The message of the Sphinx: a quest for the hidden legacy of mankind (39 page)

[7]
I. E. S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt,
Pelican Books, London, 1949, p. 106.

[8]
Ahmed Fakhry,
The Pyramids,
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1969, p. 159.

[9]
Mark Lehner, ‘Computer Rebuilds the Ancient Sphinx’,
National Geographic
Vol. 179, No. 4, April 1991; Mark Lehner, ‘Reconstructing the Sphinx’,
Cambridge Archaeological Journal,
Vol. 1, No. 1, April 1992.

[10]
National Geographic,
April 1991, op. cit.

[11]
Ibid.

[12]
Ibid.

[13]
Cambridge Archaeological Journal,
op. cit., pp. 10 and 11.

[14]
Ibid., p. 9.

[15]
Ibid., p. 20.

[16]
John Anthony West,
Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt,
Quest Books, Wheaton, 111, 1993, p. 231.

[17]
Ibid., p. 232.

[18]
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Chicago, 7 February 1992, debate: ‘How Old is the Sphinx?’

[19]
Cambridge Archaeological Journal,
op. cit., p. 6.

[20]
For a fuller discussion of the dating issue see Graham Hancock,
Fingerprints of the Gods,
William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1995, and Crown Publishers, New York, 1995, p. 51.

[21]
Hassan,
The Sphinx,
op. cit., p. 75.

[22]
Cambridge Archaeological Journal,
op. cit., p. 6

[23]
E. A. Wallis Budge, ‘Stela of the Sphinx’
in A History of Egypt,
London, 1902, Vol. IV, p. 80ff.

[24]
Ibid., pp. 85-6.

[25]
James Henry Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
Histories and Mysteries of Man Ltd., London, 1988, Volume II, p. 324.

[26]
Ibid.

[27]
Ibid.

[28]
National Geographic,
April 1991, op. cit.

[29]
Gaston Maspero,
The Passing of Empires,
New York, 1900.

[30]
James Henry Breasted,
Ancient Records,
op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 83-5.

[31]
Gaston Maspero,
The Dawn of Civilization,
SPCK, London, 1894, p. 247.

[32]
Gaston Maspero,
A Manual of Egyptian Archaeology,
p. 74.

[33]
Hassan,
The Sphinx,
op. cit., p. 91.

[34]
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1992, debate ‘How Old is the Sphinx?’, op. cit.

[35]
Archaeology,
September-October 1994, op. cit., pp. 32-3.

[36]
Ibid., p. 34.

[37]
R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz,
Sacred Science,
Inner Traditions International, Rochester Vt., 1988, p. 96.

[38]
John Anthony West,
Serpent,
op. cit., pp. 1-2.

[39]
Ibid., p. 186.

[40]
Ibid., p. 187.

[41]
Ibid., p. 226.

[42]
Ibid., p. 225.

[43]
Ibid., p. 226.

[44]
Ibid., p. 227.

[45]
Ibid.

[46]
Ibid.

[47]
Ibid., pp. 226-7.

[48]
Ibid., p. 228.

[49]
Interviewed in NBC television documentary
Mystery of the Sphinx,
1993.

[50]
John Anthony West,
Serpent,
op. cit., p. 227.

[51]
Quoted in
An Akhbar El Yom,
8 January 1994.

[52]
John Anthony West,
Serpent,
op. cit., p. 229.

[53]
Boston Globe,
23 October 1991.

[54]
Los Angeles Times,
23 October 1991.

[55]
John Anthony West,
Serpent,
op. cit., p. 229.

[56]
Ibid.

[57]
Ibid.

[58]
Ibid.

[59]
Ibid., p. 229.

[60]
Ibid., p. 230.

[61]
Ibid., p. 229.

[62]
Mystery of the Sphinx,
op. cit.

[63]
Ibid., and
KMT,
Vol. V, No. 2, Summer 1994, p. 7.

[64]
For block weights see I. E. S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt,
op. cit., p. 215; John Anthony West,
Serpent,
op. cit., p. 242; John Anthony West,
The Traveller’s Key to Ancient Egypt,
Harrap Columbus, London, 1989, pp. 143-5;
Mystery of the Sphinx,
op. cit.; Dr. Joseph Davidovits and Margie Morris,
The Pyramids: An Enigma Solved,
Dorset Press, New York, 1988, p. 51.

[65]
Mystery of the Sphinx,
op. cit.

[66]
Interviewed in ibid.

