ABSTRACT
In this article, symbols, icons and cosmogonies of the Egyptian theocratic system will be analysed and compared to those of
Syria, Anatolia,
Mesopotamia,
Indiaand
Crete. Many visual riddles will be unlocked by viewing such iconography through a ‘grid’, ‘lens’ or ‘cultural
koine’ which Professor Nanno Marinatos
[1]defines as a standard set of cultural assumptions which circulated throughout the Ancient Near East (henceforth ANE) and Eastern Mediterranean. This historical grid or international milieu will allow us to infer what could be the
Ark’s true location, confirming previous claims that the
Arkmay have already been discovered, yet never properly excavated. Evidence from numerous seal cylinders, ring impressions, wall reliefs, paintings and papyri across the ancient world is presented and interpreted via the
koine, showing that the Ark’s specific location appears to have been both known and revered in ancient antiquity. Remarkably, the
Ark’s location as suggested by ANE iconography is still recognizable today - as are the surprising remains of what could be the
Arkitself!
KEYWORDS
Koine, Ark, Location, Ararat, Iconography, Babel
INTRODUCTION:
Judging by the recent film ‘
Noah’ directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson et al., you could be forgiven for thinking that the entire story of Noah’s Ark is a solemn yet fanciful myth. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth! In their 1976 book, ‘The Ark on Ararat’, Dr. John D. Morris and Tim F. LaHaye note a non-exhaustive list of over 212 flood accounts from across the globe. Bill Cooper confirms the universal extent of flood accounts worldwide by noting: “Even the remotest peoples, separated from the rest of the world by immense distances and time, have preserved among themselves recognisable memories of the Flood of Noah, sometimes in the most startling detail, lending a remarkable corroboration to what we read in the Book of Genesis.”
[2]
Gleaning precious information from all these accounts regarding the specific location where the
Arkfinally came to land has previously yielded little conclusive evidence (c.f. Humphreys
[3], who examines the biblical clues in particular and Habermehl
[4], who examines a number of claimed possible landing sites). To the question ‘where are the
Ark’s remains now?’ most scholars have had to reply ‘we simply do not know’ or ‘it must have been dismantled’. Nevertheless, a close examination of some of the more obscure flood accounts serves to elucidate tantalizing clues, which together with recent advances in ancient iconography may have a revolutionary impact upon both the Ark Studies Project and the study of all Ancient History. Let us begin our examination with the testimony of ancient historians:
WHERE THE ARK NOW RESIDES: THE TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS
As Crouse and Franz note: “…if such an Ark vessel once really existed, with the Scriptural dimensions of nearly 500 feet in length and being built of a durable wood and coated with a preservative such as tar, wouldn’t it make sense that it would have taken centuries, even millennia, to decay, and that everyone in the general vicinity would know where such a hulk would lie? We are not talking about a small relic that cannot be readily seen by the general populace. Over the centuries, indeed millennia, people would know about it; it would be a topic of conversation and people would want to see it.”
[5]
Indeed we learn this much from various ancient historians, as follows:
- Berosus extracted from Abydenus
The history of a Chaldean priest named Berosus has been preserved in a number of later sources still extant. The Greek historian Abydenus, who probably lived around 200 B.C., was one of those who recounted Berosus’ history. Abydenus relates regarding the Ark of Noah: “With respect to the vessel, which yet remains in
Armenia, it is a custom of the inhabitants to form bracelets and amulets of its wood.”
[6]
- Berosus extracted from Alexander Polyhistor
Another fragment from Berosus was preserved by the historian Alexander Polyhistor, who flourished in the first half of the first century B.C. He noted that:
“…the vessel was driven to the side of a mountain…” and “…the vessel, being thus stranded in
Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Gordyaean mountains in
Armenia; and the people scrape off the bitumen, with which it had been outwardly coated, and make use of it by way of an alexipharmic and amulet.”
[7]
A Medieval Jewish traveller, writing in the 12
th century, records that he travelled two days to an island in the Tigris on the foot of
Mt.Araraton which the ark rested. As Crouse and Franz record: “Omar Ben al-Khatab removed the
Arkfrom the summit of the two mountains and made a mosque of it…”
[8]
- Various authors extracted from Josephus
Finally, for the purposes of this argument, the Jewish historian Josephus refers to numerous historical sources which attest that the Arkwas freely accessible and indeed venerated in their times:
"However, the Armenians call this place, The Place of Descent; for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day…”
“Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ship in
Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs." Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris [i.e. a ship], upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved."
[9]
Notice here in Josephus the very intriguing observation that the mountain itself was called “Baris” from the Greek word
baris - which is a term for an "Egyptian boat", (probably deriving from the Egyptian
ba-y-r for "basket-shaped boat")
[10]. This might be a significant clue about the shape of the mountain, as we shall more fully appreciate later on. Meanwhile, carefully note that the Armenians themselves called the landing site “
The Place of Descent”.
This is corroborated by the Indian flood account of Manu and the Seven Sages. Julius Eggeling translates this flood account from the first ‘kânda’ of the
Ṡatapatha Brāhmaṇa thus:
“As the water subsides, thou mayest gradually descend!’ Accordingly, he gradually descended, and hence that (slope) of the northern mountain is called ‘Manu’s descent’!”
[11]
Here in the Indian Sanskrit account of the great flood we learn a further interesting morsel of information, namely that the Arklanded on a north facing slope and gradually sank down.
Moreover, in the Atharva Veda, Book 19, Hymn 39, Verse 8, Ralph Griffith’s translation reads:
“In the third heaven above us stands the Asvattha tree, the seat of Gods: There is embodiment of life that dies not: thence was Kushtha born. There moved through heaven a golden ship, a ship with cordage wrought of gold: There is embodiment of life that dies not; thence was Kushtha born. Where is the Sinking of the Ship, the summit of the Hill of Snow, There is embodiment of life that dies not: thence was Kustha born.”
[12]
Why all these seemingly obscure observations from Hindu Sanskrit records should be considered significant to the Ark’s current location will be gradually revealed as we consider the testimony of other nations to this strange ‘Place of Descent’.
THE TESTIMONY OF MESOPOTAMIA
The Mesopotamian flood accounts (including the Epic of Gilgamesh, Fragment CBM 13532 from the TempleLibrary of Nippur and the Epic of Atram-Hasis) are some of the most detailed of all extra-biblical sources. Here I want to make five important observations regarding them.
First, a recently discovered tablet of the Epic of Atram-Hasis
[13]has revealed that the Amorites who wrote the Epic believed the
Ark to be
circular in shape. As Maev Kennedy, writing in the British Newspaper ‘
The Guardian’ reports, cuneiform expert Irving Finkel’s translation makes this plain:
"Wall, wall! Reed wall, reed wall! Atram-Hasis, pay heed to my advice, that you may live forever! Destroy your house, build a boat; despise possessions And save life! Draw out the boat that you will build with a circular design; Let its length and breadth be the same."
A circular Arkmight sound like an obvious pagan corruption unworthy of further consideration, yet although the Arkclearly wasn’t a circular coracle, Finkel’s ‘Ark Tablet’ does actually bear wider significance for our interpretation of ANE iconography.
Second, Kennedy also notes that “…the tablet goes on to command the use of plaited palm fibre, waterproofed with bitumen, before the construction of cabins for the people and wild animals.”
