Chapter 43 Chapter 45 Mankind and God's Mission

The Temple of Seti I, located 8 miles west of the Nile Channel in Abydos, is unique among all the temple remains in ancient Egypt. Not only the ceiling is completely preserved, but also the wall carvings connecting several acres are also perfect.Seti I was a pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled Egypt from 1306 BC to 1290 BC. The most interesting thing about Seti I is that he gave birth to a famous son: Ramesses II (Ramesses II, 1290-1224 BC), that is, the one in the "Bible Exodus" Pharaoh ①.However, Seti I went abroad to conquer.Establishing martial arts not only built a few very sophisticated buildings, but also repaired many ancient buildings with care.The temple he built in Abydos was named "The House, of Millions of Years" (The House, of Millions of Years). In this temple belonging to him, the ancestor was worshiped by Osiris, the "Lord of Eternal Life".There is such a passage in the pyramid scriptures:

You have gone, but you will come back.You have fallen asleep, but you will wake up.You are dead, but you will be alive... by water.Upstream... Roam Abydos in the attitude of the gods who have given you the Holy Spirit. Atif Crown At 8 o'clock in the morning, in this low latitude place, the sky is already bright and everything is active.But when we entered the temple of Seti I, what we felt was silence and darkness.Except for the faint electric light on the walls from the floor, most of the interior of the temple is still illuminated by natural light according to the original design of the old architects.Several beams of light penetrated through the cracks in the outer stone, like holy light.The dance of dust particles in the light beams is in sharp contrast to the heavy air and the huge stone pillars supporting the roof of this multi-pillared building.We can almost feel the spirit of Osiris, still here.This is not only imagination, but also reality, because the surrounding walls are filled with beautiful and harmonious relief works, all depicting how Osiris, whose vocation is to spread civilization, plays the role of the king of the underworld after death.There is also a relief depicting him enthroned as Lord of the Underworld while his beautiful, mysterious sister Issus looks on.

I observed the relief works on the wall one by one, and found that the crown worn by Osiris in each piece was extremely gorgeous and had its own characteristics.Crowns were obviously an important part of clothing for the ancient pharaohs.At least that's the impression I get from the reliefs.Strangely enough, however, in all the years of excavations of this magnitude, not a single archaeologist has ever found a crown, or a fragment of it, let alone a swirling ritual used by the "creator" god With a tiara. The most interesting of all the crowns is that of Atef.The shape of this crown is wonderful, except for the snake-shaped chapter with the royal emblem (that is, Ulaas. Mexico uses a rattlesnake, while Egypt uses a cobra with its head raised and ready to strike), and the center depicts Upper Egypt. The pattern of human white combat armor (this is also only visible in the relief, there is no real object for reference).The two sides of the crown appear to be two thin metal sheets like leaves, which are connected to a mechanism in front.The metal plates above the crown form two wave-shaped blades, which scholars generally believe to symbolize a pair of ram's horns.

Several of the reliefs in the Temple of Seti I feature Osiris bearing Atef's crown.The crown appears to be about 2 feet tall.According to the ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead", the crown was given to Osiris by Ray, "However, the first day Osiris wore it, his head began to hurt sharply. The crown was swollen. Lei took pus for him."③. The ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead" just tells a story in a straightforward manner.But let's think about it carefully: what would a crown that emits heat, inflame and pus out the skin, look like? 17th Century Kings I walked into the darkness until I reached the Gallery of the Kings at the end of the road, which is the passage from the temple entrance to the east side of the 200-foot hypostyle hall.

Walking through the corridor of kings is like passing through the corridor of time.On my left wall, engraved are the titles of 120 ancient Egyptian gods and their main holy places.On my right, there is a 10-foot-by-6-foot space engraved with the names of 76 pharaohs before Seti I, and each name is engraved in hieroglyphs in oval emblems. . The documentation of this image is commonly known as the "AbydosKingsList".This golden engraved list, the text is arranged from left to right, and all the names are separated by five vertical paragraphs and three horizontal paragraphs, recording from 3000 BC, the first pharaoh of the first dynasty, 1700 after Menes , all the names of the pharaohs.The last pharaoh on the list is named Seti who ruled Egypt around 1300 BC.On the far left of the list, there are two figures embossed, one is Seti, and the other is his son, the future Ramses II.

