An Undiscovered Sphinx of Giza
| by Antoine Gigal |
Many people think
to know everything about the Sphinx of the Giza plateau and can barely
imagine the three neighboring pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykherinos
without the Sphinx which is so indispensable to the visual harmony of the
plateau. This is not surprising since the Sphinx is placed exactly where
needed in a design based on geometric principles of the golden section (see
Fig. 3).
The golden ratio is
related to a series of numbers, the Fibonacci sequence
(0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89, ...) and the Egyptian archaeologist and
Professor Emeritus, Alexander Badawy (1913-1986) proved in his study of more
than 50 temples along the Nile that the ancient Egyptians had indeed used
this series of numbers on purpose, once again demonstrating their great
knowledge and sophistication in architecture. Now I'll show you in this
article that the Sphinx holds many secrets still unknown to most and that our
current view of it is distorted from its original appearance.
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| The ignored inscription of the left paw of the Sphinx |
In 1817, Gianbattista Caviglia**
(1770-1845) cleaned the front of the Sphinx, something that had not been done
since the fall of the Roman Empire. He first found a fallen piece of the
Sphinx's beard (now at the British Museum!), then, cleared of sand, he found
an inscription on a toe of the left paw of the Sphinx: 13 lines of text in
Greek, engraved conspicuously with reference to how this is an official
documentation dating from 166 AD after the reign of Marcus Aurelius to
commemorate the restoration of the walls surrounding the Sphinx by the
Romans. This text is exciting and yet one does not have a chance to view it
today on the sphinx, as successive restorations - and especially the last -
were covered with incredibly thick layers often disfiguring the contours of
our Sphinx, as stifling as the bandages of mummification.
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Written in Greek, and in capital letters, I
know that there are now three existing translations in English and one in
Latin of this text: one from a copy made by Henry Salt (1780-1827) British
Consul General in Cairo in 1815 and a great collector of Egyptian antiquities
that had paid Caviglia in 1817 to explore the Sphinx, whose transcription was
published in the "Quarterly Review " vol. 19) in 1818, translated
by Dr. Yong (who even strove to restore some permanently erased words) in
English and Latin ...and another from the great Egyptian archaeologist Selim
Hassan* (1893-1961), the first Egyptian to occupy a chair of Egyptology
...and finally, one from the Reverend Coleridge of Eton, published in:
"Operations conducted at the Pyramid of Giza" by Colonel Vyse in
1842. I will give here my own translation of the inscription; I tried to be
as faithful as possible to the grammar of ancient Greek and not to invent the
missing words:
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"This
structure is the work of the immortal Gods.
Placed so as to dominate the soil of this Land of harvest, Built in the center of a cavity from which they withdrew the sand, Like an island of stone in the vicinity of the pyramids, So that we can see it, Not as the sphinx defeated by Oedipus, But as a sacred servant of Leto, Who guards with vigilance; The Sacred Guide of the Land of Egypt." |
The reference to Leto*** here is
understandable because at the time of the Pharaohs, Ptolemies who were of
Greek origin, ruled over Egypt; and Giza was in an administrative district
called "Letopolitain".
The text is signed "Arrianos" - probably the historian and Roman philosopher of Greek origin who wrote the life of Alexander the Great ("Anabasis of Alexander"). Thus, in addition to the reference to the immortal gods as the creators of the sphinx, which is interesting (and which we will return to), we can see by the text itself that the Sphinx was considered an island. This is certainly new to some of you. |
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Leto
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A lion that was a
dog and the island of the sphinx
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However, the scholar Robert Temple and his
wife Olivia
have just published a book of 565 pages in English titled "The Sphinx
Mystery, the forgotten origins of the sanctuary of Anubis", well
documented with many elements excavated from oblivion or multiple scattered
collections inaccessible to the public, in which he explains "The moat
of the sphinx in the Ancient Empire was known in the Texts of the Pyramids as
the lake of the jackal, the channel of God, the channel of Anubis, the Lake
of Life ..."
