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CONTENTS
Introduction
In the present section — the second part of our work on the symbolism of the Egyptian temple — we study two fundamental aspects of that symbolism which, to our knowledge, have never been pointed out before:
The Egyptian temples derive their architecture and conception from that of the Hindu temples of India and Indonesia, particularly those built in the so-called South Indian (or Dravidian) style. We begin by discussing the features of the Egyptian temples and their Atlantean symbolism, and then pass on to their Hindu archetypes. Finally, we discuss the Atlantean (Indonesian) origin of the Egyptians themselves and of the language they spoke, showing how they kept abreast of the Hindu conceptions by means of periodic visits to the Land of the Gods (Punt or Indonesia). Let us start by reviewing the conception and symbolism of the temples everywhere.
The word "temple" derives from the Latin templum, itself derived from a radix tem- meaning "open court", as in the Greek temenos. We are used to temples built as closed edifices, such as Christian cathedrals, Arab mosques and Jewish synagogues. However, in the early temples everywhere, the place of worship consisted of an open court, at whose center stood the inner sanctum (or holy of holies), which was indeed closed.
The worshippers were admitted to the temenos or open court, but their entrance in the inner sanctum was forbidden. There, an image of the god was kept and catered to by the priests who, alone of all people, were admitted there. The Hindus call this inner sanctum by the Sanskrit name of garbhagriha meaning "womb abode" (or "inner room"). In the inner sanctum the dead god "slept" quietly with his entourage, awaiting the instant to resurrect and come out in triumph, announcing the return of the Golden Age.
This resurrection of the dead god (Osiris in Egypt, Shiva or Vishnu in India, Tammuz in Babylon, etc.) was periodically enacted by the priests, who brought out the image of the god for the ritual. The image was processioned in triumph (often by boat), usually meeting with its lover. After a few days of festivities, the god (or goddess) was again returned to the inner sanctum until it was time for a new resurgence.
The adytum (or inner sanctum) often took the shape of the Holy Mountain under which the dead god and his court were buried. In Zozer’s complex, built by Imhotep, and possibly the very first such structure to be built in Egypt, the garbhagriha took the shape of the famous stepped pyramid that survives even today to the delight of tourists and specialists both. In Babylon, the temple court surrounded the ziggurat, itself a kind of stepped pyramid not too far distinct from Zozer’s stepped pyramid or, for that matter, from the similar structures found in Indonesia and even in the Americas (Yucatan, etc.).
As a matter of fact, as we show elsewhere, Zozer’s complex is a verbatim copy of pyramidal complexes of Angkor and Java. It is likely that Imhotep, a most mysterious figure, was fetched from there, along with a gang of expert masons, in order to teach the Egyptians the arts of stone-masonry and city-building, among others.1
The Symbolism of the Christian Temple
The symbolism of the Christian temple is masterfully described by J. Hani (Le Symbolisme du Temple Chrétien, Paris, 1978). Hani starts by asserting that "every sacred building is cosmic, and is made in the image of the world". He quotes St. Peter Damien, who affirms: "the church is the image of the universe".
The walls and the columns of the church represent Heaven and Earth and, in a way, "a cathedral is a visual encyclopedia illustrating Creation". In no way the temple, Christian or not, is a realistic image of the Cosmos. It is, far more, a symbolic representation that portrays the inner mathematical structure of the world. The square shape of the Celestial Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12) — one which many authorities assimilate to the Great Pyramid — is the basic essence of temple architecture. As Hani asserts: The whole of sacred architecture consists, in reality, in the operation of "squaring the circle", that is, of transforming the circle into a square. The foundation of the building starts by its orientation [along the Cardinal Directions], done in a ritual manner... This process is traditional and universal, and is found everywhere there is a sacred architecture. It has been described by Vitruvius and was practiced in the Occident until the end of the Middle Ages. Hani then goes on to describing the traditional utilized in orienting the temple and lying its foundations. With the help of a gnomon (sundial), the architect determines the two axes of the Cardinal Directions (Cardo and Decumanus). This consists of a stake driven into the soil, to mark the center of the edifice. The maxima and minima of its shadow determine the axes of the Cardinal Directions. A circle is traced using the stake as a center, and the two axes serve as its perpendicular diameters. In a way, this operation is a "squaring of the circle", as it combines the fundamental elements of sacred geometry: the Center, the Circle and the Square or Cross. 2
The Circle represents Heaven (the circular horizon) and the Square represents Earth (the crossing Equator and Meridian Zero). So, the Crossed Circle symbolizes the Cosmic Hierogamy, the union of Heaven and Earth. This "squaring of the circle" is a central feature of temples everywhere. In Christian cathedrals we have the square nave at the center and the round dome or cupola above, representing Heaven.
The Squaring of the Circle
In the Far East, many pagodas and temples blend the square base (the Earth) and the round (often conical) top above (the Skies). Two other instances from the Far East are the holy mantle of the Chinese emperor and the ritual basket of the Polynesians. The royal mantle of the Chinese emperor had a squared rim, which tapered to a circle at the waist. The ritual basket of the Polynesians had, likewise, a square wooden base to which the round upper portion of wickerwork was attached.
