Remnants of the Gods

by Erich von Daniken

  These and similar cases are reported by the science journalist Leslie Kean in her recent book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Break Their Silence.45 But is it not precisely the large nations that have closed their UFO offices? Is it not the Americans and British who no longer want to spend money on the registration of stupid, useless UFO documents? Correct! The real reason for this action is not, however, the reason which the public is fed. It is not about a lack of credibility among the witnesses, not about the lack of interest in the media, not about the unscientific nature of the whole subject, not about the validity of the documentation, including numerous film and radar documents. It is, plain and simple, the recognition that we human beings cannot do anything about it; an admission of our total impotence with regard to the UFO phenomenon. What is there to tell the public? You are all under surveillance? We are the inhabitants of a global zoo and totally impotent against our keepers?

  There is even a positive side to the whole shebang. The superpowers would not have been able to destroy our refuge or pollute it with nuclear contamination. The keepers would have prevented it.

  Grid squares or sectors would be very sensible for the total automatic monitoring of the zoo. A diagonal line drawn through a square turns it into two triangles. What did Horus, the divine son of Osiris and Isis say? The eye of Horus keeps watch. In modern times: God sees all. Whoever God might be.

  FALSE DOCTRINES

  Abydos lies 561 kilometers south of Cairo, directly on the Nile. The Egyptians of the Old Kingdom (2600–2200 BC) were already doing archaeology there: “They turned over the ground.”1 What they were looking for at that time is just as unknown as the origins of Abydos. Today it is the temples of Sethos I (1294–1279 BC) and his son Ramses II (1279–1213 BC) that dominate the scene. (Images 86–87) But the temple complex of Sethos I partially rests on foundations from those mythical times of which we know nothing. Directly behind the temple there is the so-called Osireion, a complex constructed from giant granite blocks which, looked at from a technological perspective, does not fit in with the Sethos temple, whichever way you look at it.

  As long ago as 1726, when no official department of archaeology yet existed, the Frenchman Granger (real name Tourtechot) started digging in Abydos. At that time, the whole complex lay under the desert sands and only a few upright columns signaled a structure under the surface. The next Frenchman to burrow in Abydos, Emile Amélineau, discovered tombs from the First and Second Dynasty, about 5,000 years in the past when calculated from today. In 1859, when Abydos had been buried by the desert again, Auguste Mariette, the subsequent founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, had Abydos shoveled free again. Eventually the Britons Sir Flinders Petrie and Margaret Murray undertook research in Abydos in 1903, and in 1912, the famous Swiss Egyptologist Professor Edouard Naville (1844–1926) discovered a granite stone gateway in the ground with various subterranean chambers. Naville investigated the up to 100-tonne granite blocks of the Osireion and finally concluded with resignation that this complex had to be considered as the “oldest structure in the whole of Egypt.”2 (Images 88–91)

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  The Osireion lies 15 meters below the level of the temple of Sethos I and consists of massive granite blocks without any ornamentation—comparable with the megaliths of Stonehenge in southern England. Why is the complex called “Osireion”? Because according to legend, the head of the heavenly god Osiris is said to be hidden there. Osiris is equivalent to Orion. He originally came from that constellation. He studied humans, taught them, and was—similar to the Greek Apollo and Peruvian Viracocha—a helpful god. It was Osiris who traveled throughout the world and taught human beings agriculture, respect for one another, and, particularly, the magic power of music and song. But Osiris had a jealous brother, Seth. He wanted the earth and all its people for himself, and so he treacherously murdered his brother, Osiris. In order to prevent him ever coming back to life, Seth cut up the body of Osiris into 14 pieces and buried the different parts of the body in different places—the backbone in Busiris, a leg in Philae, the phallus in Mendes, and the most important part of the body, the head, in Abydos—hence “the Osireion.” The head of the god Osiris has not been found in Abydos to the present day. And that is unlikely to change, because Osiris, like his mystical companions, belongs to the clan of the extraterrestrials. They are reported about in the so-called Pyramid Texts from the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty, whereby it remains an open question how long the texts were already in existence before someone chiselled them into the granite. These texts are full of gods who descend to earth from the heavens, and of pharaohs who were accorded the honor of visiting the world of the gods. As the confused spirit of our times only sees abstract thinking behind the Pyramid Texts, our gullible academics from the last century conjured wishful thinking and dreams of the priests into these texts or the journey of the pharaoh after death.