Now there are many references to this throughout ancient Egyptian literature: for example on the altars in the tomb of Tutankhamen in reference to Rostau (Giza) it is cited that its topography is that of water and there is mention of "The house of the lake" regarding the island of the Sphinx. Even Auguste Mariette who dug around the Sphinx in 1858 admits that the Sphinx enclosure had to contain water of the Nile in ancient times (see references). In the text of the Sarcophagi, we hear about the lustral basin, Lake of the Jackal. Why? Quite simply, because of the academic Temple's assertion that the Sphinx was originally made in the image of Anubis ("Jackal" is a bad name translation because there have never been jackals in Lower Egypt, but rather wild dogs) the guardian of the site par excellence, and he proves it with forceful analysis, photos and research. The sphinx would have become leonine towards the Fourth Dynasty when lions were very fashionable in all representations; then the Middle Kingdom Amenemhat II would have affixed this image to his face (and not Cheops). But I will not go into too much detail of the work of Temple here, only a few points here and there. The fact that the original Sphinx could be the representation of Anubis is something I've been announcing for years in front of the Sphinx itself to those who accompany me in my tours: "in situ" the slope of the back, the tail, signs of erosion from water of the moat. It should be understood that since antiquity the Sphinx has undergone many restorations, the last of which which consisted of additions of thick courses of ugly and useless stones which only make the contours of the sphinx appear clumsy and without finesse.
This is very visible today in
the legs, which now look like huge papier-mache bars. We have pictures from
the early 19th century and many later photos and after careful analysis we
see big differences in the "modern" restorations and successive
ones. The "Coffin Texts" does not only speak of the lake of the
"jackal" (Anubis) but it also mentions: "His name is 'dog
faced', his size is huge" (verses 1165-1185). Twice in the "Pyramid
Texts", Anubis is cited as being "the height of the West" (the
only pivotal height in Lower Egypt is the Giza Plateau) and The Lake of the
"Jackal" is also cited in the book "The Caves". The
outstanding researcher Terence Du Quesne enumerated many references to Anubis
"Lord of Rostau (Giza)" in inscriptions and on the walls; he has
listed ten sources of this particular title to date.
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It is only after the fifth dynasty that the
title "Lord of Rostau" is given to Osiris. Let us recall that
Anubis in Egyptian is "Inpou", "that which has the shape of
dog"; he is also known as "The Way Opener" and guide of the
souls and is represented under the name of "Upuaout, path opener"
at Abydos in the south. He is also "Lord of the Land of Dawn" and
as Rene Lachaud excellently writes: "(...) He brings out the anubienne
light of initiation that corresponds to the ambiguous moment 'between dog and
wolf ' where day and night interpenetrate." Also, in "The Book of
Going Forth by Day" (which is the real title of The Book "of the
Dead"): "Oh! Anubis who is with his secrets. Lord of the secrets of
the West. Lord of what is hidden." That Anubis presides on the Giza
plateau is hardly surprising because in Giza/Rostau we are at the crossroads
of the greatest mysteries. You'll quickly understand why. One never speaks to
you about the "Book of the Construction" which is engraved in the
enclosure of the Temple of Horus the falcon, in Edfu in southern Egypt.
Yet,
when you read up on it, it's inside references to other lost texts like
"The Sacred Books of the Temples" that bring together a description
of the history of places of pilgrimage along the Nile. And what says this
text? It says that these places were established by a group of "creative
entities" the "Shebtiw" associated with Thoth. It is said that
they, also called the "Elders", the "Falcons", were
installed in a first place on Earth and that this first place isŠ Rostau!
I.e. Giza! Also, according to this text, books and sacred objects of power
were sealed in a secret place underground by "Shebtiw" and they
built over it an immense enclosure and pillars to protect it. This place is
called Bw-HMR, the place of the throne of the soul. In addition, in this text
it is always suggested to us that the underground world of Giza is a
microcosmic model of the passage of time and the process of the first
creation in our physical universe ... you understand the Sphinx better now
than before; this is not nothing!
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The ancient Egyptians also named
Giza/Rostau in their descriptions: "The Beautiful Place of the First
Time" and "The Secret Place" and it is true that the whole
Giza plateau that I've traveled for 20 years, yard by yard, is packed with
thousands of subterranean entries, ventilation shafts and bottomless wells.
This all proves the presence of an impressive underground network about which
I will on occasion speak more of in other articles.
