These are strange coincidences, aren't there?
But I am still concerned with the grotesque dates of the ancient historians and with Herodotus's 330 kings “whose names the priests read from a book.” Besides Herodotus and Manetho, our experts rely on the royal papyrus from Turin. It was discovered in Luxor in 1820 by Italian lawyer and diplomat Bernardino Drovetti (1776–1852) and sold to Turin in 1824. There, in the Museo delle Antichita Egizie, it can still be admired today. When the chest from Egypt was opened, it contained only small fragments of the crumbled original. Who opened the box? It was Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832); he was the only one who could decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics at that time. How so?
On July 15th, 1799, a French officer, who had traveled to Egypt with Napoleon's troops, at Rashid (Rosette) in the Nile Delta, came upon on a tablet with inscriptions. He didn't know what he had found and presented the tablet to his general who later gave it to the British, and they exhibited it in their new museum in London. There, in the British Museum, the object still attracts thousands of visitors today. On the stone, which was soon generally called the Rosetta Stone, three texts are engraved in various scripts: in Egyptian hieroglyphics, in Demotic script, and in ancient Greek capital letters. The young Frenchman Jean-François Champollion was very interested in the new science of Egyptology. After spending some time in Paris, Champollion was appointed Professor of History at the University of Grenoble in 1809. Two years later, he returned to Paris, spent hours brooding over the Rosetta Stone, and was the first to realize that all three scripts reproduced the same text in a different language. Champollion could read the Greek. It was a praise from priests of Pharaoh Ptolemy V (204–180 BC). The text begins as follows: “In the year 9 on the 4th of Xanthikos (March 23, 196 BC), . . . of the young man who as King of Upper and Lower Egypt ascended to the seat of his father. He is the living image of Amun and the son of Re, chosen by Ptah . . .”19
Starting from the Greek, Champollion deciphered the other two texts and succeeded in creating something like an alphabet of the hieroglyphs. In 1829, the Collège de France set up the first Department of Egyptology in Paris and Jean-François Champollion became chair. In 1824, five years earlier, he had been the one that opened the chest with the Turin Papyrus that had just arrived in Paris from a long journey across the Mediterranean. On the papyrus pieces, Jean-François Champollion recognized some fragments with familiar royal names. After Champollion, the Saxon archaeologist Gustav Seyffarth (1796–1855) examined the fragments and succeeded in putting together several of them in the correct order.20 The first group of names mentions the dynasties of gods—once more!—who originally ruled over Egypt. Then in the second group, there are thirty “Thinite rulers”—so-called regents of the “oldest land.” Subsequently, ten “Memphite kings” are listed with names and government dates. From the heavenly god Pharaoh Meni (Menes) to Cleopatra in 30 BC, one hundred sixty-eight kings are verified.
The world-renowned Rosetta Stone. The three different languages on the stone helped to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The first four dynasties are listed as follows:
First Dynasty, 2925–2780 BC
1. Menes
2. Hor-Aha
3. Djer
4. Djed
5. Hor Den
6. Anedjib
7. Semerchet
8. Qaa
Second Dynasty, 2780–2686 BC
9. Hetepsechemui
10. Raneb
11. Ninetjer
12. Seth-Peribsen
13. Chasecgemui
Third Dynasty, 2686–2181 BC
14. Sanacht
15. Djoser
16. Sechemhet
17. Chaba
18. Huni
Fourth Dynasty, 2613–2498 BC
19. Snefru
20. Cheops
21. Djedefre
22. Chephren
23. Mykerinos
24. Shepseskaf
A comparison with the kings list of Abydos shows few matches. Snefru, Cheops, Djedefre, Mykerinos, and Shepseskaf are identical. Before and after, however, there are always names that do not exist on the Abydos list. The great experts found ways to mess things up. Very smart Egyptologists sorted and interpreted the lists.21, 22 This was a difficult task, because names of unknown rulers also exist on clay tablets, stones, seals, or even in graves. For example, the name Scorpion II is on a tomb in Abydos. In addition, the kings were given various titles. But either way, none of the lists of kings arrives at Herodotus's 330 rulers who “priests read from a book.” It should be noted here that all the pharaohs who ruled according to Herodotus should not be counted. Artaxerxes I (465–424 BC), Xerxes II (424–423 BC), Artaxerxes III (341–338 BC), or even Darius III (336–332 BC) and the more than 30 rulers of the Ptolemaic period (323–30 BC) have nothing to do with Herodotus's 330 kings. But the priests in Heliopolis did certainly read 330 names from a book to Herodotus. Neither Herodotus nor the priests cheated. During which periods did the missing pharaohs rule?
There are two more tables of kings created by Karnak and Saqqara. The Karnak list is about rulers who Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) found represented on a wall when rebuilding his temple. They are illustrations of characters, listed in chronological order. Two new names are added from the so-called “first interim period” that do not appear elsewhere. The Saqqara list was discovered in 1861 in the tomb of a royal scribe (today it can be admired in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo). With a few exceptions, it is identical to the Turin Papyrus.
