What are the key takeaways from this The Joe Rogan Experience episode?

Key insights include: **Hawara Labyrinth Discovery:** Ground penetrating radar and space-based scanning revealed a massive underground structure 60-70 meters deep with multiple levels at Hawara, matching ancient descriptions by Herodotus. A 40-meter metallic tic-tac shaped object sits in a central atrium, unidentified by current scanning technology and potentially requiring drainage of groundwater for excavation.; **Limestone Erosion Timeline:** Studies of dated tombstones worldwide establish that two to three feet of limestone erosion on Giza Plateau structures requires over 100,000 years in normal weathering conditions. The Middle Pyramid complex shows severe erosion despite Egypt receiving minimal rainfall since 4000 BC, suggesting construction during the African humid period when the Sahara was grassland.; **Sphinx Water Erosion Evidence:** Geologist Robert Schoch identified vertical rainfall erosion channels in the Sphinx enclosure walls requiring thousands of years of consistent precipitation to form. The Sphinx face shows less erosion than the body despite being the only part exposed above sand for millennia, supporting theories of pre-dynastic construction and later recarving.

What did Ben van Kerkwyk discuss on The Joe Rogan Experience?

Ben van Kerkwyk discusses evidence for ancient advanced civilizations in Egypt, including the lost labyrinth at Hawara containing a 40-meter metallic object, water erosion on the Sphinx suggesting 12,000+ year age, and unexplored tunnel systems beneath the Giza Plateau. Key topics include: **Hawara Labyrinth Discovery:** Ground penetrating radar and space-based scanning revealed a massive underground structure 60-70 meters deep with multiple levels at Hawara, matching ancient descriptions by Herodotus. A 40-meter metallic tic-tac shaped object sits in a central atrium, unidentified by current scanning technology and potentially requiring drainage of groundwater for excavation.; **Limestone Erosion Timeline:** Studies of dated tombstones worldwide establish that two to three feet of limestone erosion on Giza Plateau structures requires over 100,000 years in normal weathering conditions. The Middle Pyramid complex shows severe erosion despite Egypt receiving minimal rainfall since 4000 BC, suggesting construction during the African humid period when the Sahara was grassland..

How long is this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience?

This episode is 174 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

The Joe Rogan Experience

#2417 - Ben van Kerkwyk

November 25, 2025

174 min episode · 2 min read

Ben van Kerkwyk

Episode

174 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Software Development, Product & Tech Trends, Science & Discovery

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jan 2, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Hawara Labyrinth Discovery: Ground penetrating radar and space-based scanning revealed a massive underground structure 60-70 meters deep with multiple levels at Hawara, matching ancient descriptions by Herodotus. A 40-meter metallic tic-tac shaped object sits in a central atrium, unidentified by current scanning technology and potentially requiring drainage of groundwater for excavation.
✓Limestone Erosion Timeline: Studies of dated tombstones worldwide establish that two to three feet of limestone erosion on Giza Plateau structures requires over 100,000 years in normal weathering conditions. The Middle Pyramid complex shows severe erosion despite Egypt receiving minimal rainfall since 4000 BC, suggesting construction during the African humid period when the Sahara was grassland.
✓Sphinx Water Erosion Evidence: Geologist Robert Schoch identified vertical rainfall erosion channels in the Sphinx enclosure walls requiring thousands of years of consistent precipitation to form. The Sphinx face shows less erosion than the body despite being the only part exposed above sand for millennia, supporting theories of pre-dynastic construction and later recarving.
✓Hidden Tunnel Systems: Ground penetrating radar scans at the Osireion Shaft revealed four-meter-high tunnels with dome ceilings extending toward both the Sphinx and pyramids. Japanese scientists in the early 2000s inserted cameras 20 meters into these tunnels, documenting man-made structures that fork toward different pyramid complexes, suggesting extensive unexplored underground networks.
✓Great Pyramid Geodetic Encoding: The Great Pyramid's dimensions multiplied by 43,200 (seconds in twelve hours) yield Earth's polar radius from height and equatorial circumference from perimeter, accurate within 300 feet. This ratio appears intentional as modern satellite surveys from the 1980s converge closer to pyramid measurements than earlier calculations, encoding knowledge unexplainable by dynastic Egyptian capabilities.

What It Covers

Ben van Kerkwyk discusses evidence for ancient advanced civilizations in Egypt, including the lost labyrinth at Hawara containing a 40-meter metallic object, water erosion on the Sphinx suggesting 12,000+ year age, and unexplored tunnel systems beneath the Giza Plateau.

