The World Egg is the source of the origin of life, like the sun, because in ancient times it became the emblem of the sun and was revered by the ancient Slavs (for example, the Easter red egg (painted)) .The World Egg, the Cosmic Egg is a mythopoetic symbol of many peoples. From

One of the strangest and most mysterious myths of Ancient Egypt is the legend of the Phoenix - a wonderful bird that lives forever, dying, reborn from its ashes. The Egyptians were very serious about the idea of ​​Eternity, constant renewal (the circulation of the Sun, floods of the Nile) and eternal life. They sought to find what they were looking for in monumental statues, stone pyramids and imperishable mummies. Therefore, it is quite natural that it was in Egypt that the myth of an immortal, reborn bird arose, although the subsequent development of the image was made by the Greeks and Romans. Actually, according to ancient writers, Phoenix entered our culture.

Food for thought

It was usually believed that the Phoenix is ​​the only, unique individual, and not some kind of mythological bird. In The Book of Fictional Creatures, Jorge Luis Borges brings together references from ancient and later authors about the wonderful bird: “Erman writes that in the mythology of Heliopolis, the Phoenix (benu) is the patron saint of anniversaries, or large time cycles; Herodotus in the famous passage (II, 73) sets out, with reservations about his mistrust, the original version of the legend: “There is another sacred bird there, which I saw only drawn, and its name is Phoenix. It is rarely possible to see her live, so rarely that, if you believe the inhabitants of Heliopolis, she flies to Egypt once every five hundred years, namely, when her father dies. If in size and shape it is as it is described, then its appearance and become very reminiscent of an eagle, and its feathers are partly golden, partly red. So many miracles are told about her that, although, in my opinion, they are not very trustworthy, I must write about them. In order to transfer the body of its father from Arabia to the Temple of the Sun, the Phoenix bird resorts to the following method: first of all, it sculpts a ball of myrrh, the size of such that it has the strength to carry it, and therefore, while sculpting it, it constantly tries to weight whether it will cope with it; then she scoops the middle out of it until the depression accommodates her father's body, which she fixes there with lumps of myrrh, filling the cavity with them, until the weight of the ball together with the corpse is equal to the weight when it was solid. Then, having closed the hole, he puts the resulting egg on his back and flies with it to Egypt to the Temple of the Sun. This is what they say about this bird, is it true or false. "

Five hundred years after Herodotus, Tacitus and Pliny picked up a wonderful story: the first honestly admitted that “all antiquity is dark, but, judging by the legend, the Phoenix's life span is one thousand four hundred and sixty-one years” (Annals, VI, 28). Likewise, the second author was concerned with the life span of the Phoenix; he noted that, according to Manilia, Phoenix lives Platonov, or the Great Year. The Platonic year is the time during which the Sun, Moon and five planets return to their original position; Tacitus in the Dialogue on Speakers defines it as 12,994 ordinary years. The ancients believed that after this astronomical cycle, world history would repeat itself in every detail, for the influences of the planets would repeat themselves; thus, the Phoenix becomes, as it were, a symbol or image of the universe. For greater similarity, the Stoics taught that the world perishes in fire and is reborn in fire, and that this process will have no end and no beginning.

Over the years, the concept of the Phoenix birth mechanism has become simpler. Herodotus mentions an egg, Pliny - about a worm, and Claudian, at the end of the 4th century, already describes in verse an immortal bird, reborn from the ashes, an heir to herself and a witness of many centuries.

The Phoenix myth is one of the most widespread in the history of literature. To the authors already mentioned, one can add Ovid ("Metamorphoses", XV), Dante ("Hell", XXIV), Shakespeare ("Henry VIII", V, 4), Pelliser ("The Phoenix and Its Natural History"), Quevedo (" Spanish Parnassus ", VI), Milton (" Samson the wrestler "). Let us also mention the Latin poem "De Ave Phoentice" ("On the Phoenix Bird"), attributed to Lactantius, and the Anglo-Saxon imitation of this poem of the eighth century. Tertullian, Saint Ambrose and Cyril of Jerusalem cited the Phoenix as proof of the resurrection in the flesh.

