Chapter 39 Chapter 41 The Jackal's Room

Muhammad Hualili picked us up at the hotel at 6:00 the next morning, when it was still daylight. After drinking a small cup of strong black coffee at a roadside stand, we took a sparsely traveled but dusty road to the Nile in the west.I asked Hualili to go around the Maydanal-Massallah square because I wanted to see the oldest complete Egyptian obelisks in the world located in the square.This stele is made of pink granite, weighs 350 tons and is 170 feet high. It was built by Pharaoh Senuseret I (1971-1928 BC).It was originally one of the two large steles at the entrance to the Temple of the Sun (Heliopolitan Temple of the Sun) in Heliopolis. Today, 4,000 years later, the temple and the second stele have completely disappeared. In fact, the remains of the ancient capital of Heliopolis have almost completely disappeared. Those beautiful stone slabs and other building materials have also been deprived by the citizens of Cairo for thousands of years. Exhausted, only this stone pillar remains.

Heliopolis (meaning Sun City), the name in the "Bible" is "On" (On), and it is called Innu (Innu) in ancient Egyptian, or InnuMehret (InnuMehret). ), which means "pillar" or "pillar of the north".It was a very sacred place, with a wonderful relationship with the nine gods of the sun and constellations.Heliopolis was already a land with a long history when Senuseleth chose this place for his minaret.It is generally believed that Kesha and the ancient capital of Abydos in the far south, like Inu/Heliopolis, belong to the "First Time" - the era of creation - part of the land.This is the place where the gods descended first when they began to govern the earth.

In the creation myth of Heliopolis, there are many very unique and interesting places.According to local legend, the universe was originally called "Nun" (Nun), a dark, water-filled void.Slowly, from the cosmic ocean (described as "shapeless, darker than the darkest night"), a dry land rose.In his incarnation, the sun god "Thunder" created Atum (often depicted as a male with a beard and a stick)②. The sky has not yet been created.The land has been created.There are no children or reptiles on earth...just me, Yatanm...no one to work with me... Feeling very lonely, Yatanmu, the immortal body, created two offspring who are also holy bodies: "Shu", the god of air and dryness, and "Tefnut", the god of moisture: "I Make the seed into my hand. I pour it into my mouth. I excrete, manifest, I urinate, Teffna manifest."

Although born in a less honorable manner, Hugh and Tefna (often described as twins, sometimes appearing as lions at the same time) grew up, joined, and gave birth to grandchildren: Gebu, God of the Earth, and Slave, Goddess of the Sky. special.The two of them were also united and had four children: Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nepthys, thus completing the Heliopolis family of the nine gods.After four of the nine gods, Lei, Xiu, Gebu, and Osiris, successively ruled Egypt, the throne of Egypt was passed on to Horos (Horns), and the last god of command, Sous, ruled Egypt for 3,226 years. . Who are these beings—or as we call them, beings, or even gods?Are they just products of the priest's imagination, or are they some kind of symbolic entity or code?Could these stories be real events, but twisted by memory into myth?Or, these stories are actually symbolic messages handed down from the ancient times, fabricated to pass on to future generations beyond time?Could they be messages that are only now being prepared to be unraveled?

These ideas may sound fancy, even nonsense.What I can't get over, though, is that the myth of Issus and Osiris hides many calculations of precession that are apparently part of the Heliopolis tradition, with unrivaled precision.The priests responsible for protecting the tradition of Heliopolis (Inu) have always been known in Egypt for their talents and wisdom. Not only can they predict, but they are also proficient in astronomy, mathematics, architecture, magic, etc.They are also known to hold a sacred and powerful artifact - the Benben.These all show that there should be some deep meaning behind the myth that we cannot explain.

The Egyptians called Heliopolis Inu, which means "pillar", because according to tradition, the "books" that have been preserved in the world since ancient times were first preserved on the top of a stone pillar. Most people believe that "books" fell from the sky to the world a long time ago.But unfortunately, "Benben" was lost a long time ago. When Senusalet (12th Dynasty) came to the throne in 1971 BC, no one remembered what it looked like.At that time, people only remembered that "benben" was in the shape of a pyramid, and this memory became the prototype of all subsequent Egyptian obelisks. "Benben" has since become a pyramid, or the meaning of the stone on the top of the pyramid.In a symbolic sense, the relationship between "Benben" and Rajiyatum is close and direct.Regarding Lajiyadam, it is recorded in ancient documents: "You rise up, like the original stone, above the mansion of the Phoenix..."