[67]
See for example I. E. S. Edwards,
Pyramids of Egypt
op. cit., p. 220; John Baines and Jaromir Malek,
Atlas of Ancient Egypt,
Time-Life Books, 1990, pp. 138-9.

[68]
The most thorough study is provided in Peter Hodges (Julian Keable ed.),
How the Pyramids Were Built,
Element Books, 1989.

[69]
Ibid., p. 11.

[70]
Ibid., pp. 11-13.

[71]
Ibid., p. 13.

[72]
Jean Kerisel, a prominent soils engineer in France and also President of the Franco-Egyptian Society, did an extensive study on the hauling of large blocks using human labour and wooden sledges. Kerisel kindly made this study—
Lu Grande Pyramide et ses Derniers Secrets—
available to us prior to its publication (due 1996). The basis of his calculation is that the pressure on the soil cannot exceed 1.5 tons/sq.m. for ramps made of compacted soil (probably covered with stone slabs) with slopes not exceeding 8 per cent. The friction coefficient has been calculated at 15 per cent using soaked lime as the lubricant. Kerisel noted that a greater pressure than 1.5 tons would cause the lubricant to seep away and thus the friction coefficient would increase, making hauling even more difficult. The average speed has been worked out to be 0.3 metres/second with a 13-kilogram traction force produced by each man. Thus the hauling of a 70-ton block would require (70,000 X 0.15 X 1/13=) 807 men and would take some 9.25 hours for a ramp of one kilometre. Kerisel worked out that if the traction was much higher than 13 kg/man—even for a short period of time—the result would be serious back injuries. Thus, assuming at least 1 clear metre distance between each standing man, 807 men in 6 rows would need a ramp space of 134.5 metres long and 6 metres wide. The problem, of course, is greatly increased for blocks of 200 tons within the confined working conditions of the Sphinx and Valley Temples—a task almost impossible to imagine with such primitive techniques.

[73]
Robert Schoch’s evidence presented in
Mystery of the Sphinx,
op. cit.

[74]
KMT
Vol. V, op. cit., p. 7.

[75]
The Sacred Sermon
(Hermetica,
Libellus III
), translated by G. R. S. Mead in
Thrice Great Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis,
Samuel Weiser Inc., North Beach, Maine, 1992, Book II, p. 51.

[76]
British Museum Manuscript 25, 619, pp. 15-19.

[77]
W. M. Flinders Petrie,
The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh,
Histories and Mysteries of Man Ltd., London, 1990, pp. 50-1.

[78]
Chassinat,
Monuments et Mémoires,
Fondation Piot, Volume XXV, p. 57.

[79]
Thor Heyerdahl,
The Ra Expeditions,
Book Club Associates, London, 1972, p. 15.

[80]
Ibid., pp. 15-17.

[81]
Graham Hancock,
Fingerprints of the Gods,
op. cit. Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert,
The Orion Mystery,
William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1994.

[82]
Gaston Maspero,
The Dawn of Civilization,
op. cit., pp. 366-7. See also Peter Tompkins,
Secrets of the Great Pyramid,
Harper & Row, New York and London, 1978, p. 17 and W. M. Flinders Petrie,
Pyramids and Temples,
op. cit., p. 13.

[83]
W. M. Flinders Petrie,
Pyramids and Temples,
op. cit., p. 13.

[84]
The supposed discoverer was Archimedes.

[85]
For further discussion see
Fingerprints of the Gods,
op. cit., Chapter 48.

[86]
Ibid.

[87]
Piazzi Smyth,
The Great Pyramid,
Bell Publishing Co., New York, 1990, pp. 79-80.

[88]
Ibid., p. 80.

[89]
J. H. Cole, Paper No. 39, ‘The Determination of the Exact Size and Orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza’,
Survey of Egypt,
Cairo, 1925. See also I. E. S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt,
op. cit., p. 87.

[90]
Ibid.

[91]
I. E. S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt,
op. cit., p. 208.

[92]
See discussion in Flinders Petrie,
Pyramids and Temples
op. cit., pp. 83-4.

[93]
See
Fingerprints of the Gods,
op. cit., pp. 330-8,
The Orion Mystery,
op. cit., pp. 41-5.

[94]
I. E. S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt,
op. cit., p. 93.

[95]
We are grateful to James Macaulay for this suggestion.

