Joe Rogan Experience #2374 - Ben van Kerkwyk
Narrator, Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Ben van Kerkwyk (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #2374 - Ben van Kerkwyk explores ancient Labyrinth, Lost Tech, and Egypt’s Hidden Archaeological Revolution Joe Rogan and researcher Ben van Kerkwyk explore controversial evidence suggesting a vast underground labyrinth in Egypt, possibly larger in scope and significance than the Giza pyramids, with modern geophysical surveys indicating multi-level stone structures and even a massive metallic ‘Tic Tac’ object buried deep below Hawara.
Ancient Labyrinth, Lost Tech, and Egypt’s Hidden Archaeological Revolution
Joe Rogan and researcher Ben van Kerkwyk explore controversial evidence suggesting a vast underground labyrinth in Egypt, possibly larger in scope and significance than the Giza pyramids, with modern geophysical surveys indicating multi-level stone structures and even a massive metallic ‘Tic Tac’ object buried deep below Hawara.
They argue that key expeditions and scan data confirming this labyrinth were politically suppressed by Egyptian authorities, partly due to cost, groundwater issues, and the disruptive implications for orthodox Egyptology and tourism priorities.
The discussion broadens into the case for a far older, more advanced civilization behind Egypt’s most sophisticated stonework—highlighting ultra-precise pre-dynastic stone vases, gigantic columns, and 1,000+ ton statues that appear beyond the capabilities of known ancient tools and methods.
Ben and Joe speculate on lost technologies, including advanced machining and even possible nuclear-related processes, and connect these ideas to a cyclical view of civilization and cataclysm, arguing that rethinking ancient history could change how we prioritize our own long‑term survival.
Key Takeaways
Modern geophysical surveys strongly indicate a massive underground labyrinth at Hawara.
Ground-penetrating radar, VLF sounding, and other established methods show a maze-like granite structure extending hundreds of meters beneath the site Petrie claimed was ‘quarried away’, overturning the orthodox view that the Labyrinth no longer exists.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Key findings about the Labyrinth were politically suppressed, not scientifically disproven.
The 2008 Mataha Expedition and a 2009 Cairo–Polish project both reported subterranean structures consistent with the Labyrinth, but their data release was halted, researchers were threatened with ‘national security’ sanctions, and one Egyptian academic was even jailed—suggesting state-level sensitivity rather than lack of evidence.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Rising groundwater from modern infrastructure threatens irreplaceable ancient structures.
Construction of the Aswan High Dam removed the Nile’s annual dry season, raising the water table and flooding lower levels at Hawara and under pyramids, making excavation and preservation of the Labyrinth technically complex and extremely expensive.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Pre-dynastic hard stone vases exhibit aerospace-level precision that defies known tools.
Laser and CT scans of granite, diorite, and crystal vases show circularity and wall thickness tolerances comparable to modern high-end CNC machining—far beyond what copper tools and sand abrasives could plausibly achieve, and many of these vases are securely dated to pre-dynastic burials.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Tool-mark and material evidence suggests unknown high-energy or advanced machining methods.
Scanning electron microscopy of vase fragments finds no copper residue but traces of titanium and other metals, while radiation measurements show elevated thorium decay products in ‘precision’ vases only—leading to speculative but testable ideas like ‘nuclear machining’ or exposure to advanced technological processes.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
The largest Egyptian megaliths appear older and more advanced than later constructions.
Massive single-piece columns, 1,000+ ton statues, and the unfinished 1,200-ton obelisk at Aswan display technological feats not matched in later periods, where Egyptians and Romans resorted to smaller blocks and simpler methods—supporting the idea of an earlier, higher technological phase that dynasties inherited and imitated.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Reframing history as cyclical—civilization rising and falling—could alter our priorities today.
If advanced civilizations have already risen and been destroyed by cataclysms, it challenges the linear-progress myth and could encourage modern societies to invest more in long-term resilience, space infrastructure, and planetary defense rather than short-term political and military goals.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“In my opinion, the labyrinth is the biggest archaeological discovery of the millennium.”
— Ben van Kerkwyk
“They didn’t disprove it. They covered it up and threatened people with national security sanctions.”
— Ben van Kerkwyk
“You cannot attribute everything we see in ancient Egypt to our current understanding of those dynastic Egyptians.”
— Ben van Kerkwyk
“The oldest and the best examples are the oldest. That’s the contradiction of Egypt.”
