The Blazing Star of the Nile: Egyptian Stellar Template
Gary A. David
As above, so below. Most of us have probably heard this hermetic epigram before, or at
least the biblical version of it: on earth as it is in heaven. Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert
tried to prove its verity in their 1994 bestseller The Orion Mystery. In what became known as the
Orion Correlation Theory, the co-authors posited an ancient unified ground plan in which the
pyramids at Giza form the pattern of Orion s belt. According to their entire configuration
described here in the briefest terms, the Great Pyramid (Khufu, Fourth Dynasty) represents
Alnitak, the middle pyramid (Khafra, Fourth Dynasty) represents Alnilam, and the slightly offset
smaller pyramid (Menkaura, Fourth Dynasty) represents Mintaka.1
In addition, two ruined pyramids one at Abu Ruwash (Djedefra, Fourth Dynasty) to the
north and another at Zawyat Al Aryan (Teti, Third Dynasty) to the south respectively correlate
to the Saiph (Orion s right foot) and Bellatrix (Orion s left shoulder). Farther south the three
main pyramids at Abusir (Sahure, Niuserre, Neferirkare, Fifth Dynasty) correspond to the
triangular head of Orion, Meissa. Bauval and Gilbert also believe that the pyramids at Dashur
namely, the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid (both Sneferu, first pharaoh of the Fourth
Dynasty) represent the Hyades stars of Aldebaran and Epsilon Taurus respectively. The
Meidum pyramid (Huni, Third Dynasty) located 45 kilometers south of the Bent Pyramid could
possibly correspond to the Pleiades (Seven Sisters). It was first built as a seven-layer step
pyramid, but Sneferu later added casing stones in a botched attempt to create a true pyramid with
1
smooth sides.
The primary ceremonial center for worship the creator/sun god Atum-Ra was Heliopolis,
which the ancient Egyptians called Anu, and the Hebrews in the Bible referred to as On. Located
northeast of Giza on the eastern side of the Nile but now surrounded by a suburb of Cairo, this
sacred site corresponds either to Regulus, the heart of the fiery lion constellation Leo, or to the
summer solstice sunrise point. As Robert Bauval remarks in his book The Egypt Code:
It is beyond any doubt that the astronomer-priests of Heliopolis observed in
particular the dawn rising of Orion and Canis Major, which took place at the start
of the flood season, and equated these astral deities to Osiris and Isis [Asar and
Sopdet], the harbingers of rebirth and regeneration. The question must arise,
therefore, as to whether or not they observed with which constellation the sun
coalesced at this crucial time of year. To be more precise, did the ancient stargazers of Egypt take heed that the summer solstice occurred in the constellation
Leo? It would seem very odd if they didn t. 2
In this celestial-terrestrial pattern, Letopolis, which is located due west across the Nile from
Heliopolis and due north of the Great Pyramid at Giza, is correlated with Sirius in Canis Major,
the most brilliant star in the sky. Letopolis, whose Egyptian name is Sekhem or simply Khem,
was the seat of worship for Horus the Elder (Heru-ur).3 Bauval comments on the early role of
Horus, as opposed to the later son of Osiris and Isis. From various inscriptions related to the socalled domains and estates of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings, it is obvious that Horus was not, as
many Egyptologists insist even now, a solar god in early times, but rather a stellar god, likely
representing the bright star Sirius. 4 Some scholars conjecture that an astronomical observatory
tower once stood at Letopolis.5 This sacred city was also associated with thunderbolts or
meteorites, and that some sort of nocturnal fire offerings was made there. 6
The city of Memphis, reputedly constructed by the First Dynasty pharaoh Menes in about
3000 BC, corresponds to Zeta Tauri, the tip of the left horn of the bull Taurus. Five kilometers to
the northwest is the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, constructed in the Third Dynasty by the pharaoh
Djoser. One-half kilometer further northwest is the Serapeum, the ceremonial burial ground of
the sacrificed Apis bulls (Serapis or Osiris-Apis). Thus, we see the stellar influence of Taurus
projected onto the earth.
As Gilbert states in his later book Signs in the Sky:
It was Bauval s contention that the part of the Milky Way which interested the
Egyptians most was the region that runs from the star Sirius along the
constellation of Orion on up towards Taurus. This region of the sky seemed to
correspond, in the Egyptian mind at least, to the area of the Memphite necropolis,
that is to say the span of Old Kingdom burial grounds stretching along the west
bank of the Nile from Dashur to Giza and down to Abu Ruwash. At the centre of
this area was Giza; this, he determined, was the earthly equivalent of Rostau
(Mead s Rusta), the gateway to the Duat or underworld. 7
In a book entitled The Message of the Sphinx, Robert Bauval and co-author Graham Hancock
describe the cosmic journey of the Horus-King, or son of the Sun, to the underworld: He is now
at the Gateway to Rostau and about to enter the Fifth Division [Hour] of the Duat the holy of
2
holies of the Osirian afterworld Kingdom. Moreover, he is presented with a choice of two ways
or roads to reach Rostau: one which is on land and the other in water . 8 If we consider
Thoth s well-known proclamation that Egypt is the image of heaven, and the whole Cosmos
dwells there, 9 the watery road to the Duat would correspond to the Nile River/Milky Way
whereas the earthly road would be the ceremonial pathways from the previously mentioned
sacred sites of Heliopolis and Letopolis. To this, Egyptologist Mark Lehner adds: The word for
Netherworld was Duat, often written with a star in the circle, a reference to Orion, the stellar
expression of Osiris, in the Underworld. Osiris was the Lord of the Duat, which, like the celestial
world (and the real Nile Valley) was both a water world and an earthly realm. 10
Bauval describes the scenario.
