/Nexus - 0306 - New Times Magazine/pages/0037/image.png)
Page Content (OCR)
Figure 1 / Sphinx. He appeared to be angered by the 8 J suggestion that the Sphinx might be far older than the civilisation of Egypt itself— and thus the work of a lost civilisation—and was particularly incensed by an NBC televi- sion film that was made about the team's work. This film linked the Sphinx to Atlantis, and suggested that the chamber beneath the paws might contain the leg- endary Hall of Records of Atlantis. Hawass called these claims "American hallucinations" and said, "There is no scien- tific base for any of this. We have older monuments in the same area. They defi- nitely weren't built by men from Atlantis. It's nonsense and we won't allow our monu- ments to be exploited for personal enrich- ment. The Sphinx is the soul of Egypt." An article in the Egyptian press, respond- ing to the NBC film, quoted Dr Hawass on his further reasons for expelling John West and his team from the Sphinx enclosure: "I The team's conclusions were as follows: have found that their work is carried out by installing endoscopes 1) Geology: The pattern of erosion on the Sphinx indicates that in the Sphinx body and shooting film for all phases of the work in it was carved at the end of the last ice age, when heavy rains fell a propagandistic but not scientific manner. I therefore suspended on the eastern Sahara—perhaps more than 12,000 years ago. This __ the work of this unscientific mission and made a report which was contrasts starkly with the ‘orthodox' Egyptological dating for the presented to the Permanent Commission who rejected the mis- Sphinx of around 4,500 years ago. sion's work in the future." 2) Seismography: The seismic survey indicates the existence The NBC film was produced by a certain Boris Said and par- of several unexplored tunnels and cavities in the bedrock beneath _ tially financed by investments from the members of the the Sphinx, including a large rectangular chamber at a depth of Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE). The ARE, some 25 feet beneath the monument's front paws. headquartered in Virginia Beach in the USA, is a multimillion- In 1993, John West and his team were physically expelled from dollar organisation that exists to promulgate the teachings and the site by Dr Zahi Hawass, then (and now) the Egyptian _ prophecies of the American psychic, Edgar Cayce, who died in Government's Chief Inspector of Antiquities for the Pyramids and 1947. Projected vernal point Figure 2 Sorte Zs: Sa ie Ren) A eS ae “he wee Location of the possible 'Genesis' chamber, r as suggested by astronomical clues.