The Message of the Sphinx AKA Keeper of Genesis
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[173] Archaeology, op. cit., Sept-Oct 1994, p. 41.
[174] The ARE Magazine, Venture Inward, ‘The Search for Ra-Ta’, by A. Robert Smith, January-February 1985, p. 7.
[175] Ibid., p. 6.
[176] The Edgar Cayce Foundation had commissioned and funded a Carbon-14 dating project of the Giza monuments directed by Mark Lehner in 1983-4. Apparently small charcoal samples were extracted from the ancient mortar in the core’s joints. The results gave a wide range of dates for the Great Pyramid—between 3809 bc to 2853 bc—which is a few centuries earlier than the c. 2600 bc date assigned by Egyptologists, but very far from the 10,500 bc date given in the Cayce Readings. Although many doubts have been raised concerning the validity of the results (see Venture Inward issues May-June 1986 and November-December 1986), this, and other archaeological evidence Mark Lehner came across at Giza, appears to have undermined his beliefs in Cayce’s readings. For further details of the carbon-dating see Appendix 5.
[177] Venture Inward, May-June 1986, p. 56.
[178] Ibid., p. 57.
[179] Ibid.
[180] KMT Magazine, Spring issue 1995, p. 4.
[181] Ibid. In his letter to us, op. cit., p. 5, Lehner elaborated: ‘I am happy that my professional work developed out of a more personal quest—call it what you will, philosophical, spiritual, ethical. Rather than look only for agreement with notions I had already conceived before coming to Giza—that is, what I wanted to be true—I looked for ways to test these and, later, other ideas about ancient Egyptian cultural development. I found few resemblances between the physical evidence and Cayce-derived ideas of an earlier civilization at Giza. But I did find the pyramids to be very human monuments. Because there is such an abundance of evidence of real people and an Egyptian society building the Sphinx and the Pyramids, it seems culturally chauvinistic to ascribe these monuments to a different, conveniently lost, civilization on the basis of “revealed” information and ambiguous patterns. My work is still part of a lifelong quest for meaning. I would not change the path that led me to Giza even if I could.’
[182] Charles Piazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, W. Isbister, London 1880 edition (reprinted recently by Bell Publishing Co., New York 1990 under the title The Great Pyramid). For the connection of the Petries with Piazzi Smyth, see H. A. Bruck and Mary Bruck, The Peripatetic Astronomer: The Life of Charles Piazzi Smyth, Adam Hilger, Bristol 1988, pp. 28, 123-6, 133-6. It seems William Matthew Flinders Petrie’s father, William, almost married the daughter of Piazzi Smyth, Henrietta. She was to marry eventually, however, Professor Baden-Powell (the father of the founder of the Boy Scouts). William Petrie was later introduced by Mrs. Piazzi Smyth to Anne Flinders, whom he married—hence the name Flinders Petrie. ‘So Mrs. (Piazzi) Smyth,’ wrote Flinders Petrie, ‘was the agent by whom scouting and Egyptian archaeology took their present form’ (see Seventy Years in Archaeology, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd., London, 1931, p. 4).
[183] Al Akhbar Al Yom weekly of 8 January 1994, front page article entitled ‘Stealing of Egypt’s Civilization’. Translation by Fouad Nemah of the official Egyptian Translation Bureau.
[184] Mystery of the Sphinx was a Magic Eye North Towers Production (Executive Producer: Boris Said; Producer: Robert Watts; Directed by Bill Cote of BC Video NY).
[185] Ibid.
[186] Mark Lehner’s letter, op. cit., p. 5: ‘Yes, this sounds like the fine people of the Cayce community, some of the nicest and most positive individuals I have known.’
[187] As a result of receiving this letter, which clarified many points, we were pleased to revise the present chapter extensively into the form that appears herewith.
[188] Mark Lehner’s letter, op. cit., p. 1.
[189] CNN News reports October 1995; Middle East News Agency (MENA) 25 October 1995. At time of writing (November 1995) Zahi Hawass is the Director of the Giza necropolis for Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and thus has overall responsibility for all excavations taking place on the site.
