The Gaze of the Sphinx

In time, the pyramids of Giza were made part of the Landing Grid which had the peaks of Ararat as its focal point, incorporated Jerusalem as a Mission Control Center, and guided the space vehicles to the Spaceport in the Sinai peninsula.

But at first, the pyramids themselves had to serve as guiding beacons, simply by virtue of their location, alignment and shape. All pyramids, as we have seen, were at their core step pyramids—emulating the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. But when the "Gods who came from heaven" experimented with their scale model at Giza (the Third Pyramid), they may have found that the silhouette of the ziggurat and the shadow it cast upon the undulating rocks and ever-shifting sands were too blurred and inaccurate to serve as a reliable Pointer-of-the-Way. By casing the stepped core to achieve a "true" pyramid, and using white (light-reflecting) limestone for the casing, a perfect play of light and shadow was achieved, providing clear orientation.

In 1882, as Robert Ballard was watching the Giza pyramids from his train window, he realized that one could determine his location and direction by the ever-changing alignment between the pyramids (Fig. 154). Enlarging on this observation in The Solution of the Pyramid Problem, he also showed that the pyramids were aligned with each other in the basic Pythagorean right-angled triangles, whose sides were proportionate to each other as 3:4:5. Pyramidologists have also noticed that the shadows cast by the pyramids could serve as a giant sundial, the direction and length of the shadows indicating time of year and of day.

Fig. 154

Even more important, however, was how the silhouettes and shadows of the pyramids appeared to an observer from the skies. As this aerial photograph shows (Fig. 155), the true shape of the pyramids casts arrow-like shadows, which serve as unmistakable direction pointers.

Fig. 155

When all was ready to establish a proper Spaceport, it required a much longer Landing Corridor than the one which served Baalbek. For their previous Spaceport in Mesopotamia, the Anunnaki (the biblical Nefilim) chose the most conspicuous mountain in the Near East—Mount Ararat—as their focal point. It should not be surprising that out of the same considerations they again selected it as the focal point of their new Spaceport.

Just as more "coincidences" of triangulation and geometrical perfection have been discovered in the construction and alignment of the Giza pyramids the more they have been examined and studied, so do we find endless "coincidences" of triangulation and alignment as we uncover the Landing Grid laid out by the Anunnaki. If the peaks of Ararat served as the focal point of the new Landing Corridor, then not only the northwestern line of the Landing Corridor, but also its southeastern outline had to be focused on Ararat. But where was its other, Sinai end, anchored on?

Mount St. Katherine lies amidst a massive core of similar, though somewhat lower, granite peaks. When the British Ordinance Survey Mission headed by the Palmers set out to survey the Sinai peninsula, they found that St. Katherine, even if the highest peak, did not stand out sufficiently to serve as a geodesic landmark. Instead, the Mission selected Mount Umm Shumar (Fig. 156), which at 8,534 feet is almost a twin in height of Mount St. Katherine (indeed, until the Ordnance Survey, many believed that Umm Shumar was the higher peak).

Fig. 156

Unlike Katherine, Umm Shumar stands by itself, distinct and unmistakable. Both gulfs can be seen from its peak; its view to the west, northwest, southwest and east is unobstructed. It was for these reasons that the Palmers without hesitation selected Mount Umm Shumar as their geodesic landmark, the focal point for surveying and measuring the peninsula.

Mount Katherine may have been suitable for a short Landing Corridor focused on Baalbek; but for the distant focal point of Ararat, a much more distinct and unmistakable landmark was required. We believe that for the same reasons as the Palmers', the Anunnaki selected Mount Umm Shumar as the anchor of the southeastern outline of the new Landing Corridor.

Much about this mount and its location is intriguing. To begin with, its name—puzzling or highly significant—means "Mother of Sumer." It is a tide which was applied at Ur to Ningal, spouse of Sin...

Unlike Mount St. Katherine, which lies at the center of Sinai's core of high granite peaks and can therefore be reached only with great difficulty, Mount Umm Shumar is situated at the edge of the mass of granite. The sandy beaches there, on the Gulf of Suez, have several natural hot springs. Was it there that Asherah spent her winters, residing "by the sea?" From there, it is really only "a she-ass' ride" away to Mount Umm Shumar—a ride so vividly described in the Ugaritic texts when Asherah went calling on El at his Mount.

Just a few miles down the coast from the Hot Springs is the peninsula's most important port city on these coasts—the port city of el-Tor. The name—another coincidence?—means "The Bull"; it was, as we have seen, an epithet of El ("Bull El," the Ugaritic texts called him).

The place has served as Sinai's most important gulf port from earliest times; and we wonder whether it was not the Tilmun-city (as distinct from Tilmun-land) spoken of in Sumerian texts. It could well have been the port which Gilgamesh planned to reach by ship, from where his comrade Enkidu could go to the nearby mines (in which he was doomed to slave for the rest of his life); while he (Gilgamesh) could proceed to the "Landing Place, where the Shems are raised."

The peaks of the peninsula's granite core which face the Gulf of Suez bear names that make one stop and wonder. One mount bears the name "Mount of the Blessed Mother"; closer to Mount Umm Shumar, Mount Teman ("The Southern") raises its head. The name brings back the verses of Habakuk:

"El from Teman shall come... . Covered are the heavens with his halo; His splendor fills the Earth... . The Word goes before him, sparks emanate from below; He pauses to measure the Earth... ."