The apotheosis of the rebirth ritual (prosaically call the funeral by
Egyptologists) took place, according to my own thesis, at the temple of RaHorakhti in Heliopolis. In my mind I see the cortege bearing the king s embalmed
corpse place on a boat or ferry (a splendid example of such a solar boat is
displayed at Giza) and made to travel from the sun temples at Abu Ghorab along
the prescribed solar path, then across the Nile and towards the sanctuary of the
phoenix at Heliopolis. There the king s mummy would await the (re)birth of RaHorakhti , which took place at dawn on the day of the heliacal rising of Sirius. 11
3
Regulus in Leo rests on the horizon as Sirius in Canis Major achieves its heliacal rising.
Orion hovers above Sirius. The sun is about 10° below the horizon.
Ra-Horakhti refers to Horus of the Horizon, which in this case is Leo the celestial lion of
the zodiac resting sphinx-like on the horizon in order to guard the eastern gate, while Sirius rises
on the summer solstice (i.e. New Year s Day) just a few minutes before the solar disk. At the
same time the annual flooding of the Nile begins. (See star chart of 3100 BC above.) We recall
that Heliopolis was the site of the Primeval Mound of Creation. When the waters of the abyss
began to recede, Atum-Ra in the form of a solar lion or sphinx rose. 12 The Bennu bird then
alighted on the meteoric benben stone in the Temple of the Phoenix, initiating the Sothic cycles
of 1,460 years each.
Niuserre s sun temple at Abu Ghorab is located between Zawyat Al Aryan (Orion s
shoulder) and Abusir (Orion s head). Lehner comments on the latter site: Several places in
Egypt are named Abusir. The Arabic word derives from the Greek name Busiris, which in turn
stems from the ancient Egyptian, Per Wsir, Place of Osiris the multiple Abusirs reflecting the
myth of the murder of Osiris, whose body was cut into pieces and buried and different places. 13
Of course, the Pyramid Texts, Book of the Dead, the Coffins Texts, etc. identify the resurrection
god Osiris with the constellation Orion.
Author William Henry has noted the presence of a quartz crystal platform at Abu Ghorab in
front of where an obelisk once stood. This eight-sided stone mandala is aligned to the four
directions. He also discusses a number of round stone basins that appear to be machine-tooled,
with gear-like notches in some and large, perfectly round holes in others.14 Large quantities of
4
mica, which has piezoelectric properties, has been found onsite, similar to the mica present at the
Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan in Mexico.
As the rites of the Egyptian Mysteries performed for the deceased pharaoh in the Temple of
the Phoenix were concluded, the mummy would have been carried west of Heliopolis, ferried
across the Nile in the bark of millions of years to the Land of the Dead on the west bank, and
then taken to Letopolis 16.7 kilometers due west of Heliopolis. Letopolis was the home of the
priesthood responsible for the Opening of the Mouth ceremony that was performed on the king s
mummy. It was also the home of the four sons of Horus who, in the Pyramid Texts, are said to
assist the dead king s ascent to the stars. 15 The tool, called peseshkaf, used to perform this ritual
that supposedly imparted the breath of life (hikê) was an adze made of meteoric iron called
bja. It was in fact shaped like the Big Dipper (or Plough or Great Bear) constellation, which the
Egyptians referred to as Mesekhtiu, literally, bull s thigh. As previously stated, Letopolis is
due north of Giza. Thus, standing atop the Great Pyramid one could see the Big Dipper hovering
over where the Letopolitan astronomical tower would be, nearly 17 kilometers away. It is
reasonable that torches lit on top of the tower would have been visible from Giza.
The ancient Egyptians called the circumpolar stars the Imperishable Ones.
Hovering about 30° above the horizon, Thuban (Alpha Draconis) was the North Star
in 2835 BC. Notice the inner edge of the Big Dipper (Megrez above and Phecda below)
is parallel to the meridian and perpendicular to the horizon.
The final leg of the pharaoh s funeral procession would have been the land road the route
due south from Letopolis to the Great Pyramid. Many modern hypotheses regarding the function
of this gargantuan structure point to some sort of sophisticated machine or power plant designed
5
to produce subtle energy from telluric or atmospheric currents. On the other hand, Robert Bauval
suggests the astronomical alignments, particularly the so-called airshafts (in reality, star shafts),
aided the metaphysical transformation of the pharaoh s mummy into a god-like sidereal entity.
A powerful and elaborate sky religion centered on the rebirth of kings among the stars gradually
developed around, or at least fundamentally intertwined with, this one vital astronomical
observation [namely, the heliacal rising of Sirius on summer solstice]. It would also lead to the
design and construction of resurrection machines in the form of the great pyramid complexes of
the Old Kingdom, whose ultimate function was to bring about the transfiguration of the king s
lifeless body into a living star in the sky. 16
The Great Pyramid, then, perhaps served as a scale model of the Duat, or Halls of Amenti,
where the rituals described in various versions of the Book of the Dead were performed. The ba,
or soul, in the form of a human-headed hawk perched upon a pylon, watching the jackal-headed
Anubis weigh the soul s heart on the scales against Maat, the feather of Truth. Ibis-headed
Thoth, god of wisdom, writing, and mathematics, recorded the verdict. If found wanting, the
heart was devoured by Ammit, a creature with the head of a crocodile, body of a lion, and hindend of hippopotamus. If the soul was found virtuous and balanced with Maat, the initiate was
brought before enthroned Osiris, who held a flail and a crock, and in some depictions a was
scepter symbolizing dominion or power. Osiris was backed by his sister/wife and sister-in-law,
Isis and Nephthys respectively. The soul was thus essentially home-free in eternity.
