Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery (28 page)

One of the most significant structures in Washington, and the military power base of the entire United States, lies just across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia. This is the Pentagon – the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. Interestingly, this is one building that has created its own symbolism, becoming a term for the US military command. People these days speak of ‘the Pentagon’ when referring to the Department of Defense rather than when merely referring to the building itself.

Chris carefully measured the distance from the centre of the Ellipse to the centre of the Pentagon. He entered the resulting figure in metres into his calculator and stared in disbelief as he looked at the result. The centre of the Pentagon has been carefully placed 10 Megalithic degrees from the centre of the all-important Ellipse – that is 10 × 366 MY. The accuracy across such a distance was stunningly impressive.

Chris called Alan immediately on Skype and told him what he had just found.

‘What?’ Alan exclaimed. ‘That’s absolutely crazy … downright weird.’ Alan opened up Google Earth on his PC and quickly zoomed into the two points to check this most unlikely result. ‘My goodness. You’re right,’ Alan replied. ‘What about other distances from the Pentagon?’ he asked.

‘I’ve just found this fit and called you. Of course we need to check for any other potential connections,’ Chris replied.

But Alan was already busy measuring the most obvious next possible connection point – The Capitol.

‘Good … grief!’ Alan’s voice was raised more than a few decibels. ‘From the centre of the Pentagon to the dome of the Capitol building is 15 × 366 MY – a beautiful 15 Megalithic Seconds of Earth polar circumference. Exactly half as far again as the Ellipse centre.’

‘I think we just lost any possible argument for coincidence – which actually would have been somehow more reassuring,’ Chris replied as he checked out Alan’s measurement. ‘There’s another interesting point here … Just look at the angle of the line from the centre of the Pentagon as it heads for the dome of the Capitol.’ Chris went on. ‘The Pentagon has been placed at what looks like an arbitrary angle but the megalithic line to the Capitol perfectly bisects the side that faces the river – and that looks as though it is the main entrance.’

Alan let out a long sigh. ‘They put a great deal of thought into this – whoever they were!’ he said. ‘No one can deny that the Pentagon was orientated towards the Capitol – 15 Megalithic Seconds away!’

We continued to look at the distance relationships of the Pentagon and, almost unbelievably, we found that the distance from the centre of the Pentagon to the centre of the base of the Washington Monument is 9 × 366 MY.

Quite clearly we are not surveyors, but it seems self-evident that to fix a location that has three such integer relationships with pre-existent structures must surely be a major challenge – no matter what the chosen units of measurement may be. This seemed to be an incredible achievement. But what troubled us was the secret intent that appeared to be present in the placing of the Pentagon.

A line drawn from the centre of the Pentagon out through the centre of the Riverside entrance leads directly to the dome of the Capitol.

Figure 18.
The Pentagon, Washington DC

We looked closer at this imposing building and found that it is nothing less than a perfect embodiment of a modern megalithic structure. And ‘perfect’ is the only word!

Looking at an aerial plan of the Pentagon, the distance between the centre of the building and any one of its five corners is 241.6 m. This means that the circumference of the circle within which the Pentagon was planned is 1,518 m. When we turn this into Megalithic Yards the result is 1,829.6 MY, which is 5 × 366 MY to an accuracy of over 99.9 per cent.

This five-sided, five-floor building is constructed within a circle that is exactly five Megalithic Seconds in circumference! That means that the arc between each of the points is precisely 366 MY long!

Stunning.

The circle within which the Pentagon was designed is a larger, and very accurate, scale model of Stonehenge and of course the all-important giant henges of North Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire in England. The Pentagon is exactly five times bigger than the henge at Stonehenge and two and a half times the size of the Thornborough henges as they appeared in 3500
BC
!

It immediately became important to understand who had designed the Pentagon and then placed it in such a remarkably integrated position relative to the other hubs of Washington DC. What we discovered was very interesting.

The Pentagon was supposedly the brainchild of Henry L Stimson, Secretary of War in 1941, at a time it appeared very likely that the United States would be drawn into the Second World War. The Department of Defense had operated from a number of different buildings in and around Washington DC but, with the rapid expansion of its military might, a new and much larger building was required to centralize defence efforts. On 17 July 1941 a congressional hearing was convened to deal with the issue and Brigadier General Eugene Reybold of the War Department was given the task of reporting back within five days with a plan to solve the problem.

It was decided to place the new building across the Potomac River at a place called Arlington Farms, an agricultural research facility. The original design called for a simple rectangular footprint, but it was suggested that access roads required one corner of the rectangle to be clipped off, leaving an asymmetrical five-sided building.

The notion that the design for a superb new structure such as the Pentagon became a reality simply because an old farm was served by awkward roads does not exactly have a ring of authenticity! But it is strange how a nonsensical idea can stick when repeated enough times. How full of odd buildings the world would be if architects were required to work within constraints such as the layout of a century-old farm.