In the Great Pyramid — indeed a temple of Osiris (his Holy Mountain) and not at all a fancy tomb of vainglorious pharaohs — the circle is squared in a most ingenious way. The height of the Great Pyramid is worth precisely the radius of a circle having a circumference equal to the perimeter of the pyramid’s base.
That this symbolism is not originally Jewish, nor Egyptian but far older and far more universal, is proved by the fact that it is found just about everywhere. It is found in the Far East, in the pyramidal complexes of Angkor, Burma and Java. Borobudur, for instance, also masterfully marries the round shape of the Celestial stupa at its top with the square, stepped pyramid at the base.
This same idea of "squaring the circle" is also found in certain American pyramids, for instance, in the well-known "Whirling Mountain" sandpainted mandalas of the Navajo Indians of North America. Likewise, the pediment of Greek temples such as that of the Acropolis also had a height equivalent to the radius of a circle having a perimeter equal to the width of its base. We could quote a further dozen of instances where the "squaring of the circle" is ingeniously embodied in the geometry of the temple. But the above examples will have to do for now.
The Great Pyramid Is a Replica of Mt. Meru
The above analysis discloses a fact of fundamental importance. The Great Pyramid is, itself, a replica of Mt. Meru as a representation of the Holy Mountain of Paradise. This Holy Mountain is located at the center of the world, right at the spot where Atlas — or, more exactly, the Serpent Shesha, his Hindu archetype — supports up the skies, as a sort of tent above the earth. Hence, the Holy Mountain is indeed Mt. Atlas. More correctly, this mountain is identical with Mt. Meru, the Holy Mountain of Paradise of the Hindus from which all such replicas were originally copied.
The pyramids and, particularly, the Great Pyramid, was called M’R in Egyptian. As the Egyptians never wrote the vowels of the words, very likely the word M’R was indeed pronounced MeRu, precisely the name of the Holy Mountain that was its archetype. Likewise the temples and even the Christian churches and cathedrals — built right on top the stake driven into the head of the Naga that represents Shesha — also represent the Holy Mountain, that is, Mt. Atlas or Meru. Since this serpent is no other than Atlas, the temple built above the Standing Serpent represents the Holy Mountain of Paradise which, in turn, symbolizes the world being supported by the Titan Atlas. Anyone who takes the trouble to study a little bit closer the Hindu symbolism of the Holy Mountain Meru and that of the world-supporting naga, the Serpent Shesha, will immediately recognize its fundamental identity with the ones pointed out here.
The Great Pyramid had its four faces indented at the middle, so as to form a Cross or a four-sided star as seen from above. These indentations formed a sort of giant troughs theoretically intended to concentrate and drain the rain waters that fell over the Great Pyramid. As it seldom (or never) rains in the region of Egypt (a desert), the real function of these troughs is purely symbolic, and is obviously quite another.
In reality, pyramids represent the shape of Mt. Meru, itself pyramidal and indented at the center of its four faces like the Great Pyramid. These troughs and their waters correspond to the Four Rivers of Hindu Paradise which flow from the top of the Holy Mountain along the four Cardinal Directions. This shape is also the classical one of Eden, as described in the Bible and in works such as these of Flavius Josephus.
This figure reproduces a very ancient Sumerian seal, and the motif originally dates from about 3,000 BC or possibly even earlier. The indentations in question transform the pyramids into stars, and indeed allude to the Pole Star rather than the Sun. They are a feature not only of the Egyptian pyramids or their Babylonian counterparts just discussed, but also figure, say, in the Chinese pyramids which we discuss elsewhere.
The Temple of Solomon Is Purely Legendary
The Temple of King Solomon is purely legendary. But its idealized architecture is obviously derived from the Phoenician one, as it was built by Hiram, a Phoenician. It can be reconstructed from the fairly accurate biblical descriptions, as well as from archaeological remains of temples such as the ones of Herod, the Great, and the Phoenician temple of Tall Tainat (Syria), dated at about 1,000 BC, the epoch of King Solomon.
Solomon’s temple followed the general plan of the ancient temples described above. In the front there was the monumental gate giving access to the vestibule (or introitum). This, in turn, led to the temenos or court, built as a sort of hall. Next, at the bottom, we had the holy of holies with the square plan characteristic of the Holy Mountain. This inner sanctum was closed by a curtain, and access to it was denied to all but the high priest. 3
An
interesting description of the ideal temple of the Hebrews is the one of
Ezekiel (ch. 40-46). This account closely parallels that of Revelation
concerning the Celestial Jerusalem (ch. 21). And these, in turn, are copied from
the Hindu ones concerning Paradise ("Pure Land"), as illustrated in the
so-called Kalachakra
mandalas. Ezekiel’s ideal temple, like the Celestial Jerusalem, was edified
"upon a very high mountain" that is obviously the same as the Mt. Meru of Hindu
traditions.