[96]
Joseph R. Jochmans,
The Hall of Records,
unpublished manuscript, 1985, p. 175. See also Hodges,
Horn the Pyramids Were Built,
op. cit., p. 122.

[97]
Flinders Petrie,
Pyramids and Temples,
op. cit., p. 19.

[98]
Ibid.

[99]
Vyse and Perrings figures quoted in Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt,
op. cit., p. 88.

[100]
Ibid., pp. 88-96.

[101]
Ibid., p. 88.

[102]
Herodotus,
The History,
David Grene trans., University of Chicago Press, 1988, 2:124, pp. 185-6.

[103]
Cited in Jochmans,
The Hall of Records
, op. cit., pp. 176-7.

[104]
R. Cook,
The Pyramids of Giza,
Seven Islands, Glastonbury, 1992, p. 52.

[105]
Jean Kerisel, ‘The Pyramid of Cheops: Further Research’ (October and December 1992), extract from his paper in the
Revue Française d’Egyptologie
, 1993, p. 4.

[106]
Ibid, p. 6.

[107]
Ibid.

[108]
Ibid, p. 7.

[109]
Personal communication.

[110]
A. Badawy, ‘The Stellar Destiny of the Pharaoh and the so-called Air Shafts in Cheops’ Pyramid’,
Mitt. Inst. Orient, zu Berlin,
Band 10, 1964, pp. 189-206.

[111]
See, for example, I. E. S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt
op. cit., pp. 209-10.

[112]
For further discussion see
The Orion Mystery,
op. cit.

[113]
For example, see E. M. Antoniadi,
L’Astronomie Egyptienne,
Paris, 1934, p. 119.

[114]
See
The Orion Mystery,
op. cit., pp. 97-104.

[115]
Ibid.

[116]
Ibid., pages 105-37.

[117]
Ibid.

[118]
Ibid.

[119]
Ibid., pp. 179-96.

[120]
See
The Orion Mystery,
op. cit., p. 192.

[121]
Using the rigorous formula of precession corrected for nutation, aberration of starlight, proper motion (from the most recent Yale Bright Star Catalog) and parallax, gives
circa
10,500 BC as the epoch that Orion’s belt reached its lowest altitude (9 degrees 25’ measured at the south meridian, i.e. declination 50 degrees 35’).

[122]
Giving a full precessional cycle of 25,920 years.

[123]
For a detailed discussion see Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend,
Hamlet’s Mill,
Godine, Boston, 1977.

[124]
Ibid., p. 59.

[125]
See
Fingerprints of the Gods,
op. cit., pp. 454-8.

[126]
For a discussion see J. Norman Lockyer,
The Dawn of Astronomy,
MIT Press, 1973, pp. 60-1ff.

[127]
From
Hermetica,
Sir Walter Scott trans., Shambhala, Boston, 1993,
Asclepius III
:24b, p. 341.

[128]
From the eleventh division of the
Duat,
in the ‘Book of What is in the Duat’, Sir E. A. Wallis Budge trans., in
The Egyptian Heaven and Hell,
Martin Hopkinson & Co, London, 1925, p. 240.

[129]
Ibid., the twelfth division of the
Duat,
p. 258.

[130]
Ibid., p. 70.

[131]
For a discussion see
The Orion Mystery,
op. cit., pp. 179-84;
Fingerprints of the Gods,
op. cit., p. 380ff.

[132]
Ibid. See also E. A. Wallis Budge,
The Gods of the Egyptians,
Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1969.

[133]
The tradition that important ‘records’ were brought to Egypt ‘after the flood’ i.e. after 10,000 BC, goes back to at least the third century BC. It is found, for example, in
The Book of Sothis
(commented upon by the Byzantine historian Georgios Synecellus who lived in the ninth century AD) and which some scholars attribute to the Egyptian scribe, Manetho (See Garth Fowden,
The Egyptian Hermes,
Princeton University Press, New Jersey 1993, pp. 29-33). The idea is also planted in the
Kore Kosmou
(Excerpt XXIII of the Hermetic writings) of the first and second century AD (See
Hermetica,
op. cit., p. 461). In the
Kore Kosmou
(section 8) the goddess Isis claims that Thoth deposited in a secret place the ‘sacred books’ which contained ‘the secret things of Osiris ... these holy symbols of the cosmic elements’ and then cast a spell that these books shall remain ‘unseen and undiscovered by all men who shall go to and fro on the plains of this land until the time when Heaven, grown old, shall beget organisms [i.e. humans] worthy of you ...’