In any case it is only in the Middle Kingdom (when, according to Temple, for a long time the Sphinx had already lost its Anubis head) where for the first time, in hieroglyphics appears the name:: "Sphinx": "Sheshep" which translates literally as "image "or" statue". The full name of the Sphinx was then "Ankh-Sheshep": the "living statue". The Sphinx is a living symbol representing many things of the invisible celestial and terrestrial. In the Coptic language, the oldest language still spoken in Egypt today, the Sphinx is called: "bel-hit", "The Guardian". And just after the year one thousand, they called the Sphinx "Twtw": "I am image" that the Greeks retranscribed as Tithoes and identified with Kronos, the god of time. And what is also interesting is that, quoting Manetho, Pliny states that Tithoes belonged to the mythic kings of the very first dynasties, or rather what we now call the famous dynasty of zero (since we begin the first dynasty with Menes [2920 -2770 B.C.] though several documents cite previous pharaohs, but their qualifications of gods or demigods is disruptive to the academic conscensus), otherwise properly inscribed in the Turin Papyrus (The Canon of Turin) and the Latin author makes it clear that Tithoes succeeded the god Amun and that he would be the first builder of the labyrinth of Fayum (120 km south of Cairo at Fayoum Lake), the oldest of all labyrinths that people came to visit in the ancient world. And which is in ruins today at the foot of the pyramid of the Hawara site that I visit regularly ... |
A sphinx much older than one thinks
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In 1858, our notable Auguste Mariette was
commissioned
by the Duke of Luynes to verify Pliny the Elder's statements regarding that
the Sphinx was built and not monolithic. He opened a site near the pyramid
attributed to Cheops (who reigned 2551-2528 BC, 4th Dynasty) and in a nearby
shrine of Isis, he found the stele called "Inventory" where it says
that the sphinx and the large pyramid existed well before the reign of the
leaders of the 4th dynasty before 2575 B.C. The text states that:
"During the reign of Cheops he ordered the construction of a monument
along the Sphinx." Logically this means that the Sphinx was already
there before
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... But if it was there at the time of
Cheops, this means that contrary to what the "mainstream" says, a
fortiori, it could not have been built on order of Chephren's successor on
the throne! Note that the theory that the Sphinx was built by Chephren - just
because the road on its south side leads to the foot of the pyramid of
Chephren - was launched without any evidence or knowledge by Caviglia who was
still a Master Mariner paid to clear the sand from the Sphinx! No inscription
confirms his lightly founded theory. There are also other documents proving
that the temple adjoining the Sphinx has exactly the same kinds of marks of
erosion that existed before the reign of Cheops. In an inscription which was
preserved in the museum of Bulak, the royal scribe of the Pharaoh Cheops
notes a dedication he himself had found on an earlier document. The
dedication says that the sun himself presided over the gigantic structure,
"whose origin is lost in the mists of time."
However, if we take
this into consideration, all the current chronological dating in Egyptology
courses should be re-examined! A little too much for some ... This is why the
majority of Egyptologists today turn away from this stele called the
inventory, because it calls into question too many of their achievements.
Some also prefer to say that this monument that lists an inventory of the
temple of Isis dates back only to the 26th dynasty. Perhaps, but the explorer
Auguste Mariette, who spent over ten years excavating the Giza plateau, has
always said that the stele was erected by Cheops himself.
As for the supposed resemblance of the head
of the Sphinx with Chephren himself - this theory has been invalidated for 30
years by the Director of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the New York
Police, Dr. Frank Domingo, expert on facial morphology. After photographing
the Sphinx from different angles and lighting and then the statue of Chephren
in the Cairo museum, he compared them with his scientific method and
concluded that no doubt, they were indeed two different people...
Robert Temple proves this through the study of the coiffe and certain features and also because of the obsession of the Pharaoh for the sphinxes of Amenemhat II (1929-1892 B.C.). In any case, if the Sphinx originally had a good head of Anubis, and much later it assumed this pharaoh's head, one could also surmise that others before Amenemhat II could have also affixed their face, the head of the sphinx comprising many traces of multiple repairs, the current head being extremely disproportionate compared to the body. There is also a text of the Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1448/1420 B.C.) with a reference to the Sphinx as "older than the Pyramids." Then we have the famous stele of Tutmosis IV which has led to my research on the second sphinx. |
In search of the
second sphinx
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It was generally accepted for long periods
since the ancient Egyptians that the Sphinx was covered with sand, except for the
head, until the Pharaoh Tutmosis IV (18th dynasty: 1420-1411 B.C.) cleared
sand from it. And we have the wonderful story of Tutmosis IV engraved for
eternity on a stele of pink granite and erected between the paws of the
Sphinx: it is known as the stele of Tutmosis IV.
