Page 281 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Dynasty Pharaoh Khafre (Chephren). This stunning monument, second
only in size and majesty to the Great Pyramid itself (being just a few feet
shorter and 48 feet narrower at the base) appeared lit up, as though
energized from within, by a pale and unearthly fire. Behind it in the
distance, slightly offset among the dark desert shadows, was the smaller
Pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus), measuring 356 feet along each side
and some 215 feet in height.
17
For a moment, against the glittering backdrop of the inky sky, I
experienced the illusion of being in motion, of standing at the stern of
some great ship of the heavens and looking back at two other vessels
which seemed to follow in my wake, strung out in battle order behind me.
So where was this convoy going, this squadron of pyramids? And were
the prodigious structures all the work of megalomaniac pharaohs, as the
Egyptologists believed? Or had they been designed by mysterious hands
to voyage eternally through time and space towards some as yet
unidentified objective?
From this altitude, though the southern sky was partially occluded by
the vast bulk of the Pyramid of Khafre, I could see all the western sky as it
arched down from the celestial north pole towards the distant rim of the
revolving planet. Polaris, the Pole Star, was far to my right, in the
constellation of the Little Bear. Low on the horizon, about ten degrees
north of west, Regulus, the paw-star of the imperial constellation of Leo,
was about to set.

Under Egyptian skies

Just above the 150th course, Ali hissed at us to keep our heads down. A
police car had come into view around the north-western corner of the
Great Pyramid and was now proceeding along the western flank of the
monument with its blue light slowly flashing. We stayed motionless in the
shadows until the car had passed. Then we began to climb again, with a
renewed sense of urgency, heading as fast as we could towards the
summit, which we now imagined we could see jutting out above the misty
predawn haze.
For what seemed like five minutes we climbed without stopping. When I
looked up, however, the top of the Pyramid still seemed as far away as
ever. We climbed again, panting and sweating, and once again the
summit drew back before us like some legendary Welsh peak. Then, just
when we’d resigned ourselves to an endless succession of such
disappointments, we found ourselves at the top, under a breathtaking
canopy of stars, more than 450 feet above the surrounding plateau on
the most extraordinary viewing platform in the world. To our north and
east, sprawled out across the wide, sloping valley of the River Nile, lay the

17 The Pyramids of Egypt, p. 125.

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