By far the most popular and known version of the Phoenix legend was recorded by Herodotus, who visited Egypt. Actually, Herodotus called the Egyptian prototype bird with the Greek word Phoenix (possibly from the Greek phοίνιξ - "purple, crimson"). But apart from the authors mentioned above, Phoenix left his mark in other works.

At the end of the 17th century, the German scientist F. Wolf gathered together all the known information about Phoenix. The result of the search was published in a work with the intricate title "Amazing Wildlife Garden, or On the Unreasonableness of Animals": "The Phoenix bird is considered the most amazing of all the birds in the air. Some write that she lives in Arabia, others talk about other places. This bird does not reproduce, like other birds, but is reborn after death from its own ashes. She lives 160 years, and some scientists argue that it is longer. They also say about her that she is the only one in all lands, therefore they see her very rarely. This is where the saying goes: "More rare than the Phoenix." The size of a Phoenix from an eagle, the neck is shiny, golden, in the tail there are pink feathers, the face is round, on the head is a tuft. Unlike all other birds, the Phoenix is ​​born without mating. It happens like this. When a bird reaches old age and feels the approach of death, it makes a nest of herbs and rare expensive plants such as coffee, myrrh, aloe, which are highly flammable. Then he sits down in the nest and waits for it to light up. And together with the nest, it burns to the ground. After the Phoenix burns down, first a worm appears, and from this worm then grows similar to the former Phoenix. Ovid wrote about this. Further, this new bird arranges an amazing funeral for the burned out: it transfers the ashes of the burnt nest to the famous city of Heliopolis (in Egypt) and places it on the altar there. She does it as follows: 1) weaves an ovoid vessel out of palm branches; 2) tries to see if he can pick it up; 3) carefully aligns the vessel and fills it with the ashes of the burnt nest; 4) neatly closes the hole; 5) lays his burden on the altar in the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis. Phoenixes seem to be of only one sex - male. "

Another description of the Phoenix was left to us in the 6th century in the apocrypha "The Revelation of Baruch". To Baruch's question: "What kind of birds are these?", The angel replied: "This is the keeper of the world ... If she had not covered the fiery gaze of the sun, then neither the human race, nor all creation on earth from the heat of the sun would have lived." Thus, Phoenix saves people from the incinerating gaze of the luminary. Perhaps, in reality, it was about some phenomenon on the Sun, for example, about strong flares of its activity with ejections of prominences. However, the relationship between Phoenixes and cosmic phenomena is one of the intriguing mysteries of their (Phoenixes') existence, we will try to reveal it a little below.

There is a description of the Phoenix in the old Physiologist: “His head is decorated with a crown, and on his feet are boots, like those of a king.

Phoenix lives ... near the Sun City. It has been lying for 500 years on Lebanese cedars without food. It feeds on the Holy Spirit ... The bell rings at the appointed hour, and the Phoenix in the church on the altar turns to ash. And the next morning they find [the bird] in the same place in the form of a chick, and the next day - as an adult. "

Medieval bestiaries described the Phoenix either in unison with Herodotus' version or in a more "modern" manner. There is only one Phoenix in the world, he lives for exactly 500 years, and after that he collects for himself a funeral pyre of myrrh, cinnamon, aloe and other incense, spontaneously igniting from the sun (according to another version, the Phoenix carves sparks from a stone with its beak), blows it up with its wings and cremates himself alive. Pliny speaks of the age of 540 years, as well as a sweet-smelling worm crawling out of the ashes (after so much aromatic wood, it's no wonder), which must grow "to the size of a chicken" and perform a special ritual over the burnt bones in order to become a Phoenix.

Alchemists of medieval Europe considered the Phoenix to be a symbol of Christ's resurrection, rebirth. For them, it also meant purifying and transforming fire, sulfur as a chemical element and red. Phoenix is ​​also referred to the element of chaos (apparently due to the frequent ability to be reborn).

