Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization

by Graham Hancock

  15. Friedrich Ragette, Baalbek, Chatto & Windus, London, 1980, pp. 32–3.

  16. E.g. as well as the above detailed in note 8, see Michael Alouf, History of Baalbek, op. cit., p. 85, and Nine Jidejian, Baalbek Heliopolis, p. 36.

  17. Michael Alouf, History of Baalbek, op. cit., p. 86.

  18. For the close identification of the Phoenicians with the Canaanites see Gerard Herm, The Phoenicians, Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1975 (Book Club Associates edition), p. 25.

  19. Ibid., p. 83.

  20. Before the Trojan war. See Harold W. Attridge and Robert A. Oden Jr., Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 9, Washington DC, 1981, p. 4.

  21. Ibid., pp. 1–3.

  22. Ibid., p. 53.

  23. Sabatino Moscati, The World of the Phoenicians, Cardinal/Sphere Books, 1973, p. 66.

  24. E. Richmond Hodges (Ed.), Cory’s Ancient Fragments of the Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egyptian and other Authors, Reeves and Turner, London, 1876, p. 13. Emphasis added.

  25. Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. III, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1980, p. 148.

  26. David Urquhart, The Lebanon (Mount Souria): A History and a Diary, Vol. 2, Thomas Cautley Newby, London, 1860, p. 369.

  27. Dell Upton, “Starting from Baalbek: Noah, Solomon, Saladin and the Fluidity of Architectural History,” Journal of the Society of Archaeological Historians, Vol. 68, No. 4 (December 2009), p. 461.

  28. David Urquhart, History and a Diary, op. cit., p. 382.

  29. Ibid., p. 371.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid., pp. 370–3.

  32. Ibid., p. 373.

  33. Ibid., pp. 374–5.

  34. Ibid., p. 377.

  35. Ibid., pp. 376, 377, 378.

  36. Ibid., p. 376.

  37. The alleged “tomb of Noah,” Karak Nuh, can be seen within a mosque in the town of Zahle on the edge of the Bekaa Valley. The “tomb” is 31.9 meters (105 feet) long, 2.7 meters (8.7 feet) wide and 0.98 meters (3.2 feet) high.

  38. Cited in Michael Alouf, History of Baalbek, op. cit., pp. 39–40.

  39. Ibid., p. 40.

  40. Ibid., p. 41. The Arabic manuscript was “found at Baalbek.”

  41. Jean-Pierre Adam, “A propos du trilithon de Baalbek: Le transport et la mise en oeuvre des mégaliths,” Syria, T. 54, Fase 1–2 (1977), p. 52.

  42. Ibid., pp. 31–63.

  43. Ibid., p. 54.

  44. Ibid., p. 56.

  45. Ibid., p. 61.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Friedrich Ragette, Baalbek, op. cit., pp. 114–19.

  49. Ibid., p. 119.

  50. See Christian and Barbara Joy O’Brien, The Shining Ones, Dianthus Publishing Ltd., London, Cirencester, 2001, p. 275.

  51. Jean-Pierre Adam, “A propos du trilithon,” op. cit., p. 62.

  52. The upper surface of the southernmost block, where I sat in the shade as described at the beginning of this chapter, and on which the architectural drawing of the Temple of Jupiter pediment was found, is sufficiently clear of masonry to be sure of this. It is this upper surface, over the center of mass, in which any hypothetical Lewis holes would have had to be made. Since there are no Lewis holes here, on the largest and heaviest of the three blocks, it is a reasonable assumption that there are none on the other two either.

  53. See discussion in Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith, Penguin Books, London, 2005, pp. 302–5.

  54. The weight of 1,250 tons for the Saint Petersburg megalith is given in Adam, “A propos du trilithon,” op. cit., p. 42. See also Ragette, Baalbek, op. cit., pp. 118–19.

  55. Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven, Harper, London, 2007 (reprint edition), p. 241.

  56. Ibid., pp. 235, 241.

  57. Ibid., p. 310.

  58. Elif Batuman, “The Myth of the Megalith,” New Yorker, 18 December 2004, http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/baalbek-myth-megalith.

  59. Jean-Pierre Adam, “A propos du trilithon,” op. cit., p. 52.

  60. Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger, “Von Steinbruch zum Jupitertempel von Heliopolis/Baalbek,” Linzer Archaeologische Forschungen (1999) 30, 7–56.