There
was, at the top of the Holy Mountain, just as in the Hindu traditions concerning
Lanka, a holy city (the Celestial Jerusalem). This city or temple — the text is
obscure and confuses the two — was "surrounded by a wall round about". This wall
was square and was aligned with the Cardinal Directions, having a gate on each
of its four sides. It delimited a court paved with stone on which were built
thirty chapels and an inner court, on the south side.
The
adytum (temple proper) was square and had two pillars in front, each 6 cubits
(about 3 meters) broad. The temple was of enormous size (500 canes (or 1600
meters) on a side), being square in plan (probably cubical or pyramidal). It was
surrounded all around by a wall that isolated it from the court destined to the
public. The inner sanctum was decorated with palm-trees and cherubs, motifs that
are allegedly of Mesopotamian derivation, but which ultimately originated in
Hinduism. All in all, Ezekiel’s ideal temple closely evokes Zozer’s pyramidal
complex and, better yet, its archetypes from Malasia, which it closely
parallels. When one carefully compares the underlying symbolism of these
strutuctures from different corners of the world, their unity of shape,
conception and purpose becomes self-evident.
The Temple as an Allegory of Paradise
The city-temple just described is indeed an allegory of Paradise. More exactly, it represents Lanka, the Celestial Jerusalem that was the archetype of its biblical counterpart. In Ezekiel, the "lofty Mountain" that corresponds to Mt. Atlas (or Meru) is called Ariel (or Harel = "Mountain of God"), and is identified with the sacrificial altar (ara). This Sacrificial Mountain is, as usual, an allegory of Mt. Meru (or Atlas), where the Primordial Sacrifice — that of Atlantis (or Paradise) — was performed in the dawn of times.
In front of Solomon’s temple stood the two huge pillars of bronze called Jachin and Boaz. These two pillars closely evoke the two "Pillars of Hercules" that were the central feature of the Phoenician temples of Baal Melkart. Baal Melkart, "the Lord of the City", was the alias and archetype of both Hercules and Atlas, the two deities commemorated by the twin pillars of the Phoenician temples. These twin pillars indeed commemorated, as they did in Gibraltar, the strait that led into Paradise. The Pillars of Gibraltar were just a replica of the primordial ones of Eden (Eden = India or, rather, Indonesia, the "Indian Islands"), just like so many the Phoenicians posted in the temples they built at all such crucial passageways to honor Hercules (Baal Melkart), their supreme lord and patron of navigants.
The two pillars also correspond to the twin obelisks invariably posted at the front of Egyptian temples. The inner sanctum of the Temple was a cube of about 9 meters on each side. This structure evokes the Kaaba of Mecca, whose name and shape are those of a cube. But, as usual, the cubic structure is just a variant of the similarly shaped pyramid. 4
The
fancy capitals of the pillars Jachin and Boaz were all decked with lilyworks and
pomegranates, in the traditional way used for both the Tree of Life and the
omphali found all over the Mediterranean Basin. The "lilyworks" are really
lotus motifs, as many experts have recognized. This type of decoration, very
much used in Egypt, ultimately derives from the Indies, as we discuss elsewhere.
Such
"lilyworks" invariably figure on top the Indian stupas, which are the
true archetypes of omphali and decorated pillars everywhere. And they
indeed represent Mt. Meru submerged under the seas, with reeds and sargassos
attached to it. Alternatively — and that amounts to the same — they symbolize
the stump of the Tree of Life with its dual, the Tree of Death, growing down
from its top. The motif is famous in India, as we discuss elsewhere.
The Riddle of Cedar Wood
The interior of the holy of holies was all lined with cedar wood imported from Ophir by Hiram and his men. Cedar, was an exclusivity of the Indies in antiquity, and had to be imported from there by both the Hebrews and Mesopotamians, as well as by the Egyptians, who loved its wood. Despite its name, cedar was always a rarity in Lebanon and other regions of the Near East, where it was not native, but cultivated in memory of the primordial Paradise lost.
The fact that the inner sanctum of the Temple of Solomon was built of cedar wood (erez, ezrah, Cedrus libani) — a native of the Himalayas later transplanted to the mountains of Lebanon — is highly indicative of the fact that the Jews, as well as their god, indeed originated in the Indies, and later moved to the Near East.
A parallel tradition in temple building and decoration existed in Egypt, whose sailors regularly went to the region of Punt (their Paradise) in order to bring the precious wood for the decoration of their temples and their palaces. Such commercial expeditions to Punt cannot be doubted. They are recorded in detail since the Old Dynasty in Egypt, and extend to the times of Queen Hatshepsut, and later. King Sneferu, the father of Khufu (Kheops), brought from there a large shipment of meru wood, which sufficed both for his own needs and those of his famous son.
