The Orion Mystery
Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids
by Robert Bauval & Adrian Gilbert
(325 pages, pb, $14.00)
Crown Publishers, New York, 1994
ISBN 0-517-88454-2
Robert Bauvel seems to have had the original modern-day insight as to the
arrangement of the three pyramids at Giza. This book is an excellent introduction
to the material presented in The Message of the Sphinx.
Chapter Titles
Prologue The Last Wonder of the Ancient World
1 The Genesis of the Orion Mystery
2 The Mountains of the Star Gods
3 The Discovery of the Pyramid Texts
4 Let the Pyramid Texts 'Speak'
5 The Giza Plan
6 Giza and the Belt of Orion
7 The Star Correlation Theory
8 The Brother of Osiris
9 Intermezzo at the Pyramids
10 The Great Star-Clock of the Epochs
11 The Seed of the Phoenix
12 The Roads of Osiris
Epilogue
Appendix 1 Astronomical Investigation Concerning the so-called Air-shafts
of Cheops's Pyramid
Appendix 2 Precession
Appendix 3 The Secret Chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth
Appendix 4 The Survival of the Star Religion
Appendix 5 Logistics of the Shafts in Cheops's Pyramid
Appendix 6 The Horizon of Khufu
Appendix 7 The 'Sons of Ra'and the Osirian Rebirth of the Pyramid Kings
Notes and References
Bibliography
Index
Selected Text
pp. 2, 3
These extraordinary monuments, which make Stonehenge look like a morning's
work, have inspired awe through the centuries. Their sheer size sets them
apart, let alone the perfection of their geometry. Just how they were built
remains a mystery; even today we would be hard pressed to replicate them
with all the advantages of modern technology. At the time of the Ancient
Egyptians there were no dump-trucks or cranes, no steel cables or hoists,
not even iron tools. Without the benefit of so much as a simple pulley,
they built mountains from stone and, with a precision that is truly astonishing,
laid these out on the desert floor. Yet the more puzzling question is why
and not how they built them. Why did the Egyptians choose to build pyramids
when, so far as we know, they had never been built before? Why did they
build them so big and of such precision? Why did they scatter them around
the desert instead of building them all in one place?
Contemporary Egyptology has no convincing answers. Pick up any textbook
on the subject and you will encounter the same statement, that the pyramids
functioned as royal tombs. But why, when a simple hole in the ground would
have sufficed, should the Egyptians have built tombs up to 147 metres high?
Why make this prodigious effort to house a dead body? Even given that the
pharaohs were autocrats and were revered as living gods, this seems like
a colossal waste of time and energy.
The popular image of gangs of slaves forced to carry out this enormous task
is also a myth; there is no evidence to suggest that people were compelled
to take part in this massive enterprise against their wills - indeed, if
anything, the opposite. The sheer quality of craftsmanship in the construction
of the pyramids suggests a pride in the work, and there are subtleties of
design which suggest ideals at odds with the brutal image of Ancient Egypt
portrayed in biblical film epics.
In fact, the Egyptians were highly civilised and deeply religious at a time
when Europeans were still primitive, and there is much to suggest that they
built pyramids more as an affirmation of their religious convictions than
to glorify dead pharaohs, however powerful. But the Egyptians were also
an extremely reserved people, who kept the inner mysteries of their religion
from all but a few chosen initiates. As it was these few who directed the
building of the pyramids, it is not surprising that we know so little about
their motives.
pp. 38, 39
The Great Pyramid of Khufu, like the other pyramids, stands four-square,
but it is in all its detail the most perfect. The first exhaustive survey
of the monument in modern times was carried out by Sir Flinders Petrie in
i880-2. He used the latest equipment of the time and approached his task
with great thoroughness. He found that the sides of the pyramid were indeed
lined up almost exactly with the cardinal points of the compass: north,
south, east and west. (The accuracy of this alignment is incredible, with
an average discrepancy of only about three minutes of arc in any direction;
this is a variation of less than 0.06 per cent.) He also measured the sides
of the base as being 230-25 metres for the north side; 230-44 metres for
the south, 230-38 for the east, and 230-35 for the west. Thus, although
no side is identical to any other, the difference between the longest and
shortest is only nineteen centimetres, less than 0.08 per cent of the average
length.
Such degrees of accuracy, both in orientation towards the cardinal points
and in keeping the base square and the sloping side perfect, are little
short of miraculous when you consider the size of the structure. Its perimeter
is almost one kilometre, with an area of over 53,000 square metres, enough
to fit into it the cathedrals of Florence, Milan and St Peters, as well
as Westminster Abbey and St Paul's. It is indeed doubtful whether any of
these later buildings exhibit the same accuracy as the Great Pyramid in
their orientation or their structural execution. Although the pyramid contains
several chambers, it is by no means a hollow building; it is mostly solid
masonry and constructed from approximately 2.5 million limestone blocks.