The Pharaoh who was not even yet a prince, not even belonging to the main lineage of Pharaonic succession, came to rest after a hunt in the shadow of the head only recently installed then, and fell asleep. There he dreamed that the Sphinx spoke to him in his sleep, begging him to rid him of his suffering because he could not endure anymore standing with the burning desert sand covering him. In exchange, he would give him the power and wealth. Tutmosis awoke and decided to hurry and in a short time became pharaoh and very wealthy. What is particularly interesting in relation to the stele of Tutmosis IV is the representation which is made of the sphinx. Look, there are two Sphinxes! Moreover, they are reversed, and for the question of ancient rules of perspective of one reality, two sphinxes are actually reversed. Moreover, they are lying on structures with portals indicating that the sphinx gives access to an elsewhere, an underground complex. But where did the Sphinx drawn on the second pillar go? What is curious is that very few people have begun to seek answers... |
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In the famous stele of the inventory preserved
at the museum of Cairo, it is made mention that a flash of lightning would
have struck down the cap of the second sphinx involving its destruction like
that of a sycamore tree, sacred at the time, which was also burned by the
lightning. For the archaeologist Michael Poe who refers to fragments of
papyrus of the Middle Kingdom, this second sphinx would have been destroyed
by a particularly violent rising of the Nile about 1000 A.D. The villagers
would then have taken the stones to rebuild their village.
Then, I started searching in Egypt and thanks to my knowledge of Classical Arabic I quickly found texts confirming the existence of the two sphinxes. Thusly, two geographical encyclopaedias (Kitab Al Mamalik, Al-Mamsalik and Kitab Al Jujori, the great geographer, and Arab scholar Al-Idrisi [1099-1166]), mention well the presence of two sphinxes at Giza, one in very bad condition that is reached by the water of the Nile and has many stones missing. Other authors also mention the existence of two sphinxes: The celebrated historian Musabbihi wrote about a "sphinx smaller than the other" on the other side of the Nile, in very poor condition, consisting of bricks and stones (Annals of Rabi II, circa 1024). |
So I searched tirelessly for years for the
location of the second Sphinx. The task is very difficult because all the
opposite bank of the Nile is covered with buildings of the megalopolis of
Cairo and of its gigantic suburbs. How to find the location of a missing
sphinx? And it is there that one of my charts intervened, that of a
meticulous satellite analysis of which I am a specialist, coupled with a
field study of the lesser details. After having traveled thousands of
streets, I identified two possible locations (see satellite photo of the
Nile). That's when the great Egyptian geologist and archaeologist, Dr.
Barakat paid me the honor of contacting me after reading my articles on this
subject in English, to tell me that he greatly enjoyed my work and had
arrived at the same conclusions, which as you can imagine, reassures me in
the continuation of this research. I will devote myself this summer and will
meet with the geologist during interviews which promise much and of which I
will share with you later. Furthermore, following the example of the Arab historians
who saw it in their time, we advance the assumption that one of the two
sphinxes was female. Al Idrisi said clearly that the second Sphinx was female
and located on the east bank of the Nile facing the male sphinx that we all
know. Remember also that the verb form of the Greek name "Sphinx"
is "Sphingo" which means to strangle. The two sphinxes facing each
side of the Nile, formed a bottleneck, like a watch on ships coming from
Upper Egypt or down south ...
The second location of the Sphinx could hold many secrets even from prehistoric times, many things in the basement. This will be in the future, without doubt a huge archaeological project, as Dr. Barakat said. I would also say, and I'm not the only one, that both sphinxes are similar to the two pillars of Hercules, one indicating the material capacity expressing itself upwards through spiritual power (the female sphinx) and the other (the current one), the spiritual power expressing itself in the underground material world, but this is the subject of one of my books in progress... In any case, to temporarily close the loop, and to add my contribution to the work of Temple even if he does not speak at all about second sphinx, I discovered recently that there was long ago, two Upuaut (Anubis). On the stele JE 47381 three registers are represented: an "Upuaut of Upper Egypt, controller of the Two Lands" ("Wp-wAwt smaw aba-Tawy") and in the middle register we see him along with "Wepwawet of Lower Egypt" ("Wp-wAwt mttyt"). Thus, the two sphinxes could well have originally represented two Anubis... In a future article I will talk about the current state of comparative findings regarding pits discovered inside and under the Sphinx of Giza ... still many things that few know .... |
Robert Temple: The Sphinx and Anubis@ https://youtu.be/fSxK62kQxl8?list=PLfesEdnmKtZg9434EEcMLq4GQ4n17ZQOJPart 2: Incubation of dreams and the Sphinx |
…I have demonstrated that the Sphinx still
harbors many secrets completely overlooked, having discussed, among other things, the
mysterious inscription in Greek found at the Sphinx in 1817 (later concealed
by a covering), which deems the Sphinx to be an island, surrounded by water,
dating back "to the immortal gods." Then I referred to evidence
indicating that the Sphinx, much older than we think, was in its distant
origin a representation of Anubis, as confirmed by the last monumental work
(560 pages!) by the serious researcher and English scholar Robert Temple.