  61. German Archaeological Institute figures, http://www.dainst.org/pressemitteilung/-/asset_publisher/nZcCAiLqg1db/content/libanesisch-deutsches-forscherteam-entdeckt-weltweit-gro%C3%9Ften-antiken-steinblock-in-baalbek.

  62. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Daniel Lohmann to Graham Hancock, 8 February 2015.

  63. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Graham Hancock to Daniel Lohmann, 8 February 2015.

  64. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Daniel Lohmann to Graham Hancock, 9 February 2015.

  65. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/46982253 and (back view): http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/roman/carree02.jpg and a detailed view: http://www.maisoncarree.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/1_1_1_5_DSCN0047-650x487.jpg.

  66. https://www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/7421596468/.

  67. Ibid.

  68. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Graham Hancock to Daniel Lohmann, 9 February 2015.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Daniel Lohmann to Graham Hancock, 13 February 2015.

  71. Lohmann provided the following link to illustrate the point: http://www.unicaen.fr/cireve/rome/pdr_virtuel.php?virtuel=ultor&numero_image=0.

  72. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Daniel Lohmann to Graham Hancock, 13 February 2015.

  73. Ibid.

  74. Ibid.

  75. The drawing, captioned “Hossn Niha Tempelpodium, Profil,” is from Daniel Krencker, Willy Zschietzschmann (Hrsg.), Römische Tempel in Syrien nach Aufnahmen und Untersuchungen von Mitgliedern der deutschen Baalbekexpedition 1901–1904, De Gruyter, Berlin/Leipzig, 1938, S. 122–34.

  76. Personal correspondence with Daniel Lohmann, email sent from Daniel Lohmann to Graham Hancock, 13 February 2015.

  Chapter 14

  1. See Yosef Garfinkel, “Neolithic and Eneolithic Byblos in Southern Levantine Context,” in E.J. Peltenburg and Alexander Wasse, Neolithic Revolution: New Perspectives on Southwest Asia in Light of Recent Discoveries on Cyprus (Levant Supplementary), Oxbow Books, 2004, p. 182.

  2. The reader will recall from Chapter One that Professor Klaus Schmidt put the final abandonment and deliberate burying of Göbekli Tepe at 8200 BC.

  3. Michael Dumper, Bruce E. Stanley (Eds.), Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 104.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Nina Jidejian, Byblos Through the Ages, Dar el-Machreq Publishers, Beirut, 1971, p. 2.

  6. Dell Upton, “Starting from Baalbek: Noah, Solomon, Saladin, and the Fluidity of Architectural History,” Journal of the American Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 68, No. 4 (December 2009), p. 457.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Nina Jidejian, Baalbek: Heliopolis, City of the Sun, Dar el-Machreq Publishers, Beirut, 1975, p. 17.

  9. Dell Upton, “Starting from Baalbek,” op. cit., p. 458.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Daniel Lohmann, “Giant Strides Toward Monumentality: The Architecture of the Jupiter Sanctuary in Baalbek/Heliopolis,” Bolletino Di Archeologia On Line, 2010, p. 28.

  12. See, for example, the discussion in James Bailey, The God Kings and the Titans: The New World Ascendancy in Ancient Times, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1973, p. 36ff.

  13. See discussion in E.A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1973 (reprint edition), Vol. I.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Ibid., p. 3.

  16. Ibid., pp. 4–5.

  17. Ibid., pp. 5–8.

  18. Ibid., p. 93.

  19. Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, Vol. VI, Part I, Gove
rnment Press, Cairo, 1946, p. 11.

  20. R.O. Faulkner (Trans. and Ed.), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Oxford University Press, 1969, Aris & Phillips reprint edition, Utterance 442, p. 147.

  21. Ibid., Utterance 412, p. 135.

  22. Ibid., Utterance 442, p. 147.

  23. Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, Vol. VI, Part I, Government Press, Cairo, 1946, p. 45.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Francis Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1979, p. 49ff.

  26. Tamara Green, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran, E.J. Brill, Leiden, New York, 1992, p. 3. The Sabians are mentioned three times in the Koran as a “people of the book”—Koran 5:69 (http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/005-qmt.php#005:069) is particularly clear, but see also Koran 2:62 (http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/002-qmt.php#002:062), and Koran 22:17 (http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/022-qmt.php#022:017).

  27. Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English Translation with notes and introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1992. See also Sir Walter Scott (Ed. and Trans.), Hermetica: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings which contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, Shambhala, Boston, 1993.

  28. Manfred Lurker, An Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, Thames and Hudson, London, 1995, p. 121. See also Margaret Bunson, The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Facts on File, New York, Oxford, 1991, p. 264.