Since Solomon’s and Hiram’s ships departed from Ezion Geber, in the Red Sea, in order to get to Ophir, it suffices to look at a map of the region in order to verify that the cedar they imported came not from Lebanon itself, but from somewhere beyond the Indian Ocean. And this somewhere can be no other than the Indies, where the so-called "cedar of Lebanon" grows in abundance, in the Himalayas and its eastern extensions. 5
The Parable of the Eagle and The Tree of Life
Ezekiel (ch. 17) tells an enlightening parable on the origin of the Semites. He recounts how "a great big eagle with broad wings and multicolored plumage" (the Phoenix) came from Lebanon, whence it brought a twig of the Cedar Tree (the Tree of Life), transplanting it to "a land of commerce, a city of merchants". The Eagle (or Phoenix) represents the sail ships — often described as "birds", in antiquity, as in Isa. 60:8-10, etc. — used to bring the survivors out of destroyed Eden. 6
The
"Land of Commerce" is Lebanon, rebuilt in the Near East as a replica of the
former one, in Paradise. As innumerous traditions record, the original homeland
of the Phoenicians of Lebanon and Syria lay beyond the Indian Ocean. It was from
there that they originally came, just as did the Jews and other nations, when
their land was destroyed by a volcanic conflagration. From their sunken Paradise
in Indonesia, these proto-Phoenicians passed into India. Expelled from there,
they moved to Egypt, where they are known to Egyptology as the Gerzean
Civilization (c. 3,500 BC). Expelled once more, probably by King Menes, they
again moved, this time to Northwest Africa (Libya, Morocco, Tunisia) and to
Palestine (Syria and Lebanon).
The
"Sea of Bronze", built in front of Solomon’s Temple by Hiram Abiff, is also
telltale of Hindu connections. Such sacred pools were an invariable feature of
Indonesian temples. They corresponded to the barays
(or "sources") of Indonesia’s pyramidal complexes, which represented the
Fountain of Life (that is, of the Elixir of Life). One such fountain also
existed in the Temple of Ezekiel, and replicated the one of the Celestial
Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1).
The
Egyptian Temples also invariably had such a source either as a natural spring or
as a cistern filled by the waters of the flooding Nile. Such sources or cisterns
correspond to the ghats
of the Indus and the Ganges rivers, used even today in India by the worshippers.
They also correspond to the sacred pools excavated by the archaeologists in the
site of the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro), and which date
from far earlier times than those of Solomon.
Even
the Medieval cathedrals had, just as did the temples of Isis everywhere, such
magical sources springing inside their underground crypts and filling their
baptismal fonts. As a matter of fact, the early Christian cathedrals were almost
always built upon the ruins of the temples of Isis which abounded everywhere in
Pagan Europe. Such was the case, in particular, of the cathedrals of Rheims, of
Chartres, and of Notre Dame, among many. Even in the Americas we find precisely
the same conception of barays placed on top the Holy Mountain of
Paradise. For instance, the famous Incan pyramid of Akapana (Peru-Bolivia
border) had a huge cistern (water reservoir) at the top. This reservoir fed a
sophisticate network of hydraulic facilities used in irrigation and internal
plumbing of the other buildings, in a way that closely parallels the similar
devices of the Egyptian temples which we mentioned above and
elsewhere.
The Twin Cherubs and the Twin Goddesses
The two enormous Cherubs that guarded the Ark placed inside the inner sanctum of the Temple, enwrapping it with their wings (II Chr. 3:15; 5:8; Exo. 25:18; Heb. 9:5, etc.) closely evoke the winged figures of Isis and Nephthys guarding the ark inside which lay the deceased body of deceased Osiris (see Fig. 2).
The
two cherubs may well be the two kas
(doubles or souls) of the twin gods (Osiris and Seth, etc.). These, in turn, are
identified to the twin obelisks of the Egyptian temples and their twin pillars
or pylons which represent the twin Holy Mountains of Paradise. This
identification is also suggested by the text of Revelation, which speaks
of two Jerusalems (Celestial and Terrestrial), two Temples (idem) and two gods
(Christ and Jahveh) "who are their temples themselves", as well as their twin
Trees of Life and the twin sources of the Elixir (Rev. 21:22).
The Architecture of the Egyptian Temple
The temples of Luxor and Karnak (see Fig.2 below) — dated at the 19th dynasty (c.1,300 BC) — can be considered typical examples of Egyptian temple architecture. The entire area was surrounded by a rectangular wall that delimited a holy court (the temenos). In front, stood a monumental gate or pylon flanked by two tapering towers which formed its jambs. These twin pylons had a truncated pyramid shape, as can be seen in Fig.3(a) below. This pylon led into a colonnaded room (called the hypostyle hall) illuminated by means of small clearstory windows. Through this hypostyle room, the inner court was reached via two other pylons and a series of halls.
In this beautiful reconstruction of Ramses’ temple, several features are worth noting. Moving up from the bottom we have the landing stage at the Nile’s bank, the low creneleted walls and the Guard Gate, the lofty towers and the crenelated walls of the Southeastern Gate (formally called Oriental Gate). This gate led to the front of the temple where we have the sacred pool and the small temple of Tutmoses. Next comes the huge pylon of the temple (shown at the center of Fig.3(a))with its four flagstaffs and the outer wall of the temple. This pylon leads into the outer court and, at the left, the Royal Palace (possibly a temporary abode of the King during his stays at the place).
