Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery

by Christopher Knight

  As he was about to close the program down, something caught his eye and he moved the object to centre screen. Oddly, there was a very large circle that looked extremely henge-like. Of course it could not be a henge here in the New World, but if it had been in England Chris would have been surprised if it were not. It was ridiculous really, but he opened the measuring device within the program and converted its diameter from metres to Megalithic Yards just to see what would happen. His eyes widened as he realized that it was extremely close to being 2 Megalithic Degrees across.

  A little investigation proved that it was indeed a henge and within its huge circumference sits the home of the Vice President of the United States of America. It is, however, a very recent henge. Known as the ‘Observatory Circle’ it was constructed by the navy in 1893 and, according to the official White House website, it was created so that scientists could ‘observe the sun, moon, planets and selected stars, determine and precisely measure the time, and establish astronomical data needed for accurate navigation’.1

  What finer definition of a henge could there be?

  Nothing really changes even after 5,500 years. Instead of hand-swung pendulums the US Navy astronomers will have used pendulum clocks – which are exactly the same thing except the more modern version has a labour-saving wind-up mechanism attached to it and a dial to read out the passage of time, so the users no longer have to count the beats themselves. But it is an identical process requiring identical skills and delivering identical benefits to the civilization concerned.

  This discovery made us more bemused than ever. Given that a relatively modern circular earthwork is known to be used to measure time, accumulate astronomical data and aid navigation, why is the similarity displayed by Neolithic henges rejected as a valid theory? It is fully accepted that these ancient people must have been sailors, so they would have wanted this information. If the academic researchers dug up a Stone Age coffee cup and saucer, would they make a connection with hot drinks or would they assume it was some kind of religious talisman for collecting the spirits of the dead?

  The Observatory Circle in Washington DC is a fine piece of evidence for an archaeological theory. Human beings have not changed physiologically or intellectually for over 100,000 years. Their curiosity, their need to know, must surely be much the same, and the techniques to achieve the required results will not, indeed cannot, change in principle.

  Our next question was to try and establish whether the Naval Observatory had an apparently megalithic dimension by accident or whether it was a deliberate construction.

  We began by looking at key landmarks such as the White House, the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. And immediately we began to see a web beneath the street design – all mapped out in Megalithic Seconds of arc.

  We were completely lost for words.

  The Secret of the Ellipse

  What we were starting to uncover was extraordinary in the extreme – is it conceivable that Washington was designed using megalithic proportions?

  We had to be cautious in jumping to any undue conclusions because 366 MY is very close to being 1,000 ft (996.25 ft) following from the ancient Minoan foot used 4,000 years ago. The Observatory Circle could have a deliberately engineered megalithic diameter, but measuring the Circle absolutely accurately is difficult and it may be that those designing it had intended it to have a diameter of 2,000 ft. After all, the statute foot was in common use in the United States when the Observatory Circle was completed, as it still is to this day. This was the most likely answer, although all British large-scale historical measurements in the United States tended to be measured in yards, rods, poles or furlongs rather than feet. Using yards would mean the Circle was an ungainly 666.6 units, and using rods produced 121.21 units.

  We are not aware of anyone in history using 1,000 ft as a major unit but we knew that the Neolithic British peoples, and the later Minoans, used a second of arc that was 366 MY or 1,000 Minoan Feet. This was of course a 1/360th subdivision of a Megalithic Second of arc of the polar circumference of the Earth.

  We needed to be highly circumspect about what we were starting to find, because chance results do crop up.

  Because our books have gained a lot of interest we receive a lot of correspondence from people who have their own ideas that they wish to share. This is a wonderful thing – indeed we met because Alan contacted Chris after The Hiram Key appeared. A number of people who have contacted us over the years have had some really interesting ideas, whilst others appear to be fanciful in the extreme. There is a category of people whom we call ‘dot-joiners’. They take a map and draw lines between selected points to produce symbols or other supposedly meaningful shapes – but the points chosen always seem to be selected to fit the required pattern. They ignore similar points that do not fit, and they often take unrelated objects to complete the pattern. It is like a visual form of numerology where patterns are found for little or no reason.

  There are people who are certain that the government of the United States represents a Masonic, and/or sometimes Jewish, plot to instigate a ‘New World Order’. These people and are convinced that all manner of secret patterns are to be found when one connects particular Washington structures together. There are many books that concentrate on this preoccupation, not to mention a number of odd-ball websites. People claim to have found all manner of shapes and symbols when connecting Washington DC’s various landmarks, including, most famously, a rather obvious huge pentacle.2

  Given the frequent use of symmetry, building geometric shapes within Washington DC’s ground plan is not difficult. The city plan was first laid out by the French engineer and architect Charles L’Enfant and, although his original plan was somewhat modified by Andrew Ellicot, the essence of L’Enfant’s original design remains. L’Enfant allowed for wide avenues, circles and squares at major intersections, and lots of parks. Together with the gridiron pattern of the streets of Washington DC it is therefore quite easy to create a host of different geometric shapes, using only a map, a pencil and plenty of imagination.

