A Book by Graham Hancock which explores the possibility of an advanced civilization predating all known civilization of the past. More specifically, he claims that this civilization existed before 4000 B.C., and not only does he claim that there was some form of a civilization, but they were also technologically advanced. Advanced enough to have detailed maps of the world, and traverse through the seas from pole to pole.

The book is about 500 pages long, and is filled with very intriguing information. The author cites particular things, like the Piri Reis map of the world, which was drawn out in A.D. 1513. This map, has detailed drawing of places like Antarctica, and some other yet-to-be-discovered places in the world. Piri Reis openly stated (with writings on his map) that he used many maps to make this, and he was merely a compiler of them. He used maps by Christopher Columbus, as well as maps dating back as far as fourth century B.C. The thing that is troubling about this is the fact that the drawings that accurately depict Antarctica were all from ancient maps, and it was not completely accurate if compared to a current maps representation of Antarctica. The map is startlingly close to matching the land mass of Antarctica as we know it today, The land mass. The map is drawn as if the ice wasn’t even there. We know this know from seismic graphs and ice penetrating radar which can give us exact dimensions of the land mass under the ice. Even down to rivers and mountains, were drawn accurately. If this is true, then Antarctica had to be mapped before the ice sheet crept its way and covered the continent, sometime before 4000 B.C. There are several other maps cited for having information that they shouldn’t have, and almost all of them cite ancient maps, with unknown origins. The wealth of these maps seemed to have originated in Alexandria (by the Nile, not Virginia), being spread out to other places of learning, such as Constantinople. The maps were copied and compiled in these centers. They were “leaked” to the rest of the world when Venetians seized Constantinople in 1204 during the fourth crusade.

This is just a taste of the many things that make you go hmm, as a matter of fact, this is all from the first chapter. The book is insightful and supports all its claims dutifully. I strongly suggest reading it if you have the time, I am nearly halfway through and can attest that it is an amazing, insightful book. Some of the other topics of interest include The pyramids, in that they may be older than we think (the sphinx is especially scrutinized for this) and their extreme precision. (The great pyramids sides are aligned to their proper directions with deviations of less than 0.015 percent, and all corners are less than 1% off a perfect 90 degree angle.).Graham explains that tools to do such a job would have evolved after thousands of years of development, but no such research or learning period is seen. While he has many ideas, Graham does not fully explain the lost civilization, only shows the “Fingerprints” they left behind, and it seems they left them everywhere in plain sight. The author obviously has his own ideas about what happened to the civilization, but keeps an objective viewpoint throughout the book, and leaves you to make your own decision.
Definitely not for the closed minded, it Challenges many of the common ideas about the history of the world.

And here is a complete Chapter list:
Part I - Introduction: The mystery of the Maps
-A map to hidden places
-Rivers in the southern continent
-Fingerprints of a lost science
Part II - Foam of the Sea: Peru and Bolivia -Flight of the condor
-The Inca Trail to the past
-He came in a time of chaos
-Were There Giants Then?
-The lake at the Roof of the World
-Once and future king
-The City at the Gate of the Sun
-Intimations of Antiquity
-The end of the Ciracochas
Part IIIPlumed Serpent: central America
-Blood and Time at the end of the world.
-People of the serpent
-Mexican Babel
-Serpent Sanctuary
-The Olmec Enigma
-Conspicuous Strangers
-Adventures in the Underworld, Journeys to the stars
-Children of the First Men
-A Computer for Calculating the end of the world.
-City of the gods.
-The Sun the Moon and the way of the dead.
Part IV - The mystery of the Myths: 1. A species with Amnesia.
-Echoes of Our Dreams
-The Many masks of the Apocalypse
-A species born in earth’s long winter
-The face of the earth was darkened and a black rain began to fall
Part V - The mystery of the Myths: 2. Precessional Code
-The Machinery of Heaven
-The First Crack in the Ancient Code
-The Cosmic Tree and the Mill of the Gods.
-The Osiris Numbers
-Speaking to the unborn
Part VI - The Giza invitation: Egypt 1
-Cardinal Points
-Mansion of Eternity
-Tombs and Tombs only?
-Anomalies
-Made by Some God
-Interactive three-dimensional game
-Place of the Beginning
Part VII - Lord of Eternity: Egypt 2
-Are there any secrets left in Egypt?
-City of the sun, Chamber of the Jackal
-Anachronisms and Enigmas
-Looking for the first time
-Gods of the First Time
-The work of men and gods
-The eleventh Millennium BC
-Sphinx
-Earth Measurers
-The power of the Thing
Part VIII - Conclusion: Where is the Body?
-Not a Needle in a haystack
-The hammer and the pendulum
-Like a thief in the night.

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