Strabo Fountain The "List of Kings of Abydos", which is comparable to the Durin Papyrus and Palermo Stone in terms of historical value, clearly explained the inheritance of the Egyptian royal family.And a very important part of this inheritance historical material is the belief in the distant past and the "creation of the world" period when the gods ruled together.All gods revolve around Osiris.Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why, immediately behind the Gallery of Kings, there is a passage leading directly to the rear of the temple and into another building related to Osiris.This magnificent and beautiful temple "Osirien" has been famous all over the world for its association with Osiris since the history of writing in Egypt.The Greek geographer Strabos (who visited Abydos in the 1st century BC) described it as: "A marvelous structure of solid stone . . . At a great depth, there was a spring When you want to enter, you have to pass through a magnificent circular roof building made of huge stones, exquisite workmanship. A canal was built inside to divert water from the Nile..."

Hundreds of years after Strabo’s visit, the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt were gradually replaced by another new religion—Christianity. O'Xilion, the most powerful, finally completely buried its stone pillars and the horizontal stone above the entrance, and disappeared from everyone's eyes, and at the same time disappeared from everyone's memory. In the early 20th century, archaeologists Flinder Petrie and Margaret Murray started a large-scale archaeological excavation here. In 1903, they discovered that in the desert 200 feet southwest of the Temple of Seti I, there was a hall and a passage, judging from the architectural form, it should be the work of the 19th Dynasty.However, between the rear side of the Temple of Seti I and the newly discovered hall, the two archaeologists judged that there must be another "large underground structure" buried underground, and this "basement" (hypogeum), Murray writes: "Professor Petrie apparently believes that it is the spring mentioned by Strabos, commonly known as Strabos Well." Flinders Petrie and Murray speculate good.However, due to their limited funds, they could not continue to dig, and the work stopped halfway.It was not until 1912-1913 that another Naville professor, with the support of the Egypt Exploration Fund, had the opportunity to confirm the hypothesis of Flinder Petrie and Murray.Professor Naville found a long and narrow room, at the northeast end, there was a huge entrance made of granite and sandstone.

In the following season, during the excavation activities in 1913 and 1914, Naville organized 600 local workers, who worked hard to dig out the entire huge underground building.Naville wrote: The monumental buildings we have found are about 100 feet long and 60 feet wide, and the stone blocks used for them are unprecedented in Egypt.The four walls are adjacent to 17 small rooms, each about a person's height, without any decorations inside.The building itself is composed of three corridors, the central one being larger than the two on both sides.The corridor is separated by two rows of columns, each of which is cut and formed from a complete piece of granite, and supports a vibrating beam of the same size ④.

Neville recorded in astonishment and detail how he measured the stones in the north corridor of the building and found that each one was nearly 25 feet long.What surprised him even more was that there was no floor on the ground in the small room protruding from the wall, and when he dug the ground and dug down, he found that the soil below was very wet: The cells are joined only by platforms 2 to 3 feet wide.In the middle of the other end of the room, there is another platform, and there is no floor in the room.As we dug down to a depth of 12 feet, water started seeping in.Even the rear entry has no floor.From these facts, we can infer that in the past the place was filled with water, and boats had to be used to get in and out of the small chamber.

earliest stone buildings in egypt Water, water, water everywhere. When Professor Naville and his staff began a large-scale excavation operation in 1914, they discovered that the core of the secret building Oxirion lying under the large cave seemed to be water.The proper location of Osirien is about 50 feet below the floor level of the Temple of Seti I, almost at the level of the groundwater.Now, we can walk down a staircase made by modern people in the southeast.I went down this staircase, past the great lintel of the entrance both Neville and Strabau had described, and across a narrow wooden bridge to a platform of sandstone.

