Latest / Anunnaki Origins Podcast / The Anunnaki Spaceport of Egypt? Pharaohs, the Duat, and the Ancient Stairway to the Stars
Transcript
- 0:00Such titles as that which is in the Duat, the Book of the Gates,
- 0:04The Book of the Two Ways. Scholars believe that these
- 0:08books, in turn, were versions of two earlier basic works, olden
- 0:12writings that dealt with the celestial journey of RA and a
- 0:16later source which stressed the blissful afterlife of those who
- 0:19join Osiris resurrected the food, the beverage, the conjugal
- 0:24joys, and a heavenly abode. Verses of this version were even
- 0:29inscribed on talismans to achieve for their wearer union
- 0:33with women by day or night and the desire of women at all
- 0:37times. The scholarly theories, however,
- 0:40leave unexplained the magical aspects of the information
- 0:44offered by these texts. Bafflingly, an Eye of Horus is
- 0:48an object existing independently of him, an object and to whose
- 0:52insides the king can enter and which can change hues to blue
- 0:57and red as it is powered. There exist self-propelled
- 1:02fairies, doors that open by themselves, unseen gods whose
- 1:07face radiate aglow in the underworld supposedly inhabited
- 1:11by spirits. Only bridge girders and copper
- 1:14cables are featured. And the most baffling aspect of
- 1:17all? Why, if the Pharaoh's
- 1:19transfiguration takes him to the underworld, do the texts claim
- 1:25that the king is on his way to heaven throughout?
- 1:28The verses indicate that the king is following the root of
- 1:31the gods, that he is crossing a lake the way a God had crossed
- 1:34it before, and that he uses a bark as the God RA had done,
- 1:40that he ascends a quick as a God, as Osiris was, and so on
- 1:44and on. And the question arises, what if
- 1:47these texts were not primitive fantasies, mythology, but
- 1:52accounts of a simulated journey wherein the deceased pharaoh
- 1:57emulated what the gods had actually done?
- 2:00What if the texts substituting the name of the king for that of
- 2:04a God were copies of some much earlier scriptures that dealt
- 2:09not with the journeys of the Pharaohs, but with the journeys
- 2:12of the gods? One of the early leading
- 2:15Egyptologists, Gaston Maspero, judging by grammatical form and
- 2:19other evidence, suggested that the Pyramid Texts originated at
- 2:23the very beginning of Egyptian civilization, perhaps even
- 2:27before they were written down hieroglyphically.
- 2:30JH Breasted has more recently concluded that such older
- 2:34material existed, whether we possess it or not.
- 2:38He found in the texts information on the conditions of
- 2:40civilization and events, which enhances the veracity of the
- 2:44texts as conveyors of factual information and not of fantasy.
- 2:49To one of quick imagination. He says they abound in pictures
- 2:53from the long vanished world of which they are a reflection.
- 2:57Taken together, the texts and later illustrations describe a
- 3:00journey to a realm that begins above ground, that leads
- 3:05underground, and that ends with an opening to the skies through
- 3:08which the gods and the kings emulating them were launched
- 3:12heavenward. Thus the hieroglyphic
- 3:15connotation, combining a subterranean place with a
- 3:18celestial function. An example can be found in the
- 3:21bonus PDF under Figure 12. Have the Pharaohs, journeying
- 3:26from their tombs to the afterlife actually taken this
- 3:29route to heaven? Even the ancient Egyptians
- 3:33claimed the journey not for the mummified corpse, but for the ka
- 3:37double of the departed king. But they have envisioned this
- 3:41double as re enacting actual progress through actual places.
- 3:46What then, if the texts reflect a world which had indeed
- 3:50existed? What if the Pharaohs journey to
- 3:53immortality, even if only by emulation?
- 3:56Indeed, the King's boat is towed by gods clad in leopard skins,
- 4:00just as the Shem priests who performed the opening of the
- 4:04mouth ceremonies were clad. Is the king nearing the opening
- 4:08or mouth of the mountain? In the Book of the Dead?
- 4:12The chapters indeed now bear such titles as the Chapter of
- 4:16Sniffing the Air and Of Getting Power.
- 4:19His vehicle is now endowed with magical powers.
- 4:22He journeyeth where there is no stream and where there are none
- 4:26to tell him. He performeth this by words of
- 4:30power which proceed from the mouth of a God.
- 4:33As the king passes through a guarded gate into the 7th
- 4:37Division, the gods and the surroundings lose their
- 4:40underworld aspects and begin to assume celestial affiliations.
- 4:45The king encounters the Falcon headed God Hiro her Kent, whose
- 4:50hieroglyphic name included the stairway symbol and who wore on
- 4:54his head the celestial disk emblem.
- 4:57His task is to send the star gods on their way and to make
- 5:01the constellation goddesses go on their way.
- 5:05These were a group of 12 gods and 12 goddesses who were
- 5:08depicted with star emblems. The incantations to them were
- 5:12addressed to the starry gods, who are divine in flesh, whose
- 5:17magical powers have come into being, who are united into your
- 5:21stars, who rise up for RA. Let your stars guide his two
- 5:26hands so that he may journey to the hidden place in peace.
- 5:31In this division there are also present two companies of gods
- 5:35associated with the Benben, the mysterious object of RA that was
- 5:40kept at his temple in the city of on Eliopolis.
- 5:44They are those who possess the mystery, guarding it inside the
- 5:48Het Ben Van, the Ven Ben House, and eight who guard outside but
- 5:53also enter on to the hidden object.
- 5:56Here there are also nine objects set up in a row representing the
- 6:01symbol Shem, which hieroglyphically meant follower.
- 6:06The king has indeed arrived in parts of the Duat associated
- 6:10with all, after whom Heliopolis was named.
- 6:14In the ninth hour, he seized the resting place of the 12 divine
- 6:19rowers of the boat of RA, they who operate Rod's celestial boat
- 6:23of millions of years. In the 10th hour, passing
- 6:27through a gate, the king enters a place, a stir with activity.
- 6:31The task of the gods there is to provide flame and fire to the
- 6:35boat of RA. One of the gods is called
- 6:37Captain of the gods of the boat. Two others are those who order
- 6:42the course of the stars. They and other gods are depicted
- 6:46with 1-2 or three star symbols as those showing some rank
- 6:50associated with the heavens. Passing from the 10th to the
- 6:5411th vision, the affinity to the heavens rapidly increases.
- 6:59Gods bear the celestial bisque and star emblems.
- 7:03There are 8 goddesses with star emblems who have come from the
- 7:06abode of RA. The King sees the Star Lady and
- 7:10the Star Lord and gods, whose task it is to provide power for
- 7:14emerging from the Duat to make the object of RA advance to the
- 7:18hidden house in the upper heavens.
- 7:22In this place there are also gods and goddesses, whose task
- 7:26it is to acquit the King for a celestial trip over the sky.