Note carefully the use of plaited palm fibre in the Ark’s construction. (White palm fibre is one of the few strong natural fibres which is resistant to saltwater – a fact which explains its use in the manufacture of fishing nets). The palm tree itself will also become significant as we examine relevant ANE icons and symbols depicting the so-called ‘tree of life’ in our next subsection.
Third, however, consider an image depicted on the side of an alabaster trough from Uruk in Iraq.
Figure 1:Alabaster (or gypsum) trough from Uruk in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) (Courtesy of The British Museum. WA 120000, neg. 252077).
Two large reed standards frame what appears to be a reed house (or mudhif), into which animals are going two by two. Eight ‘life-forces’ can be seen springing from the top covering of the house.
Compare this image with Fragment CBM 13532 from the TempleLibrary of Nippur (discovered by Professor Hermann Hilprecht from the University of Pennsylvania) which recounts:
“Build a great ship and … total height shall be its structure. …it shall be a houseboat carrying what has been saved of life. … with a strong deck cover (it). [The ship] which thou shalt make [into it br]ing the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven…”
[14]
As Bill Cooper
[15]points out, the term ‘houseboat’ translates as ‘
ma-gurgurrum’ (or a boat which can be closed by a door), which is related to an old Semitic word, ‘
ma-kurru’, meaning ark.
Forth, consider if you will a few enigmatic sections from the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. As Fasold notes: “The landing site of the ship of Utnapishtim appears in tablet 11 in successive lines 140 through 144 five times. It is translated ‘Mount Nisir’. … The interesting thing about working with three root consonants is that
nṣr can be related to
nšr,
msr,
mṣr and
mzr. The most obvious would then be
nạsāru, ‘to keep something under guard.’
[16]
Importantly, cuneiform expert Irving Finkel corroborates this interpretation of the etymology of Niṣir in noting that: “…I still prefer Mount Niṣir because this is the Mesopotamian name for the mountain and the Babylonian root behind it,
naṣāru, ‘to guard, protect’, makes very good sense given the emphasis in this very
Gilgameshpassage on how the mountain holds the Ark fast and will not let it move.”
[17]
Intriguingly, in line 37 of the Epic, the ‘hero’ Gilgamesh finds himself by
MountMashu(or possibly Manu) as he journeys to meet Utnapishtim [who is the Babylonian equivalent of Noah in the Holy Bible
[18]]. Henri Nissen relates from the Epic that:
“The mountain is called Mashu. Then he reached Mount Mashu, which daily guards the rising and setting of the Sun, above which only the dome of the heavens reaches, and whose flank reaches as far as the Netherworld below, there were Scorpion-beings watching over its gate. Trembling terror they inspire, the sight of them is death, their frightening aura sweeps over the mountains, At the rising and setting they watch over the Sun.”
[19]
Nissen further notes that “…to the Sumerians, Mashu was a sacred mountain. Its name means ‘twin’ in Akkadian, and thus was it portrayed on Babylonian cylinder seals – a twin-peaked mountain, described by poets as both the seat of the gods, and the underworld.”
[20]Compare fully Figure 2 from Professor Marinatos.
Figure 2: Shamash the ‘Sun-god’ arising from between the twin peaks (note the two-faced ‘Janus’ bottom right, who may represent Noah) (from Marinatos, 2010)
Professor Nanno Marinatos also makes a very important connection here: “On Akkadian seals, [she writes] the sun god Shamash habitually rises between the twin peaks of a mountain ... the morphology of the sign is almost universal and designates the twin peaks of a cosmic mountain."
[21]
She, independently from Nissen, also finds correlation with the Epic of Gilgamesh:
"Gilgamesh...travels in search of...Utnapishtim. ... He comes to the cosmic mountMashu'which daily guards the ascent and descent of the sun'. ... This passage is a goldmine of information about Mesopotamian cosmology. First, we learn that Mashu is a cosmic mountain, the root of which is located in the underworld, where its peak reaches heaven. We also learn that the sun uses the mountain as a gate. This is important because it corresponds exactly to the images of the sun god rising between the mountain peaks engraved on the Akkadian seals."
Fifth, according to Marinatos this twin-peaked ‘cosmic mountain’, detailed as two peaks separated by a curved escarpment, is one of the central elements within an international ‘cultural koine’ which extended from the very earliest periods of recorded history to the very end of the ancient world. This distinctive and uniquely formed mountain is inseparably connected with the winged sun disc or circle – over which it was considered a ‘guardian’. The mountain therefore guards the embodiment of life. Recall that the Amorites in the Epic of Atra-Hasis spoke of the Ark’s plan as if it were ‘drawn out on a circle design’.
Could the Egyptian winged sun disc and the
Ark be morphologically cognate icons? Could the ‘Place of Descent’ recorded in Josephus as the Ark landing site also imply sinking into the ‘Underworld’ as the
Atharva Veda seems to imply? Indeed, could this twin-peaked mount actually be the very ‘mountains of Ararat’ mentioned in Genesis 8:4? Consider for a moment the many relevant seal cylinders which Elliot G. Smith
[22]has collated together from W. Hayes Ward’s book ‘The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia’ (1910) – Figure 3 (a)-(m). See Footnote
Figure 3:Collated cylinder seals from across Western Asia(courtesy of Smith, 2007)
Here in this compilation of ancient seals we can observe a number of relevant correlations which are highly suggestive of this thesis. In (a) we note that the sun disc resides between twin peaks, with cobras [scorpion beings?] on either side and wings extending to the horizon. Again, comparing icons (b) through to (d) we may note that the winged sun disc is positioned atop stylized icons of a solar palm or tree of life. In (e) this tree is more clearly a palm standard between the twin-peaked mountain, together with a sacred bird; whilst in (f) a morphologically cognate bird is found perched atop the Minoan Double Axe. Marinatos notes regarding this type of imagery: “We may easily understand why birds are associated with the sun. They are the first to wake up in the morning and greet the emerging disc; their presence on the same scene as the rising axe is thus quite meaningful.”
[23] Icons (i) and (k), on the other hand, are noteworthy because the former shows a winged gate from
Chaldea - and the latter shows a ‘god’ figure riding the Persian winged disc-boat above a fire-altar - suggestive of the twin-peaked mountain of dawn. Compare all these with (m) where the ‘god’ now arises from a crescent-shaped icon above the ‘tree of life’. All these correlations are suggestive of what Professor Marinatos herself describes as a shared international religious milieu or ‘cultural koine’ which acts as a lens through which the culture of the ANE can be better understood.
THE TESTIMONY OF CRETE
Nanno Marinatos is, in fact, a world expert in Minoan cultural art from the isle of Crete. Her remarkable thesis, recorded in ‘Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess’ (2010) deserves further summary at this point because of its significance for the Ark Studies Project.
In Chapter 4 of her extended thesis, Marinatos notes that the thrones or throne rooms of Minoan solar god-royalties are usually associated with griffins and palm trees.
“The first observation is that both griffin and palm are associated with the sun in Syrian glyptic. The palm is often linked with a winged rosette disc, a Levantine idiom of the Egyptian winged sun disc. We may draw further inference, which is of some consequence, that there existed stylized, human-made, wooden cult standards imitating the palm. This would explain why the solar disc (also part of the object) was attached on top…. Beatrice Teissier says: ‘The association of the sun with the palm was both an Egyptian and Mesopotamian concept but Syrian imagery was derived from the latter. In
Egyptthe palm was considered to be one of the seats of Re at his rising.”
