The Egypt Code (3 page)
Authors: Robert Bauval
Dr. Aveni was referring to the Mayan and Inca civilisations when he made the above statement. But may as well have been talking about Egypt’s Old Kingdom, for I am now even more convinced that such a statement holds true for the sacred cities, pyramids and temples built by the ancient Egyptians all along the 1,000 kilometre long Nile Valley during their three-thousand years of civilisation. And this, in a nutshell, is what I set out to prove
The Egypt Code
.
The Egypt Code
.
By the year 2000 I was ready to put the finding of my investigation into a book form. To this end I presented a synopsis to my editor at Random House in London, who promptly commissioned the project. By early 2004 I had a first draft ready. The final draft, however, was completed in Egypt. In February 2005 I rented a fully furnished apartment with a direct view of the Giza pyramids. Being here gave me the unique opportunity to refine the book with a hands-on approach to the pyramids in Lower Egypt and the great temples of Upper Egypt and to verify and test the various ideas of my thesis. Imbued with the enchantment and magic of these ancient sites I have, I believe, succeeded in more ways than one to bring the sky-ground correlation theory I started two decades ago to its natural conclusion. In
The Egypt Code
I have made use of primary sources whenever available, and relied only on scholarly research published in peer-reviewed journals or in textbooks by renowned Egyptologists and other scholars. My readers should expect no less from me. Culling my data from all these sources I have come to this conclusion: the ancient Egyptian theocracy was regulated by a
Cosmic Order
called
Maat
which was none other than the order of the sky viz. the observable, precise and predictable cycles of the sun, the moon and the stars. I have also concluded that this
Cosmic Order
was fervently believed to influence the material world below, especially the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, for nothing more fascinated, awed and
frightened
the ancient Egyptians than the Nile’s flood which began in late June and ended in late September. This was the annual miracle that rejuvenated the crops and all other life in Egypt. But too low a rise in the waters in June would bring famine and pestilence. This double-edged sword that hung perpetually over Egypt compelled the Nile dwellers to seek magical means that would ensure a good flood. Early in their development they came to observe that the stars of Orion and Sirius would disappear underneath the western horizon after sunset in late March and remain for a protracted period (about three months) in the ‘underworld’ before re-emerging in the eastern horizon at dawn in late June
just when the waters of the Nile began to rise
. During this crucial period of the stars’ sojourn in the ‘underworld’ the astronomer-priests also noted that the sun travelled from a point on the ecliptic just below the bright cluster of the Pleiades (marking the vernal point) to a spot further along the ecliptic just below the chest of the celestial lion, Leo (marking the summer solstice), that bracketed the constellation of Orion and Sirius. The idea began to enter their minds that when the sun-god journeyed through that special part of the sky - the
Duat
as it was called - he performed a magical ritual-a sort of ‘station of the cross’ - that would bring about the ‘rebirth’ of the stars as well as the ‘rebirth’ of the Nile when, in late June, the star Sirius would re-appear at dawn in the eastern horizon. This even also happened to fall on the day of the summer solstice, when the sun would reach its maximal northerly declination, and was for good reason taken as New Year’s Day and called, among other things, the ‘Birth of Ra’, the sun-god. A mythology and sky-religion developed around this cosmic and Nilotic theme and, more intriguingly, an ambitious plan was gradually hatched around 2800 BC to ‘bring down’, in the literal sense, the
Cosmic Order
so that the pharaoh, the son of Ra on earth, could undertake the same magical journey in an earthly
Duat
and thus secure for Egypt a ‘good’ flood. To coin the Hermetic dictum:
as above so below
. To this end a massive pangenerational project was put into action that would involve building clusters of ‘star’-pyramids at predetermined sites to represent Orion and the Pleiades, as well as the building of great ‘sun’-temples set on both sides of the Nile to define the part of the ecliptic along which the sun-god travelled through the
Duat
from vernal equinox to summer solstice set on both sides of the Milky Way. But my new theory does not stop here, for I also demonstrated in
The Egypt Code
that the slow cyclical changes witnessed in the sky landscape caused by precession and the peculiarity of the Egyptian civil calendar over the 3,000 years of the pharaonic civilisation are reflected in the changes witnessed on the ground all along the 1,000 kilometre long Nile Valley in the evolution of temples throughout the same 3,000 years. In other words
The Egypt Code
proposes, no less, to prove that there existed a sort of ‘cosmic Egypt’ ghosted in the geography of the Nile Valley stretching from north to south that was once literally regulated and administered by astronomer-priests headed by a sun-king that lasted for over three millennia and can still be discerned in the layout of pyramids and temples that remain today.