- 7:31Together with some gods, he is made to enter a serpent, inside
- 7:35which he is to shed the skin and emerge in the form of a
- 7:39rejuvenated raw. Some of the terms here employed
- 7:43in the texts are still not understood, but the process is
- 7:47clearly explained. The King, having entered dressed
- 7:50as he came, emerges as a Falcon, equipped as a God.
- 7:55The king lays down on the ground the Mish D garment.
- 7:58He puts on his back the Mark garment and takes his divine
- 8:03sure vestment, and he puts on the collar of beloved Horace,
- 8:09which is like a collar on the neck of Rah.
- 8:11Having done all that, the king has established himself there as
- 8:15a God like them, and he tells the God who is with him, If thou
- 8:21goest to heaven, so will the king go to heaven.
- 8:25The illustrations in the ancient texts depict here a group of
- 8:29gods dressed in unusual garb like tightly fitting overalls
- 8:34adorned with circular collar bands.
- 8:36Such an example can be found in figure 21 of the bonus PDF.
- 8:41They are latter directed by a God with the emblem of the
- 8:44celestial disk upon his head, who stands with outstretched
- 8:48arms between the wings of a serpent with four human legs
- 8:52against a starry background. The God in the serpent face
- 8:56another serpent which, though wingless, clearly flies as it
- 9:00carries aloft a seated Osiris, as seen in Figure 20.
- 9:04Two of the bonus PDF having been properly equipped, the king is
- 9:09led to an opening in the centre of a semi circular wall.
- 9:13He passes the hidden door. Now he moves within a tunnel
- 9:17which is 1300 cubits long called Dawn.
- 9:20At the end he reaches A vestibule.
- 9:23The emblems of the winged disc are seen everywhere.
- 9:27He encounters goddesses who shed light upon the Road of RA and
- 9:31the magical sceptre representing Seth the Watcher.
- 9:35The gods explain to the odd king.
- 9:38This cavern is the broad hall of Osiris, wherein the wind is
- 9:42brought. The North wind refreshing, will
- 9:45raise thee, O King, as Osiris. It is now the 12th Division.
- 9:51The final hour of the King's subterranean journey is the
- 9:56uttermost limit of the thick darkness.
- 9:58The point which he has reached is named Mountain of the Ascent
- 10:03of RA. The Kin looks up and is
- 10:05startled. The celestial boat of RA looms
- 10:08in front of his eyes in all its awesome majesty.
- 10:12He has reached an object which is called the Ascender to the
- 10:16Sky. Some texts suggest that RA
- 10:19himself prepared the Ascender for the king, that the king may
- 10:23ascend upon it to the heavens. Other texts say that the
- 10:27Ascender was made or set up by several other gods.
- 10:31It is the ascender which had carried Seth heavenward.
- 10:35Osiris could not reach the firmament of heaven except by
- 10:39means of such an ascender. Thus the king too requires it in
- 10:43order to be translated as Osiris to eternal life.
- 10:48The ascender or divine ladder was not a common ladder.
- 10:52It was bound together by copper cables, its sinews like those of
- 10:57the Bull of heaven. The uprights at its sides were
- 11:00covered over tightly with a kind of skin.
- 11:03Its runs were shisha heun, meaning unknown, and a great
- 11:08support was placed under it by He Who Binds.
- 11:13Illustrations to the Book of the Dead showed such a divine
- 11:16ladder, sometimes with the unk life sign symbolically reaching
- 11:21toward the celestial disk in the heavens in the shape of a high
- 11:25tower with a superstructure in stylized form.
- 11:30The tower by itself was written hieroglyphically dead and meant
- 11:34everlastingness. It was a symbol most closely
- 11:38associated with Osiris, for a pair of such pillars were said
- 11:42to have been erected in front of his principal temple at Abidis
- 11:46to commemorate the two objects which stood in the land of
- 11:50Seeker and made possible the ascent of Osiris heavenward.
- 11:54There are examples in the bonus PDF under Figure 23A and 23B.
- 12:00A long utterance in the Pyramid Texts is both a hymn to the
- 12:04ascender, the divine ladder, and a prayer for its granting to the
- 12:08king. Pepe.
- 12:10Greeting to thee Divine ascender.
- 12:13Greeting to thee. Ascender of Seth, stand thou
- 12:16upright. Ascender of God, stand upright.
- 12:19Ascender of Seth, stand upright. Ascender of Horus, whereby
- 12:23Osiris came forth into heaven. Lord of the Ascender, to whom
- 12:28shalt thou give the ladder of God?
- 12:31To whom shalt thou give the ladder of Seth, that Pepe may
- 12:35ascend to heaven on it to do service as a courtier of RA?
- 12:39Let also the ladder of God be given to Pepe.
- 12:42Let the ladder of Seth be given to Pepe, that Pepe may ascend to
- 12:47heaven on it. The Ascender was operated by 4
- 12:51Falcon men, children of Horus, the Falcon God, who were the
- 12:55sailors of the boat of RA. They were 4 youths who were
- 13:00children of the sky. It is they who come from the
- 13:04eastern side of the sky who prepare the two floats for the
- 13:07king, that the king may thereby go to the horizon to RA.
- 13:13It is they who join together, assemble, prepare the ascender
- 13:17for the king. They bring the ascender.
- 13:20They set up the ascender. They raise up the ascender for
- 13:23the King, that he might ascend to heaven.
- 13:25On it the King offers a prayer. May my name to me be given in
- 13:31the great House of two. May my name be called in the
- 13:35House of fire. In the night of computing years.
- 13:39Some illustrations show the King being granted a dead
- 13:43everlastingness blessed by Isis and Neftis.
- 13:47He is led by a Falcon God to a rocket like dead, equipped with
- 13:52fins. An example can be seen in the
- 13:55bonus PDF under figure 24. The King's prayer to be given
- 14:01Everlastingness, a name, a divine ladder has been granted.
- 14:05He is about to begin his actual ascent to the heavens, though he
- 14:09requires only one divine ladder for himself.
- 14:12Not one, but two ascenders are raised together.
- 14:16Both the Eye of RA and the Eye of Horus are prepared and put
- 14:20into position, one on the wing of Thoth and the other on the
- 14:23wing of Seth. To the puzzled king the gods
- 14:27explain that the second boat is for the son of Atan, a God
- 14:31descended of the winged disk, perhaps the God to whom the king
- 14:36had spoken. In the equipping chamber the Eye
- 14:39of Horus is mounted upon the wing of Seth.
- 14:42The cables are tied, the boats are assembled.
- 14:45That the son of the Atan be not without a boat.
- 14:49The king is with the son of Artan.
- 14:52He is not without a boat. Equipped as a God.