Like other curious onlookers, I rummaged for days through the different lists of kings, studied intensely the lists of names of the rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt, compared, crossed out, and added and never came up with the 330 kings who were supposed to have governed before Herodotus's time. However, I do not doubt Herodotus's statements. When comparing Herodotus's list with the other lists, it becomes clear that approximately one hundred kings are missing, or about 3,000 years with an assumed 30 years for the reign for each ruler.
But after Herodotus, Diodorus of Sicily also reported on Egypt, and this Diodorus was not just anybody. His Universal History (Latin: Diodori Siculi Bibliotheca historica) comprises forty volumes, the content of which begins with the cosmos and the earliest traditions of mankind and ends at the time of Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 BC). Diodorus was wealthy and he could afford to travel throughout parts of Asia Minor and study in the well-stocked libraries of Rome and Alexandria. His historical overview covers about 1,000 years. Actually, Diodorus should have known Herodotus's list of the 330 kings. But he did not. Diodorus questions his informants—today we would call them scientists—about the builder of the Great Pyramid. The Egyptian scholars 2,000 years ago should really have known that person. However, incredibly, the “Ancient Egyptians” knew nothing either about the builder of the Great Pyramid or about the time of its construction. Diodorus writes:
The eighth king was Chemmis from Memphis. He ruled 50 years and built the largest of the three pyramids, which are considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the World . . . It consists entirely of hard stone, which is very difficult to work with but also lasts forever. No less than a thousand years, it is said, have since gone by to our present day, or, as some write, even more than three thousand or four thousand years, and yet the stones still remain just as they were put together and have kept the entire structure undamaged . . . And the most wonderful thing is that, although works of such sheer size were built and the surrounding area consists only of sand, there is no trace of a dam nor the hewing of the stones, giving the impression that the work was not gradually erected by human hands, but suddenly put into the desert as if by a god . . .23
One has to imagine this: 2,000 years ago, the highly educated Diodorus talked to priests and scientists from Egypt. They had all the documents in their history at their disposal, but yet they did not know how old a gigantic structure in their country was? “no less than a thousand years, as they say . .
. but as some write, even more than three thousand or four thousand . . .”
That is simply unbelievable!
Diodorus's testimony is underpinned by the greatest mocker among ancient historians, Gaius Plinius Secundus (61–115 AD). Plinius Secundus, also known as Plinius the Younger, born in Novum Comum (now Como on Lake Como), worked as a lawyer, judge, and senator and was one of the universal scholars. He even thought about the spherical shape of the Earth. The family of Gaius Plinius Secundus belonged to the wealthy of their time. Altogether he wrote thirty-one books—one knows that from the writings of his nephew—but until today, only Naturgeschichte (Natural History) is preserved. His descendants described Gaius Plinius Secundus as a veritable workoholic who read or had people read to him at every opportunity. In his works, he cites his sources and in a preface and even notes that he has read a total of over two thousand books. Its table of contents contains no fewer than 473 headings. In the thirty-sixth book (Chapter 17) of Natural History he lists all historians who had already written about the pyramids before him: “The following authors have described the pyramids: Herodotus, Euhemerus, Duris of Samos, Aristagoras, Dionysius, Artemidorus, Alexander Polyhistor, Butoridas, Antihisthenes, Demetrius, Demoteles, Apion. None of them, however, knows who their true builders are, and so the creators of this vanity have rightly disappeared into oblivion . . .”24
These are twelve historians who already talked about the pyramids before Gaius Plinius Secundus. Most of these men lived in Egypt and used the rich libraries, but no one knew the builder of the Great Pyramid, let alone the year or years during which the structure was built. Among these twelve people, Herodotus is the only one who brought the name Chufu—the Greek word for Cheops—into play, but he explicitly stated that he had been given this name. Gaius Plinius Secundus, on the other hand, knew Herodotus's works and commented on the naming of Chufu/Cheops: Herodotus is mistaken.
How can a phenomenal pyramid stand for thousands of years, clearly visible to everyone, admired by the locals and the daily stream of visitors, where visitors must have inquired about the builder all the time, but the Egyptians know nothing about it? The Egyptian guides and scholars must have been bombarded with questions about the pyramid every day, year after year, from sunrise to sunset, for millennia. But they don't know anything about the biggest showpiece of the country? Their knowledge of it has vanished just like Herodotus's 330 pharaohs read to him by priests from a book?
Remember the sun that suddenly rose twice in the west—the pole shift that was associated with terrible natural disasters? At this time, what was once land became water—and vice versa. All coastal towns and those on the plains disappeared, and with them all the libraries. Only small populations in the high mountains survived, and they were busy. Their lives were about survival, food, clothing, and offspring. The second generation after the disaster didn't know anything about libraries from their own experience. After the waters had retreated, the pyramids were still standing. Nobody knew the builders anymore and nobody knew how they had been built. It makes sense when Diodorus notes that, although the area around the pyramid consists of sand, “there was no trace of a dam nor the hewing of the stones.” This was logical of course—everything had been washed away. It was even less likely that anyone suspected the real reason for the massive structure, or what was kept in it. What does contemporary research have to say about that?