Was the prophet referring to the mount that still bears that very name— Teman—the southern neighbor of Mount "Mother of Sumer?" Since there is no other mountain bearing such a name, the identification seems more than plausible.

Does Mount Umm Shumar fit into the Landing Grid and the network of sacred sites developed by the Anunnaki?

We suggest that this mount substituted for Mt. Katherine when the final Landing Corridor was worked out, acting as the anchor for the southeastern line of the Corridor which was focused on Ararat. But if so, where was the complementary anchor for the northwestern line?

It is no coincidence, we suggest, that Heliopolis was built where it was. It lies on the original Ararat-Baalbek-Giza line. But it is so located, that it is equidistant from Ararat as Umm Shumar is! Its location was determined, we suggest, by measuring off the distance from Ararat to Umm Shumar— then marking off an equidistant point on the Ararat-Baalbek-Giza line (Fig. 157).

Fig. 157

As we unfold the amazing network of natural and artificial peaks that have been incorporated into the landing and communications grid of the Anunnaki, one must ponder whether they served as guiding beacons by height and shape alone. Were they not also equipped with some kind of guidance instruments?

When the two pairs of narrow conduits from the chambers of the Great Pyramid were first discovered, they were thought to have served to lower food to the Pharaoh's attendants who were presumed to have been sealed alive in his tomb. When Vyse's team cleared the northern conduit to the "King's Chamber," it was at once filled with cool air; the conduits have since been called "air shafts."

This, surprisingly, was challenged by respected scholars in a highly regarded academic publication (Mitteilungen des Instituts fur Orientforschung der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin). Although the academic establishment has been loath to digress from the "pyramids as tombs" theory, Virginia Trimble and Alexander Badawy concluded in the Bulletin's 1964 issues that the "air shafts" had astronomical functions, having been "beyond doubt inclined within 1° toward the circumpolar stars."

Without doubting that the direction and inclination of the shafts must have been premeditated, we are no less intrigued by the finding that once air flowed into the "King's Chamber", the temperature within it remained at a constant 68° Fahrenheit no matter what the weather outside was. All these findings seem to confirm the conclusions of E. F. Jomard (a member of Napoleon's team of scientists), who suggested that the "King's Chamber" and its "sarcophagus" were not intended for burial, but as a depository of weight and measurement standards, which even in modern times are kept in a stable environment of temperature and moisture.

Jomard could not have possibly imagined—back in 1824—delicate space-guidance instruments, rather than mundane units of a meter and a kilogram. But we, of course, can.

Many who have pondered the purpose of the intricate superstructure of five low compartments above the "King's Chamber," believe they were built to relieve the pressure of the chamber. But this has been achieved in the "Queen's Chamber " with an even greater mass of stone upon it, without such a series of "relieving compartments."

When Vyse and his men were inside the compartments, they were astonished to hear clearly every word spoken in other parts of the pyramid. When Flinders Petrie (The Pyramids and the Temple of Gizeh) minutely examined the "King's Chamber" and the stone "coffer" within it, he found that both were built in accord with the dimensions of perfect Pythagorian triangles. To cut the coffer out of a solid stone block, he estimated, a saw was needed with nine-foot blades whose teeth were diamond-tipped.

To hollow it out, diamond-tipped drills were needed, applied with a pressure of two tons. How all this was achieved was beyond him. And what was the purpose? He lifted the coffer to see whether it hid some aperture (it did not); when the coffer was struck, it emitted a deep, bell-like sound that reverberated throughout the pyramid. This bell-like quality of the coffer was reported by earlier investigators. Were the "King's Chamber" and its "coffer" meant, then, to serve as sound-emitters or echo-chambers?

Even nowadays, landing guidance equipment at airports emits electronic signals which instruments in an approaching aircraft translate into a pleasant buzz if on course; it changes into an alarming beep if the plane veers off course. We can safely assume that, as soon as possible after the Deluge, new guidance equipment was brought down to Earth. The Egyptian depiction of the Divine Cordholders (Fig. 121) indicates that "Stones of Splendor" were installed at both anchor-points of the Landing Corridor; our guess is that the purpose of the various chambers within the pyramid was to house such guidance and communications equipment.

Was Shad El—the "Mountain of El"—likewise equipped?

The Ugaritic texts invariably employed the phrase "penetrate the Shad of El" when describing the coming of other Gods unto the presence of El "within his seven chambers." This implied that these chambers were inside the mountain—as were the chambers inside the artificial mountain of the Great Pyramid.

Historians of the first Christian centuries reported that the people who dwelt in the Sinai and its bordering areas of Palestine and North Arabia worshipped the God Dushara ("Lord of the Mountains') and his spouse Allat, "Mother of the Gods." They were of course the male El and the female Elat, his spouse Asherah. The sacred object of Dushara was, fortunately, depicted on a coin struck by the Roman governor of those provinces (Fig. 158). Curiously, it resembles the enigmatic chambers within the Great Pyramid—an inclined stairway ("Ascending Gallery") leading to a chamber between massive stones ("The King's Chamber"). Above it, a series of stones re-create the pyramid's "relieving chambers."

