Great book offering a whole new thought on the beginning of civilization. Hancock does a great job in presenting his evidence and letting the reader decide whether or not his idea is valid. There is so much evidence supporting his case that it's almost hard to disagree with him. Of course, this idea is that of a minority, but I believe that it is a definite possibility that a civilization existed much earlier than we think. History is a mystery; Hancock takes commonly known evidence and adds his own conclusion to it, proving that history is not quite set and can be subject to change. I loved the maps that he presents in the beginning of the novel depicting a drawing of Antartica without the ice on it; something that can only be in modern times or before there was ice there, which was way before the supposed first civilization existed. I'm not going to go through all of the evidence that he presents because there are 592 pages devoted to that cause. The points is, evidence like the maps are every convincing and effectively argue Hancock's point. If you are interested in learning about a different idea of where human civilization actually started, this is the book for you.

When many speculation books attempt to drive the evidence to meet their conclusions the final result lacks credibility. Graham Hancock presents his evidence, offers his conclusions and lets the reader make up their own mind. This mature approach instantly made me like Hancock, his evidence can be researched and verified and his conclusions, while outside of how we understand history and open to alternate views, are sound. From the introduction and the Piri Reis Map onwards Hancock presents fascinating evidence for an older civilization that we have not yet discovered and unlike Von Daniken, his conclusions do not require a belief in aliens or ancient technologies left behind like a plot from Star Trek.

A very entertaining read and very thought provoking. ( )

Hancock is a very talented writer and his ideas are presented with great skill. Regardless of what one thinks about his ideas, one can always profit from reading his books as he presents many anomalies that sometimes get swept under the carpets of archaeology and anthropology. ( )

A good distillation of various speculative histories (for instance: mixing nutty Egyptology and Atlantis theories with Hapgood's Antarctic thesis). Although probably not correct in many, or even any, respects, there is much food for thought here and many connections that the enterprising reader can discover. ( )

A really good read! Highly recommended. Graham Hancock takes other peoples research and has a knack for summarizing it and drawing unique conclusions from it....I found his summary of Hapgoods' MAPS OF THE ANCIENT SEA KINGS was a brilliant pivotal point to start his analysis of everything from general mythology to precession....I truly believe that this is going to become a very important text for people beginning their quest of the "woo-woo" and a wonderful refresher course for those who have read in the areas for many years. I really liked this book!