On average these weigh about 2.6 tons, to give a total mass of over 6.3
million tons.
We can simply marvel at the craftsmanship and technological abilities of
these ancient builders, for they not only orientated their monument towards
the four cardinal points and kept the plan square and the slopes true, but
they cased its four sloping faces with finely polished white limestone from
the quarries at Tura on the other side of the Nile. Judging by the few facing
stones remaining at the foot of the north side of the pyramid, these were
even larger than those used in the core of the building and weighed some
fifteen tons each. They were set so closely together that the blade of a
knife could not fit between them. The casing-blocks were removed by the
Arabs from the thirteenth century AD (some say to build the mosques of Cairo),
but when intact the pyramid must have looked even more spectacular than
it does today, glittering like a jewel in the sunlight.
pp. 114-116
The Rise of Orion
It was early November i983 and, as is usual at that time of year, the night
skies in central Saudi Arabia were remarkably clear. This was the time of
week-end camping by expatriates in Riyadh in the golden dunes about twenty
kilometres outside the sprawling western suburbs of this sedate city.
My wife, Michele, had packed the usual gear: alcohol-free beer, plenty of
drinking water, food and the sleeping-bags. My daughter, Candice, was only
four years old, but already a seasoned desert traveller. Two other couples
with their children joined us. The idea was to select a high dune so that
the kids could play on the clean, golden-coloured sand while the adults
relaxed over hot coffee and an elaborate barbecue. We were all looking forward
to escaping from the hard work and no play mood of Riyadh and the stifling
atmosphere of a deeply Islamic society. Night on the dunes can be very beautiful.
Immediately after the spectacular display of the setting sun came the darkness,
with the canopy of a star-spangled sky almost at arm's length. Lying in
my sleeping-bag, I counted the stars until I fell asleep.
For some reason I woke up at 3 a.m., perhaps subconsciously motivated. Once
more I gazed up, at first unsure of where I was. High in the southern sky,
arching over and almost marking for us the curve of the celestial equator,
was a luminous band of light, resplendent against the inky black of space.
It was the Milky Way and it looked like a great river in the sky. On its
west 'bank' was a spatter of beautiful stars, brighter than all the others
which surrounded them. I recognised them immediately as the constellation
of Orion and went to wake up my friend Jean-Pierre, who shared my interest
in astronomy and whose passion for sailing had necessitated his learning
to navigate using the stars.
Silently, he came with me to the edge of the dune. Looking at the very bright
star now high over the horizon, he let me into one of the secrets of astro-navigation.
'Do you know', he asked, 'how to find the rising point of Sirius once Orion
has risen?' I shrugged my shoulders in ignorance. 'Well, first,' he said,
pointing in the direction of the 'river bank', 'you must find the three
stars of Orion's Belt. These three form a row and you extend the alignment
downwards to the horizon. When the belt stars have risen about twenty degrees
- roughly the height of an open hand at arm's length and with fingers outstretched
- they will be followed by Sirius at the place on the horizon where they
point.' He was now pointing towards the bright star on the horizon, which
we both knew was Sirius, Then, almost as an afterthought, he uttered these
words: 'Actually, the three stars of Orion's Belt are not perfectly aligned.
If you look carefully you will see that the smallest of them, the one at
the top, is slightly offset to the east and they are slanted in a south-westerly
direction relative to the axis of the Milky Way. Also notice how . . .'
At this point I cut him short. He gave me a puzzled look as I quoted the
words I remembered only too well from the Pyramid Texts: 'The Dust has grasped
the king's hand at the place where Orion is . . . [PT 1717]. O Osiris King
. . . Betake yourself to the Waterway . . . may a stairway to the Dust be
set for you at the place where Orion is . . . [PT 1717].' By now the others
had woken up and joined us. 'Je tiens I'affaire!', I cried excitedly. I
had deliberately chosen the words uttered by Champollion when he realised
he had decoded the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing and I hoped
that someone in the group, a few of whom I had involved in the aerial photo
puzzle of Giza, would catch on. From their expressions it was obvious they
had not.
Jean-Pierre kept on looking intensely at Orion. 'What have you seen . .
. ?', he inquired, amused.
'The three pyramids of Giza', I said calmly.
'The what . . . ?' asked Michele. She had heard endlessly about the star
religion of the Egyptians in those last few months. 'Is this a joke . .
. ?'
'No, I am quite serious,' and I pointed to Orion's Belt. Thus began a saga
which was to run for another ten years.
