In 1909, the Arizona Gazette published an incredible story that until this day, fuels a number of conspiracy theories.

According to the article, a man called G.E. Kincaid of Lewiston, Idaho was traveling down the Colorado River when he stumbled upon an unprecedented find.

In a number of stories circulating the Internet and countless books written about the subject, G. E. Kincaid is described as “an explorer and hunter all his life” and a man who worked for more than thirty years for the Smithsonian Institute.

He was traveling alone, down the Colorado River, in a wooden boat, in search of “the mineral” (translation: gold) When Mr. Kincaid claimed to have seen “stains in the sediment” on the east wall of the canyon gorge he was traveling through.

He most likely landed his boat, and made his way up the east side of the canyon, and over a “shelf”, then walked past “steps” to the “mouth of a cave” entrance.

He went inside the entrance and discovered hallways, rooms, “mummies” “copper objects” and various other “artifacts” along with what appeared to him at the time to be “hieroglyphics” of an “Egyptian” or “Oriental” type.

After having accessed a “cavern is nearly inaccessible,” it is believed that Mr. Kincaid carried a few artifacts back to Yuma Arizona and then sent them off to Washington (presumably to the Smithsonian, although he did not say that specifically). After delivering the artifacts to scholars, the Smithsonian Institute went on to further investigate the site under the supervision of a man called “S. A. Jordan” and a group of archaeologists, a “group” that eventually was to amount to 30-40 persons.

Different stories tell different things. Some stories and books place Mr. Jordan as an employee of the Smithsonian, while other stories suggest he merely ‘supervised’ the mysterious expedition.

The Smithsonian has denied this story as a hoax. (see recent video below)

YouTube Video Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFk6P6FxsJY

Explorations in the Grand Canyon

“Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people’s god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand.

The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving of this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha …”

“Surrounding this idol are smaller images, some very beautiful in form – others crooked-necked and distorted shapes, symbolical, probably, of good and evil… All this is carved out of hard rock resembling marble…”

Many authors, including David Hatcher Childress, wrote about the discovery that, according to many, is evidence of an extremely advanced civilization that once inhabited parts of the Grand Canyon.

A lengthy front-page story of the Arizona Gazette on April 5, 1909, gave an extremely well-detailed report of the discovery and excavations of a rock-cut vault allegedly led by one Professor S.A. Jordan of the Smithsonian.

The discovery and findings are unprecedented and could change the way we look at history, explain the authors.

The Smithsonian, however, claims to have absolutely no knowledge of the discovery or its discoverers.

The entrance

The alleged cave is filled not only with artifacts not native to the region but the cyclopean architecture is nearly inaccessible.

According to reports from the Gazette, the entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall.

Above a shelf which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the cave.

There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards to what was at the time the level of the river.

The passageway

Kincaid explained that “the main passageway into the cave is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet toward the farther end.”

“About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side-passages branch off to the right and left, along which, on both sides, are a number of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today, though some are 30 by 40 feet square.”

“These are entered by oval-shaped doors and are ventilated by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about three feet six inches in thickness.”

The Buddha of the Grand Canyon?

The story is wild and drives imagination to the limits. Kincaid explains that located a mere hundred feet from the entrance is a room he referred to as the cross-hall, said to be several hundred feet long. There, he found an idol or image, what he refers to is the God of those who carved and built the face.

“Its a depiction of a figure sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental. The idol almost resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet.”

Mystery hieroglyphs

But if the mysterious cave, the remnants of a Buddha statue weren’t enough, there’s more.

According to Kincaid, “Carved on all the urns, over doorways, and tablets of stone, are mysterious hieroglyphics, the key to which the Smithsonian Institute hopes to discover. The engravings on the tablets probably have something to do with the religion of the people. Similar hieroglyphics have been found in southern Arizona. Among the pictorial writings, only two animals are found – one of them looking prehistoric.”

Advanced ancient civilization?

“Undoubtedly a good many thousands of years before the Christian era, a people lived here which reached a high stage of civilization. The chronology of human history is full of gaps…”

Such stories and legends are widely spread across North, Central and South America.

Tales of long lost civilizations that existed on the “New Continent” thousands of years ago have been popularized throughout the years. Nevertheless, stories have remained just that: stories, and just as with this article published by the Arizona Gazette, we can only wonder whether such a discovery was actually made, more than one hundred years ago, deep within one of the most amazing geological formations on Earth: The Grand Canyon.

Today, all that remains of this story is a conspiracy theory that suggests how the Smithsonian Institute went on to cover-up what is referred by believers as the greatest archaeological coverup in the history of mankind.

