Authors: Robert Bauval

The Egypt Code (29 page)

BOOK: The Egypt Code

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Let us look at these coincidences more closely.

Waiting for the New Age

On the afternoon of 31 December 1999 in Cairo, millennium hysteria was peaking. As midnight approached, people from all walks of life began to gather by the thousands at the Giza pyramids to witness the opening of a new age. Several months earlier, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) had announced that it was going to place a golden capstone on the top of the Great Pyramid to mark the occasion, claiming that this was Egypt’s seventh millennium. The world’s media prepared itself by sending hundreds of television crews and journalists, all falling over one another for the exclusive rights. Then, at the last minute, the whole thing went pear-shaped. The placing of the golden capstone was cancelled for fear of ‘damaging the pyramid’, and to make things worse, the smoke from the fireworks mingled with the heavy humidity causing a thick mist that blotted the pyramids from sight. The new age began not with a bang but with a whimper. I happened to be at Giza during this night of madness. In vain I tried to explain to friends that 31 December 1999 of our Gregorian calendar would have meant absolutely nothing to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians did not think in millennia but in Sothic cycles, which lasted 1,460 years. The last cycle had started in AD 1599
⁴¹and the next was due in AD 3059. So, strictly speaking, we were 1,059 years early! All this, however, demonstrated to me the strange frenzy that could overcome the populace at the coming of a new astronomical age. One can only imagine the anticipation that must have gripped the Egyptians when the Sothic cycle of 1321 BC was in sight.

In 1995 the astronomer Alexander A. Gurshtein presented a paper to the Academy of Russian Science with the controversial title: ‘The Great Pyramids of Egypt as sanctuaries commemorating the origin of the zodiac: An Analysis of astronomical evidence’. In this paper Gurshtein discussed the Sothic cycle of 1,460 years and the foundation of the Egyptian civil calendar in 2781 BC. He then made these intriguing comments:

1460 years after the introduction of the solar calendar in Egypt, its wandering starting point was empirically found to return to its initial position, which correlated with both the heliacal rising of Sirius and the inundation of the Nile. The return fell on 1321 BC. This date is associated with two events: (1) In 1366 BC the Pharaoh Akhenaten moved his capital to
Akhet-Aten . . .
⁴²

In an article he published in the British journal
Vista in Astronomy
entitled ‘The evolution of the Zodiac in the context of ancient oriental history’, Gurshtein further wrote:

In one of my first publications on the Zodiac, I made a suggestion that the emergence of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) as a true Sun believer could be influenced by astronomical motivations . . . In regnal year eight, this heretical pharaoh moved his capital into the middle part of Egypt near the modern site of Tell-el-Amarna . . . Historians do not know Akhenaten’s motivations, but it may probably be clarified if we remember that Akhenaten took the crown before the end of the Great (Sothic) Cycle of the Egyptian calendar which, according to Censorinus’ information, had happened in 1321 BC-a moment that was potentially within the king’s life . . . Let me suggest that the pharaoh Akhenaten knew - as it was his duty to know - the circumstances connecting the establishing of the civil Egyptian calendar . . . his rule began only a short time before the first returning of the New Year’s Day to its initial point. Such an event was triumphantly celebrated one and a half millennia later by the Roman Emperor, and of course, it had to be of the utmost significance during Akhenaten’s time.
⁴³

