nature seem to be involved, and although not all of these are fully
understood, the fact is that the cycle of precession does correlate very
strongly with the onset and demise of ice ages.
Several trigger factors must coincide, which is why not every shift from
one astronomical age to another is implicated. Nevertheless, it is
accepted that precession does have an impact on both glaciation and
deglaciation, at widely separated intervals. The knowledge that it does so
has only been established by our own science since the late 1970s.4 Yet
the evidence of the myths suggests that the same level of knowledge
might have been possessed by an as yet unidentified civilization in the
depths of the last Ice Age. The clear suggestion we may be meant to
grasp is that the terrible cataclysms of flood and fire and ice which the
myths describe were in some way causally connected to the ponderous
movements of the celestial coordinates through the great cycle of the
zodiac. In the words of Santillana and von Dechend, ‘It was not a foreign
idea to the ancients that the mills of the gods grind slowly and that the
result is usually pain.’5
Three principal factors, all of which we have met before, are now known
to be deeply implicated in the onset and the retreat of ice ages (together,
of course, with the diverse cataclysms that ensue from sudden freezes
and thaws). These factors all have to do with variations in the earth’s
orbital geometry. They are:
1 The obliquity of the ecliptic (i.e., the angle of tilt of the planet’s axis of
4 Ice Ages; John Imbrie et al., ‘Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages’
in Science, volume 194, No. 4270, 10 December 1976.
5 Hamlet’s Mill, pp. 138-9.
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rotation, which is also the angle between the celestial equator and the
ecliptic). This, as we have seen, varies over immensely long periods of
time between 22.1 degrees (the closest point that the axis reaches to
vertical) and 24.5 degrees (the furthest it falls away from the vertical);
2 The eccentricity of the orbit (i.e., whether the earth’s elliptical path
around the sun is more or less elongated in any given epoch);
3 Axial precession, which causes the four cardinal points on the earth’s
orbit (the two equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices) to
creep backwards very, very slowly around the orbital path.
We are dipping our toes into the waters of a technical and specialized
scientific discipline here—one largely outside the scope of this book.
Readers seeking detailed information are referred to the multidisciplinary
work of the US National Science Foundation’s CLIMAP Project, and to a
keynote paper by Professors J. D. Hays and John Imbrie entitled
‘Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages’ (see Note 4).
Briefly, what Hays, Imbrie and others have proved is that the onset of
ice ages can be predicted when the following evil and inauspicious
conjunctions of celestial cycles occur: (a) maximum eccentricity, which
takes the earth millions of miles further away from the sun at ‘aphelion’
(the extremity of its orbit) than is normal; (b) minimum obliquity, which
means that the earth’s axis, and consequently the North and South poles,
stand much closer to the vertical than is normal; and (c) precession of
the equinoxes which, as the great cycle continues, eventually causes
winter in one hemisphere or the other to set in when the earth is at
‘perihelion’ (its closest point to the sun); this in turn means that summer
occurs at aphelion and is thus relatively cold, so that ice laid down in
winter fails to melt during the following summer and a remorseless buildup of glacial conditions occurs.6
Levered by the changing geometry of the orbit, ‘global insolation’—the
differing amounts and intensity of sunlight received at various latitudes
in any given epoch—can thus be an important trigger factor for ice ages.
Is it possible that the ancient myth-makers were trying to warn us of
great danger when they so intricately linked the pain of global cataclysms
to the slow grinding of the mill of heaven?
This is a question we will return to in due course, but meanwhile it is
enough to observe that by identifying the significant effects of orbital
geometry on the planet’s climate and wellbeing, and by combining this
information with precise measurements of the rate of precessional
motion, the unknown scientists of an unrecognized civilization seem to
have found a way to catch our attention, to bridge the chasm of the ages,
and to communicate with us directly.
6 ‘Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages’.
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Whether or not we listen to what they have to say is, of course, entirely
up to us.
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Part VI
The Giza Invitation
Egypt 1
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Chapter 33
Cardinal Points
Giza, Egypt, 16 March 1993, 3:30 a.m.
We walked through the deserted lobby of our hotel and stepped into the
white Fiat waiting for us in the driveway outside. It was driven by a lean,
nervous Egyptian named Ali whose job it was to get us past the guards at
the Great Pyramid and away again before sunrise. He was nervous
because if things went wrong Santha and I would be deported from Egypt
and he would go to jail for six months.