  The Pyramid Text of Pepi I equates Osiris with the constellation of Orion: “See, Osiris comes as Orion, heaven has conceived you in Orion, you were born with Orion....”3 In the Pyramid Texts of Unas (2356–2323 BC) also, Osiris journeys to the “heavenly way.”4 (Images 92–97) He is, like Horus, an “inhabitant of the horizon” who “pushes off from the earth” in his vessel, who (in verse 303) “ascends to heaven.”5 Osiris originally clearly lives in fateful heaven—but heaven is not the place of blessedness after death. The term “heaven” refers to space. I recommend that our hard-working Egyptologists, who are all sincerely translating Pyramid Texts, read the “Utterances” (verses) with modern glasses. The modern interpretation makes sense, as the following examples show:

  “Heaven trembles, the earth shakes before me, I possess magic powers. I have come to worship Orion...” (Utt. 472)

  “A stairway to heaven has been set up for me so that I can ascend to heaven and I climbed up on the smoke of the large vessel... and thundered beyond heaven in your barque. I am permitted to lift off the land in your barque...” (Utt 267)

  “The doors of the (?) which are in the firmament were opened for me, the metal doors which are in starry heaven lie open for me...” (Utt. 584)

  “The prince descends from the inner horizon in a great storm...” (Utt. 669)6

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  And so on. Heavenly doors are open, gods descend in smoke and fumes, pharaohs are allowed to fly along, there is thunder and noise on earth, the sand swirls up and the perpetrators of the spectacle are always the gods, be it in ancient India, Tibet, Japan, in the Bible (Ezekiel), or elsewhere. Now we must not, the Egyptologists always tell us, compare such texts with any kind of reality. The pharaoh’s journey to heaven after death is what is always meant. An honourable view—based on the hard work of prestigious Egyptologists—and yet a misunderstanding on a grand scale.

  Egypt, with all its original gods of Ra, Osiris, Isis, Horus, and so on, is connected with the myths of other civilisations. Different names, similar deeds. The same applies to the connection between Sumer and Egypt. In Sumerian cuneiform scripts, there is a long report from the princess and high priestess Enheduanna, called the Temple Hymns of Enheduanna. They were created about 4,300 years ago. The text has been translated by Sumerologists and made to fit a preconceived model, which is just as wrong as the Egyptian Pyramid Texts with the alleged journey to heaven of the pharaohs after death. The specialist Dr. Hermann Burgard, who studied Sumerology for decades, who can read cuneiform writing in the original and who knows the ancient texts and their interpreters, says that the Sumerologists are working “improperly and making untenable claims.”7 Dr. Burgard translated the Temple Hymns of Enheduanna8 and reached the absolutely convincing conclusion that all previous translations of the Temple Hymns are based on erroneous assumptions which are no longer tenable. Millennia ago, the princess and high priestess Enheduanna did n
ot report about some psychologically dressed-up circus of the gods, about underworlds and mythological drivel, but about very real technical things, such as:

  • Ramps for flying machines.

  • Production of fuel.

  • Storage rooms for fuel.

  • Terrible explosions in which hundreds of people died.

  • Flying machines rising into the heavens.

  • Spaceships in orbit.

  • Radio traffic.

  • Refinement of scrap metals.

  • Metal alloys for flying machines.

