Page 434 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

precession. Let’s assume they were able to calculate the declination of
particular star-groups backwards and forwards in time, just as we can
today with computers ... Assuming they could do that then, no matter
which epoch they lived in, they’d have been able to make a model of what
the skies over Giza looked like in 10,450 BC or 2450 BC as required, just
as we could. In other words, if they’d built the pyramids in 10,450 BC they
would have had no difficulty in calculating the correct angles of
inclination for the southern shafts so that they would be sighted on Al
Nitak and Sirius around 2450 BC. Likewise, if they’d lived in 2450 BC
they’d have had no difficulty in calculating the correct site-plan to reflect
the position of Orion’s Belt in 10,450 BC. Agreed?’
‘Agreed.’
‘OK. That’s one explanation. But the second explanation, which I
personally favour—and which I think the geological evidence also
supports—is that the whole Giza necropolis was developed and built up
over an enormously long period of time. I think it’s more than possible
that the site was originally planned and laid out at around 10,450 BC, so
that its geometry would reflect the skies as they looked then, but that the
work was completed, and the shafts of the Great Pyramid aligned, around
2450 BC.’
‘So you’re saying that the ground-plan of the Pyramids could date back
to 10,450 BC?
‘I think it does. And I think that the geometrical centre of that plan was
located more or less where we’re standing now, right in front of the
Second Pyramid ...’
I pointed out the large blocks in the lower courses of the huge edifice:
‘It even looks like it was built in two stages, by two completely different
cultures ...’
Bauval shrugged. ‘Let’s speculate ... Maybe it wasn’t two different
cultures, Maybe it was one culture, or cult—the cult of Osiris, perhaps.
Maybe it was a very long-lived, very ancient cult dedicated to Osiris that
was here in 10,450 BC and was still here in 2450 BC. Maybe what
happened was that some of the ways that this cult did things changed
over time. Maybe they used huge blocks in 10,450 BC and smaller blocks
in 2450 BC ... It seems to me there’s a lot here that supports this notion, a
lot that says “very ancient cult”, a lot of evidence that has just never been
investigated ...’
‘For example?’
‘Well, obviously the astronomical alignments of the site. I’ve been
among the first to start looking into those properly. And the geology: the
work that John West and Robert Schoch have been involved in at the
Sphinx. Here are two sciences—both hard, empirical, evidence-driven
sciences—that have never been applied to these problems before. But
now that we have started to apply them, we’re beginning to get a whole
new reading on the antiquity of the necropolis. And I honestly think we’ve

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