[24]
Figures 4 and 5: Royal griffin and palm were closely
associated with the winged sun disc (from Marinatos, 2010)
In Chapter 5, it is noted that Cretan ‘houses of god’ were not necessarily independent structures but were integrated within larger buildings or they constituted an open-air sanctuary. Furthermore, these ‘divine dwellings’ contained symbolic architecture – in particular they incorporated ‘mountain-gate’ architecture (c.f. Figures 6 and 7).
Figures 6 and 7:Minoan ‘House of god’ – stone rhyton from Zakros (left) and clay votive model of a sanctuary from East Crete (right) (from Marinatos, 2010)
This gate architecture is intimately associated with the ‘underworld’. As the Professor carefully relates to those of us who are uninitiated to ANE lore: “Mountains are gates. Strange as this may seem to us, it was a common concept in Near Eastern mythology… The gate to the beyond is conceived as a double-peak mountain, sometimes guarded by lions … The idea that the mountain is a gate to the netherworld is supported by linguistic evidence. The Sumerian word
kurmeans both ‘mountain’ and ‘underworld’.”
[25]
Chapter 8 of Marinatos’ thesis is particularly significant for the Ark Studies Project. Marinatos begins by redefining the meaning of a Minoan hieroglyph:
"Generations of scholars have relied on these two giants of Minoan religion [Evans and Nilsson - ed.] for the interpretation of the sign [Minoan hieroglyph 37 of the old palace period] as bull's horns...[yet other theories came from] Dutch scholar W.B. Kristensen and the German scholar W. Gaerte, who both regarded the so-called horns as mountains, pointing to the similarity with the equivalent Egyptian ideogram...”
Indeed, this identification of the horns of consecration with this twin-peaked mountain was made by Professor Newberry
[26] of
Liverpool as early as 1908.
Marinatos continues: “Barry Powell demonstrated it in 1977... in more recent years, Alexander MacGillivray and Vance Watrous have also returned to this view. I endorse it here as well and will add additional visual evidence that makes it unlikely that the symbol is anything but the twin peak mountain depicting the east and west points of the horizon. ... the Minoan symbol is almost identical to the Egyptian cosmic mountain. The Egyptian symbol consists of two peaks that define the horizon between which the sun disc rises…On Akkadian seals of the third millennium we find a very similar rendition of the mountain represented as two scaly cones that signify ‘land’…In Syria and Anatolia, the twin peaks also symbolize a mountain, sometimes a double one… The twin peak mountain defines the edges of the cosmos. … A symbol so common to Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt and designating ‘mountain’ must have had a similar meaning in Crete… It has previously been mentioned that we do not see offerings (bread, meat, incense, etc.) between the peaks of the object that has been redefined as a mountain; therefore, its function cannot have been to sanctify offerings. Instead, the two peaks frame a tree…a double axe…or a god… All of these are symbols of cosmic significance and not votives that can be consecrated.”
![]()
Figure 8: a) Minoan b) Egyptian c) Akkadian and d) Syrian representations (from Marinatos, 2010)
The full evidence Marinatos gathers is highly persuasive. Some icons clearly depict a curved escarpment between two rounded peaks whilst others simplify the image as two separate hillocks or two more pointed ‘knife like’ objects [Figure 9].
Figure 9: Bronze votive tablet from the cave of Psychro showing the twin-peaked mountain as two ‘knife-like’ peaks (from Marinatos, 2010, pg. 108)
Yet the central motif always remains the same:
“On a seal from Vapheio [she continues] a tree rises between the two peaks of the mountain...” [Figure 10] … “In summary: the tree rising between the Minoan twin-peak mountain is not consecrated as an offering but constitutes the tree of life. This is the solar palm...”
Figures 10 and 11:A seal from Vapheio (left) and a Minoan seal from Kydonia (right) (from Marinatos, 2010)
And again: “On a seal from Cretan Kydonia we meet something even more striking: instead of a tree there is a god standing between the mountain peaks and receiving homage from a Minoan demon and a goat.” [Figure 11].
Later, in chapters 9 through 14 of her book, Professor Marinatos focuses upon a number of long-standing riddles in Minoan iconography. These riddles concern some perplexing questions such as ‘why does the [Minoan] double axe rise from the cosmic mountain?’; ‘why does the double axe appear between the horns of a bovine head?’; ‘why does the double axe turn into a lily?’ and ‘why is the double axe both in the underworld and the sky?’
Her conclusions are equally remarkable! “The double axe is a regenerative symbol suggesting growth or development. It is the visual manifestation of the Egyptian concept of ‘coming forth by day’ and the equivalent of the lotus giving birth to the primeval sun/child…”
[27]
“The sacred mountain with its twin peaks, the incurved altar, the rosette, and the double axe are either landmarks in the sun’s journey or allomorphs of the sun disc itself. … The key to their meaning is the symmetry of their form, which reflects the dual world traversed by the sun in its journey in the sky and underworld respectively. ...the Minoans intended a deliberate ambiguity between ‘horns’ and ‘mountain peaks’ because both the ox or cow and the mountain embrace the sun in mythical thinking; in some ways they give birth to it. The Minoans deliberately played with the form: horns look like mountain peaks… The Egyptians did the same, as we see on a ceiling from the
palace of Malkata”.
[28][Figures 12 and 13].
Figures 12 and 13:The Minoan Calf with Double Axe (left) and a ceiling painting from the palace of Malkata (from Marinatos, 2010)
What are we to make of all this? Is there any further evidence that the sun disc and the Ark are morphologically cognate icons? Could the sacred twin-peaked mountain really be equivalent to the ‘mountains of Ararat’? As we shall now see, the forgotten solar cult teachings of the Old Kingdom of Egypt hold a highly probable answer to these questions.
THE TESTIMONY OF EGYPT
Bill Cooper sums up previous interpretations of Egyptian origins when he writes:
“Concerning any distinct memories of the Great Flood amongst the Egyptians, we have to say that almost all trace of them is lost – or dimmed almost to the point of obliteration. Records discovered so far make no mention of it – assuming there are no more surprises in store…”
[29]
Well it seems that a huge surprise is, in fact, in store! For it appears that not only did the early Egyptians record the story of the Great Flood in great detail on their temple walls and papyri, they also venerated the Ark and the cosmic twin-peaked mountain to the extent that the whole Giza plateau with its central twin-pyramids and sphinx could be one vast enigmatic representation of it - garbed in complex geometry!
To explain this bold supposition, we must begin with some of the most ancient cosmogonies of Egypt– from the four cult centres of Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis and Thebes.
In general, all four cosmogonies relate the same story in different ways. The oldest and purist of the four cosmogonies belongs to Thoth’s cult centre of Hermopolis.
Robert Armour
[30]notes an early papyrus which records of the ‘Ogdoad [or Eight] of Hermopolis’ account: “Salutations to you, you Five Great Gods, Who come out of the City of Eight, You who are not yet in heaven, You who are not yet upon the earth, You who are not yet illuminated by the sun”.