During the Renaissance, some sources began to mention the Phoenix as a rare delicacy (the rarest, because only one Phoenix can live in the world).

Shakespeare concluded Henry VIII with the following lines:

Like a virgin - Phoenix, a miracle bird, Burning itself, it rises from the ashes An heir, as beautiful as herself.

Now the stories about Phoenix have become very "younger" - he has become a frequent guest of children's fairy tales, ranging from little-known, such as "Phoenix and the Carpet" by Edith Nesbit or "David and Phoenix" by David Ormondroyd and ending with a cycle of books about Harry Potter.

And what do the Egyptian primary sources tell us about the mysterious bird? The Phoenix of Herodotus is the Egyptian bird Bennu (Benu, Vienna, Ben Ben), considered the soul of the sun god Ra. In the "Book of the Dead" it is said about this: "I am the bird of Bennu, the soul and heart of Ra, the guide of the gods through the Duat." The name is associated with the word "weben", which means "to shine." According to one of the legends, Bennu emerged from the fire that burned on a sacred tree in the courtyard of the Ra temple and symbolized the solar principle. According to another version, Bennu escaped from the heart of Osiris.

In her physical incarnation, Bennu looked like a white, gray, purple or blue heron with a long beak and a two-feather tuft. Sometimes the bird was depicted as a yellow wagtail or an eagle with red and gold feathers. Rarely did Bennu appear in the form of a heron-headed man, dressed in blue and white robes. Bennu was portrayed both in the white crown of Osiris, decorated with two feathers, and with the solar disk of Ra. Phoenix was named "The One that originated by itself" and "The Towering One". It is quite logical that Bennu personified the resurrection from the dead and was associated with the annual floods of the Nile and sunrise, and was also associated with the calendar (Bennu temples were famous for devices that measure time). There was a belief that the appearance of the Phoenix in Heliopolis means the beginning of a new cycle, or the beginning of a new era. Bennu (like the South American bird quetzal) was associated with the planet Venus, shining in the night sky. The ancient Egyptians called Venus nothing more than "the boat of Bennu-Asar" (Osiris).

Of course, there are a lot of them. What is behind the Phoenix myth? And is this mysterious bird only among the ancient Egyptians? When did the first Phoenix appear? What does the mysterious ball represent - this strange "egg" or "nest" of the Phoenix? Is there a grain of truth in the hypotheses linking Phoenix and various astronomical phenomena?

What is the Ben Ben stone, where did it come from, where did it go, and how did the Egyptians relate it to Phoenix? Perhaps the mystery of the unsolved numbers of Thoth is connected with Ben Ben, which all haunt various adepts of esoteric knowledge (Masons, Theosophists and others)?

What mysteries are hidden by the ancient city of Heliopolis (Iunu, "The City of Pillars"), its Great Abode of Atum-Ra, Temple of the Phoenix and no less mysterious Abode of Ben Ben? Quite contradictory information has been preserved about these places of worship. Is it one temple with different names or different? And where was the mysterious sacred Ben Ben then? How are the mysteries of Osiris related to the cult of the bird Bennu (Phoenix)? What are they hiding and what are they revealing?

And in general, what does the obelisks have to do with it? And by the way, why were they needed at all? After all, obelisks keep no less secrets than pyramids.

Fire birds - close and distant relatives of the phoenix

Phoenix is ​​a rare bird, but not alone. In general, many fire birds nest in the cultural heritage of peoples of different countries and continents. The phoenix in its typological features is a universal fabulous creature. In many cultures, separated by centuries and thousands of kilometers, feathered creatures are described that are very similar to the Phoenix. Perhaps the bright birds that exist in nature were very often deified. And for many sacred birds, the motive of purifying combustion was characteristic.