The Egypt Code
I have made use of primary sources whenever available, and relied only on scholarly research published in peer-reviewed journals or in textbooks by renowned Egyptologists and other scholars. My readers should expect no less from me. Culling my data from all these sources I have come to this conclusion: the ancient Egyptian theocracy was regulated by a
Cosmic Order
called
Maat
which was none other than the order of the sky viz. the observable, precise and predictable cycles of the sun, the moon and the stars. I have also concluded that this
Cosmic Order
was fervently believed to influence the material world below, especially the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, for nothing more fascinated, awed and
frightened
the ancient Egyptians than the Nile’s flood which began in late June and ended in late September. This was the annual miracle that rejuvenated the crops and all other life in Egypt. But too low a rise in the waters in June would bring famine and pestilence. This double-edged sword that hung perpetually over Egypt compelled the Nile dwellers to seek magical means that would ensure a good flood. Early in their development they came to observe that the stars of Orion and Sirius would disappear underneath the western horizon after sunset in late March and remain for a protracted period (about three months) in the ‘underworld’ before re-emerging in the eastern horizon at dawn in late June
just when the waters of the Nile began to rise
. During this crucial period of the stars’ sojourn in the ‘underworld’ the astronomer-priests also noted that the sun travelled from a point on the ecliptic just below the bright cluster of the Pleiades (marking the vernal point) to a spot further along the ecliptic just below the chest of the celestial lion, Leo (marking the summer solstice), that bracketed the constellation of Orion and Sirius. The idea began to enter their minds that when the sun-god journeyed through that special part of the sky - the
Duat
as it was called - he performed a magical ritual-a sort of ‘station of the cross’ - that would bring about the ‘rebirth’ of the stars as well as the ‘rebirth’ of the Nile when, in late June, the star Sirius would re-appear at dawn in the eastern horizon. This even also happened to fall on the day of the summer solstice, when the sun would reach its maximal northerly declination, and was for good reason taken as New Year’s Day and called, among other things, the ‘Birth of Ra’, the sun-god. A mythology and sky-religion developed around this cosmic and Nilotic theme and, more intriguingly, an ambitious plan was gradually hatched around 2800 BC to ‘bring down’, in the literal sense, the
Cosmic Order
so that the pharaoh, the son of Ra on earth, could undertake the same magical journey in an earthly
Duat
and thus secure for Egypt a ‘good’ flood. To coin the Hermetic dictum:
as above so below
. To this end a massive pangenerational project was put into action that would involve building clusters of ‘star’-pyramids at predetermined sites to represent Orion and the Pleiades, as well as the building of great ‘sun’-temples set on both sides of the Nile to define the part of the ecliptic along which the sun-god travelled through the
Duat
from vernal equinox to summer solstice set on both sides of the Milky Way. But my new theory does not stop here, for I also demonstrated in
The Egypt Code
that the slow cyclical changes witnessed in the sky landscape caused by precession and the peculiarity of the Egyptian civil calendar over the 3,000 years of the pharaonic civilisation are reflected in the changes witnessed on the ground all along the 1,000 kilometre long Nile Valley in the evolution of temples throughout the same 3,000 years. In other words
The Egypt Code
proposes, no less, to prove that there existed a sort of ‘cosmic Egypt’ ghosted in the geography of the Nile Valley stretching from north to south that was once literally regulated and administered by astronomer-priests headed by a sun-king that lasted for over three millennia and can still be discerned in the layout of pyramids and temples that remain today.