Figures 14 and 15:The Ogdoad of Hermopolis depicted in Ancient Egyptian Icons (left) from Ancient Egypt, edited by David P. Silverman, p. 121; photograph from the Book of the Dead of Khensumose (right) Detail from the Astronomical Ceiling at the Temple of Hathor at Iunet, first strip west (© Olaf Tausch)
He continues:
“The poem tells how, on the Island of Flame, the primeval hill similar to the one on which Ra arose, the four gods came into being at the same time; they were seen as some sort of force that existed between heaven and earth…Each element brought with him his female component, giving the total of eight elements. The group included Nun, the god of the primeval ocean already seen in the mythology of Heliopolis, and his consort Naunet; Heh, the god of the immeasurable, who with his consort Heket was responsible for raising the sun; Kek, the god of darkness, and his consort Keket gave the world the darkness of night so that the sun would have a place to shine; and Amun, the god of mystery, the hidden, and nothingness, who with his consort Amaunet brought the air which breathed life into everything. The four males were depicted as frogs and the females as serpents swimming around in the mud and slime of chaos…Eventually the eight elements came together and out of their union came the primeval egg which could not be seen because it existed before there was light. Out of the egg came the light of the sun which the eight raised up into the sky”.
Veronica Ions adds more important detail to the Ogdoad ‘cosmogony’ which we quote in extenso:
“The four male deities of the Ogdoad were depicted in Egyptian art with frogs’ heads, and the four female deities had serpents’ heads. This would seem to derive from another tradition in Hermopolis which likened the eight primordial gods to the amphibious life which swarmed…in the mud left behind by the annually receding
Nilefloodwaters. Thus instead of creating the primeval mound, the Eight would be conceived as hatching out on to it. As in the other cult centres, the city was declared to be on the site of the primeval hill. In a park attached to the temple was a sacred lake called the ‘Sea of the Two Knives’ from which emerged the ‘Isle of Flames’. This island was said to be the primeval hill and was a great place of pilgrimage and the setting for much ritual. Four variants of the creation myth as told at Hermopolis were connected with this lake and this island. In the first, the world was said to have originated in a cosmic egg…this was laid by the celestial goose which first broke the silence of the world and was known as the ‘Great Cackler’. The egg, laid on the primeval mound, contained the bird of light, Ra, who was to be creator of the world. Other sources said that the egg contained air – a tradition more in keeping with the Ogdoad legend. The remains of the egg were shown to pilgrims at Hermopolis. The second version was similar to the first, except that in this case the egg was laid by an ibis – the bird representing Thoth, god of the moon and of wisdom… The third variant of the Hermopolitan doctrine reverted to the imagery of creation out of the waters, and was exceptionally poetic. According to this version, a lotus flower rose out of the waters of the ‘Sea of the Two Knives’. When its petals opened the calyx of the flower was seen to bear a divine child, who was Ra. The forth version of this legend was that the lotus opened to reveal a scarab beetle (symbol of the sun); the scarab then transformed itself into the boy… Indeed in Hermopolis the lotus was sometimes specifically identified with the Eye of Ra. The lotus is a flower which opens and closes every day: it could therefore easily be associated with the cult of the sun god, which it bore within its petals. By opening his Eye, Ra was said to separate day from night… The Ogdoad were said…to have created the lotus bearing the sun-god, and this lotus rose out of the waters…”
[31]
These accounts contain some highly significant information derived from diverse Egyptian hieroglyphic texts (principally the Papyrus Leiden 1350 (New Kingdomcirca 1567-1085 BC). First, note from Armour that the myth concerns the ‘Eight elements’ – four males and four females – the ‘ancestors of the gods’. This bears a striking parallel to the biblical account of Noah and his family of seven. Second, note the symbolism associated with each of the eight – Nun the ‘primeval ocean’. Of this same Nun ‘god’, Egyptologist Sung Hwan Yoo notes:
“In ancient
Egypt the sky was often thought of as a watery region, and Nut was closely associated with Mehet-Weret (
mhjjt wrt) “Great Flood,” a female counterpart of Nun. Sometimes envisioned as a cow astride the earth, Nut was paired or even identified with Mehet-Weret who was shown as a cow-headed woman or a cow carrying a child (J. Allen 1989: 16; B. Lesko 1999: 23-24; Pinch 2002: 163). In this connection, Mehet-Weret stands as a primeval cow goddess who gave birth to the sun-god. It is interesting to note that Mehet-Weret gave birth to the sun in the form of a calf, as mentioned in the Pyramid Texts Spell 485A (Pyr. § 1029a-b) … “This Pepi has come to you, Re, a calf of gold to whom Nut gave birth, a fatted calf of gold whom Hezat created” (Barta 1984: 167). The statement calls to mind the fact that Ihy, regarded as one of the sun-children, is born as a calf (Hoenes 1980: 125).”
[32]
This is the same sacred animal found in ‘
The Book of the Heavenly Cow’
[33], inscribed in the tombs of Seti I, Ramesses II and Ramesses III, which book contains numerous parallels to the biblical flood.
[34]
Figure 16: Mehet-Weret (mhjjt wrt) [35] meaning “Great Flood,” along with the solar barque (boat) of Ra underneath her leg and Shu holding up the heavens[36]
Also note the ‘coming forth by day’ or the rising of the sun, the darkness of night and the reference to life – signified in many other accounts by the solar palm or tree of life.
Third, note the sacred lake called ‘The Sea of Two Knives’ and the ‘Isle of Flames’. This may be paralleled with the twin-peaked mountain, as depicted in the form previously seen in Figure 9. It may also bear significance for the waters of the flood and the first land peaks seen after the waters receded:
“And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.” Genesis 8:5
Here we learn that the ‘Isle of Flames’ was more like a ‘primeval hill’ or twin-peaked ‘mud mound’ rather than a large volcanic mountain like Mount Ararat itself. At the same time, we learn that it may have been called ‘The Great Cackler’ because it appears to have acted as a natural harbour-nest or ‘guardian’ for the cosmic egg (or Ark) – hence the bird imagery we have encountered previously.
Finally we learn two other important facts which may bear deeper meaning:
In the first instance, we discover from Ion’s text that the biconvex shape of the Eye of Ra was “specifically identified” with the lotus flower in Hermopolis - and hence the sun disc also because of the koine established by Marinatos. Therefore, of large consequence is the fact that the Eye of Ra is another allomorph of the Arkitself. This is corroborated by Professor Finkel, who adds regarding the shape of the Ark in various cuneiform tablets:
“We can identify the characteristic shape of the
makurru [i.e. ark] with the help of a geometrical diagram from the world of cuneiform educational mathematics…. This shows two circles, drawn with one overlapping the other. Here a Babylonian teacher is expounding the mathematical properties of the pointed almond or biconvex shape generated by such intimate circles. We learn from him at the same time that this shape is called
makurru, which will therefore evoke or correspond to the outline of a contemporary
makurru boat, seen from above.
[37]”
In the second instance, we discover that this entire Ogdoad ‘cosmogony’ was the subject of much ritual and pilgrimage in the Old Kingdom. This could be, remarkably, the interpretive key to the whole of the Giza plateau and the ancient pyramids.