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Today, I will focus on the use that was
made - at least at certain times - of the Sphinx "Ankh-Sheshep",
"The Statue of Life" as it was called in the Middle Kingdom.
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North face of the Sphinx (Photo Gigal)
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The Sphinx from the back (Photo gigal)
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This requires first that I should give you the
most accurate report of what the Sphinx contains (here I would not speak of
very small abnormalities detected by radar in the ground around the sphinx
that for the moment have not led to any excavation) and this without
speculation as it has been referenced in so many writings. And you'll be
surprised! In fact, the reality is simply incredible and you will see with me
that it has been a completely overlooked jumble of approximate information
and disinformation that has obscured the Sphinx for a very long time. Indeed,
if we were to make a thorough investigation, it would be complicated by the
fact that many serious documents pass unnoticed, buried in silence, as if a
desire not to show the truth is there, and one realizes that major
discoveries have been made of which we have never heard. So, certainly, very
few of you know for example that there are exactly three tunnel-wells in the
Sphinx.
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You have a tunnel dug at the rear of the Sphinx
itself which is the best known one, another dug behind the head, and finally,
the most overlooked which is located on the northern flank of the Sphinx.
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The rear very small entrance (Photo Gigal)
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Sphinx enclosure
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I'll start with this one which illustrates
well what is unspoken about the monument. The tunnel located on the northern
flank of the Sphinx at ground level, was opened in 1926 by Emile Baraize who
finally sealed it with cement blocks. There was even a door that Baraize
walled with stones that he found at the time in the vicinity. What is amazing
is that Baraize left no account of what he found and explored in this tunnel,
he was so busy with his work of cleaning and restoring the Sphinx. Yet, two
pictures taken in 1926 by Pierre Lacau exist (in archives at the Golenischeff
center in Paris) of the interior of the tunnel, but even a scholar such as
Temple had no right to see them! All that is known is that the tunnel is very
old because its entrance is blocked by the collection of stones (beneath the
stones of Baraize) from the earliest restoration. The Sphinx has undergone
many restorations in effect in the past, under different pharaohs. And we
wonder why we do not reopen this passage to see where it leads and to explore
it as we should? A very great mystery!
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The pit dug behind the Sphinx's head and measuring
6m was, it seems, dug in the 19th century in an effort to explore the
interior of the sphinx and it ends in a cul de sac. We still have the tunnel
at the rear of the Sphinx, which is of particular interest to us today and
which Henry Vyse found in 1881 but found that many travelers in the more
distant past had already mentioned. Thus, the traveler Pancirolli Guido
(1523-1599) had detailed in his book published in 1599: "The history of
memorable things lost." We see in the passing that in 1599 there were
discoveries made on the Sphinx that have already been forgotten! But this
tunnel, according to a 1994 publication by Hawass (leader of the Supreme
Council of Antiquities), was reopened and explored in 1979. Why wait more
than 15 years to talk of a discovery of such importance? This tunnel, very
narrow (room for only one rather thin person) and bare, in which one enters
through a small opening at ground level at the rear of the Sphinx, begins
with a 6m vertical descent. A iron ladder, affixed recently enables you to
hold on for balance. The problem today is that this space is full of debris
and rubble and a support girder that takes up a lot of space. Then the
tunnel, back about 8m, is reinforced by wooden beams to where Baraize (him
again) had poured cement in 1926 up to the hips of the Sphinx because a
serious flaw existed there. Nonetheless, everything suggests that the tunnel
continues to the head of the sphinx. It is unfortunate that we can not know
in what way it continues beyond the cement! But what we see in the visible
part is a round space that is widened enough to allow a person to lie down
perfectly. More so, that's probably the therapeutic use of this mysterious
cave, of which I want to talk today. Before speaking to you about it, I must
give you similar information about the other two existing cavities:
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There was a conical and irregular hole 2m
deep on top of the head (cemented since) that Coutelle had already seen
during Napoleon's expedition in 1798 which had enclosed other elements of the
headdress of the Sphinx.