- 14:55The king is assisted by two goddesses who sees his cables to
- 15:00step into the eye of Horus. The term Eye of Horus of RA,
- 15:04which has gradually replaced the term ascender or ladder, now is
- 15:08being increasingly displaced by the term boat.
- 15:12The eye or boat into which the king steps in is 770 cubits,
- 15:17circa 1000 feet long. A God who is in charge of the
- 15:22boat sits at its bow. He is instructed, Take this king
- 15:26with thee in the cabin of thy boat.
- 15:28As the king steps down into the perch, a term denoting an
- 15:32elevated resting place, especially of birds, he can see
- 15:36the face of the God who is in the cabin, for the face of the
- 15:39God is open. The king takes the seat in the
- 15:42divine boat between two gods. The seat is called Truth, which
- 15:46makes alive 2 horns protrude from the King's head or helmet.
- 15:52He attaches to himself that which went forth from the head
- 15:55of Horus. He is plugged in for action.
- 15:59The texts dealing with the journey to the afterlife by King
- 16:02Peppy the first describe the moment Peppy is arrayed in the
- 16:06apparel of Horus and in the dress of Forth.
- 16:10Isis is before him, and Neftis is behind him.
- 16:13A Puat who is opener of the ways hath opened away unto him.
- 16:18Shoe, the sky bearer hath lifted him up.
- 16:21The gods of An make him ascend the stairway and set him before
- 16:26the firmament of the heaven. Noot, the sky goddess, extends
- 16:30her hand to him. The magical moment has arrived.
- 16:34There are only two more doors to be opened, and the king, as RA
- 16:38and Osiris had done before, will emerge triumphantly from the
- 16:42Duat, and his boat will float on the celestial waters.
- 16:46The king says a silent prayer. O Lofty, 1 thou door of Heaven,
- 16:51the king has come to thee, 'cause this door to be opened
- 16:54for him. The two dead pillars are
- 16:57standing upright, motionless, and suddenly the double doors of
- 17:01heaven are open. The texts break out in ecstatic
- 17:05pronouncements. The door to heaven is open.
- 17:08The door of earth is open. The aperture of the celestial
- 17:11windows is open. The stairway to heaven is open.
- 17:14The steps of light are revealed. The double doors to heaven are
- 17:17open. The double doors of Caboo are
- 17:20open for Horus of the East at Daybreak.
- 17:25Ape gods symbolizing the waning moon Daybreak, begin to
- 17:29pronounce magical words of power, which will cause splendor
- 17:33to issue from the Eye of Horus. The radiance reported earlier as
- 17:37the hallmark of the twin peaked mountain of light intensifies
- 17:41the sky God has strengthened the radiance for the king, that the
- 17:45king may lift himself to heaven. Like the Eye of RA, the king is
- 17:50in this Eye of Horus, where the command of the gods is heard.
- 17:54The Eye of Horus begins to change hues.
- 17:57First it is blue, then it is red.
- 17:59There are excitement and much activity all around.
- 18:03The red Eye of Horus is furious in wrath.
- 18:06It's might no one can withstand. Is messenger's hurry is runner
- 18:11hastens. They announce to him who lifts
- 18:14up his arm in the east. Let this one pass.
- 18:17Let the God command the fathers. The gods be silent.
- 18:21Lay your hands upon your mouth. Stand at the doorway of the
- 18:25horizon. Open the double doors of heaven.
- 18:28The silence is broken now. There are sound and fury roaring
- 18:33and quaking. The heaven speaks, the
- 18:36earthquakes, the earth trembles. The two districts of the gods
- 18:41shout. The ground is come apart when
- 18:45the king ascends to heaven. When he ferries over the vault
- 18:48to heaven, the earth lapse. The sky smiles when the king
- 18:53ascends to heaven. Heaven shouts in joy for him,
- 18:58the earthquakes for him. The roaring Tempest drives him.
- 19:02It roars like Seth. The guardians of heaven's parts
- 19:06opens the door of heaven for him.
- 19:09Then the two mountains divide, and there is a lift off into a
- 19:12cloudy sky of dawn, from which the stars of night are gone.
- 19:17The sky is overcast, the stars are darkened, the boughs are
- 19:21agitated, the bones of earthquake amid the agitation,
- 19:26quaking and thundering. The bull of Heaven, whose belly
- 19:29is full of magic, rises from the Isle of flame.
- 19:33Then the agitation ceases, and the king is aloft, dawning as a
- 19:37Falcon. They see the King dawning as a
- 19:40Falcon, as a God to live with his father's, to feed with his
- 19:44mother's. The keen is a bull of heaven
- 19:47whose belly is full of magic from the Isle of Flame.
- 19:51Utterance 422 speaks eloquently of this moment.
- 19:56O this peppy, thou hast departed.
- 19:59Thou art a glorious one, mighty as a God, seated as Osiris.
- 20:05Thy soul is within thee, thy power control hast thou behind
- 20:10thee. The Masood crown is at thy hand.
- 20:14Thou ascendest to thy mother goddess of heaven.
- 20:17She lays hold of thine arm. She shows thee the way to the
- 20:22horizon, to the place where Rye is.
- 20:25The double doors of heaven are opened for thee.
- 20:28The double doors of the sky are opened for thee.
- 20:31Thou risest O pepee equipped as a God.
- 20:36An illustration, The Tomb of Ramses the Night suggests that
- 20:41the double doors were opened by inclining them away from each
- 20:44other. This was achieved by the
- 20:46manipulation of wheels and pulleys operated by 6 gods at
- 20:51each door through the funnel like opening, a giant man like
- 20:56Falcon could then emerge and can be found in the bonus PDF under
- 21:01Figure 25. With great self satisfaction at
- 21:05the achievement, the texts announced to the King's
- 21:08subjects. He flies.
- 21:11Who flies? This King Peppy flies away from
- 21:14you, ye mortals. He is not of the earth, he is of
- 21:19the heaven. This King Peppy flies as a cloud
- 21:22to the sky like a masthead bird. This King Peppy kisses the sky
- 21:28like a Falcon. He reaches the sky of the
- 21:31horizon. God.
- 21:33The King, the Pyramid Texts continue, is now on the sky
- 21:38Bearer, the upholder of the stars.
- 21:41From within the shadow of the walls of God, he crosses the
- 21:44skies. The King is not simply sky born.
- 21:48He is orbiting Earth. He encompasses the sky like RA.
- 21:53He traverses the sky like Thoth. He traveleth over the regions of
- 21:57Horus. He traveleth over the regions of
- 22:00Seth. He has completely encircled
- 22:03twice the heavens. He has revolved about the 2
- 22:07lands. The king is a Falcon surpassing
- 22:10the Falcons. He is a great Falcon.
- 22:14A verse also states that the king crosses the sky like sunt
- 22:19which crosses the sky 9 times in one night.