Some explanatory background in the euhemeristic interpretation of mythology is necessary here. In 1807, Jacob Bryant published ‘A New System; Or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology’. In this work, Bryant made some logical inferences of considerable importance for the Ark Studies Project. He noted that:
“Such was the Gentile history of the Deluge: varied indeed, and in some measure adapted to the prejudices of those who wrote; yet containing all the grand circumstances with which that catastrophe was attended. The story had been so inculcated, and the impressions left upon the minds of men were so strong, that they seem to have referred to it continually; and to have made it the principal subject of their religious institutions. I have taken notice of a custom among the priests of Amon, who at particular seasons used to carry in procession a boat, in which was an oracular shrine, held in great veneration. They were said to have been eighty in number; and to have carried the sacred vessel about, just as they were directed by the impulse of the Deity. … I mentioned at the same time, that this custom of carrying the Deity in an ark or boat was in use among the Egyptians, as well as the people of Ammonia. … The ship of
Isis is well known; and the celebrity among the Egyptians, whenever it was carried in public. The name of this, and of all the navicular shrines was Baris: which is very remarkable; for it was the very name of the mountain, according to Nicolaus Damascenus, on which the ark of Noah rested; the same as Ararat in
Armenia. … We may be assured then that the ship of
Isiswas a sacred emblem; in honour of which there was among the Egyptians an annual festival. It was in aftertimes admitted among the Romans, and set down in their Calendar for the month of March. The former in their descriptions of the primary deities have continually some reference to a ship or float. … They oftentimes, says Porphyry, describe the sun in the character of a man sailing on a float. And Plutarch observes to the same purpose, that they did not represent the sun and the moon in chariots; … but wafted about upon floating machines. In doing which they did not refer to the luminaries; but to a personage represented under those titles. The Sun, or Orus, is likewise described by Iamblichus as sitting upon the lotus, and sailing in a vessel. … The same memorial is to be observed in other countries, where an ark, or ship, was introduced in their mysteries, and often carried about upon their festivals. Pausanias gives a remarkable account of a
templeof
Hercules at Eruthra in Ionia; which he mentions as of the highest of antiquity, and very like those in
Egypt. The Deity was represented upon a float; and was supposed to have come thither in this manner from Phenicia. … Aristides mentions, that at
Smyrna, upon the feast called Dionusia, a ship used to be carried in procession. The same custom prevailed among the Athenians at the Panathenæa; when what was termed the sacred ship was borne with great reverence through the city to the
temple of Damaterof Elusis. … I think it is pretty plain, that all these emblematical representations, of which I have given so many instances, related to the history of the Deluge, and the conservation of one family in the ark. I have before taken notice, that this history was pretty recent when these works were executed in
Egypt, and when these rites were first established: and there is reason to think, that in early times most shrines among the Mizraim were formed under the resemblance of a ship, in memory of this great event. … in the ancient mythology of
Egypt, there were precisely eight Gods: of these the Sun was the chief, and was said first to have reigned. … And as in the histories of their kings, the Egyptians were able to trace the line of their descent upwards to these ancient personages; the names of the latter were by these means prefixed to those lists: and they were in aftertimes thought to have reigned in that country. This was the celebrated Ogdoas of Egypt, which their posterity held in such veneration, that they exalted them to the heavens, and made their history the chief subject of the sphere. This will appear very manifest in their symbolical representation of the solar system. … Thus we find that they esteemed the ark an emblem of the system of the heavens. … The vessel in the celestial sphere, which the Grecians call the Argo, is a representation of the ship of Osiris, which out of reverence has been placed in the heavens. The original therefore must be looked for in
Egypt. The very name of the Argo shews, what it alluded to; for Argus, as it should truly be expressed, signified precisely an ark, and was synonymous to Theba. … The principal terms, by which the ancients distinguished the
Ark, were Theba, Baris, Arguz, Argus, Aren, Arene, Arne, Laris, Boutus, Bœotus, Cibotus.”
[38]
Following Bryant’s pioneering euhemeristic analysis of mythology, in Figure 16 we may recall that the cow Mehet-Weret, representing the ‘Great Flood’ is ridden out by the
solar barque of Ra (or Sokar). Depictions of the Egyptian solar funerary barque vary in detail yet contain fascinating information. Marinatos also makes the connection between Egyptian barques and the solar deity in a different context altogether. “Consider one example on an Egyptian Nineteenth Dynasty sarcophagus [of Seti I – ed.] that shows the journey of the elongated polelike sun bark. It ends in two ox heads and is pulled by deities. … Here, the ox heads define the east and west axis of the pole. Thus, in Egyptian imagery the ox heads envelop the sun’s course between east and west.”
[39] In Figures 17-20 are shown some different renditions of this solar barque in association with what might be the cosmic twin-peaked mountain:
Figures 17: The Solar Barque of the Ogdoad – from the papyrus of Anhai (or Ani)
Figure 18: The Funerary Barque of Sokar – from the temple complex of Dendera, Egypt.
Note the falcon atop the palm standard.
Figure 19: Sokar Barque in the Bull Hall of the Temple of Ramesses II at Abydos.
Note the Eight are here depicted in the form of birds – two larger, six smaller.
Figure 20: The Sokar/Seker/Sokaris or Henu Barque of the Underworld – or divine boat of Nu from the Papyrus of Anhai (Ani). Note (right) the falcon or sparrow-hawk atop the hieroglyph for ‘west’
positioned between the peaks of the cosmic mountain
We may note from these reliefs and glyphs a number of significant observations. First, the solar barque shown in Figure 17 (from the papyrus of Ani) has Eight people standing within the barque and one of them (the sun-god Heh or Kheper-Ra) is represented as a scarab beetle lifting up the Sun. Another large ‘god-figure’ (Shu or Nun) stands in a pose with their two arms either end of the barque supporting it. This pose may be considered morphologically cognate to the twin peaks of the cosmic mountain arising from the waters.
Second, note in Figure 18 from the Temple of Dendera that a falcon is standing atop the binary symbol of a solar palm standard (which also doubles as a fish stood on its mouth). Compare this with Figure 20 from the papyrus of Ani, where the falcon (Sokar/Seker) is portrayed in the solar barque in a recumbent position covered in white mummy bindings – possibly a recollection of the plaited palm fibre which the Epic of Atram-Hasis mentioned was used in the ark’s construction? What is the significance of the bird imagery? This seems to elucidate Ion’s comment on the Ogdoad story that: “…the egg, laid on the primeval mound, contained the bird of light, Ra, who was to be creator of the world.” It also sheds light on why the sun disc is often associated with a winged bird, a tradition carried into Greecevia the Sun Bird or Phoenix.
Also notice that from the back of the barque in Figure 20 arise what appear to be lines of rope holding what could be interpreted to be approximately 20 drogue stones. This is significant, as we shall discover in our final section on potential Ark field data. Finally, observe that the entire cult teaching of ancient Egyptwas centred around these ritual barques – meaning that the Arkand its allomorphs probably have significance for the geometry of the Giza plateau itself.
Egyptologist Robert Temple has clearly identified two geometric squares on the Gizaplateau, which he terms the ‘Shadow Square’ and the ‘Perfect Square’. The Shadow Square was used to make the Perfect Square. Both are associated with the sun, solar deities - and with the enigmatic hiding of cultic dogma.
Figure 21: The ‘Eye of Ra’ (or Ark‘makurru’ shape) geometrical hieroglyph superimposed on Giza plateau satellite image (courtesy of Temple, 2011, pg. 34. Also see footnote )
He observes that: “The first thing one can do with the Perfect Square of
Gizais to construct a giant Eye of Ra gazing upwards at the sky. It is a purely geometrical design, which is not physically represented on the ground. However, it is not just an arbitrary Eye of Ra, but is one which is constructed of two arcs and a circle, each of which intersects key points of the Giza monuments…This inscribed hieroglyph intersects (1) the apex of the Great Pyramid, (2) the southeast corner of the Great Pyramid, (3) the midpoint of the waist of the Sphinx, (4) the midpoint of the base of the western face of the Pyramid of Chephren. If you take a compass point and put it on the centre of the Perfect Square, point O, and draw a circle of radius OP, it intersects both point P (the midpoint of the base of the southern face of the Great Pyramid) and the midpoint of the base of the northern face of the Pyramid of Chephren. The ‘Eye of Ra’ thus intersects six key points of the monuments within the Perfect Square of
Giza.”
