“I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” No thing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
— Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias”, 1819.
The ‘traveller from an antique land’ refers to Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in his Bibliotheca historica, describing a massive Egyptian statue: “King of Kings Ozymandias am I. If any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my work.”
We have been marveling at these statues for thousands of years.
From classical antiquity comes legends and stories of an Ancient Egyptian site so large and complex that it is said to exceed all the works of the ancient world, including the majestic pyramids of Egypt! Long since thought lost, this place has, in modern times, been confirmed to exist, with numerous scans using a variety of modern technology, including the new space-based deep earth scan methods.
Despite the efforts of numerous groups to discover more, the history of work done at this place has been suppressed, yet it could yet represent the greatest discovery in our modern age, it’s quite a story – and one I’ve been wanting to tell (and update from my older video) for several years.
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Getting some UX Merch is a great way to support the channel – and you get some nice new threads out of it also!
After TeeSpring (now just ‘Spring’ apparently) has taken 7+ months (and still waiting) to ship me some merch I ordered in January, I tapped out and set up a new Dashery Merch Store!
I’ve taken the time to update the designs, and will be adding more soon. You can browse the collection via the widget below, or just go direct to the store. All the designs are available in a wide range of apparel – tshirts, hoodies, tanks, etc, as well as in other accessories and items like coffee mugs, hats, stickers, buttons, you name it. Some of my favorites are also below, just click on them to go right to that item in the store!
It’s here! The UnchartedX Egypt tour for 2026 is available and ready for bookings. This is going to be a good one! 16 days, hitting the best of upper and lower Egypt, many special permission private accesses to sites normally closed to the public (more than anyone else) – an epic journey diving in the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.
Check out all the details, the full itinerary and booking form on the tour page here, or just click the link in the top menu.
We have also organized a cracker of an option extension after the tour – into the Fayoum and Western Desert. The ‘More Pyramids’ extension includes the mighty stone pyramids of Dashur (the Red and Bent), Meidum, we’ll visit the incredible underground artifacts of Lahun, then go into the Western Desert to visit rarely seen megalithic sites, quarries, and even the amazing and unique ‘Valley of the Whales.’
If you can’t make March, or if you’re looking for a more affordable option, I will be joining Yousef on his annual Primordial Egypt Tour in December of 2025. What’s the difference? The UnchartedX tour is longer than the Primordial, has more special permissions, and is consequently more $. I’ve been attending the Primordial tour since 2021 and it’s always a great time, with a great group of people.
Check out the testimonials from past tours and more info on my testimonials page if you want to know what touring with us is like!
In 2024, and after discussions spanning several years, I arranged for my father Ron and his wife Sherry to join me on my annual UnchartedX Egypt tour.
This was a pretty special occasion for both of us as we don’t get to see each other very often. My father and his wife live in far North Queensland Australia, and in my early 20s, in 2004, I left the country for what has turned out to be ‘for good,’ at least so far. 2 years in Singapore, and then the next nearly 20 years I’ve been living in California, almost exactly on the other side of the world from the Eastern coast of Australia.
I’m happy to report that Dad and Sherry both immensely enjoyed the trip, as seems to be the case for most who join us in Egypt. My father, who’s published a couple of books at this point, has written a review of the trip that you can find below, and I’m grateful to him for the effort.
I and my ‘venture partners’ (as Dad calls them) do work very hard to put on the best experience we can for our guests. I’m very proud to say that many of those who choose to join us on these tours, whether they’re in Egypt, Turkey, the US, or later this year in Peru and Bolivia, are return guests.
I started running these annual trips in 2020 (yep, the height of covid), primarily as a research tool, building them around the ‘special permission’ accesses to sites that are closed to tourism, that I can’t afford to pay for myself, as a way to do on-site independent research and investigation. Also because a lot of people were asking me to do it, as my YouTube channel began to grow in popularity.
These days, I still do them for the research and filming opportunities, we still visit sites each year that are new to me, but also because I very much enjoy them – every time we’ve run an Egypt tour, it’s always been a great group of people. Let’s face it, you have to be a little bit down the rabbit hole to come on my tours. Searching google for ‘Egypt tour,’ will not get you to this website, there’s endless options out there for the ‘regular tourist experience.’ I think of it as a ‘self-selecting group of interested and open minded people.’ One of the things I enjoy seeing the most is our guests making connections and friends – and time has shown that many of these friendships last for years. Our 2020 telegram group is still going, and I know that people on these tours have subsequently flown around the world to visit each other!
I’m confident we put on what is probably the best tour for the money – we certainly do many more ‘special permissions’ than anyone else, and between Yousef, myself, Kyle and Russ, as well as special guests who join us like Mohamed Jabra (probably the top guy in Egypt for reading hieroglyphs) and our Egyptologist tour guides, we show a side of Ancient Egypt and the depth of its mysteries that you just won’t get anywhere else.
A ‘live’ walk and talk early-morning visit to the beautiful Karnak Temple in Luxor, Upper Egypt. This is the fixed version of the livestream I did while there.
The audio has been de-scuffed, and I’ve edited for brevity and added in a bit of content here and there. I hope you enjoy this visit to Karnak, don’t miss the site should you ever find yourself in Egypt!
It’s time! Often requested, our first Peru-Bolivia tour is officially in the books and available for booking. Running October 23 to November 6, hosted by me (Ben), Kyle and Russ from the Brothers of the Serpent Podcast, as well as my good friend Yousef Awyan, it will be a great time, with some unique and off-the-beaten-path spots on the itinerary! Check out all the details, registration links etc on the tour page via the top menu or at https://unchartedx.com/2025peru2 .
Spots are strictly limited! This is actually the 2nd tour we are running, due to demand, as the first one (earlier in October) sold out through my patrons in about 15 hours, so if you want early access to tours, videos and all that good stuff please consider signing up to support UnchartedX via the value-for-value model on Patreon, YouTube Channel Memberships, SubscribeStar or Locals! All the details are on the support page, https://unchartedx.com/support.
A ‘Roadsode’ podcast recorded in view of the Giza Plateau! I’m joined by my good friends Russ and Kyle Allen from the Brothers of the Serpent Podcast.
We wanted to discuss the Khafre Pyramid SAR Scan results, as the news came out while we were in Egypt. We also get into some new observations about the well shaft and grotto in the Great Pyramid, and discuss some new findings that have come out about the remarkable ancient hard stone vases.
I enjoyed the conversation, I hope you will also! I’ve spiced this one up with lots of edits, footage and images.