Next we have the second pylon with its two guardians. This pylon leads into the inner court which has, at the rear, the vestibule of the great hypostyle hall. This, in turn, leads into the Inner Sanctum and exits to the great northwestern (formerly western) Gate. The sacred pool was, as we said further above, the invariable feature of Egyptian temples. It was also the counterpart of the Sea of Bronze of Solomon’s temple, and the ghats of Hindu temples. In all probability they were used, as in India and elsewhere, in purificatory ritual ablutions akin to Baptism. Such sacred pools — called ghats in India — are attested from remotest antiquity in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, the sites of the mysterious Indus Valley Civilization, one of the oldest known to archeologists.
Atlantis as the Land of the Dead
The imposing structure of the Ramses III temple is closely reminiscent of that of Atlantis and its lofty towers. Except that the square shape (Terrestrial) replaces the circular geometry (Celestial) of its Paradisial counterparts. Besides the lofty crenelated watchtowers that were a typical characteristic of Atlantis and its many aliases (Hades, Lanka, Abzu, etc.), we also have here the triple wall mentioned by Plato, as well as the sanctuary or inner temple at the center.
In this temple complex, which is indeed a replica of Paradise, the river Nile replaces the River Oceanus that surrounded Atlantis in the Greek myths. The River Oceanus was a direct replica of Hindu archetype, the Vaitarani. This impassable river or ocean was also called Açayana = "round goer", in Sanskrit. This Hindu name is the true etym (or etymon or etymology)of the word "Ocean", whose circular nature and meaning become then obvious. The name of the Vaitarani (Dvai-tarani) also means the same thing as Açayana in Sanskrit.
We should recall that the Atlantic Ocean was, originally, deemed to go round the whole earth. That means the ancient world of Eurasia and Africa, such being the reason of its name of "Ocean" or "Round Goer". This was the sense in which the name was used by the ancients, including Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle. But modern users applied the name only to the western portion of the Atlantic Ocean, forgetting its eastern moiety, the Indian Ocean. Herein lies the root of all the confusion of those who unwisely insist in seeking Atlantis in what we now call by the name of the "Atlantic Ocean".
Once this essential difficulty is realized, the solution of the riddle becomes real easy and natural, as we argue in detail elsewhere.
The temple of Ramses III was built as a mortuary complex in order to commemorate the fact that Atlantis too was dead, just as was its great god (Osiris, Atlas, Shiva, Poseidon). Osiris was indeed, like Atlas, the true "Pillar of the World". Such is the reason why he was commemorated by the Djed Pillar, indeed the Pillar of the World (Djed, Stambha, Matseba, Atlas, Meru, etc.).
It is no coincidence that the Oriental Gate, the main entrance to the temple of Medinet Habu, opens to the southeastern direction. In fact, it points to the direction of Punt or Amenti (Indonesia) to be reached by heading in this exact direction along the Red Sea and beyond. This point is crucial, for it indicates that Amenti lay, in contrast to what its name suggests, to the south rather than to the west of Egypt. 8
The
triple girding wall of the temple of Medinet Habu was, as we said above,
mentioned by Plato as a feature of
Atlantis. This coincidence suggests that Plato indeed obtained his
information concerning Atlantis from Egyptian sources, just as he claimed in the
Timaeus
and the Critias. Why would the great philosopher lie in such holy,
fundamental issues, so important to the humanity to whom he devoted his life to
enlighten?
The
Egyptian temples were verbatim copies of Hindu temples, themselves replicas of
the Atlantean Paradise. This model city — also the archetype of
the Celestial Jerusalem — is Lanka, the capital of Ravana’s worldwide empire
(Atlantis). This City (Pure Land) is illustrated in the so-called Kalachakra
mandalas, and its triple wall (trimekhala, in Sanskrit) is its most
characteristic feature. By the way, the Celestial Jerusalem is also
traditionally equipped with a triple wall, like Atlantis.
The Meaning of the Temple’s Pylons
The pylons of Egyptian Temples — their most outstanding feature — have a very specific symbolic meaning. Before entering their analysis, let us quote the excellent British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by I. Shaw and P. Nicholson (London, 1995) on the entry "Pylon". Pylons are, according to this erudite source: Massive ceremonial gateways (Egyptian bekhenet) consisting of two tapering towers linked by a bridge of masonry and surmounted by a cornice. Rituals relating to the sun-god were evidently carried out on top of the gateway... The earliest known pylons may have been constructed in the pyramid complex and sun temple of the 5th Dynasty ruler Nyuserra (2445-2421 AC)…
Many [pylons] also contained internal stairs and rooms, the purpose of which is uncertain. Ancient depictions of pylons show that the deep vertical recesses visible along the façades of surviving examples were intended to hold flagstaffs... Such flags would have had particular significance in the context of the temple, in that the Egyptian word for "god" (netjer) took the form of a symbol usually interpreted as a fluttering pennant.
