The Orion Mystery
Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids
by Robert Bauval & Adrian Gilbert
(325 pages, pb, $14.00)
Crown Publishers, New York, 1994
ISBN 0-517-88454-2
Robert Bauvel seems to have had the original modern-day insight as to the arrangement of
the three pyramids at Giza. This book is an excellent introduction to the material
presented in The Message of the Sphinx.
Chapter Titles
Prologue The Last Wonder of the Ancient World
1 The Genesis of the Orion Mystery
2 The Mountains of the Star Gods
3 The Discovery of the Pyramid Texts
4 Let the Pyramid Texts 'Speak'
5 The Giza Plan
6 Giza and the Belt of Orion
7 The Star Correlation Theory
8 The Brother of Osiris
9 Intermezzo at the Pyramids
10 The Great Star-Clock of the Epochs
11 The Seed of the Phoenix
12 The Roads of Osiris
Epilogue
Appendix 1 Astronomical Investigation Concerning the so-called Air-shafts of Cheops's
Pyramid
Appendix 2 Precession
Appendix 3 The Secret Chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth
Appendix 4 The Survival of the Star Religion
Appendix 5 Logistics of the Shafts in Cheops's Pyramid
Appendix 6 The Horizon of Khufu
Appendix 7 The 'Sons of Ra'and the Osirian Rebirth of the Pyramid Kings
Notes and References
Bibliography
Index
Selected Text
pp. 2, 3
These extraordinary monuments, which make Stonehenge look like a morning's work, have
inspired awe through the centuries. Their sheer size sets them apart, let alone the
perfection of their geometry. Just how they were built remains a mystery; even today we
would be hard pressed to replicate them with all the advantages of modern technology. At
the time of the Ancient Egyptians there were no dump-trucks or cranes, no steel cables or
hoists, not even iron tools. Without the benefit of so much as a simple pulley, they built
mountains from stone and, with a precision that is truly astonishing, laid these out on
the desert floor. Yet the more puzzling question is why and not how they built them. Why
did the Egyptians choose to build pyramids when, so far as we know, they had never been
built before? Why did they build them so big and of such precision? Why did they scatter
them around the desert instead of building them all in one place?
Contemporary Egyptology has no convincing answers. Pick up any textbook on the subject and
you will encounter the same statement, that the pyramids functioned as royal tombs. But
why, when a simple hole in the ground would have sufficed, should the Egyptians have built
tombs up to 147 metres high? Why make this prodigious effort to house a dead body? Even
given that the pharaohs were autocrats and were revered as living gods, this seems like a
colossal waste of time and energy.
The popular image of gangs of slaves forced to carry out this enormous task is also a
myth; there is no evidence to suggest that people were compelled to take part in this
massive enterprise against their wills - indeed, if anything, the opposite. The sheer
quality of craftsmanship in the construction of the pyramids suggests a pride in the work,
and there are subtleties of design which suggest ideals at odds with the brutal image of
Ancient Egypt portrayed in biblical film epics.
In fact, the Egyptians were highly civilised and deeply religious at a time when Europeans
were still primitive, and there is much to suggest that they built pyramids more as an
affirmation of their religious convictions than to glorify dead pharaohs, however
powerful. But the Egyptians were also an extremely reserved people, who kept the inner
mysteries of their religion from all but a few chosen initiates. As it was these few who
directed the building of the pyramids, it is not surprising that we know so little about
their motives.
pp. 38, 39
The Great Pyramid of Khufu, like the other pyramids, stands four-square, but it is in all
its detail the most perfect. The first exhaustive survey of the monument in modern times
was carried out by Sir Flinders Petrie in i880-2. He used the latest equipment of the time
and approached his task with great thoroughness. He found that the sides of the pyramid
were indeed lined up almost exactly with the cardinal points of the compass: north, south,
east and west. (The accuracy of this alignment is incredible, with an average discrepancy
of only about three minutes of arc in any direction; this is a variation of less than 0.06
per cent.) He also measured the sides of the base as being 230-25 metres for the north
side; 230-44 metres for the south, 230-38 for the east, and 230-35 for the west. Thus,
although no side is identical to any other, the difference between the longest and
shortest is only nineteen centimetres, less than 0.08 per cent of the average length.
Such degrees of accuracy, both in orientation towards the cardinal points and in keeping
the base square and the sloping side perfect, are little short of miraculous when you
consider the size of the structure. Its perimeter is almost one kilometre, with an area of
over 53,000 square metres, enough to fit into it the cathedrals of Florence, Milan and St
Peters, as well as Westminster Abbey and St Paul's. It is indeed doubtful whether any of
these later buildings exhibit the same accuracy as the Great Pyramid in their orientation
or their structural execution. Although the pyramid contains several chambers, it is by no
means a hollow building; it is mostly solid masonry and constructed from approximately 2.5
million limestone blocks. On average these weigh about 2.6 tons, to give a total mass of
over 6.3 million tons.
