The king will be the companion of Horakhti and the king’s hand will be held in the sky among the followers of the Sun god Ra. The fields are content, the irrigation ditches are flooded for this king today . . . receive this pure water of yours which issues from Elephantine . . . O King, your cool water is the Great Flood . . .83
The reed-floats of the sky are set in place for me that I may cross to the horizon, to Ra and to Horakhti. The nurse-canal is open, and the Winding Waterway is flooded, that I may be ferried over to the eastern side of the sky, to the place where the gods were born . . .84
The above quotes clearly show the conjunction of the start of the Nile’s flood and the appearance of Sothis (Sirius). Although the summer solstice is not specifically mentioned, it is definitely implied, because, of course, both the “birth” (rising) of Sirius and the start of the flood occurred at that time of year when the sun rose to its extreme northern position. Another passage in the Pyramid Texts does imply this by having the departed king say: “I ferry across [the river Nile] that I may stand on the eastern side of the sky when the Sungod Ra is in his northern region . . .85
With all this textual, astronomical, and archaeological evidence, we must include the Shemsu-Hor, Those Who Followed the Sun—those ancestral kings—as being the people who followed the direction of the summer solstice sunrise in 3200 BCE . . . namely the prehistoric Black people of Nabta Playa (see chapter 5). Further, it could also be the Shemsu-Hor who brought with them an astronomical plan drawn on a leather roll, which was used for the layout of the temple of the cow goddess Hathor. In spite of the obstinacy of Egyptologists who continue to see the Shemsu-Hor as mythical kings, the British Egyptologist Henri Frankfort says this of the Shemsu-Hor:
The designation [Shemsu-Hor/Followers of Horus] was reserved for rulers of the distant past. The texts leave no doubt that the term referred to earlier kings. An inscription of a king Ranofer, just before the Middle Kingdom, contains the phrase “in the time of your forefathers, the kings, Followers of Horus [Shemsu-Hor].” Texts of Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis III refer to them in the same manner. The first mentions fame the like of which was not “seen in the annals of the ancestors since the Followers of Horus”; the other states that, in rebuilding a temple, an old plan was used and proceeds: “The great plan was found in Denderah in old delineations written upon leather of animal skin of the time of the Followers of Horus.” From these quotations it appears that “Followers of Horus” is a vague designation for the kings of a distant past. Hence the Turin Papyrus places them before the first historical king . . .86
From the Turin Papyrus we can work out that the Shemsu-Hor ruled for 13,420 years before the first historical pharaoh, who was identified as Menes. Egyptologists place the reign of Menes about 3000 BCE. This means that the start of the Shemsu-Hor lineage was about 16,420 BCE—which can be rounded to 16,500 BCE. Could it be a coincidence that this very date of 16,500 BCE is found in the astronomy of the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa, as we have seen in chapter 4?87
We now return to the alleged plans for the temple of the cow goddess Hathor at Dendera and the claim that the temple’s original plans were from the time of the Shemsu-Hor. If we assume that the original plans were from Nabta Playa, then we would expect to find the same kind of astronomy at Dendera that was dominant at Nabta Playa. This, unquestionably, is the astronomy defined by the focal point of the ceremonial complex at Nabta Playa, CSA, which contained the cow stone. We recall that from CSA there emanate a series of megalithic lines toward the star Dubhe in the north and a series of lines toward the east, directed toward the rising of Sirius.
Could the same be found at Dendera?
