Forgotten Ages Research

Giza Legacy—The Lost Hall in Ancient Art and Literary Sources

Report Topics:

• Ancient tablets showing the Sphinx reclining on top of a subterranean structure
• Revelations from the Building Texts of Edfu about the “place of deep underground construction”
• The Westcar Papyrus on the “secret chambers of the books of Thoth”
• Did a reflecting solar disk on top of the Sphinx’s head once point the way to a secret entrance?
• The Leyden Papyrus’ description of two caverns beneath the paws of the Sphinx
• Allusions to the lost Hall in Hermetic, Greek, Roman and Jewish literature, and early Coptic and medieval Arabic traditions

Full Report:

For untold centuries both historical and esoteric sources have passed down the memory about a forgotten time capsule of Ancient Wisdom located in Egypt that was far greater in importance than the golden treasures of Tutankhamen. The various accounts speak of chambers located beneath the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx at Giza, filled with a technological legacy left by lost advanced civilizations older than Egypt itself. Along with the stories are also preserved a number of prophecies foretelling who, when and how the vanished time capsule will be opened.

The search begins with several stone stelae or tablets from the Middle and New Kingdom periods found in the vicinity of the Sphinx which show the great animal reclining on top of a high pedestal surmounted by a cornice. One ancient artist, a Twelfth Dynasty scribe named Mentu-hor, made sure his viewers knew his subject matter was the Great Sphinx and not other sphinxes found along the Nile, by drawing in the Pyramids in perspective in the background, a technique very rarely seen in Egyptian art.

Several other stelae go further, and show a door on the side of the pedestal. The famous Stele of Thutmosis IV, located between the paws of the Sphinx, likewise depicts at its top the Sphinx lying upon an understructure, with a doorway clearly seen. Finally, on yet another stele, made by an official named Nezem and now kept in the Louvre, there is depicted a flight of six steps leading down to the door.

Conservative scholars have attempted to explain the pedestal as simply a representation of the nearby Temple of the Sphinx, because from a front view perspective the Sphinx does look like it sits on its roof. But this illusion can only be seen from the front and on the surface. The ancient artists, on the other hand, portrayed the pedestal from the side and from below.

In the 1920's and 1930's the sands around the Sphinx were finally completely cleared away, and we now know that the ancient monument rests firmly on bedrock. But the bedrock itself may have been the pedestal the Egyptian artists had in mind.

Egyptologist Dorothy Eady, also remembered as Om Seti of Abydos, noted that the configuration of the stone blocks utilized to cover the bedrock directly in front of the Sphinx's paws was exactly the same as the peculiar pattern the ancient Egyptians used for the roofs of their Temples. Were the builders at Giza deliberately pointing to some structure buried beneath?

Perhaps deep below somewhere along the southern side of the "roof" blocks may yet be discovered the six steps and doorway, the entrance to secret hollowed-out chambers undisturbed.

An important early Egyptian source that tells us much about the Hall of Records is called the Building Texts, found among the hieroglyph inscriptions on the inner enclosure wall of the Temple of Horus at Edfu, in the heart of southern Egypt.

The Building Texts refer to a number of now lost documents, grouped together into what was called "The Sacred Book of Temples," which gave a history and description of the major shrines along the Nile from a very remote period. These were first established by a group of creator-entities called the Shebtiw, who were associated with the god "Divine Heart" or Thoth-Djehutis, the Egyptian deity of Wisdom.

The first act of the Shebtiw was to retrieve sacred books and power objects preserved from a great destruction in a special secret site named the bw-hmn, the "deep (underground) place that is constructed." In association with the bw-hmn, Thoth-Djehutis is identified as the "Overlord of the Image."

The word "image" here in the hieroglyphs is given as hry hw, having the connotation, "face, head, statue, sculpture, protecting form," and most likely refers to the Sphinx, the guardian of the entranceway into the lost Hall.