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  Dr. Herman Burgard’s work is the milestone, the breakthrough on the way to an appropriate contemporary translation. This is not some amateur spinning a yarn. Enheduanna’s Temple Hymns are analyzed by an expert who criticises the Sumerologists for “sloppy writing or centuries of misunderstanding.”9

  I know of new translations from India10 in which professors dared to clear up the old misconceptions with thorough specialist knowledge. Dr. Hermann Burgard’s translation of the Temple Hymns of Enheduanna is just as much of a serious work, a textbook based on sound knowledge. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

  That Sethos I built the Osireion in Abydos is as likely as the moon being made of cheese. Here—as in Pumapunku in the highlands of Bolivia—“gods” were at work. The specialists think that Sethos I had mighty blocks transported from Aswan to Abydos. The two locations are separated by about 400 kilometers of Nile, including rapids. (Today there are locks for the shipping.) Aswan granite is the hardest in the world. The heavy blocks, up to 100 tonnes in weight, would have had to be polished at their destination. Before that, the ancient engineers would have fitted the monoliths with recesses and notches in specific places so that the upper and lower blocks could be precisely fitted into one another. (Images 98–99)

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  Irritatingly, the building site was lower than the level of the Nile. Why that had to be is a secret of the gods. So high-tech methods were used to prevent the waters of the Nile from flooding the building site. The columns, which supported the whole thing, could not just be punched into the soft substrate. So a foundation made of megalithic slabs had to be provided, with notches to precisely position the heavy blocks. (Images 100–101) Once they were securely in place, this was followed by the absolute master stroke of the prehistoric planners. Monster cranes, like those in the impressive 3D film Avatar, were brought up, which lowered the massive crossbeams with meticulous precision onto the granite columns. And it was done so that every notch fit exactly with its counterpart.

  None of the Egyptologists who propagate such pseudo solutions appear to have the faintest knowledge of engineering. Let us just remember the evolution of technology. Nothing simply exists. Everything has to be thought out, invented, planned, developed, built, and, finally, transported. Where—so help us Osiris!—are the actual workshops for the technologies which were used, where the developmental history of the stone cutters, ropes, lifting platforms, rope winches, rollers, and so on? The ancient Egyptians had hemp ropes, the experts tell us. That material is suitable, at best, for a towing capacity of 3 tonnes. But in Abydos, crossbeams weighing 30 tonnes were used. (Images 102–104) How many ropes would be required for loads like that? When does the pulling rope jump off the shaft? When do the bars on the capstans splinter? When does a lifting platform collapse and chip the edges of the monoliths already cleanly fitted below it? The monoliths of the Osireion of Abydos do not have a scratch. The workmen on the Osireion did not permit themselves a single error.

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  All unnecessary, the experts reply, and point to the tomb of the Overlord Djehutihotep (c. 1870 BC). A picture on a wall there shows 170 men dragging a statue through the desert with ropes. And a tomb from the time of Amenemhet I (1991–1962 BC) even mentions ropes. There are even images of pulleys from the Eighteenth Dynasty. But between the Abydos of the god Osiris (or the builders of the Great Pyramid) and the Eighteenth Dynasty there are about 600 years. If the technology of the Eighteenth Dynasty had been used in Abydos (and in the Great Pyramid), it would mean that the Egyptians had learnt nothing in a 600-year period. And the technology of the Eighteenth Dynasty was useless for the crossbeams of the Osireion in any case—too primitive for the precise cutting, too difficult for the crossbeams. Now the temple of Sethos I lies above the Osireion. So the Osireion must have been standing before Sethos was able to build his temple walls—walls, incidentally, in which smaller stones were layered on top of one another. One does not have to be a genius to see it: the oldest technology of the Osireion, which lies under the Sethos temple, is mightier, more perfect, and more grandiose than the temple lying above it. According to the evolution of technology, it should be precisely the other way round. In the learning process, we start on a small scale; the monumental comes later as technology develops.

  What was this Osireion for, in any case? It was allegedly a cenotaph (pseudo tomb) for the god Osiris. Can the perspective get any narrower?

