The mystery surrounding the Pyramids of Giza continues after an international team of archaeologists discovered "thermal anomalies" at the base of the Great Pyramid. The group of scientists and archaeologists used infrared thermal cameras and found three stones that had higher temperatures at the bottom of Egypt's most famous pyramid.

The team, who were looking for possible hidden passages within the 4,500-year-old structures, theorise that the higher temperatures could be due to air currents inside the monument, different building materials being used or possible vacant spaces within the pyramid.

Matthew Klein, from the Laval University, Canada, had previously explained the infrared thermography allows scientists to find out what is happening inside a monument from the outside. Materials emit infrared waves that can be measured to generate images to identify areas that are losing heat.

A cold air current would allow the team to find previously unknown cavities – such as rooms or tunnels. This technique could possibly lead them to the lost burial place of thought to be located in a secret chamber in Tutkenkhamun's tomb.

A statement from the team, which consists of scientists from Egypt, France, Canada and Japan, read: "The teams have concluded the existence of several thermal anomalies that were observed on all monuments during the heating up or the cooling down phases. To explain such anomalies a lot of hypothesis and possibilities could be drawn up: presence of voids behind the surface, internal air currents.

"This area should be the subject of further investigation during the subsequent phases of the project," the statement continued, with the project ongoing until 2016. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty told reporters: "The first row of the pyramid's stones are all uniform, then we come here and find that there's a difference in the formation."

The Great Pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu is Egypt's oldest and biggest pyramid. It is thought that work on this pyramid was finished in 2560BC as the tomb for Pharaoh Khufu – a king of Egypt's fourth Dynasty. "Khufu will offer us today one of its secrets," Eldamaty added.

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