According to the Building Texts, the sacred books and power objects were eventually placed back inside the bw-hmn or Hall, and the Shebtiw sealed the entrance, constructed a new "enclosure" about it, and erected power staffs and pillars outside to protect its secrets, hidden away again from all but its Guardians. The site thereafter became known as bw-hmr, the "place of the throne of the soul," regarded as the location where only the highest Initiations were performed.

In another Egyptian text, known today as the Westcar Papyrus, which bears evidence of dating in its original form to the Fourth Dynasty, is the story of an enigmatic sage named Djeda who could not only perform miraculous feats of magic and healing, but who also possessed certain information concerning what he called, "the secret chambers of the books of Thoth." In the narrative, Djeda tells Pharaoh Khufu the location of specific keys that will one day open the hidden place:

In the city of Ani (Heliopolis) just to the north of Giza is a temple called the House of Sapti, referring to Septi, the fifth Pharaoh of the First Dynasty, who reigned about 3000 B.C.E. Within the temple is a special library room where the scrolls of inventory were kept, usually dedicated to the deities Thoth-Djehutis and Sesheta. The walls of this room are made of sandstone blocks, and either within or behind one of these blocks is a secret niche containing a small box made of flint or whetstone. It is within this box that the ipwt-seals or keys that will open the secret chambers of Thoth, the Hall of Records, may still be hidden.

When Khufu asked Djeda to bring these keys to him, the sage replied he did not have the power to do so, but prophesied that those who some day would find the keys would be one of THREE sons born to Rad-dedet, the wife of the chief priest of Ra in Heliopolis, the Lord of Sakhbu (the second Lower nome or district in the Nile Delta), and that the three would be born on the 15th day of the month of Tybi (our October-November).

Now it is generally interpreted that the three mentioned were the first three Pharaohs of the succeeding Fifth Dynasty. But because much of Egyptian literature is multi-leveled in its symbolism, there is reason to believe that a more esoteric meaning may have been intended, that the three enigmatic "brothers" may also be those yet future individuals who will one day find and open the Hall of Records.

Today many portions of the old city of Heliopolis are still buried and unexcavated, silently resting underneath the expanding suburbs of Cairo. The secret of the lost House of Sapti may yet await discovery.

Egyptian literature reveals that the Sphinx was primarily the embodiment of three different gods: Hor-em-akhet or Harakhty (the Greek Harmakhis) or the rising sun, Atum the progenitor of all the other gods and the human race, whose symbol was the setting sun, and Khephera the deity of regeneration.

The Book of Coming Forth into Light (also known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead) equates the many aspects of Ra, as embodied in the Sphinx, with secrets located underground:

“Homage to you, Ra, supreme power, (who is) Lord of the Caverns, (containing) its hidden forms, (where) he goes to rest in the Mysteries of when he Transformed himself—He who protects what is inside (the Earth), he at the Head (Entrance) of His Caverns.”

One stone stele, No. 83, found near the Sphinx was engraved by a Twenty-third Dynasty “director of public works” named Pa-Ra-em-heb, and contains a poem dedicated to the Sphinx as the sun god. Portions of the poem reflect on memories of the distant past:

“Hail to you, King of the Gods, Atum-Khepheri, who in the beginnings was begotten before the mountains and deserts. You tended the lines for the plan (as in a map) to create (to know, to discover) the lands of the earth, when no other gods existed before you. You have built the hidden place (close by) to it, rising before it each morning forever.”

Recent geological evidence suggests there is evidence the Sphinx was indeed made before the deserts of Libya and the Sahara were created circa 3000 B.C.E., and before the high cliff walls along the Nile were formed by the massive floodings of 10,000 B.C.E.

A second fragmented section of the poem reads: “You tended the lines for the plan (as in a map) to create (to know, to discover) the lands of the earth, when no other gods existed before you.” We know that the Great Pyramid contains within its measurements harmonic fractions of the size of the Earth. Does the Sphinx also possess secret wisdom concerning a prehistoric survey of the globe as well?