The mansion of the Phoenix refers to the original temple of Heliopolis, which is where the "books" were originally collected.From here, it is not difficult for us to see that the mysterious object "Benben" is also a symbol of the legendary bird Phoenix.The name of the phoenix is ​​Bennu, and its appearance and disappearance are considered to be related to the great cycle of the universe and the collapse and regeneration of the world④. same fingerprint At 6:30 in the morning, the car moved to the outskirts of Hiliopolis.I closed my eyes and tried to picture in my mind the image of the sun god Yatum emerging from the flood of the water god "Nan" in the form of an island during the creation of the myth "The Creator".Thinking of this, I can't help but think of the ancient legends of the Andes in South America.According to Andean legend, Viracocha, the god of civilization, rose from Lake Titicaca after a devastating flood.At the same time, we must take into account the existence of Osiris.Not only does Osiris have a mustache on his chin, he is very similar to Viracocha and Quizakotel in the Andean civilization, and in Egyptian stories, he is also a famous wise king who abolished the cannibalism of the Egyptians. Customs, teaching the people to farm, raise livestock, and introduce writing, architecture, and music to the people, these places are also the same as the Andean gods.

It is easy to see similarities between New World and Old World traditions, but not how to interpret them.There is also the possibility of pure chance, but it is more likely that they also represent the fingerprints left by an unknown ancient civilization.Regardless of Mesoamerican mythology, Andean mythology, or Egyptian culture, the fingerprints are basically the same.The priests of Heliopolis may have spread Genesis to the people, but who taught them their knowledge?Do these stories just appear out of nothing?Or, do the dogmas and complex symbolism in the story reflect religious thought honed over time?

If so, where did these ideas come from? I looked up from the window to see that we had left Hyliopolis and entered the crooked, narrow, chaotic streets of Cairo.After passing the "October 6th Bridge" and reaching the west bank of the Nile, the car quickly entered Kesha.For about 15 minutes, I saw thick giant pyramids dangling from the right car window one by one, and then the car turned south to the road of Upper Egypt, speeding along the south bank of the world's largest Nile River, and outside the window The scenery also changes from the unforgiving red desert to rows of green date palms and fields.

All the secular and religious life of the ancient Egyptians were influenced by the priests of Heliopolis and their thoughts and ideas.However, by whom were these priests influenced?Did their ideas originate from Egypt, or did they spread into the Nile Valley from other places?We should find definitive answers to these questions from the Egyptian and Hyliopolis traditions.All the wisdom of Heliopolis, it is said, comes from tradition, and those traditions are the inheritance passed down from the gods to the Egyptians. A gift from the gods? The car drove about 10 miles away from the Great Pyramid, and we left the main road and entered the Shakara historical site.Standing on the edge of the desert, the center of gravity of this monument area is the "step pyramid" built by Pharaoh Zesai of the third dynasty.The solemn and solemn step pyramid has 6 floors, is 60 meters high, and is surrounded by elegant walls. It was completed around 2650 BC and is considered by archaeologists to be the oldest megalithic building of mankind.According to tradition, the builder of the pyramid was Imhotep, the Great of Magic, a priest of Heliopolis.There are many other titles for Yinghe Tepu, including sage, magician, astronomer, healer and so on.

