When my brother asked me what I knew about a location in the Grand Canyon off-limits even to park employees, he caught me by surprise. I’d never heard of any such. Only a little digging, though, unearthed another bit of fantastic Americana to rival the tunnels of the lizard people under Los Angeles. We’ve got tunnels again, but this time there’s also evidence of… ancient Egyptian culture?

“…(T)he archaeologists of the Smithsonian Institute, which is financing the expeditions, have made discoveries which almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited this mysterious cavern, hewn in solid rock by human hands, was of oriental origin, possibly from Egypt, tracing back to Ramses.”

Hey, if you can’t trust an unsourced article (courtesy the April 5th, 1909 edition of the Arizona Gazette) who can you trust?

My natural skepticism prevents me from finding any of this very compelling. It’s Occam’s Razor again. Is it simpler to believe in a hundred-year old cover up of ancient Egyptian ruins in the Grand Canyon or that an unnamed reporter chose to spin a tale that would be difficult to verify, based upon a man the Smithsonian believes to be fictional?

Isis Temple rock formation. Image courtesy Twinsday at en.wikipedia.

The images from the Grand Canyon are plenty provocative for me, even if the Wikipedia article on Isis Temple isn’t sufficiently intrigued to mention anything other than a rational, science-based explanation for the formations. I’m not sure that’s entirely just. Any vision that survives so many decades must be touching people at some deep level.

It’s the kind of vision I’m happy to see enshrined in the deserts of Northern Arcadia.