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Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
determining the exact position of geographical points and the shape and
size of the earth 1 ). This realization first dawned in the late eighteenth
century when the armies of revolutionary France, led by Napoleon
Bonaparte, invaded Egypt. Bonaparte, who had cultivated a deep interest
in the enigmas of the pyramids, brought with him a large number of
scholars, 175 in all, including several ‘greybeards’ gathered from various
universities who were reputed to have acquired ‘a profound knowledge of
Egyptian antiquities’, and, more usefully, a group of mathematicians,
cartographers and surveyors. 2
One of the tasks the savants were set, after the conquest was
completed, was to draw up detailed maps of Egypt. In the process of
doing this they discovered that the Great Pyramid was perfectly aligned to
true north—and of course to the south, east and west as well, as we saw
in Part VI. This meant that the mysterious structure made an excellent
reference and triangulation point, and a decision was therefore taken to
use the meridian passing through its apex as the base-line for all other
measurements and orientations. The team then proceeded to produce the
first accurate maps of Egypt drawn up in the modern age. When they had
finished, they were intrigued to note that the Great Pyramid’s meridian
sliced the Nile Delta region into two equal halves. They also found that if
the diagonals running from the pyramid’s apex to its north-eastern and
north-western corners were extended (forming lines on the map running
north-east and northwest until they reached the Mediterranean), the
triangle thus formed would neatly encapsulate the entire Delta area. 3
Let us now return to our map, which also incorporates a triangle
representing the Delta. Its other main components are the three parallel
meridians. The eastern meridian is at longitude 32° 38’ east—the official
eastern border of Ancient Egypt from the beginning of dynastic times.
The western meridian is at longitude 29° 50’ east, the official western
border of ancient Egypt. The central meridian is at longitude 31° 14’ east,
exactly midway between the other two (1° 24’ away from each). 4
What we now have is a representation of a strip on the surface of planet
earth that is exactly 2° 48’ wide. How long is this strip? Ancient Egypt’s
‘official’ northern and southern borders (which bore no more relationship
to settlement patterns than the official eastern and western boundaries)
are marked by the horizontal lines at the top and bottom of the map and
are located respectively at 31° 06’ north and 24° 06’ north. 5 The northern
border, 31° 06’ north, joins the two outer ends of the estuary of the Nile.
The southern border, 24° 06’ N, marks the precise latitude of the island
1
Collins English Dictionary, p. 608.
2
Secrets of the Great Pyramid, p. 38. Much of the material in this chapter is based
directly on the work of Peter Tompkins and of Professor Livio Catullo Stecchini.
3
Ibid., p. 46.
4
Ibid., p. 181.
5
Ibid., p. 299.
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