Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

any sign or fencing or official notice that indicated that this was an archaeological site. Brophy took extensive
photographs of the megaliths, which he eventually published in magazines and scientific journals. Along with the
Calendar Circle, Brophy visited the remains of the excavation of Complex Structure A, where he found several megaliths
strewn about the site where the central cow stone sculpture had been removed.
Directly from Nabta Playa, Brophy went to the Nubian Museum in Aswan and met with its director, who is also the
SCA official in charge of archaeology in the region. Brophy was told the cow stone sculpture was being held in the back
of the museum, in a closed storage area, awaiting the construction of a pedestal so that it could be displayed prominently
at the front of the museum. Brophy asked to see the sculpture and was escorted by an AK-47-armed guard, at night, to the
location where he found the megalithic sculpture damaged and broken.
In 2007, Robert Bauval also decided to visit Nabta Playa, and he duly informed Dr. Schild, who replied that he, too,
planned “to be at Nabta Playta in January and early February 2008.” On November 18, 2007, Bauval and some of his
friends and colleagues (Dr. Carmen Boulter of Calgary University, professional cameraman Eric Phillips-Horst, Michele
Bauval, and the photographer Joanne Cunningham) arrived at Nabta Playa. With them were an officer from the Egyptian
military and a local guide, Muhammad Nemr, as well as two drivers provided by Nemr, who had been responsible for
obtaining all the necessary permits from Egyptian National Security. Dr. Boulter had also applied for a filming permit
from the Ministry of Information and the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Upon arriving at Nabta Playa in the early part
of the afternoon, they found a group of tourists with the British Egyptologist Dr. Nicole Douek. This group had arrived
earlier that morning and were now about to leave for Gilf Kebir, a mountainous region that was several hundred
kilometers to the west of Nabta Playa. Dr. Douek invited Robert Bauval to give a short talk to her group on the
astronomy of Nabta Playa. She also agreed to give an on-camera joint interview with Bauval. After Dr. Douek and her
group departed, Bauval and his colleagues examined the Calendar Circle and other artifacts in the area, taking many
photographs and much video footage.
A few months later, in April 2008, Thomas Brophy came to Cairo to join Robert Bauval in an expedition to Gilf
Kebir and Jebel Uwainat. It was after this expedition that, on April 17, 2008, Thomas Brophy revisited Nabta Playa. The
required permits were obtained for him by the local guide, Muhammad Nemr, who also took Brophy and an officer from
the Egyptian military to Nabta Playa. Upon arrival at the site, Brophy noticed that the Calendar Circle had been severely
disrupted: many of its stones had been dispersed and moved. It also seemed that there were some stones missing,
especially a beautifully shaped stone, which he had photographed in 2003. Brophy also noted that a large megalith from
Complex Structure A was missing. When he returned to Cairo, Brophy visited Bauval, and they compared photographs
taken in November 2007 (by Bauval) and those taken in April 2008 (by Brophy). It was quite evident that the Calendar
Circle in the November 2007 photos was very different from the one in the April 2008 photos. More troubling still,
when he was at Nabta Playa, Brophy noted that much rubbish had been dumped on the eastern side of the area, at the foot
of a sand dune where the CPE team usually camped.
Figure A1. Calendar Circle, sunrise, October 2003. Since the 1999 image was taken, some stones have been removed,
toppled, and possibly replaced.