And then there is an interesting cavity whose entrance is covered by a sheet of metal (modern) that lies between the two legs of the sphinx. It leads to a small underground chamber on the vertical, where Henry Salt had walled (him too!) a subterranean entrance in 1817. Still another tunnel of which we know not today where it goes! Many researchers think that this cave was used by a priest so that he could talk without being seen by the crowd and thus give an oracle in place of the Sphinx. This oracular practice was widespread in the late Ptolemaic period where they tried to re-motivate the faith of people and we found in Fayoum (the fertile oasis of the pharaohs, 100km south of Cairo), many altars with secret rooms inside for this purpose. There may be a trail as Temple outlined in 1579 with the testimony of a traveler Johannes Heffrich who says that this chamber is a secret passage for a priest, without being seen, to go through a tunnel in the Sphinx's head and talk to the crowd invisibly ... We see anyway that the Sphinx still has many secrets to deliver even despite modern methods today. |
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Fissure hanches du sphinx cimentée par Baraize
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Yellow point at the rear of the sphinx the cement from
Baraize
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Hence, I've just told you of all of the
known caves already explored in the Sphinx, but before returning to the one
before us today, to fully understand its possible function, I must speak
first of the origin of the therapies and medicine of Egypt and especially of
the leading character: the indispensable Imhotep, the one who claims that he
built the pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser at Saqqara, around 2600 BC.
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Not only was Imhotep, whose name means
"One who came in peace," the prime minister of Djoser, the grand
architect of the kingdom, High Priest of Heliopolis, Grand Magus and chief of
all the priests of northern Egypt, but he was also a great doctor, probably
the first with his own school of medicine and temple. These buildings were
located around the underground complex of the Serapeum, north of Saqqara.
Last month, we also just discovered ancient surgical instruments at Saqqara.
More than 2200 years before the birth of Hippocrates in Greece, still known
as the father of our medicine, Imhotep himself, in Egypt, knew how to
diagnose and treat over 200 diseases using anatomical terms of divisions and
practicing surgery. We can find mention of this in the famous Edwin Smith
Papyrus. The great Egyptologist James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep:
"In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs, in
medicine and in architecture, this remarkable figure of Zoser's reign left so
notable a reputation that his name is not forgotten to this day." In the
Royal Canon of Turin recognized by Jean-Francois Champollion as a document of
historical importance ("The Turin Papyrus" written in hieratic
script and found at Thebes in 1822, of which remains 160 fragments that form
a papyrus 170cm wide and 41cm high, now in the collection of the Museum of
Turin), a list containing the names of Ramses II's predecessors, including
the names of gods supposed to have ruled Egypt before the pharaohs
themselves, we find the name of Imhotep who is designated as a "son of
the god Ptah". Along with Amenhotep, we have the only Egyptian mortal or
hybrid who managed to attain the full position of a god.
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But what is interesting here is that later,
when the Greeks settled in Egypt, the Egyptian Imhotep was equated with their
god Aesculapius: Asclepius the god of medicine whose school of medicine was
called Asklepieion. It is quite possible that both Aesculapius and Imhotep,
are one and the same person as we shall see and as a great number of
researchers already claim... But what else is said about Asclepius? We are
told that he is the divine son of Apollo and a nymph Koronis-Arsinoe (Arsinoe
is also the name of a place located south of the southern edge of the Giza
Plateau at Fayum), so he is a demigod. We are told that he was raised in an
underground cavern by the centaur Chiron (the last centaur on Earth according
to the ancient Greeks), who taught him all about medicine and more ... because
Asclepius did not seem only to heal but he also raised the dead. The god
Zeus, agitated by Asclepius' zeal to immortalize the land and thus disturb
the established order of things, struck him with a blast of lightning and
turned him into the constellation Ophiuchus ("the serpent
holder")... there is a teaching of the ancient Egyptians that when the
the gods died they were transformed into constellations or stars. ... The
fact is that Ptah and Zeus are often associated with lightning.
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The Turino Papyrus
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Sphinx
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What is very important to remember, is how
Asclepius cured; and mostly it was through the "incubation", the
common practice then of sleeping through the night or several nights in a
sacred temple enclosure to provoke a dream full of meaning and consequently
be healed. Either Asclepius appeared in dreams to the priests and revealed to
them the remedies for their patients or patients themselves received them in
a dream and were cured.
