On April 5, 1909, a newspaper called the Arizona Gazette published an article on the front page of its evening edition. The story, “Explorations in the Grand Canyon,” was filled with wild claims that remnants of an Egyptian civilization had been discovered within a massive cave in the Grand Canyon’s cliffs.
Perched 2,000 feet above the Colorado River, the chambers of this “underground citadel” were littered with artifacts, hieroglyphics and even mummified remains, possibly of Egyptian descent.
There’s just one catch: The story is unequivocally false.
Yet, despite being more than 100 years old, the tales sparked by the hoax article continue to circulate today. (In recent years, they’ve been given new life on social media) The Smithsonian Institution, who supposedly sponsored the expedition, has even been inundated with inquiries about it over the years — despite the fact that the investigation in question never took place.
