CHESMAYNE
Midi: How
Deep Is Your Love
Cheops
This panoramic photograph of the Pyramids of
KI
of
Egypt, of the 4th dynasty.
Said by some to be the builder of the great pyramid at El Giza. Also known as Khufu. Circa 2700 BC. This structure is the oldest surviving
member of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Ancient World’
situated on the plateau of Giza a few miles south-west of
Pyramids Along The Nile – puzzle,
2,000 pieces. Feel like journeying somewhere exotic tonight? How about shopping in an outdoor bazaar in
Egypt, and looking across the Nile at the pyramids? If you can’t actually make the trip right
now, this puzzle can at least do a good job of transporting you from your
everyday cares into a world of shimmering sands and blue water. A quality 2,000 piece puzzle, Pyramids Along the Nile is
manufactured in Germany by Ravensburger.
Completed size is 29 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches.
They are also known as the ‘Mansions
of Eternity’. The sheer size of the pyramids sets them apart. They functioned as royal tombs, much like
European cathedrals that house the remains of monarchs which suggests that they
were built more as an affirmation of their religious convictions than to
glorify dead KIs. They were decorated
in zones of various colour and the apex in gilt. They were designed to be seen from a
distance and capped by a Benben stone (Gaelic: ‘ben’, a mountain peak). The Cheops Pyramid is the largest and most
geometrically perfect. It contains an
elaborate system of above-ground chambers and is the most often visited by
tourists. Cheops was built circa 2450
BCE. The four shafts point to Sirius
(the Sirius shaft), Alnitak (the Orion shaft),
Thuban (the Draco shaft) and Kochab (the Ursa Minor shaft). Some scholars argue that the Egyptians
worked out the Precession of the Equinoxes prior to Hipparchus of Alexandria
and it also follows that the architects of the Pyramids knew the rate of change
which allowed them to point the four small tunnels towards particular stars. The tomb of QU Nefertari is reputed to be
the most beautiful in Egypt and was discovered in 1904 at Luxor and is the tomb
of KI Rameses II’s favourite wife.
The KIs of Egypt were
autocrats and revered as living gods who kept the inner mysteries of their religion from all
but a few chosen initiates. In 820 CE,
the tomb was entered by Caliph Ma’moun and a team of Arab workmen. Herodotus (5th century BCE) wrote
about them in ‘The Histories’. A robotics engineer (Rudolf Gantenbrink) used a small
robot ‘Upuat-2’ (‘Opener of the Ways’ and associated with a jackal god of the
dead) which traveled up the southern shaft of the QUs chamber and relayed video
pictures of the tunnel. The direction
in which the shaft points is considered significant (towards the constellation
of Orion for the KIs chamber and
associated with the god Osiris). The
last time the KIs shaft pointed exactly at Orion’s Belt was circa 10,450 BCE
and mirrored on the desert sands of Egypt by the Pyramids themselves. Plato was told by Solon that the Atlanteans
invaded and occupied the Mediterranean basin and Egypt itself 9,000 years
before. Edgar Cayce said the Cheop
pyramid started around 10,400 BCE and that the records of Atlantis would be
found in a hidden chamber at the end of the 20th century.
This is indicative of an
unknown ‘star religion’. The QUs shaft
points to Sirius (the star of the goddess Isis). The pyramids were built on a strip of desert
measuring 4 x 80 kilometers. Egyptian
priests were supreme in the science of astronomy.
They discovered the solar year and divided it into 12 parts. The high priest Manetho wrote of a period
before the KIs of Egypt which was ruled by demigods lasting 15,000 years and a
pre-dynastic line which lasted a further 14,000 years - 29,000 years
altogether! At this point we enter into
the area of phantasmagoria! Historians
dismiss these periods as mythical epochs.
However, scientists admit that homo sapiens have been around for about
50,000 to 100,000 years. The earth is
4.5 billion years old. Hominids dating
back 3.6 million years have recently been found. Its original purpose was as a burial tomb
for KI Khufu (Cheops), 2nd KI of the 4th dynasty who
reigned for a period of 23 years and symbolically as a repository and means
of resurrection. It was understood as
representative of the sun’s rays on which the KI could ascend into the heavenly
abodes (see triangle). The high priest of the Egyptians wore a coat
decorated with stars. It has inspired
awe, wonder and admiration throughout
the centuries due to its size, architecture and monumental construction. Its designers were similar to architects of
today, however, they were also trained in astronomy, geometry, religion,
history and symbology.
When first erected it was 482
feet in height, the top 30 feet now being missing and was until the 19th
century, the tallest building built by man.
Each side of the pyramid is 738 feet in length and the total structure
covers 13 acres of ground. It was
constructed from 2,300,000 blocks of limestone masonry, each individual block
weighing 2.5 tonnes. The Cheops pyramid
contains about 6.3 million tons of finely cut limestone. The outer casing was smooth-faced and made
of white limestone blocks weighing around 15 tonnes apiece which would have
reflected the rays of the sun. It is
now believed that this massive structure took under 20 years to build by a
workforce of around 4,000 men. The
ziggurats in Ancient Ur and Babylon seem to have been built around the same
period. Mexican pyramids (stupas) date
from the first millennium CE. The
pyramids of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan in Mexico
date from around 600 CE.