In the culture of the South American Indians, the image of a real red-blue-green bird quetzal mixed with the image of a dragon, forming a feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl - the greatest deity who once created humanity from his blood. Quetzalcoatl was a symbol of wisdom, immortality, wind and the "morning star" of Venus. One Aztec legend says that the evil god Tezcatlipoca decided to destroy Quetzalcoatl and made him drunk. After that, Quetzalcoatl sinned with the chaste priestess, and the next morning, discovering this, he burned himself at the stake. His heart did not succumb to the flames and became the morning star. (The latter is very similar to the symbolism of the Phoenix.) A distinctive symbol of the Indian rulers and the highest priests was a headdress made of the feathers of the quetzal bird. Until recently, it was believed that quetzal was unsuitable for breeding in captivity, since, once in a cage, it immediately kills itself (well, without pyrotechnic effects). This fact is reflected in South American heraldry: quetzal is a symbol of freedom; he is, for example, depicted on the flag and coat of arms of Guatemala. However, in 1992, the Mexico City Zoo managed to develop a method for breeding quetzals, and in 2004 they did produce offspring.

One of the oldest representatives of the tribe of "fire birds" is the Chinese fenghuang, who reigns over all its relatives. Fenghuang appeared in Asian mythology over 7000 years ago. They were simple jade figurines placed on top of the fortune totems of the tribes of eastern China. Some researchers suggest that stone fenghuangs were created in the image and likeness of prehistoric birds (possibly relatives of ostriches), now extinct. The miraculous fenghuang bird is mentioned in the oracular inscriptions of ancient China. Its "mosaic" appearance corresponded to the best traditions of medieval bestiaries. The Chinese dictionary of the 1st century "Interpretation of signs" ("Chauwen") described the fenghuang bird in the following way: "It looks like a swan from the front, a unicorn (qilin) ​​from the back, a snake's neck, a fish's tail, a dragon's color, a tortoise's body, a cock's beak." In ancient times, females were called Feng, and males, as you might guess, Huang. Subsequently, the gender differences between them were erased. The body symbolized six natural elements: the head was the sky, the eyes were the sun, the back was the moon, the wings were the wind, the paws were the earth, and the tail was the planets. Fenghuang was painted in several colors - black, white, red, green, pink and yellow. The Chinese “Catalog of Seas and Mountains” also narrates about the bird: “Five hundred to the east of the Heavenly Tiger Mountain is the Cinnabar Cave Mountain. There is a lot of gold and jade on its top. There is a bird there, five-color, with streaks. It's called fenghuang. The pattern on her head resembles the hieroglyph "de", which means "virtue", on the wings - the hieroglyph "i" ("justice"), the back - the hieroglyph "li" ("good manners"), breasts - "jen" ("perfection “), Belly -“ blue ”(“ honesty ”). She eats and drinks like a normal bird. She sings herself and dances herself. " The bird appeared in times of calm and disappeared with the onset of turmoil.

The fenghuang symbolism was 100% positive. He was the embodiment of virtue and beauty, the fusion of Yin and Yang (primarily male and female). For medieval Chinese, fenghuang represented marital fidelity and a prosperous life. Therefore, she was often depicted on wedding dresses, was a symbol of the bride. Paired with a dragon (emperor), fenghuang could symbolize the empress or the feminine principle of Yin. During the Han Dynasty (2,200 years ago), fenghuangs - males and females - were used to represent the cardinal points. If his image was used in home decor, it spoke of the honesty and loyalty of the owners.

In Indian and Buddhist mythology, the image of the Garuda bird, a sacred animal that the god Vishnu rode, is very popular. Usually he is spoken of as a male being. His body glows with gold (when Garuda was born, he was mistakenly worshiped as the god of fire Agni), his white face is adorned with an eagle's beak, and his wings are blood-red. Garuda has a crown on his head, and he himself is so old and large that he obscures the sun. In Buddhist beliefs, Garuda is not one creature, but a special kind of intelligent birds of prey that are so large that a person can hide among their feathers and go unnoticed. Garuds live in their own cities under the rule of kings, fight with the Naga snakes and have a number of magical abilities. Some of them know how to transform into humans and willingly establish close relationships with mortal women.

