Page 422 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

function as a three-dimensional map projection of the northern
hemisphere that particularly interested me because it suggested a
‘match’ with the ancient but advanced maps of the world described in
Part I. Those maps, which made use of spherical trigonometry and a
range of sophisticated projections, had been claimed by Professor
Charles Hapgood to provide tangible, documentary evidence that an
advanced civilization with a comprehensive knowledge of the globe must
have flourished during the last Ice Age. Now here was the Great Pyramid
proving to have a cartographic function vis-à-vis the northern hemisphere
and also incorporating a sophisticated projection. As one expert
explained:
Each flat face of the Pyramid was designed to represent one curved quarter of the
northern hemisphere, or spherical quadrant of 90 degrees. To project a spherical
quadrant on to a flat triangle correctly, the arc, or base, of the quadrant must be
the same length as the base of the triangle, and both must have the same height.
This happens to be the case only with a cross-section or meridian bisection of the
Great Pyramid, whose slope angle gives the pi relation between height and base
...
14
Was it possible that surviving copies and compilations of ancient maps—
like the Piri Reis Map, for example—might in some cases go back to
source documents produced by the same culture that skillfully
incorporated its knowledge of the globe into the dimensions of the Great
Pyramid (and indeed into the carefully geometrized dimensions of
Ancient Egypt itself)?
I could hardly forget that Charles Hapgood and his team had spent
months trying to work out where the original projection of the Piri Reis
Map had been centred. The answer they finally obtained was Egypt and
specifically Seyne (Aswan) in upper Egypt —where, as we have seen, an
15
important astronomical observatory was situated at latitude 24° 06’ N,
the official southern border.
Needless to say, precise astronomical observations would have been
essential for calculations of the circumference of the earth and of latitude
positions. But for how long before the historical period had the Ancient
16
Egyptians and their ancestors been making such observations? And had
they indeed learned this skill, as they stated forthrightly in their
traditions, from the gods who had once walked among them?

Navigators in the Boat of Millions of Years

The god believed by the Ancient Egyptians to have taught the principles
of astronomy to their ancestors was Thoth: ‘He who reckons in heaven,

Secrets of the Great Pyramid, p. 189.
14
15 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, p. 17ff.
16 See, for example, The Shape of the World, p. 23.

420