  We are too quickly satisfied with the first answer. Our knowledge is dripping with complacency—because “we know it all.” The results of the exact sciences can be tested at any time. But archaeology, which I greatly admire, is one of the information-gathering sciences. As such, it is open to reinterpretation at any time. Precise science is something different.

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  The Great Pyramid—all the experts agree on that—was built by Cheops (2551–2528 BC). He belonged to the Fourth Dynasty. (Image 105–111) Is there anyone who bothers to query that in the 80 years in which the Fourth Dynasty ruled, about 9,000,000 cubic meters of building volume was handled? That is for the pyramids of Sneferu (2575–2551 BC), Cheops (2551–2528 BC), Djedefre (2528–2520 BC), and Chefren (2520–2494 BC). In these 80 years—the experts believe—12,066,000 stone blocks were quarried out of the rock, cut, polished, measured, transported, and inserted into the structure in the right place. It gets even better. The excavation and leveling work, the manufacture and repair of tools, the incredibly elaborate ramps and scaffolding, are not included in the more than 12 million blocks. The whole of lower Egypt must have been a big building site, not to mention the material requirements and the provisions for the masses of people. And the most absurd thing of all: neither the team of designers nor the architects, nor a foreman, priest, or pharaoh wasted any words on mentioning the building work. The Egyptologist Dr. Eva Eggebrecht writes in this respect: “The contemporary silence about the construction of the pyramids becomes incomprehensible if we recall that the necropolises were not deathly silent cities of secrecy.... Sacrifices were made, priests came and went.... None of them left as much as a note which would answer even a single question about the construction of the pyramids.”11

  But what if everything were quite different? If the men of the Fourth Dynasty were unable to say anything about the structures because there was nothing to say? Were the buildings already dotted around in the landscape when the Fourth Dynasty began to rule?

  It is likely that more than 1,000 volumes have been written about the Great Pyramid. At least once a year, a manuscript lands on my desk, and each author is convinced of having definitively cracked the “pyramid nut.” God knows these are not cranks but down-to-earth, hard-working people, in many cases engineers who are familiar with construction and surveying. Often they have sat at their calculations and comparisons for years, experimented and, of course, deployed computers. And yet each one of these upright pyramid crackers comes to a different result. And none of them understand why their competitors do not reach the same conclusions as themselves. A different logic rules in each brain. Now I am neither an engineer nor a stone mason, and therefore do not even start to grapple with the phenomenon of the technology which was used to build the pyramids. As a lateral thinker and someone who knows classical literature, other inconsistencies and contradictions catch my eye which simply cannot be ignored. Let me s
tart with the Grand Gallery in the Cheops pyramid.

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  The Grand Gallery is a miracle of construction which is difficult to digest. It is an extended space which is about 47 meters long and 8.5 meters high, running upwards at an angle to the so-called King’s Chamber. (Image 112) The granite beams opposite one another do not lie horizontally. No, like an extra slap in the face for us clever clogs, the monoliths slope upward at the same inclination as the Grand Gallery. The beams and slabs have been worked with such precision that it is difficult to see any joints. (Image 113) The architects of the Cheops pyramid planned and created this miracle—so we are told. But something is not quite right here.

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  Cheops’ father was called Sneferu and was presumably older than his son. This Pharaoh Sneferu (2575–2551 BC) had a pyramid built in Dahshur, among other things. From the outside, it looks like a pile of boulders—as if the structure had stood in the water for decades. (Image 114) What is inside this mountain of rubble? A “Grand Gallery,” with granite blocks arranged on top of one another, like that of his son Cheops. Here there is not enough space for a razor blade between the stone beams either. Every cut is perfectly. (Images 115–116) For heaven’s sake—Sneferu preceded Cheops straight out of the Stone Age. But his builders displayed a “Grand Gallery” before Cheops. From what magic workshop did the knowledge, the planning, the technology used by the Stone Age person Sneferu come? Where, pray tell, is the developmental history of the technology when the father of Cheops was already practicing what his son’s architects were allegedly the first to develop?