More from Beyond Science below:

YouTube Video Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soGNyfilZKg

Angkor, the ancient metropolis hidden deep inside the Cambodian Jungle is a city unlike any other. Covered in thousands of ancient temples, researchers have found that Angkor was the largest pre-industrial city in the world, with an elaborate infrastructure system connecting an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq mi) to the well-known temples at its core.

Experts considered Angkor a hydraulic city because it was built with a complex water management network, which was used for systematically stabilizing, storing, and dispersing water throughout the area.

Angor is a lost world. It was an ancient megalopolis on par with sprawling modern cities.

We probably know Angkor for its massive monument, the Angkor Wat: considered by many as the largest religious structure in the world, with long corridors covered in beautiful bas-reliefs, erected by the great king Suryavarman II (reigning from 1112 to 1152.

But it’s more than a massive, beautiful monument.

Angkor is, without doubt, one of those constructions that make your jaw drop.

One of the great wonders built by humans, which is preserved in good condition because it has never been entirely abandoned.

By the year 1000 Angkor must have been one of the largest inhabited cities in the world, composed of its incredible city grid layout of perfectly straight lines, experts estimate the city may have easily housed around 500,000 inhabitants; they were the “Khmers” and their religion, it seems, was based on Hinduism.

Unfortunately, ancient Khmer manuscripts, written on palm leaves and animal skins, did not stand the test of time, but inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer language survived, allowing us to understand the power of this ancient city.

The most famous of its structures is without a doubt Angkor Wat, believed to have been built to serve as a funerary temple for  Suryavarnam II, who ordered its construction at the beginning of the 12th century.

However, the ancient monument is more unique than expected ever believed.

Two curious characteristics make it different from other temples: it is not dedicated to Siva but to Vishnu and the main entrance looks towards the west, towards the “land of the dead”.

Its labyrinth of corridors decorated with elaborate carvings and sculptures covers an area of 2.6 square kilometers; It also has numerous towers built in the shape of lotus buds, the central and larger size exceeds 61 meters.

The city and its incredible, mind-boggling temples made this ancient metropolis a model city of the ancient past.

Angkor had extensive canals and two large deposits located east and west, which could contain millions of liters of water to irrigate crops during times of drought.

Thanks to this they obtained several harvests a year, allowing them to feed a large population.

The Tonle Sap lake (Great Lake), a very shallow lake, covered with flowers, was, in fact, an extraordinary fish reserve.

The surrounding jungle provided them with construction materials, especially teak for the floors. The whole area was rich in sandstone, with abundant deposits of iron, gold, silver, copper, and tin.

If you ever decide to visit this magnificent ancient city you’ll see for yourself what a wonderful achievement of ancient ingenuity the city actually is.

The ruins of Angkor house the huge smiling face of the king-god Jayavarman VII, who differed from his predecessors by converting to Buddhism.

Bayon: The Ancient Temple Complex Of 200-Smiling Faces

The Bayon Temple is a temple complex in the center of the ancient city of Angkor Thom, which is located in the region of Angkor, Cambodia.

It is best known for its 54 towers and more than two hundred Buddha faces which give off a sensation as if they were staring at you with a relaxed, calm, and beatific look.

The massive stone-heads transmit serenity and are what many people who have traveled there claim to have felt.

Bayon served as the state temple of the new capital of Jayavarman, Angkor Thom, occupying its center given the centrality of Buddhism in the Khmer empire.

When he was crowned ruler in 1181 he was proclaimed the “Living Buddha”.

The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the Angkor Wat, said to be the world’s largest single religious monument.

Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture.

Visitors approach two million annually, and the entire expanse, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, is collectively protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Surveying Angkor

Deep in the jungle archaeologists used helicopters fitted with X-Ray lidar cameras in order to study the mysterious ancient ruins of Angkor.

They wanted to understand why the ancient city was built there in the first place, and why it was abandoned.

A number of surveys revealed fascinating details about Angkor.

A truly magnificent, gigantic mega city hidden from view, covering hundreds of square kilometers, deep beneath the Cambodian Jungle.

LiDAR scans revealed that the city is bigger than we’ve ever imagined. Experts didn’t just find scattered temples all over the place, they’ve come across thousands of households and the entire city stretched out in all directions for hundreds of kilometers.

2 surveys revealed countless mysteries

In that first campaign, researchers discovered that the Angkor settlements were much more extensive than expected, a highly urbanized landscape, with a vast network of roads, complex water management systems, and previously unknown temples.

Thanks to lidar scans, archaeologists also discovered the ruins of Mahendraparvata. Archaeologists suspected it was real, but no one was able to find it.  Mahendraparvata was founded in 802 by the first great Khmer king, Jayavarmen II, three centuries before Angkor Wat flourished.