E. A. Wallis Budge distinguishes between the rewards of the sun god Ra and those of the
resurrection god Osiris/Orion. The Egyptians regarded R as the provider for their existence in
this world, and Osiris as the cause and source of their lives in the next. It was, as the monuments
show, their duty to make offerings to the gods of their country and to honour the local god, but
the wise man, in accepting the gifts of R , lived his life in such a way as to secure the acquittal of
his soul at the trial to which it would be subjected in the Judgment Hall of Osirirs. 17
An apocryphal text titled The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean was reputedly
translated by Dr. M. Doreal. The preface to this hermetic opus states the following:
The history of the tablets translated in the following pages is strange and beyond
the belief of modern scientists. Their antiquity is stupendous, dating back some
36,000 years B.C. The writer is Thoth, an Atlantean Priest-King, who founded a
colony in ancient Egypt after the sinking of the mother country. He was the
builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, erroneously attributed to Cheops. In it he
incorporated his knowledge of the ancient wisdom and also securely secreted
records and instruments of ancient Atlantis. For some 16,000 years, he ruled the
ancient race of Egypt, from approximately 52,000 B.C. to 36,000 B.C. At that
time, the ancient barbarous race among which he and his followers had settled had
been raised to a high degree of civilization. Thoth was an immortal, that is, he had
conquered death, passing only when he willed and even then not through death.
His vast wisdom made him ruler over the various Atlantean colonies, including
the ones in South and Central America. When the time came for him to leave
Egypt, he erected the Great Pyramid over the entrance to the Great Halls of
Amenti, placed in it his records, and appointed guards for his secrets from among
the highest of his people. In later times, the descendants of these guards became
the pyramid priests, by which Thoth was deified as the God of Wisdom, The
Recorder, by those in the age of darkness which followed his passing. In legend,
6
the Halls of Amenti became the underworld, the Halls of the gods, where the soul
passed after death for judgment. 18
Scenes from the Papyrus of Ani in The Egyptian Book of the Dead.
As we view the template of the Egyptian Star Correlation, we see various body parts of
Orion/Osiris scattered across the pyramid field, as well as sites corresponding to Taurus, Gemini,
7
Leo, and Canis Major. A five-pointed star, which is the hieroglyphic symbol of asterisms in
general, takes shape in the desert. In the lore of Freemasonry, many sources refer to Sirius as the
Blazing Star. This pentagonal figure, depicted in every lodge and acknowledged in every
initiation ceremony in the world, represents the more evolved human qualities of prudence,
foresight, supreme reason, and omniscience symbolically, the fiery eye of the pyramid, most
recently depicted, with some irony, on the back of the U.S. one-dollar bill. In his tome Morals
and Dogma, Albert Pike suggests that Sirius was the star that the Magi followed to the location
of the Nativity. (Many scholars have associated these three kings with Orion s belt.) The Star
which guided them is that same Blazing Star, the image whereof we find in all initiations. To the
Alchemists it is the sign of the Quintessence; to the Magists, the Grand Arcanum; to the
Kabalists, the Sacred Pentagram. The study of this Pentagram could not but lead the Magi to the
knowledge of the New Name which was about to raise itself above all names, and cause all
creatures capable of adoration to bend the knee. 19
8
Inside the star template projected on the Egyptian desert is a nearly perfect square that can be
conceptualized as a two-dimensional pyramid. The apex of this pyramid, which is halfway
between Giza and Heliopolis rests on Gezira Island in the Nile, less than two kilometers
northwest of the Egyptian Museum and Tahrir Square. In ancient times this strategic location
was possibly a site of ceremonial importance.
We see that if the two diagonal lines of the square are extended northward, they frame the
Nile Delta quite precisely, with Alexandria to the west and Port Said to the east on the
Mediterranean. The latter site is where the Suez Canal meets the Mediterranean.
Plutarch claims that both the birthplace and grave of Osiris was located at Busiris (Pa-Asar),
located 116 kilometers north of Saqarra. But Eudoxus states that though there are many socalled Tombs in Egypt, yet that the true monument was erected at Busiris, for that was the
birthplace of Osiris; for thy; name Taphosiris requires no explanation since the name itself
means Tomb of Osiris. 20 Greek mathematician Eudoxus of Cnidus (408 BC 355 BC) made
celestial observations for a few years around 370 BC at the aforementioned astronomical tower
of Letopolis.
The ancient port city of Canopus (called Peguat by the Egyptians) may in the stellar template
correspond to Canopus, the second brightest star in the heavens after Sirius, located in the
constellation Carina. The late author Philip Coppens comments on the historical importance of
this prosperous port.