The platform was about 40 feet wide and 80 feet long, and was built of huge paving stones, surrounded by water.Taking the center of the platform as the axis, there are two large swimming pools beside it, one rectangular and one square.At the end of the shaft, an additional staircase descends to a depth of 12 feet below the surface.In addition, the platform also supports the two main corridors mentioned in the Navier report.Each colonnade is composed of 5 stubby pink granite pillars, and each pillar is about 12 feet high, 8 feet wide on all four sides, and weighs 100 tons.These massive columns, with their granite cross-stones, evidently used to cover the whole building not only under large roofs, but possibly even larger lintels. To understand the structure of O'Sirion, one must be able to mentally lift oneself up and look down on it.The job of mentally picturing the overall construction was easier now that the roof was gone.And since the swimming pools in the buildings, the canals in the cabins, etc. are now filled with water, overflowing to only a few inches from the platform, it is obviously very close to the original design, and of course it also helps our imagination. Looking down in this way, we immediately understand that the platform is a quadrangular island⑤ surrounded on all sides by a moat about ten feet wide.The trench was surrounded on all sides by walls up to 20 feet thick.These huge walls piled up with red sandstone present a polygonal jigsaw pattern.Through the openings in the thick wall we have access to the 17 chambers described in Navier's report: 6 to the east, 6 to the west, 2 to the south and 3 to the north.The central one of the three rooms on the north side is connected to a rectangular hall on the inside of the room, and there is a part of the limestone roof on it.There is also a similar rectangular hall in the south, but it has no roof.Outside the entire building structure, there is a circle of limestone outer walls, making the overall structure, from the outside to the inside, connected into a sequence of walls, walls, trenches, and platforms. Another curious thing about Oxilien is that its orientation is not only incorrect, but also like the Way of the Dead in the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico, which is facing a little easterly north.Since the ancient civilizations of Egypt have always been quite precise in their orientation, I have to suspect that this remote orientation is no accident.The Temple of Seti I, which was less than 50 feet away, was completely aligned with Oxilian's direction. It can be seen that there must be a special reason behind this.The question is which one is older, the temple or Oxilian?Is the temple built according to the location of Oxelion, or was Oxirion built according to the location of the temple?This question, now mostly forgotten, has caused a great debate in the past. At the beginning of the 20th century, when discussing the construction age of the Sphinx and the Riverside Temple, many famous archaeologists argued that Oxilien was a very old building. In London's "Times" (Times) in March 1914, a profile of Professor Neville was published: O'Sirion raises several important questions.The first is the age of its construction.Since this building is very similar to the Temple of the Sphinx (that is, the name of the Riverside Temple at that time), both are built of huge stones without decoration, showing the characteristics of the architecture at that time.From here, we can deduce that Oshirien, like the Sphinx, should belong to the oldest stone building in Egypt. Naville, who claims to be completely awed by the "magnificence and utter simplicity" of the central hall of this building, and sincerely admires those "ancient people who transported huge stones from afar and piled them up into buildings", has the function of Osirien On the one hand, he thinks: "Obviously this huge architectural structure is a reservoir built for the overflow of the Nile River... It should be a work in the early history of architecture. It is neither a temple nor a tomb, but a huge pool, a water supply. Equipment. This is of great interest..." Interesting indeed, and wanted to investigate further.Navier originally wanted to do more in-depth investigation and research in the next survey season, but unfortunately the war broke out and he was unable to engage in archaeological activities in Egypt for several consecutive years.It was not until 1925 that the Egyptian Archaeological Foundation reorganized the archaeological survey team, but the new captain was not Naville, but a young ancient Egypt scholar Henry Frankfort (Henry Frankfort). Evidence from Frankfurt Later, Professor Frankfort, who became a famous expert on Preclassic Antiquity at the University of London, took over this archaeological task. From 1925 to 1930, he presided over several seasons of archaeological activities in Oxilien, thoroughly Excavated, surveyed the site's antiquities, and, so far as he knew, found sufficient evidence to "date the construction of the