Conflict

When Akhenaten was crowned pharaoh in
c
. 1353 BC the Birth of Ra-Horakhti, i.e. the New Year’s Day, or 1 Thoth, now approached the summer solstice. We have seen how seven centuries earlier the Birth of Ra-Horakhti had marked the winter solstice, which may have prompted Menthuhotep II to move the capital to Thebes in the south and, more importantly, to found a new religious centre at Karnak. Now in Akhenaten’s time, after seven centuries, the Birth of Ra-Horakhti was edging slowly back towards the summer solstice in the extreme north - and thus symbolically back towards Heliopolis. Could this return to the origins have influenced the young Akhenaten in his desire, as we shall see, to move the religious centre back to Heliopolis? As noted by the Spanish archaeoastronomer Juan Belmonte, the feast of the Birth of Ra-Horakhti was celebrated at the winter solstice at Karnak and Thebes, and, what was more, ‘at this precise moment when the actual birth of Ra at winter solstice occurred in I Akhet 1, the feast was frozen at this date for the rest of Egyptian history’.
⁴⁴If Belmonte is right in his clever speculation - as I strongly suspect he is - this meant that the priests of Amun-Ra at Karnak were setting themselves in direct conflict with Maat, the cosmic law, which demanded a return of the Birth of Ra-Horakhti to the summer solstice and, by extension, a return of the religious authority to the priests of Heliopolis in the north. Understandably, the priests of the south were in no mood to relinquish their lucrative position of power and wealth to the priests of the north. But to their dismay and horror, the young Akhenaten seemed to support such a transfer, arguing that he was duty-bound to adhere to Maat. The conditions for a religious war were thus in the brewing.

In actual fact the slow process of handing back the religious reins to the priests of Heliopolis had begun much earlier. Indeed, as early as 1420 BC there were signs that such a move was being seriously contemplated by the reigning pharaoh when Amenhotep II, the great-grandfather of Akhenaten, favoured the priests of the north by building a splendid temple near the Great Sphinx of Giza which he dedicated to their god, Ra-Horakhti of Heliopolis. On a stela (a commemorative stone plaque) found near the Great Sphinx is an inscription describing Amenhotep II as ‘Divine Ruler of Heliopolis’ and ‘Offspring [i.e. the son] of Horakhti’, a clear indication of this king’s devotion and favours towards the ancient sun-god of Heliopolis.
⁴⁵Amenhotep II’s son, Tothmoses IV, went even further. As a young prince he claimed that Ra-Horakhti had appeared to him in the form of the Great Sphinx and had promised him the throne of Egypt. As Egyptologist Donald Redford put it, ‘the king had, by his own admission, been helped to the throne through the agency of the sun god Ra-Horakhti, who had appeared to him as a prince in a dream.’
⁴⁶In gratitude to Ra-Horakhti, Tothmoses IV ordered that the Great Sphinx be cleared of the encroaching sand and restored to its former glory.
⁴⁷This new-found allegiance to Ra-Horakhti and his priesthood at Heliopolis intensified with Tothmoses IV’s son, the great Amenhotep III. All this time, the priests of Karnak brooded in silence. Open conflict was to erupt, however, with the advent of Amenhotep III’s dreamy son, Akhenaten.

The Break with Karnak

Akhenaten is known to history for having banned all worship of the gods in Egypt except for Aten, his apparently new sun-god, symbolised by a disc of the sun with golden rays shooting downwards. In other words: one religion, one sun-god, one symbol. Not surprisingly, he is thus often thought of as the precursor of monotheism, and there are even those who claim that he was none other than the real historical patriarch Moses.
⁴⁸But whatever Akhenaten was or was not, there is one thing about this mystical king that comes across most strongly in his passionate decrees and proclamations: his absolute and total commitment to the cosmic order, Maat. Over and over the ancient texts emphasise that Akhenaten was
ankh em maat
, ‘living in Maat’. As the British Egyptologist Cyril Aldred was to write, ‘The king was the personification of Maat, a word which we translate as “truth” or “justice”, but has an extended meaning of the proper cosmic order at the time of its establishment by the Creator . . . There is in Akhenaten’s teaching a constant emphasis upon Maat . . . as is not found before or afterwards.’
⁴⁹

When Amenhotep IV (the future Akhenaten) first came to the throne in 1353 BC, probably at the age of 16, he was co-regent with his ageing father, Amenhotep III. It is much debated how long this co-regency lasted, but it was probably just a few years. At any rate, Amenhotep IV was quick to introduce his great religious reform by building a temple at Karnak dedicated to Aten, presumably to the annoyance and discontent of the powerful priests of Amun-Ra. But here is the catch. For as Manchester University Egyptologist Rosalie David pointed out,