- 22:23But the meaning of sunt, and thus the comparison, are as yet
- 22:26undeciphered. Still sitting between these two
- 22:29companions, voyage over the sky, the king soars toward the
- 22:34eastern horizon, far, far away in the heavens.
- 22:38His destination is the Aten, the wind disk, which is also called
- 22:43the imperishable star. The prayers now focus on getting
- 22:47the King to the Aten and his safe arrival upon it.
- 22:52Aten, let him ascend to thee, Enfold him in thine.
- 22:55Embrace. The texts in tone in behalf of
- 22:58the King. There is the abode of RA, and
- 23:02the prayers seek to assure a favourable welcome for the king
- 23:06by presenting his arrival at the celestial abode as the return of
- 23:10a son to his father, RA of the Aten.
- 23:13Thy son has come to thee. Pepe comes to thee.
- 23:17Let him ascend to thee, Enfold him in thy embrace.
- 23:22Now there is clamour in heaven we see a new thing, say the
- 23:26celestial gods. A Horus is in the rays of Rah.
- 23:31The king, on his way to heaven. On the wind, advances in heaven.
- 23:36He cleaves its firmament, expecting a welcome at his
- 23:40destination. The celestial journey is to last
- 23:44eight days. When the hour of the Morrow
- 23:46comes, the hour of the 8th day, the King will be summoned by
- 23:50Rah. The gods who guard the entrance
- 23:53to the Arten or to RA's abode there, will let him through, for
- 23:57RA himself shall await the King on the imperishable star.
- 24:02When this hour of the Morrow comes, when the King shall stand
- 24:06there on the star which is on the underside of the heaven, he
- 24:10shall be judged as a God. Listen too, like a Prince.
- 24:14The king shall call out to them. They shall come to him, those
- 24:19four gods who stand on the damned scepters of heaven, that
- 24:22they may speak the King's name to Rah.
- 24:25Announce his name, Horace of the Horizons.
- 24:29He has come to thee. The King has come to thee.
- 24:33Travelling in the lake that is the heavens, the king nears the
- 24:37shores of the sky as he approaches the gods on the
- 24:40imperishable star. Indeed announce, as expected,
- 24:44the arriver comes. RA has given him his arm on the
- 24:48stairway to heaven. He who knows the place comes,
- 24:52say the gods. There at the gates of the double
- 24:55Palace, RA is indeed awaiting the king.
- 24:59Thou findest RA standing there. He greets thee, lays hold on thy
- 25:04arm. He leads thee into the celestial
- 25:06Double palace. He places thee upon the throne
- 25:09of Osiris. And the texts announce RA has
- 25:14taken the king to himself, to heaven.
- 25:16On the eastern side of heaven, the king is on that star which
- 25:20radiates in heaven. Now there is one more detail
- 25:24left to accomplish. In the company of Horus of the
- 25:27Duat, described as the great green divine Falcon, the king
- 25:32sets out to find the Tree of Life.
- 25:34In the midst of the place of offering.
- 25:37This King Pepe goes to the field of life, the birth place of RA.
- 25:41In the heavens he finds Kabehat approaching him with these 4
- 25:46jars with which she refreshes the heart of the great God.
- 25:50On the day when he awakes, she refreshes the heart of this
- 25:54king. Peppy therewith to life.
- 25:57Mission achieved, the texts announce with Glee.
- 26:01Ho this Peppy, All satisfying life is given to thee.
- 26:06Eternity is thine, says Rah. Thou perishest not, thou passest
- 26:12not away. Forever and ever.
- 26:15The king has ascended the stairway to heaven.
- 26:18He has reached the imperishable star, His lifetime, his
- 26:22eternity, its limit, everlastingness.
- 26:28Let us imagine ourselves in the Pharaoh's magnificent funerary
- 26:32temple. Having mummified and prepared
- 26:35the Pharaoh for his journey, the Shem priests now intone the gods
- 26:39to open for the king a path and a gateway.
- 26:43The divine messenger has arrived on the other side of the false
- 26:46door, ready to take the Pharaoh through the Stonewall and launch
- 26:50him on his journey. Emerging through the false door
- 26:53on the eastern side of his tomb, the Pharaoh was instructed to
- 26:57set his course eastward. Lest ye misunderstand, he was
- 27:01explicitly warned against going West.
- 27:04Those who go thither, they return not.
- 27:07His goal was the Duat in the land of the mountain gods.
- 27:11He was to enter there the great House of two, the House of Fire,
- 27:16where during a night of computing years, he shall be
- 27:19transformed into a divine being and ascend to the east side of
- 27:24heaven. The first obstacle in the
- 27:26Pharaoh's course was the Lake of Reeds, a long body of marshy
- 27:30waters made-up of a series of adjoining lakes.
- 27:34Symbolically, he had the blessing of his guardian God to
- 27:37cross the lake by parting its waters.
- 27:40Physically, the crossing was possible because the lake was
- 27:43served by the divine ferryman, who ferried the gods across in a
- 27:47boat made by Kanoom, the divine Craftsman.
- 27:51But the ferryman was stationed on the far side of the lake, and
- 27:55the pharaoh had a hard time convincing him that he was
- 27:58entitled to be fetched and ferried over.
- 28:01An example of this can be found in the bonus PDF under Figure
- 28:0413. The ferryman questioned the
- 28:08Pharaoh about his origins. Was he the son of a God or
- 28:11goddess? Was he listed in the register of
- 28:14the two great gods? The Pharaoh explained his claims
- 28:17to being of divine seed and gave assurances of his righteousness.
- 28:22In some cases it worked. In other instances the Pharaoh
- 28:26had to appeal to RA or to Thoth to get him across, in which
- 28:30instances the boat and its oars or rudder came alive with
- 28:34uncanny forces. The ferry boat began to move by
- 28:37itself. The steering oar grasped by the
- 28:40king directed itself. All in short, became
- 28:44self-propelled. One way or another the Pharaoh
- 28:47managed to cross the lake and be on his way toward the two that
- 28:52bring closer the heavens. He descends into the boat like
- 28:57raw on the shores of the winding watercourse.
- 29:01The king rose in the Hunbu boat. He takes the helm toward the
- 29:05plain of the two that bring closer the heavens in the land
- 29:09beginning from the Lake of Reeds.
- 29:11The Lake of Reeds was situated at the eastern end of the domain
- 29:15of Horus. Beyond lay the territories of
- 29:18his adversary's Seth, the lands of Asia.
- 29:21As would be expected on such a sensitive boundary, the king
- 29:24discovers that the lake's Eastern Shore is patrolled by 4
- 29:28crossing guards, the wearers of side locks.
- 29:32The way these guards wore their hair was truly their most
- 29:35conspicuous feature. Black as coal, it was arranged
- 29:39in curls on their foreheads, at their temples and at the back of
- 29:42their heads, with braids in the centre of their heads.
