Need Egyptian Info! - Writers Forum

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 07:39 AM

Need Ancient Egypt Mythology and History please! I just had a crazy idea, and i want to find out more before i jump into another confusing, erratic and twisted plotline...

...websites, books, people, personal knowledge... anything you can find would be great.

(particularly the Pyramids)

kintaris

journyman161 · 06-12-2005, 08:12 AM

Do you want the orthodox versions or what they've been delving into around the edges? They are widely separated in content.

I've been researching the pyramids for years & have a SciFi cum archaeology book in progress.

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 08:21 AM

i probably need basic knowledge to start with, i'm a bit of a novice. I'm not planning on being very historical at all, but I at least want the basics to be right. What the pyramids were, why they were built, and then maybe some more radical theories about their importance...

kintaris

journyman161 · 06-12-2005, 08:47 AM

Her's 4 that will give you a good idea of both the position of egyptology & those of the other possibilities.

Thoth. Architect of the Universe - Ralph Ellis
The Orion Mystery - Robert Bauval & Graham Hancock
Keeper of the Genesis - Robert Bauval & Graham Hancock
Fingerprints of the Gods - Graham Hancock

The problem with the normal view is the facts we're finding contradict it to the extent it's coming unravelled.

A quick view...

Std version
The Fertile Crescent area supported people who developed grain technology & the city concept. They drift from the record some time after 12,000BC. About 7kBC there begins some development along the Nile Valley which ended in a guy called Menes uniting the various groups into the 1st egyptian civilisation about 3000BC

Got a visitor. I'll come back

journyman161 · 06-12-2005, 09:44 AM

I'm baaaack!

A few generations later, Zoser built the 6-step pyramid at Saquara & 2 pharaohs later (2 I think) Khufu's father built 2 pyramids, the Bent & the Red ones, the Khufu built the Great P at Giza, his son built the 2nd biggest one & his son built the little one.

Points to ponder

Before & after these 5, (2 at Saq & 3 at Giza) the pyramids are far less impressive. Standing beside Zoser's is impressive if you have seen even the small one at Giza.

In 3 generations, about 90% of ALL the rock moved in the entire history of ruling pharaohs was moved. these 5 are huge & extremely well preserved compared to any of the other attempts at P's. The ones in Mexico & China (Tibet I think) are equally as big but not built of solid stone.

There has never been a mummy found in these monuments, the ones after Zoser's, which is clearly of poorer construction.

Nor any sign they were once tombs. No relics or wall art, no texts, not... you get the idea.

The dynasty info comes from the king list, the book of the dead & what are euphemistically called, the pyramid texts. These were found on the walls of later constructions, tombs & mastabas.

The sphinx is attributed to Khufu on very flimsy evidence. Problem is, a scientific survey has now been done & people expert in geology archaeogeology, meteorology etc. & their conclusion was the erosion on the sphinz & the trench it was carved from was caused by regular heavy rain.
Now egypt went through such a period, during the time the ice age was melting, when the sahara was green & fertile, the Mediterranean was 100ft or so lower than it is now - approx 14,000 to 8000BC. Just a touch early for Khufu.

The 5 pyramids, particularly the ones at Giza, are lined up extremely precisely with the cardinal points. (N, E, S, W)
They are built to very precise standards that we would have trouble to match with laser sighting.
There pattern on the ground makes a precise match in both placement & size, for the 3 stars that make up Orion's belt.
The northern shaft in the King's Chamber points very precisely at the Pole star position. I say position because earth's precession in its orbit moves the pole in a circle over about a 21000 year cycle.
They moved blocks of stone that only recently we could match. We could lift a 200 ton lump, but it would be on a gantry crane, fixed on tracks. We couldn't use that type of crane to build even a small pyramid.

I think I'd better stop here before I write a book on the subject. But, something to go on with, huh?

waylander · 06-12-2005, 09:52 AM

Recent research has also proved that some early pharaohs were black,coming from Nubia. The fact was carefully hidden to the general public because this was 'politically uncorrect' at a time when black people were not deemed 'great' enough to have been at the origin of such an outstanding culture.