On April 15, 1993, Ms. Christel Egorov, then spokeswoman for the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAI), said it was known that the Great Pyramid no longer contained any more chambers.25 And the great, old man of Egyptology, Professor Rainer Stadelmann, added: “It is well known that every treasure in the pyramid has been robbed long ago.”26 The same twisted idea can be heard through all of Egyptology. “There's no way that there are hidden chambers” in the Great Pyramid, assures Egyptologist Aidan Dodson of the University of Bristol in England.27 This is repeated even though, over the past decades, chambers and shafts have repeatedly been located in the Great Pyramid. The latest results were published by the science journal Nature in November 2017. An international physics team had measured so-called muons in the Great Pyramid. These are cosmic particles, 10,000 of which are hitting every square meter of Earth every minute. Completely harmless to humans, these muons move a fraction of a billionth of a second faster as they traverse cavities, and slower as they race through granite. These tiny differences can be measured by modern physics. Thus, in the Great Pyramid, a space of at least 30 meters in length was located, which lies directly above the so-called Great Gallery. The first results have been confirmed by two other groups of physicists with different measuring devices. One Japanese group worked under physics professor Dr. Kunihiro Morishima from the Nagoya University of Tokyo, the other under the direction of the French Atomic Energy Commission in Paris, France. No sooner had the scientists published their definitive results than the archaeologists of the Ancient History Administration in Cairo immediately claimed that the physicists should not have published their results without prior consultation. And why not? Egyptology hates secrets.
It doesn't tolerate any other opinions. A veil of untruth is woven over past and present measurements. Now, you can find the partly secret results of the measurements at the Giza plateau concerning its subsoil and the structures standing on it, which were obtained in the past decades. A thriller of a scandal.28
Many scans of the great pyramid in Giza showed hidden chambers and shafts. Illustration by Selina Rueegg.
In 1968, a “spark chamber” was set up in the Chefren Pyramid to carry out radiation experiments. Chief of the project was Dr. Luis Alvarez, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. At that time, together with scientists from the Cairo Ain Shams University and IBM, more than 2.5 million cosmic rays were recorded. Asked about the results, Dr. Amr Gohed, the Egyptian leader of the team, told journalists that the result was “scientifically impossible.” “There is a mystery here that simply has no explanation—call it what you will: occult powers, curse of the pharaohs, witchcraft, or sorcery. There is some force within the pyramids that defies the laws of applied science.”29
Ten years later, in the summer of 1978, scientists from Stanford University, California, conducted geological drilling around the Sphinx. Although several cavities under the sphinx had been measured, the university did not publish a scientific report.30 Further explorations took place in the fall of 1980. The Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation used deep drills northeast of the Sphinx. After eighteen meters of debris, they hit a plate of red granite. But granite is not found in the region of Giza.31 Someone must have deposited the plate many thousands of years ago. No further research was conducted. In the summer of 1986, the two French architects Jean-Patrice Dormion and Gilles Goidin were allowed to perform some harmless measurements with electronic devices in the Great Pyramid. They discovered four cavities; two of them next to the corridor leading to the Queen's Chamber, one in the northeast corner of the Queen's Chamber, and another next to the Grand Gallery. Dormion and Goidin then received permission to drill the walls. After drilling 2.65 meters into the west wall leading to the Queen's Chamber, the drills hit a cavity approximately 3 meters deep filled with quartz sand.32, 33 Curiously, the sand did not come from the Giza area. Why did the builders of the pyramid fill empty spaces with sand from distant regions? The two Frenchmen were not permitted to continue their explorations.
The next round went to the Japanese. A high-caliber physics team from Waseda University in Tokyo conducted research in the Great Pyramid using a novel radar device that could illuminate different rock strata. In the spring of 1987, the scientists located several rooms and shafts within the structure. The sixty-page, highly illustrated scientific report of Waseda University shows measurement data of the various sections, all of which are traversed with white beams.34
One of the passages leads away from the northwest wall of the Queen's Chamber, and a larger cavity was also targeted southwest of the same chamber. Finally, the measurements e
ven showed a 42-meter-long pit that extends below the pyramid. With the report from Waseda University, the antiquities administration in Cairo possessed exact data. Some of the adjacent spaces could have been opened, but nothing happened. At least nothing that was made public. However, the fact that secret drillings were conducted in the Great Pyramid was verified by Alireza Zarei in his book Die verletzte Pyramide (The Damaged Pyramid) with impressive pictures.35
Title of the Japanese WASEDA-Report from 1987
In the fall of 1992, geologist Dr. Robert Schoch from Boston University (College of Basic Studies), along with other scientists, carried out geological measurements around the Sphinx. Not only were two rooms located under the structure, but the sphinx was also redated.36 It had to be at least 5,000 years older than previously thought. (According to popular opinion, Pharaoh Chefren, 2520–2494 BC, built the Sphinx.) What was the official reaction to Schoch's measurements? “American hallucinations,” said chief archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass. And “Schoch's interpretations are not at all based on scientific requirements.”37
War of the Gods Page 5