HATHOR, ISIS, THE BIG DIPPER, AND SIRIUS
The entrance to the temple of the cow goddess Hathor at Dendera faces north. The huge gate is flanked by six imposing columns whose four sided capitals are decorated with faces of Hathor, here a woman’s face with cow’s ears. Beyond the entrance is the hypostyle hall with a further eighteen similar columns, thus equaling a total of twenty-four columns. The whole temple is a maze of rooms, chapels, corridors, underground crypts, and stairs leading to the roof. On the roof, in one of the chapels, was found the famous Zodiac of Dendera, which we encountered in chapter 1, and which is now at the Louvre Museum in Paris.88
The Zodiac of Dendera
The main Hathor temple is famous for having housed the so-called round Zodiac of Dendera (as well as a lesser known rectangular zodiac located on the ceiling of the first hypostyle hall). The round Zodiac is really more a planisphere, or sky map, that shows the whole celestial landscape from the perspective of having the north celestial pole near its center. The actual zodiac, which was fixed on the ceiling of a chapel on the upper floor of the temple, is made from the twelve familiar Babylonian-Greek astrological signs, which are scattered in a rough loop around the celestial pole. In a larger loop are scattered the thirty-six decans of ancient Egypt, which were used for timekeeping and rebirth rites (because they contain Orion and Sirius). It is worth reminding ourselves that the decans were known from at least the pyramid age, which suggests that the Dendera planisphere has incorporated elements of great antiquity. Here, Orion-Osiris is represented by a striding man who wears the royal crown, and Sirius-Isis is shown as a recumbent cow with a five-pointed star above her horns. Interestingly, behind the Isis-Sirius cow is the figure of a woman holding a bow and arrow, almost certainly Satis of Elephantine, whom, as we have already seen, was also identified with Sirius (particularly with its heliacal rising and the Nile flood). Very near the center of the zodiac is the figure of a small jackal on what looks like a hoe. To its left is a large standing hippopotamus that represents the constellation Draconis, and to its right is the familiar bull’s thigh that represents the Big Dipper. These last two constellations, as we have already seen, can be traced back to the pyramid age, again giving the Dendera planisphere links to the distant past.
The rounded planisphere that is seen today at Dendera is not the original one but a facsimile made in the 1920s. The original was taken to France after the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798, and it is now displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Books and articles abound on the meaning and date of the planisphere of Dendera. It is well outside the scope of this investigation to review them all, but there is little doubt that the planisphere dates from the time when the temple was built—circa 54 BCE . It is much less clear whether the planisphere represents the sky at that time or, as some have suggested, a much older sky. In other words, we may wonder if the Dendera planisphere is a copy of a much older one on which was incorporated the Babylonian-Greek astrological signs. If this is the case, then there is no question that this artifact is a symbol of the precession of the equinoxes, which sees the astrological signs transit the east-west axis of the planisphere in a neverending cycle of twenty-six thousand years. The first scholar to suggest that this indeed was the case was the French astronomer Jean-Batiste Biot, who argued that a careful study of the position of the constellations and planets on the Dendera planisphere indicates a much older sky and, by extension, knowledge of the precession. Such ideas are usually vehemently rejected by Egyptologists and historians of science. Outside the temple on its west side
Outside the temple on its west side are a series of mammisi, or “birth houses,” built in Roman times. And farther still along the west side of the temple is a deep, artificial sacred lake, which is now dry and has palm trees growing in it. At the back of the temple is a small chapel known as the Birth Place of Isis, sometimes also called the temple of Isis.
This temple of Isis has its outer area aligned toward the east and its inner area aligned toward the north and parallel to the axis of the main temple of Hathor. The distinct impression it conveys is that observations toward east and north were carried out simultaneously. An inscription at the temple reads: “She [the star of Isis—that is, Sirius] shines into her temple on New Year’s Day, and she mingles her light with that of her Father Ra on the horizon.”89
This inscription clearly refers to the heliacal rising of Sirius.90 Yet we have seen how the conjunction of the heliacal rising of Sirius with New Year’s Day can take place only at the start of a Sothic cycle. With this in mind, the astronomer Edwin Krupp pointed out, “some traditions preserved at Dendera are thousands of years old,”91 and he goes on to say that the inscriptions “describe metaphorically the heliacal rising of Sirius . . . certainly this astronomical event was watched from the roof of Dendera temple . . .”92
The British astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer*62 first noted that the axis of the temple of Isis at Dendera had an azimuth of 108 degrees 30 minutes, which corresponded to the azimuth of Sirius when the temple was constructed, circa 54 BCE.93
Thus Lockyer concluded correctly, “the temple of Isis at Dendera was built to watch it [Sirius].” 94 On the other hand, inscriptions at Dendera confirm that the axis of the main temple of Hathor was aligned northward, toward the Big Dipper, using the traditional stretching the cord ceremony. Lockyer determined that it was aligned 18 degrees 30 minutes east of north. According to Lockyer, the temple was aligned to the star Dubhe in the Big Dipper.*63
It seems clear that the axes of both temples—that of Hathor and of Isis—were aligned simultaneously, the latter toward Dubhe in the north and the former toward Sirius in the east. Inscriptions at Dendera suggest this simultaneous sighting and, furthermore, that the observations were made at dawn.