The Egypt Code
, contrary to what Egyptologists will surely be quick to claim, is not a new-age book that regurgitates wild speculations and theories that cannot be verified or tested. My thesis is entirely verifiable, testable and ultimately falsifiable if need be. Indeed, I happily welcome Egyptologists and other scholars in the field of Egyptian archaeology and history to step up and do so. Let them not be fooled or be put off by the easy-to-read style of presentation and concise arguments. This is for the benefit of the general public who, when all is said and done, are the true judge and jury of all new ideas.
, contrary to what Egyptologists will surely be quick to claim, is not a new-age book that regurgitates wild speculations and theories that cannot be verified or tested. My thesis is entirely verifiable, testable and ultimately falsifiable if need be. Indeed, I happily welcome Egyptologists and other scholars in the field of Egyptian archaeology and history to step up and do so. Let them not be fooled or be put off by the easy-to-read style of presentation and concise arguments. This is for the benefit of the general public who, when all is said and done, are the true judge and jury of all new ideas.
In closing I would like to add that while I was writing the last version of
The Egypt Code
in Cairo I would often take short breaks from my long hours at my computer and go up on the roof of our building to look at the pyramids. From that vantage point I could have an unobstructed view of the Giza pyramids hardly a kilometre away. It sometimes felt as if I could reach out and touch them. But my gaze would always wander beyond Giza to a place on the south horizon where I could see the outline of the first pyramid built in Egypt, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, with its distinctive staggered profile gleaming through the thin veil of haze. The quest for
The Egypt Code
began there while casually standing one day next to the seated effigy of the pyramid-king who built this strange monument and who, very mysteriously, was made to stare eternally at the circumpolar stars. So I now would invite you to join me at that same spot to re-trace my quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ of the pyramid and temple builders of ancient Egypt.
The Egypt Code
in Cairo I would often take short breaks from my long hours at my computer and go up on the roof of our building to look at the pyramids. From that vantage point I could have an unobstructed view of the Giza pyramids hardly a kilometre away. It sometimes felt as if I could reach out and touch them. But my gaze would always wander beyond Giza to a place on the south horizon where I could see the outline of the first pyramid built in Egypt, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, with its distinctive staggered profile gleaming through the thin veil of haze. The quest for
The Egypt Code
began there while casually standing one day next to the seated effigy of the pyramid-king who built this strange monument and who, very mysteriously, was made to stare eternally at the circumpolar stars. So I now would invite you to join me at that same spot to re-trace my quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ of the pyramid and temple builders of ancient Egypt.
Please come and meet the pharaoh who began all this …
In the last few years dramatic new discoveries have given much credence to the theory that the pharaonic civilisation is the product of a much older culture that brought into the Nile Valley its vast knowledge of astronomy and megalithic building. The finding of the Nabta Playa in southern Egypt and, more recently, the discovery of hieroglyphic inscriptions near the Oasis of Dakhla and at Gebel Uwaynat have provided not only proof of this ‘pre-pharaonic’ culture but also that the pharaohs themselves were aware of such a very ancient origin. The most dramatic result of these new findings and discoveries, however, is that this mysterious prehistoric culture was ethnically black Africans, of the tall, slender type found today among the Maasai of Kenya and the Dinka of Sudan. The certainty of this is provided by the wonderful petroglyphs and drawings that these people have left us at Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uwaynat in the extreme southwest corner of Egypt. The hieroglyphic inscriptions recently found by Mahmoud Marai and Mark Borda at Gebel Uwaynat also open up the real possibility that the prehistoric black people in that area belonged to the almost legendary Kingdom of Yam, a sort of African Shangri-la previously thought to be in northern Sudan but now, with Marai and Borda’s discovery, places this affluent black kingdom in the southwest corner of Egypt, straddling Sudan and Libya. In November 2007 I undertook an expedition to Nabta Playa to examine for myself the enigmatic astronomical complex that has been dated to the 6
th
millennium BC. Also in April 2008 I undertook an expedition to Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uwaynat to see the newly found inscriptions and also look for evidence of astronomical activity in that poorly explored area. I have thus included at the end of this book two new appendices that give the accounts of these expeditions and also outline the findings and discoveries at Nabta Playa and Gebel Uwaynat.
th
millennium BC. Also in April 2008 I undertook an expedition to Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uwaynat to see the newly found inscriptions and also look for evidence of astronomical activity in that poorly explored area. I have thus included at the end of this book two new appendices that give the accounts of these expeditions and also outline the findings and discoveries at Nabta Playa and Gebel Uwaynat.
