Authors: Robert Bauval
The Egypt Code (50 page)
Could the two be the same?
Were the Shemsu-Hor the Nabta stargazers?
On the island of Elephantine at Aswan-a location only 200 kilometres northeast of Nabta and an obvious spot for the prehistoric Stargazers to migrate to - stands a curious little temple dating from the Ptolemaic Period. This temple, however, is far older than it looks, for it was actually built atop several other temples that are now below the ground, thus itself sticking out of the ground like the visible part of an iceberg. The lowest and thus earliest level dates to c. 3200 BC. The other four successive layers date from 2200 BC, 1800 BC, 1400 BC and 150 BC. All the temples were dedicated to the goddess
Satis
who was closely associated with the annual Nile flood and, more importantly, to the rising of the star Sirius whose first re-appearance at dawn near summer solstice marked the beginning of the Egyptian year.
Satis
is shown as a slender woman wearing the White Crown with two antelope horns. On the crown is a five-pointed star, a symbol of Sirius. In 1983 the astronomer Ron Wells showed that the orientation of each successive temple decreased by a few degrees mirroring the progressive decrease in declination of Sirius from 3200 BC to 150 BC. The first re-appearance of the star Sirius after 70 days of ‘invisibility’ - technically known as the
heliacal rising
- traditionally marked the beginning of the Egyptian Year and the Flood Season. This was especially the case at Elephantine, which explains the tracking of the rising point of Sirius from 3200 BC to 150 BC, a period of over three millennia which would have seen the star’s rising point change by several degrees in azimuth. Wells also showed that the ancient astronomers used the temple of Satis to track Orion’s belt and the Big Dipper - the very same constellations which were also tracked by the prehistoric stargazers of Nabta. The explanation for this is simple: the Nile flood was the direct result of the monsoon rains in Central Africa; the calendrical and time-keeping science of the Nabta stargazers for monitoring the yearly cycle of the lakes in the desert could thus be applied to the yearly cycle of the Nile. In other words, the long-range tracking at Nabta of the rising of Sirius and Orion’s belt using the Big Dipper as an indicator from c. 6500 BC to 3300 BC and at Elephantine from c. 3200 BC to 150 BC, considering the very close proximity of these two locations, must be related.
Satis
who was closely associated with the annual Nile flood and, more importantly, to the rising of the star Sirius whose first re-appearance at dawn near summer solstice marked the beginning of the Egyptian year.
Satis
is shown as a slender woman wearing the White Crown with two antelope horns. On the crown is a five-pointed star, a symbol of Sirius. In 1983 the astronomer Ron Wells showed that the orientation of each successive temple decreased by a few degrees mirroring the progressive decrease in declination of Sirius from 3200 BC to 150 BC. The first re-appearance of the star Sirius after 70 days of ‘invisibility’ - technically known as the
heliacal rising
- traditionally marked the beginning of the Egyptian Year and the Flood Season. This was especially the case at Elephantine, which explains the tracking of the rising point of Sirius from 3200 BC to 150 BC, a period of over three millennia which would have seen the star’s rising point change by several degrees in azimuth. Wells also showed that the ancient astronomers used the temple of Satis to track Orion’s belt and the Big Dipper - the very same constellations which were also tracked by the prehistoric stargazers of Nabta. The explanation for this is simple: the Nile flood was the direct result of the monsoon rains in Central Africa; the calendrical and time-keeping science of the Nabta stargazers for monitoring the yearly cycle of the lakes in the desert could thus be applied to the yearly cycle of the Nile. In other words, the long-range tracking at Nabta of the rising of Sirius and Orion’s belt using the Big Dipper as an indicator from c. 6500 BC to 3300 BC and at Elephantine from c. 3200 BC to 150 BC, considering the very close proximity of these two locations, must be related.
Not surprisingly, the same long-range tracking of the rising of Sirius using the Big Dipper as an indicator can also be found at the c. 2700 BC Step Pyramid Complex of Djoser at Saqqara, as we have seen in great detail in Chapter 1. The same applies, of course, to the Great Pyramid and the Giza Complex as a whole, where the ‘star-shafts’ in the Great Pyramid track Sirius and Orion’s belt, and the north shafts track the circumpolar stars. In my books
The Orion Mystery
and
The Message of the Sphinx
it was shown that the astronomy of the Giza Complex provides us with two dates: c. 2500 BC and 11,500 BC. The explanation I gave was that this ‘double date’ provides us with the time of construction (2500 BC) and also the origins of the cult (11,500 BC) which the ancients referred to as Zep Tepi or ‘First Time’.
Could Zep Tepi be the Nabta Playa?The Orion Mystery
and
The Message of the Sphinx
it was shown that the astronomy of the Giza Complex provides us with two dates: c. 2500 BC and 11,500 BC. The explanation I gave was that this ‘double date’ provides us with the time of construction (2500 BC) and also the origins of the cult (11,500 BC) which the ancients referred to as Zep Tepi or ‘First Time’.
