Book Review:
"THE ORION MYSTERY"If nothing else, "The Orion Mystery" will bring the
reader to the edge of the Egyptological abyss...by Mark Hammons
TITLE: The Orion Mystery
AUTHORS: Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert (special guest appearance by Rudolph Gatenbrink)
PUBLISHER: Crown, 1994 $24 hardcover LENGTH: 325 pp. (236 text, 7 appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 16 b&w photographs, numerous drawings).
ABSTRACT: The pyramids of Egypt were built with an astronomical orientation for the purposes of a stellar-based religion (maybe).
The authors of this book found themslves between a pyramid and a hard place. On one hand, their intent is to develop a radically innovative idea that falls outside the realm of traditional Egyptology. On the other, they want to present their conclusions in relationship to the existing academic discipline. Clearly, the authors try to synthesize the best of both worlds but in the end, unfortunately, they wind up with less than half of each.
Part of this difficulty comes from having written the book in first person, in the attempt to engage the reader in the adventure (and the frustration) of discovery. But with dual authors, there is a disconcerting alternation between "I" and "we." Even thought the ideas presented here are definitely intriguing and deserve to be heard, however, the chief problem of the book is inadequate logical exposition to support the unfoldment of the thesis. More than once, the reader is led through the "facts" of the existing Egyptological paradigm only to be presented with a non sequitur conclusion to support the new perspective being proposed by the authors. If you can get past these shocks to the discriminating mind, the book is worth getting from the library (even though I paid full freight for my copy).
The first half of the book is used to delineate the Egyptological landscape and point out potential errors of interpretation in the accumulated academic record. The authors draw special attention to the so-called Pyramid Texts discovered in the late 19th century on the walls of several small previously unopened pyramids. Beyond a few oddly incidental graffiti (whose origins may be questioned), these hieroglyphics are the sole contemporaneous writings associated with the Giza pyramids. They are said to date from the 5th Dynasty, one down the line from the three successive 4th Dynasty Pharoahs (Khufu, Khafra, Menkara) asserted by Egyptologists to have built the largest pyramids on the plateau.
The Giza complex is then related to the relatively unfamiliar but significantly large pyramids attributed to Sneferu at Dashour. This connection is used to present the theory that the footprint of all these larger ancient structures along the Nile reflects a master plan informed by the pattern of stars in the heavens, specifically to the Hyades (Dashour) and the constellation of Orion (Giza). An additional parallel is made between the flow of the river Nile and the sweep of the Milky Way across the night sky. The text is well-illustrated with line drawings, and one of the most provocative arguments in "The Orion Mystery" shows that the curious and otherwise geometrically inexplicable "misalignment" of the smaller Menkara pyramid with the bigger Khufu and Khafra pyramids is coincident with the relative positions of the three most prominent stars in Orion's Belt.
While the Pyramid Texts are known to be younger than the Great Pyramids by at least a century or more, the authors hold that these writings would have been modeled on sacred texts descended from the time of the older structures. The Pyramid Texts, by extension, may therefore be taken as informative of the purposes within the larger pyramids. Excerpts from the Pyramid Texts are used to establish correlations between this architectural arrangement and Egyptian religious beliefs, particularly the ascension myth of a dead Pharoah who "returns" to the stars to become one with Osiris. His successor on earth, in the role of Horus, becomes legitimate as the new Pharoah through the ceremony of the "opening of the mouth" of the dead Pharoah's mummy and thus releasing his predecessor's spirit on the journey heavenward. These conclusions point to a stellar-oriented religion, rather than the solar one of Ra now accepted by Egyptology.
The structure of the Great Pyramid (Khufu) is then deciphered in this context. Reviewing the history of exploration and measurement of this structure, the authors do a creditable job of debunking the notion that the shafts found extending from the Queen's and King's Chambers were primarily for ventilation. They show that when the Great Pyramid was built, these shafts had important astronomical orientations. The north shaft of the King's Chamber exists the pyramidal surface we directed toward Alpha Draconis, and the south shaft points toward Orion's Belt. This is possible despite an architectural anomaly within the masonry related to the Grand Gallery. The height of the Grand Gallery relative to the origin of the north shaft in the King's Chamber necessitated a sizable deviation around the passageway. The shaft does not run in a straight line, but is twisted aside, then realigned to sight to Alpha Draconis.