Pylons were frequently decorated with relieves enhanced with bright paint and inlays, in which the scenes tended to emphasize the theme of royal power... The most common motif on the pylon was that of the king smiting foreign enemies or offering captives to a god. The illustrious authors go on to say further: Many important temples had only one pylon, but the more important religions complexes consisted of long successions of pylons and courtyards, each added or embellished by different rulers; the temple of Amun in Karnak, for instance, had ten pylons.
In the unusual temples dedicated to Aten... the pylons consist of pairs of separate towers without any bridging masonry between them. It is likely that the pylon represented the two mountains of the horizon (akhet) between which the sun rose, thus contributing to the temple’s role as a symbol of the cosmos and the act of creation. The towers were, each, identified with the goddesses Isis and Nephthys.
The Gerzean Connection
The Gerzeans were a civilization of pre-Dynastic Egypt during the Nagada II
Period (3,500-3,000BC). The Gerzeans were probably Semitic, probably of
proto-Phoenician stock, to judge from their symbols and their white, bearded
figures. The Gerzeans invaded and conquered Upper Egypt, where they became
established down to the start of dynastic period, when they were apparently
expelled by King Menes, the unifier of ancient Egypt.
Other vases (not shown) display a hilly foreign country (Punt?), flamingos and tiger or leopard skins. As we explain elsewhere in detail, these strange decorations are all typical Atlantean motifs. Atlantis — and its many aliases such as Punt, Ophir, "Tyre", "Phoenicia", Phaeacia, etc. — is often symbolized by a huge ship that sunk to the bottom of the seas, as described in Part I of the present article. This ship is the same as the Holy Barque of the Egyptian temples. It is also the Celestial Ship, the Argonavis constellation, as well as the Ark of Salvation, the Argos ship, and so on, as we adduced further above.
Likewise, the twin cabins shown at midships of the vase decoration of Fig.3(c) are visibly the archetypes of the sacred pylons of the Egyptian temples. So, they too represent the twin Pillars of Hercules, the Gates of Paradise, that is, of Atlantis, as we already said. The fact that they represent the twin mountains of Punt (Paradise) is directly indicated by the hieroglyph of the twin mountain on top the two cabins and on the standard of the ship. Again, the ithyphallic twins represent Atlas and Hercules and, more exactly, Seth and Osiris, their Egyptian counterpart. If this interpretation is correct, we see here the antecedents of these important Egyptian gods, as well as that of the Tale of the Two Brothers, famous in both Egyptian and Phoenician mythologies.
The Dancing Goddess is another important, universal motif. She is Hathor, the Great Mother, as well as the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, dancing before the two armies ready for battle (the Battle of Atlantis = Armaggedon). She is Dawn or Aurora (Ushas, Eos), and represents Lemurian Atlantis (Eden), the Great Virgin Mother of both gods and men. Her "dance" is the fatal dance which allegorizes the earthquake that razed Atlantis, sending it to the bottom.
In reality, the Goddess personifies the Cosmic Yoni, the Submarine Fiery Mare of Hindu myths, the gaping abyss opened by the cataclysm, and which is no other than the giant volcanic caldera of the volcano that destroyed Atlantis. The ithyphallic Twins are, again, the other two peaks of the holy Triple Mountain of Paradise, with the "sun" at the center representing the third, collapsed peak, the Vadava-mukha. The Triple Mountain was the site of Paradise (Lanka or Atala) in Hindu traditions, and its central peak was deemed "the Pillar of Heaven", just like Mt. Atlas.
The palm trees are again connected with Atlantis. They represent the Primordial Phoenicia, a name signifying "Land of the Palm Trees" in Greek. This name is a translation of the Hindu name of Atala, which means the same thing in Sanskrit. The streamers and standards again identify Punt with Atlantis and, more exactly, with the Indonesian sunken continent. They are the glyph of Punt, as well as the symbol of the Pillars of Hercules in Phoenician traditions. In reality, the streamers visually translate the ancient local name of the Malay Peninsula, Setubandha (called Punt in Dravida), which means "Connecting Band" or "Connecting Bridge" in Sanskrit.
The Pylons Represent the Pillars of Hercules
The above comments are very enlightening in what concerns the symbolism of the pylons of Egyptian temples. First of all, let us moot out the fact that they represent the twin peaks of the Mountain of the Orient (or "Horizon") between which the sun rose daily. This mountain was — in the whole of the Ancient World, and not only in Egypt — considered to be the abode of the sun-god. In fact, as we already said, the twin peaks of the Mountain of the Orient and the Occident which is so prominent in Egyptian and in Phoenician mythologies, ultimately derives from the Hindu traditions on Mt. Meru, called by precisely these epithets in India. The twin peaks of Meru are called, respectively, Sumeru and Kumeru, the radix su meaning "to rise" and ku meaning "to sink" in Sanskrit.
One aspect of Horus (and of the Great Sphinx) was called Horemakhet (or Harmakhis), that is, "the Horus of the Horizon" (or of the Orient). This is the old Horus (Aroeris), the brother or alias of Osiris, in contrast to the new Horus (Harpocrates), the son (or renewed avatar) of Osiris. "Horizon" here has the sense of "Orient" or, rather, of Lanka (Indonesia), the Land of Sunrise whence both the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, as well as their gods, originally came.