Akhenaten probably first envisaged the cult as a development closely associated with the older solar worship; this is indicated in his early inscription in the sandstone quarry at Gebel-el-Silseleh, where he describes himself as the ‘First Prophet of
Re-horakhti
, Rejoicing-in-his-Horizon, in his name of Sunlight which is in Aten’.
⁵⁰

British Museum Egyptologist George Hard goes even further. According to him, ‘Aten is really the god Ra absorbed under the iconography of the sun disc.’
⁵¹In this he is backed by the German Egyptologist Hermann Schlogl, who stated that in the early years of Akhenaten’s reign, ‘the sun god Ra-Horakhti
. . .
was identical with Aten’ and that ‘Aten’s didactic name meant “the living One, Re-Horakhti who rejoices in the Horizon”.’
⁵²

Centuries after the temple of Karnak was founded, and certainly by the time Akhenaten ascended the throne, the priests of Karnak had acquired immense material wealth through taxation and donations, and also from a share in the spoils of war. Evidence shows that they owned vast tracts of land and practically controlled the whole commercial life of Upper Egypt. The priests of Karnak flaunted their sun-god Amun as the most supreme god of Egypt, absorbing the powers and even the names of the older solar gods of Heliopolis, Ra and Horakhti. The symbols, iconography and nomenclature of Amun began to be seen everywhere in preference to those of the older Heliopolitan solar deities, inevitably causing a schism between north and south, as much later in history a deep schism was caused between east and west by the different symbols, iconography and nomenclature of Islam and Christianity, even though they venerated the same unique supreme god.

With such power and wealth the priests began also to pose a political threat to the pharaoh, for as the old saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is clear from the many statements attributed to Akhenaten that tension between him and the priests of Karnak ran very high, and that the young king feared for his throne and even his life. Was it this excess of power of the priests of Karnak that prompted Akhenaten to look back to the epoch when the sun religion was in the hands of the more pure and loyal priests of Heliopolis? Or was he mainly prompted by the cosmic order that indicated that the great return of the solar phoenix was imminent and that he, Akhenaten, would oversee this event? Or was it both his fear of the Karnak priests and the dictates of the cosmic order? At any rate, it was during his fourth or fifth year of reign that Amenhotep IV changed his name to Ahkenaten, which means ‘Glory of the Aten’. This must have made the priests of Amun-Ra fume, for they surely regarded the name change from
Amun
-Hotep to Akhen-
Aten
as a slap in the face. The crunch came when Akhenaten then announced that the cult of Amun-Ra was banned and that the great temple of Karnak would be officially closed. Along with this unthinkable decision came another, even more devastating blow to the priests of Thebes: Akhenaten declared that he intended to move himself and the whole court to a new city dedicated to the Aten called Akhet-Aten (‘Horizon of the Sun Disc’) which he intended to have built further north.

Sometime in the early spring of the year 1348 BC,
⁵³the king and some members of his court visited the site of the future city of Akhet-Aten a few kilometres to the west of the modern town of Tell El Amarna. Riding in a chariot made of electrum and looking as radiant as the sun disc itself, Akhenaten proclaimed that it was ‘his father’ the Aten who had selected this site for the building of his new and eternal solar city. Apparently the Aten had shown himself to the king at Tell El Amarna and had told him that the place ‘shall belong to me as a Horizon of the Sun Disc for ever and ever’.
⁵⁴

What cosmic vision influenced Akhenaten to choose this location for his dream city of Akhet-Aten?

Could it have been something to do with the position of the sun there that was somehow vital to the idea of an eternal solar city? And if so, what could that something have been?

What
did
Akhenaten see at Tell el Amarna that totally convinced him that this was the true earthly domain of the sun-god?

CHAPTER SIX

Lord of Jubilees