- 29:46Combining diplomacy with firmness, the king again
- 29:49proclaimed his divine origins, claiming he was summoned by my
- 29:53father RA1. Pharaoh is reported to have used
- 29:57threats. Delay my crossing and I will
- 29:59pluck out your locks as Lotus flowers are plucked in the Lotus
- 30:02pond. Another had some of the gods
- 30:05come to his assistance. One way or another, the Pharaoh
- 30:08managed to proceed. The king has now left the lands
- 30:13of Horus. The eastward place which he
- 30:15seeks to reach, though under the aegis of RA, is in the region of
- 30:19Seth. His goal is a mountainous area,
- 30:22the mountains of the east, as can be seen in the bonus PDF
- 30:27under Figure 14. His course is set toward a pass
- 30:31between two mountains, the two mountains which stand in awe of
- 30:34Seth. But first he has to traverse an
- 30:37arid and barren area, a kind of no God's land, between the
- 30:41domains of Horus and Seth. Just as the pace and urgency of
- 30:46the utterances increase, where the king is getting closer to
- 30:49the hidden place where the doors of heaven are located, he is
- 30:52challenged again by guards. Where goest thou?
- 30:56They demand to know the King's sponsors Answer foreign.
- 31:00The king goes to heaven to possess life and joy.
- 31:03That the king may see his father, That the king may see
- 31:06RA. Nowadays we take Space Flight
- 31:10for granted. We can read of plans for
- 31:13permanently orbiting space settlements without blinking an
- 31:16eye. The development of a reusable
- 31:19space shuttle is viewed not with wonderment, but with
- 31:22appreciation of its cost saving potentialities.
- 31:27All this, of course, because we have seen with our own eyes in
- 31:30print and on television. Astronauts fly in space and
- 31:35unmanned craft land on other planets.
- 31:39We accept space travel and interplanetary contacts because
- 31:43we have heard with our own ears. A mortal named Neil Armstrong,
- 31:48commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, report on his radio
- 31:52for all the world to hear the first landing by man on another
- 31:57celestial body, the moon. Houston Tranquillity Base.
- 32:02Here, the Eagle has landed. Eagle was not only the code name
- 32:07for the lunar module, but the epithet by which the Apollo 11
- 32:11spacecraft was called and a proud nickname by which the
- 32:15three astronauts identified themselves.
- 32:18The Falcon 2 has soared into space and landed on the moon.
- 32:23In the immense National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian
- 32:27Institution in Washington, one can see and touch the actual
- 32:31spacecraft that were flown or that were used as backup
- 32:35vehicles in the American space program.
- 32:38In a special section where the moon landings have been
- 32:41simulated with the aid of the original equipment, the visitor
- 32:45can still hear a recorded message from the surface of the
- 32:48moon. OK, Houston.
- 32:50The Falcon is on the plane at Hadley, Whereupon the Manned
- 32:54Spacecraft Centre at Houston announced to the world.
- 32:58That was a jubilant Dave Scott reporting Apollo 15 on the plane
- 33:02at Hadley. Up to a few decades ago, the
- 33:06notion that a common mortal can put on some special clothes and
- 33:10strap himself in the front part of a long object, then zoom off
- 33:14the face of Earth seemed preposterous.
- 33:17Or worse, a century or two ago, such a notion would not have
- 33:21even come about, for there was nothing in human experience or
- 33:25knowledge to trigger such fantasies.
- 33:28Yet, as we have just described, the Egyptians 5000 years ago
- 33:33could readily visualize all this happening to their pharaoh.
- 33:37He would journey to a launch site east of Egypt.
- 33:40He would enter a subterranean complex of tunnels and chambers.
- 33:44He would safely pass by the installation's atomic plant and
- 33:48radiation chamber. He would Don the suit and gear
- 33:52of an astronaut, enter the cabin of an ascender and sit strapped
- 33:56between two gods. And then, as the double doors
- 34:00would open and the dawn skies would be revealed, the jet
- 34:04engines would ignite and the ascender would turn into the
- 34:07celestial ladder by which the pharaoh will reach the abode of
- 34:11the gods on their planet of millions of years.
- 34:14On hot TV screens. Had the Egyptians seen such
- 34:17things happen that they so firmly believed that all this
- 34:21was really possible in the absence of television in their
- 34:24homes, the only alternative would have been to either go to
- 34:28the spaceport and watch the rocket ships come and go, or
- 34:33visit a Smithsonian and see the craft on display, accompanied by
- 34:37a knowing guide or viewing flight simulations.
- 34:41The evidence suggests that the ancient Egyptians had indeed
- 34:45done that. They had seen the launch site
- 34:48and the hardware and the astronauts with their own eyes.
- 34:52But the astronauts were not Earthlings going elsewhere.
- 34:56They were rather astronauts from elsewhere who had come to planet
- 35:00Earth greatly enamoured with art.
- 35:03The ancient Egyptians depicted in their tombs what they had
- 35:07seen and experienced in their lifetimes.
- 35:10The architecturally detailed drawings of the subterranean
- 35:14corridors and chambers of the Duat come from the tomb of Seti
- 35:18the First. An even more startling depiction
- 35:21has been found in the tomb of Hugh, who was Viceroy in Nubia
- 35:26and in the Sinai Peninsula during the reign of the renowned
- 35:28Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Decorated with scenes of people,
- 35:33places and objects from the two domains of which he was Viceroy,
- 35:37his tune preserved to this very day a depiction in vivid colours
- 35:42of a rocket ship. Its shaft is contained in an
- 35:46underground silo. Its upper stage with the command
- 35:49module is above ground. The shaft is subdivided like a
- 35:53multi stage rocket. Inside its lower Part 2 persons
- 35:57attend to hoses and levers. There is a row of circular dials
- 36:01above them. The silo cutaway shows that it
- 36:05is surrounded by tubular cells for heat exchange or some other
- 36:09energy related function above ground.
- 36:12The hemispherical base of the upper stage is clearly depicted
- 36:17in the colour painting, as scorched as though from a re
- 36:20entry into Earth's atmosphere. The command module, large enough
- 36:25to hold three to four persons, is conical in shape and there
- 36:29are vertical peepholes all around its bottom.
- 36:33The cabin is surrounded by worshippers in the landscape of
- 36:36date palm trees and giraffes. This can be seen in the bonus
- 36:41PDF under Figure 27. The underground chamber is
- 36:45decorated with leopard skins and this provides a direct link with
- 36:49certain phases in the Pharaoh's journey to immortality.
- 36:53The leopard skin was the distinctive garb symbolically
- 36:56worn by the Shem priest as he performed the opening of the
- 37:00mouth ceremony. It was the distinctive garb
- 37:03symbolically worn by the gods who towed the Pharaoh through
- 37:07the secret path of the hidden place of the Duat, A symbolism
- 37:11repeated to stress the affinity between the Pharaoh's journey
- 37:15and the rocket ship in the underground silo.
- 37:18As the Pyramid Texts make clear, the Pharaoh, in his translation
- 37:23into an eternal afterlife, embarked on a journey simulating
- 37:27the gods RA and Seth, Osiris and Horus and other gods had
- 37:32ascended to the heavens in this manner, but the Egyptians also
- 37:36believed it was by the same celestial boat that the great
- 37:40gods had come down to earth. In the 1st place, at the city of
- 37:44Ong, Heliopolis, Egypt's oldest centre of worship, the God Ptah
- 37:51built a special structure, a Smithsonian Institution if you
- 37:54will, wherein an actual space capsule could be viewed and
- 37:59revered by the people of Egypt. The secret object, the Benben,
- 38:04was enshrined in the Het Benben, the Temple of the Benben.
- 38:09We know from the hieroglyphic depiction of the place's name
- 38:13that the structure looked like a massive launch tower from within
- 38:16which a pointed rocket was poised skyward, as seen in
- 38:21Figure 28 in the bonus PDF. The benben was, according to the
- 38:26ancient Egyptians, a solid object that had actually come to
- 38:30Earth from the celestial disk. It was the celestial chamber in
- 38:34which the great God RA himself had landed on Earth.
- 38:38The term then literally that which flowed out, conveying the
- 38:42combined meanings of to shine and to shoot up in the sky.
- 38:47An inscription on the stila of the Pharaoh Pianchi said.
- 38:52Thus the king Pianchi mounted the stairs toward the large
- 38:57window in order to view the God RA within the benben.
- 39:02The kin, personally standing up and being all alone, pushed
- 39:05apart the bolt and opened the 2 door leaves.
- 39:09Then he saw his father RA in the splendid sanctuary of Het
- 39:14Benben, he saw the Maud RA's barge, and he saw Sectet, the
- 39:19barge of the Aten. The shrine we know from the
- 39:23ancient texts was guarded and serviced by two groups of gods.
- 39:28There were those who were outside of the Het Ben Ben but
- 39:32were allowed into the shrine's most sacred parts, for it was
- 39:35their task to receive the offerings from the pilgrims and
- 39:39bring them into the temple. The others were primarily
- 39:42guardians not only of the Ben Ben itself, but of all the
- 39:46secret things of RA which are in the Het Ben Ben.
- 39:50Much as tourists nowadays flock to the Smithsonian to view,
- 39:54admire, and even touch the actual vehicles flown in space,
- 39:58so did the devout Egyptians make pilgrimages to Heliopolis to
- 40:03Revere and pray to the Benven, probably with a religious fervor
- 40:08akin to that of the faithful Muslims who make pilgrimages to
- 40:12Mecca, there to pray at the Kaaba, a Blackstone believed to
- 40:17be a replica of God's celestial chamber.
- 40:21At the shrine there was a fountain or well whose waters
- 40:24acquired A reputation for their healing powers.
- 40:28Especially in matters of virility and fertility, the term
- 40:32Ben and its hieroglyphic depiction in time indeed
- 40:36acquired the connotations virility and reproduction and
- 40:40could well have been the source of a meaning male offspring that
- 40:44Ben as in Hebrew. In addition to virility and
- 40:48reproduction, the shrine also acquired the attributes of
- 40:51rejuvenation. This in turn gave rise to the
- 40:55legend of the Ben bird, which the Greeks who had visited Egypt
- 40:59called the Phoenix. As these legends had it, the
- 41:03Phoenix was an eagle with plumage partly red and partly
- 41:07golden. Once every 500 years, as it was
- 41:11about to die, it went to Heliopolis and in some manner
- 41:16rose again from the ashes of itself or of its father.
- 41:21Heliopolis and its healing waters remained venerated until
- 41:26early Christian times. Local traditions claim that when
- 41:30Joseph and Mary escaped to Egypt with the child Jesus, they
- 41:34rested by the shrines. Well, the shrine at Heliopolis,
- 41:39Egyptian histories tell, was destroyed several times by enemy
- 41:44invaders. Nothing remains of it nowadays.
- 41:48The Ben Ben is also gone, but it was depicted on Egyptian
- 41:52monuments as a conical chamber within which a God could be
- 41:56seen. Archaeologists have in fact
- 41:59found a stone scale model of the Venben showing a God at its open
- 42:04hatch door in a gesture of welcome.
- 42:07The true shape of the celestial chamber was probably accurately
- 42:11depicted in the Tomb of Hue. That modern command modules, the
- 42:15capsules housing astronauts atop rocket ships at launching and in
- 42:20which they splashed down back to Earth, look so similar to the
- 42:23Benven is no doubt a result of similarity of purpose and
- 42:27function. Compare the shapes in Figure 29
- 42:31and 30 to the shape between the giraffes and Figure 27 in the
- 42:35bonus PDF. In the absence of the benben
- 42:38itself, is there any other physical piece of evidence and
- 42:42not mere drawings or scale models left from the
- 42:46Heliopolitan shrine? We have noted according to
- 42:49Egyptian texts, there were other secret things of RAW on display
- 42:54or in safe keeping at the shrine.
- 42:57In the Book of the Dead, 9 objects affiliated with the
- 43:00hieroglyph Prashem were depicted in the division paralleling the
- 43:05shrine of Heliopolis. It could well be that there were
- 43:10indeed another 9 space related objects or spacecraft parts on
- 43:15display at the shrine. Archaeologists may also have
- 43:19found a replica of one of these smaller objects.
- 43:22It is an oddly shaped circular object full of intricate curves
- 43:26and cutouts. It has baffled all scholars
- 43:29since its discovery in 1936. It is important to realize that
- 43:34the object was found among the other unusual copper objects in
- 43:38the tomb of the Crown Prince Sabu, son of King Ajib of the
- 43:43First Dynasty. It is therefore certain that the
- 43:46object was placed in a tomb circa 3100 BC.
- 43:51It could have been older, but certainly not more recent than
- 43:54that date. Reporting on the discoveries in
- 43:57northern Sicara, just South of the Great Pyramids at Giza,
- 44:02Walter B Emery described the object as a bull like vessel of
- 44:07Sheist and remarked that no satisfactory explanation of the
- 44:11curious design of this object has been forthcoming.
- 44:15The object was carved from a solid block of Sheist, a rock
- 44:19which is very brittle and which easily splits into thin,
- 44:22irregular layers. If it were put to any use, it
- 44:26would have quickly broken apart. So the particular stone was
- 44:30chosen because the very unusual and delicate shape could best be
- 44:34carved out in such a material, a means to preserve the shape
- 44:38rather than to actually use it. This has LED other scholars,
- 44:42such as Cyril Aldred, to conclude that the stone object
- 44:45possibly imitates a form originally made in metal.
- 44:50But what metal could have been used in the fourth Millennium BC
- 44:53to produce the object? What process of precision
- 44:57grinding? What skilled metallurgists were
- 45:00then available to create such a delicate and structurally
- 45:03complex design? And above all, for what purpose?
- 45:07A technical study of the object's unique design shed
- 45:11little light on its use or origin.
- 45:14The round object, some 24 inches in diameter and less than 4
- 45:19inches at its thickest part, was obviously made to fit over a
- 45:23shaft and rotate around an axle. It's 3 oddly curving cut outs
- 45:29suggest a possible immersion in a liquid during rotation.
- 45:34Pictures can be found in the bonus PDF under Figure 31-A and
- 45:38Figure 31. B.
- 45:40There was no further effort made after 1936 to unravel the
- 45:44object's enigma, but its possible function suddenly
- 45:48sprang to our mind in 1976 on reading in a technical magazine
- 45:53of some revolutionary designs of a flywheel being developed in
- 45:58California in connection with the American space program.
- 46:02The flywheel, attached to a rotating shaft of a machine or
- 46:06an engine, has been in use for less than two centuries as a
- 46:10means of regulating the speed of machinery, as well As for
- 46:14accumulating energy for a single spurt, such as in a metal press
- 46:18or, more recently, in aviation. As a rule, flywheels have had
- 46:23heavy rims, for the energy is stored in the wheel's
- 46:27circumference. But in the 1970s, engineers of
- 46:31the Lockheed Missile and Space Company came up with an opposite
- 46:35design, a light rimmed wheel, claiming it is best suited for
- 46:40saving energy in mass transit trains or storing energy in
- 46:44electrically powered trolley buses.
- 46:46The research was continued by the Air Search Manufacturing
- 46:50Company. The model they developed, but
- 46:52never finally perfected was to be hermetically sealed within a
- 46:56housing filled with lubricant. That their revolutionary fly
- 47:00reel looks like the 5000 year old object discovered in Egypt
- 47:05is only less amazing than the fact that the perfected object
- 47:08from 3100 BC looks like a piece of equipment still in the
- 47:13development stage by Space Engineers in AD 1978.
- 47:18Compare Figure 32 in the bonus PDF with Figures 31-A and B.
- 47:24Where is the metal original of this ancient flywheel?
- 47:28Where are the other objects that were apparently on display at
- 47:32the Heliopolis shrine? Where, for that matter, is the
- 47:36Ben Ben itself? Like so many artifacts whose
- 47:39existence and antiquity has been documented by the ancient
- 47:43peoples, beyond doubt, they have all disappeared, destroyed
- 47:48perhaps by natural calamities or wars, perhaps dismantled and
- 47:52taken elsewhere as war booty or for safe keeping and hiding away
- 47:56in places long forgotten. Perhaps they were carried back
- 48:00to the heavens. Perhaps they are still with us,
- 48:03unrecognized for what they are in some museum basement, or, as
- 48:07the legend of the Phoenix which connects Heliopolis and Arabia
- 48:12might suggest, hidden under the sealed Chamber of the Kaaba in
- 48:17Mecca. We can surmise, however, that
- 48:20the destruction, disappearance or withdrawal of the shrine's
- 48:24sacred objects had probably taken place during Egypt's
- 48:28so-called first intermediary period.
- 48:32In that period the unification of Egypt came apart and total
- 48:35anarchy reigned. We know that the shrines of
- 48:38Heliopolis were destroyed during the years of disorder.
- 48:42It was then, perhaps, that RA left his temple of Heliopolis
- 48:47and became Amon, the hidden God. When order was first restored in
- 48:53Upper Egypt under the 11th Dynasty, the capital was
- 48:56established at Thebes and the supreme God was called Amon or
- 49:01Amon. The pharaoh Mentuhotep Neb Apete
- 49:05RA built a vast temple near Thebes, dedicated it to RA, and
- 49:11topped it with a huge pyramidion to commemorate RA's celestial
- 49:15chamber. An image of the temple can be
- 49:17found in a bonus PDF under Figure 33.
- 49:22Soon after 2000 BC, as the 12th Dynasty began its reign, Egypt
- 49:27was reunited, order was restored and access to Heliopolis was
- 49:33regained. The dynasty's first pharaoh,
- 49:36Aman M Hat the First, immediately undertook the
- 49:39rebuilding of the temples and shrines of Heliopolis.
- 49:43But whether he could also restore the original artefacts
- 49:46enshrined there or had to do with their stone simulations, no
- 49:52one can say for certain. His son, the Pharaoh, Sen Usurt
- 49:57Keeper Kara the Sesotris or Sesinchucis of Greek historians,
- 50:04erected in front of the temple 2 huge granite columns over 66
- 50:09feet high on top. They were surmounted with a
- 50:12scale replica of Ra's celestial chamber, a pyramidion which was
- 50:18encased in gold or white copper electrum.
- 50:22One of these granite obelisks still stands where it was raised
- 50:26up some 4000 years ago. The other was destroyed in the
- 50:3012th century AD. The Greeks called these pillars
- 50:34obelisks, meaning pointed cutters.
- 50:38The Egyptians called them beans of the gods.
- 50:41More of them were set up, always in pairs, in front of temple
- 50:45gateways during the 18th and 19th dynasties.
- 50:50Some were in the end carted off to New York, London, Paris,
- 50:53Rome. As stated by the Pharaohs.
- 50:57They raised these obelisks in order to obtain from the gods
- 51:01the gift of eternal life, to obtain life everlasting.
- 51:05For the obelisks simulated in stone what earlier Pharaohs had
- 51:10seen and purportedly reached in the Duat in the sacred mountain,
- 51:14the rocket ships of the gods. 2 examples of these can be found
- 51:19in the bonus PDF under Figure 34 and Figure 35.
- 51:24Today's tombstones, engraved with the deceased's name so that
- 51:28he can be forever remembered, are scaled down obelisks, a
- 51:33custom rooted in the days when the gods and their spacecraft
- 51:36were an absolute reality. The Egyptian word for these
- 51:41celestial beings was natur, a term which in the languages of
- 51:45the ancient Near East meant one who watches the hieroglyphic
- 51:50sign. For Netter, like all
- 51:52hieroglyphic signs, must have represented originally an actual
- 51:56visible object. Suggestions by scholars have
- 52:00ranged from an axe on a long handle to an Ensign.
- 52:04Margaret A Murray has put forward a more current view
- 52:08showing that pottery from the earliest pre dynastic period was
- 52:12adorned with drawings of boats carrying a pole with two
- 52:16streamers as a standard. She concluded that the pole with
- 52:19the two streamers became the hieroglyphic sign for God.