The first mention of Canopus as a town is made by Aeschylus as the place where
Io arrived. Herodotus wrote about Herakleion and its temple dedicated to
Hercules. The sites were named in Greek tragedies and they form the setting for
the Greek myth of Menelaus, king of Sparta, who stopped in Herakleion during
his return from Troy with his wife Helena. It was an island off the coast near
Canopus that was called the Island of Helen, after Helen of Troy. It was here that
his helmsman Canopus was bitten by a viper and subsequently transformed into a
god. Canopus and his wife Menouthis were immortalised by two cities that bore
their names. Authors such as Strabo described the geographic location of the
cities and their rich lifestyle, while others, such as Seneca, condemned their moral
corruption. They were suburbs of Alexandria and seem to have been the antique
equivalent of what Las Vegas was for Los Angeles: a place to relax And just
like Las Vegas, though very close to Alexandria, Canopus was administratively
independent of the Egyptian capital. 21
9
10
Corresponding to the star Regulus in Leo, Heliopolis is perhaps the primum datum, or key
geomantic locus from which an ancient grid system was laid out. At this sacred city the earliest
obelisk erected in Egypt still stands 120 tons of red granite rising 67 feet high. Sunusret I (aka
Sosostris aka Usertsen), the second pharaoh of the 12 th Dynasty (1971 1926 BC), commissioned
it for his jubilee sed celebration commemorating the 30th year of his reign. He refurbished the
Temple of Atum-Ra but also fortified the cult of Osiris at Heliopolis. This expansionist ruler sent
a garrison south into Nubia in order to establish the southern border of Egypt near the Second
Cataract, where he erected a victory stele at Buhen. He exerted control over the land of Kush
from the Second to the Third Cataract, and his name was been found on the island of Argo (near
modern-day Dongola in northern Sudan). In addition, he established diplomatic relations with
Canaan and Syria, even as far north as the city of Ugarit, which may explain the northeastward
vector into the Levant, which we shall subsequently examine. 22
Sunusret s tomb pyramid is located 34.5 kilometers south of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara,
being three-quarters of one degree east of due south (179.25° azimuth).
11
12
If the Blazing Star becomes the apex of a larger pyramid with a perimeter of 1,000
kilometers (250 k.) on each side, then the diagonals can be extended to four significant points at
approximate azimuths of 45°, 135°, 225°, and 315°. It is certainly more than a coincidence that
the line between the Great Pyramid at Giza and Heliopolis forms the hypotenuse of a right
triangle that is oriented to the cardinal directions. In his book Axis Mundi, Bradbury Cort Lindahl
extends this 45-degree vector from Giza via Heliopolis to the megalithic site of Baalbek in
Lebanon a total of 655 kilometers (407 miles). The spatial relationship of the Great Pyramid
of Giza and the Hexagon of Baalbek may have been the earliest model for the grid of latitude and
longitude that is used today on maps and globes. The positions and orientation of both structures
display the near-perfect dimensions of the hypotenuse of the rectangle of lat/long that separate
the two sites. 23
The more ancient portion of Baalbek was built with some of the largest stone blocks ever cut
in the world. Extracted and hauled from a quarry many miles away, these megaliths, some
weighing more than 1,000 tons, had been lifted 22 feet above ground level and fitted so that a
knife-blade could not be inserted between them much like the Great Pyramid. The gigantic
stones form a substructure almost 300 yards long, serving as an artificial acropolis upon which
the later temples were built. The name Baalbek means Lord of the Bekaa, referring to the
valley in which it sits. Under the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, it was called Heliopolis,
perhaps reflecting the namesake of the sun temple located in a suburb of modern-day Cairo.
Romans subsequently erected a Temple of Jupiter that included 84 granite columns soaring 65
feet tall. Imported from Aswan in Upper Egypt, this granite was the same material that was used
in the King s Chamber of the Great Pyramid.24
Lindahl also mentions that a line extended from Giza via Heliopolis and Baalbek traverses
saline Lake Van and terminates at Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, the spot where Noah s Ark
reputedly came to rest.25 Scholar Andrew Collins speculates that this area may have been the
home of the biblical Watchers.
13
Did the Garden of Eden, the birthplace of the human race, as well as the seven
heavens visited by Enoch, once exist in the vicinity of Lake Van? Very possibly.
Armenian legend asserts that the Garden of Eden now lies at the bottom of Lake
Van , after it was submerged beneath the waves at the time of the Great Flood.
What is more, the lake is also connected with the descendants of Noah. On the
lake s west bank is the province of Tarawan, where, according to the fifth-century
AD Armenian historian Moses of Khorenats i, Noah s son Sem (Shem) had
settled temporarily after the Ark had come to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 26
The south-eastward vector of 135° leads to the Kaaba in Mecca. Similar to the benben stone
in the Temple of the Phoenix at Heliopolis, the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba at the center the
Grand Mosque (axis mundi) in Mecca holds the Black Stone reputedly a meteorite encased
in a silver frame. Legends say it fell to earth in order to show Adam where to build the world s
first altar.
However, the south-eastwardly trending line that runs from Letopolis to Mecca for nearly
1,300 kilometers is more exactly 136.06° azimuth. If we extend a line from Letopolis at a
135.30° azimuth for 2,184.5 kilometers, we directly arrive at Awwam, the so-called Temple of
the Moon. This is speculated to have been the fabled Temple of Sheba, also known as the
Mahram Bilqis near the town of Ma rib in Yemen.
Canadian archaeologist Bill Glanzman has measured this ovoid structure at 314.3 feet across.
Its walls at one time rose to 53 feet high, enclosing an area 54,960 square feet two times the
14
size of the Parthenon. Author, archaeologist, and filmmaker Nicholas Clapp visited the Yemeni
site when kidnapping of Western tourists was common but before jihadists made such a trip
suicidal. Open to the sky, this stone structure may have served as a Sabean star-gazing platform.