The second survey, done three years ago, allowed researchers to study an area of almost 2000 square kilometers, about five times larger than in the first survey, and thanks to LiDAR technology, they found details about these colossal cities, densely populated, which surely constituted the largest empire on Earth in its time of maximum splendor, in the twelfth century. (Check Angkor Lidar for more)

The new discoveries made at Angkor are important because they are forcing us to rewrite the history books of human civilization. Surveys revealed an ancient city, a powerful civilization, more advanced than archaeologists ever imagined.

And while x-ray and LiDAR scans revealed a massive city devoured by the jungle, the discoveries also raise a number of questions.

Why was this massive city abandoned? Why could have caused more than 500,000 people to abandon a prosperous ancient metropolis?

Whatever happened to the inhabitants of this ancient city remains a mystery, but we no know that the ancient city of Angkor was, without a reason of a doubt, one of the largest and most sophisticated ancient cities to ever exist on Earth.

In 1976, NASA’s Landsat Satellite was orbiting Earth when it photographed mysterious dots in southeast Peru, at 71 degrees, 30 minutes west longitude in the Madre de Dios region of the Amazon.

The satellite photograph, archived under number C-S11-32W071-03 showed a mysterious set of formations, in the middle of Peru’s southeastern jungle.

The satellite image revealed structures symmetrically spaced and uniform in shape, looking like a series of eight or more pyramids, in at least four rows of two.

The curious formation became known as the Pyramids of Paratoari, or as many authors would later call them, The Dots of Peru, or the Pyramids of Pantiacolla.

The satellite image sent explorers, authors, and researchers into a frenzy as to what the curious structures are.

The ‘pyramids’ became quite popular, especially since it is believed that the lost city of Paititi was located somewhere in that area.

The president of the South American Explorers Club, Don Montague wrote about the enigmatic structures in an article published in the South American Explorer Journal, where he described them as nothing other than odd geological formations.

However, many people who saw the satellite image were not convinced by Montague’s writing.

Proponents of the theory that the structure are not geological formation but in fact, manmade structures argue that the Pyramids were most likely built by a long-lost ancient civilization that inhabited the Amazonian rainforest thousands of years ago. The alleged structure, many argue, have been devoured by the surrounding rainforest and are covered with thousands of years of vegetation.

Exploring the Pyramids

Despite the fact that the alleged pyramids structures are located in a remote part of the Amazonian rainforest, a number of expeditions have been mounted to explore, not only the alleged pyramids but the region in search for the lost city of Paititi.

The Lost city of Paititi is a legendary ancient Incan metropolis, said to be located somewhere east of the Andes, within the dense and remote rainforests of southeast Peru, northern Bolivia or southwest Brazil.

Numerous expeditions to search for the lost city of Paititi were established, and some of them even searched for the alleged pyramids of Paratoari.

Between 1984-2011 various expeditions were led by Gregory Deyermenjian, member of the explorer’s club and a Peruvian explorer. These included the documentation of Incan remains in Mameria, the exploration and documentation of the petroglyphs at Pusharo, exploration, and documentation of Manu’s Pyramids of Paratoari, and others.

Deyermenjian had discovered plenty of evidence of ancient Inca inhabitance in the area, including petroglyphs, paved roads, platforms, and plazas, but he did not find conclusive evidence that the mysterious structures spotted by NASA’s Landsat satellite were man-made structures. Deyermenjian argued that the structures were natural sandstone formations known as truncated ridge spurs, which can take the form of natural pyramids. Deyermenjian has since, in 1999 and 2006, seen and photographed various very similar sites in the area of the Río Timpía, with intriguingly pyramidal-shaped huge natural formations.

“In 1996, still without helicopter, we again ensconced ourselves within the steamy lower jungles of Manu, in an area just to the south of Pusharo, to reach and make the first definitive examination of the “Pyramids of Paratoari,” eight apparently evenly spaced and unnaturally symmetrical hillocks which had caused a flurry of speculation as to their origin and relation to Paititi since having been spotted on a NASA satellite photograph twenty years before…” (Source)

You can read more about Deyermenjian expeditions, and the search for Paititi and the Lost Realm of the Inca’s, here and here.

But people were still amazed by the formations.

In 2001, French explorer Thierry Jamin investigated the site of Pantiacolla, and is said to have investigated the pyramids, concluding that they are in fact natural formations. However, Jamin discovered several Inca artifacts in the same area.

In 2011, a British expedition to investigate the Pyramids of Paratoari with Kenneth Gawne, Lewis Knight, Ken Halfpenny, I. Gardiner and Darwin Moscoso as part of the documentary “The Secret of the Incas” took place.