[190] Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, The Orion Mystery, op. cit., Mandarin paperback edition, 1995, epilogue pp. 237-50. Also discussed recently in Amateur Astronomy and Earth Sciences, ‘Operation Dixon’ issue 1, November 1995 (Chief Editor: Dave Goode).
[191] Interviewed by film maker and producer Jochen Breitenstein in Los Angeles in April 1993. Footage shown on Sat. 1, Spiegel Reportage, 15 August 1995 (Gantenbrinks Reise in das Reich der Pharaonen).
[192] The Times, London, 28 January 1995, p. 18. Article by Simon Seligman.
[193] Sat. 1, Spiegel Reportage, op. cit., 15 August 1995.
[194] Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, op. cit., p. 61.
[195] Where, after some difficulty, we were able to arrange to view it on 7 November 1995.
[196] Bernd Scheel, Egyptian Metalworking and Tools, Shire Egyptology, Bucks, 1989, p. 17. For a more detailed discussion see A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, Histories & Mysteries of Man Ltd., London 1989, pp. 235-43.
[197] A very interesting discussion is found in Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven, Avon Books, New York, 1980, pp. 253-79.
[198] Joseph R. Jochmans, The Hall of Records, op. cit., pp. 194-5.
[199] Ibid., p. 195.
[200] See Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven, op. cit., p. 266.
[201] Ibid., pp. 266, 271-2, 274.
[202] I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, Pelican Books, London, 1949, pp. 95-6.
[203] Colonel Howard Vyse, Operations carried out at the Pyramids of Gizeh: With an account of a Voyage into Upper Egypt and Appendix, James Fraser of Regent Street, London 1837, vol. 1, p. 275.
[204] Ibid., p. 276.
[205] Ibid.
[206] W. M. Flinders Petrie’s The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, Leadenhall Press, London, 1883 edition, pp. 212-13.
[207] El Sayed El Gayer and M. P. Jones, ‘Metallurgical Investigation of an Iron Plate found in 1837 in the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, Egypt’ in Journal of the Metallurgy Society, Vol. XXIII (1989) pp. 75-83.
[208] Ibid. See also Robert G. Bauval, ‘Investigation on the origin of the Benben Stone: was it an iron meteorite?’ in Discussions in Egyptology Vol. XIV, 1989, pp. 5-17.
[209] El Sayed El Gayer and M. P. Jones, op. cit., p. 82.
[210] Ibid.
[211] Ibid.
[212] Ibid., p. 123 (letter to the editor of JHMS titled ‘Comment on the Iron Plate from Gizeh paper’).
[213] Letter to Robert Bauval dated 2 November 1993, ref. EA/AJS/JAC.
[214] The Orion Mystery op. cit., Chapter 3.
[215] Ibid., Heinemann edition 1994, pp. 204-11. See also a very interesting publication by Sydney Aufrere, L’Univers Mineral dans la pensee Egyptienne, Institut Français D’Archéologie Orientale du Caire, pp. 433-41.
[216] The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, R. O. Faulkner trans., Oxford University Press, 1969, lines 1983-4.
[217] Ibid., lines 11-13.
[218] Ibid., lines 1713-17.
[219] Ibid., lines 820-2.
[220] Ibid., line 904.
[221] Ibid., lines 1014-16.
[222] Ibid., line 852.
[223] Ibid., line 907.
[224] Dr. Zahi Hawass calls him ‘the father of modern Egyptology’ (see Zahi Hawass ‘Update’ to Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie’s The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, op. cit., p. 98; see also Jean Vercoutter, The Search fur Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, pp. 152-5). A good account of Petrie’s involvement with the Great Pyramid is given in Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, op. cit., pp. 96-107.
[225] Charles Piazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, op. cit., pp. 535-634.
[226] H. A. Bruck and Mary Bruck, The Peripatetic Astronomer, op. cit., p. 229.
[227] Ibid., p. 38.
