Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

Pyramid at Zawiyet el-Aryan) is associated with Zep Tepi. The Great Sphinx at Giza already existed in some form and
was probably modified by fourth-dynasty refurbishments. The Zep Tepi architecture was likely abandoned for a long time
before the protodynastic and dynastic Egyptians arrived to build on it—or at least it was little used and clearly was not in
a location of a major habitation or city.
The question then becomes: Can we draw a line back through time from the dynastic Egyptian architects to the
Nabta Playa megalith builders and back even further to Zep Tepi builders? We can recall that circa 5000 BCE the Black
African star people at Nabta Playa built their astroceremonial complex on top of a preexisting symbolic landscape carved
onto the bedrock that they knew to be much more ancient. Further, when they moved to the Nile and up to Giza, they
again built on top of much more ancient star monuments. All these constructions display a knowledge of the stars that
would seem to have taken a very long time to develop. Surely the Nabta Playa star people who became the protodynastic
ancient Egyptian builders were aware of and perhaps somehow connected to the more ancient Zep Tepi people. Perhaps
they were the Shemsu Hor, who migrated from the Nile to the Sahara when the monsoons moved north and made the
Sahara green, and it is their very distant progeny who we can track back through Nabta Playa to the Nile as the monsoons
again moved south.
SOTHIC CYCLES AND ZEP TEPI
We must next consider how the calendar-based Sothic cycle from the Old Kingdom may relate to Zep Tepi. We can recall
how 11,541 BCE would have been the start of a Sothic cycle if it was reached by measuring in increments of the 1,460year
calendar counting method, starting from the one recorded Sothic cycle end in 139 CE. Yet the precise interval
between heliacal risings of Sirius, as with any star, varies somewhat if we consider it over an entire precession cycle.
Around 12,000 BCE, when Sirius was very low on the southern horizon, the idea of heliacal rising at Giza was
problematic, because Sirius didn’t even reach the 1-degree altitude normally considered for heliacal reappearance. Simple
geometry, however, shows us a very interesting fact: when Sirius was at its southern culmination it was highest in the sky
at midnight on the day of summer solstice. At Giza, then, the place of Zep Tepi, the precise year around 12,000 BCE that
marked the southern culmination of Sirius was by definition the heliacal rise of the entire Sirius precession cycle—the
origin of the supercycle of all the cycles. Further, at essentially the same time the king of all North Stars, Vega,
culminated shining down into the subterranean passage and the pattern of the three stars of Orion’s belt matched perfectly
the pattern of the three pyramids of Giza.
Another Way to Think of the Southern Culmination of a Star
Those inclined to think geometrically can easily visualize this: the southern culmination of a star, in this case Sirius,
occurs when the south pole of Earth points as nearly toward the star as is possible during the twenty-six-thousand-year
precession cycle. This orientation is similar to the Earth-to-sun orientation at winter solstice, which occurs every year. On
the day of summer solstice, then, the sun and a south-culminating star (in this case, Sirius) are directly opposite each
other relative to Earth. We can then imagine the sun shining on Earth and creating a shadow (nighttime) on the far side of
the planet. Thus the south-culminating star is viewed at midnight on the day of summer solstice and on the meridian (due
south, just at the horizon—in the case of Sirius, at Giza) at the darkest time of night. We can also see that in some sense
the geometrical heliacal rising of a south-culminating star occurs at vernal equinox, because that is the day of the year
when an observer on spinning Earth moves from dark into light, just as the south-culminating star is on the meridian, but
in actual viewing conditions the sky is probably too bright to see the star at that moment.
EXACT DATE OF ZEP TEPI?
Astronomy in isolation can give precise dates, but we must make the cultural connection. In summary, the astronomically
determined dates related to Zep Tepi are these: (1) the layout of the Great Pyramids at Giza, referring back to the
centuries around 11,700 BCE; (2) the southern culmination of Sirius circa 12,280 BCE, marked by the location of the
Giza monuments and the Queen’s Chamber horizontal passage; and (3) Vega located as North Star at its northern
culmination, in 12,070 BCE, marked by the subterranean passage of Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza and Sneferu’s Bent
Pyramid at Dashur. Yet we may want to know what was the exact date of Zep Tepi. It’s important to remember that Zep