It is quite clear that none of the megalithic connections we had found would have existed if the Pentagon had actually been placed in its first suggested location at Arlington Farms. Experts are agreed that the eventual location of the Pentagon is just one factor in a curious saga. An author of a particularly thorough book on the Pentagon story
¹
has expressed his great surprise regarding the degree to which the then-president of the United States, Franklin D Roosevelt, involved himself in the project. For example, says Steve Vogel, the President played the leading role in the selection of the site for the new building. The Army and the Department of War had opted for the original site, but Roosevelt became personally involved when ‘someone’ from the DC Commission of Fine Arts objected to the intended location at Arlington Farms, on the grounds that the building would block the main axis of L’Enfant’s original plan for the city of Washington DC.

So, who was running the DC Fine Arts Commission, we wondered? It turns out it was chaired by President Roosevelt’s cousin, Frederick A Delano – a man Roosevelt had personally made Chairman of the National Resources Planning Commission several years earlier.

The army officer in charge of the project, General Brehon B Somervell, insisted that the objection from Delano was not valid, but Roosevelt, who did not respond to Somervell’s case by reasoned argument, overrode him. He simply pulled rank, saying, ‘My dear general, I’m still commander-in-chief of the Army!’
²

Vogel reports how the Pentagon was built upon a foundation of lies and secrecy. He claims that when the gargantuan five-sided structure was being built with miraculous speed at the start of the Second World War, the officials responsible told a series of untruths about the project, its cost and even the number of floors it would have. Vogel also describes the Pentagon as ‘Roosevelt’s design’.
³

The President got his way, and at the eleventh hour the Pentagon was shifted south to its present position at a site that was a complete dump, appropriately called Hell’s Bottom. The ground was broken for the Pentagon on 11 September 1941.
⁴
It was opened for business in January of 1943 and, considering its size, the structure was completed in an amazingly short time.

It is reported that Roosevelt planned to move the military out of the Pentagon once the war with Japan and Germany was over, on the basis that it would be far too large for peacetime needs. It was his intention that the Pentagon would ultimately become the nation’s ‘hall of records’. Perhaps the development of the Cold War – and the fear of a Soviet attack – put an end to such thoughts.

Circle diameter = 233 MR
Circle circumference = 732 MR or 5 × 366 MY = 1830 MY
MY = Megalithic Yard = 82.966 cm
MR = Megalithic Rod = 207.415 cm

Figure 19.
Dimensions of the Pentagon, Washington DC

At the very heart of Freemasonry is the story of the building of a temple of knowledge at the heart of the city of God. The new initiate to the order first learns of the building of King Solomon’s Temple, which is taken today by most Freemasons as a simplistic analogy regarding their own lives – build square and true, on a firm foundation – a childishly naive analogy that perhaps ought to insult the intelligence of any modern adult as a basis for membership. The reason it seems to satisfy huge numbers of members of the Craft is that they tend to ignore contemplation of the simplistic ritual and focus on the social and charitable aspects of Freemasonry. The main reason for the apparent secrecy surrounding Freemasonry is that its members dare not tell of what they do at Freemasonic gatherings for fear of derision from their family, friends and peers. In fact, the parts of rituals that are actually designated as being secret are a few unimportant passwords and signs.

However, it is important to remember that across history and certainly at the time of the Knights Templar (who began their order in the 11th century), for example, stories that transmitted important information always had two levels: an obvious one and a hidden one that was only to be understood by the ‘intended’ recipient.

There are 33 degrees in the very influential Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and many of the rituals are kept surprisingly private – even from Masons who hold the degree concerned. It has become the norm to elevate Freemasons in chunks, leaping over several degrees at a time and awarding the missing ones in name alone. One Scottish Rite Freemason once told Chris that he asked for a copy of the ritual of one of the degrees he had just been awarded but had never experienced, and was coldly informed that he could not have it.

We looked at the degrees of the Scottish Rite to see if there could be any significant connections with the imagery of a regular pentagon. And we soon found that the penultimate degree was amazingly relevant. The 32nd degree, known as the degree of ‘The Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret’, takes place figuratively in a military camp. The layout is said to be in the form of a series of geometric shapes. The outer form is a nine-sided figure, inside which is a seven-sided figure, then a five-sided figure or pentagon and inside this is a triangle. Finally inside the triangle is a circle, which represents infinity. However, most of the 32nd degree ceremony focuses on the military importance of a pentagon.

The candidate for the degree is asked what it is that he requires, and he is instructed to answer that he wishes to be admitted as a fellow soldier and servant in the Grand Masonic Army of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret. He goes on to suggest that he wishes to shield the oppressed, guard the weak, protect the innocent and combat the enemies of God and humanity.

This all sounded remarkably relevant to the concept of a new headquarters for the US military at a time when the Nazis were smashing their way across Europe. And the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was only months away.