building".The evidence he found mainly included: ① Above the southern end of the main entrance of the central hall, there is a granite dovetail (dovetail) engraved with the emblem of Seti I. ② There is a similar dovetail on the inner side of the east wall of the central hall. ③ On the roof of the rectangular room on the north side, there is a picture describing the astronomical scene and some reliefs of the inscription of Seti I. ④In the rectangular room on the south side, there are also reliefs depicting similar scenery. ⑤A fragment of limestone was found on the entrance passage, engraved with "Seti serving Osiris". Readers may remember social behaviors such as lemming behavior (lemming behavior, the behavior of rats moving towards the ocean after the breeding reaches its peak, and drowning in large numbers).Regarding the age of the Sphinx and the Riverside Temple, scholars have also committed collective suicide in the opposite direction (the reason is only because of the discovery of several stone statues and an emblem of King Khafre).Frankfort's discovery in Abydos also caused a 180-degree change in the academic circle's attitude towards the age of Osirien. In 1914, scholars kept saying that Osirien was "the oldest stone building in Egypt", but in 1933, they suddenly turned to believe that it was a monument to the dead during the reign of Seti I around 1300 BC . Then another 10 years passed, and Egyptology textbooks generally recognized Osirien's building as the great achievement of Seti I, and wrote it as if it was a historical fact obtained by experience and observation, rather than just an observation.But we know that not only is it not a historical fact, but it is just Frankfort's personal opinion based on the physical evidence he discovered. For Oshirien, the only thing we can be sure of is some unearthed objects of Seti I's inscriptions and decorations, and these are the only things that can connect us to the characters and ages.From the connection between these cultural relics and Seti I, we can certainly explain what Oxilien built for Seti I.That's what Frankfort advocates.However, we can have another explanation, that is, because the unearthed decorations are actually quite dilapidated and shabby, and the emblem marks on the inscriptions are not rich, perhaps these did not exist in these original buildings, but were repaired. , was added to it when it was restored (that is, Osirien was built in the pre-Seti era, following the advice of Neville and some other scholars). In other words, there are actually two completely different and even conflicting hypotheses regarding the origin of Osirien: (A) it is the oldest building in Egypt, and (B) it is the work of the Neo-Dynasty era.Let's look at the pros and cons of these two assumptions. Modern ancient Egypt scholars accept the (B) hypothesis, affirming that Osirien is a monument to the dead established by Seti I.However, if we examine carefully, we will find that inscriptions, emblems, etc. are all indirect evidence, not only can't prove anything, some even contradict Frankfort's views.For example, in an inscribed limestone fragment we find the words "Seti served Osiris".This is not like a compliment to an original builder, but rather a compliment to a restorer, praising Seti I for repairing, and even adding all the ancient buildings in the age of the gods who "created the world".There is another small matter, which is actually quite tricky, and has been neglected by scholars.That is where the two north-south "transverse chambers" with decorations and inscriptions of Seti I were found, beyond the 20-foot thick walls of Osirien.In the megalithic buildings within the thick walls, there is no decoration of any kind.This makes Naville reasonably suspect (Frankfurt deliberately ignores it), thinking that the later two flat rooms and the building itself do not belong to the same age. The room may have passed many years after the building itself was completed. The era was added "when he built his own temple". Therefore, we believe that hypothesis (B) is based on some unconvincing interpretations made by Frankfort from the few excavated artifacts. In contrast, the hypothesis (A) that the central building of Osirien was completed thousands of years before the time of Seti I is based on the observation of the architectural style.According to Navier's observations, the riverside temples of Osirien and Kesha are similar in form, indicating that the two are from the same era, the same era of megalithic construction.Likewise, Margaret Murray believed to her death that Osirien was not a monument to the dead, much less Seti.she says: This building, built in honor of the mystery of Osiris, is unique among the surviving buildings in Egypt and is obviously very old.The large stones it uses are the characteristics of the ancient dynasty.And the simple style shows that it comes from an ancient era.The decoration was added by Seti I.Seti used this method to claim his ownership of the building.In the past, many pharaohs claimed ownership of the buildings