James Westerman, a researcher, historian and archaeologist, has dedicated several decades to studying the mysteries of the Osireion, an ancient religious site in central Egypt. Largely submerged in water, the structure seems to defy nature by producing pressurized water from within at a rate no dewatering pumps have been able to match. In hopes of locating the water’s source, Westerman and his team have been monitoring water quality in the structure and surrounding wells, to determine if the water within the Osireion is distinct.

Abydos, Egypt, is the oldest known religious site on Earth. Abydos was the ancient Egyptians’ first capital city, built during the pharaonic period. Pilgrims would visit Abydos to reenact the death and resurrection of the god Osiris. It was believed that the mountains to the west of Abydos held the gateway souls would travel through to reunite with Osiris after death.

But the exact purpose of the Osireion, a unique ancient Egyptian structure in Abydos, is unclear. What’s more, it’s an architectural marvel and an engineering enigma–a mystery James Westerman has devoted the past 37 years to studying.

“Somehow water is emerging from inside this structure,” says Westerman. “That’s unique. There shouldn't be water coming out of the desert, especially pressurized water. There's something strange going on there.”

Westerman became fascinated with the Osireion on his first expedition to Abydos, in 1986. On subsequent expeditions, he attempted to identify the source of the water flowing into the Osireion–first using ground penetrating radar and later dewatering pumps to attempt to reach the source water underneath the structure. No one had yet been able to determine the Osireion’s depth.

Even pumping at 500 gallons of water per minute, Westerman and his team were unable to dewater the Osireion. They did, however, determine that the structure is 15 meters deep. “The part you can see is like the roof of a five-story building,” Westerman says.

But even more baffling: there’s no bedrock underneath. Ground penetrating radar, seismic technology and scans from deep wells built in the area did not reveal any rock formations around the Osireion, making it unlikely that rock formations exist in isolation beneath it.

“There's a water pressure in there where the water gushes out like there’s a pipe that’s broken, but there's no stone underneath the thing,” Westerman marvels, “It's all resting on water impregnated sand. That’s what we’re observing. And we’re trying to figure out what law of nature is causing this to happen.”

Before Westerman began his research in the early 2000s, the definitive report on the physical characteristics of the Osireion was a 1930 account from Dutch archaeologist Henri Frankfurt published by the Egyptian Exploration Society. As technology has advanced considerably since then, Westerman was eager to see what better instrumentation would reveal about the dynamics of the water at the site.

In 2023, Westerman and a team led by Dr. Ahmed Aziz of Egypt’s Sohag University received three Aqua TROLL 200 CTD loggers to measure pressure, temperature, conductivity and total dissolved solids. They deployed one in the Osireion and placed the two others in observation wells nearby.

The Aqua TROLLs take readings every four hours. Members of Dr. Aziz’s team go out to the field to download the data once a month, connecting to the instruments using a Wireless TROLL Com and transmitting their data through the VuSitu mobile app.

By monitoring the water within the Osireion and comparing it to other wells nearby, Westerman hopes that he can contribute to a better understanding of where it’s coming from and why it emerges as a pressurized force.

“We're trying to figure out if this water is different than the water around it,” Westerman says.

So far, the data from the Aqua TROLLs indicates that the water within the Osireion has unique characteristics, making it unlikely that it comes from the same source as the other two monitoring wells. Samples from all three sites are currently with an Egyptian laboratory to confirm the accuracy of the In-Situ measurements. More data collection will be necessary before reaching any conclusions–or even hypotheses.

“We’re trying to digest what we’re finding and it’s puzzling us,” Westerman says. “The things we’re observing are not explainable with the information we currently have. But by having the In-Situ devices we can more closely monitor changes in the water chemistry, which has been very useful to say the least.”

At the moment, the Egyptian government still has dewatering pumps in place, but the pumps will be turned off at the end of November, leaving water levels in the Osireion to return to their natural state during the winter. Westerman is waiting to see how this might change the Aqua TROLLs’ readings.

To build a structure of this magnitude in a partially-submerged sandscape is a feat of engineering that only introduces more questions. Where and what is the source? How does it replenish so quickly in the middle of the Egyptian desert?

“It’s been one mystery after another,” Westerman says.

Westerman is hopeful having access to more water quality data will lead to new insights moving forward. “Without your device, we could never do this. We’ll be using the Aqua TROLLs for years, frankly.”