  29. Michael Baigent, From the Omens of Babylon: Astrology and Ancient Mesopotamia, Arkana Penguin Books, London, 1994, p. 186.

  30. Harold W. Attridge and Robert A. Oden Jr., Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 9, Washington DC, 198, p. 29.

  31. Nina Jidejian, Byblos, op. cit., p. 10.

  32. Bahattin Celik, “Karahan Tepe: A New Cultural Center in the Urfa area of Turkey,” Documenta Praehistorica, XXXVIII (2011), pp. 241–53.

  33. Ibid., p. 242.

  34. Giulio Magli, “Sirius and the Project of the Megalithic Enclosures at Göbekli Tepe,” http://arxiv.org/pdf/1307:8397.pdf, 2013. Magli’s paper attracted considerable attention and was discussed in an article in New Scientist magazine, “World’s Oldest Temple Built to Worship the Dog Star,” New Scientist, 16 August 2013, http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929303.400-worlds-oldest-temple-built-to-worship-the-dog-star.html#.VOID7bCsXG8, and elsewhere, e.g. http://www.science20.com/science_20/gobekli_tepe_was_no_laughing_matter-120278.

  35. Giulio Magli, “Sirius and the Project of the Megalithic Enclosures at Göbekli Tepe,” op. cit., p. 2.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Robert M. Schoch, Forgotten Civilization, Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 2012, pp. 54–5.

  39. Andrew Collins, Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods, Bear & Co., Rochester, Vermont, 2014, p. 81ff.

  40. A. De Lorenzis and V. Orofino (2015) “New Possible Astronomic Alignments at the Megalithic Site of Göbekli Tepe, Turkey,” Archaeological Discovery, 3, p. 40. doi: 10:4236/ad.2015:31005.

  41. Ibid., pp. 40–50.

  42. Juan Antonio Belmonte, “Finding our Place in the Cosmos: The Role of Astronomy in Ancient Cultures,” Journal of Cosmology, Vol. 9, 2010, p. 2055.

  43. Alexander A. Gurshtein, “The Evolution of the Zodiac in the Context of Ancient Oriental History,” Vistas in Astronomy, Vol. 41, No. 4, 1998, p. 521.

  44. Ibid. See also Alexander A. Gurshtein, “The Origins of the Constellations,” American Scientist, Vol. 85, No. 3 (May–June 1997), p. 268.

  45. Michael A. Rappengluck, “The Pleiades in the ‘Salle des Taureaux,’ Grotte de Lascaux. Does a Rock Picture in the Cave of Lascaux show the Open Star Cluster of the Pleiades at the Magdalenian Era (ca 15,300 BC)?” in C. Jashek and F. Atrio Barendela (Eds.), Actas del IV Congresso de la SEAC, Universidad de Salamanca, 1997, pp. 217–25.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Michael A. Rappengluck, “Palaeolithic Timekeepers Looking at the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic,” Earth, Moon and Planets, 85–86, 2001, p. 391.

  48. Ibid.

  49. Ibid., pp. 401–2.

  50. http://freebook.fernglas-astronomie.de/?page_id=879. See also: http://www.analemma.de/jupisat.html. I emailed Michael Rappengluck on 17 February 2015 and received his confirmation on 18 February 2015 that he was indeed referring to the Hyades and the Pleiades when he wrote of the “Golden Gate of the Ecliptic.” He added: “In the case of the Pleiades and Hyades it is important to keep in mind that the moon can pass through both open clusters during his 18.36 draconic period: They are just ca. 5° away from the ecliptic indicating the lunar orbit with its extreme positions. That is why both open clusters had been recognized as very important and why this ‘gate’ is unique.”

  51. The moon’s orbital plane is inclined to the ecliptic plane by only about 5.1 degrees. Its movements are therefore are confined quite closely to the plane of the ecliptic, and always within the zodiacal constellations.

  52. Juan Antonio Belmonte, “Finding our Place in the Cosmos,” op. cit., p. 2054.

  53. Ibid.

  54. http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/BurleyP1.php.

  55. John Major Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenesis, 2012, Bear & Company, Rochester, Vermont, 1998, p. 113.

  56. In Mayan mythology, for example—see ibid., p. 51ff and also, John Major Jenkins, The 2012 Story, Tarcher/Penguin, New York, 2009, p. 138ff. And in Inca mythology—see for example William Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas, Crown, New York, 1996, p. 30ff. And in for Germanic mythology: http://www.germanicmythology.com/ASTRONOMY/MilkyWay2.html.

