The discussion expands into Hancock's research for his forthcoming book on Mars. He describes the planet's line of dichotomy, a boundary where the northern hemisphere sits three kilometers lower than the devastated, crater-scarred south, as evidence of catastrophic bombardment by comet fragments. He connects this to the work of Victor Clube and others on giant comets, warning that Earth faces similar dangers that governments and scientists have failed to communicate to the public.
Hancock also provides updates on the political landscape surrounding the Giza plateau, describing improved relations with Egyptian antiquities chief Dr. Zahi Hawass following a series of private meetings. He discusses the planned eight-month closure of the Great Pyramid and the possibility of investigations beneath the Sphinx, while noting that Edgar Cayce's readings pointed to 1998 as the year for a discovery of the Hall of Records.
Key Moments
Press dismissed Cydonia on a single ambiguous MGS image: Hancock attacks the British and US media's hasty reaction to the new Mars Global Surveyor photo of the face: he says the medium-resolution image is genuinely ambiguous yet was taken as definitive proof that Cydonia is nothing - an almost relieved 'all those Mars people were just cranks' response. He calls the rush to closure on the basis of one photograph 'premature, silly, and stupid' and demands NASA image the surrounding structures on the next two passes.
Yonaguni: two qualified geologists, two opposite verdicts on the same monument: Hancock dives the underwater Yonaguni structure off the Ryukyus more than a dozen times. He brings Boston University's Robert Schoch (sympathetic to an older Sphinx) on six dives - Schoch concludes it's natural. He brings Okinawa University's Masaki Kimura, who has 100+ dives there - Kimura is convinced it's artificial. If trained geologists can disagree on a 500-foot-long, 60-foot-high object they can touch, photographs of Mars cannot settle the face debate.
Mars's line of dichotomy and the giant-comet impact thesis: Hancock describes the line of dichotomy splitting Mars into a smooth low-lying northern hemisphere and a crater-shattered southern hemisphere three kilometers higher, then advances his thesis: not Tom Van Flandern's exploded planet but a fragmenting giant comet (the Klube/Hoyle/Wickramasinghe model - 300-400 km objects) of the kind we watched Shoemaker-Levy 9 plow into Jupiter in 1994. Had those fragments hit Earth instead, the planet would have been sterilized - like Mars.
Closing the Great Pyramid for eight months: not necessary for renovation: Hancock notes Zahi Hawass's announcement that the Great Pyramid will close for eight months and bluntly says he can't understand the logic - eight months is not needed for routine restoration. He concedes the Egyptian government has the sovereign right to investigate Giza in private but predicts the closure will fuel speculation, and reminds Art Bell that the petition campaign successfully stopped the secretive Florida State University tunnel project at the Sphinx.