Ricardo [a member of Clapp s team] thought the wall might be defensive, as befits the name
Awwam, place of refuge. I wondered if it might have served to block out the view of
surrounding mountains, so that priests and pilgrims would gaze toward the heavens and the
passage of the gods of the sun, moon, and stars. If that were the case, the temple could have
functioned as a Sabean astronomical-astrological observatory. Clapp further speculates that the
enclosure might have contained a sacred pool, a prototype of the sacred cube at Mecca, or even
the tomb of the legendary queen herself. Near the ellipse a labyrinth of mausoleums was
unearthed, containing thousands of shrouded burials. 27
Some believe the structure may have been built between the 7 th and 5th centuries BC by
Mukarrib ( ruler ) Yada`'il Dharih.28 This post-dates by a few centuries the biblical Solomon and
Sheba, circa 950 BC. However, southern Arabian script found nearby has recently been dated
back to 1200 BC. Clapp contends that Awwam was constructed perhaps when Sheba was coregent during the reign of either Dhamar alay A (970 BC 955 BC) or his son Yakrubmalik A
(955 BC 940 BC).29
The temple-complex was part of a man-made oasis called the Garden of Two Paradises a
reference to the dams that once made possible a sophisticated irrigation system. The site
encompassed over 250 acres and could possibly support a population of 20,000 or more. In the
1980s German archaeologist Jürgen Schmidt determined that the amount of deposited silt there
indicated the artificial irrigation system had been used as early as 3200 BC and certainly well in
place by 2400 BC.30 This suggests that the ancient Egyptians may have known about the lush
region, given that the Punt expedition of pharaoh Sahure took place about 2480 BC.
In his fine book The Lost City of Solomon and Sheba, Robin Brown-Lowe draws a parallel
between Awwam and Great Zimbabwe in the country formerly known as Rhodesia. The most
startling comparison of all is, of course, the temple of Awwam, buried in the desert at the ancient
Sabaean capital of Marib in Yemen. It is a great stone ellipse, of a size, shape, system of curved
walls, and orientation practically indistinguishable from Great Zimbabwe s Elliptical Building or
temple. Great Zimbabwe has two rows of chevron patterns round a fourth part of the main wall.
A pattern in the stone on the Marib wall is identically positioned. Inscribed walls at both sites are
well built, while the reverse faces are rough. The two temples are both the product of gold-rich
societies. 31 Thus, the ultimate lure for ancient Egypt may have been gold rather than spices.
Incidentally, the Great Pyramid and the Great Zimbabwe are nearly on the same meridian. The
longitude of GP is 31° 08 02 E; the longitude of GZ is 30° 56 03 E a difference of about 12
minutes of arc. In other words, Great Zimbabwe is just 13.8 statute miles (22.2 kilometers) west
of the Great Pyramid but 3,455 miles (5,560 kilometers) south of it.
The so-called Temple of the Moon at Ma rib, or Ilumqah (also referred to as Almaqah), may
have been dedicated instead to the solar god. This deity associated with a bull s head and the
vine motif points to the Dionysian archetype a warrior figure wielding a sickle-shaped
weapon.32
Returning to our Blazing Star of Egypt, we find that the northwestward vector points to the
island of Crete, near the Minoan site of Phaistos and a spot just west of Knossos. (If this 315°
azimuth line is extended father northwest, it passes within 75 kilometers of Rome, and, as
Lindahl has noted, ends at the Tower of Pisa in Italy.33) The Minoan culture began about the
same time as the unification of Egypt, circa 3100 BC. The artifacts archaeologists have found
15
include copper double-axes, which are a symbol of Orion (Osiris), and terracotta figurines of the
Earth Goddess (proto-Isis).
Unfortified palaces began to be built in Phaistos, Knossos, and Mallia about 2000 BC.
Interior rooms were arranged around central hypostyle halls similar to those in Egyptian temples.
Polychrome pottery in the Kamares style (named after a cave in which some of the artifacts were
found) was decorated with naturalistic designs, such as flowers, plants, stars, fish, dolphins,
spirals, etc. Some of these vases were unearthed in Egyptian tombs, proving a direct trade link
between the two cultures. The spontaneous naturalism of the pottery extended to vividly colored
fresco murals found in the palaces.
One Minoan custom that may have had religious connotations was bull-leaping. Athletic
acrobats, both male and female, would grab the horns of the bull and fearlessly somersault over
the animal. These horns of consecration may ultimately be related to the Memphis Apis (bull)
cult previously mentioned.34
Cyclopean stones at Baalbek, Lebanon.
16
Square columns at Awwam, Yemen. Photo courtesy of Bernard Gagnon, 1986.
17
Phaistos Disk from Crete. The hieroglyphic-like symbols
that are arranged in a spiral have not been deciphered.
The final vector between Heliopolis and the Great Pyramid ranges southwest at the azimuth
of 225°. It passes north of Gilf Kebir, a plateau containing numerous examples of pre-Dynastic
rock art, and Unwainat, a circular mountain range on the borders of Egypt, Libya, and Sudan.
This region contains the so-called Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) thousands of tons of
greenish-yellow glass scattered across the Great Sand Sea. Prehistoric people used the shiny
material for sharp-edged tools and jewelry. A stunning pectoral once worn by Tutankhamen has
at its center a scarab exquisitely carved from the glass. LDG is extremely pure 98% silica.
