among conspiracy theorists.
The formation was located using satellite images taken over the southern part of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountain range.
The location in question is found at the coordinates 79°58’39.25?S 81°57’32.21?W, which has been a much-searched spot on Google Earth.
A number of peaks can been seen appearing to push through the snow – with one even measuring two kilometers in each direction of its square base – a design similar to the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt.
Taking to Twitter, one user said: “‘Wait how they moved the pyramids from Egypt to Antarctica?”
Some have even wildly claimed they are linked to “the Illuminati”.
Others have offered even more outlandish ideas, one user wrote: “This structure belongs to the civilisation which existed before the flood. Around 10,000 years ago Antarctica was warm.”
But there is a far simpler explanation for the strange find – it’s a mountain.
The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain range in Antarctica and stretch 400km.
The British Antarctic Expedition of 1910 to 1913 discovered the very mountain.
It was called “The Pyramid” to keep the true nature of the discovery hidden from others at the time.
Dr Mitch Darcy, a geologist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam told IFL Science: “The pyramid-shaped structures are located in the Ellsworth Mountains, which is a range more than 400 km long, so it’s no surprise there are rocky peaks cropping out above the ice.
“The peaks are clearly composed of rock, and it’s a coincidence that this particular peak has that shape.
“It’s not a complicated shape, so it’s not a special coincidence either.
“By definition, it is a nunatak, which is simply a peak of rock sticking out above a glacier or an ice sheet. This one has the shape of a pyramid, but that doesn’t make it a human construction.”
Antarctica is Earth’s southernmost continent where the geographic South Pole is located.
The frozen desert is home to some 1,000 scientists who live in the blistering conditions that reach -90C at times, as they attempt to understand more about the history of Earth and climate change.
It has been the centre of a number of wild conspiracy theories over the years due to its secluded location.
