Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

TAKE A WALK AT THE FIRST TIME WITH SIRIUS
Sirius is so bright that it is the only star that can sometimes be seen during daylight, and under good conditions at night it
can be seen even when the star is just barely above the visual horizon. *73
We can imagine that we are living in the region (that is now Egypt) around 12,250 BCE and are so highly attuned to
the night sky that we are especially oriented to the brightest star of all, Sirius. It is the time of year that is near the summer
solstice, and it is millennia before the monsoons move north to bring life again to the desert—we are near the lifesustaining
waters of the Nile, but we are nomadic, moving north and south each year, following the best conditions for
survival. We are traveling north for several days during a hot summer, and we travel about 55 kilometers (34 miles) per
day—a long but feasible day’s walk for a well-conditioned wanderer. This distance is half of one-degree latitude on
Earth’s surface. We are five days’ walk south of the place that is now known as Giza. We are aware that the alwayseasyto-spot
three-star asterism of Orion’s belt will rise early evening in the far southeast, and it will culminate south,
hanging in the sky at a low altitude of around 15 degrees two hours before midnight. We also know that just after
Orion’s belt transits the meridian to the south, at 110 minutes before midnight, Orion’s trailing companion, the starry
ruler of the night sky, Sirius, will crack the horizon just 12 degrees east of due south, and Sirius will skim the southern
horizon at a very low arc, reaching an altitude of just more than 2 degrees before descending again below the horizon. We
know that Sirius is so bright that if we have an unobstructed view of the south horizon, perhaps if we are on a low hill or
sand dune in the desert, we will be able to view our old friend in the sky for a couple of hours around midnight. To the
north, the brilliant Vega is always up, always visible whenever the sky is dark. Less than 3.5 degrees from the celestial
pole in the north, Vega is a restless North Star that cycles up, down, and around the pole each night in a small circle that
is 7 degrees across, and when Sirius is high, Vega is low, reaching the bottom part of its circle around the celestial North
Pole at just more than an hour after Sirius reaches its height in the south.
As we trek farther north each day, the familiar starry show in the sky each night repeats itself, but Sirius skims the
horizon on an even lower and shorter arc each night as we move north. By the time we arrive, a few days walk farther
north, at the place now known as Giza, Sirius makes such a low, brief arc on the horizon that viewing it requires perfectly
clear conditions, and we must stand on a platform to catch any glimpse of the star. In one more day’s walk farther north it
will be impossible to glimpse Sirius at all. The tracking of the star is a deeply ancient part of our ancestral lore and our
annual life. During the days the angle of the sun in the sky informs us what time of year it is, and during nights, the
appearance of Sirius tells us the same information. In this way, our ancestors have kept in tune with the seasons for a very
long time. What’s more, we know that in the region just a couple of days farther north, at the place we now know as
Alexandria, we used to be able to glimpse Sirius only a few generations ago before it disappeared entirely from the night
sky. Our ancestors have been studying the sky for so long that they were able to teach us how the sky changes over a very
long time. Thus we know that Sirius will again return to the northern regions, and the brilliant Vega will move down,
away from the celestial pole, and Sirius will climb higher again in the southern regions. That is why the place in which we
are standing now is the place of the First Time, Zep Tepi: Giza.
DUAL DATING AND VEGA RECONFIRMED
The ancient name of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the name used by the ancient Egyptians, was Akhet Khufu, The Horizon
of Khufu. 8 Is it possible that the sacred place where Khufu marshaled his kingdom to build the Great Pyramid was
already known simply as Akhet, the Horizon, the place on Earth where the ruler of heaven, Sirius, briefly comes down
exactly to the horizon every twenty-six thousand years? Khufu built his great pyramid on the Place of the Horizon in
order to make it the Horizon of Khufu. *74
We have seen that the standard date for the building of the pyramids is the fourth dynasty, and we have seen that the
layout of the pyramids that matches the stars of Orion’s belt is an allusion to a distant past, a symbolic reference to Zep
Tepi described in inscriptions. Similarly, the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa was likely constructed and used circa 5000
BCE, and it teaches about much earlier times—actually, about the entire precession cycle. In light of our findings
regarding the subterranean passage and Vega, and our more detailed study of the motion of Sirius, we must consider
again the possibility that the pyramids at Giza were indeed built during the fourth dynasty but were built on top of a
location where there was some preexisting, symbolic, much older architecture. Constructions at sacred sites around the