September 27, 1996: Egypt Excavation - Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, & Richard C. Hoagland
Richard C. Hoagland details a five-hour meeting with expedition funder Joseph Schor, who hopes to confirm artifacts dating to the 10,500 BC time frame linked to Edgar Cayce's prophecies. Hoagland also reveals NASA connections to Egyptian archaeology through key personnel, suggesting a decades-long institutional interest in what lies beneath Giza. Hancock and Bauval, recently expelled from the plateau without ceremony, insist that any opening must involve the full world media rather than a private affair conducted behind closed doors.
The conversation exposes a web of geopolitics, Islamic fundamentalism concerns, and clashing personalities that threaten to keep potentially civilization-changing discoveries locked beneath the desert. Art Bell navigates the competing agendas while teasing revelations he cannot yet share publicly.
Key Moments
Hawass cancels Florida State / Schor license on air: Bauval reports that Dr. Zahi Hawass, director general of the Giza Plateau, has stated publicly that he has canceled the Florida State University and Dr. Schor excavation license, while the team itself indicates the project is still active.
Schor's written cover story: looking for chasms and faults: Hancock and Bauval recount that Dr. Schor sent them a written fax claiming the Giza work was not a search for hidden chambers but a survey for chasms and faults to protect tourists from holes in the ground, a framing they find absurd given the 15 million tons of pyramids overhead.
Farouk El-Baz: NASA-Egypt connector flagged: Hoagland traces Farouk El-Baz from a renowned Egyptologist family through European university into 1960s NASA, where he was pivotal in selecting Apollo lunar landing sites and unmanned Mars landing sites, before resurfacing in a 1987 Egyptian expedition with Apollo lunar technology.
Schor invitation: open chambers under Giza in late October 1996: Hoagland reads from a Schor Foundation fax inviting the team to the plateau the last week of October and first week of November 1996, when they hope to be opening the first of the underground chambers the Schor expedition has discovered beneath the limestone of Giza.