Fig. 158

Since the Ascending Passages of the Great Pyramid—which are unique to it—were plugged tight when Al Mamoon's men broke into it, the question is: Who, in antiquity, did know, and emulated, the inner construction within the pyramid? The answer can only be: the architects and builders of the Great Pyramid, who possessed such knowledge. Only they could duplicate such construction elsewhere—at Baalbek or within the mountain of El.

And so it was, that although the Mount of the Exodus was elsewhere, in the northern half of the peninsula, the people of the area transmitted from generation to generation the recollection of sacred mountains among the peninsula's southern peaks. They were the mountains that, by their sheer height and location, and by virtue of the instruments installed within them, served as beacons for the "Riders of the Clouds."

When the first Spaceport was established in Mesopotamia, the flight path was along a center line, drawn precisely in the middle of the arrow-like landing corridor. While guiding beacons flickered their lights and emitted their signals along the two border lines, it was along the central flight path that Mission Control Center was located: the hub of all the communications and guidance equipment, the place where all the computerized information regarding planetary and spacecraft orbits was stored.

When the Anunnaki had landed on Earth and proceeded to establish their facilities and Spaceport in Mesopotamia, Mission Control Center was at Nippur, the "Place of the Crossing." Its "sacred" or Restricted Precinct was under the absolute control of Enlil; it was called the KI.UR ("Earth City"). In its midst, atop an artificially raised platform, was the DUR.AN.KI—"The Bond of Heaven and Earth." It was, the Sumerian texts related, a "heavenward tall pillar reaching to the sky." Firmly set upon the "platform which cannot be overturned," this pillar was used by Enlil "to pronounce the word" heavenward.

That all these terms were Sumerian attempts to describe sophisticated antennas and communications equipment one can gather from the pictographic "spelling" of Enlil's name: it was depicted as a system of large antennas, aerials and a communications structure (see Fig. 52).

Within this "lofty house" of Enlil, there was a hidden, mystery-filled chamber called the DIR.GA—literally meaning "dark, crown-like chamber." Its descriptive name brings so much to mind the hidden, mystifying "King's Chamber" in the Great Pyramid. In the DIR.GA, Enlil and his assistants kept the vital "Tablets of Destinies" on which orbital and space-flight information was stored. When a God who could fly as a bird snatched away these tablets,

Suspended were the Divine Formulas. Stillness spread all over. Silence prevailed ... The sanctuary's brilliance was taken off.

In the DIR.GA Enlil and his assistants kept celestial charts and "carried to perfection" the ME— a term denoting astronaut's instruments and functions.

It was a chamber,

As mysterious as distant aeters,
as the Heavenly Zenith.
Among its emblems ...
the emblems of the stars;
The ME it carries to perfection.
Its words are for utterance ...
Its words are gracious oracles.

A Mission Control Center, similar to the one that had served the landing path in pre-Diluvian Mesopotamia, had to be established for the Spaceport in the Sinai. Where?

Our answer is: in Jerusalem.

Hallowed to Jew, Christian and Muslim alike, its very atmosphere charged with some inexplicable unearthly mystery, it had been a sacred city even before King David established her as his capital and Solomon built there the Lord's Abode. When the Patriarch Abraham reached its gates, it was already a well-established center to "El the Supreme, the Righteous One of Heaven and Earth." Its earliest known name was Ur-Shalem—"City of the Completed Cycle"—a name which suggests an association with orbital matters, or with the God of Orbits.

As to who Shaletn might have been, scholars have offered various theories; some of them (per Benjamin Mazar in "Jerusalem before the David Kingship") name Enlil's grandson Shamash; others prefer Enlil's son Ninib. In all theories, however, the association of Jerusalem's roots with the Mesopotamian pantheon is undisputed.

From its beginnings, Jerusalem encompassed three mountain peaks; from north to south, they were

• Mount Zophim

• Mount Moriah

• Mount Zion

Their names bespoke their functions:

• the northernmost was the "Mount of Observers" (it is now called in English Mount Scopus)

• the middle one was the "Mount of Directing"

• the southernmost was "The Mount of the Signal"

They are still so called in spite of the passage of millennia.

The valleys of Jerusalem too bear telltale names and epithets. One of them is named in Isaiah the Valley of Hizzayon, the "Valley of Vision." The Valley of Kidron was known as the "Valley of Fire." In the Valley of Hinnom (the Gehenna of the Greek New Testament), according to millennia-old legends, there was an entrance to the subterranean world, marked by a column of smoke rising between two palm trees.

And the Valley of Repha'im was named after the Divine Healers who, according to the Ugaritic texts, were put in the charge of the Goddess Shepesh. Aramaic translations of the Old Testament called them "Heroes"; the Old Testament's first translation into Greek called the place the Valley of the Titans.

Of the three Mounts of Jerusalem, that of Moriah has been the most sacred. The Book of Genesis explicitly states that it was to one of the peaks of Moriah that the Lord directed Abraham with Isaac, when Abraham's fidelity was tested. Jewish legends relate that Abraham recognized Mount Moriah from a distance, for he saw upon it,

"a pillar of fire reaching from the earth to heaven, and a heavy cloud in which the Glory of God was seen."

This language is almost identical with the biblical description of the descent of the Lord upon Mount Sinai.

The large horizontal platform atop Mount Moriah—reminiscent in layout of the one at Baalbek, though much smaller—has been called "The Temple Mount," for it had served as the site of the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem (Fig. 159). It is now occupied by several Muslim shrines, the most renowned of which is the Dome of the Rock.