Of course, things were not supposed to go wrong. That was why Ali was
with us. The day before we’d paid him 150 US dollars which he had
changed into Egyptian pounds and spread among the guards concerned.
They, in return, had agreed to turn a blind eye to our presence during the
next couple of hours.
We drove to within half a mile of the Pyramid, then walked the rest of
the way—around the side of the steep embankment that looms above the
village of Nazlet-el-Samaan and leads to the monument’s north face.
None of us said very much as we trudged through the soft sand just out
of range of the security lights. We felt excited and apprehensive at the
same time. Ali was by no means certain that his bribes were going to
work.
For a while we stood still in the shadows, gazing at the monstrous bulk
of the Pyramid reaching into the darkness above us and blotting out the
southern stars. Then a patrol of three men armed with shotguns and
wrapped in blankets against the night chill came into view at the
northeastern corner, about fifty yards away, where they stopped to share
a cigarette. Indicating that we should stay put, Ali stepped forward into
the light and walked over to the guards. He talked to them for several
minutes, apparently arguing heatedly. Finally he beckoned to us,
indicating that we should join him.
‘There’s a problem,’ he explained. ‘One of them, the captain here, [he
indicated a short, unshaven, disgruntled look
ing fellow] is insisting that
we pay an extra thirty dollars otherwise the deal is off. What do you want
to do?’ I fished around in my wallet, counted out thirty dollars and
handed the bills to Ali. He folded them and passed them to the captain.
With an air of aggrieved dignity, the captain stuffed the money into his
shirt pocket, and, finally, we all shook hands.
‘OK,’ said Ali, ‘let’s go.’
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Inexplicable precision
As the guards continued their patrol in a westerly direction along the
northern face of the Great Pyramid, we made our way around the
northeastern corner and along the base of the eastern face.
I had long ago fallen into the habit of orienting myself according to the
monument’s sides. The northern face was aligned, almost perfectly, to
true north, the eastern face almost perfectly to true east, the southern to
true south, and the western face to true west. The average error was only
around three minutes of arc (down to less than two minutes on the
southern face)1—incredible accuracy for any building in any epoch, and
an inexplicable, almost supernatural feat here in Egypt 4500 years ago
when the Great Pyramid was supposed to have been built.
An error of three arc minutes represents an infinitesimal deviation from
true of less than 0.015 per cent. In the opinion of structural engineers,
with whom I had discussed the Great Pyramid, the need for such
precision was impossible to understand. From their point of view as
practical builders, the expense, difficulty and time spent achieving it
would not have been justified by the apparent results: even if the base of
the monument had been as much as two or three degrees out of true (an
error of say 1 per cent) the difference to the naked eye would still have
been too small to be noticeable. On the other hand the difference in the
magnitude of the tasks required (to achieve accuracy within three
minutes as opposed to three degrees) would have been immense.
1 The Pyramids of Egypt, p. 208.
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Overview of Giza from the north looking south, with the Great
Pyramid in the foreground.
Obviously, therefore, the ancient master-builders who had raised the
Pyramid at the very dawn of human civilization must have had powerful
motives for wanting to get the alignments with the cardinal directions
just right. Moreover, since they had achieved their objective with uncanny
exactness they must have been highly skilled, knowledgeable and
competent people with access to excellent surveying and setting-out
equipment. This impression was confirmed by many of the monument’s
other characteristics. For example, its sides at the base were all almost
exactly the same length, demonstrating a margin of error far smaller than
modern architects would be required to achieve today in the construction
of, say, an average-size office block. This was no office block, however. It
was the Great Pyramid of Egypt, one of the largest structures ever built by
man and one of the oldest. Its north side was 755 feet 4.9818 inches in
length; its west side was 755 feet 9.1551 inches in length; its east side
was 755 feet 10.4937 inches; its south side 756 feet 0.9739 inches.2 This
meant that there was a difference of less than 8 inches between its
shortest and longest sides: an error amounting to a tiny fraction of 1 per
cent on an average side length of over 9063 inches.
Once again, I knew from an engineering perspective that the bare
2 J. H. Cole, Survey of Egypt, paper no. 39: ‘The Determination of the Exact Size and
Orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza’, Cairo, 1925.
