Who really carved the Great Sphinx of Egypt and constructed Mexico's Pyramid of the Sun? Are we a species with amnesia? Is it possible that we could have forgotten an entire epoch in our own history? Could it be that a race of technologically advanced "supergods" flourished during the last Ice Age and was destroyed in a global cataclysm more than 12,000 years ago, vanishing almost without a trace? Did these supergods leave behind "fingerprints" of their existence and warnings of a similar fate poised to befall our civilization today?

For five years, best-selling author Graham Hancock has been traveling the globe seeking the answers to these questions. Now he has written a provocative book, Fingerprints Of The Gods, which challenges the existing wisdoms about our past. He has collected evidence which he says points to a lost civilization which ruled some 15,000 years ago, and which was ultimately responsible for the technology behind such monumental edifices as the Great Sphinx and Pyramids of Egypt, the strange Andean temples of Tiahuanaco, and Mexico's awesome Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.

Graham Hancock began his quest for information about our ancient history in 1983 when he embarked on a search for the Ark of the Covenant, believed by millions of Ethiopian Christians and Jews to be somewhere in their country. The search led him through archives in Europe and to remote corners of the Third World as well as Israel and Egypt. In the course of his investigation he discovered vital connections between this powerful sacred object and the Knights Templar, the legends of the Holy Grail, Parsifal, and the saga of the Falasha Jews in Ethiopia. Publishing these findings in his international best seller, The Sign And The Seal, Hancock is respected as a painstaking journalist who has an uncanny ability to "read between the lines" and see connections others have overlooked. In a review of The Sign And the Seal, Hancock was credited by the London Guardian with having "invented a new genre -- an intellectual whodunit by a do it yourself sleuth ..."

Hancock's latest sleuthing as he searches for a "lost civilization" is detailed in his recently released book, Fingerprints Of The Gods, currently the number1 best seller in the United Kingdom. A master observer, detective, and storyteller, Hancock will select from hundreds of slides to illustrate his presentation to The Eclectic Viewpoint. These slides, beautifully photographed by his wife, Santha Faiia, will show the massive monuments and other clues left behind as "fingerprints" in Egypt, Mexico, South America and other parts of the world. Hancock will illustrate and explain the significance of the research of archaeo-astronomer Robert Bauval, whose recent best seller, The Orion Mystery, details his discovery that the three pyramids of Giza are laid out in a precise pattern mimicking the alignment of the three stars in the belt of Orion's constellation.

In addition, Hancock will relate legends of mysterious white skinned, auburn haired, bearded demi-gods (Viracocha in the Andes, Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, and Osiris in Egypt) who arrived after a great flood, bringing with them the gifts of civilization. Ancient writings concerning the works of Viracocha said, "As he traversed all the land, he worked miracles," healing the sick by touch and teaching the Peruvians varied skills such as metallurgy, farming, animal husbandry, and the art of writing. Thousands of years before the Incas he is said to have left behind a surfaced road network of 15,000 miles with suspension bridges and tunnels of which only remnants remain today.

Where did these mysterious strangers originate? Based on a crust-displacement theory of the earth's surface and ancient maps that show Antarctica as a warm-weather region 2,000 miles north of its present location, Hancock suggests that this highly intelligent civilization existed in Antarctica 10,000 -- 15,000 years ago and was subsequently destroyed by a global catastrophe. He will show us why he believes this super race of beings was trying to warn us of an impending disaster that visits the earth in cycles and is predicted by the Mayan Calendar to recur on December 23, 2012.

Graham Hancock was formerly East Africa Correspondent for The Economist and covered the Ogaden war between Somalia and Ethiopia for the London Sunday Times. His other books include: African Ark: Peoples of the Horn; the widely acclaimed Lords Of Poverty, which earned the 1990 H. L. Mencken Award (honorable mention) for an outstanding book of journalism; Journey Through Pakistan; Ethiopia: The Challenge Of Hunger; and AIDS: The Deadly Epidemic. He has appeared on television with Michael Palin in his recent Pole To Pole series, and on the BBC and CNN, as well as the National Geographic's Explorer series in stories related to The Sign And The Seal.

He lives with his wife, Santha Faiia, near Exeter in Devon, England, and is on a U.S. tour promoting his new book, Fingerprints Of The Gods.

Books will be available for signing after the lecture.

— Ed Conroy