The dome was carried off by the Caliph Abd al-Malik (seventh century A.D.) from Baalbek, where it adorned a Byzantine shrine; it was erected by the caliph as a roofing over an eight-sided structure he had built to encompass the Sacred Rock: a huge rock to which divine and magical faculties have been attributed from time immemorial.

Fig.159

Muslims believe that it was from the Sacred Rock that their prophet Muhammed was taken aloft to visit Heaven. According to the Koran, Muhammed was taken by the angel Gabriel from Mecca to Jerusalem, with a stopover at Mount Sinai. Then he was taken aloft by the angel, ascending heavenward via a "Ladder of Light."

Passing through the Seven Heavens, Muhammed at last stood in the presence of God. After receiving divine instructions, he was brought back to Earth via the same beam of light, landing back at the Sacred Rock. He returned to Mecca, again with a stopover at Mount Sinai, riding the angel's winged horse.

Travelers in the Middle Ages suggested that the Sacred Rock was a huge artificially-cut cube-like rock whose corners faced precisely the four points of the compass. Nowadays, only the top outcropping of the rock can be seen; the presumption of its hidden great cube-like shape may have stemmed from the Muslim tradition that the hallowed Great Stone of Mecca, the Qa'aba, was fashioned (on divine instructions) after the Sacred Rock of Jerusalem.

From the visible portion, it is evident that the Sacred Rock had been cut out in various ways on its face and sides, bored through to provide two tube-like funnels, and hollowed out to create a subterranean tunnel and secret chambers. No one knows the purpose of these works; no one knows who had masterminded them and carried them out.

We do know, however, that the First Temple was built by King Solomon upon Mount Moriah at an exact spot and following precise instructions provided by the Lord. The Holy-of-Holies was built upon the Sacred Rock; its innermost chamber, completely gilded, was taken up by two large Gherubim (winged Sphinx-like beings) also made of gold, their wings touching the walls and each other's; between them was placed the Ark of the Testament, from within which the Lord addressed Moses in the desert. Completely insulated from the outside, the gold covered Holy-of-Holies was called in the Old Testament the Dvir—literally, "The Speaker."

The suggestion that Jerusalem was a "divine" communication center, a place where a "Stone of Splendor" was secreted, and from which the Word or Voice of the Lord was beamed far and wide, is not as preposterous as it may sound. The notion of such communication was not at all alien to the Old Testament. In fact, the possession by the Lord of such a capability, and the selection of Jerusalem as the communications center, were considered to be attestations of Yahweh's and Jerusalem's supremacy.

"I shall answer the Heavens, and they shall respond to Earth," the Lord assured the Prophet Hosea. Amos prophesied that "Yahweh from Zion will roar; from Jerusalem His voice shall be uttered."

And the Psalmist stated that when the Lord shall speak out of Zion, His pronouncements will be heard from one end of Earth to another, and in Heaven too:

Unto the Gods Yahweh hath spoken, And the Earth He had called from the east to the west ... The Heavens above He will call, and unto the Earth.

Ba'al, the Lord of the facilities at Baalbek, had boasted that his voice could be heard at Kadesh, the gateway city to the Precinct of the Gods in the "Wilderness" of central Sinai. Psalm 29, listing some of the places on Earth reachable by the Voice of the Lord of Zion, included both Kadesh and "the cedar place" (Baalbek):

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters ...

The voice of the Lord the cedars breaks ...

The voice of the Lord in the Wilderness shall resonance:

Yahweh the Wilderness of Kadesh shall make shudder.

The capabilities acquired by Ba'al when he installed the "Stones of Splendor" at Baalbek were described in the Ugaritic texts as the ability to put "one lip to Earth, one lip to Heaven." The symbol for these communication devices, as we have seen, were the doves.

Both symbolism and terminology are incorporated in the verses of Psalm 68, which describe the flying arrival of the Lord:

Sing unto the Lord, chant unto His Shem, Make way for the Rider of the Clouds ...

The Lord the Word will utter,
the Oracles of an army vast.

Kings of armies shall escape and flee;

Abode and home thou shalt divide as spoil—

Even if they lie between the two Lips and
the Dove whose wings are overlaid with silver,

whose pinions are greenish gold ...

The Chariot of the Lord is mighty,
it is of thousands of years;
Within it the Lord did come
from sacred Sinai.

The Jerusalem Stone of Splendor—a "testament stone" or "probing stone" in the words of the Prophets—was secreted in a subterranean chamber. This we learn from a lamentation over the desolation of Jerusalem, when the Lord was wroth with its people:

The palace was abandoned by the townspeople;
Forsaken is the peak of Mount Zion (and)
the "Prober Which Witnesses."
The Cavern of Eternal Witnessing
is the frolicking place of wild asses,
a grazing place of flocks.

With the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Prophets promised, "the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem shall issue." Jerusalem would be re-established as a world center, sought by all the nations. Conveying the Lord's promise, Isaiah reassured the people that not only the "probing stone," but also the "measuring" functions would be restored:

Behold,
I shall firmly set a Stone in Zion,
a Probing Stone,
a rare and lofty Stone of Corners,
its foundation (firmly) founded.
He who hath faith,
shall not remain unanswered.
Justice shall be my Cord;
Righteousness (shall be) my Measure.