of the previous pharaohs by putting their own names on them.So the name doesn't mean much.When researching the age of Egyptian buildings, what is meaningful is the style of the building, the type of masonry technology, the method of fitting the stones, etc., rather than the name of the king engraved on it. Frankfort should have listened more carefully to this advice, because he himself could not help being puzzled by his so-called "monument to the dead", and once said: "We must admit that there is no similar monument in the Nineteenth Dynasty." building." In fact, not only the Nineteenth Dynasty.In the long history of Egypt, there is not a single building similar to Osirien, except for the riverside temple and the megalithic buildings of Kesha.The megalithic works of several so-called old dynasty buildings, such as the Riverside Temple, seem to be unique and have many similarities with each other, but they are completely different from other buildings in other places, and their original builders are still unknown. No one knows. Why do we have to assign these buildings to the time of the pharaohs instead of admitting that they might have been completed in prehistoric times?From the Sphinx, the Temple of the River Bank, to the current Osirien, there is no direct evidence that can categorically prove who built them.With only some vague assumptions and a few evidences, we forcefully link these buildings with a specific pharaoh (such as Khafre, Seti I).What good is there but to add to the mystique of these buildings?Aren't those few evidences just intentionally left behind by later pharaohs to establish a connection with the ancient times when restoring ancient buildings? Set sail to the sea of ​​sand and time Before leaving Abydos, I still want to confirm a puzzle.The puzzle was buried in the desert about 1 kilometer northwest of Osirien, under an ancient cemetery surrounded by rolling yellow sand. Most of the graves in the cemetery belong to the reigns of Anubis and Upuot, the jackal gods, of the rulers of the early dynastic era, or earlier.As the pathfinder and the guardian of the soul, the jackal has always been the protagonist of many mysterious stories.Abydos uses the myth of Anubis as a blueprint to perform rituals every year, and this ritual has obviously existed since ancient Egyptian history. It seems that Anubis guards not only the undead, but also more mysteries, and Oshirien is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries.Shouldn't scholars do more in-depth, detailed investigations?Isn't it the task of the scholar to solve such puzzles?Aren't 12 sailing ships with high bows buried in the desert a puzzle that everyone is eager to know the answer to? And what I want to do is to go through the cemetery of the jackal god to the place where the 12 ships are buried, and find out. Guardian, December 21, 1991: Ancient Egyptian Royal Fleet Discovered Deep in the Nile.An expedition team composed of American and Egyptian archaeologists recently discovered 12 ancient Egyptian wooden ships at Abydos, 8 miles away from the Nile bank... According to experts, each ship is about 50 to 60 meters long. feet, at least 5,000 years old, are the oldest Egyptian ships ever found...Experts also say the ships, discovered in September, may have been built to bury pharaohs and allow their spirits to travel far. "We never expected to find this kind of fleet, especially at such a distance from the Nile River." Expedition leader David O'Connor, who also heads the Egyptian antiquities group for the University of Pennsylvania Museum... The fleet was buried in a mud-brick shelter in what is thought to be the funeral temple of Khasekhemwy, the Second Dynasty pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 2700 BC.However, O'Connor is confident that the ships were not directly related to Khasakahanvi, but to the nearby (and mostly destroyed) tomb of the "early First Dynasty pharaoh Dehe (Dier)". Unlike the tomb of the ship, which is older than the tomb of the king, it is possible that it was built by King Dehe, but it still needs to be proved." Suddenly a strong wind blew across the desert, and fine sand flew all over the sky.In order to avoid the wind, I hid under the fence wall of King Khasakahanvi's palace.This is very close to where the Penn expedition reburied the ship (they reburied the ship again for legitimate reasons of protection). After accidentally discovering the fleet in 1991, the archaeologists originally hoped to come back in 1992 to continue digging, but under the drag of many things, until now in 1993, they have no plan to come back. In the course of my research, O'Connor sent me his official 1991 excavation report, which mentioned that the ships may have actually been 72 feet long.He also mentioned that the boat-shaped brick tombs where these ships were buried were probably on the ground in the early dynastic era, standing upright in the desert one by one.When it was brand new, the scene of brick walls must be quite spectacular: Each tomb, in primitive times, must have