Some believe it was created by the one or more meteorites, or a meteor that detonated above the
ground similar to the 1908 Tunguska aerial burst in Siberia. Within the last decade Dr. Farouk
El-Baz of Boston University recognized from satellite photos of the area a double-ringed crater
31 kilometers in diameter the largest in the Sahara. He suggests that the desert was impacted by
a meteor measuring as large as the entire Barringer Crater in Arizona (1.2 kilometers across).
Thus, he named it Kebira ( large ) Crater, which he believes may have been responsible for the
LDG. However, El-Baz did not actually do any fieldwork to confirm his hypothesis. As a result,
other scientists contend that the crater was not caused by meteoric impact but instead by
hydrothermal or volcanic processes. Alternative researcher David Hatcher Childress claims that a
nuclear war in ancient times, as described in the Hindu text the Mahabharata, may have vitrified
the sand into glass.35
18
Tutankhamen s pectoral with scarab carved from Libyan Desert Glass.
Note triad (Orion s belt?) in crescent above, probably Thoth and Horus flanking Osiris.
19
Kebira Crater, along eastern border of Libya.
Robert Bauval in his book Black Genesis, co-authored by Thomas Brophy, Ph.D., speculates
on the origin of the proto-Egyptian culture.
Although the answer is still unclear, all the evidence points to the possibility
that the Kiffian and Tenere of Niger, the Napta Playa pastoralists, and the precattle and cattle herders of Gilf Kebir and Uwainat all had a common ancestor
source in the Tibesti-Ennedi region on Chad. The evidence to date compels us to
conclude that the original sub-Saharan Black race that first settled in the Chad
highlands subsequently gave rise to the cattle people of the lower Sahara, who, in
turn, spawned the great Egyptian civilization when they finally migrated into the
Nile Valley as the Sahara became superarid. All the evidence seems to point to a
northward spreading of a Black African people from the Chad highlands into the
green Sahara during the humid period that started around 12,000 BCE. These
people, it seemed, roamed the vast open spaces in search of water and grazing
grounds as they gradually changed their habits from hunters to pastoralists. This
conversion caused them also to change their appearance and traditions, and it
contributed to them acquiring an increasingly complex knowledge of astronomy
and navigation which were all imposed on them by the changing climate and the
gradual drying of the Sahara. 36
The Kiffians were tall hunters of the lush Saharan savannah who lived 8,000 to 10,000 years
ago, followed by the Tenere, who were cattle-herders and fishermen. About one hundred miles
west of Aswan in the Sahara Desert lay Napta Playa, possibly the oldest astronomical
observatory in the world. Only 10 to 11 feet in diameter, this megalithic calendar circle has a
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north/south line-of-sight as well as a summer solstice sunrise alignment. According to former
NASA physicist Thomas G. Brophy, Ph.D., three stones inside the circle mirror the pattern of
Orion s belt at the meridian for this season during the period 6,400 BC to 4900 BC. Three other
interior stones represent the shoulders and head of the constellation for the astoundingly early
date of 16,500 BC. Another set of megaliths south of the circle aligns to the vernal equinox
heliacal rising in 6300 BC of six key stars in Orion (Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, Betelgeuse,
Bellatrix, and Meissa). This vernal equinox heliacal rising happens only once per precessional
cycle (nearly 26,000 years).
The southwestern vector (225° azimuth) runs between the Tibesti Mountains and the faunarich Ennedi Plateau. At the southeastern edge of the former massif, a snow-dusted volcanic cone
with two nested calderas named Emi Koussi is the highest elevation in the Sahara. An extension
of the southwestwardly trending line traverses Lake Chad on the southwestern border of Chad
and the northeastern border of Nigeria. Extend the line another eleven hundred kilometers, and
we arrive at an intriguing destination. Professor Catherine Acholonu, Ph.D. (1951 2014)
comments: Robert Bauval s Black Genesis: Prehistoric: Origins of Ancient Egypt co-authored
with Thomas Brophy demonstrated conclusively that ancient Egyptians were West Africans who
migrated into Egypt from the Chad area. Chad has a direct boundary with Nigeria. Had Bauval
and Brophy continued their search beyond Chad, they would have found ample evidence of the
true land of the ancient Egyptians in Nigeria, for it was the Niger, and not the Nile that was the
source of Egyptian civilization. 37
The southwestward vector originates from Heliopolis, transects the Great Pyramid, passes
south of the Tibesti Mountains, transects Lake Chad, passes through eastern Nigeria, and
terminates at the port city of Oron (orthographically similar to Orion ). Well beyond the scope
of this essay would be a detailed discussion of the late Professor Acholonu s primary thesis: i.e.
Nigeria is the root civilization that eventually branched off into most of the major cultures in the
world, including Sumer, Egypt, and the Indus River Valley. (See in particular her final book in
the African Renaissance Series, Eden In Sumer on the Niger, cited below.)
21
Professor Acholonu states that the original Duat, or underworld, was located in the village of
Lejja, also recently determined to be the oldest iron ore-smelting site in the world (circa 2000
BC).38 In the midst of the slag pile is a hole in the ground referred to as Onu, or Mouth of the
Earth. Note the similarity between this Igbo word and the Egyptian word for Heliopolis, Anu.