To have served as a Mission Control Center, Jerusalem—as Nippur—had to be located on the long central line bisecting the Landing Corridor. Its hallowed traditions affirm such a position, and the evidence suggests that it was that sacred rock which marked the precise geodesic center.

Jerusalem was held by Jewish traditions to have been the "Navel of the Earth." The Prophet Ezekiel referred to the people of Israel as "residing upon the Navel of the Earth"; the Book of Judges related an incident when people were coming down the mountains from the direction of the "Navel of the Earth."

The term, as we have seen, meant that Jerusalem was a focal communications center, from which "cords" were drawn to other anchor points of the Landing Grid, It was thus no coincidence that the Hebrew word for the sacred rock was Eben Sheti'yah—a term which Jewish sages held to have meant "stone from which the world was woven." The term sheti is indeed a weaving term, standing for the long cord that runs

lengthwise in a loom (the warp, which is crossed with the shorter weft). It was a fitting term for a stone that marked the exact spot from which the Divine Cords covered Earth as a web.

But as suggestive as all these terms and legends are, the decisive question is this: did Jerusalem in fact lie on the central line which bisected the Landing Corridor, focused on Ararat and outlined by the Giza pyramids and Mount Umm Shumar?

The decisive answer is: Yes. Jerusalem lies precisely on that line! As was the case with the pyramids of Giza, so do we uncover in the case of the Divine Grid more and more amazing alignments and triangulations. Jerusalem, we find, also lies precisely where the Baalbek-Katherine line intersects the flight path's central line based on Ararat.

Heliopolis, we find, is precisely equidistant from Jerusalem as Mount Umm Shumar. And the diagonals drawn from Jerusalem to Heliopolis and to Umm Shumar form an accurate 45° right angle (Fig. 160)!

Fig.160

These links between Jerusalem, Baalbek (The Crest of Zaphon) and Giza (Memphis) were known, and hailed, in biblical times:

Great is Yahweh and greatly hallowed in the city of our Lord,
His Holy Mountain.
At Memphis He is beautified.
The joy of the whole Earth,
of Mount Zion,
of the Crest of Zaphon.

Jerusalem, the Book of Jubilees held, was in fact one of four "Places of the Lord" on Earth: "the Garden of Eternity" in the Cedar Mountain; "the Mountain of the East" which was Mount Ararat; Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Three of them were in the "lands of Shem," the son of Noah from whom the biblical Patriarchs were descended; and they were interconnected:

The Garden of Eternity, the most sacred,
is the dwelling of the Lord;
And Mount Sinai, in the center of the desert;
And Mount Zion, the center of the Navel of the Earth.
These three were created as holy places,
FACING EACH OTHER.

Somewhere along the "Line of Jerusalem," the central flight line that was anchored on Mount Ararat, the Spaceport itself had to be located. There, too, the final beacon had to be located: "Mount Sinai, in the center of the desert."

It is here, we suggest, that the dividing line which we now call the Thirtieth Parallel (north) had come into play.

We know from Sumerian astronomical texts that the skies enveloping Earth were so divided as to separate the northern "way" (allotted to Enlil) from the southern "way" (allotted to Ea) with a wide central band considered the "Way of Anu." It is only natural to assume that a dividing line between the two rival brothers should also have been established after the Deluge, when the settled Earth was divided into the Four Regions; and that, as in pre-Diluvial times, the Thirtieth Parallels (north and south) served as demarcation lines.

Was it mere coincidence, or a deliberate compromise between the two brothers and their feuding descendants, that in each of the three regions given to Mankind, the sacred city was located on the Thirtieth Parallel?

The Sumerian texts state that "When Kingship was lowered from Heaven" after the Deluge, "Kingship was in Eridu." Eridu was situated astride the Thirtieth Parallel as close to it as the marshy waters of the Persian Gulf had permitted. While the administrative-secular center of Sumer shifted from time to time, Eridu remained a sacred city for all time.

In the Second Region (the Nile Civilization) the secular capital also shifted from time to time. But Heliopolis forever remained the sacred city. The Pyramid Texts recognized its links with other sites, and called its ancient Gods "Lords of the Dual Shrines." These two paired shrines bore the intriguing (and pre-Egyptian?) names Per-Neter ("Coming-forth Place of the Guardians") and Per-Ur ("The Coming-forth Place of Old"); their hieroglyphic depictions bespoke great antiquity.

The dual or paired shrines played a major role in the Pharaonic succession. During the rites, conducted by the Shem priest, the crowning of the new king and his admission to the "Place of the Guardians" in Heliopolis coincided with the departure of the deceased king's spirit, through the eastern False Door, to the "Coming-forth Place of Old."

And Heliopolis was located astride the Thirtieth Parallel, as close to it as the Nile's delta permitted!

When the Third Region, the Indus Valley Civilization, followed, its secular center was on the shores of the Indian Ocean; but its sacred city— Harappa—was hundreds of miles away to the north—right on the Thirtieth Parallel.

The imperative of the northern Thirtieth Parallel appears to have continued in the millennia that followed. Circa 600 B.C., the Persian kings augmented the royal capital with a city "Sacred unto all Nations." The place selected for its construction was a remote and uninhabited site. There, literally in the middle of nowhere, a great horizontal platform was laid out. Upon it, palaces with magnificent staircases and many auxiliary shrines and structures were erected—all honoring the God of the Winged Globe (Fig. 161).