been smeared with thick earth and painted white, so visually it seemed as if 12 (or more) huge ships were "anchored" in the desert, under the brilliant Egyptian sun Under the light, shine brightly.There is a strong sense that these ships are in a moored state, and under the bow and stern of several graves, jade stones with inconsistent shapes were found.These jade stones cannot be accidental or natural, but must be placed there on purpose.Judging from the location, the jade must have been placed on purpose, not by accident.I can think of them as the "anchor" that helps the boat stay anchored. Just like the 140-foot navigating ship found underground next to the Great Pyramid of Gisha (see Chapter 33 of this book), from the structure of Abydos' ships, it is not difficult to find that they are sufficient to cope with any bad weather and turbulence on the ocean. waves.Cheryl Haldane, a nautical archaeologist at Texas A&M University, believes that the ships were well designed, "using a high degree of technology, not to mention beautiful ships."Thus, like the ships of the Great Pyramid (but at least 500 years older), the Abydos fleet seems to show clearly that the Egyptians had accumulated a wealth of navigation at the beginning of their long history of 3000 years. Tradition.And from the earliest Egyptian murals found in the Nile Valley as early as 1500 years before the Abydos ship was buried (that is, around 4500 BC), we have seen streamlined, high-performance ships sailing on the water⑦ . Is it possible that as early as 3000 BC before the official written history, a group of people with rich sailing experience came to the Nile Valley and had contact with the local indigenous people?If this statement is true, it will not be difficult for us to explain the repeated and unexplained strange phenomenon of ships found in the Egyptian desert (the pyramid scriptures also describe very complex ship structures, some of which are as long as 2000 feet). Along with these questions, I also wondered about the symbolism that ships represented in ancient Egypt.Many scholars have pointed out successively that ships were built to carry the souls of pharaohs.However, I feel that the symbolic meaning cannot explain why the buried ships are manufactured with such a high level of technology.This kind of superb design and production technology must be developed with many years of experience.Should we not inquire--even to deny the possibility--that the ships of Gesha and Abydos were not made by those ancient Egyptians who loved their land, settled by the river, and practiced agriculture, but Did it come from another group of more advanced people with nautical culture? Since there is a high degree of nautical culture, this group of people must know how to detect the direction from the observation of astrology, and develop the technology of making maps in order to be able to sail the ocean. Is it possible that this culture, also skilled in architecture and masonry, specialized in the construction of polygonal boulders such as the Riverside Temple, Osirien and the like? Moreover, is it possible that these people have a certain relationship with the gods who "created the world" and created all things, not only brought the knowledge of civilization, architecture, astronomy, arithmetic and literature to the Egyptians, but also passed them many practical knowledge? Technology, including agriculture, which benefited the Egyptians the most. From various signs, we found that the Nile Valley had agricultural civilization at the end of the Ice Age in the northern hemisphere, and large-scale agricultural cultivation experiments created a "leapfrog" development of the place.However, judging from its leaping nature, this agricultural civilization was not developed locally, but could only be developed through the introduction of foreign and unknown thinking. note ① The date comes from AtlusofAncientEgypt.For information about the departure of Pharaoh Ramses II, see Qichen's "The Victorious King: The Life of Ramses II", pages 70-71. K． A． Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses Ⅱ, Aris and Phillips, Warminster, 1982, p.70-71. ② "Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts", pages 285 and 253. ③Ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead", Chapter 175, quoted in "Ancient Egyptian Myths and Symbols" (MythandSymbol in Ancient Egypt), p. 37. Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (trans. R. O. Farlkner), British Museum Publications, 1989. ④The Times of London, March 17, 1914. ⑤ Naville, "Abydos Archaeological Excavations: The Pool and Tomb of Osiris", Volume 1, 1914, p. 160. E. Naville, Excavations at Abydos: The Great Pool and the Tomb of Osiris, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Volume I 1914, p.160. ⑥ Send directly to Pendu by fax, January 27, 1993. ⑦ "Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Scriptures", page 192: "Oh, morning star, Horus, you have a soul, and you appear on a big ship of 770 gigabytes... Please take me to the cabin of your ship."