  Chapter 15

  1. See Figures 4 and 5 here: http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/BurleyP1.php.

  2. Nick Kollerstrom, “The Star Zodiac of Antiquity,” Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 1, No. 2, Autumn/Winter 1997.

  3. Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill, Nonpareil, Boston, 1969, pp. 216–17.

  4. E.C. Krupp, In Search of Ancient Astronomies, Chatto & Windus, London, 1979, pp. 199–200.

  5. Email exchange with Paul Burley, 14 February to 17 February 2015.

  6. Rupert Gleadow, The Origin of the Zodiac, Dover Publications Inc., 2001, p. 167.

  7. See discussion by Kathryn Slanski, “Classification, Historiography and Monumental Authority: The Babylonian Entitlement Narus (Kudurrus),” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 52 (2000), pp. 95–114. E.g. p. 114: “Recategorizing the Kudurrus as monuments standing in association with the temple, rather than as boundary markers out in the fields, provides a context that makes these objects and their material, textual and iconographic aspects intelligible in relation to their function.”

  8. Rupert Gleadow, The Origin of the Zodiac, op. cit., p. 167.

  9. See here, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_I#mediaviewer/File:Nabu-Kudurri-Usur.jpg.

  10. Rupert Gleadow, The Origin of the Zodiac, op. cit, p. 167.

  11. Giulio Magli, “Sirius and the Project of the Megalithic Enclosures at Göbekli Tepe,” http://arxiv.org/pdf/1307:8397.pdf, 2013.

  12. Some photographs and further description can be found here: http://traveltoeat.com/babylonian-kudurru-at-the-louvre-2/. See also Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, British Museum Press, London, 1992, pp. 16–17, 113–14.

  13. John Major Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenesis, 2012, Bear & Company, Rochester, Vermont, 1998, p. 111; John Major Jenkins, Galactic Alignment, Bear & Company, Rochester, Vermont, 2002, p. 19.

  14. John Major Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenesis, op. cit., p. 107.

  15. Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods, op. cit. See, in particular, Chapter 21, “A Computer For Calculating The End of the World.”

  16. Ibid., p. 105.

  17. The most accurate figures are in Andrew Collins, Göbekli Tepe
, Genesis of the Gods, Bear & Co., Rochester, Vermont, 2014, pp. 78–9. These figures are also used by A. De Lorenzis and V. Orofino (2015) “New Possible Astronomic Alignments at the Megalithic Site of Göbekli Tepe, Turkey,” Archaeological Discovery, 3, p. 40. doi: 10:4236/ad.2015:31005.

  Chapter 16

  1. Kay Prag, “The 1959 Deep Sounding at Harran in Turkey,” Levant 2 (1970), pp. 71–2. “That the site was occupied at an early date is certain.” Limited archaeology, however, so far supports this with only one item, a piece of Samarra Ware style pottery, circa 5000 BC found in a deep sounding of the ancient Tell of Harran.

  2. Seton Lloyd and William Brice, “Harran,” Anatolian Studies, Vol. I (1951), p. 87.

  3. Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, Vol. VI, Part I, Government Press, Cairo, 1946, p. 45.

  4. The hieroglyphic inscription dated to AD 394 is in the Temple of Isis at Philae. The last known example of demotic graffiti is dated 425 AD. “If knowledge of the hieroglyphs persisted beyond this time, no record of it has been found.” John Anthony West, The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egypt, Harrap Columbus, London, 1987, p. 426. Kurt Sethe’s translation of the Pyramid Texts, in which the stellar cult around the Pyramids is made clear, was published in 1910; Breasted incorporated many quotations from Sethe’s text in his Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt; R.O. Faulkner’s definitive edition of the Pyramid Texts was not published until 1969. See discussion in R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Oxford University Press, 1969, p. v.

  5. http://jqjacobs.net/blog/gobekli_tepe.html.

  6. Tamara Green, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran, E.J. Brill, Leiden, New York, 1992, p. 25.

  7. Ibid., p. 52.

  8. Ibid., p. 21.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid., pp. 97, 121.

  11. Ibid., pp. 95–7.

  12. Ibid., p. 100.

  13. Archaeologists excavating the Hoyuk—mound or tumulus—of Harran in 1985 felt confident they were “near the temple of the god Sin” but I have been unable to find any subsequent reports of actual discoveries of its remains. See M. Olus Arik et al, “Recent Archaeological Research in Turkey,” Anatolian Studies, Vol. 36 (1986), p. 194.