Key Questions Answered

•Hawara Labyrinth Discovery: Ground penetrating radar and space-based scanning revealed a massive underground structure 60-70 meters deep with multiple levels at Hawara, matching ancient descriptions by Herodotus. A 40-meter metallic tic-tac shaped object sits in a central atrium, unidentified by current scanning technology and potentially requiring drainage of groundwater for excavation.
•Limestone Erosion Timeline: Studies of dated tombstones worldwide establish that two to three feet of limestone erosion on Giza Plateau structures requires over 100,000 years in normal weathering conditions. The Middle Pyramid complex shows severe erosion despite Egypt receiving minimal rainfall since 4000 BC, suggesting construction during the African humid period when the Sahara was grassland.
•Sphinx Water Erosion Evidence: Geologist Robert Schoch identified vertical rainfall erosion channels in the Sphinx enclosure walls requiring thousands of years of consistent precipitation to form. The Sphinx face shows less erosion than the body despite being the only part exposed above sand for millennia, supporting theories of pre-dynastic construction and later recarving.
•Hidden Tunnel Systems: Ground penetrating radar scans at the Osireion Shaft revealed four-meter-high tunnels with dome ceilings extending toward both the Sphinx and pyramids. Japanese scientists in the early 2000s inserted cameras 20 meters into these tunnels, documenting man-made structures that fork toward different pyramid complexes, suggesting extensive unexplored underground networks.
•Great Pyramid Geodetic Encoding: The Great Pyramid's dimensions multiplied by 43,200 (seconds in twelve hours) yield Earth's polar radius from height and equatorial circumference from perimeter, accurate within 300 feet. This ratio appears intentional as modern satellite surveys from the 1980s converge closer to pyramid measurements than earlier calculations, encoding knowledge unexplainable by dynastic Egyptian capabilities.

Notable Moment

Van Kerkwyk reveals that Zahi Hawass filmed himself entering a tunnel beneath the Sphinx in the 1990s, stating on camera that nobody knew where it led and they would open it for the first time. The footage disappeared for decades until digitized this year, and the tunnel has since been completely backfilled with dirt.

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Episode Transcript

Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan experience. Showing my day. Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. Ben? I see, Gimmitt. Last so last time you were on, we barely scratched the surface of all the things that we wanted to talk about. So immediately, we're like, we gotta do another one quick because you wanna talk about the Sphinx. The Sphinx. Yes. Yeah. We were on we got into the well, the Labyrinth was kind of the big thing. Labyrinth is nuts. I still haven't been able to get over it. The 40 meter metallic shaped tic tac shaped shaped thing Yeah. That's in the ground, like, what is that? Well, I hope we'll find out. I mean, I I don't know. I it's it's the wheels do turn a little slowly, but I'm the the point of that was to try and drive some awareness. Maybe we'll get some sort of angel investor in there to go and look at it and solve the problem, do something. Someone needs to talk to Elon. Yeah. I'm I'm not the guy. I talk to him as much as it is. He's too busy. But someone who can know him problems. Yeah. He's Yeah. Somewhat or maybe Bezos would like to be the first guy to get in there. They someone has to get in there. You have to figure out what that thing is. That's crazy. This might be one of the biggest mysteries in the entire human civilization record. Yeah. Who's the guy be. Who's the director that went to the bottom of the Oh, Cameron. Cameron. I mean, he likes going places that nobody's gone before. They do a hole and get there maybe maybe Someone should do it. They just I don't think enough people know. For a lot of people know that we're listening to this podcast, but not enough people that would do something, that can do something. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like we we reach a lot of knuckleheads. We reach a lot with some wide variety of people, but the percentage of people that have the resources to to Make something happen. They they have to work something out with the Egyptian government. Right? So they have to do something with those dams. Yes. Well, and you don't have no I don't think it takes the dams. You would have to remediate the water on the site. At least, like, somehow box it out. Right? You gotta drain you'd have to drain this massive area. Or at least if you were targeted enough, you might be able to drain a smaller area to then excavate in that area. We should probably explain to people that didn't listen to the last podcast. Just a real quick synopsis. Real quick synopsis. So the labyrinth, it's it's we're talking about the great lost labyrinth of ancient Egypt, which was described by figures like Herodotus, Diodorus, Siculus, Pliny the Elder. Figures …

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