[40]
What immediately strikes one about the ‘Eye of Ra’ secretly inscribed upon the Giza plateau underneath layers of geometry is that the centre of the eye is precisely located in between the two larger pyramids – in the same manner as other cosmic allomorphs of the Ark have been too in our study of the
koine. This location matches precisely a real life location which David Deal
[41]has proposed for the initial landing site of the
Arknear
MountYigiturtagi in South-Eastern Turkey, based upon a mud imprint which looks like the Durupinar boat-shaped object yet is narrower. This imprint, seen via aerial photograph, is not central to the twin-peak, but slightly off-set towards the peak on the left.
THE CITY AND TOWER OF BABEL ON THE GIZA PLATEAU?
Here, therefore, at Giza - we appear to have a codified cult rendition of the cosmic ‘landscape of the gods’ found in the koine– complete with the twin-peaked mountain (the Great Pyramid of Cheops and the Pyramid of Chephren), the Underworld or ‘mud sunken ark’ (represented by the shaft of Osiris which is slanted at the golden angle of 26° 33̍ 54̎ - the angle David Fasold also found to be a central design feature of his boat-shaped object) and subsequently the passage of the Ark through the Underworld (represented by the Causeway of Chephren leading towards the Sphinx).
What we have represented by the
Giza monuments is clearly a ‘gate of the gods’ or in Akkadian itself ‘
Bāb-ilu’, literally: gate of god. This is true because the two larger pyramids strongly seem to represent the cosmic twin-peaked
mountain of Mashu or Nisir and the Summer Solstice repeats annually the descent of the sun disc from the waters of the Great Flood into the Underworld. Such a hypothesis would also suggest that the original city of
Babel in Genesis 11 has been misidentified as that famous city of
Sumerian Mesopotamia. Remarkably, Coptic Cairo (next to the
Giza plateau) was in Persian times (6
th century B.C.) known as
Babylon[42]. Further, the text of Genesis 11:3-4 reads:
“And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [is] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
It is tempting to postulate that the city
and tower with its “top unto heaven” mentioned in Genesis 11:4 could well refer to the Eye of Ra or
Ark hieroglyph geometrically inscribed upon the plateau. The Hebrew word for ‘tower’ is
migdal (MG-DL) – figuratively defined in Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon as a ‘pyramidal bed of flowers’.
[43] If this supposition is correct, we might expect the Holy Bible to suggest this location – and it does appear to. Genesis 11: 2 states:
“And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar…”.
This verse has been the subject of much debate because the most obvious reading of the Hebrew word
miqqedem, ‘from the east’, is highly precise. Theologian John Gill comments that: “…it seems a little difficult how to interpret this phrase, "from the east", since if they came from Ararat in Armenia, where the ark rested, as that lay north of Shinar or Babylon, they might rather be said to come from the north than from the east, and rather came to it than from it: so some think the phrase should be rendered, "to the east" (b), or eastward, as in Genesis 13:11. Jarchi thinks this refers to Genesis 10:30 "and their dwelling was", &c. at "the mountain of the east"…”
[44]. Yet as Humphreys notes: “The noun
qedem, in a geographic sense, means ‘east’, or sometimes ‘front’ (the front of the tabernacle was its east side). According to lexicons, the Hebrew prefix
mi (short for
min) most often means ‘from’ (including when used as a prefix to another Hebrew word). Hence we have ‘from [the] east’. Occasionally the phrase may mean ‘to the east’, as is faintly possible in Genesis 13:11. But I think use of a different preposition, l
e, meaning ‘to’, would have been more likely had that been the case. Very often, however, ‘eastward’ is a different word,
qēdemah, as in Genesis 13:14, 25:6, Leviticus 1:16, Numbers 3:38, etc. So our first hypothesis should be to take the phrase in Genesis 11:2 as meaning the Flood survivors traveled from some point in the east, i.e. they travelled westward.
[45]”
This clear and straightforward interpretation creates a riddle, however, because assuming the mountains of Ararat have been identified correctly, to reach Babylon of Mesopotamian ‘Shinar’ they would need to have travelled directly south for approximately 447 miles. So unless the growing family travelled south and then entered the Sumerian plain from the eastern Zagros Mountains this verse really cannot be understood straightforwardly. Yet if it refers to crossing the Sinai Peninsula and arriving at the Gizaplateau it can be understood far more naturally.
Is there further evidence for this interpretation? Indeed, for John Gill continues: “…they found a plain in the land of Shinar; which the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the land of Babylon; and Hestiaeus (c), a Phoenician historian, calls it Sennaar of Babylon; there are plain traces of this name in the Singara of Ptolemy (d) and Pliny (e), the Hebrew letter being sometimes pronounced as "G", as in Gaza…”
[46]. It is really not a far stretch from this to our modern name of ‘
Giza’! “Sin-gara” may even have reference to the moon god ‘Sin’, who also occurs as the high deity in Finkel’s Ark Tablet
[47].
Indeed, a mud-brick lost city area (known locally as
Gebel Qibli) associated with the
Giza plateau, where those who actually constructed the pyramid monuments lived and ate, had a population of approximately 20,000. These 20,000 appear to have built the complex entirely voluntarily
[48]. This would fit naturally with the population increase after the Flood from the Eight aboard the
Arkas they freely conspired to unify themselves under one banner. There even seems good archaeological evidence that the settlement was abandoned in a rapid salvage operation:
“Beneath the sandy layer lies a compact surface of gray soil, which resulted from a rapid, seemingly intentional, toppling of mud brick settlement walls. Inhabitants abandoned the settlement and stripped nearly everything of value: wooden columns, stone doorsteps, even many mud bricks.”
[49]
This is just as Genesis 11:8 notes: “So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
Observe, moreover, that the Sphinx guardian (possibly representing Sothis) is facing Eastwards toward the sunrise and for interest compare Figure 21 – a photograph of the sphinx – with what Smith describes of Figure 23: “An Egyptian picture of Hathor between the mountains of the horizon (on which trees are growing) (after Budge, "Gods of the Egyptians," Vol. II, p. 101). [This is a part only of a scene in which the goddess Nut is giving birth to the sun, whose rays illuminate Hathor on the horizon, as Sothis, the "Opener of the Way" for the sun.]”
[50]The correspondence is of considerable consequence – especially when one understands that Hathor was often depicted with the sun disc between her bovine horns (morphologically similar to the Minoan double axe of
Crete).
Figure 21: The Sphinx between the twin peaks (from The image of the East : nineteenth-century Near Eastern photographs by Bonfils, Carney E.S. Gavin; edited by Ingeborg Endter O'Reilly,
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1982)
Figure 22: The Summer Solstice sunset behind the Sphinx (© Juan Antonio Belmonte) taken from ‘Area A’ – the lost workers’ city of Gebel Qibli.Note the Sphinx is slightly off-set from central - towards the pyramid on the left.