  One shape that was nearly as important as the circle to the Neolithic builders of Western Europe was the ellipse, which has a natural centre but is constructed around two foci. This is a shape that can easily be constructed on a beach, for instance. Place two sticks in the ground and create a loop of rope that is slightly longer than the gap between the sticks. Then place the loop over the sticks and, with another stick in your hand, draw in the sand with the stick inside the loop at full extension. The shape in the sand after one circuit will be an ellipse.

  In the case of the Washington Ellipse, the two foci (the sticks) were 276 ft either side of the centre. However, it was the major axis (east–west) that grabbed our attention. We took the path that runs right around the edge of the Ellipse to represent its intended original extent. From the centre of this path on the west side of the Ellipse to the centre of the path on the east side of the Ellipse is exactly 366 MY, and quite definitely not 1,000 feet.

  Then we turned our attention just to the southeast of the Ellipse – to the Washington Monument. This huge, white stela was designed in 1836 by Robert Mills, an architect and a Freemason. Excavation for the foundation of the Monument began in the spring of 1848 and the cornerstone was laid as part of an elaborate Fourth of July ceremony conducted by the Freemasons.

  Around the base of this major monument are two intersecting circles defined by another ellipse. This ellipse, too, is 366 MY in length at its widest part.

  Remembering what we had discovered in Bath, we thought it worth measuring some of the distances between specific important buildings in Washington DC, as well as to and from geometric focal points such as the meridian marker at the centre of the Ellipse. We struck gold immediately. The direct distance between the Ellipse centre and a position right under the centre of the dome of the Capitol building is 2,429 m. In Megalithic Yards this is 2927.7 MY. Working in blocks of 366 MY (1 Megalithic
Second of arc of the polar circumference of the Earth), the distance between these two points is 8 × 366 MY, or 8 Megalithic Seconds of geographic arc.3

  When we first started to use Google Earth for measuring henges and megalithic structures, we conducted a series of checks of known distances on the ground and found that the program is highly accurate. However, henges are all at ground level and there are no perspective and parallax problems. But tall buildings introduce distortion, especially when the photograph was not taken directly overhead. Looking at the Capitol Building as shown on Google Earth, we identified exterior features that were at interior ground level and projected them inwards to find the true centre under the dome. We believe that this gave us a suitably accurate point of reference. Had we simply used the top of the dome as it appears in the aerial shot, we would have been well over 100 ft out.

  In this instance we were unlikely to be dealing in units of 1,000 ft. Eight units of 1,000 ft would of course have measured 8,000 ft, whereas the measurement we obtained was 7,970 ft, a full 30 ft short of 8,000 ft. But it was extremely accurate in terms of Megalithic Yards – in fact completely within the possible accuracy levels we were working with.

  Was this yet another random result? This certainly did not seem to be the case because the meridian marker at the centre of the Ellipse turned out to be a very important hub for megalithic measurements across much of Washington DC.

  Northeast and northwest of the Ellipse centre, beyond the White House, are two matching parks, each with circles at their centres. They are two of the main features in the original layout for Washington. The one to the northeast is McPherson Square and the one to the northwest is Farragut Square. The distance between the middle of the Ellipse and centre of each of these parks is 2,988 ft, which is 3 × 366 MY. In other words, each park is precisely 3 Megalithic Seconds of arc from the centre of the city.

  Now, someone might protest that it was probably meant to be 3,000 ft (i.e. 1,000 yd) and they made a bit of an error. But why should there be any integer distance for these features? This has nothing to do with the street layout – this is a web beneath the superficial city plan. And the centre of the Ellipse has never, openly at least, ever been described as significant for anything. And why would they measure in feet?

  If the Capitol and these squares are the only features of Washington that have relationships that are integer in terms of Megalithic Seconds of arc, then maybe it is just a weird coincidence.

  Further to the northeast of the Ellipse is Logan Circle Park. This is another of the legacies of the original Washington ground plan. Its distance from the Ellipse was 6 × 366 MY, and therefore 6 Megalithic Seconds of polar arc.

  To the northwest is a matching circle park, this one called Dupont Circle. It too is 6 × 366 MY and 6 Megalithic Seconds of polar arc,4 but from the western foci of the Ellipse this time. The accuracy for both of these circles was not quite as good as the inner circles but it was still better than a 99.5 per cent fit.

  Even a sceptic will by now have wrinkled brow. This is not a coincidence. Somebody has carefully, and secretively, planned all this!

  Lower in the northwest is Washington Circle Park. The measurement from the centre of the Ellipse to the centre of this park is 5 × 366 MY or 5 Megalithic Seconds of arc. There is a corresponding park in the northeast that is named Mt Vernon Square and this is also 5 × 366 MY from the meridian stone marker at the centre of the Ellipse. In both these cases the measurements are under 5,000 ft and much closer to being the 4,980 ft expected for 5 × 366 MY. Once again there seems no practical or obvious reason for such strange measurements to exist at all.

  Another important road intersection is Seward Square, about 3.3 km southeast of the Ellipse. Its centre is 11 × 366 MY from the centre of the Ellipse.