The links between the Nabta stargazers and the pharaohs is not just the common ‘religious’ astronomy but also the strange cow cult so blatantly seen at Nabta as from earliest times. There can be little doubt that the Nabta stargazers considered the cow sacred and somehow associated to the star Sirius. This bovine-stellar connection is evident throughout the pharaonic civilisation, not least with the celestial cow-goddess Nut who gives birth to the ‘stars’, and the well-known association of Isis with both the cow and the star Sirius. The origin of this cow-Sirius connection is probably embedded in the cult of the goddess Hathor, the quintessential cow-goddess of ancient Egypt, whose cult centre was at Dendera, barely 300 kilometres downstream from Elephantine and 500 kilometres ‘as the crow flies’ from Nabta. The origin of Hathor goes back deep into prehistory, and she ranked highest in the Egyptian pantheon after Isis, perhaps even on par with the latter. Hathor was the protector of lovers and dancers, patron of merry-making and, above all, sexuality. Her name literally meant ‘House of Horus’ (
Hat-Hor
)
1
and, as such, she was regarded as the divine nurse (some say even surrogate mother) of Horus. Her very close association with Isis, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, is well-known, and in Ptolemaic times their names were fused and interchangeable.
2
In very early times the city of Memphis was an important centre of worship for Hathor, and there she was known as the ‘Lady of the Sycamore’. But by the Old Kingdom her cult centre was well-established at Dendera. The great antiquity of Dendera is attested by tombs to the first dynasties.
3
The temple of Hathor as we see it today, however, dates from the Ptolemaic Period. It was founded by Ptolemy XII Auletes in 54 BC and further developed during the Roman Period. But evidence, textual and archaeological, has revealed the existence of an older temple from the reign of Tuthmoses III c. 1450 BC. There is also an inscription at Dendera that mentions Pepi I of the 6
th
dynasty (c. 2350 BC), suggesting an even earlier phase for the temple. Inscriptions in one of the crypts that speak of an origin going back to prehistoric times of the legendary
Shemsu-Hor
, the ‘Followers of Horus’, although Egyptologists discount this as a ‘mythical’ history.
4
One of the inscriptions even claims that the blueprint of the temple was made by the
Shemsu-Hor
and was later preserved on the temple walls by King Pepi I and also Tuthmoses III:
Hat-Hor
)
1
and, as such, she was regarded as the divine nurse (some say even surrogate mother) of Horus. Her very close association with Isis, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, is well-known, and in Ptolemaic times their names were fused and interchangeable.
2
In very early times the city of Memphis was an important centre of worship for Hathor, and there she was known as the ‘Lady of the Sycamore’. But by the Old Kingdom her cult centre was well-established at Dendera. The great antiquity of Dendera is attested by tombs to the first dynasties.
3
The temple of Hathor as we see it today, however, dates from the Ptolemaic Period. It was founded by Ptolemy XII Auletes in 54 BC and further developed during the Roman Period. But evidence, textual and archaeological, has revealed the existence of an older temple from the reign of Tuthmoses III c. 1450 BC. There is also an inscription at Dendera that mentions Pepi I of the 6
th
dynasty (c. 2350 BC), suggesting an even earlier phase for the temple. Inscriptions in one of the crypts that speak of an origin going back to prehistoric times of the legendary
Shemsu-Hor
, the ‘Followers of Horus’, although Egyptologists discount this as a ‘mythical’ history.
4
One of the inscriptions even claims that the blueprint of the temple was made by the
Shemsu-Hor
and was later preserved on the temple walls by King Pepi I and also Tuthmoses III:
King Tuthmoses III has caused this building to be erected in memory of his mother, the goddess Hathor, the Lady of Dendera, the Eye of the Sun, the Heavenly Queen of the Gods. The ground plan was found in the city of Dendera, in archaic drawing on a leather roll of the time of the
Shemsu-Hor
; it was (also) found in the interior of a brick wall in the south side of the temple in the reign of King Pepi.
5
The temple of Dendera is intensely ‘astronomical’, as we have seen in Chapter 4. The following inscription leaves us with very little doubt that the rising of Sirius was observed at Dendera and also the rising sun at the summer solstice - exactly in the way that was done at Nabta many millennia before.
She (i.e. the star of Isis) shines into her temple on New Year’s Day, and she mingles her light with that of her Father Ra on the horizon
6
Also the simultaneous observation of the star Dubhe with the rising of Sirius can be clearly seen in the astronomical layout of the Dendera Complex and the much earlier Nabta Playa Complex:
Nabta Playa
Dendera
The big question, however, is this:
did the pharaohs know of their origins in the Eastern Sahara
? Until not too long ago the answer had to be ‘no’. But very recently a dramatic chance discovery by the explorers Mahmoud Marai and Mark Borda changed the answer to the affirmative. The thrilling story of how this happened is told in Appendix 7.
did the pharaohs know of their origins in the Eastern Sahara
? Until not too long ago the answer had to be ‘no’. But very recently a dramatic chance discovery by the explorers Mahmoud Marai and Mark Borda changed the answer to the affirmative. The thrilling story of how this happened is told in Appendix 7.