The fact that some sculptural representations used black stones and wood like ebony was not due to a whimsical desire from the artist of representing people in a 'new material' but was a faithful way of picturing their rulers.

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 10:02 AM

cheers guys, this is really something interesting to work from...particularly the Orion connection...hmm

*scribbles*

kintaris

journyman161 · 06-12-2005, 10:41 AM

the Orion connection goes further. Two of the nine original rulers during The First Time were Isis & Osiris. They are clearly identified in the texts as somehow related to Isis - Sirius & Osiris - Orion

I&O were married & bore Horus, the first Pharaoh of Men. There's strange stuff scattered all through this legend. Set, & Nepthys, also married (I think that's her) plus I&O were all siblings.

Set killed Osiris & scattered his body parts so he couldn't be revived (?) but Isis found all the bits & brought him back(?)

Osiris also was set adrift on the Nile in a close parallel to the Moses story. Thoth was a god who brought them the basics of civilisation. Isis gets an even more glowing description as a woman who knew all that could be known.

Also, the texts used to so positively identify the pharaohs contain information about the First Time & the period after when Egypt was ruled by a council of adepts. Men who had the teachings of the Gods.

According to the texts, Osiris ruled 16000 years, then Horus for another long period, then the council for 9000 years, THEN the pharaohs began their reigns.

One major problem with all of this is that we can't find any proto-egypt. The civilisation appears in the record, seemingly with complete language, well-developed agricultural skills, mathematics & astronomy - all well-developed. We can't find any practice evidence, where things were slowly getting more sophisticated. They just appear.

There are ruins up near Taiwan, that simply can't be less than 12000 years old, because they're under the sea & we know when the sea was last low enough to allow for building there. It's called the ice age.

Anyway, there's some more for you.

mammamaia · 06-12-2005, 10:41 AM

i've been there, seen the three at giza and some other pyramids, the sphinx, karnac, abu simbel, etc.... and one thing that's always fascinated me is that the sphinx only acquired the pharaoh's head [which is noticably too small for its body] long after it was originally built... my [and some others'] heory, backed by much research, is that the original head WAS a lion's and a later pharaoh had it whittled down to look like himself, instead...

i've studid egyptology in all its guises and although journeyman has listed some good sources of info, there's so much more out there... i've been to the cairo museum, which is a treasure trove, and it has a website now [see link below]... you should check out the egyptians own ideas about their heritage, as well as 'outsiders''...

www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/

have fun!... love and hugs, maia

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 10:46 AM

this is all great stuff - i've almost forgotten my original idea, this is novel-writing gold!

kintaris

journyman161 · 06-12-2005, 10:58 AM

I bin there maia. Did you get to cruise the Nile on a Felucca? Magic days.

Another thing. There are indications that Khufu refurbished the sphinx, by placing carved blocks of harder stone around parts where the original rock was more friable. (the sphinx was carved out of native rock, not moved into place)

Recent efforts at preserving the beast showed those casing stones had been carved to fit into erosiion damage. Given they were only supposed to have copper tools, it's hard to understand how they could have carved it so.

The copper problem applies to much of the stone work all over egypt. How the hell do you carve something like granite or harder rock when you don't have anything to do it?

You're gunna love this field Kin; it is mystery on puzzle on enigma, wherever you look.

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 11:00 AM

definitely, and from personal experience (working in a bookshop) it seems quite untouched in fiction...there are a couple of crime writers, i think, that base their work in Ancient Egypt, and maybe one or two novels, but i certainly havent seen anything recently that covers all these mysteries...

kintaris

journyman161 · 06-12-2005, 11:20 AM

You may have gathered I have an interest...

I've some poems on the subject(s) posted.

Try Common Mystery,
http://www.writingforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=18546
Ancient Mystery
http://www.writingforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=18545
Of Maps & Ice
http://www.writingforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=18364

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 01:03 PM

so whats the theory on these pyramids that weren't tombs? What were they built for?

kintaris

kintaris · 06-12-2005, 03:16 PM

i love how National Geographic's website calls the Great Pyramid 'Earth's largest'...suggesting there's bigger ones on Mars, perhaps? Theres a story right there...

kintaris