In a series of expeditions between 1991 and 1993 led by John Anthony West, an independent Egyptologist, scientific investigators conducted geological and seismic surveys around the Great Sphinx of Egypt. The chief geologist was Dr Robert Schoch, Professor of Geology at Boston University, and the chief seismologist was Thomas Dobecki from the highly respected Houston consulting firm, McBride-Ratclif & Associates

The team's conslusions were as follows: Geology - The pattern of erosion on the Sphinx indicates that it was carved at the end of the last Ice Age, when heavy rains fell on the eastern Sahara - perhaps more than 12,000 years ago. This contrasts starkly with the 'orthodox' Egyptological dating for the Sphinx of around 4,500 years ago. Seismography The seismic survery indicated the existence of several unexplored tunnels and cavities in the bedrock beneath the Sphinx, including a large rectangluar chamber at a depth of some 25 feet beneath the monument's front paws.

In 1993, John West and his team were physically expelled from the site by Dr Zawi Hawass then (and now) the Egyptian government's Chief Inspector of Antiquities for the Pyramids and the Sphinx. He appeared to be angered by the suggestions that the suggestion that the Sphinx might be far older than the civilisation of Egypt itself - and thus the work of a lost civilisation - and was particularly incensed by an NBC television film that was made about the team's work. This film linked the Sphinx to Atlantis and suggested that the chamber beneath the paws might contain the legendary 'Hall of Records' of Atlantis. Hawass called these claims, "American hallucinations...There is no scientific base for any of this. We have older monuments in the same area. They definitely weren't built by men from Atlantis. It's nonsense and we won't allow our monuments to be exploited for personal enrichment. The Sphinx is the soul of Egypt."

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