Finally the texts say, “You have built the hidden place (close by) to it, rising before it each morning forever.” Here we have a reference to a structure of some sort that the Sphinx lies over, yet is close by and unseen, in the direction of the rising sun, which the Sphinx’s face eternally looks into at each dawn. Pa-Ra-em-heb appears to allude to the fact that as the Sun rises on the eastern horizon, the entrance is to be found on a line between the Sphinx and the dawn light, somewhere in the stretch of land between the Giza plateau and the Nile.

As an interesting confirmation of this, Egyptian archaeologist Selim Hassan unearthed nine stelae around the Sphinx, all from the Eighteenth Dynasty, which give the name of the Sphinx as Hor-em-akhet. The full connotation of this name means, “Rising over the Select Place (Setepet) on the Horizon.” Significantly, the wife of this god, Iusaset, is portrayed in the Temple of Gerf Hussein as having the headdress with a cornice-topped building on it, with an open doorway, surrounded by two symbols representing the burying action of blowing sand.

Hor-em-akhet is directly related to the original name of the Sphinx, which was Hw or Hu. In Egyptian literary works, Hu is the deity who personified “authoritative utterance,” “command,” the “Power of the Tongue of Ptah,” who by Sound commanded the Universe into existence. In the Pyramid Texts of Unas, Hu is the consort of the Morning Star Venus, identified with the goddess Sesheta—having a Seven-Pointed Star over her head—and when the Initiate became a Star in the Final Initiation process of Transcendence, they were accompanied into the Heavens by Hu.

In the form of Hyw or Hhw, he is the deity who carries the Celestial Sky, yet is also regarded as a god of Chaos. Hu was also one of the three companions of Atum-Ra—along with Sia (Intelligence; a form of Thoth) and Heka (Magic Power)—all three who were instrumental in Primordial Creation.

We also find another name used in association with the Sphinx, Horakhty, which means, “Horus (as the sun) who dwells (in favor) on the horizon.” Some translators see this as referring specifically to the summer solstice sunrise. The connection between the monument and the sun is further established by Egyptologist Cotsworth’s discovery at the beginning of the last century of a series of ancient lines fanning out from the neck of the Sphinx, lines which were used to indicate the point of sunrise at different dates, from solstice to equinox.

There are other stelae found near the Sphinx which depict the Sphinx wearing a disk of the sun on its brow, and with eyes shining, as if gilded with gold. The god of the rising sun was in fact sometimes called Her-Nub, “Golden Horus.” Traditions say that only on a specific day during the year, and for only a few seconds, the light of the rising sun hit the disk and eyes at a certain angle, causing them to reflect the light image downward onto the ground, toward the east. Either these lights themselves, or the shadows cast off an obelisk which is said to have once stood between the Sphinx’s paws, marked out the spot of the secret entrance to the Hall of Records.

Today, of course, the disk and gilded eyes are gone. But the face of the Sphinx, in particular the positions of the brow and eyes, have remained remarkably intact, and it might prove worthwhile for interested investigators to carry out experiments using models of the Sphinx, bright lights, and mirrors, to see where the mystery reflections or shadows fall.

Significantly, the position of the face and head of the Sphinx seems to have been of great importance to its sculptors, for they took a special precaution lest its head should one day, whether by accident or by intent, be separated from its body.

Not far from the Sphinx, to the south, is a large rocky butte or gebel. The eastern and central outline of the gebel seen against the horizon is relatively straight and uniform, but on its western edge a very large and noticeable cup-like indentation was once carved out.

Directly north of the forefront of the Sphinx is a small rocky outcropping, the remains of an isolated and singular platform. By standing from this vantage point and looking southward, one can see that the head of the Sphinx appears to rest in the cup-depression in the rocky gebel beyond. Even the angle of the Sphinx’s chin and face is mirrored there, though the entire head is now of a smaller size than it used to be. Clearly the sculptors responsible for the carving of the Sphinx were also responsible for the gebel’s cup-profile, so that if the Sphinx’s head ever came off, it could be replaced again, accurately, by using the pattern outlines preserved on the horizon, and the direction of the monument’s enigmatic gaze would never be changed.

