Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

has led to the conclusion that this temple was sacred to the star Sirius. The structure stands on a terraced platform facing
east. After excavating the foundations, the Hungarian team found that this eleventh-dynasty temple was actually built on
top of the ruins of an archaic-period temple dating from probably about 3200–3000 BCE, which had a similar floor plan
but had an axis 2 degrees farther south: “The Hungarian team that excavated these structures believes this difference may
be attributed to the shift in astronomical alignments over the intervening centuries. Their research indicates that the later
brick temple was aligned to Sirius. In the archaic period the same star would have appeared just over 2 degrees farther
south in the eastern sky—exactly the difference visible in the orientation of the earlier building. Thus, rather than simply
follow the physical orientation of the earlier sacred structure, the Middle Kingdom architects had carefully adjusted the
temple’s orientation in order to align the new building once more precisely to Sirius. 73
We can recall from chapter 2 that the name of the pharaoh Mentuhotep (ca. 2010 BCE) was found in the
inscriptions at Jebel Uwainat in the Egyptian Sahara, which were discovered by Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marai in
2007. If the Black prehistoric people of Nabta Playa were the same people that once occupied Uwainat, and if these
people came to the Nile Valley around 3200 BCE and brought along their astronomical knowledge of tracking the stars,
especially Sirius, then it is not at all surprising to us now to find that King Mentuhotep knew of an archaic temple at
Thebes, which was aligned with Sirius, and, consequently, that he built his own temple above it and knew that its axis had
to be 2 degrees farther north.
The whole historical puzzle seems slowly to be taking shape, revealing a remarkable scenario that flows from the
astronomical alignments of Nabta Playa as mentioned in the 1998 Nature letter of Malville and Wendorf. Before we
look at possible conclusions, however, let us examine further evidence that the tradition of the long-term tracking of the
star Sirius persisted throughout the whole of pharaonic civilization until its closure around 30 BCE, when it fell under
the dominion of Rome.
THOSE WHO FOLLOWED THE SUN
One of the greatest and most magnificent temples of ancient Egypt is the temple of Hathor at Dendera, located on the
west side of the Nile near the modern town of Qena, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Luxor. The temple complex
stands at the edge of the desert and is so well preserved that from a short distance it looks as though it was built only a
few years ago. In fact, the temple is more than two thousand years old, and its origins may even hark back to earliest
times.
The cult of the cow goddess Hathor goes back to the archaic period and ranked very high in the Egyptian religion.
Evidence of her cult has been detected from the very early dynasties, and many Egyptologists believe that it was even
much older than this. Her name, Hat-Hor, literally means House of Horus. *60 74
As such, Hathor was very closely associated with the goddess Isis, mother of Horus. Indeed, so closely identified
with each other were these two goddesses that in Ptolemaic times, when the extant temple at Dendera was built, their
names were often fused or interchangeable. 75 At Dendera there are tombs that date to the first dynasties, indicating that
the site was sacred in very remote, perhaps even prehistoric, times. The temple we see today, however, was founded by
Ptolemy XII Auletes in 54 BCE. It is known with certainty that at the same place stood an older temple built under
Tuthmoses III around 1450 BCE. In additon, there are inscriptions at Dendera that refer to Pepi I of the sixth dynasty,
circa 2350 BCE. More intriguing still, there are inscriptions in a crypt that refer to the Shemsu-Hor, or Followers of
Horus, 76 whom the pharaohs regarded as their remote ancestors, although Egyptologists tend to consider these as
mythical ancestors. 77 One of these inscriptions actually claims that the original blueprint of the temple was provided by
the Shemsu-Hor and was later preserved on the temple walls by Pepi I:
King Tuthmoses III has caused this building to be erected in memory of his mother, the goddess Hathor, the Lady of
Dendera, the Eye of the Sun, the Heavenly Queen of the Gods. The ground plan was found in the city of Dendera, in
archaic drawing on a leather roll of the time of the Shemsu-Hor [Followers of Horus]; it was [also] found in the
interior of a brick wall in the south side of the temple in the reign of king Pepi. 78
According to the so-called Royal Papyrus of Turin, also known as the Turin Canon, Egypt was ruled in prehistoric
times by the Shemsu-Hor kings (and Shemsu-Hor is commonly translated as the Followers of Horus). Horus was the
solar deity par excellence of the Egyptians; he personified the sun, especially when it rose on the horizon. In this specific