Figure 6.5. Cow head, probably Hathor, on the so-called Narmer Palette, first dynasty circa 3000 BCE
[East alignment toward Sirius]: The great goddess Seshat brings the writings that relate to your rising, O Hathor [as Sirius], and to the rising of Ra [the sun at dawn] . . .95
[North alignment toward Dubhe]: The king joyously stretches the cord, having cast his gaze towards the Big Dipper [Meskhetiu] and thus establishes the temple in the manner of ancient times.96
So disdainful are most Egyptologists at possible astronomical alignments of temples and pyramids that one senior Egyptologist, Cathleen A. Keller of UCLA, even openly admits that “sometimes I think that the more resistant Egyptologists are more afraid that connections do exist between the orientation and plans of Egyptian temples and the heavens, than they do not.”97
The fact is that no Egyptologists approved of Sir Lockyer’s finding at Dendera, at least not until nearly an entire century later. In 1992 the French Egyptologist Sylvie Cauville, who is well-known for her extensive work on the inscriptions of Dendera, undertook a detailed study of the astronomical orientation of the temple of Isis.98 She, too, felt that its alignments had been greatly ignored and that no one had given much currency to the findings of Lockyer. Cauville boldly solicited the collaboration of an astronomer, Professor Eric Aubourg, to examine again the orientations at Dendera, especially those at the temple of Isis.
As we see it today, the temple of Isis was erected in 30 BCE under the directive of the Roman emperor Augustus (Octavian) Caesar. It was built over the foundations of a much older temple, which are clearly visible even now. Recent excavations by the French team showed that there had been several interventions at vastly different epochs. In the foundations of the Roman temple, blocks belonging to the penultimate native pharaoh, Nectanebo I (ca. 350 BCE), were found. In addition, it would appear that the Ptolemaic kings Ptolemy VI Philometor (ca. 150 BCE) and Ptolemy X Alexander I (ca. 20 BCE) had carried out innovations here. More intriguingly, Cauville discovered reused stone blocks from the Ramesside period (ca. 1250 BCE), which bore the name of Prince Kha-emouaset, a son of Ramses II. Aubourg calculated that the azimuth of the Roman temple built in 30 BCE was 108 degrees 40 minutes, which matched the azimuth of Sirius. He then determined the azimuth of the lower temple to be 111 degrees 11 minutes, which corresponded to the orientation of the rising of Sirius in the epoch of Ramses II, about 1250 BCE. Here again, exactly as at the Satis temple at Elephantine and the Thoth Hill temple in Thebes, the ancient surveyors had responded to the effect of precession on the star Sirius by changing the orientation of the axes accordingly—very much as their ancestors had done at Nabta Playa several millennia before.
THE SUN TEMPLES OF THE SUN KINGS
In the fourth dynasty, immediately after the reign of King Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, there seems to have been a sudden shift in religious ideologies. For reasons that have not yet been properly understood, a new solar cult seems to have been introduced to the pyramid builders. This seems to have happened in the reign of King Djedefre, a son of Khufu. For example, Khufu’s immediate sucessors, Djedefre, Khafra, and Menkaure, incorporated the name of the sun god Re (or Ra) into their names. They also took on the title Son of Re. Indeed, according to Egyptologist Mark Lehner, “Djedefre is the first pharaoh to take the title ‘Son of Re.’”99
Djedefre chose a promontory some 8 kilometers (5 miles) northwest of the Giza pyramids to build his own pyramid complex in a region known today as Abu Ruwash. No adequate explanation was given by any of his contemporaries as to why this king chose to move so far away from Giza. Not even Djedefre himself explained. Being thus at a loss for a good explanation, Egyptologists have invented a reason: they theorize that there was a family feud—that Djedefre quarreled with his father, Khufu, and was banished from Giza, thus inducing him to build his own complex at Abu Ruwash.*64
Needless to say, there is not one shred of textual evidence to support this theory. With Carlo Bergmann’s recent discovery in 1999 of Djedefre Water Mountain in the Sahara, however, a new theory backed by evidence can now be proposed. An observer at Abu Ruwash who looked east at sunrise at the summer solstice would have witnessed the sun rising directly over the sun temple of Heliopolis,†65 a fact that can hardly be a coincidence in view of the circumstances surrounding Djedefre and the solar ideologies introduced in his reign. We can recall that the summer solstice marked the birth of Re, when the civil calendar was inaugurated, and could be a reason why Djedefre chose the title Son of Re.