The
"sun", here, is an allegory (just as is the blooming lotus) of the colossal
explosion of its central peak (Mt. Atlas, the central pillar), an event that,
according to tradition, was "brighter than a thousand suns". The central peak
collapsed and disappeared underseas, leaving an open passage (a strait or
"door") in its place. Hence, the Triple Mountain became the twin pylons, the
equivalents of the two Pillars of Hercules. The central peak, Mt. Atlas, the
Pillar of Heaven — having disappeared from view and leaving behind merely the
glow of its explosion, bright as a new sun — became the "Door" they flank. And
this "door" or "gate" is the Gateway of Heaven, symbolized by the pylons of
Egyptian temples. In reality, this Gate of Heaven is no other than the maritime
Strait of Sunda, in the Orient, replicated by that of Gibraltar in the Occident.
Together, they form the Four Pillars of the World which the Egyptians
allegorized as the four legs of Hathor as the Celestial Cow or as the four
members of the goddess Nut posed on the ground.
As
shown in the pylon of Medinet Habu and, more clearly, in Fig.5, below, the
striking god often wears the triple crown that symbolizes Trikuta, the
triple-peaked mountain. This triple-peaked mountain, often with the central
summit represented explicitly or, conversely, symbolized by a stunted, sunken
down portion is also represented in the triple spires of Christian cathedrals
and churches. The "sun" that shines at the center of the Holy Mountain of the
Egyptians is an explicit representation of the colossal explosion of its
volcano. In Christian symbolism, this "sun" is often figured by a rose-window, a
symbolism taken directly from Hindu and Egyptian archetypes. The rose-windows
represent the Golden Lotus, itself an allegory of the colossal "mushroom"
generated by the giant explosion of Mt. Atlas.
The Temple of Herod, the Great
There is yet an important point connected with the symbolism of the Temple of Jerusalem: the insistence on the number ten. This number is precisely the one of the independent realms composing the Atlantean empire, according to Plato. The Sea of Bronze of the Temple had a diameter of ten cubits. Hiram built ten bronze basins and ten carts for them, so that they could be easily moved around is order to be used in ritual ablutions.
Likewise, the altar of the Temple, built of bronze, was ten cubits high and twenty cubits (2x10) on a side. The inner sanctuary was decorated with ten golden candlesticks "built in the prescribed manner" and posted at ten tables, probably also of gold or bronze. The width of the Temple was twenty cubits (about 10 meters) and its inner sanctum was a cube of about 10 meters on a side (20 cubits). 13
The
vestibule of the inner sanctum was also a cube of about 10 x 10 x 10 meters (20
cubit on a side). The altar was 20 cubits on the sides and 10 cubits tall, that
is, a half cube of about 10 meters on a side. Ten was indeed the sacred number
of Jahveh (the Ten Commandments, etc.), just as Seven (the Seven Days of
Creation, etc.) was the one of Elohim. Hence, it is not unreasonable to suppose
that there was a connection between Jahveh and his Temple with Atlantis
and its ten realms.
The Twin Flags of Egyptian Temples
The flags shown in the Ramses temple of Medinet Habu (Fig.2) were a feature of essentially all Egyptian temples. As we saw above they represented the netjesr (or neters = "gods") and served as an emblem of godliness and, more exactly, of the Land of the Gods (Punt) that the temple replicated in miniature. This identification can again be traced back to India and the traditions concerning Jambudvipa and its lofty ensign, "visible to all nations".
The ensign or banner also came to symbolize, in the ancient world and, in particular, among the Phoenicians, the same as the Pillars of Hercules. These are often represented by a pair of flagstaffs or beams, on whose tops were hung flags or hanging strips of cloth. 14
The
strip of cloth (banner, streamer, etc.) also represents Setubandha (lit.
"Connecting Strip (or Band)") the other name of Jambu-dvipa and, more exactly,
of Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula. Hercules, the personification of the
pillars that bear his name, invariably wore a bandolier or stole which was the
alias of the connecting strip of land that linked his secret realm to the
continent.
In
reality, we had two pairs of Pillars of Hercules, precisely as shown in the
outer pylon of the temple of Medinet Habu (Fig.2). One pair corresponded to the
illusory pillars of Gibraltar and the other pair to the real ones that flank the
Strait of Sunda, in Indonesia.
So,
in the outer court of the temple — the one allowed to the uninitiated profanes —
we had two pairs of Pillars of Hercules: the one of Gibraltar (known to all, but
"virtual") and the one of Sunda (real, but known only to the initiates). In
contrast, at the inner pylon (see Fig.2) we have only one pair of flagstaffs.
This
gate, accessible only to the initiates, represents the actual reality that the
two pairs are indeed only one. The message is clear. One has first to cross the
virtual gate of Gibraltar in order to reach the second gate or pylon that
accesses the real Paradise, here figured by the multitude of pillars of the
hypostile chamber that represents Atlantis.
