Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

topped mound whose midpoint and ends marked the two solstices and the two equinoxes. The midpoint also had a small
depression that seemed to have been cut by human hands, so that when the sun filled the depressed space, it formed the
hieroglyphic sign “sun disk between two peaks” , which stood for “horizon” and “sunrise.” Yet we are aware that this
sign was not known before Djedefre’s reign, but instead appeared in the fifth dynasty, which immediately followed his
own.
All Egyptologists agree that the fifth dynasty was intensely solar and had a very special connection to the sun temple
at Heliopolis and its high priest. In the so-called Westcar Papyrus there is a story that tells us how a priestess named
Rudjdjedet, the wife of the high priest of Heliopolis, gave birth to male triplets, whom she claimed had been conceived
by the sun god Re himself. 100 All three were destined to become kings. Two of them, Sahure and Neferikare,
incorporated the name Re into their own, and the third, Userkaf, made the unprecedented decision of commissioning a
sun temple for himself, which was modeled on the great sun temple of Re at Heliopolis. 101 Five other sun kings that
followed him also built for themselves sun temples near Userkaf ’s, at a place called Abu Ghorab. *66 102
So far, only two of the six sun temples—Userkaf ’s and Niussere’s—have been found. The other four are known
only by their names on contemporary inscriptions. The six are: The Stronghold of Re, The Offering Fields of Re, The
Favorite Place of Re, The Offering Table of Re, The Delight of Re, and The Horizon of Re.
The Sun Temple and Heliopolis
The connection of these temples to the sun god of Heliopolis was not merely spiritual, according to a new theory by
British Egyptologist David Jeffreys about the exact location where they were placed relative to Heliopolis. In the 1990s,
David Jeffreys conducted a survey in the area of Memphis on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Society. He noted that from
the vantage point of the sun temples of Userkaf and Neussera, he had an unobstructed line of sight to Heliopolis, but if he
moved just a bit farther south toward the Abusir pyramids, his view was cut off by the Muqattam hills. The sun temples
were built some distance north of their corresponding pyramids in order to have a direct line of sight toward Heliopolis.
“A re-examination of the location of Pyramids whose owners claim or display a special association with the solar cult
betrays a cluster pattern for which a political and religious explanation suggests itself. . . . The Giza pyramids could also
be seen from Heliopolis. . . . It is therefore appropriate to ask, in a landscape as prospect-dominated as the Nile Valley,
which sites and monuments were mutually visible and whether their respective locations, horizons and vistas are owed to
something more than mere coincidence.” 103
Could it be that the discovery of the Water Mountain in the Sahara by Djedefre was the underlying cause that
brought about the new solar religion to the pharaohs? Was this a natural temple in the desert, which was behind the
design of artificial temples at Abu Ruwash and Abusir? We can recall that on DWM there was also found prehistoric
artwork next to the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription of Djedefre’s expedition. Were a prehistoric people still occupying
the area when Djedefre’s expedition arrived in around 2500 BCE? Were they the same people that also occupied Nabta
Playa—the Black star people or cattle people that we encountered throughout the Egyptian Sahara, those followers of the
sun and the star Sirius?
On the east face of Djedefre Water Mountain is a most telling inscription or, more specifically, a strange glyph that
now, with all that we know of these very ancient star and cattle people, we can easily decipher. The glyph is composed of
three rows of signs. The top row shows a five-pointed star, a cow’s head, and a rope with a shape reminiscent of an ankh
sign. The middle row depicts a flat plate with four lines extending vertically below it. The bottom row shows the same
flat sign but with only one line extending down crookedly, and with two prongs at its end and, on each side, zigzagging
lines.
All the signs are recognizable Egyptian hieroglyphs. 104