The reason for the villagers claim that the hole in the shrine leads into a bottomless pit, is
because nothing that falls into the pit ever makes a falling sound, nor is ever seen again. It is a
place of utter darkness and eerie silence. In this tiny Nigerian village there is even a
dilapidated model of the conical Egyptian benben stone made of mud and round blocks of iron
slag.39. It was here, not the Siwa Oasis in Libya, where Acholonu believes that Alexander the
Great journeyed to the Land of the Dead and encountered the spirits of a number of deceased
historical figures.
It is said that travelling through the region of Waters of Life and the Niger Delta
in Eden, Alexander the Great (first half of the first millennium B.C.) entered a
royal city called Shamar on his way to the Gate of the terrestrial Paradise! We
think that the existence of an ancient city in South-Eastern Nigeria by the
name Shamar (an obvious cognate of the words Shumer and Sumer), is a
confirmation of our already established thesis that ancient Sumer, the
original home of the refugees of Babylon and Mesopotamia who settled in the
Middle East, was ancient Nigeria. There are so many versions of Alexander s
journey and all agree that he entered the Underworld Paradise, at least for a short
while, and that there he saw a starlit haze, and the rooftops were shining, as if lit
by stars. The eternal forms of the gods were physically manifest; a crowd was
serving (them) in silence. He saw some reclining figures whose eyes were
shining like beams of light. Among the beings whom the texts claim that
Alexander saw were King Sosostris, an African world conqueror, Serapis or
Dionysius (a name for Osiris), Enoch and Elijah. 40
Sosostris (or Senusret) is, of course, the 12 th Dynasty pharaoh discussed above. We recall
that he the erected the obelisk at Heliopolis and also made forays south into Nubia and Sudan
and north into the Levant. But who was he and whence did he hail? Fortunately we have
sculptures of the ruler.
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This powerful sovereign certainly does not display a Mediterranean or Middle Eastern
physiognomy but in fact clearly shows black or Negroid characteristics. Was he born far south of
Heliopolis in Nubia or the Kushite Kingdom in Sudan? Or did he originate in Western Africa
where, Professor Acholonu claims, a major civilization flourished after the end of the Ice Age?
Until the mummy of Sosostris I is DNA-tested, these questions will remain in the realm of
speculation.
In this essay we have seen that the Egyptian Star Correlation projected on the desert near
modern-day Cairo is comprised of four key constellations: 1. Orion (Giza pyramids = belt stars;
Abu Ruwash = Saiph; Zawyat Al Aryan = Bellatrix; Abusir = Meissa) 2. Canis Major (Sirius =
Letopolis) 3. Leo (Regulus = Heliopolis) and 4. Gemini (Pollux and Castor = the limestone
quarries of Mokattam and Tura). Add a final locus of Saqqara and the Blazing Star of the Nile is
formed a five-pointed celestial symbol of transcendence and immortality. In addition, the
constellations Taurus hovers off to the south (Aldebaran = the Red Pyramid; Epsilon Tauri = the
Bent Pyramid; Zeta Tauri = Memphis).
Moreover, a square formed by four of the five points is oriented to the cardinal directions.
The hypotenuse shared by its two right triangles is a line from Giza to Heliopolis (azimuth 45°).
This extended vector points northeast to Baalbek and ultimately Mount Ararat. The 135° vector
(Letopolis to Mokattam/Tura) points southeast to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and to Awwam in
Yemen. The 225° vector (Heliopolis to Giza) points southwest to the Libyan Desert Glass region
and ultimately the Igbo territory of the Niger Delta. The 315° vector (Mokattam/Tura to
Letopolis) points northwest to Minoan Crete and perhaps the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.
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The geodetic construction of Duat template ranged from Heliopolis and Letopolis south to
Memphis. The pattern consisted of pyramids, temples, obelisks, astronomical observatories, and
sacred quarries, each corresponding to a specific constellation. The ancient Egyptians erected a
scale model of the celestial Afterlife in the form of the Blazing Star, itself a symbol of the
primary goddess Isis. Her star rose just a few minutes before the sun (namely, its heliacal rising)
after an absence of 70 days, which just happens to be the exact period of the mummification
process. This solar-stellar event coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, the beginning of
the New Year, and the rebirth of the all life human, animal, and vegetable.
Orion has become encircled by the Duat, as the Living One [the Sun] became clean in the
Akhet;
Sothis [Sirius, spdt Sharp ] has become encircled by the Duat, as the Living One became clean
in the Akhet 41
Copyright © 2014 Gary A. David
ENDNOTES
1. Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, The Orion Mystery: Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids (New York: Crown
Publishers, Inc., 1994), pp. 125 ff. For the sake of clarity, I am using the current standard dating of mainstream
Egyptology, although I am well aware of various controversies involving the pre-Dynastic/Dynastic timeline. In
addition, two independent Egyptologists, Larry Dean Hunter and Michael Arbuthnot, have claimed in the past that
they found most of the stars in Orion represented by constructions on the Egyptian landscape. However, their
terrestrial correlations are somewhat different than those originally put forth by Bauval and Gilbert. Click on
Research/Articles tab of the Team Atlantis website, then click on The Orion Pyramid Theory.
https://web.archive.org/web/20020909110157/http://www.teamatlantis.com/yucatan_test/frameset_kurt1.html
2. Robert Bauval, The Egypt Code (London: Century/Random House), 2006), pp. 80-81.
3. E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead: The Hieroglyphic Transcript and Translation into English of the
Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Ani (New York: Gramercy Books, 1999, 1960, 1895), p. 206.
4. Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, Imhotep: The African Architect of the Cosmos (San Francisco:
Disinformation Books, 2013), p. 66.
5. Bauval, The Egypt Code, op. cit., p. 75.
6. Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds In Collision (New York: Pocket Books, 1977, 1950), pp. 238-239; Budge, The
Book of the Dead, op. cit., p. 358, note 5.
7. Adrian Gilbert, Signs in the Sky (London: Bantam Press, 2000), p. 65.
8. Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest For the Hidden Legacy of Mankind
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996), p. 175.
9. Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs (London Jeremy P.
Tarcher/Penguin), 1999, 19970, p. 5.
10. Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1997),
p. 29.
11. Bauval, The Egypt Code, op. cit., pp. 105-106.
12. Bauval and Brophy, Imhotep, op. cit., pp. 30-31.
13. Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, op. cit., p. 142.
14. William Henry, Place of the Gods: the Stargate at Abu Ghorab, Egypt,
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/stargate/stargate10.htm.
15. Bauval and Brophy, Imhotep, op. cit., p. 53.
16. Bauval and Brophy, ibid., p. 13.
17. E. A. Wallis Budge, The Dwellers On the Nile: The Life, History, Religion and Literature of the Ancient
Egyptians (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1977, 1926, pp. 218-219.
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18. The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean, translated by Dr. M. Doreal,
http://www.horuscentre.org/library/Hermetism/The_Emerald_Tablets_Of_Thoth.pdf.
19. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Charleston, South
Carolina: A. .M. . 5632, 1928, 1906, 1871), p. 842.
20. Plutarch s Morals: Theosophical Essays, translated by Charles William King, 1908, www.sacred-texts.com.
21. Philip Coppens, The Canopus Revelation: Stargate of the Gods and the Ark of Osiris (the Netherlands: Frontier
Publishing/Adventures Unlimited Press, 2004), pp. 36-37.
22. Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Ppublishers Ltd, 1994, 1988), pp. 164-165;
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/senusret1.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senusret_I.
23. Bradbury Cort Lindahl, Axis Mundi (Charleston, South Carolina: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,
2012), p. 146,
24. Julian Huxley, From an Antique Land: Ancient and Modern in the Middle East (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966),
pp. 58-62; Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. I, 15th Edition (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1979), p. 704.
25. Lindahl, Axis Mundi, op. cit., p. 186.
26. Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels: the Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race (Rochester, Vermont: Bear
& Co., 2001, 1996), pp. 164-165.
27. Nicholas Clapp, Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2001), p. 193, p. 207, p. 195, pp. 291-292.
28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awwam.
29. Clapp, Sheba, op. cit., p. 204, p. 205.
30. Clapp. ibid., p. 282, p. 184, p. 217.
31. Robin Brown-Lowe, The Lost City of Solomon and Sheba: An African Mystery (UK: Sutton Publishing Limited,
2003), p. 202. See a chapter on Great Zimbabwe in my book Mirrors of Orion: Star Knowledge of the Ancient
World, http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Orion-Knowledge-AncientWorld/dp/1494926768/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410827362&sr=1-1&keywords=mirrors+of+orion.
32. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaqah; http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Sources/Allah/moongod.html.
33. Lindahl, Axis Mundi, op. cit., p. 179.
34. Larousse Encyclopedia of Archaeology, edited by Gilbert Charles-Picard, translated by Anne Ward (New York:
G. P. Putnam s Sons, 1972, 1969), pp. 247-259.
35. http://www.bu.edu/news/2006/03/03/bu-scientists-discover-largest-crater-in-the-sahara/. ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebira_Crater ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_desert_glass ; http://www.worldmysteries.com/pex_6.htm.
36. Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, Ph.D., Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt (Rochester,
Vermont: Bear & Company, 2011), pp. 191-192.
37. Catherine Obianuju Acholonu and Sidney Louis Davis, Eden In Sumer on the Niger: Archaeology, Linguistic
and Recorded Evidence of 450,000 Years of Atlantis, Eden and Sumer in West Africa (Abuja, Nigeria: A CARC
Publication, 2013), pp. 17-18.
38. Gary A. David, Mirrors of Orion: Star Knowledge of the Ancient World (CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform, 2014), pp. 113-114. http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Orion-Knowledge-AncientWorld/dp/1494926768/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411102455&sr=1-1&keywords=Mirrors+of+Orion ;
http://catherineacholonu.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/105/.
39. Acholonu and Davis, Eden In Sumer on the Niger, op. cit., p. 109.
40. Acholonu and Davis, ibid., p. 207. Here Acholonu briefly quotes Zecharia Sitchen, The Stairway to Heaven
(New York: Avon Books, 1980), p. Also consult the website of the Catherine Acholonu Research Centre,
http://carcafriculture.org/index.htm.
41. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, translated by James P. Allen (Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature, 2005), p. 32. Akhet ( Place of Becoming Akh ). The latter half of the Duat, lying between
the Duat s center, where the Sun unites with Osiris in the middle of the night, and the visible horizon,
above which the Sun rises at dawn. In the Pyramid Texts, associated with the antechamber of the pyramid.
Ibid., Glossary, p. 425. http://cotw.us/files_/Writings%20From%20The%20Ancient%20World%20%20The%20Ancient%20Egyptian%20Pyramid%20Texts.pdf
Copyright © 2014 Gary A. David. All rights reserved.
Email: garydavid52@hotmail.com
Website: www.theorionzone.com
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