[228] The Orion Mystery, op. cit., Heinemann edition, 1994, epilogue. Also see Charles Piazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance, op. cit., pp. 427-31.
[229] Charles P
iazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance, op. cit., pp. 427-31.
[230] Ibid.
[231] Ibid.
[232] No one knew of this attempt by the Dixons to probe the shafts with an iron rod until Rudolf Gantenbrink, in early 1992, explored the northern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber with a robot mounted with a mini-video camera. The rod still lies there, inside the shaft, at about 8 metres from the entrance and runs to the ‘corner’, some 24 metres up the shaft. Gantenbrink could not take his robot round the corner but he managed to see, with the video camera, that it runs for a further two metres or so and then turns sharply back on track. What lies at the end is still unknown.
[233] The Dixons, who were iron structural contractors from Newcastle, were building a bridge across the Nile near Cairo. The iron rod they used seems to have been purpose made to probe the shaft. It was cut in lengths of approximately 12 feet then assembled together with sleeve-joints as the rod was pushed within the shaft. It seems to have been stuck at the upper end, forcing the Dixons to abandon it.
[234] Nature, 26 December 1872, p. 147.
[235] Letter from John Dixon to Piazzi Smyth dated 23 November 1872.
[236] The Graphic, 7 December 1872, p. 530. Also Nature, 26 December 1872 p. 146. Piazzi Smyth mentions these relics, and describes how they were found, in his book, Our Inheritance, op. cit., and also refers to the articles in The Graphic and in Nature in the 1874 edition of his book, pp. 155 and 364.
[237] The last mention before they re-emerged in 1993, as far as we know, was in a letter written by a certain Mr. E. H. Pringle dated 20 June 1873 (see Nature of 31 July 1873, p. 263). It is possible, however, that some other publication mentioned them in more recent times.
[238] Aubrey Noakes, Cleopatra’s Needles, H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd., London, 1962, p. 16.
[239] Ibid., pp. 26-7.
[240] Ibid., p. 26. See also Martin Short, Inside the Brotherhood, Grafton Books, London, 1989, p. 119.
[241] R. M. Hadley, ‘The Life and Works of Sir Erasmus Wilson (1809-1884)’ in Medical History journal, Vol. III, 1959, pp. 215-47.
[242] Ibid., p. 238.
[243] Fred L. Pick and G. Norman Knight, The Pocket History of Freemasonry, Muller, 1977, pp. 44-5. See also Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., pp. 193-205.
[244] Illustrated London News, 21 September 1878, p. 286.
[245] Independent, London, 6 December 1993. See also Martin Short, Inside the Brotherhood, op. cit., p. 120.
[246] Letter to Robert Bauval dated 28 October 1993.
[247] Independent, 6 December 1993, p. 3.
[248] Independent, 13 December 1993.
[249] Beaconsfield Advertiser (‘Row erupts over “missing” relics’) 12 January 1994, p. 3.
[250] Telephone conversation with Dr. I. E. S. Edwards.
[251] The video films were shown at the British Museum by R. Gantenbrink on 22 November 1993. Also shown on Sat. 1, Spiegel Reportage, op. cit., on 15 August 1995.
[252] J. P. Goidin and G. Dormion, Kheops: Nouvelle Enquête, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris, 1986. See also Jean Vercoutter, The Search for Ancient Egypt, op. cit., p. 195.
[253] Jean Vercoutter, op. cit.
[254] For a more detailed discussion see Fingerprints of the Gods, op. cit., pp. 320-3. The shafts were concealed yet, in a curious manner, their position was obvious once a logical correlation was made with those in the King’s Chamber above—as Waynman Dixon finally did in 1872 (see I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, op. cit., 1982 edition, p. 123). Once the openings were found, then natural curiosity would urge a deeper probe into the shafts. Dixon, in fact, frantically probed inside these shafts with metal rods in the hope of finding relics or a ‘chamber’, but his technology was not yet sufficiently developed to ‘see’ what he was doing.