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figures did not do justice to the enormous care and skill required to
achieve them. I knew, too, that scholars had not yet come up with a
convincing explanation of exactly how the Pyramid builders had adhered
consistently to such high standards of precision.3
What really interested me, however, was the even bigger question-mark
over another issue: why had they imposed such exacting standards on
themselves? If they had permitted a margin of error of 1-2 per cent—
instead of less than one-tenth of 1 per cent—they could have simplified
their tasks with no apparent loss of quality. Why hadn’t they done so?
Why had they insisted on making everything so difficult? Why, in short, in
a supposedly ‘primitive’ stone monument built more than 4500 years ago
were we seeing this strange, obsessional adherence to machine-age
standards of precision?
Black hole in history
Our plan was to climb the Great Pyramid—something that had been
strictly illegal since 1983 when the messy falls of several foolhardy
tourists had forced the government of Egypt to impose a ban. I realized
that we were being foolhardy too (particularly in attempting the climb at
night) and I didn’t feel good about breaking what was basically a sensible
law. By this stage, however, my intense interest in the Pyramid, and my
desire to learn everything I could about it, had over-ridden my common
sense.
Now, after parting company with the guard patrol at the north-eastern
corner of the monument, we continued to make our way surreptitiously
along the eastern face towards the south-eastern corner.
There were dense shadows among the twisted and broken paving
stones that separated the Great Pyramid from the three much smaller
‘subsidiary’ pyramids lying immediately to its east. There were also three
deep and narrow rock-cut pits which resembled giant graves. These had
been found empty by the archaeologists who had excavated them, but
were shaped as though they had been intended to enclose the hulls of
high-prowed, streamlined boats.
Roughly halfway along the Pyramid’s eastern face we encountered
another patrol. This time it consisted of two guards, one of whom must
have been eighty years old. His companion, a teenager with pustulant
acne, informed us that the money Ali had paid was insufficient and that
fifty more Egyptian pounds would be required if we were to proceed. I
already had the notes in my hand and gave them to the lad without delay.
I was past caring how much this was costing; I just wanted to make the
climb and get down and away before dawn without being arrested.
3 The conventional explanations, as given in The Pyramids of Egypt, for example, are
entirely unsatisfactory, as Edwards himself admits; see pp. 85-7, 206-41.
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We walked on, reaching the south-eastern corner at a little after 4:15
a.m.
Very few modern buildings, even the houses we live in, have corners
that consist of perfect ninety degree right angles; it is common for them
to be a degree or more out of true. It doesn’t make any difference
structurally and nobody notices such minute errors. In the case of the
Great Pyramid, however, I knew that the ancient mast
er-builders had
found a way to narrow the margin of error to almost nothing. Thus, while
falling short of the perfect ninety degrees, the south-eastern corner
achieved an impressive 89° 56’ 27”. The north-eastern corner measured
90° 3’ 2”; the southwestern 90° 0’ 33”, and the north-western was just two
seconds of a degree out of true at 89° 59’ 58”.4
This was, of course, extraordinary. And like almost everything else
about the Great Pyramid it was also extremely difficult to explain. Such
accurate building techniques—as accurate as the best we have today—
could have evolved only after thousands of years of development and
experimentation. Yet there was no evidence that any process of this kind
had ever taken place in Egypt. The Great Pyramid and its neighbours at
Giza had emerged out of a black hole in architectural history so deep and
so wide that neither its bottom nor its far side had ever been identified.
Ships in the desert
Guided by the increasingly perspiring Ali, who had not yet explained why
it was necessary for us to circumnavigate the Pyramid before climbing it,
we now began to make our way in a westerly direction along the
monument’s southern side. Here there were two further boat-shaped pits,
one of which, although still sealed, had been investigated with fibre-optic
cameras and was known to contain a high-prowed sea-going vessel more
than 100 feet long. The other pit had been excavated in the 1950s. Its
contents—an even larger seagoing vessel, a full 141 feet in length5—had
been placed in the so-called Boat Museum, an ugly modern structure that
gangled on stilts beneath the south face of the Pyramid.
Made of cedarwood, the beautiful ship in the museum was still in
perfect condition 4500 years after it had been built. With a displacement
of around 40 tons, its design was particularly thought-provoking,
incorporating, in the words of one expert, ‘all the sea-going ship’s
characteristic properties, with prow and stern soaring upward, higher
than in a Viking ship, to ride out the breakers and high seas, not to
contend with the little ripples of the Nile.’6
4 Ibid., p. 87.
5 See Lionel Casson, Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times, University of Texas Press,
1994, p. 17; The Ra Expeditions, p. 15.
6 The Ra Expeditions, p. 17.