The Saints and the Gods of Atlantis
These pillars represent the "saints and gods of Atlantis". Far more than sheer metaphor, the idea refers to the fact that the Atlanteans were literally turned into stony "pillars" by the volcanic ash that settled upon their dead bodies. This is what happened in Herculaneum and Pompey and this is indeed what is meant by the tale of Lot’s wife turning into "a pillar of salt" on the occasion of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra by a volcanic conflagration (Gen. 19:26; cf. Luke 17:32).
In front of the jambs of the second pylon of the Temple of Medinet Habu (Fig.2) stand the gigantic figures of two deities guarding the entrance to the inner chambers. These two guardians, either seated or standing, were an invariable feature of Egyptian temples. They represent the two cherubs that guard the entrance to Paradise itself. That they do not indeed represent the pharaoh is attested by the fact that these gods are twin, whereas the pharaoh was the monarch, the single ruler of both Upper and Lower Egypt.
These two Guardians correspond to what the Hindus call Lokapalas or Dvarapalas. They often change into lions, karibus, sphinxes, standing serpents (nagas), dragons or similar monsters. In reality they correspond to Atlas and Hercules, the twins (or "pillars") that guard the straits that serves as the Gates of Paradise. The inner court is elevated, and is accessed by means of stairs, as can be seen in the reconstruction of Fig.2. The stairs represent the ascent to Heaven (or Paradise) placed, as it is, upon the Holy Mountain (Mt. Meru) that is everywhere represented by stepped pyramids.
The Stepped Pyramids and the Babylonian Ziggurats
In Egypt and Babylon — where mountains essentially inexist — the Holy Mountain was represented by stepped pyramids or by stepped ziggurats. The shape eventually evolved into that of smoothed out constructions. But the idea that they represented the stairway to Paradise was preserved in myth and ritual and, as here, in the symbolic staircases of the temples. However, the step pyramids everywhere represent the Mountains of Paradise (Meru or Trikuta) which were indeed stepped due to the terraces built on their slopes for agricultural purposes. 17
Finally,
the inner sanctum (or adytum) of the Egyptian temples was, like the one of the
Temple of Jerusalem, the sacred precinct where the dead god of Paradise reposed
inside his ark or coffin, until the time came for him to resurrect back to life.
As we said above, Osiris inside his ark, dead and guarded by the winged figures
of Isis and Nephthys literally correspond to Jahveh inside his ark (tebah)
and, likewise, guarded by the two winged Cherubs.
The
inner sanctum of the temple represents the Holy Mountain inside which Osiris and
his many aliases (Yama, Kronus, Saturn, Shiva, Jahveh, Christ, and so on) lay
entombed, awaiting for the moment when they are to resurge in the glory of the
parousia to bring back the Golden Age and the Millennium.
By
the way, the century old discussion whether the pyramids were tombs or cenotaphs
of vainglorious pharaohs or, yet, initiatic temples or otherwise is utterly
foolish. The same question can be asked of Christian cathedrals and indeed of
any of temple or church or synagogue or lodge or crypt.
They
all serve the same ritual purpose and they all commemorate the same event: the
death of Atlantis-Paradise represented by its deity and the hope (or certainty)
that it will resurge back to life with its god and all its saints in the day of
the Resurrection of the Dead. Such is the tenet of Christianism, of Judaism, of
Hinduism and, in all probability, of all religions, including that of ancient
Egypt. For, religion is hardly anything else than the hope of the return of
Paradise. And this is proven by the fact that we daily pray to God to "let Thy
Kingdom come". So do the Hindus with their "Om, Mani Padme Hum!". And so also
the other nations, each in their own peculiar way, daily beg for the immediate
coming of the New Era, when
Atlantis-Eden and its many dead will resurge from the waters where
it lies buried.
The Pyramids of Egypt As Mortuary Temples and Cenotaphs
The pyramids of Egypt — just like the ones of Indonesia, of the Far East and of the Americas — were mortuary temples built for the repose of the dead god. This god was often represented by the person of his dual and replica (ka), the pharaoh, the Living Osiris. Whether the pharaoh was buried or not inside the pyramid he built for his double is immaterial. Indeed, the pyramids were mostly cenotaphs, that is empty mortuary temples. The body of the pharaohs was usually buried elsewhere, generally in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
Likewise, many kings and emperors of the ancient and the medieval times were actually buried inside churches and cathedrals, which no one ever equated with tombs. Like the pyramids and temples of Egypt and elsewhere, the Christian churches too are stylized replicas of the Holy Mountain of Paradise inside which the saints and gods of Atlantis lie entombed. And, as we said above, their triple spires explicitly represent Mt. Trikuta, the Triple Mountain of Paradise.
The coffins and sarcophagi found inside the Egyptian pyramids were either due to intrusive burials or utterly empty, as many specialists have concluded. This fact proves beyond reasonable doubt that the pyramids of Egypt were, like the temples, the symbolic sepulchers of the dead god. This is the reason why they were utterly empty, at least in a physical sense. It is in the same sense that the throne of Buddha is traditionally represented as empty. So is its counterpart, the Ark of Covenant, the throne (or footrest) of Jahveh.
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