Fig. 161

The Greeks called the place Persepolis ("City of the Persians"). No people lived there: It was only to celebrate the New Year on the day of the spring equinox that the king and his retinue came there. Its remains still stagger the viewer. And it was located astride the Thirtieth Parallel.

No one knows for sure when Lhasa in Tibet—the sacred city of Buddhism—was founded. But it is a fact that Lhasa too—as Eridu, Heliopolis, Harappa and Persepolis were—was situated on the same Thirtieth Parallel (Fig. 162).

Fig. 162

(A) Giza-Heliopolis   (B) Eridu   (C) Persepnlis   (D) Harappa   (E) Lhasa

The sanctity of the Thirtieth Parallel must be traced back to the origins of the Sacred Grid, when the divine measurers determined the location of the pyramids of Giza also on the Thirtieth Parallel. Could the Gods have given up this "sanctity" or neutrality of the Thirtieth Parallel when it came to their most vital installation—the Spaceport—in their own Fourth Region, in the Sinai peninsula?

It is here that we ought to seek a final clue from the remaining enigma of Giza—its Great Sphinx. Its body is that of a crouching lion, its head of a man wearing the royal headdress (Fig. 163).

• When and by whom was it erected?

• And to what purpose?

• Whose image does it bear?

• And why is it where it is, alone, and nowhere else?

Fig.163

The questions have been many, the answers very few. But one thing is certain: it gazes precisely eastward, along the Thirtieth Parallel. This precise alignment and gaze eastward along the Divine Parallel were emphasized in antiquity by a series of structures that extended from in front of the Sphinx eastward precisely along an east-west axis (Fig. 164).

Fig. 164

When Napoleon and his men saw the Sphinx at the turn of the eighteenth century, only its head and shoulders protruded above the desert sands; it was in that state that the Sphinx was depicted and known for the better part of the century that followed. It took repeated and systematic excavations to reveal its full colossal size (240 feet long, 65 feet high) and shape, and to confirm what ancient historians had written: that it was a single piece of sculpture, carved by some giant hand out of the natural rock.

It was none other than Capt. Caviglia, whom Col. Vyse forced out of Giza, who had uncovered during 1816-1818 not only a good part of the body and extended paws of the Sphinx, but also the temples, sanctuaries, altars and stelas that were erected in front of it.

Clearing the area in front of the Sphinx, Caviglia discovered a platform that extended somewhat on both sides of the Sphinx but which primarily ran eastward. Excavating for one hundred feet in that easterly direction, he came upon a spectacular staircase of thirty steps leading up to a landing; upon it were the remains of what looked like a pulpit. At the eastern end of the landing, some forty feet away, another flight of thirteen steps was discovered; they raised the level to the same height as the head of the Sphinx.

There, a structure whose function was to support two columns (Fig. 165) was so situated that the eastward gaze of the Sphinx passed precisely between the two columns.

Fig. 165

Archaeologists believe that these remains are from Roman times. But as we have seen at Baalbek, the Romans embellished monuments that predated their era, building and rebuilding where earlier monuments and shrines had stood. It is well established by now, that Greek conquerors and Roman emperors continued the tradition of the Pharaohs to visit and pay homage to the Sphinx, leaving behind appropriate inscriptions.

They affirmed the belief, which continued into Arab times, that the Sphinx was the work of the Gods themselves; it was deemed to be the harbinger of a future messianic era of peace. An inscription by the notorious emperor Nero called the Sphinx "Armachis, Overseer and Savior."

Because the Great Sphinx is situated near the causeway leading to the Second Pyramid, the best idea scholars had to offer was that it was built by Chefra, the "builder" of the Second Pyramid; and that it must therefore bear his image. This notion is devoid of any factual basis; yet it has persisted in textbooks, although as far back as 1904 E. A, Wallis Budge, then Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum, concluded unequivocally (The Gods of the Egyptians) that "this marvellous object was in existence in the days of Kha-f-ra, or Khephren; and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the archaic period."

As the "Inventory Stela" attests, the Sphinx had already stood at Giza in the time of Khufu, a predecessor of Chefra. Like several Pharaohs after him, so did Khufu take credit for removing the sand that encroached upon the Sphinx. From this it must be deduced that the Sphinx was already an olden monument in Khufu's time. What earlier Pharaoh, then, had erected it, implanting upon it his own image?

The answer is that the image is not of any Pharaoh, but of a God; and that in all probability, the Gods and not a mortal king had erected the Sphinx.

Indeed, only by ignoring what the ancient inscriptions had stated, could anyone assume otherwise. A Roman inscription, calling the Sphinx "Sacred Guide," said of it: "Thy formidable form is the work of the Immortal Gods." A Greek adulatory poem read in part:

Thy formidable form,

Here the Immortal Gods have shaped... .

As a neighbor to the Pyramids they placed thee... .

A heavenly monarch who his foes defies... .

Sacred Guide in the Land of Egypt.

In the Inventory Stela, Khufu called the Sphinx "Guardian of the Aeter, who guides the Winds with his gaze." It was, as he clearly wrote, the image of a God:

This figure of the God will exist to eternity; Always having its face watching towards the east.

In his inscription, Khufu mentions that a very old sycamore tree that grew near the Sphinx was damaged "When the Lord of Heaven descended upon the Place of Hor-em-Akhet," "the Falcon-God of the Horizon." This, indeed was the most frequent name of the Sphinx in Pharaonic inscriptions:

his other epithets being Ruti ("The Lion") and Hul (meaning, perhaps, "The Eternal").

