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Know_files/FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS.pdf - D Ank Unlimited

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Graham Hancock – <strong>FINGERPRINTS</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>THE</strong> <strong>GODS</strong><br />

remembered by the time Senuseret took the throne in 1971 BC. In that<br />

period (the Twelfth Dynasty) all that was clearly recalled was that the<br />

Benben had been pyramidal in form, thus providing (together with the<br />

pillar on which it stood) a prototype for the shape of all future obelisks.<br />

The name Benben was likewise applied to the pyramidion, or apex stone,<br />

usually placed on top of pyramids. 10 In a symbolic sense, it was also<br />

associated closely and directly with Ra-Atum, of whom the ancient texts<br />

said, ‘You became high on the height; you rose up as the Benben stone in<br />

the Mansion of the Phoenix ...’ 11<br />

Mansion of the Phoenix described the original temple at Heliopolis<br />

where the Benben had been housed. It reflected the fact that the<br />

mysterious object had also served as an enduring symbol for the mythical<br />

Phoenix, the divine Bennu bird whose appearances and disappearances<br />

were believed to be linked to violent cosmic cycles and to the destruction<br />

and rebirth of world ages. 12<br />

Connections and similarities<br />

Driving through the suburbs of Heliopolis at around 6:30 in the morning I<br />

closed my eyes and tried to summon up a picture of the landscape as it<br />

might have looked in the mythical First Time after the Island of<br />

Creation 13 —the primordial mound of Ra-Atum—had risen out of the flood<br />

waters of the Nun. It was tempting to see a connection between this<br />

imagery and the Andean traditions that spoke of the emergence of the<br />

civilizer god Viracocha from the waters of Lake Titicaca after an earthdestroying<br />

flood. Moreover there was the figure of Osiris to consider—a<br />

conspicuously bearded figure, like Viracocha, and like Quetzalcoatl as<br />

well—remembered for having abolished cannibalism among the<br />

Egyptians, for having taught them agriculture and animal husbandry, and<br />

for introducing them to such arts as writing, architecture, and music. 14<br />

The similarities between the Old and New World traditions were hard to<br />

miss but even harder to interpret. It was possible they were just a series<br />

of beguiling coincidences. On the other hand, it was possible that they<br />

might reveal the fingerprints of an ancient and unidentified global<br />

civilization—fingerprints that were essentially the same whether they<br />

appeared in the myths of Central America, or of the high Andes, or of<br />

10<br />

Kingship and the Gods, p. 153.<br />

11<br />

The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, p. 246.<br />

12<br />

For a more detailed discussion see The Orion Mystery, p. 17. Bauval suggests that the<br />

Benben may have been an oriented meteorite: ‘From depictions it would seem that this<br />

meteorite was from six to fifteen tons in mass ... the frightful spectacle of its fiery fall<br />

would have been very impressive ...’, p. 204.<br />

13<br />

The Penguin Dictionary of Religions, Penguin Books, London, 1988, p. 166.<br />

14<br />

E.g. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Introduction, p. XLIX; Qsiris And The Egyptian<br />

Resurrection, volume II, pp. 1-11.<br />

349

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