We also now know, thanks to Carlo Bergmann, that during Djedefre’s reign an expedition was sent into the deep Sahara and reached at least 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Dakhla oasis and that the name of Djedefre is found inscribed on a mound now called Djedefre Water Mountain (DWM). We can recall from chapter 4 that when we witnessed the sunrise at DWM in April 2008, we noted that the mound was facing east, directly toward another flat-topped mound whose midpoint and ends marked the two solstices and the two equinoxes. The midpoint also had a small depression that seemed to have been cut by human hands, so that when the sun filled the depressed space, it formed the hieroglyphic sign “sun disk between two peaks” , which stood for “horizon” and “sunrise.” Yet we are aware that this sign was not known before Djedefre’s reign, but instead appeared in the fifth dynasty, which immediately followed his own.
All Egyptologists agree that the fifth dynasty was intensely solar and had a very special connection to the sun temple at Heliopolis and its high priest. In the so-called Westcar Papyrus there is a story that tells us how a priestess named Rudjdjedet, the wife of the high priest of Heliopolis, gave birth to male triplets, whom she claimed had been conceived by the sun god Re himself.100 All three were destined to become kings. Two of them, Sahure and Neferikare, incorporated the name Re into their own, and the third, Userkaf, made the unprecedented decision of commissioning a sun temple for himself, which was modeled on the great sun temple of Re at Heliopolis.101 Five other sun kings that followed him also built for themselves sun temples near Userkaf ’s, at a place called Abu Ghorab.*66 102
So far, only two of the six sun temples—Userkaf ’s and Niussere’s—have been found. The other four are known only by their names on contemporary inscriptions. The six are: The Stronghold of Re, The Offering Fields of Re, The Favorite Place of Re, The Offering Table of Re, The Delight of Re, and The Horizon of Re.
The Sun Temple and Heliopolis
The connection of these temples to the sun god of Heliopolis was not merely spiritual, according to a new theo
ry by British Egyptologist David Jeffreys about the exact location where they were placed relative to Heliopolis. In the 1990s, David Jeffreys conducted a survey in the area of Memphis on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Society. He noted that from the vantage point of the sun temples of Userkaf and Neussera, he had an unobstructed line of sight to Heliopolis, but if he moved just a bit farther south toward the Abusir pyramids, his view was cut off by the Muqattam hills. The sun temples were built some distance north of their corresponding pyramids in order to have a direct line of sight toward Heliopolis. “A re-examination of the location of Pyramids whose owners claim or display a special association with the solar cult betrays a cluster pattern for which a political and religious explanation suggests itself. . . . The Giza pyramids could also be seen from Heliopolis. . . . It is therefore appropriate to ask, in a landscape as prospect-dominated as the Nile Valley, which sites and monuments were mutually visible and whether their respective locations, horizons and vistas are owed to something more than mere coincidence.”103
Could it be that the discovery of the Water Mountain in the Sahara by Djedefre was the underlying cause that brought about the new solar religion to the pharaohs? Was this a natural temple in the desert, which was behind the design of artificial temples at Abu Ruwash and Abusir? We can recall that on DWM there was also found prehistoric artwork next to the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription of Djedefre’s expedition. Were a prehistoric people still occupying the area when Djedefre’s expedition arrived in around 2500 BCE? Were they the same people that also occupied Nabta Playa—the Black star people or cattle people that we encountered throughout the Egyptian Sahara, those followers of the sun and the star Sirius?
Black Genesis Page 26