We can simply marvel at the craftsmanship and technological abilities of these ancient
builders, for they not only orientated their monument towards the four cardinal points and
kept the plan square and the slopes true, but they cased its four sloping faces with
finely polished white limestone from the quarries at Tura on the other side of the Nile.
Judging by the few facing stones remaining at the foot of the north side of the pyramid,
these were even larger than those used in the core of the building and weighed some
fifteen tons each. They were set so closely together that the blade of a knife could not
fit between them. The casing-blocks were removed by the Arabs from the thirteenth century
AD (some say to build the mosques of Cairo), but when intact the pyramid must have looked
even more spectacular than it does today, glittering like a jewel in the sunlight.
pp. 114-116
The Rise of Orion
It was early November i983 and, as is usual at that time of year, the night skies in
central Saudi Arabia were remarkably clear. This was the time of week-end camping by
expatriates in Riyadh in the golden dunes about twenty kilometres outside the sprawling
western suburbs of this sedate city.
My wife, Michele, had packed the usual gear: alcohol-free beer, plenty of drinking water,
food and the sleeping-bags. My daughter, Candice, was only four years old, but already a
seasoned desert traveller. Two other couples with their children joined us. The idea was
to select a high dune so that the kids could play on the clean, golden-coloured sand while
the adults relaxed over hot coffee and an elaborate barbecue. We were all looking forward
to escaping from the hard work and no play mood of Riyadh and the stifling atmosphere of a
deeply Islamic society. Night on the dunes can be very beautiful. Immediately after the
spectacular display of the setting sun came the darkness, with the canopy of a
star-spangled sky almost at arm's length. Lying in my sleeping-bag, I counted the stars
until I fell asleep.
For some reason I woke up at 3 a.m., perhaps subconsciously motivated. Once more I gazed
up, at first unsure of where I was. High in the southern sky, arching over and almost
marking for us the curve of the celestial equator, was a luminous band of light,
resplendent against the inky black of space. It was the Milky Way and it looked like a
great river in the sky. On its west 'bank' was a spatter of beautiful stars, brighter than
all the others which surrounded them. I recognised them immediately as the constellation
of Orion and went to wake up my friend Jean-Pierre, who shared my interest in astronomy
and whose passion for sailing had necessitated his learning to navigate using the stars.
Silently, he came with me to the edge of the dune. Looking at the very bright star now
high over the horizon, he let me into one of the secrets of astro-navigation. 'Do you
know', he asked, 'how to find the rising point of Sirius once Orion has risen?' I shrugged
my shoulders in ignorance. 'Well, first,' he said, pointing in the direction of the 'river
bank', 'you must find the three stars of Orion's Belt. These three form a row and you
extend the alignment downwards to the horizon. When the belt stars have risen about twenty
degrees - roughly the height of an open hand at arm's length and with fingers outstretched
- they will be followed by Sirius at the place on the horizon where they point.' He was
now pointing towards the bright star on the horizon, which we both knew was Sirius, Then,
almost as an afterthought, he uttered these words: 'Actually, the three stars of Orion's
Belt are not perfectly aligned. If you look carefully you will see that the smallest of
them, the one at the top, is slightly offset to the east and they are slanted in a
south-westerly direction relative to the axis of the Milky Way. Also notice how . . .' At
this point I cut him short. He gave me a puzzled look as I quoted the words I remembered
only too well from the Pyramid Texts: 'The Dust has grasped the king's hand at the place
where Orion is . . . [PT 1717]. O Osiris King . . . Betake yourself to the Waterway . . .
may a stairway to the Dust be set for you at the place where Orion is . . . [PT 1717].' By
now the others had woken up and joined us. 'Je tiens I'affaire!', I cried excitedly. I had
deliberately chosen the words uttered by Champollion when he realised he had decoded the
secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing and I hoped that someone in the group, a few of
whom I had involved in the aerial photo puzzle of Giza, would catch on. From their
expressions it was obvious they had not.
Jean-Pierre kept on looking intensely at Orion. 'What have you seen . . . ?', he inquired,
amused.
'The three pyramids of Giza', I said calmly.
'The what . . . ?' asked Michele. She had heard endlessly about the star religion of the
Egyptians in those last few months. 'Is this a joke . . . ?'
'No, I am quite serious,' and I pointed to Orion's Belt. Thus began a saga which was to
run for another ten years.