CHAPTER ONE
The Star at the Head of the Sky
God who rules alone, the Fabricator of the universe, bestowed on the earth for a little time your great father Osiris and the great goddess Isis . . . It was they that established upon earth rites of worship which correspond exactly to the holy powers of heaven. It was they that consecrated the temples . . .
Walter Scott (ed.)
Hermetica
Hermetica
And God arranged the Zodiac in accord with the cycles of nature . . . (and) . . . devised a secret engine (viz. the system of the stars) linked to unerring and inevitable fate, to which all things in men’s lives, from their birth to their final destruction shall of necessity be brought into subjection; and all other things on earth likewise shall be controlled by the working of this engine . . .
Walter Scott (ed.)
Hermetica
Hermetica
All discoveries begin with the question why. Indeed, the urge to know why is what distinguishes us from other creatures on this planet and, more importantly, it is the root of all knowledge. To ask why triggers the intellectual process and launches an investigation which, if all goes well, will lead to a breakthrough. A bathtub overflows, the sun rises and sets, an apple falls, two imaginary bicycles collide; some gifted people asked why and the next thing you know man has walked on the moon. Asking why will, in fact, take us beyond the moon, beyond our solar system, beyond our galaxy, beyond our wildest dreams and, who knows, perhaps one day to God. My own ‘why’ and the investigation that I launched because of it began 25 years ago. And my falling apple was, quite literally, in the sky, with its counterpart in the desert west of the city of Cairo in Egypt. In 1994 I presented the discovery (known as the Orion Correlation Theory or OCT) that was reaped from this investigation in a book that became an international bestseller.
1
It was not, however, to be the end of this strange intellectual adventure. Another apple still hung precariously in my mind waiting patiently for the right moment to fall. It did so eight years later, when I visited the world’s oldest pyramid complex at Saqqara for the umpteenth time. There, and also for the umpteenth time, I examined the seated statue of the pyramid’s owner gazing upwards at the northern sky. Yet for reasons that only the gods know, this was the first time that I was prompted to ask
why
. Why was the king made to look at the northern sky? Finding no explanation that quite satisfied me in the many Egyptological textbooks I owned, I decided to seek the answer for myself. My story, then, starts here, at Saqqara, with the question why.
1
It was not, however, to be the end of this strange intellectual adventure. Another apple still hung precariously in my mind waiting patiently for the right moment to fall. It did so eight years later, when I visited the world’s oldest pyramid complex at Saqqara for the umpteenth time. There, and also for the umpteenth time, I examined the seated statue of the pyramid’s owner gazing upwards at the northern sky. Yet for reasons that only the gods know, this was the first time that I was prompted to ask
why
. Why was the king made to look at the northern sky? Finding no explanation that quite satisfied me in the many Egyptological textbooks I owned, I decided to seek the answer for myself. My story, then, starts here, at Saqqara, with the question why.
The site of Saqqara lies some 20 kilometres south of modern Cairo. Five kilometres long and two kilometres wide, it stretches like a surreal abandoned moon station in the western desert where the Sahara meets the green Nile Valley. It is by a long shot ancient Egypt’s largest royal cemetery. Here, 5,000 years ago, on this dusty and often windswept promontory, a powerful idea fired a people, launching them into a building frenzy the likes of which the world would never experience again, in a breakneck momentum that was to last for nearly 500 years. The result of this seemingly irrational enterprise can still be seen today: giant pyramids strewn like stony atolls along a 40-kilometre archipelago of sand. Egyptologists call this mysterious region the Memphite Necropolis on account of its proximity to the now-lost city of Memphis. An estimated 50 million tons of stone was quarried, transported, hauled, cut, shaped and lifted by armies of workers toiling like ants across several generations. And all this high-tech engineering without the help of iron tools, without wheeled vehicles or lifting machines, without even the assistance of a single pulley. This was, to quote a phrase from the late Sir I.E.S. Edwards, the Pyramid Age
par excellence
.
par excellence
.
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