Figure 23: The cow goddess Hathor between the twin peaks and framed by a gate to the underworld
(from Smith, 2007, Figure 26, pg. 189)
Viewing
Giza as an artificial ‘mountain-gate’, as the ANE
koine dictates, also has consequence for our interpretation of Egyptian mythology. According to Ions: “From the time when Ra returned to the heavens, an immutable order was established for him. The world was bounded by mountains which supported the sky and at whose foot was Naunet, the consort of Nun in Hermopolitan doctrine. The sun was therefore reborn daily either from the watery abyss or alternatively as son of the sky-goddess. He emerged in the east from behind Manu, the mountain of sunrise, and passing between two sycamores, began his journey across the sky in what was called the Manjet-boat, or ‘Barque of Millions of Years’.”
[51]
It seems that early post-flood peoples of Babelwanted to make a name for themselves as ‘children of the ark’. They wanted to represent the journey of the ‘life-saver’ Arkand the depth of the global flood, which they did via comparison with the ‘life-giving’ Sun disc, sailing across the deep blue sky, beginning from the natural twin-peaked mountain in the east and descending to the underworld via the artificial twin-peaked mountain in the west (i.e. the Giza monuments).
Consider moreover that at the foot of the Sphinx, behind which the Summer Solstice sun sets, we have two temples – called the Sphinx and
ValleyTemples today. In ancient times these probably belonged to Osiris (the god of ‘resurrection’) and Isis - and were located near water (as evidenced by erosion). Inside these temples were sacred artificial lakes and cultic boat relics. As Robert Temple notes, a golden solar boat procession would proceed all around the
Giza area during the Festival of Sokar, which we may understand as a pagan remembrance of the Great Flood
[52]. Many boat pits have in fact since been discovered beneath the
Giza plateau, indicating that Robert Temple cannot be far wrong in his reasoning.
[53]
A LOCATION REVISTED: DURUPINAR’S BOAT MAY BE NOAH’S ARK
From our study of Noah’s Ark in ancient history, we have discovered much new information regarding what the ancients believed about the location of the Ark, its construction - and possibly how it actually looked to them. There are, to date, four main contenders for where the Arklanded.
- Mount Ararat itself
- Durupinar
- North-West Iran, (Sahand or Sabalan)
- Cudi Dagh (Eastern or Central)
Mount Araratis an enormous volcanic mountain that contains many perils – therefore it is unlikely to be the landing place. Sites three and four are unlikely due to other reasons we shall not go into here. This study of the ANE koine, however, strongly suggests that the northern slope of the twin-peaked MountYigiturtagi(background of Figure 24), near the Durupinar Egyptian boat-shaped object analysed by David Fasold, is the most probable location for the rebirth of humankind.
Figure 24: In the distance - distinctive mountYigiturtagi (possibly called Baris or Nisir) – the cosmic twin-peaked mountain with apparent Egyptian basket-boat object in the foreground mud-flow (from Nissen, 2004)
Figure 25: Life Magazine first published the Airborne Photograph of the biconvex makurru boat-shape in 1960 (Image courtesy of Nissen, 2004, pg. 194)
Figure 26: The Ark as reconstructed by Fasold had many ‘Egyptian’ features including a 1 acre or 'iku' deck area - see Footnote below, and the natural golden angle in its curved bow and stern (Image courtesy of Fasold, 1988). This boat-shaped object now deserves the benefit of the doubt since despite some believing it a doubly plunging syncline formation this does not explain the geometry of the object described here by S.R. Windsor: [WWW] http://www.creationism.org/patten/WindsorNoahsArkGeometry.html (Accessed on 08/02/14)
Important in corroborating this particular twin-peaked mountain even further is the Babylonian map of the World known as mappa mundi. Surrounding the outer portion of this map were originally eight mountain icons in the shape of triangles. These are known as nagûs. Professor Irving Finkel notes that the cuneiform on mountain or Nagû V (which points towards the Urartu area of the MountYigiturtagi region) reads:
“[To the fift]h, to which you must travel seven Leagues, […]. [The Great Wall,] its height is 840 cubits; […].
[54]”
This map is reconstructed by Finkel on page 296, where the cuneiform is translated:
“Great Wall, 6 leagues in between, where the sun is not seen”
Interestingly, this name corresponds directly to the description “wall of heaven” in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where this same ‘wall’ is identified with MountMashu’s twin peaks which guard the rising and setting of the sun.
Additionally, eleven apparent drogue stones (used to create drag in the water) found nearby to the boat-shaped formation correspond with images of the solar barque made in ancient Egypt. Although there is some dispute about whether these stones are ancient drogue stones, their apparent correspondence with the Egyptian bark of Sokar is suggestive.
The Ark of Noah, then, appears to have come to rest between Yigiturtagi’s twin peaks (the geographically western peak being known as Ziyaret Dag or Pilgrim’s Mount and the eastern peak being known as Al Cudi – similar to Noah’s landing place ‘Al Judi’ in the Koran) and been sheltered by the curved escarpment in between as the waters gradually descended (this curved escarpment is a unique feature of the mount only truly appreciated when viewed from the northern mud-flow). Only this explanation can fully account for all the relevant twin-peak cosmic mountain iconography across the whole ANE, Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.
At some point soon after landfall, the Ark appears to have been enveloped in the large mud flow (visible in Figure 24) which buried the reed, palm and wood structure underground so as to transform the Lily/Lotus/Eye/Double Axe/Rosette or Cosmic Egg into the Underworld ‘Place of Descent’ of ANE mythology. The Egyptians, at Giza, probably captured the passage of the Arkthrough the mudflow geometrically by building the Chephren Causeway between the pyramids to represent where the Arkfirst landed and where it later flowed to under gravity. Recall that the Causeway ends in the Temple of Osiris (the god of resurrection) which was built in front of the sphinx.
At this point, the Egyptian model of the
MountYigiturtagiarea corresponds in striking fashion, since right next to where the boat-shaped object became more pronounced in AD 1948 is an area known by the name of ‘Mashur’
[55]meaning ‘Resurrection’. Additionally, 13 miles away from Mount Ararat is the area known as Doğubayazit, which during the Middle Ages was known as ‘
Terra Thamanin’, or the ‘Region (or Valley) of the Eighty’
[56]. Is it sheer coincidence that this number precisely corresponds with the eighty Egyptian priests of Amon, who Jacob Bryant has previously informed us used to carry a sacred boat object in procession? It seems in all likelihood that this figure precisely corresponds in Egyptian history and the etymology of ancient Doğubayazit because the eighty priests were once associated with that specific locality in South-Eastern Turkey.
CONCLUSION
This thesis, based upon the ANE koineinferred through the complex comparison of ancient icons from diverse locations, accounts for the bizarre nature of the Egyptian cult system, which was concerned with the symmetry of the heavens being replicated as in a mirror on the ground – and the passage of the pharaoh’s soul after death. The cosmic mountain (pyramids) at Babel acted as a ‘gate’ and ‘guardian’ for the Sun (Ark), and when the Sun sank from the ‘Great Flood’ (cow) it passed into the Underworld (mudflow) before being ‘reborn’ when Ra opened his Eye again (earthquake or such like). Peer reviewed archaeological and scientific evidence for the Durupinar site has so farbeen less than adequate to make a firm objective decision either way about the boat-shaped object. Archaeologically the site has yielded little firm evidence which can be independently confirmed. Nevertheless, judging by the koine of ancient iconography we may safely say the Ark of Noah has already been found – and verification of the boat shaped object through excavation is now essential to settle the matter conclusively.
Footnotes 1-3:
Key to Smith’s images in Figure 3: “(a) Winged Disk from the
Temple of ThothmesI.
(b) Persian design of Winged Disk above the Tree of Life (Ward, … Fig. 1109).