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Asclepius was portrayed with a stick upon
which a snake is coiled, the symbol of medicine (not to be confused with the
caduceus of Mercury, he with two snakes, symbolizing commerce and communication).
A snake, for the oracular and medical functions of this medicine was also
effected by the presence of a source of sacred water as we shall see, through
water from out of the ground that with "the slow journey into the depths
of the ground, allowed it to learn what was, what will be" said Rene
Ginouvès in his remarkable work, and this water is symbolized by the
"meandering" of the snake.
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Asclepius had three sons and six daughters,
including: Hygiene, Panacea and Meditina. Note that our Hippocrates (the
father of medicine, from whom we derive the oath our doctors take) is
recognized as a descendant of Asclepius from his paternal side... It is to
him we owe the words: chronic, endemic, epidemic, convalescence, paroxysm,
etc., and though Western medicine invokes him, in reality, his conception of
medicine was very different from ours. Dr. Houda says for example that
"the Hippocratic treatment is rather a meditation on death."
Remember, Hippocrates went to Egypt to study medicine with the chief priests
and he appeared to be an initiate of Pharaonic medicine. In fact, the
medicine of Hippocrates was a carbon copy of that of Asclepius which was
practiced around the temples. These places would include a temple-sanatorium
on the surface, subterranean caves and an underground water source. You can
still see the sanctuary of Asclepius today on the southern flank of the
Acropolis, under the Parthenon in Athens with its source and its grotto, now
converted into an orthodox chapel. You have the same thing with the temple of
Epidaurus in Greece and at Pergamum. Now we know that Imhotep had a temple
devoted to medicine at Saqqara with Serapeum grottos and caves and a water
source available.
In any he case proceeded exactly as
Asclepius-Imhotep had in the vicinity of Serapeum with his patients. Apart
from being the son of "Ptah", Imhotep had a mortal mother
Kheredu-Ankh, who was elevated to a semi divine (as was the mother of
Asclepius!) because she proclaimed that her father was the god Banebdjedet, a
ram god of fertility that the Greeks later named Pan. On the other hand we
must not forget that the ancient Greeks were already disputing about
Asclepius, saying he was much older than the dating official was willing to
say (even then) and linguists debate that the true meaning of the word
"Asclepius" is etymologically "the hero of the mound,"
which is a purely Egyptian title. The assumptions are therefore increasingly
strong in favor of Aesculapius and Imhotep being the same person...
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The Greeks were fascinated with Egyptian
science and Homer (the Odyssey) informs us: "Egypt is the land of the
most learned doctors of the world." The medicine was not considered only
an accumulation of knowledge and observation but also as a means of working
on oneself to become a true channel of transformation.
|
Besides their complex treatments with
botanicals, surgery and fracture reductions, here is what constituted the
bulk of their medicine: they were drinking water from an underground source
and bathing their patients in the water because for them it was undeniable
that the water carried along the healing powers of the spirits of the Earth.
Then they took care of those who had courage and determination to undergo the
treatments. Patients would be fasting and making multiple ablutions in the
sacred precincts of what was called the Abaton, i.e., in the temple, caves
and caverns below, where no one else was allowed to enter. Then, patients
slept in collective dormitories of the Abaton for dreaming. There were proper
dream incubation rituals where the deeper understanding of Mother Earth was
supposed to send you dream guidance regarding the reasons for your malady and
how to treat it. The next day you would tell your dream to the priests who would
then prescribe you a treatment. They also said that the first image that came
to the mind of the dreamer became a guardian spirit that never left. The
lesson to be drawn from this study of dreams is very sophisticated. They did
not practice a generalized interpretation of dreams; it was considered that
one person's interpretation of a dream symbol gave rise to different
interpretations by different people. Each person was considered as having his
own dream language and all work was done in accordance with the images and
emotions of the patient. This science is called iatromantic incubation.