APPENDIX 7
The Lost Kingdom Of Yam: The Search for the Ancestors
By Mahmoud Marai*
In the winter of 2007 I organized an expedition into the Egyptian Sahara (also known as the Western Desert, Libyan Desert or the Eastern Sahara) for my friend and colleague Mark Borda, a Maltese businessman whom I had met a few years before through an intermediary, the German explorer Carlo Bergmann. The expedition, among other objectives, was for Mark to attempt to find the so-called ‘Lost Persian Army of Cambius’ which, according to the 5
th
century Greek chronicler Herodotus, had disappeared in the Egyptian Sahara while marching against the ‘Ammonites’ whose stronghold was at the oasis of Siwa in the northern part of the Egyptian Sahara at the gateway to the Great Sand Sea. Herodotus reported that the whole army, made up of 50,000 men, was overwhelmed by a freak sandstorm and was completely engulfed by the sand which, according to some experts, can come at you like tsunami waves. Many adventurers and explorers had previously tried to locate the whereabouts of the lost Persian army, but all attempts were frustrated. Indeed, many historians think that perhaps the story reported by Herodotus is just a folktale with no historical truth to it. Needless to say, Mark quickly abandoned the idea and we focused instead on the secondary part of our mission: to find more prehistoric drawings in the far southwestern region of the Egyptian Sahara at the mysterious Gebel Uwaynat. This decision was to bear fruit and allow us to make a stunning discovery that, as the saying often goes, may change our perception about ancient Egypt forever.
th
century Greek chronicler Herodotus, had disappeared in the Egyptian Sahara while marching against the ‘Ammonites’ whose stronghold was at the oasis of Siwa in the northern part of the Egyptian Sahara at the gateway to the Great Sand Sea. Herodotus reported that the whole army, made up of 50,000 men, was overwhelmed by a freak sandstorm and was completely engulfed by the sand which, according to some experts, can come at you like tsunami waves. Many adventurers and explorers had previously tried to locate the whereabouts of the lost Persian army, but all attempts were frustrated. Indeed, many historians think that perhaps the story reported by Herodotus is just a folktale with no historical truth to it. Needless to say, Mark quickly abandoned the idea and we focused instead on the secondary part of our mission: to find more prehistoric drawings in the far southwestern region of the Egyptian Sahara at the mysterious Gebel Uwaynat. This decision was to bear fruit and allow us to make a stunning discovery that, as the saying often goes, may change our perception about ancient Egypt forever.
The Gebel Uwaynat is located in the extreme southwest corner of Egypt where it meets Sudan in the south and Libya in the west. Gebel in Arabic means ‘mountain’ and that is precisely what Gebel Uwaynat is: a mysterious mountain range some 30 kilometres long that quite literally emerges like some giant tidal wave from the otherwise flat sandy desert of that remote region of the Sahara. Amazingly, Uwaynat was unknown to the modern world until 1923, when it was first ‘discovered’ by the intrepid explorer Ahmed Hassanein Bey on the very first (and last) camel trek along the edge of the Great Sand Sea. Hassanein marched for several weeks from the town of Saloum on the Mediterranean coastline of Egypt (near the border of Libya) through Siwa and southwards along the edge of the thousands of dunes that stretch nearly 600 kilometres all the way to the borders of Sudan. After nearly 60 days of marching with camels across the endless dunes and sand sheets, Hassanein reached a previously unknown mountain range and because he found several small water holes (Ayoun) there he called it Gebel Uwaynat, meaning ‘Mountain of the Small Eyes’ (a waterhole to the Arabs is known as an ‘eye’). Uwaynat can be described as a ‘Switzerland in the Desert’ without, of course, the vegetation and fauna. But really it is far more than this. For Uwaynat, as Hassanein was to discover to his great surprise, had been the home of prehistoric people for many thousands of years, going back to the Stone Age when the Sahara was far more fertile and hospitable than today, and when lakes, rivers and waterholes were abundant and able to not only sustain wildlife (giraffes, elephants, ostrich, lions) but also humans. At first Hassanein had thought that Uwaynat was totally uninhabited. There were, it seemed, absolutely no signs of human presence there. But to his greatest astonishment, on the third day that he camped at Uwaynat in a valley he was later to name ‘Kakur Talh’ (the ‘Valley of Acacia Trees’) he woke up, as if in a dream, to the sight of a young girl who offered him a bowl of milk. The girl then led him to her tribe, the remnants of a prehistoric people who lived in the hills. There were about 150 of them, and they even had a ‘king’. Hassanein, fortunately for us, managed to take some black and white photographs of the people. Fortunate because when, in 1930 another expedition came to Uwaynat, only a few of these people remained, and by 1935 they had totally disappeared never to be seen again. The ‘king’ of Uwaynat informed Hassanein that the region had once been inhabited by ‘Jinns’ (devils) who had left their images on the rocks. To his delight Hassanein was then taken to see those images which, in fact, were prehistoric petrographs showing men and women with large mammals - giraffes, elephants, lions and wild cattle - which clearly proved that this region had once been plentiful in water and vegetation able to sustain such prolific abundance of life. The Gebel Uwaynat remains even today relatively unexplored due to its great remoteness, the difficulty and cost to mount expeditions and, last but not least, the political unrest in neighboring Sudan and Darfur.
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