Nineteenth-century excavators of the site of the Sphinx, records show, were prompted by local Arab lore that held that there existed, under or within the Sphinx, secret chambers holding ancient treasures or magical objects, Caviglia, as we have seen, exerted himself within the Great Pyramid in search of a "hidden chamber;" it appears that he had switched to the pyramid having failed to find such a chamber at the site of the Sphinx. Perring too made the attempt, by cutting forcibly a deep hole in the back of the Sphinx.

Even more responsible researchers, such as Auguste Mariette in 1853, shared the general opinion that there is a hidden chamber concealed in or under the Sphinx. This belief was bolstered by the writings of the Roman historian Pliny, who reported that the Sphinx "contained the tomb of a ruler named Harmakhis," and by the fact that nearly all ancient depictions of the Sphinx show it crouching atop a stone structure. The searchers have surmised that if the Sphinx itself could have been almost hidden from sight by the encroaching sands, so much so could the sands of desert and time completely hide any substructure.

The most ancient inscriptions seem to suggest that there indeed existed not one, but two secret chambers under the Sphinx—perhaps reachable through an entrance hidden under the paws of the monument. A hymn from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, moreover, reveals that the two "caverns" under the Sphinx enabled it to serve as a communications center!

The God Amen, the inscription said, assuming the functions of the heavenly Hor-Akhti, attained "perception in his heart, command on his lips ... when he enters the two caverns which are under his [the Sphinx's] feet." Then,

A message is sent from heaven;
It is heard in Heliopolis,
and is repeated in Memphis by the Fair of Face.
It is composed in a despatch by the writing of Thoth,
with regard to the city of Amen (Thebes) ...
The matter is answered in Thebes,
A statement is issued ... a message is sent.
The Gods are acting according to command.

In the days of the Pharaohs it was believed that the Sphinx—though sculpted out of stone—could somehow hear and speak. In a long inscription on a stela (Fig. 166) erected between the paws of the Sphinx by Thothmes IV (and dedicated to the emblem of the Winged Disk), the king related that the Sphinx spoke to him and promised him a long and prosperous reign if only he would remove the sands that encroached upon his (the Sphinx's) limbs.

Fig.166

One day, Thothmes wrote, as he went hunting out of Memphis, he found himself on the "sacred road of the Gods" which led from Heliopolis to Giza. Tired, he lay to rest in the shade of the Sphinx; the place, the inscription reveals, was called "Splendid Place of the Beginning of Time." As he fell asleep by this "very great statue of the Creator," the Sphinx—this "majesty of the Revered God"—began to speak to him, introducing itself by saying:

"I am thy ancestor Hor-em-Akhet, the one created of Ra-Aten."

Many unusual "Ear Tablets" and depictions of the Twin Doves—a symbol associated with oracle sites—were found in the temples surrounding the Sphinx. Like the ancient inscriptions, they too attest to the belief that somehow the Sphinx could transmit Divine Messages. Although the efforts to dig under the Sphinx have not been successful, one cannot rule out the possibility that the subterranean chambers which the Gods had entered with "command on their lips" would still be found.

It is clear from numerous funerary texts that the Sphinx was considered to have been the "Sacred Guide" who guided the deceased from "yester-day" to "tomorrow." Coffin Spells intended to enable the deceased's journey along the "Path of the Hidden Doors" indicate that it began at the site of the Sphinx.

Invoking the Sphinx, the Spells asserted that "The Lord of Earth has commanded, the Double Sphinx has repeated." The journey began when Hor-Akhet—the Sphinx—pronounced: "Pass by!" Drawings in the Book of the Two Ways, which illustrated the journey, show that from the starting point at Giza there were two routes by which the Duat could be reached.

As the Sacred Guide, the Sphinx was often depicted guiding the Celestial Barge. Sometimes, as on the stela of Thothmes (Fig. 166) it was depicted as a double Sphinx, guiding the Celestial Barge from "yesterday" to "tomorrow." In this role it was associated with the Hidden God of the Subterranean Realm; it was as such, it will be recalled (Fig. 19) that it symbolically appeared flanking the hermetically sealed chamber of the God Seker in the Duat.

Indeed, the Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead refer to the Sphinx as "The Great God who opens the Gates of Earth"—a phrase that may suggest that the Sphinx at Giza, which "led the way," had a counterpart near the Stairway to Heaven, who opened there "the Gates of Earth." Such a possibility is perhaps the only explanation (in the absence of any other to date) of a very archaic depiction of the Pharaoh's Journey to the Afterlife (Fig. 167).

Fig. 167

It begins with a crouching Horus-symbol which gazes toward the Land of the Date Palm where an unusual vessel with dredges or cranes (?) is situated, as well as a structure which is reminiscent of the Sumerian depiction of the name EN.LIL as a communications center (Fig. 52). A God greeting the Pharaoh, a bull and the Bird of Immortality are seen, followed by fortifications and an assortment of symbols. Finally, the symbol for "place" (tilted cross within a circle) appears between the sign for the Stairway and a sphinx looking the other way!