(c) Assyrian or Syro-Hittite design of the Winged Disk and Tree of Life in an extremely conventionalized form (Ward, Fig. 1310). i.e. W. Hayes Ward ‘The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia’. 1910
(d) Assyrian conventionalized Winged Disk and Tree of Life, from the design upon the dress of Assurnazipal (Ward, Fig. 670).
(e) Part of the design from a tablet of the time of Dungi (Ward, Fig. 663). The Tree of Life (or the Great Mother) between the two mountains: alongside the tree is the heraldic eagle.
(f) Design on a Cretan sarcophagus from Hagia Triada (Blinckenberg, Fig. 9). The Tree of Life has now become the handle of the Double Axe, into which the Winged Disk has been transformed. But the bird which was the prototype of the Winged Disk has been added.
(g) Double axe from a gold signet from Acropolis Treasure, Mycenæ (after Sir Arthur Evans, "Mycenæan Tree and Pillar Cult," p. 10).
(h) Assyrian Winged Disk (Ward, Fig. 608) showing reduplication of the wing-pattern, possibly suggesting the doubling of each axe-blade in g.
(i) "Primitive Chaldean Winged Gate" (Ward, Fig. 349). The Gate as the Goddess of the Portal.
(k) Persian Winged Disk (Ward, Fig. 1144) above a fire-altar in the form suggestive of the mountains of dawn…
(l) An Assyrian Tree of Life and Winged Disk crudely conventionalized (Ward, Fig. 691).
References and Endnotes:
[1]Marinatos, N.
Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine. USA: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
[2] Cooper, B.
The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, Creation Science Movement, p.162, 2011.
[3]Humphreys, R. Where is Noah’s
Ark? – a closer look at the biblical clues,
J. Creation25(3):6-8, 2011.
[4]Habermehl, A. A Review of the Search for Noah’s
Ark, in Snelling, A. (ed.),
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of Creationism (
Pittsburg,
PA;
Dallas, TX: Creation Science Fellowship; Institute for Creation Research, 2008), p.485-502. Also see: [WWW] http://www.creationsixdays.net/ICC6-41.pdf (Accessed on 15/02/14).
[5] Crouse, B. and Franz, G. Mount Cudi – True Mountain of Noah’s Ark.
Bible and Spade 19.4, pp. 99-111, 2006.
[6] Cory, P. and Hodges, E.R.
Cory’s Ancient Fragments of the Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Other Writers, p 54. 2003.
[8] Crouse, B. and Franz, G. ibid, 2006, p. 105
[9]Josephus, F.
Antiquities' Book 1, chapter 3.
[10]Budge, E.A.W.An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words, Dover Publications, 1978. [11]Eggeling, J. in Müller, F.M. The Sacred Books of the East, Volume XII,
Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882, p. 218.
[12]Griffith, R. T. H.
The Hymns of the Atharva Veda, Volume 1, Book 19, Hymn 39, (1916), Kessinger Publishing Reprint, 2010.
[13] [WWW] http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/01/noahs-ark-was-circular (Accessed 09/01/14)
[14] Cooper, B.
The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, pp. 390-396, 2011.
[15] Cooper, Ibid, p. 396, 2011.
[16] Fasold, D.
The Arkof Noah, New York: Knightsbridge Publishing Company, p. 284, 1988. [17] Finkel, I. .
The ArkBefore Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood, Hodder and
Stoughton,
London, p. 280, 2014.
[18] Heidel, A.
The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels.
Chicago and
London: The
University of Chicago Press, 1949, p. 227. [Also via: [WWW] http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/misc_gilgamesh.pdf] (Accessed on 03/02/2014).
[19] Nissen, H.
Noah’s Ark Uncovered,
Copenhagen: Scandinavia Publishing House, p. 108, 2004.
[20] Nissen, H. ibid. p. 252, footnote 5, 2004.
[21]Marinatos, N. ibid, p. 112, 2010.
[22] Smith, G. E.
The Evolution of the Dragon. 2007.
[23]Marinatos, ibid, 2010, pp. 115-116.
[24]Marinatos, ibid, 2010, pp. 60-62.
[25]Marinatos, N. ibid, pp. 110-111.
[26]Newberry, Two Cults of the Old Kingdom," Annals of
Archæology and Anthropology,
Liverpool, Vol. I, 1908, p. 28.
[27]Marinatos, ibid, p. 122, 2010.
[28]Marinatos, ibid, p. 194, 2010.
[29] Cooper, B. ibid, p.214, 2011.
[30] Armour, R.A.
Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt,
Cairo: The
AmericanUniversityin
Cairo Press, pp. 153-154, 1986.
[31] Ions, V.
Egyptian Mythology: The Library of the World’s Myths and Legends, Chancellor Press, pp. 29-30, 1997.
[32] Yoo, Sung Hwan. Patterns of Ancient Egyptian Child Deities. Ph.D. Thesis, p. 126, 2012. [33]Mastaff, R.
Egypt: The Book of the Heavenly Celestial Cow. [WWW] http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/celestrialcow.htm (Accessed on 10/2/14).
[34]Hornung, E. (translated by Lorton, D.)
The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife,
CornellUniversityPress, 1999.
[35] Erman, A. & Grapow, H.
Wörterbuch der Sprache Aegyptischen. , Im Auftrag der Deutschen Akademie (Egyptian and German),
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[36]Wilkinson, Richard H.
The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 174, 2003.
[37] Finkel,
I. ibid, 2014. p. 121.
[38] Bryant, J.
A New System; Or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology: Wherein an Attempt Is Made to Divest Tradition of Fable; And to Reduce the Truth, Vol. III,
London: J. Walker et al., pp. 30-73, 1807. Also see: [WWW] http://www.annomundi.com/history/bryant.pdf (Accessed on 8/02/14).
[39]Marinatos, ibid, 2010, pp. 116-117.
[40]Temple, R.
Egyptian Dawn: Exposing the Real Truth Behind Ancient Egypt, pps. 33-34, 2011.
[41] Deal, D. in Nissen, H.
Noah’s Ark Uncovered, Scandinavia Publishing House, Copenhagen, p. 285, 2004.
[42]Beattie, A.
Cairo: A Cultural History,
Oxford:
OxfordUniversityPress, 2005, pp. 2-3, 64, 66, 95.
[43]Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, The Online Bible, Larry Pierce, 2013. [WWW] http://onlinebible.net/dictionaries (Accessed on 03/02/14).
[44] Gill, J.
An Exposition of the Old Testament, Volume 1, Genesis, Chapter 11, 1748.
[45]Humphreys, R. ibid, 2011, p. 7.
[46] Gill, J. ibid, 1748.
[47] Finkel,
I. ibid, 2014, p. 364-365.
[48]Egyptian Pyramids –
LostCity of the Pyramid Builders – AERA found at:
[WWW] http://www.aeraweb.org/projects/lost-city (Accessed on 03/02/14).
[49] Lehner, M. The Pyramid Age Settlement of the Southern Mount at
Giza,
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pp.27-74, 2002.
[50] Smith, ibid, 2007, p. 189.
[51] Ions, V. ibid, 1997, p. 40.
[52]Temple, R. ibid, 2011, p. 321.
[53] Ancient Egyptian Solar Ships. [WWW] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_solar_ships (Accessed on 03/02/14).
[54] Finkel,
I. ibid. 2014, p. 272.
[55] Nissen, ibid, 2004, p. 252.
[56] Fasold, D. ibid, 1988, p. 229.