In the following chapters, we will have a more detailed description of the step pyramid, but here, the purpose of my visit this time is not to visit the step pyramid, but to enter another nearby one built by the fifth dynasty Unas (Unas) Pyramids built by the pharaohs, and take a moment to enter its catacombs.King Unas ruled Egypt from 2356 to 2323 BC.In fact, I have visited the Pyramid of Unas several times, and I am quite familiar with the Pyramid Text carved on its walls from ceiling to floor.The Pyramid Texts are very ancient sacred books, written in ornate hieroglyphics, containing many remarkable thoughts.Because of the existence of pyramid scriptures, the pyramids of the Fifth Dynasty are in sharp contrast with the silent pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty. The scriptures in the pyramids built by the fifth and sixth dynasties are just one of the biggest features of these two dynasties (2465 BC to 2152 BC). Some of them were built by Helios around 2000 BC It was written by the priests of Boris; the other part should have been handed down by some priests from the ancestors before the beginning of the dynastic era⑤.I was particularly interested in this part and started working on it several months before this visit.I find it very interesting and also a little confusing: French archaeologists in the 19th century, almost as if they were instructed by the "pathfinder" god, opened the pyramid and went directly to this secret room with pyramid scriptures .According to quite credible sources, an Egyptian foreman involved in the archaeological excavation at Saqqara stayed up one night when around dawn he found himself next to a destroyed pyramid, a jackal with glowing amber eyes , standing before him: The animal literally taunted the human observer...and invited the confused-looking man to give chase.After the jackal walked slowly to the north of the pyramid for a while, it stopped for a while before disappearing into a cave.The curious Arab decided to find out.Following the jackal, he also entered the narrow black hole, and found himself in a room.Lifting the light source in his hand, the worker found that the walls of the entire room, from head to toe, were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and those carved on the hard limestone walls were not only exquisitely handcrafted, but also embedded with Turkish jade and gold⑥ . Today, access to the hieroglyph-carved crypt of the Pyramid of Unas must be entered from the north and reached through a lengthy downhill corridor.This corridor is the road excavated by the French archaeological team after the amazing discovery of the Egyptian foreman.There are actually two rectangular rooms in the basement, and there is a rather low entrance and exit in the middle compartment.The roofs of both chambers are constructed in gables with countless stars painted on them.Shrinking the body into a ball as much as possible, through the long corridor, Sansa and I first entered the first room in the basement, and then entered the second room through the small entrance.At a glance, you can tell that this is a typical crypt.The huge black granite sarcophagus of King Unas was placed at the west end of this room, and the pyramid scriptures on the wall surrounded the entire room as if boasting of the existence of Pharaoh. Facing the carvings on the wall, I feel that these hieroglyphs are directly speaking to us (unlike the Great Pyramid, which conveys meaning through plain walls and mysterious digital puzzles).But what exactly are they saying?I know, to some extent, it depends on which translation we use.Because the pyramid scriptures use too many ancient words and quote many unfamiliar myths, scholars have to use a lot of "guessing skills" to interpret them⑦.However, most people agree that the translation by R.O. Faulkner (deceased), professor of ancient Egyptian linguistics at the University of London, is the most authoritative. I have carefully studied Faulkner's translation line by line.He described the pyramid scriptures as "the most complete document on ancient Egyptian religion and burial among the existing materials. Moreover, this kind of document is the most trustworthy, and it is the most basic information for scholars who study Egyptian religion...".As to why (as most scholars agree) these sources are so important, it is because they are the only open roads between the recent past, as far as human memory can reach, and the distant past, which man has gradually forgotten: "These inscriptions Although the records of thinking and language of the lost world are blurred, they clearly tell us in modern times that in the distant past, those people who lived in prehistoric times still kept their thinking and language in this land on... until we understand it fully." We cannot disagree with the feeling that the text clearly communicates what a lost world looked like.But this puzzled me: that lost world was inhabited not by savages (of which prehistoric people generally associate barbarians), but by men and women well versed in the science of the universe.On the whole, we can explain this matter from two aspects: in the pyramid scriptures, there are quite a few original elements, but on the other hand, it also has many profound laws and concepts.Every time I immerse myself in what these ancient Egyptologists call "ancient spells," I can't help but be moved by the heightened intelligence looming from behind the thick walls that impede understanding, and remind myself that it's definitely not Primitive and barbaric "prehistoric people" should have complex thinking and concepts.In other words, through the medium of hieroglyphics, the pyramid scriptures conveyed a shocking impression to future generations through the medium of hieroglyphs, just as the Great Pyramid passed through the medium of architecture: prehistoric people possessed and knew how to use high technology.But with the common sense of modern people, we infer that it is absolutely impossible for humans in the ancient times to have a high level of technology note ① "Shaqqara, Egypt: Archaeologists discovered a green marble obelisk, which is also the earliest and most complete obelisk known to date, and it was the wife of Pharaoh Pepi I (Pepi I) nearly 4300 years ago. (Inty) built. Inti was worshiped as a god after his death." excerpt from "The Times of London" and "London Telegraph". Times, London, 9, May, 1992; See also Daily Telegraph, London, 9 May 1992. ② "Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt", page 110; "Key to Traveling in Ancient Egypt", page 66; "Gods of Ancient Egypt", page 140. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (ed Margaret Bun son), New York and Oxford, 1991, p. 110; Travelers Key to Ancient Egypt, p. 77; Wallis Budge, E. A, From Fetish to Godin Ancient E gypt, Oxford University Press, 1934; p. 140． ③ "Kings and Gods", page 153. Henry Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, University of Chicago Press, 1978. p.153. ④For details, please refer to "The Mystery of Orion Constellation", page 17.Baufar believed that Benben was a meteor: "According to the description, this meteor should have weighed 6 to 15 tons...It must have been terrible when it fell..." p. 204. Robert Bauvaland Adrian Gibert, The Orion Mystery, Wm Heinemann, London, 1994. ⑤ "Map of Ancient Egypt", page 36. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. ③ "The Mystery of the Orion Constellation", pages 57-58. ⑦ "The Key to Traveling in Ancient Egypt", page 166; "The Pyramid Texts of Ancient Egypt", page 5: "The Pyramid Texts...include very ancient scriptures...there are many mysterious or phantom terms in them, which cannot be compared with today's Language Translation." The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, p. V．