By Zahi Hawass There will always be people who cause disturbances in the world with their lies. People who refuse to learn from their predecessors; "pyramidiots" who spread rumours that the Pyramids and the Sphinx belonged to lost civilisations. Whenever newspaper reporters from all over the world asked me for my opinion, I told them that these ideas were hallucinations and these theories will go with the wind. Sadly though, another group has recently popped up which is trying to revive the same old rumours. This new group, called the "Friends of the Giza Geomatrix Team", claims that there is an undiscovered temple near the Sphinx. I have directed projects to drill, carry out radar surveys and photograph the Sphinx and all the area around it, all of which have shown nothing. It is not possible to excavate solid bedrock, but we have drilled 20 deep in five strategically chosen locations around the Sphinx, where nothing was found. It is beyond me as to why this group wishes to deceive the world with its nonsense, and why it asks people to send petitions. They want to excavate, but what they want to excavate I do not know. They are also amateurs, and antiquities laws do not permit those without professional affiliations to work on excavations in Egypt. We only deal with scientific institutions by law. In their petitions the Friends of the Giza Geomatrix Team claim that recent talks were established by this team and by several officially approved agents working with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). They also claim that negotiations are underway for them to be granted an official excavation permit. These people are being sadly deceived. The supposed talks and negotiations are simply not true, and no one has approached me with such proposals. The only committee that can grant permission to work in Egypt is the SCA's Permanent Committee, and there is no way at all that this committee would permit amateurs to do this. If they have been told otherwise, then they have been misinformed. The petition also says that the Geomatrix Team carried out similar, private investigations using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). They included the area inside the village of Nazlet Al-Samman and claim that their results show the existence of tunnels and structures. I do not understand how they can claim to have carried out this GPR work without having been granted permission by the SCA. Without the approval of the Permanent Committee and national security, this could not have happened. If the work was carried out without permission, then this team has acted illegally. Incidentally, we have already excavated parts of Nazlet Al-Samman. While the sewerage system for the village was being completed we dug in every street of it and were able to discover the whole route of the causeway of the pyramid of Khufu. We recorded limestone blocks in situ and also the base of the causeway in many locations. We discovered that the causeway runs for 700m from Khufu's funerary temple and then turns for 129m until it reaches his valley temple. We recorded limestone blocks to the south of the valley temple that could be the remains of a palace from which Khufu ruled Egypt, as well as a settlement about 3km south of this that could be a 4,500-year-old Downtown! There are two important issues here. First, if these people really did carry out a survey of Giza, they did so illegally. I believe therefore that they should be punished for this by law. Second, all that they claim is completely wrong. I would like to advise people not to waste their time listening to the hallucinations of the Giza Geomatrix Team because we are also looking out for those who are misinforming the public. Our authorities also know that the SCA is ruled by scientific institutions and that work permits are not granted by one person but by a whole committee consisting of 60 scientists, including Abbas Mahmoud. These ceaseless petitions are useless, and those who send them are wasting their time as well as ours. Incidentally, I do not read petitions anymore, but I do want everyone to know that the claims of the Geomatrix Team are not correct. To be continued...