Our ancient ancestors have
left a wealth of evidence in the form of tombs, obelisks, temples and
inscriptions. The Egyptians believed
their deity Osiris was the first divine
pharaoh. Their KIs were referred to as ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ or KIs of
Upper and Lower Egypt and adopted Edjo and Nekhebet as protective
goddesses. They wore a double crown (red for Lower and white
for Upper Egypt). From the time of
Menes’s (3100 BCE) up until 332 CE there were 32 dynasties, which effectively
ended with Cleopatra [last of the ‘honourable’ rulers among mankind] in 30 CE. The Pyramid age reached its peak in the 4th
dynasty during which the great pyramids were constructed. The ancient necropolis of Saqqara (royal
cemetery) is the site of the Zoser step-pyramid. Saqqara (Sokar) was a falcon-headed deity
and recently the tomb of a general of Ra-Moses II was found here. Heliopolis, the sacred city of Annu or On is
mentioned in Genesis
41:45 in connection with Joseph and his Egyptian wife, daughter of a priest
of On. Annu or On (Iwnw in Ancient
Egyptian means pillar-city). It was the
seat of the priests who were custodians of a school of wisdom/initiation at the temple of
Ra, their sun god. The Sesostris
obelisk (known to us as Cleopatra’s Needle) was removed from Heliopolis and now
stands on the Victoria Embankment in London.
Atum was known as ‘the Complete One’ the father of the gods and equivalent to our ‘God the Father’. The Heliopolitan religion was composed of
the pantheon of the Great Ennead gods -
nine deities ruled by Atum-Ra. Four
gods (Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nephthys) lived on earth. Osiris was seen as the first divine KI of
Egypt who died tragically but was resurrected. The Egyptian’s believed in an afterlife and
in the desert, natural mummification of corpses took place. The older step-pyramids are viewed as
stepped towers and not as true pyramids.
The biggest is KI Zoser’s at Saqqara which was built by Imhotep and is 200 feet high. He was a genius priest-architect who was
also Zoser’s vizier, high priest of Annu, astronomer-general and held the title ‘Chief
of the Observers’. This ziggurat
edifice symbolized a ladder whose six steps lead up to
a seventh platform and the stages of ascent to the next world. The ziggurat at Saqqara is similar to the
tower of Babel. These monuments serve
as a statement of religious belief - cosmic symbols (archtypes) - an expression
of the highest art and a reminder that the
purpose of our earthly sojourns is to prepare for the abodes that lay in the
dimensions and starry realms beyond.
Also in Egypt is the Temple of Karnak, the greatest temple of the
ancient world. Karnak took 2,000 years
to complete and 80,000+ people worked on it.
16 medieval cathedrals could fit into this temple! Kent Weeks discovered the largest tomb in
the ancient Valley of the KIs. It was
carved 3,200 years ago in the royal burial ground and is believed to be the
burial place for dozens of sons of Ramses the Great, whose colossal statues
stand at Abu Simbel in Upper Egypt.
Ramses ruled for 67 years and sired at least 100 children. It is also argued, though not proven, that
Ramses is the biblical Pharaoh who ruled when the Jews fled Egypt. The tomb is located across the River Nile
from Luxor and has 83 chambers. The
seven wonders of the ancient world
were…….
The Great Pyramids, Giza, Egypt
01 The pyramids at El Giza
02 The gardens of
Semiramis at Babylon
03 The statue of Zeus at Olympia
04 The temple of Artemis at Ephesus
05 The mausoleum at Helicarnassus
06 The Colossus of Rhodes
07 The Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria
The Pharos lighthouse was
built from marble in 279 BC. Today the
15th century Qait Bey fort stands on the site of the
lighthouse. It was built during the
reign of Ptolemy II. It was the marvel
of its day and more than 400 feet high in a colonnaded court and equipped with
a hydraulic lift to raise fuel to the roof.
Its lantern could be seen over a radius of 34 miles. Within its square base were 300 rooms
designed to house mechanics and operators.
Devastating earthquakes destroyed the building in 1,000 and 1,307
sending much of the debris into the sea surrounding Pharos island. The fort with its high walls and turrets is
one of Alexandra’s few remaining landmarks and was built in 1479.
Borobudur: a Buddhist
monument in central Java which commenced in 750 AD. Its base is square with sides of 173m. Structured in seven terraces, the four
lowest levels being square, the top three being circular. On the four sides, steps lead through
ornamental gates, above which dragon-like monsters keep guard,
to the higher levels. It can be called
a stupa. On the top level of the
Borobudur you face the crowning stupa, 17m high which represents ‘emptiness’
and is the result of the removal of all illusions (maya) from the mind.