[255] Presented to the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo and dated March 1991.
[256] This was the original title given to the documentary made by Rudolf Gantenbrink which was broadcast on the A & E channel in the USA (title changed to The Great Pyramid) on 8 January 1995. A shortened version was broadcast in Germany on Sat. 1 on 15 August 1995.
[257] Smithsonian, Vol. XVII, No. I, April 1986. Uli Kapp also assisted Mark Lehner in the Giza Mapping Project in 1985 (ARCE Newsletter 131, 1985, p. 44).
[258] Documented information provided to authors.
[259] I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, op. cit., p. 123.
[260] Documented information provided to authors.
[261] A curious letter was mailed by the inspector Muhammad Shahy to Rudolf Gantenbrink dated 5 August 1993—i.e. five months after the discovery. Shahy (better transliterated as Sheeha) wrote: ‘I’m in troubles now because of your project ... I shall face questioning soon.’ The young inspector was also worried that he could not write a report on this project because ‘there is no reference here’ (this letter was shown to the authors by R. Gantenbrink). We have been unable to make contact with Mr. Muhammad Shahy.
[262] The statue went missing on the 19 January 1993, when it was supposed to be displayed to President Mubarak and his guest, Libya’s President, Muammar Gaddafi, on a table near the Sphinx. It may have been stolen by the same smuggling gang that was rounded up in March 1995 (see The Times of London 12 and 13 March 1995).
[263] Documented information from R. Gantenbrink and Jochen Breitenstein.
[264] Gantenbrink has, in fact, entered the history books. His name is found in I. E. S. Edwards, The Great Pyramid, op. cit., 1993 edition, p. 151 and also in various education manuals on the Great Pyramid. Should a major find be made when the ‘door’ is opened—even though, as now seems likely, not by him—it will be entirely because of his efforts and bold imagination.
[265] All articles appeared between 17 and 19 April 1993.
[266] Several major international journals (Stern, Der Spiegel, etc.) also published articles and pictorials.
[267] Not published in the press but mentioned in Ancient Skies magazine No. 3/1993, 17. Jahrgang, p. 4.
[268] Reuters wire, Cairo 16 April 1993.
[269] Sunday Telegraph, 1 January 1995.
[270] Ibid.
[271] Ibid.
[272] Ibid.
[273] Documented conversation with the authors.
[274] Ibid.
[275] Reported to us by R. Gantenbrink in September 1995.
[276] Sat. 1, Spiegel Reportage, 15 August 1995. See also Los Angeles Times, 30 August 1993.
[277] Kore Kosmou (Excerpt XXIII-29) in Hermetica, op. cit. p. 473.
[278] Ibid, p. 457.
[279] From the Second Division of the Book of What is in the Duat, E. A. Wallis Budge trans., The Egyptian Heaven and Hell, Martin Hopkinson & Co. Ltd., London, 1925, Vol. 1, page 41. See also Third Division, ibid., p. 56.
[280] The Orion Mystery, op. cit., 1994 edition, Chapter 4. There are thousands of references to ‘stars’ ‘star-souls’, ‘the sun-god’, ‘the sky’, ‘the Milky Way’ etc., that make the Pyramid Texts obvious candidates for a proper astronomical investigation into their content and hidden meaning. The intense concept of ‘time’—especially the ‘time’ of the ‘sky gods’ and of a cosmic ‘Creation’—that is found in these texts strongly suggests that the science of precession is also an important factor to apply on such an esoteric literature. The best translation is given by R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, OUP, 1969.
[281] Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill, op. cit., p. 132.
[282] Ibid, p. 373.
[283] For a useful discussion on the Duat, see Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, op. cit., Cairo, 1946, pp. 276-319.
[284] A great deal of confusion has resulted from a failure to understand that the Duat is a fixed location in the sky (obviously encompassing Orion, Canis Major, Taurus and Leo) which has its counterpart on the land and, as the case may be, underneath the land. Access to it was deemed possible by either ascending to the sky or by going under
ground.