The two shafts from the Queen's Chamber are much more intriguing. These channels of stone remained sealed until the 19th century, both within the Queen's Chamber and stopping somewhat short of the exterior surface of the pyramid. The north shaft in this chamber runs toward Beta Ursa Minor, but also has to make a detour around the reach of the Grand Gallery. The south shaft of the Queen's Chamber points directly toward Sirius.
Calculations are presentled that relate these stellar orientations to the possible date of construction of this monument. Here we encounter Rudolph Gatenbrink, whose small robot named UPUAUT 2 discovered a small "door" at the end of the south shaft of the Queen's Chamber (more on that below). Gatenbrink also measured the alignment of the shafts by laser, which refined substantially the measurements of earlier Egyptologists. By using these calculations and relating the shaft orientations to the precession, the authors propose a dating of 2450 B.C. for the construction of the pyramid in order to reconcile their work with the academically accepted attribution of the pyramid to the Pharoah Khufu. The authors note that these astronomical pointers are now returning to their original alignments due to the precession. Only briefly, and with an apologetic tone at raising the subject, do the authors address the possibility that this cycle could have repeated more than once since the construction of the pyramid (i.e., the pyramids could have been built 10,500 years ago). Mentioning Edgar Cayce en passant, they fail to cite Cayce in the bibliography and add this coy footnote referring to his writings: "These belong, we understand, to the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE)...." Obviously, the writers want to backscratch in the Egyptological universe, where Cayce is despised, even though their own evidence moves the reader well beyond those intellectual confines.
By presenting the construction of the pyramids within the standard Egyptological dates, the book must comment on a substantial problem in attributing the sequence of pyramids to the 4th Dynasty Pharaohs. Since their construction, the pyramids have withstood the elements and predators of ready-made building materials, and have subsided only one-quarter inch off their foundation center. All of the "later" pyramids have crumbled, many completely into piles of rubble. The authors wisely observe that it is strange the awesome technical expertise seen in the "older" pyramids is wholly lacking in the smaller ones, but they do not consider an alternative chronological arrangement.
As for Gatenbrink, his robot found a small "door," made apparent by a space between the floor of the shaft and the bottom edge of the covering stone. That perhaps may open to something that has been hidden since the construction of the pyramid, a minimum of 4400 years ago. The authors of "The Orion Mystery" make a case for what this might be, recalling the sacred benben stone of Amun-Ra's temple at Heliopolis which was missing long before the ancient Greek and Roman travel writers took their notes. Several photographs of iron meteorites, cone-shaped by the heat of atmospheric passage, are supplied to suggest that this holy relic may have been of extraterrestrial origin (like, perhaps, the Black Stone of the Ka'aba in Mecca). This or something similar, they suggest, may be what is behind the mysterious panel.
One of the most intriguing possibilities for dating the pyramid was passed by. When the shafts in the Queen's Chamber were opened on November 26, 1872, three objects were discovered inside. While these were made of bronze (a neat trick in a culture heretofore only granted copper by Egyptology), the seal of the shaft had preserved a piece of cedar wood attached to one of the items. These pieces were packed into a cigarbox, shipped to England, and eventually lost at the British Museum. One of the authors, subsequent to the publication of this book, found these objects still contained in the original cigarbox. Carbon dating might be useful.
If nothing else, "The Orion Mystery" will bring the reader to the edge of the Egyptological abyss. The astronomical orientations of the pyramids are given stout evidence that trigger many useful questions. In some respect, this work has reminded me of a two-volume set on afterdeath survival (how fitting) titled "Human Personality," written a century ago by H.P. Myer. Myer, a member of the Society for Psychical Research, marshalled a massive study to demonstrate rather well that there were nonlinear connections suggesting a continuing consciousness after physical death. Unfortunately, Myer was so intent on proving his Victorian perspective of individual personality survival that he failed to see his greater success. That seems to me to be the case with "The Orion Mystery" as well.
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