In the mythology of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Sayano-Altai, the goddess Umai is known, who in the culture of the Khanty and Mansi is recognized as a direct prototype of the goddess Pugos Anki - the foremother of all living things, who "gave birth to herself." The same characteristic, as we will see later, is given to the phoenix. "Anki" in translation from Khanty means "mother". In the sacred sense, "Anki" can mean "the mother of all mothers", "mother of fire", "mother of the Sun", therefore, in the picture of the Khanty world order, she is given a place not far from the rising luminary. According to legend, Umai is directly related to childbirth, because conception depends only on her. At the tip of the sunbeam, Umai sends a newborn soul (by the way, gives twins one for two), she also determines the life span of each person. It was assumed that Umai participates in a joint meal with members of the clan, more precisely, of both clans - father and mother, which symbolically unites them.

A fiery bird in Chuvash mythology is a bird that carries fire, a harbinger of a fire, which it itself stops. As you can see, it also has something in common with the Phoenix bird.

The Irish mythical Phoenix outwardly resembles a skinny vulture, with greenish-black feathers that are not wetted with water. This bird builds teardrop-shaped nests in thorny bushes, flies only in pouring rain (the rest of the time it hides in the nest). The Irish Phoenix feeds on insects and elves.

In Jewish midrash (allegorical parables) Phoenix is ​​called "milham", its immortality is explained as follows. When the progenitor Hawa (Eve), having tasted the forbidden tree, made the Fall, she was seized with envy of the sinlessness of other creatures, and she tempted the animals to also partake of the “forbidden fruit”. Only the milham bird did not obey her, and as a reward for this, the angel of death was given a divine order, according to which the God-obeying should not know death. Milham received a fortified city, in which she lived serenely every thousand years. “A thousand years is the period of its life, and when it exceeds a thousand, fire breaks out from its nest and burns the bird. There is only one egg left, it turns into a chicken, and the bird continues to live on. However, others say that when she reaches the age of a thousand years, her body shrinks and her wings lose feathers, so that she begins to look like a chicken again. After that, her plumage is restored, and she soars up like an eagle, and death no longer hovers over her. "

The Simurg, an immortal bird nesting in the branches of the Tree of Knowledge, with orange metallic plumage, a human head, four wings, hawk claws and a huge peacock tail, is from ancient Iran.

In the 1st century poem "Shahnameh" Simurg is described by the poet Abulkasim Ferdowsi as follows:

You will see the mountain with its head up to the clouds, There is a bird, whose appearance is stern and powerful. His name is Simurg; full of strength I would compare it to a winged mountain.

Farid ad-Din Attar in the 13th century elevates Simurg to a symbol or image of divinity. This is set forth in the Mantical-Tair (Conversation of the Birds). Dwelling somewhere far away, the king of birds, Simurg, drops a magnificent feather in the center of China; the birds, who are fed up with strife, decide to find him. They know that the king's name means "thirty birds", they know that his palace is on the Cafe, the mountain, or the ring-shaped ridge surrounding the earth. At first, some birds show cowardice: the nightingale refers to his love for the rose; a parrot - for its beauty, for the sake of which it must live in a cage; a partridge cannot part with its hills, a heron with swamps, an owl with ruins. But in the end they embark on a journey, overcome seven valleys or seas. Many do not stand it and return, others die during the flight. The thirty, who have attained purification through their labors, descend on Mount Simurga. Finally they saw him, and then they understand that they are the "Simurg" and that "Simurg" is each of them and all of them together.

The Arab scholar and writer al-Qazwini in his "Miracles of Creation" claims that Simurg Anka lives for seven hundred years, and when his son grows up, the father kindles a fire and throws himself into the fire.

Simurg is a prophetic bird of enormous size. She possessed the gift of foresight, but her nature was twofold, containing the "good" and "harmful" halves. When fortune-telling and spells, it was recommended to keep the feathers of Simurg at hand: it was believed that they help in these difficult matters.