A stela erected by one Pa-Ra-Emheb, who directed works of restoration at the site of the Sphinx in Pharaonic times, contains telltale verses in adoration of the Sphinx; their similarity to biblical Psalms is truly tantalizing. The inscription mentions the extension of cords "for the plan," the making of "secret things" in the subterranean realm; they speak of the "crossing of the sky" in a Celestial Barge, and of a "protected place" in the "sacred desert."

It even employs the term Sheti.ta to denote the "Place of the Hidden Name" in the Sacred Desert:

Hail to thee, King of the Gods,
Aten, Creator ...
Thou extendest the cords for the plan,
thou didst form the lands ...
Thou didst make secret the Underworld ...
The Earth is under thy leading;
thou didst make high the sky ...
Thou hast built for thee a place protected
in the sacred desert, with hidden name.
Thou risest by day opposite them ...
Thou art rising beautifully ...
Thou art crossing the sky with a good wind ...
Thou art traversing the sky in the barque ...
The sky is jubilating,
The Earth is shouting of joy.
The crew of Ra do praising every day;
He comes forth in triumph.

To the Hebrew Prophets, the Sheti—the central Flight Line passing through Jerusalem—was the Divine Line, the direction to watch: "within it did the Lord come from sacred Sinai."

But to the Egyptians, as the above inscription declared, Sheti.ta was the "Place of the Hidden Name." It was in the "Sacred Desert"—which is exactly what the biblical term "Desert of Kadesh" has meant. And to it, the "cords of the plan" were extended from the Sphinx. There, Paraemheb had seen the King of the Gods ascend by day; the words are almost identical to those of Gilgamesh, arriving at Mount Mashu, "where daily the Shems he watched, as they depart and come in ... watched over Shamash as he ascends and descends."

It was the Protected Place, the Place of Ascent. Those who were to reach it were guided there by the Sphinx; for its gaze led eastward, exactly along the Thirtieth Parallel.

It was where the two lines intersected, we suggest—where the Line of Jerusalem intersected the Thirtieth Parallel that the Gates of Heaven and Earth were located: the Spaceport of the Gods.

The intersection is located within the Sinai's Central Plain. As the Duat was depicted in the Book of the Dead, the Central Plain is indeed an oval plain encompassed by mountains. It is a vast valley whose surrounding mountains are separated by seven passes—as described in the Book of Enoch; a vast flat plain whose hard natural surface provided ready-made runways for the shuttlecraft of the Anunnaki.

Nippur, we have shown (see Fig. 122), was the focal point, the bulls-eye of concentric circles which measured off as equidistant the Spaceport at Sippar and other vital installations and sites. The same, we find not without amazement, held true for Jerusalem (Fig. 168):

Fig. 168

• The Spaceport (SP) and the Landing Place at Baalbek (BK) lay on the perimeter of an inner circle, forming a vital team of installations that were equidistant from the Control Center in Jerusalem (JM);

• The geodesic beacon of Umm Shumar (US) and the beacon of Heliopolis (HL) lay on the perimeter of an outer circle, making them too a pair equidistant from Jerusalem.

As we fill in our chart, the masterful Grid conceived by the Anunnaki unfolds before our very eyes; and we are truly astounded by its precision, simple beauty, and the artful combination of basic geometry with the landmarks provided by nature:

• The Baalbek-Katherine line, and the Jerusalem-Heliopolis line, intersected each other at the basic and precise angle of 45°; the central flight path bisected this angle into two precise angles of 22 1/20 each; the grand Flight Corridor was in turn precisely half that (11 1/40);

• The Spaceport, situated at the intersection of the central flight path and the Thirtieth Parallel, was equidistant from Heliopolis and Umm Shumar.

• Was it only an accident of geography that Delphi (DL) was equidistant from Mission Control in Jerusalem and from the Spaceport in central Sinai?

• Mere coincidence that the angular width of the (Flight?) corridor so created was 11 1/40?

• That another Flight Corridor of 11 1/40 connected Delphi with Baalbek (BK)?

• Or only chance that the lines connecting Delphi with Jerusalem and the oasis of Siwa (SW)—the site of Amnion's oracle to which Alexander had rushed—formed once again the angle of 45° (Fig. 169)?

Fig. 169

Were other sacred cities and oracle sites in Egypt, such as the great Thebes and Edfu, located where they were at a king's whim, at an attractive bend of the Nile—or where alignments of the Grid had dictated?

Indeed, were we to study all these sites, all of Earth would probably be encompassed. But was that not what Ba'al had already known when he established his clandestine facilities at Baalbek? For his aim. we recall, was to communicate with and dominate, not just the nearby lands, but all of Earth.

This the biblical Lord too must have known; for when Job sought to unravel the "wonders of El," the Lord "answered him from within the whirlpool," and countered questions with questions:

Let me ask thee, and answer thou me:

Where wast thou,
when the Earth's foundation I laid out?

Say, if thou knowest science:

Who hath measured it (the Earth), that it be known?

Or who hath stretched a cord upon it?

By what were its platforms wrought?

Who hath cast its Stone of Corners?

Then the Lord answered His own questions. All these acts of Earth measuring, the laying out of platforms, the setting up of the Stone of Corners were done, He said:

When the morning stars rejoiced together

And all the sons of the Gods shouted for joy.

Man, as wise as he might have been, had no hand in all that. Baalbek, the Pyramids, the Spaceport—all were meant for the Gods alone.

But Man, ever searching for Immortality, has never ceased to follow the gaze of the Sphinx.

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