Fans of alternative history researcher and author Graham Hancock will be excited to learn that he is currently deep in the writing of a new book, scheduled for publication in 2027. The new book, Hancock says, will include “extensive new material on ancient Egypt, ancient Sumer, ancient Turkey, ancient Cyprus, the ancient Jordan Valley, ancient India, ancient China and the ancient Americas.”

And in a recent “Update from the Writing Room” video (embedded below for your convenience), Hancock provides some wonderful drone footage and photography (courtesy of his talented wife Santha) of four ancient coastal ‘pyramid cities’ he has visited in Peru as part of his research in the Americas: Bandurria, Caral, Peñico and Aspero:

Among the four sites featured in the video, Peñico is thought to be the youngest, dated to roughly 3,600 to3,900 years ago. However, Bandurria, Caral, and Aspero are significantly older. Radioarbon dates place their earliest monumental constructions between approximately 5,700 and 4,600 years ago. The step pyramids of Caral, Bandurria, and Aspero are thus as old or older than the officially accepted dates for the oldest of the Egyptian pyramids, as old or older than the oldest ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia, and roughly contemporaneous with the rise of early urbanism in the Indus Valley.

What’s being discovered in Peru is rewriting world history, which is precisely why these mysterious coastal cities, alongside equally mysterious sites in Egypt, Iraq, India, and China, will have an honored place in the new book I’ve been researching and writing for the past year.

For those interested in these ancient pyramids and the cultures that built them – and furthermore the connection between some of these sites and the use of psychedelics – be sure to check out Mike Jay’s article “Enter the Jaguar: Psychedelics in Ancient Peru“, which discusses Caral and other monumental sites in Peru at length.

(And on a sidenote: given the antipathy that often manifests between the field of archaeology and Graham Hancock, it was lovely to see him give a shout-out to archaeologists for a job well done. “When Santa and I first visited Aspero in 1993, it was still almost completely covered under the municipal rubbish dump of the nearby city of Supe,” he reveals in the video. “Today, thanks to the work of brilliant Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady Solis and her team, Aspero has been largely cleared and excavations continue.” )