In Sufism, Simurg symbolizes the Perfect Man who possesses the knowledge of the Divine Essence. This Entity, like the legendary bird, cannot be seen. At one time, the image of this giant bird was even the emblem of Iran.

The Persian Huma is quite interesting - a fiery bird, very similar to its Egyptian "sister". It also combines two halves - male and female, and their unity should be understood literally (one paw and one wing per male and female part). A touch of Huma or a person falling into her shadow brings good luck and blessing. If she sits on someone's head, then this lucky man is destined to be king.

Rarog (rarig, rarashek) is the totem name of the falcon among the Slavs. It represents a fiery spirit in the form of a bird of prey or a dragon with a sparkling body emitting heat, flaming hair and radiance emanating from its beak or mouth, and also in the form of a fiery whirlwind. According to Czech legends, Rarog can be born from an egg, which a person incubates for nine days and nights on the stove.

Knew "Phoenix" and in Russia. The Russian Firebird is similar to the Phoenix. Quite a lot of information is reported about her in fairy tales: she is not distinguished by intelligence, although she can speak. It bites both golden apples and ordinary wheat. It shines brightly, but does not burn - it can be easily put in the bosom, and feathers can be used at night instead of a lamp. The flight of the Firebird is accompanied by strong winds and rough seas. In some stories, she is able to carry a person on herself.

Here is midnight at times The light spread over the mountain As if noon is coming: The firebirds come flying; They began to run and shout And peck millet and wine.

The Pigeon Book directly says: "Phoenix-bird - mother to all birds." Her "feathers are stronger than steel and damask, they cut bones and stones with them, and when guests come from across the sea, they buy feathers and cover velvets and satins with them." Perhaps in Russian legends there is a hint that this bird is of artificial origin. Or maybe this is a story about a certain echo of the information message from the technically advanced civilizations that preceded us (for example, cutting solid materials with the help of some kind of flame)? However, the relationship between Phoenixes and civilizations is also a question worthy of broader consideration.

Myth or Reality?

Various opinions are expressed regarding the reality of the Phoenixes (and not only them): some experts believe that something similar really happened, some relict bird with bright plumage supposedly existed, only this miracle died out a very, very long time ago. And in general it is believed that most of the fabulous animals, it is quite possible, really existed. In our time there is such a science called "teratology", which studies such developmental anomalies. Fairy tales are fairy tales, but we can say that even now there are “mountain snakes” - reptiles with several heads, “unicorns” - ungulates with anomaly in the development of horns, etc. It is quite possible that many myths and fairy tales were not born out of nowhere, just because someone had an overly rich imagination. Many mythical creatures, both in the form of animals and in the form of people, have one or another scientific explanation. As the Strugatsky brothers wrote in the novel “The Doomed City”: “Take, for example, myths! As you know, the overwhelming majority are fools, which means that, as a rule, it was a fool who witnessed any interesting event. A myth is a description of a real event in the perception of a fool and in the processing of the poet. "

Phoenix and the creation of the world. When and how was the first Phoenix born?

The mysterious bird is mentioned in the most ancient myths that have come down to us - in the legends about the creation of the world. Various theological centers of Ancient Egypt, the largest of which were the cities of Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis and Thebes, each put forward their own cosmogonic version, declaring their main god the creator of the world, and all the most popular gods in the country - created by him or leading from him to of all, only the idea of ​​the Primordial Chaos appeared). Therefore, there are four cosmogonic concepts: respectively Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis and Theban.

The city of Heliopolis was never the political center of the Egyptian state, however, from the era of the Old Kingdom and until the end of the Late period, it remained the most important theological center and the main cult center of the solar gods. The Heliopolis cosmogony of the god Ra is the most ancient cosmogonic concept of Egypt. Cosmogonic ideas are revealed in the "Texts of the Pyramids" and in the "Book of Knowledge of the Re-existence of Ra and the Overthrow of Apophis". The development of Heliopolis cosmogony is presented in the "Texts of the Sarcophagi".