— Joe Rogan
“Something fucking crazy happened.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
If the Hawara Labyrinth data are as strong as claimed, what independent verification or open-data release would most convincingly force mainstream Egyptology to re-evaluate its position?
Joe Rogan and researcher Ben van Kerkwyk explore controversial evidence suggesting a vast underground labyrinth in Egypt, possibly larger in scope and significance than the Giza pyramids, with modern geophysical surveys indicating multi-level stone structures and even a massive metallic ‘Tic Tac’ object buried deep below Hawara.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What specific engineering experiments—using modern tools and materials—could realistically test whether ancient tubular drilling and precision vases could be replicated with copper, sand, and manual methods alone?
They argue that key expeditions and scan data confirming this labyrinth were politically suppressed by Egyptian authorities, partly due to cost, groundwater issues, and the disruptive implications for orthodox Egyptology and tourism priorities.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How might confirming a 40-meter metallic object beneath Hawara, with an unknown alloy signature, reshape our assumptions about ancient technology—or even about non-human involvement?
The discussion broadens into the case for a far older, more advanced civilization behind Egypt’s most sophisticated stonework—highlighting ultra-precise pre-dynastic stone vases, gigantic columns, and 1,000+ ton statues that appear beyond the capabilities of known ancient tools and methods.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given the political and economic realities in Egypt, what international frameworks or funding models could ethically support large-scale groundwater remediation and excavation at sites like Hawara?
Ben and Joe speculate on lost technologies, including advanced machining and even possible nuclear-related processes, and connect these ideas to a cyclical view of civilization and cataclysm, arguing that rethinking ancient history could change how we prioritize our own long‑term survival.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If humanity widely accepted a cyclical model of civilization and cataclysm, what concrete policy shifts (in science funding, education, defense, or space development) would be the most urgent and impactful to pursue?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night! All day! (instrumental music plays) Ben, so excited to talk to you, man. I have been so looking forward to this since I saw your video on the Labyrinths in Egypt. Spoiler alert.
(laughs)
There appears to be a 40-meter-long metallic, Tic Tac-shaped object. How m- how deep into the ground?
Uh, it's in that, so ... It's in the central atrium, which we'll get into what that is, but somewhere in the realm of 60, 70 meters, so ... Man, what's that in feet? Like, 200 feet, 150 to 190 feet down. Something like that.
And ... So, for anybody who's interested, what is the name of that video that you put out?
I think it's the Ancient Structure, like, that's said to be Greater than the Pyramids. I try to tease it a little bit-
Yes.
But, yeah, it's- it's on that, it's on my channel. I mean, it's-
Well, it was a good tease. You got me.
Thank you. (laughs)
I- I dove right in and I- I remember, I was in the gym while I was watching it, and I- I literally stopped working out. And I was like, "Okay, I gotta pause this."
(laughs)
'Cause this is not something that I can consume while I'm working out. I need to, like, really pay attention to this 'cause it's so wild.
Yeah, and I- and I- I honestly, the- the, I'm grateful for how, like, that video took o- like, it, for me, it took off with way bigger than- than ones that I've done in the past. I'd talked about the Labyrinth in the past, and it's- it's a much longer video, and, uh, I was- I was really glad to get the chance to dive into these details 'cause I've been wanting to revisit the Labyrinths for a long time. However, there's just been recently a bunch of new data that came up about things that happened a decade or two ago, all in, you know, inside the last decade that really changed that picture. And that was, it was things like the Merlin Burrows scans that- that correlated other scans and also reported on, yeah, there seems to be a metallic object down there. And this isn't, you know, this isn't sort of crazy emerging science. This is a- a- a legitimate company that ha- is using technology that's been well-established in defense and in- in the UK defense. It came out of the- the UK military as a technology that's been more or less proven, so ... And the guy that- that, Tim Acres, rest in peace, unfortunately, he's since passed. But he, uh, you know, what he said about this object, like, he's- he is a credible guy to- to say this. He- he doesn't draw conclusions about what it might be, but it's definitely ... It's not wood, it's not stone. It's metal. It's not unlike other metal that he's seen, although he, they couldn't classify what exact type of metal it is. But he said, yeah, there is a, in this central atrium ... 'Cause the Labyrinth has multiple levels and it's- it's almost like you're, imagine yourself standing in a shopping mall and- and you have that central atrium where you can see all these levels. And it's like this big central chamber that connects to these multiple levels that's open. It's at least 40 meters long. It's really tall, and in the center of it is what's more than 40, 'cause it contains this single sort of 40-piece, 40-meter-long object that's sitting in there.
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome