Astronomy of the Sphinx

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The Quest Of The Horus King




We learned in the previous installment of The Riddle of the Sphinx that the layout of the Giza necropolis was intended to reflect the patterns of certain constellations, most specifically, the constellation of Orion. Furthermore, we saw how the shafts in the Great Pyramid were aligned with major stars in the sky as they were located relative to Earth in 2500 b.c., and how it is believed that this proves that the ancient Egyptians were aware of the phenomenon of precession.



Hancock and Bauval described at length in The Message of the Sphinx that the ancient Egyptian astronomer priests used their knowledge of astronomy and architecture to lay out the buildings of the Giza necropolis in such a way that their advanced understanding of these disciplines was permanently embedded in them.

Furthermore, they believe that the ultimate purpose of the Giza necropolis was to serve as a permanent, three-dimensional "treasure map", that would allow enlightened individuals, in both their time and in the future, to find a "secret chamber" somewhere in the area. In this secret chamber, it is believed, are the records of the ancient world before even Egypt existed, possibly even from the world before the Flood.

If true, the knowledge contained in this Secret Chamber, commonly referred to as the Hall of Records, would be the single greatest archaeological, historical, and spiritual discovery in the history of the world.

The Quest of the Horus King was the quest for this ancient knowledge of the ancient history of mankind - the truth about our origins, history and, some believe, ancient technology that rivals and possibly exceeds some of our modern technology in some ways.

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The Osirian Empire




In the world before the Flood, it is believed by some, there was an ancient civilization that rivaled ancient Atlantis in power. This ancient empire, that is sometimes referred to as the Osirian Empire, existed 12-15,000 years ago, and encompassed southern Europe, North Africa and the area now filled in by the Mediterranean Sea. The Osirian Empire was contemporaneous with the other mythical ancient empires such as Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean and the Rama Empire which occupied the area now known as India, though whether or not these empires were myth or legend will be discussed in future articles. David Hatcher Childress explains the theory of the Osirian Empire:

According to esoteric tradition, about fifteen thousand years ago, there were a number of highly developed and sophisticated civilizations on our planet, each with a technology that largely surpasses our own.... It is said that at the time of Atlantis and Rama, the Mediterranean was a large and fertile valley, rather than a sea as it is today. The Nile River came out of Africa, as it does today, and was called the River Styx. However, instead of flowing into the Mediterranean Sea at the Nile Delta in northern Egypt, it continues into the valley, and then turned westward to flow in the deepest part of the Mediterranean Valley, just to the south of Crete, between Malta and Sicily, south of Sardinia and then into the Atlantic at Gibraltar (the Pillars of Hercules). This huge, fertile valley, along with the Sahara desert a vast, fertile plain, were known in ancient times as the Osirian Empire.1

According to Childress, there are currently in existence all over the world ancient esoteric writings that describe the destruction of the Osirian Empire as being closely linked with the destruction of Atlantis:

According to esoteric information, stored (even today) in secret libraries in ancient Egypt, China, India, Tibet and other places, Atlantis was destroyed in a cataclysmic upheaval that was essentially isolated only to that mini-continent. With this cataclysmic change in the Atlantic, the Osirian Civilization was slowly flooded as the Mediterranean Basin began to fill with water. Great cities were flooded, and Osirians began moving to higher ground. This theory helps explain the strange megalithic remains all over the Mediterranean, especially on the islands of Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete and the Baleric Islands of Spain. Sunken structures of megalithic proportions have been found off Morocco and Cadiz in Spain. It is an archaeological fact that there are more than 200 known sunken cities in the Mediterranean. Egyptian civilization, along with the Minoan and Mycenean in Crete and Greece are, in theory, remnants of this great, ancient culture.2

Childress mentions one specific example of a sunken city, Alexandria where a submerged port was found. This ancient port, by its very existence, is proof that the Mediterranean was once much shallower than it is today. Moreover, the megalithic construction of the port and other structures nearby, like Abydos and the Sphinx Temple, predate the historical Egyptians, hearkening back to the days of Predynastic Egypt and the "Followers of Horus" mentioned in part 2 of this series.

Divers led by Steven Schwartz, author of The Alexandria Project also found huge sculptures, including a huge, 20-foot block of stone which they dubbed "The Crown of Osiris". This huge crown was part of a much larger statue of Osiris, which was probably in excess of 100 feet tall. Childress explains,

With the Mediterranean slowly filling up with water, it must have stabilized after a few hundred years, and then the remnants of the Osirians, using a technology and science inherited from Atlantis, built what structures and ports they could. Later, in another tectonic shift, the port area, probably used by what we would call "pre-dynastic Egyptians" like those who built Abydos and the Temple of the Sphinx, was submerged, and was then generally useless. It is interesting to note, in accord with this theory, that a Temple to Poseidon was located at the tip of Ras El Tin. Atlantis was known to the ancients as Poseid, and Poseidonis or Poseidon, was a legendary king of Atlantis. Similarly, Poseidonis and Osiris are thought to be the same person. 3

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King Nimrod




The namesake of this fabled Osirian Empire was the Egyptian god Osiris, the ancient god of the Egyptians, who predated most of the gods of Egypt including Re. The origin of Osiris is not clear, though myths of Osiris abound in Egyptian religion and myth. Childress believes that Osiris was an actual historical person who, like Gilgamesh of Mesopotamian myth, was given godlike status over time. This man "Osiris" was known all around the Mediterranean, and examples of his handiwork can be found throughout the Mediterranean and its coasts.

Suddenly, in view of the advanced and ancient civilization in the Mediterranean, the mystery of some of the awesome and inexplicable sites around the Mediterranean, such as Ba'albek [in Lebanon], does not seem quite so mysterious after all.... This theory of Ba'albek being some remnant of the Osirian Empire, along with some of the other megalithic sites in the Mediterranean, fits in well with the Arab legend that the massive stone blocks were built a short time after the Flood, at the order of the legendary King Nimrod, by a "tribe of giants." King Nimrod, and Poseidon, are just other names for Osiris of Egyptian mythology. 4

Nimrod also shows up in the Bible as a notable figure after the line of Ham, son of Noah. According to the Bible, the second generation of Noah's sons included one notable figure known as Nimrod:

1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. 6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. 7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah,and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. 8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. (Gen. 10:1, 6-10, KJV)

Even though Nimrod's kingdom appears in the Bible to have been restricted to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), this is unlikely as Cush, his father, was the father of the Kushites, who lived in what is now Ethiopia, south of Egypt. Similarly, Mizraim, Cush's brother, was the father of the Egyptians (miz rai'm is the Hebrew name for Egypt - literally, "the two lands", referring to upper and lower Egypt). It is also instructive to note, however, that the Bible said that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, indicating that he may have spread outward from Mesopotamia, spreading out throughout the ancient Mediterranean world building magnificent structures the likes of which cannot be duplicated even today.

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ORION - The Mighty Hunter Before The LORD




One of the prime factors for believing that all of the most ancient megalithic sites around the Mediterranean were built by one man, Nimrod, is their consistent relationships with the stars, particularly the constellation of Orion. We have already seen in part three of this series that the pyramids were built and laid out in such a way as to duplicate the stars of the constellation of Orion. Another link to Orion exists, however, in the city of Edessa, in what is now southeastern Turkey, in the same region as described in the Bible as being where Nimrod built his major cities. The oldest known name of Edessa was actually Ourhoi (Syriac), Ourhai (Armenian), or Er Roha (Arabic)5, which is very close to our modern "Orion". Furthermore, the name of the province of Edessa was originally called Orrheone. Adrian Gilbert explains in Magi: The Quest for a Secret Tradition, "Given that there is strong evidence there was an Orion cult at Edessa, the similarity between the words Orrheonis and Orionis is such as to suggest that it was from here that the Greek Orion cult had its origins."6

 
 
Top: The pillars of Edessa, on an ancient coin. The pillars are connected by a central figure surmounted by a cross shape and flanked by the moon. These pillars were closely linked with the throne of Nimrod/Orion.
Bottom: An illustration of the pillars, with the constellation of Orion as it would appear to an observer looking south. Images from Adrian Gilbert, Magi: The Quest for a Secret tradition (London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1996), 203-204.
 
The city of Edessa is actually closely associated with Nimrod, and is even known as "The Throne of Nimrod" to this day. There is a prominent set of pillars in the city, which are closely associated with Nimrod's throne, and which even appear on the coinage of the day. One coin shows a figure standing between the pillars with his arms outstretched, surrounded by astronomical symbols. Gilbert noticed, when examining the pillars, that when viewing them from the north, the constellation of Orion passes in between them, just like the figure on the coin. A set of steps on the southern end of the pillars tends to reinforce the cultic aspect of these pillars, and they probably served in a late-night ritual wherein the king assumed his throne between the pillars just when Orion passed between them, symbolically taking on the ancient mantle of authority linked with the constellation.

According to the myths, the Greek Orion (or Oarion) was a son of Poseidon. [Again, the Poseidon link.] Like Nimrod in the Bible he was a hunter and a giant. He was also exceedingly handsome but, as is so often the case, this was to lead him into trouble. When, after failing to rid the island of Chios of wild animals, Orion seduced Merope the daughter of its king, the latter having him blinded as a punishment. An oracle told Orion that he could have his sight restored if he travelled east and exposed his eyeballs to the rising sun. Accordingly, he went to the island of Lemnos and there Eos (the dawn goddess) fell in love with him, his sight being restored by her brother Helios (the Sun).7


We can see in the Greek Orion myth a number of parallels with the Egyptian legend of Osiris. The story of his blinding by the king of Chios echoes the murder of the Egyptian god-king Osiris by his brother Seth, whilst both Isis and Eos are goddesses associated with the dawn who entreat the Sun-god (Ra/Helios respectively) to bring Osiris/Orion back to full health. In ancient Egypt the resurrection of Osiris was a matter of profound religious significance, which seems to have been connected with the annual reappearance of the Orion constellation at dawn after a period of invisibility. However, Orion can also be "blinded", i.e., his stars become invisible, when the moon (especially a full moon) passes close by.8


This brings us full circle back to the Quest of the Horus King. We now know that the purpose of the Quest of the Horus King was not for mere wealth or power, but for a knowledge of the ancient Osirian Empire and its secrets which, some believe, included the knowledge of ancient technologies saved from the Flood. Moreover, we now know that the Horus King, by undergoing the Quest, was walking in the footsteps of none other than Nimrod himself, who many believe built elaborate underground complexes to hide his treasures. The pyramids, though grand, were built long after Nimrod had passed on, though enough of his wisdom had remained to enable the ancient Egyptians to build the magnificent pyramids. However, as was described in part one of this series, the Sphinx and its temple were built around the time of Nimrod, as far back as 9000 b.c. or earlier. It was during this time that the Osirian Empire flourished, the Sahara and all of Northern Africa being a lush paradise instead of the arid wasteland it is today. This is supported by geological data, and confirmed by the rainwater erosion prominent on the Sphinx and the walls of the Sphinx enclosure. The Horus King, looking to find his spiritual "father", Osiris/Nimrod, the founder of Egyptian civilization, underwent the quest in order to retain the ancient wisdom once held by Nimrod and his forebears.

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Top: The pillars of Edessa,
on an ancient coin. The
pillars are connected by a
central figure surmounted
by a cross shape and flank-
ed by the moon. These
pillars were closely linked
with the throne of Nimrod/
Orion.


Bottom: An illustration of
the pillars, with the con-
stellation of Orion as it
would appear to an observ-
er looking south.



Images
from Adrian Gilbert,

Magi:
The Quest for a Secret
tradition

(London:
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
1996), 203-204.

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The Secret Chamber




The idea of there being a secret chamber buried somewhere beneath the Sphinx was first popularized by renowned psychic Edgar Cayce in 1932. Cayce believed that this secret chamber contained an ancient Hall of Records, which contained, among other things, manuscripts detailing the history of mankind much further back than we are currently aware - possibly even back to the world before the Flood. He also predicted that the Hall would be discovered sometime around the year 2000.

In recent years, this prophecy may have come true. Scientists using an array of techniques, searching on and around the Sphinx, have discovered one or more large, box-shaped, hollow areas just below the Sphinx. One of these enclosures is located beneath of the paws of the Sphinx, just where Cayce had predicted the Hall of Records would be found. Bauval explains,

The Giza necropolis, it seems, has finally decided to discharge all its secrets at once. For not far from the Great Pyramid, in a shallow enclave to the East, is the Great Sphinx. It, too, may be guarding a treasure-trove under its belly: a "Hall of Records" of a civilization long lost in the mist of time. There, too, with amazing synchronicity, an entrance to such a vault has been known since 1993. Why have these "chambers" not yet been opened? What could be within them? Could the Egyptian authorities know more than they are letting on?9

The general consensus in the "legitimate" archaeological community is that Cayce's predictions are nonsense, and that the whole belief in a "secret chamber" beneath the Sphinx is just a bunch of superstitious mumbo-jumbo. Yet, Cayce's prediction of a secret chamber beneath the Sphinx struck a powerful chord in the public psyche worldwide. Ever since, the idea has been hotly debated by both amateurs and acamedics, erudite scholars and "pyramidiots". All types of people from around the world, from serious questers to utter quacks have descended upon the Giza plateau in the decades since Cayce's utterances, seeking out the lost chamber that is supposed to contain the wisdom of the ages.

The lure of a "secret chamber" or Hall of Records at Giza has fired the imagination of the general public and has drawn into this history-long quest a horde of unusual seekers. Ranging from sedate scientists to armchair speculators, from eminent academic institutions to dubious psychic societies, from reputable archaeologists to innocuous Walter Mitty characters, and from staunch skeptics to New Age gurus, a bedazzling assortment of followers have rubbed shoulders at Giza. In trying to make an intelligent assessment of all these goings on, the innocent bystanders will have to sieve through a bewildering pile of conflicting rumours and "official" information poured into the media and the cybernet news machine. Periods of eerie silence from the Egyptian authorities as well as the Egyptological establishment, when coupled with some rather erratic behaviour from the main players, inevitably caused the great rumour mill of the Internet to hatch a series of global conspiracy theories involving foreign governments, the CIA, powerful business moguls and Egyptian government officials, as well as myself. The result is that truth has been mixed with fiction, blurring and distorting the reality of the drama which is unfolding there on the eve of the new millennium. For on this dusty plateau of Giza is being played history's most exciting and most meaningful game: the quest, no less, for the spiritual and cultural origins of civilization, and its true destiny.10

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The Quest Today




The Association of Research and Enlightenment (ARE)
The more serious investigators into the question of the existence of a Secret Chamber can be divided into two primary groups: the ARE, and independent researchers such as John Anthony West, Robert Bauval, and Graham Hancock. The ARE, the Association of Research and Enlightenment, was formed by Edgar Cayce and his group of followers in 1931 for the purpose of researching ancient history through the use of Cayce's "psychic readings". Whatever one thinks of this sort of thing, the fact remains that Cayce's work was and is the prime motivating force behind the search for the secret chamber. To this end, in 1957 two amateur researchers, indirectly affiliated with the ARE, journeyed to Egypt to test Cayce's theory. These two intrepid women managed to get their way past massive amounts of red tape during a period of great turmoil and anti-American sentiment in Egypt. They went right up to the Sphinx and began drilling holes in the rock just in front of its paws, but hit the water table after only eight feet, as the Nile was at its height at that time of the year. Despite their failure to find anything of substance, the fact that these two women were able to get anywhere near the Sphinx was a victory in itself.

Amazed at their success, the ARE, now led by Cayce's son Hugh Lynn, were determined to prove that Cayce's prophesies concerning the Hall of Records were true, and find a way to gain access to the pyramids and, most importantly, the Sphinx. According to Bauval, in order to find a way around the red tape, the ARE enlisted the help of a young student named Mark Lehner (who has since rejected the ARE in favor of "legitimate" archaeology). The ARE directly and indirectly helped Lehner to get in to the American University in Cairo where he was to study Egyptology, and in return, it is alleged Lehner was to help the ARE gain access to the pyramids and Sphinx. Lehner accomplished this with great gusto, making friends with such important Egyptian officials such as Zahi Hawass, who is currently the Undersecretary of the State for the Giza Monuments, and Director of the Pyramids - effectively the authority to make any decisions regarding who does and who does not gain access to the pyramids and Sphinx.

Lehner also made an important connection with Stanford Research International (SRI), a scientific research institute founded by Stanford University in 1946. By the time Lehner had made his connection with them, SRI already had such clients as the CIA, the military, and the Atomic Energy Commission. It had also become an independent organization in 1969. In 1974, SRI got involved with the National Science Foundation and the Ain Shams University in Cairo in an effort to search the pyramids and Sphinx for secret chambers using ground-penetrating radar, with no concrete results. However, they tried again in 1977, using more advanced equipment, and found what they believed to be one or more chambers beneath the Sphinx:

Several anomalies were observed as a result of our resistivity survey at the Sphinx.... A very limited number of measurements were taken due to the time schedule of the project. As a result of the survey, the team discovered five areas of interest. Behind the rear paws (northwest end) we ran two traverses (number 206 and 207). Both traverses indicate an anomaly that could possibly be a tunnel aligned northwest to southwest. Another anomaly exists in the middle of the south side.... There are two anomalies in front of the front paws of the Sphinx... One anomaly occurs on large electrode spacing, suggesting a cavity or shaft as much as 10 m deep.... The resistivity anomalies we found around the Sphinx are not defined sufficiently to allow us any absolute certain conclusions, and we feel that a more detailed survey should be conducted.11

And a more detailed survey was conducted the following year, in 1978, under veil of secrecy. More detailed resistivity surveys revealed an "anomaly" under the right paw of the Sphinx, which is precisely where Cayce had predicted that the Hall of Records could be accessed. Lehner and the SRI even took an 8mm color film record of the project, complete with interviews. In one interview, Hugh Lynn Cayce explained what their plans were:

Any drilling now in relationship to the right paw (of the Sphinx) would for me possibly touch the entrance to a passageway to a chamber that would lead to distant passageways to places where the (Hall of) Records.... He (Edgar Cayce) didn't say, actually, that it (the Hall of Records) would be found behind the right paw; he said that the entrance to the passageway was from the right paw. Now that leaves us a lot of room under that paw as to where that shaft might come out. And so that's what we've been looking for. We were excited when the SRI team found some anomalies under the right paw, connected with the right paw, and that is, of course, what we are drilling first. now I'm interested also in pursuing other drilling under the right paw so that we cover as much of that area directly under the paw as possible."12

However, the drilling was stopped by soldiers, armed with machine guns, who had been told to stop the drilling for fear of damage to the monument. But the day was not a total loss, however, as Zahi Hawass, drilling in front of the Sphinx temple, found red granite at fifty feet below the surface of the limestone plateau, a form of granite that does not occur naturally in that area. The closest place it can be found is actually 375 miles to the south of the Giza plateau, indicating that there were manmade structures far below the surface of the Giza plateau. However, no further drilling was done to confirm this. The ARE made one more attempt to investigate the Giza plateau, hiring the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) to map the Giza plateau. No significant discoveries were made from this project, however, and around 1984 Lehner began to distance himself from the ARE, moving into mainstream archaeology and becoming the foremost authority on the Giza necropolis, particularly the Sphinx.

After the retirement of Lehner from active involvement with the ARE, and the curtailment of overt research on the part of Cayce's followers of the Giza necropolis, came the second phase of the search for the secret chamber, and a host of new players.

The Rise of the Independents
The advent of pluralism in the modern age has brought an increasing plurality in the research done on the pyramids and Sphinx. As early as a century ago the sort of "maverick archaeologist" types typified by the Indiana Jones® character were totally unheard of, due to the fact that wealth, power, and information were still centered in the hands of a privileged few. Today, however, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, anyone with time, money, and some guts can and has gotten involved in the search for the secret chamber. Though hundreds from all backgrounds, interests, and walks of life have gotten involved in the search at some level, three researchers have stood out from the crowd: John Anthony West, Robert Bauval, and Graham Hancock. Robert Bauval explains,

The "Age of the Sphinx" controversy started when John West, in the late 1970's, read in a book by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, that the body of the Sphinx appeared to be eroded with water. Schwaller had suggested that the Nile's flood, which apparently might have reached the Sphinx's upper levels in very remote antiquity, might have been responsible. Calculations, however, showed that flood waters were unlikely to be that high. When West took Robert Schoch to see the Sphinx in 1990, the latter quickly realized that the vertical fissures he saw were not the result of flood waters at all, but rainfall flowing over the body of the Sphinx and the walls of its enclosure. [See part one of this series.] Schoch and West presented their hypothesis to the Geological Society in San Diego, and within a few days the news hit the press and a huge academic storm began to rumble, its echoes still felt to this day. The upshot was that the academics and "experts" on the subject of Egyptian chronology and archaeology rejected outright any suggestion that the Sphinx could precede dynastic Egypt, this in spite of the well-argued geological evidence presented by Schoch. Rather than review the thesis with a cool head, the Egyptologists in particular came out screaming and exhibiting to the media the hallmark of an orthodoxy and dogmatism that was long thought by the lay public to have been purged out of such scientific circles. The issue was not only whether Schoch and West were scientifically right, but whether they had the right to argue such "heretical" matters as outsiders in terms of the Egyptological profession.13

Robert Schoch, a professor of Geology at Boston University, had produced significant proof that the Sphinx was more than twice as old as current Egyptian chronology dates it, possibly three times as old or even older. According to Schoch, much of the weathering on the Sphinx and the walls of the enclosure surrounding the Sphinx on three sides could only have been caused by rainwater weathering over a period of thousands of years. This would link it back to the ancient Osirian Empire theorized by Childress, which existed from 12,000-14,000 years ago, when North Africa was a verdant paradise, as opposed to the god-forsaken wasteland much of it is today.

In 1992, West and Schoch took their debate to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago, where Mark Lehner, now an established expert in the field of Egyptology, headed up a panel of archaeologists and Egyptologists in an attempt to quash West and Schoch's heresy. The debate was a travesty, less a debate than an academic lynching, producing little more than sensational press stories and hard feelings on both sides. Undaunted, West enlisted the aid of an established filmmaker to film a documentary showing his and Schoch's theory on the true age of the Sphinx. West brought along with him a seismographer by the name of Thomas Dobecki, who confirmed the presence of a large rectangular anomaly under the right paw of the Sphinx, roughly nine meters wide, twelve meters long, and five meters tall. The result of their documentary was the popular The Mystery of the Sphinx, broadcast on NBC in November, 1993, with over 33 million viewers. As one could imagine, this put the controversy into hyperdrive, and all corners of the Egyptological community unabashedly attacked Schoch and West as charlatans, and puppets of the ARE.

In 1995, Robert Bauval wrote The Orion Mystery, wherein he posited that the pyramids were built and laid out in such a way as to mimic the three belt stars of Orion. Furthermore, he pointed out that the shafts in the kings and queen's chamber (See part three of this series) pointed to specific stars in the sky, stars which were only in precise alignment with the supposed "air shafts" around 2500 b.c., the established date given by mainstream archaeology for the creation of the pyramids. However, there was more - much more, as Bauval slowly realized that he had stumbled upon the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx.

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The Answer To The Riddle





The key to understanding the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is to understand the concept of precession. We all know that the Earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its axis, and 365 days to revolve around the Sun. Fewer people, however, know that Earth also undergoes an even longer cycle, the "precessional" cycle. In this cycle, the Earth's axis of rotation moves 72 degrees every 2,100 years, to make one complete rotation every 25,240 years. Bauval and others believe that the ancient Egyptian priests knew of the precessional cycle, and that it lay at the heart of their stellar religion. Bauval explains,

The ancient astronomer-priests of Heliopolis knew the secrets of time, because they observed and studied the apparent motion of the stars, the moon and the sun. If we did too for long enough, most of us would arrive at a variety of calendrical conclusions: the division of hours in a day, the number of days in a year, the number of lunar months in a year. Few would know, however, how to fix a year with a marker so that in, say, four or five centuries someone could use our marker and tell the epoch. The astronomer-priests of Heliopolis knew how to do this, and this was probably one of the great secrets they kept jealously for themselves and, later, from the Greeks. The secret was the awareness of the precession of the stars and the ability to calculate the rate of change for those of Orion, the Hyades and Sirius.14

As we read in Part III, it was the Pharaoh's duty to undergo a quest to find the ancient knowledge of his ancestors - in effect, he went on a quest to solve the Riddle of the Sphinx. In order to do this he underwent a lifetime of education in the ways of the temple, learning the movement of the sun, moon and stars and, most importantly, precession. The shafts recently discovered in the interior of the pyramid have been found to point at several major stars as they would have appeared in the sky around 2500 b.c., the accepted date for the building of the pyramids. Due to precession, this reference point has changed over time, making the shafts, and the pyramid in general, a giant celestial "marker", serving as a reference point pointing at the year 2500 b.c. But is this the answer to the riddle?

According to Hancock, this reference point is only a starting point for the quester who seeks to understand the riddle of the Sphinx. The Great Pyramid may actually be not only a giant celestial marker, but a tool that the Pharaoh could use as a "thought tool" to mentally move back and forth through time. Hancock explains,

We suggest that one of the major objectives of the unseen academy, whose members were known as the "Followers of Horus", was to "fix" the epoch of 2500 b.c. (i.e., 4500 years before the present ) by using the Great Pyramid, its precisely angled shafts, and the stars of Orion's belt. We suggest that they envisaged those stars rather like the gauge of a gigantic sliding scale set across the south meridian. Once this "thought-tool" was in place all they needed to do in order to determine a date either in the past or in the future was mentally to "slide" the belt up or down the meridian from the "zero point" targeted by the southern shaft of the King's Chamber. We also suggest that a second and somewhat similar "thought-tool" was attached to the ecliptic (the apparent annual path of the sun through the twelve constellations of the zodiac). Here the gauge was the vernal point. By mentally sliding it to the left (east) or to the right (west) of a "fixed" marker on the ecliptic the "Followers of Horus" would once again have been able to determine and denominate either a past date or a date in the future.15

The question then becomes if the Great Pyramid, and the pyramids in general, were meant to mark the constellation of Orion - specifically, the position of Orion in 2500 b.c. - what was the purpose of the Sphinx? Hancock mentions that the Great Pyramid was the primary tool, to establish a date based upon the fixed time of 2500 b.c., which could then be used as a "sliding gauge" to travel to any point in time, based upon the 26,000-year precessional cycle. He also mentions a second "thought tool" that was based upon the ecliptic, the path that the sun takes through the heavens. The gauge for this secondary thought-tool was based upon the "vernal point", or the place where the sun rises on the vernal equinox - the sunrise on the first day of spring. right now, the constellation that is in line with the sun at the vernal point is the constellation of Pisces, placing us in the "Piscean Age". in about 100 years or so, however, the constellation that will be in line with the sun at the vernal equinox will be the constellation of Aquarius, bringing us into the "Age of Aquarius".

In sum, the Egyptians used a two-stage method of calculating time over thousands of years - using precession, with their massive fixed monuments as reference points. Step one of this process was to find out what constellation rises with the sun at the vernal point in the age you are trying to calculate, then step two, find out where the constellation of Orion sits relative to the 2500 b.c. reference point indicated by the shafts. Step one gives the general time, plus or minus 1,000 years or so, and step two "fine tunes" the date down to the century. As we have discovered, the shafts of the Great Pyramid fix a reference point of 2500 b.c., but is there something on the Giza plateau that gives us a fixed reference point for which constellation? There is - the Sphinx, which represents in its leonine form the constellation of Leo. Together, the pyramids and Sphinx point not to the year 2500 b.c., but the year 10500 b.c., as the time of the foundation of Egypt and the building of the Sphinx. Understanding this, "the Horus-King is now poised to travel back in time towards the age of Leo-Horakhti and to a specific spot on the ecliptic path - "The Splendid Place of the 'First Time' " ... 'the place more noble than any other place' ".16

This "Splendid Place of the First Time" is none other than the time of Osiris, when he ruled over the kingdom of Osiris. This was the time when the Sphinx was built, when the North African plain was moist and verdant, when the Osirian Empire was still in place. The empire must have been waning at this time, however, so Osiris, or "Nimrod", decided to save his great wisdom in a great storehouse somewhere where it could be held safely from intruders and the unworthy. Somewhere underneath the Giza plateau, lies the ancient storehouse of knowledge that Nimrod left behind, a storehouse that could only be found by those wise and patient enough to figure out his riddle.

In the sky, just before before the dawn in 10500 b.c., the constellation of Leo was the constellation that accompanied the rising sun. The sun at that time was in the constellation of Leo, sitting just under its "heart", the star Regulus. By itself this is unspectacular but, if we remember that the Giza plateau is an earthly representation of heaven, then the Sphinx must correspond to the constellation of Leo. The key to the riddle appears to be the 10500 b.c. date, but the final question is, what is its significance? We know that in 10500 b.c. the sun rose in the constellation of Leo, just below its front paws. If we are to accept that the Sphinx is the earthly representation of the constellation of Leo, then the Sun must then represent the location of the ancient Hall of Records - the answer to the riddle. MW


http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/1998/Winter/Sphinx01/

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                                         By Robert Bauval







                                                      The Language Of Stone





The Great Sphinx of Giza is probably the world's best known relic from the distant past. It is shrouded in mystery. Indeed to many it is mystery itself.



The Sphinx is not built with quarried blocks like the pyramids and temples it guards, but carved out of the living bedrock. Its makers gave it a man's head (some say it's a woman) and the body of a lion. It is 66 feet high and an impressive 240 feet long. It has the most extraordinary expression, like a hundred Mona Lisas all rolled into one. And it eyes gaze forever at the distant horizon due east, at the equinox point...at something not of this world but beyond it, in the sky. Something, perhaps, that is reflected or 'frozen' in the essence and age of the Sphinx.

 Nothing can prepare a first-time visitor for the awe-inspiring and humbling experience of meeting the Great Sphinx face to face. No matter who you are, no matter what your disposition and temperament are, the Great Sphinx of Giza will not leave you unmoved. John Anthony West is a man who knows this phenomenon well. He has stood in the shadow of this great statue many a time since he started visiting Egypt some thirty years ago. To him the Sphinx had always appeared as a monument apart, and much, much older than anything else he had seen either at Giza or elsewhere.

West's strong 'gut feeling' had rarely let him down. One day, while reading a book on Egypt by the French author and mathematician Schwaller de Lubicz (Sacred Science, Paris 1961) an answer to his intuitive hunch came shooting straight at him. Schwaller made a passing remark on what appeared to be water erosions on the body of the Sphinx. Turning to a close up photograph of the Sphinx, West suddenly realised that the weathering patterns on the Sphinx were not horizontal as seen on other monuments at Giza, but vertical. Now horizontal weathering is the result of prolonged exposure to strong winds and sandstorms. There sure had been plenty of those in this arid region of the Sahara. Could water have caused the vertical weathering on the Sphinx? Water from where?

Something, clearly, was worth investigating here. West knew, of course, that most Egyptologists believed that the Sphinx was built in 2500 BC in the time of the pharaoh Chephren (of Khafre), who is identified with the Second Pyramid at Giza. He also knew that this belief was now so entrenched that it would take an intellectual bulldozer to tug it out. Yet his study had shown him that this believe was more a dogma than any-thing else. He asked himself if a proof-positive identification between Khafre and the Sphinx would stand in an 'open court' under public scrutiny?

The answer was no. The reason was, quite simply, this. There was no inscriptions - not a single one - either carved on a wall or a stela or written on the throngs of papyri that identified Khafre (or anyone else, for that matter) with the construction of the Sphinx and its nearby temples. As for the proximity of Khafre's pyramid to the Sphinx (in fact it is 1700 feet away) this did not prove that both monuments were built as one complex nor, more relevantly, at the same epoch. By such standards future generations of archaeologists may one day allocate ownership of the Sphinx to the builder of the Sound & Light theatre because of its proximity to the Sphinx complex or - as someone else has put it - attribute St. Paul's Cathedral to General Gordon of Khartoum just because his statue was found in it. In short, Khafre may well be the quintessential 'Kilroy was here' of antiquity. So could the Sphinx be much older than the reign of Khafre, as West had long suspected it was? Could this hypothesis explain, for example, the strange vertical weathering on the statue?

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In 1991 John West rounded a crack team of scientists who were not hampered by an ingrained Egyptological consensus, and took them to Giza. Along came Dr. Robert Schoch, a prominent geologist and professor from Boston University to examined the unique weathering patterns on the Sphinx and its enclosure. His conclusions, which came after several months of analysis, was to convulse the world of archaeology. The vertical weathering patterns on the Sphinx and its enclosure, Schoch argued, were not caused by wind effect, as had previously been thought, but by water - water from torrential rains and pouring down in sheets over these ancient structures. But how could this be? Was Schoch saying that such heavy rains only fell on the Sphinx area but nowhere else at Giza?

That was impossible, retorted the Egyptologists. Not impossible, said Schoch, if it is conceded that the Sphinx was built at an epoch when such rains were common in this region but that the other monuments at Giza, however, were built long after these rains had stopped occurring. Again impossible, replied the ruffled Egyptologists; such heavy rains stopped occurring thousands of years before the time of Khafre. Schoch politely shrugged his shoulders. This, he answered, was not his problem.

The usual was to happened. John West was branded a charlatan and a sensation-seeker, and Schoch was politely shunned for not minding his own business and for stepping on the Egyptological turf. John West, however, was relentless. True, he did not have the lofty credentials of his learned opponents, but this did not deter him in the least. Scientific logic was on his side, not credentials. He was now determined more than ever to see that the Egyptologists either prove him wrong with equal or better scientific arguments or concede that he, and not they, was right about the age of the Sphinx. Anything less would be short change.

To be fair, the implications of West's theory are, of course, far-reaching. History books will have to be re-written and scientists will have to reconsider the origins of civilisation as a whole. Well, so be it. Progress worked like that. In any case, it had been done many times before. It could be done again. Yet going about to prove that the Sphinx was much older than Khafre was one thing. The question was, how much older exactly? How could science determine the true age of a stone monument?

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                                        Astronomy Joins The Sphinx Debate





n 1989 I published a paper in the Oxford Journal, Discussions In Egyptology (vol. 13), in which I demonstrated that the three Great Pyramids and their relative position to the Nile created on the ground a sort of 3-D 'hologram' of the three stars of Orion's belt and their relative position to the Milky Way. To support this contention, I brought into evidence the inclined shaft in the Great Pyramid which were aimed at the south meridian towards these group of stars as well as written evidence from the Pyramid Texts that identified the afterlife destiny of the pyramid-kings with Orion.
Later in my book The Orion Mystery (Heinemann-Mandarin) I also demonstrated that the best fit for the Giza Pyramids/Nile pattern with the Orion's belt/Milky Way pattern occurred when the sky was pushed back in time (i.e. precessed) to the epoch of 10,500 BC. There were good reasons for doing so.

 The ancient Egyptians, for example, constantly refer to a remote golden age they called Zep Tepi, 'The First Time' of Osiris, which they believed had long predated the Pyramid Age. Osiris was Orion, and the Great Pyramid had a shaft directed to Orion at the meridian. To me, this 'silent' astro-architectural language seemed to be spelling out 'here is Osiris in the sky when these pyramids were built, yet know, too, that his origins are rooted in the First Time.' But The 'First Time' of what? How could the stars of Orion have a 'First Time'?

Well they can. And they do. Provided, of course, that you can read through the allegorical 'language' of the ancients via the symbolic architecture and the related Pyramid Texts. Allegory, to put it in another way, is the 'Q-Basics' of the master astronomers who designed the Giza complex. When the stars of Orion are observed at the meridian in the precise manner that the ancient Egyptian astronomers did over many centuries, the could not help noting that these stars crossed the south meridian at different altitudes at different epoch. This is, of course, due to the phenomenon of Precession (see The Orion Mystery, appendices 1 and 2). In short, the stars of Orion can be said to have a starting point or 'beginning' at the nadir of their precessional cycle. Simple calculations show that this occurred in 10,500 BC. Could the ancient astronomers of the Pyramid Age have used their very clever 'silent language' combined with Precession to freeze the 'First Time' of Osiris - somewhat like the gifted architects of gothic cathedral froze in its allegorical stonework the 'time of Christ'?

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In the summer of 1993 Graham Hancock and I got together to investigate this issue further. Graham was quick to realised the important implications this approach could have on the Sphinx problem. He had a hunch that the curious harking back to the epoch of 10,500 BC by the pyramid builders of Giza was an invitation by them to consider the actual age of the Sphinx. If this hypothesis was correct, then the Sphinx must be an 'original' time-marker of that remote epoch using an obvious celestial tag valid for 10,500 BC. But which tag? What could the Sphinx be representing that was in the sky? Could this have something to do with the due east direction of its gaze towards the horizon?

 In his ground-breaking book Fingerprints of the Gods (Heinemann-Mandarin), Hancock pointed out that the 'First Time' date of 10,500 BC also denoted the beginning or 'First Time' of the Age of Leo. This was when the 'lion' constellation would have risen heliacally (at dawn before the sun) on the day of the spring (vernal) equinox. This event brought the celestial lion to rest due east, thus in perfect alignment with the Sphinx. The Sphinx, in other words, was made to look at his own image in the horizon - and consequently at his own 'time'. Hancock pointed out that 10,500 BC was no random date. It very precisely denoted another beginning, that of Orion-Osiris defined on the ground with the pattern and alignments of the nearby Pyramids. Here, then, were not just the Pyramids but also the Sphinx luring us to the same date of 10,500 BC. But were we dealing with a 'coincidence' -albeit an astonishing one- or was all this part of a deliberate long term scheme set by the ancients? Could it be possible that some blueprint was put into motion in 10,500 BC with the making of the Sphinx then to be completed much later by the builders of the Pyramids? Was there evidence of a continuous presence here at Giza through the ages of some master 'astronomers' who could have been responsible to see this scheme through?

If so, who were they? Where had they come from? Why here at Giza? Graham and I have spent the last two years researching this fascinating issue. We believe that what we have uncovered will change the perceptions of what Giza was (and still is) forever. The full results of our investigation, as you might have guessed, are laid out in our new book, Keeper of Genesis, available now at a discount through AA&ES. Suffice at this stage to say that author Colin Wilson, who gave the book an early review, thinks it's 'a much more satisfying tour de force' than Fingerprints of the Gods or The Orion Mystery. Meanwhile let us take a look at an intriguing archaeological discovery near the Sphinx that has very recently made the news.

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                                              A Lucky Turn Of The Spade





n October 1995 the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation finally decided to refurbish the old parking lot east of the Sphinx. While clearing the area in front of the Sphinx and the Valley Temple, a 'lucky turn of the spade' from one of the labourers unearthed part of an ancient complex of underground galleries and pathways. Hearing of this providential discovery, Graham Hancock and I planned a short trip to Egypt to see for ourselves what was going on. John Anthony West also was on his way there, and so we decided to meet directly at Giza. When we arrived there we found the place swarming with activity.
 Several gangs of labourers and masons were digging and clearing the area in front of the Sphinx and its temples. By a stroke of good fortune the Egyptian authorities had not yet cordoned this area, so we asked one of the inspectors in charge if we could take a closer look. It was a little difficult to tell what exactly was happening here. No one seemed to be sure. It looked as if part of the area had already been excavated some years ago but then, for reasons unknown, it was covered up again.

This was evident by the botches of modern mortar and iron bars that were left embedded in the ceiling of the ancient pathways, probably in an attempt to underpin or reinforce the relics. An inspector standing by seemed to think that these modern-day additions were made either when Egyptologist Selim Hassan was clearing the area for the Egyptian Antiquity Organisation in the 1930s or, perhaps, later in the 1950s when the Sons Et Lumieres open-air theatre was constructed nearby. But why the vestiges were covered up again, and why and how they came to be forgotten remains a mystery.

These vestiges consisted of a major artery cut into the natural bedrock (some 10 feet wide and 200 feet long from north to south) which runs in front of the Valley Temple and the Sphinx. This artery is itself intersected by two paved pathways coming from the Valley Temple and going due east -much like two small roads bridge over a straight motorway. These pathways very oddly dip at their eastern end and then vanished into the ground. We also noticed a very curious manhole set in the main artery at the point where it intersects the southern pathway. It's lid, which is made from a single piece of limestone, is broken at one corner and through it we could see water flowing (mixed with the sewage from the nearby village) and heading towards the Sphinx and the Valley Temple.

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The whole complex was obviously very ancient and almost certainly contemporary with the Sphinx. But what could its function be? And what was the purpose of the underground waterway? According to a prominent Ancient Egyptian myth, the legendary gates of the Afterworld were guarded by two gigantic lions or sphinxes called Aker. In New Kingdom tomb drawings the aker-sphinx of the eastern gate sits proud with its hind parts in a hollow. Underneath it can be seen an curious underground stream or duct. Behind the lion towers a huge mound or pyramid and under it is found a large, oval chamber which appears to be hermetically sealed.

 In this mysterious chamber it said to be some lofty secret, no doubt from the 'gods' who ruled the land of Egypt during the remote epoch of Zep Tepi -'The First Time'. This strange chamber was called the 'House of Sokar' in Rostau. The resemblance with the Sphinx complex at Giza is uncanny. Giza in ancient time was also called Rostau, and Sokar (a hawk-headed deity) was identified to Osiris. Odd coincidences? Perhaps.

Or will astronomy make 'a lucky turn of the spade' that will convert this supposedly cosmic myth into an historical reality? Stay tuned.

Robert Bauval







  The Message of the Sphinx:

A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind by Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval


"In this riveting account of historical and archaeological investigation, the authors present hard evidence that the Sphinx, the Pyramids, and the other monuments at Giza are of far more ancient origin than previously believed. Complete with evidence of a conspiracy between the Egyptology establishment and various confidential organizations to keep the secrets of the Pyramids from the world, The Message of the Sphinx is also a modern-day detective story. "   




The Orion Mystery:

Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids by Robert Bauval,
Adrian Gilbert (Contributor), Peter Ginna (Editor)



This fascinating archaeological detective story argues that the great pyramids of Egypt's Fourth Dynasty (c. 26002400 b.c.) were vast astronomically sophisticated temples, rather than the pharaonic tombs depicted by conventional Egyptology. In March 1993, a tiny remote-controlled robot created by Rudolf Gantenbrink, a German robotics engineer, traveled up airshafts within the Great Pyramid of Giza and relayed to scientists video pictures of a hitherto unknown sealed door within the pyramid.


http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/henryr/quest/sphinx/index.htm

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http://phoenix.akasha.de/~aton/HO-OSIRIS.html