The difference between a classic dream and
an iatromantic dream is that the latter is sent for a specific purpose by a
god of medicine in a sacred place designed for it and it should contain
guidance for diagnosis and (or) treatment. To give an example: a man
suffering from a stomach complaint came to the temple of Asclepius to receive
a dream inspired by the god. He dreamed that the god handed him his right
hand and gave him his hand to eat. The next day, the priests interpreted his
dream and told him he had to eat five dates because at the time, dates were
known as "divine fingers", and he was healed...
|
 |
 |
Imhotep
|
Le
sphinx inspiré (Photo Gigal)
|
The work of healing through dreams was well
known to ancient Egyptians and for this I must take a moment to tell you about
Bes. Auguste Mariette had indeed found a statue of Bes near the entrance of
Serapeum. In fact, this spirit revered for its oracles at Abydos in southern
Egypt, was also known to be oneiromantic. That is to say, it was also known
to generate dreams that were then interpreted. Egyptians often placed its
representation in the bedroom for their sleep to be populated with rich
dreams. At the time, dreams were considered a very important means of
therapy. Therefore, a caste of priest-doctors "the Wab", apart from
secular practitioners ("the Soundu") who ran the country, lived in
Houses of Life: Per-Ankh, at the temple to fulfill their dual function,
priestly and medical. Most of the time they were doctor-priests of the lion
goddess Sekhmet, and they practiced in the sanatorium of the temples, among
other things iatromantic incubation on their patients.
Disease was for them not considered as a
divine punishment but rather as a rupture of the harmony between man and
cosmos. They were to restore the patient's relationship with nature and
harmony, well represented by the goddess Maat. That harmony was an essential
value of Egyptian thought, which was required to counter negative forces,
lies, injustice and the primal chaos from which the world was born. Maat was
the guarantor of fairness and the overall balance of the world and this was
taught in the temples by instruction.
|
Yet another goddess who was strongly
involved in restoring the health of patients is Isis. The philosopher Diodorus
of Sicily gives us testimony: "Now that she has achieved immortality,
Isis enjoys treating the bodies of men and those who need her aid, clearly
demonstrating her presence in their sleep and giving real and effective
relief to those who call for help." This comment clearly indicates that
at that time in Egypt, Isis was invoked for iatromantic activity. Right next
to the Sphinx in the north-west was a small temple to Isis and we have the
Egyptian Arabic texts from the Middle Ages that referred to the Sphinx as
"the idol of Isis." Therefore, researchers like Temple are
convinced that the cavity behind the Sphinx was designed for a patient to
spend the night in order to obtain a dream of healing.
Like the temple of Asclepius in Greece
which could not contain a dozen visitors during incubation time, the location
of the Sphinx would have served only the privileged 365 per year. On the
other hand, we see cavities in the rock around the Sphinx, and walls in which
there are small cells that could also be used for additional patients for
incubation. At the time, approaching the Sphinx were monumental stairs, an
immense staircase (see photo), and offerings were made on a small altar that
lay between its legs. Being able to sleep in the body of the Sphinx would be
a very impressive and unforgettable experience ... There is the famous dream
Tutmosis IV had while resting after a hunt, at the foot of the sphinx, which
is inscribed on the famous dream stele which was erected for eternity between
the paws of the Sphinx. In this dream, the Sphinx asks him to clear the sand
off it in exchange for which the prince (not yet the Pharaoh) would be
granted rule over Egypt ...
As I travel incessantly to the most sacred
places Egypt, I wanted to test the effect of certain iatromantic sites,
driven by my curiosity and the deep respect I have learned to have for the
teachings of the ancient Egyptians, and I must say that the rendezvous was a
surprise… As it is now forbidden to sleep on the spot of the ancient
sanctuaries, I slept next to the place after getting soaked with water; as I
was not ill - though there is always something to perfect - I had no specific
request except that of receiving a message in a dream whatever it may be. As
I rarely remember my dreams, I was afraid to miss that part and not retain
consciousness of it. However, I was not disappointed; I had then, even if
very short, the most vivid and colorful dreams I've ever had in my life! I
tried different shrines and each time it did not fail! They were very personal
messages, although I can attest that it was dream incubation, something I
expected absolutely nothing about and I was visited by the sacred bird Bennu,
the bird of Osiris, and the phoenix of the Egyptians who delivered to me a
message of importance for my research. It is certain that my great
familiarization with Egypt must have had something to do with it, but it
happened also to several people accompanying me on my travels to Giza and the
rest of Egypt.
|
by Antoine Gigal
Text and Photos by Antoine Gigal Translation to English: Lisette Gagne |
|
Bibliography:
|
From Gigal Research @
http://www.gigalresearch.com/uk/publications-sphinx-secret.php
and http://www.gigalresearch.com/uk/publications-sphinx-secret-2.php
For more information about the sphinx see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/sphinx
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