In the Pyramid Texts references are made to “the Place of Thoth,” “the House of Thoth,” the “Temple of Thoth Which Cannot be Found,” which certainly does not describe his traditional center of worship at Hermopolis, but rather a hidden location not yet discovered. This hidden location was given the name Neter-Khertet, the “Divine Subterranean Place.”

Another ancient Egyptian work, the Leyden Papyrus composed in the Eighteenth Dynasty, contains the “Hymn to Amun-Ra” which speaks of the god taking on the functions of the heavenly Harakhty (the Sphinx) who attains, "perceptions in his heart, command on his lips" as he "enters the two caverns which are under his (the Sphinx's) feet; he who is of the Two Horizons,” Harmakhis the Sphinx. The command of Amun was then placed into the "writings of Thoth-Djehutis," the god of Hidden Knowledge and Initiation.

Similarly, in a contemporary work called the Magical Papyrus appears the “Hymn of Shu,” where it is stated that “Thoth, the Scribe of the Library of Ra-Harmakhis, the Hall of the God-house, perfected and made permanent the letters of the god (hieroglyphs) under the feet of Ra-Harmakhis” the Sphinx.

In the Papyrus of Ani we find these words: “I am your writing palette, O Thoth; I have brought you your ink jar. I am not one of those who has worked iniquity in secret; let no evil happen to me. Protect me in your Secret Place.”

It is precisely in this “Secret Place” that the Pyramid Texts describe that Thoth “kept registers of the deeds of men,” and by these records the hearts of individuals were judged. This constituted a set of secret moral codes for humanity, also known as the Codes of Osiris, used in the “Hall of Truth.” Associated with these Codes is Thoth’s Book of Prophecy, by which the Destiny of Nations is given. One text reads, “I am Thoth; in my hands is my Book which guides the Utterances of the Gods; I reveal the Depths of Mysterious Knowledge and Foreknowledge.”

In various written sources, Thoth-Djehutis was given many titles that bespeak his association with the Hall of Records. He was described as “He Who Has the Power to Open Hidden Gates and Portals,” “The Dweller in the Library,” “Appearing in the Hall Bearing the Royal Document,” “Chief Scribe in the Great Hall,” “Lord of the Per Ankh, the House of the Books of Life,” “The All-Knowing One, Dispenser of Every Kind of Strange and Mysterious Gnosis, According to the Writings of Thoth Which are in the Library.” Another text states, “Everything in their Shape which Ptah has fashioned, according to that which Thoth has Written concerning their Bodies in the Great Registrar (Plan, Blueprint) which is in the Library.”

In the Pyramid Texts we find this curious statement: “Go, go to the two halves of the egg, go to Pe, to the Abode of Djehuti (Thoth-Hermes).”

In strictest translation, Pe is supposed to refer to the holy site of Buto, located in the northern Delta, at one time Northern Egypt’s capital and considered one of the earliest settlements along the Nile, dating back into Predynastic times. However, there was no major cult center dedicated to Djehuti-Thoth ever located here.

It is obvious that the name Pe has a much broader and more esoteric interpretation, and refers to a more mystical location known only to the “sons and daughters of Thoth,” who were his Initiates. If one looks at the hieroglyphs for the word pe and all its immediate derivatives and connotations, we find many interesting elements that point instead to Giza and the Hall of Records as the true location intended.

On one level, the key name refers to “the two halves of heaven,” which may relate to the cryptic message to “go to the two halves of the (cosmic) egg” mentioned in the above text. In sacred geometry, drawing a two-dimensional representation of an egg involves using two different foci points. Does this indicate that there is not one but two different possible entrances into the Hall of Records, and that each doorway can be found by circumscribing an egg-shape onto the Giza complex of structures?