- 52:24An example of this can be seen in the bonus PDF under Figure
- 52:2836. The interesting point about
- 52:31these earliest drawings is that they showed the boats arriving
- 52:34from a foreign land. When the drawings included
- 52:38people, they showed seated rowers commanded by a tall
- 52:41master, distinguished by the horns protruding from his
- 52:45helmet, the mark of being a netter.
- 52:47Pictorially, then, the Egyptians affirmed from the very beginning
- 52:51that their gods had come to Egypt from elsewhere.
- 52:55This confirmed the tales of how Egypt began, that the God Ptah,
- 53:00having come from the South and having found Egypt inundated,
- 53:04performed the great works of diking and land reclamation, and
- 53:08made the land habitable. There was a place in Egyptian
- 53:12geography which they called TA Netter, Place, land of the Gods.
- 53:18It was the narrow straits at the southern end of the Red Sea
- 53:21which is now called Bavel Mandeb.
- 53:25It was through that Strait that the ships bearing the Insan
- 53:28Netter and carrying the horned gods had come to Egypt.
- 53:33The Egyptian name for the Red Sea was the Sea of Ur.
- 53:37The term TA Ur meant the foreign land in the east.
- 53:41Henry Gautier, who compiled the Dictionaire de nom geographics
- 53:47from all the place names and the hieroglyphic texts, pointed out
- 53:51that the hieroglyph for TA ER was a symbol which designated a
- 53:55nautical element. The sign means that you have to
- 53:58go by boat to the left side. Looking at the map of the
- 54:03ancient lands in Figure 2 of the bonus PDF, we can see that it
- 54:08turned leftward as one came from Egypt and passed through the
- 54:12Straits of Bab. El Mandeb would take the sailor
- 54:16along the Arabian Peninsula toward the Persian Gulf.
- 54:19There are more clues. TA Ur literally meant the land
- 54:23of Ur, and the name Ur was not unknown.
- 54:26It was the birth place of Abraham, the Hebrew patriarch,
- 54:30descended of Shem, the elder son of Noah, the biblical hero of
- 54:34the Deluge, was born to his father Tyra at the city of ER in
- 54:40Chaldea. And Tyra took Abram, his son,
- 54:44and Lot, the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarah, his
- 54:48daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram.
- 54:51And they went forth from ER of the Chaldeys to go into the land
- 54:54of Canaan. When archaeologists and
- 54:58linguists began to unravel at the beginning of the 19th
- 55:01century, the history and written records of Egypt ER was unknown
- 55:06from many other source except the Old Testament.
- 55:09Chaldea, however, was known. It was the name by which the
- 55:13Greeks had called Babylonia, Mesopotamia's ancient Kingdom.
- 55:18The Greek historian Herodotus, who had visited Egypt and
- 55:22Babylonia in the 5th century BC, found many similarities in the
- 55:27customs of the Egyptians and the Chaldeans.
- 55:30Describing the sacred precinct of the supreme God Bell, whom he
- 55:34called Jupiter Belous in the city of Babylon and its huge
- 55:39stage tower, he wrote that on the uppermost tower there is a
- 55:43spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual
- 55:48size, richly adorned with a golden table by its side.
- 55:53There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the
- 55:57chamber occupied by Knights by anyone but a native woman who,
- 56:01as the Chaldeans, the priests of this God, affirm, is chosen for
- 56:06himself by the deity. They also declare that the God
- 56:10comes down in person into this chamber and sleeps upon the
- 56:13couch. This is like the story of the
- 56:16Egyptians of what takes place in their city Thebes, where the
- 56:20woman always passes the knight in the temple of the Theban
- 56:23Jupiter Ammon. The more 19th century scholars
- 56:28learnt of Egypt and matched the emerging historic picture with
- 56:32the writings of Greek and Roman historians, the more did 2 facts
- 56:37stand out. First, that Egyptian
- 56:40civilization and greatness were not like an isolated flower
- 56:44blooming in a cultural desert, but part of overall developments
- 56:48throughout the ancient lands. And secondly, that the biblical
- 56:52tales of other lands and kingdoms, of fortified cities
- 56:57and trade routes, of wars and treaties, of migrations and
- 57:01settlements, were not only true but also accurate.
- 57:05The Hittites, known for centuries only from brief
- 57:08mentions in the Bible, were discovered in Egyptian records
- 57:12as mighty adversaries of the Pharaohs, a totally unknown page
- 57:16of history. A pivotal battle between
- 57:18Egyptian armies and Hittite legions, which came from Asia
- 57:22Minor, that had taken place at Kadish in northern Canaan, was
- 57:27discovered not only in text but also depicted pictorially on
- 57:31temple walls. There was even a historical
- 57:34personal touch, for the Pharaoh ended up marrying the daughter
- 57:37of the Hittite cane in an effort to cement peace between them.
- 57:42The Philistines, people of the sea, Phoenicians, Hurrians,
- 57:46Amorites, peoples and kingdoms, all vouched for until then only
- 57:51by the Old Testament, began to emerge as historical realities
- 57:56as the archaeological work progressed in Egypt and began to
- 58:00spill over into the other lands of the Bible.
- 58:03Greatest of all, however, appeared to have been the
- 58:06veritable ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.
- 58:10But where were their magnificent temples and other remains of
- 58:14their grandeur, and where were their records?
- 58:18All that travellers had reported from the land between the two
- 58:21rivers, the vast plain between the Euphrates and the Tigris,
- 58:25were mounds tells in Arabic and Hebrew.
- 58:29In the absence of stone, even the grandest structures of
- 58:33ancient Mesopotamia were built of mud bricks.
- 58:37Wars, weather and time reduced them to heaps of soil instead of
- 58:42monumental structures. These lands yielded occasional
- 58:45finds of small artefacts. Among them there often were
- 58:49tablets of big clay inscribed with wedge like markings.
- 58:54Back in 1686A traveller named Engelbert Camphor visited
- 58:59Persepolis, the old Persian capital of the kings whom
- 59:03Alexander had fought. From monuments there he copied
- 59:07signs and symbols in such a wedge shaped or cuneiform script
- 59:11as on the royal seal of Darius, but he thought that they were
- 59:15only decorations. When it was finally realized
- 59:19that these were inscriptions, no one knew what their language was
- 59:23and how they could be deciphered.
- 59:25The seal of Darius can be found in the bonus PDF under Figure
- 59:2937. As in the case of the Egyptian
- 59:32hieroglyphs, so it was with the cuneiform writings.
- 59:36The key to the solution was a trilingual inscription.
- 59:40It was found carved on the rocks of forbidding mountains at a
- 59:43place in Persia called Beihistoon in 1835.
- 59:48A major in the British Army, Henry Rawlinson, managed to copy
- 59:53the inscription and thereafter decipher the script and its
- 59:56languages. As it turned out, the trilingual
- 1:00:00rock inscription was an old Persian, Elamite and Acadian.