  About 615 m north of the centre of the Ellipse, and also just north of the White House, is Lafayette Square, a park named after one of the most important French Freemasons who fought for the American Republic at its foundation. At the centre of the square is an oval containing a monument. The distance between this oval centre and the centre of the Ellipse in megalithic terms is 2 × 366 MY. At each of the corners of Lafayette Park are freestanding monuments. The distance around all of these monuments totals 2 × 366 MY.

  There can be no doubt about it: Washington DC has been planned so that major sites are linked by a web measured in Megalithic Degrees. There is no possibility of coincidence and whilst the street plan of the city is on open view, this under-scheme is invisible to anyone who does not know it is there. And whoever created it kept it entirely secret.

  The Eye of the World

  The Ellipse is situated almost immediately to the south of the White House and has an interesting and somewhat mysterious background. When Charles L’Enfant designed Washington, the Ellipse was one of his first and central features. From what we have discovered it must have been designated as the focal point of the new city from the outset. The centre of the Ellipse is at:

  Latitude 38° 52' 38.17002" North

  Longitude 77° 02' 11.55845" West

  Elevation 5.205 m (17.077 ft) above sea level

  During the Civil War (1861–65) the area was known as the ‘White Lot’ and was used to garrison troops, leading to it becoming a complete dump. The Ellipse was finally laid out during 1877–80 by the Army Corps of Engineers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey. Casey’s 1878 report indicates that levelling the land for the new Ellipse is well underway – all except for an area right at the centre that he says was not under his authority but that of the ‘District Commissioners’, apparently on account of an incomplete sewer below the ground.

  Once the Ellipse was complete the land that now forms the National Mall (running west from the Capitol as far as the Lincoln Monument) was drained of water.

  The line that runs north to south through the centre of the Ellipse also runs through the White House to the north and the Jefferson Memorial to the south. Back in the earliest days of Washington, Thomas Jefferson decided that the new United States needed its own meridian.5 Up to this time the infant United States had used the ‘prime meridian’ that ran, and still runs, through Greenwich in England. As we have explained in detail in our previous book Civilization One, Jefferson had tried to create a new system of length, weight and capacity for his new nation, and a zero meridian through the new capital city was a natural extension of this ambition. None of his suggestions was adopted, except for his currency idea, the dollar.

  Charles L’Enfant originally proposed placing a Washington DC meridian one mile east of the Capitol, though why this should have been his preferred position is not known. By the time Thomas Jefferson become President of the United States in 1801 he, or someone close to him, had decided that the Washington DC meridian should run north–south straight through the centre of the Ellipse. At the centre of the Ellipse, and slightly below the surface, is the Meridian Stone.

  Where the intended meridian intersected the line that ran directly west from the centre of the Capitol, another stone was placed. This marker became known as the ‘Jefferson Pier’ or ‘Jefferson Stone’ and it remained in its original place until after the Civil War, when it was apparently accidentally discarded. The Washington meridian was never adopted and it remains only as a historical curiosity demonstrating the spirit and unbounded drive that the Founding Fathers had to distance themselves from British rule and establish their own powerful nation. In an increasingly globalized world the United States has never replaced the prime meridian that runs through Greenwich in England.

  The Jefferson Pier stone was found again and reinstated on 2 December 1889. Due to errors, either when the Jefferson Pier was initially surveyed or when it was replaced, its centre is now located 2.23 ft (0.680 m) south of the Capitol’s centreline. It had originally been a waterway and the Jefferson Pier had often been used as a hitching post for boats.

  This stone marker, placed at ground level at the centre of the Ellipse, remains but it has
never been a tourist attraction. It is quite small and carries the inscription ‘U – S Meridian 1890’. Strange, we thought, that this particular tiny point is the ‘true’ centre of Washington DC and therefore the United States – and, in terms of political power, the eye of the modern world.

  In many ways Washington is what Jerusalem once was – the hub of the world. And this almost forgotten stone in the middle of the Ellipse is the epicentre of the hub, just as the Delta of Enoch, at the heart of Jerusalem, was believed to have resided in prehistoric times.

  This was an analogy that would make increasing sense.

  Thomas Jefferson was a great scientist and mathematician. We had studied him carefully for our book Civilization One, not least of all because he created a brand-new measuring system based on the length of a seconds-pendulum rod. This system, though Jefferson himself almost certainly didn’t know, turned out to be resonant with the ancient megalithic system and had much in common with it. Jefferson had an ever inquisitive mind and had known very well that apparently random imperial measurements, such as the pound, the pint and the foot used at this time, were far from being random at all. He reasoned that they must be remnants of a science from deep antiquity. He was particularly interested in geometry and it is entirely appropriate that the meridian marker is to be found at the centre of a great ellipse, because this was reportedly his favourite geometric shape.

  At the time the Jefferson Stone was placed close to where the Washington Monument now stands, the new Washington DC meridian also had another marker stone about two miles away. This meridian marker was a good deal further north, in a place that is officially known as Meridian Park.

  The distance from the centre of the Ellipse to the centre of Meridian Park is 10 × 366 MY.6