That Thoth is associated with the mysterious location can be found in the fact that Pe is also associated with the name of the ibis-headed guardian of the eleventh hour in the Duat. The ibis of course is one of the major symbols for Thoth.

The key name also is the appellation of a lion-goddess, to having the strength of a lion; yet likewise refers to the face of a man, a human face. A lion with a human face is the Sphinx, one of the traditional entranceways into the secret chambers of Thoth. Directly connected with this is pe also signifying a base, a pedestal, as of a statue, pointing to what lies below the Sphinx structure.

In another set of connotations, pe means something having been accomplished in the past; from antiquity, belonging to primeval times; remote ages; from creation; the first beginning; the beginning of time; also referring to primeval beings; primeval gods; the first ancestors. This is as it is applied to all humankind, to people and their spirits.

Yet in another context the word can also suggest to fly; to arrive at the end of a journey; to attain the heart’s desire; to come to the end of anything; to finish what was once begun; a great quest being completed.

Associated with this are the additional meanings of something to be opened; to work magic; to unroll a papyrus; to shine and be illuminated.

As to the nature of the wisdom to be discovered, the key word likewise refers to giving birth; to be born of; to come into existence; matter; substance, the seed used in medicine; the matter or material of which anything is made; finding the essence of all things—all of which are expressions of the lost science of alchemy, the transmutation of elements and spirit.

The possible forms or shapes that the tablets of wisdom will take is described by other connective connotations, including a flat thin “cake” or “loaf,” a turtle shell; a circular object; also a cone or ball. Pe also refers to a water-pot or a little pot of water attached to a painter’s or scribe’s palette. In a larger sense the water-pot points forward to the Urn of the Age of the Water Bearer, Aquarius, as the time when the Abode of Thoth and all its secrets will finally be revealed.

Second only to Djehutis-Thoth in their association with the Sphinx and the Hall of Records was the goddess Sesheta or Seshat, who was seen as one expression of the all-important Cosmic Mother. The Book of Coming Forth into Light, Chapters 162 and 189, refers to the essence of of the hidden wisdom of Seshat as fully contained in the “Book of the Lady of the Hidden House,” the “Book of Very Great Secrets No One is Allowed to See, Recited Only Within the Enclosed Chamber.”

This “Chamber” is called Shetat in her honor, also described as the “Secret House,” the “Chamber of Seshat,” the “Place of the Fulfillment of Secrets.”

The Demotic Mythic Text likewise speaks of “Seshat the Great, Lady of Writing, Great of Magic (Heka), Foremost of the Hidden (Sheta) Library, Who Causes the Annals of Existence to Circulate Throughout the Universe Forever.”

Other texts describe the goddess being the “Lady of Builders, the Enumerator, Lady of Writings, Queen of Scribes, Head of the House of Divine Books, the Celestial Librarian, Foremost in the Chamber of Books.”

Like Thoth, however, there was also a dark side to Seshat reflected in the Sphinx, in the form of the leonine goddess Shesmetet—an aspect also of Sekhmet—who “Holds Magical Powers (Heka) against Demons of Violent Death.”

Certain words that were variations of the goddess’ name were likewise associated with the deepest Mysteries concerning Creation and Transformation. Shetit was another appellation for that part of the Duat which dealt with the Cosmos. Seshet describes both the “energies of solidification (manifestation; or Sheta) and dispersion (Pe-sesh),” while Sheta-ses is the enigmatic location where these take place, the “region that separates formed things from formless ideas (Shetau; thought forms).”

