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::::LIVE FEED::::CAIRO::::2257 LOCAL TIME::::

::::TRANSCRIPTION BEGIN:::::

[Reporter] > …al’ard taftah taht almadinati! Hunak tashkil hifratan! Hu li’amyal tawilat!

[Camera depicts a view from the top of a large building looking down on the city. But it is too dark to see, besides a large plume of dust. No electrical lights present. Small fires are scattered around the city. These fires keep disappearing from view or going out.]

[Reporter] > Iinaha qadimat nahw binayatina alan , ymknna ‘an nasheur bial’ard…

[Camera pans down toward the base of the building. Several smaller structures nearby the larger building collapse and disappear from view as the reporter speaks. The Land nearest the building can be seen cracking into pieces and falling away into darkness. Shaking disrupts the cameraman and the camera swings wildly.]

[Video Feed Cuts Out]

[Audio feed persists as loud rumbling for a few seconds longer.]

[Audio Feed Cuts Out]

::::LIVE FEED TERMINATED::::

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::::TRANSLATION::::MODERN ARABIC-ENGLISH::::BY A.KATTAN::::

[Reporter] > …the land is opening under the city. There is a hole forming. It is miles wide.

[Reporter] > It is spreading towards our building now, we can feel the ground… [Speaker cut off]

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::::LIVE FEED::::LONDON:::2102 LOCAL TIME::::

::::TRANSCRIPTION BEGIN::::

[Reporter sitting at a desk in studio]

[Reporter] > We have received a breaking report from our satellite station in Cairo, which has since ceased broadcasting. We are currently attempting to reconnect with our Cairo sister station. However, BBC has now corroborated initial reports of a catastrophic seismic event striking the city of Cairo minutes ago. The event has registered on seismographs as far afield as Japan and South America, and local measurements put the scale of the event at over 9.0 on the Richter scale. This would make it, by an order of magnitude, the strongest earthquake in the city’s history, as well as the strongest earthquake in the modern history of North Afri…

[Reporter appears to listen to something in an ear piece.]

[Reporter] > There is…we are receiving reports of satellite imagery from… I’m sorry, from Cairo. According to the US and Russian space agencies, the city experienced a complete electrical black out approximately 15 minutes ago and…approximately 8 minutes ago, the city…disappeared from view. These are the images on your screen at home.

[Three satellite images are displayed in a cycle, four times. The first picture shows the well lit city of Cairo at night from low Earth orbit. The second picture shows the faint, dark outline of the city, lights extinguished except for one large visible glow in the upper left quadrant of the city. The third photo is completely dark, no structures or lights can be discerned.]

[Reporter] > At this time I understand we have Doctor Kevin Logan, Chief Seismologist at the National Earthquake Information Center on the line from the United States. Doctor can you hear me?

[Doctor Kevin Logan] > Yes.

[Reporter] > Doctor, an earthquake of 9.0 or higher in Cairo. Is there any precedent for this kind of event?

[Doctor Kevin Logan] > Uhm, no. No, there isn’t. That isn’t to say Cairo is seismically inactive. It is prone to earthquakes from several nearby faults, specifically the Gulf of Aqaba–Dead Sea transform, the Subduction zone along the Hellenic and Cyprean Arcs, and the Northern Red Sea triple junction point. However, none of these faults should be capable of producing a seismic event of the magnitude we appear to be seeing today. Just to provide some scale, the largest recorded earthquakes in and around Cairo max out at just over 7.0 on the Richter scale. This event, at 9+, is an order of magnitude larger.

[Reporter] > Right, that can be difficult for viewers to understand, the difference between a 7.0 and a 9.0 is only two points after all.

[Doctor Kevin Logan] > It is only two points, but you have to remember, the Richter scale isn’t linear, it’s logarithmic. So as you go up the scale, the relative power of the rating increases in much larger leaps. For instance, although it’s only 2 points, a 9.0 earthquake is 1,000 times stronger than a 7.0 earthquake.

[Reporter] > And this earthquake, it is estimated now, of course, but this earthquake appears to be greater than 9.0

[Doctor Kevin Logan] > It does. The largest earthquake in recorded history was 9.5 in Chile in 1960, and that was on a much more volatile fault than what Cairo is exposed to. There isn’t really any expla…

[Reporter] > Doctor, I apologize, we are receiving now a live feed from a correspondent in Giza, Egypt, Adnan Entezam, approximately 6 kilometers from the Cairo city center. Adnan can you hear us?

[Camera depicts a male in dust covered clothes. Behind him there is only darkness, however he is lit from the front by a faint blue light.]

[Adnan Entezam] > […Yes…Yes, I can hear you Richard.]

[Reporter] > [Adnan, what’s happened there?]

[Adnan Entezam] > [Richard, the city of Cairo east of the Nile is gone. It is, it’s gone.]

[Reporter] > [Adnan, can you describe what’s happened?]

[Adnan Entezam] > [I was asleep. My wife, my daughter, we live in Giza, west of the river. My wife says the electricity went out first, and then everything began to shake. We ran out into the street. From there is was difficult to see much. When the Earthquake ended most of the buildings in our neighborhood had collapsed. I went to our roof. Cairo is just darkness now, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing there. Everything east of the river is just gone. But, to the southwest, something else is happening.]

[Adnan Entezam makes a gesture to the camera man, who spins the camera around. As the camera pans around, three intensely blue objects come into focus. It is difficult to discern their shape, but they are emanating a powerful blue light, both around them, and high into the air. The camera pans upwards and follows the three tight blue beams into the sky. The beams disappear, undiminished, into the cloud cover. The camera pans back to Adnan Entezam.]

[Reporter] > [Adnan, what was that? What were we just looking at?]

[Adnan Entezam] > [Richard, those were the great pyramids. The light began soon after the Earthquake ended and has not stopped since.]

[Reporter] > [What. Adnan, can you put them back on the screen please, I’m sure viewe…]

[Anomalous Audio Transcribed Phonetically] > [Sah-oh-lah-mah-guh-noo-ahn-sheeri. Sah-oh-lah-mah-guh-noo-ahn-sheeri. Sah-oh-lah-mah-guh-noo-ahn-sheeri. Sah-oh-lah-mah-guh-noo-ahn-sheeri. Sah-oh-lah-mah-guh-noo-ahn-sheeri.]

[Anomalous Audio Repeats Continuously. Other Audio Feeds Cut Out. Video Feed Continues.]

[Camera swings back toward Adnan Entezam. Adnan Entezam can be seen pressing at his ears with both his hands, in distress. Behind Adnan Entezam, there is a red glow in the direction of Cairo. The glow increases in strength as Adnan falls to the ground, hands over his ears. The camera shakes and then falls to the ground.]

[Camera cuts back to Reporter in London. An earpiece dangles from his right ear. He appears to speak but his voice cannot be heard. He waves both hands at the camera and shakes his head.]

[Video Feed Cuts Out]

[Audio feed continues for another another 27 minutes and 32 seconds. Anomalous audio repeats a total of 500 times]

[Audio Feed Cuts Out]

::::LIVE FEED TERMINATED::::

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