This was connected with the secret place called Restau, where the High Initiate exclaims, “I have seen the Abyss that is in Restau, the city at the pit of whirling forces.” Here was found Sesh, the “Place of Dispersion at the Mouth (Entrance) to the Hidden Areas” that are located in Restau, “wherein is the Abyss.” Here too is Setau-Khet, the fire of solidification, the purifying fire that assists in the process of formation, through which Spirit passes in order to be reborn. Also herein is the Seset-Khet, the fire of dispersion, the fire that consumes, much like physical fire, that burns away all until formless Spirit remains. What controlled the two fires was an instrument called the Seseshet, a type of sistrum or rattle whose vibration could be directed for purposes of both manifestation and dissolution.

Still another deity with an association with the Sphinx as protector of the lost Hall of Records is Anubis or Anpu, the jackal-headed god. In the Papyrus of Nu, the departed spirit invokes the presence of Anubis, so that “I may go in and out of Restau; let me pass through the Secret Chambers of Amenti.”

In other passages, the god is called the “Chief of the Hill of the West (Amenti),” the “Prince of the Divine Hall,” and was given the title Anpu Khenti-She-Netjer—”Watcher Over the Golden Hall of the Gods.” Anubis was often regarded as the “Invisible Sphinx” at Giza.

A more obscure deity connected to the Sphinx is Mahes, the Greek Miysis and Roman Mihos, who the Egyptians regarded as the son of Bastet the cat goddess. Mahes himself was a lion-headed man, or a lion with a human head—a sphinx. Sometimes the god is pictured with a knife in his hand and is called “Great of Strength,” “Great of Roaring,” the “Raging Lion,” and in the form as Har-Mihos or Horus with a lion’s head is the “flashing and thundering god,” “lord of darkness and wind,” and as Phre is named “Great God of Light, Fire and Flame,” adorned with a headdress and solar disk, like the Sphinx once had. All these have the connotation of being the “supreme Protector of the innocent, Punisher of the transgressors of Maat (Truth)” and the “Chief Guardian of the Doorway.”

Among the Meriotic pyramids Mahes appears with human hands holding a scroll of ancient wisdom or a libation cup, and sits beneath the Tree of Life. He is also often paired either with the lioness goddess Tefnut or with Tutu, the son of the celestial goddess Neith, being lion-bodied with a human head, and directly associated with Djehutis-Thoth. At Nubian Dakka, a wall relief shows two small lions or lionesses in reclining positions and enclosed within two symmetrically arranged pedestals upon which two large ibises—the bird of Thoth—are sitting. Also at Dakka, Thoth is paired with either Tefnut or Mahes, and above their seated figures are four ibis-figured Thoths each resting atop shrines, with the inscription “Lord of Divine Words.”

These images of four shrines are thought to be associated with the Four Winds—Qebiu of the North, Shehebui of the South, Henkhisesui of the East, and Hedjiui of the West. These Winds Thoth kept in “four chambers” and according to the Book of Coming Forth into Light, the Ibis god was the “Opener of the Chamber Doors at His Pleasure.” The Winds were identified as the Four Protecting Spirits for the Chamber of Books, and at Kom Ombo they are portrayed as winged creatures protecting a certain Doorway leading underground.

The famed Greek historian Herodotus, in 443 B.C.E., recorded after his visit to Egypt that extending beneath and in all directions far beyond the "pyramid whereon great figures are graven" is a vast "labyrinth," and a "way into it underground."

In the Corpus Hermeticum—a body of treatises compiled from older materials toward the beginning of the Christian Era—we find in one of the works, the "Virgin of the World," these words:

"The sacred symbols of the cosmic elements, the secrets of Osiris, were hid away carefully. Hermes (the Greek equivalent to Thoth-Djehutis), before his return to Heaven, invoked a spell on them, and spoke these words: O holy books which have been made by my immortal hands, by incorruption's magic spell, remain free from decay throughout eternity and incorrupt by time. Become unseeable, unfindable, from everyone whose foot shall tread the plains of this land, until old Heaven shall bring instruments to you, whom the Creator shall call His souls. Thus spake he, and laying the spells on them by means of his works, he shut them safe away in their rooms. And long has been the time since they were hid away."

The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that Enoch had once built an underground temple of nine vaults, one beneath the other, placing within tablets of gold. His son, Methuselah, also worked on the construction project, putting in the brick walls of the vaults according to his father's plans.

The Freemasons, based on ancient traditions going back to the Age of King Solomon of Israel, predict that someday a man will locate this buried vault, and that he will be "an Initiate after the order of Enoch."

The Roman Marcellinus, in the fourth century A.D., stated: "There are certain subterranean galleries and passages full of windings beneath the pyramids which, it is said, the adepts in the ancient rites (knowing that the flood was coming, and fearing that the memory of the sacred ceremonies would be obliterated), constructed vaults in various places, mining them out of the ground with great labor. And upon leveled walls they engraved the hieroglyphic characters."

Marcellinus' contemporary, Iamblichus, wrote a treatise on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, and described the Initiation associated with the Sphinx. In a secret location between the paws of the feline monument, he said, is a bronze door, its opening triggered by a hidden spring. Beyond it, the neophytes went into a circular room. From this point on, they were subject to a series of trials to become full members among the Initiates, eventually reaching Masterhood.

In similar fashion, the tenth century Coptic chronicler Al Masudi observed from earlier accounts that in the area of the Sphinx were subterranean doorways to the Giza monuments: "One entered the pyramid through a vaulted underground passage one hundred cubits or more long; each pyramid had such a door and entry."

In later centuries, the medieval Arab historian Firouzabadi noted that the chambers of the Sphinx were constructed at the same time as the Great Pyramid: "The Pyramid was erected by Esdris (Hermes or Thoth), to preserve there the sciences, to prevent their destruction. And also, the first priests, by observations of the stars, preserved records of medicine, magic and talismans elsewhere."

The fourteenth century traveler Ibn Batuta stated:

"The pyramids of brick and stone were constructed by Hermes, Thrice Great, who is the same as Enoch, and also called Esdris, Surid. In them he preserved the arts and sciences and other intelligences from before the Flood."

Likewise, Ibn Abd Alhokim, who told the story of the antediluvian king Salhouk's dream of the Flood and his building of the Pyramid to save wisdom, also recounted that Salhouk dug a vault nearby the Pyramid, filling it with all manners of works on mathematics, astronomy and physics:

"And they built gates (entrances) of it forty cubits underground," with foundations "of massive stones from the Ethiopians, and fastened them together with lead and iron." When Salhouk was finished, "he covered it with colored marble from top to bottom and he appointed a solemn festival, at which were present all the inhabitants of the kingdom."

Ibn al Nadim, writing in his book, The Index, described how: "In the middle of the (Giza) plateau, a beautiful chamber was built. At its top are two large, superbly dressed blocks, surmounted by two stone statues representing a man and a woman facing each other.

The man holds in his hand a stone tablet covered with writing, and the woman a mirror and a gold tablet decorated with beautiful engravings. Between the two pedestals is a stone vessel sealed with a gold lid, enclosing sacred, odorless healing resin.

"The pavement of the chamber is hollowed with a man-sized tunnel that plunges downward; its ceiling is made of stone, and one finds there statues seated and standing, as well as artifacts the meaning and purpose of which is beyond our understanding."

El Qodai in like manner recounted the existence of mysterious and unknown chambers in this exact same area. He told of three doors, each made of marble and measuring ten cubits high and five wide, having a lintel with an indecipherable inscription traced in blue, opening up into three chambers. Each door could not be lifted by one hundred men, yet they slid open easily when statues in the niche of three columns located ten cubits from each door, were moved from their places.

The first chamber contains three "beds" made of "luminous stone," within which are preserved THREE persons dressed in robes, each holding a book of unknown hieroglyphs. The second chamber possesses many stone shelves with baskets containing gold boxes and "jewels that speak." And the third chamber is filled with strange tools and instruments made of unrecognizable metal and glass.

[Copyright 2009. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]