The cosmogonic version of Heliopolis, developed during the 5th Dynasty, was the most widespread, and the main gods of the Heliopolis pantheon were the most popular in the entire country. The Egyptian name of the city - Yunu (City of Pillars) is associated with the cult of obelisks, and the obelisks are directly related to the cult of the Bennu-Phoenix bird. In the Heliopolis version, for the first time, it is the Bennu bird that is told.

According to the Heliopolis concept, a long time ago, many millions of years ago, there was Chaos - an endless, motionless and cold surface of water, shrouded in darkness. This ocean was called Nun, and it was a rather dark sight. The frozen, cold waters of Nun seemed to be forever frozen in immobility. There was no air, no warmth, no light: everything was enveloped in primordial darkness, silence reigned everywhere. Centuries, millennia passed, but nothing disturbed the peace: the Primordial Ocean Nun remained unshakable and motionless.

But one day a miracle happened. The water suddenly splashed, swayed, and the great god Atum appeared on the surface - the first god in the Universe. "I exist! - he exclaimed, and the Universe shuddered from a thunderous voice, heralding the beginning of life. - I will create the world! I will do this, because my power is so great that I was able to create myself from the waters of the ocean! I have no father and no mother; I am the first god in the universe, and I will create other gods!

Hello, Atum. Greetings to you, Khepri, who gave birth to himself. You have climbed up under the name of the Hill - the One that is high. You arose under your name Khepri - He who arises. "

And around the Universe, as before, the cold was shackled, everything was enveloped in deathly silence and plunged into darkness. Atum began to look for a solid place in the Primordial Ocean - some kind of island, but there was nothing around but the still water of Chaos Nun. In the ocean, there was not a single even the tiniest piece of land where one could set foot - everything was flooded with water. The gloomy abyss was already bubbling, preparing to swallow Atum: a whirlpool similar to the gaping mouth of a monster was already foaming below and inexorably drawing the god into its mouth. It was necessary to create land as soon as possible, at least some kind of island. Salvation from death was only in this. With an incredible effort, Atum broke away from the water, soared over the abyss and, raising his hands, uttered a magic spell. At the same moment, there was a deafening roar, and among the foamy spray, Ben Ben Hill - the Primordial Hill - rose from the depths. (According to another version of this myth, Atum was the Hill itself. The ray of the god Ra reached Chaos, and the Hill came to life, becoming Atum.)

Finding the ground under his feet, Atum sank to the hill and began to think about what to do next. Of course, first I will create other gods, he thought. - But who exactly? Maybe a god of fertility? But there is still no land on which grasses and cereals would grow, and there are no people who could cultivate the land, sow grain and harvest ... I’d better create the wind. Without wind, this ocean will freeze again and remain motionless forever. And I will also create a goddess of rain and moisture - so that the ocean water obeys her. " However, if the world starts to move, then whatever Atum does after that will be immediately destroyed and will again turn into Chaos. Creative activity is completely meaningless as long as there is no stability, order and laws in the world. Therefore, Atum decided that simultaneously with the wind it was necessary to create a goddess who would protect and support the once and for all established law.

Having made this wise decision after many years of deliberation, Atum finally set about creating the world. He vomited the seed into his mouth, fertilizing himself, and soon spat out of his mouth Shu, the god of wind and air, and Tefnut, a woman with the head of a fierce lioness, the goddess of world order. This was the first divine couple on earth.

Nun, seeing Shu and Tefnut, exclaimed: "May they grow!"

“… And so twins were born - Shu and Tefnut. O Atum-Khepri, <…> you shone [in the image of] Bennu on the eternal Bennu hill in the Bennu temple in Heliopolis, spat out Shu and vomited Tefnut. You embraced them with your hands of the Divine Ka, so that your Divine Ka would abide in them ”(“ Pyramid Texts ”).

But light has not yet been created. And misfortune happened. An impenetrable darkness still enveloped the Universe, and in the darkness of Chaos Atum lost his children in the Primordial Ocean. No matter how much he called them, no matter how much he shouted, deafening the water desert with weeping and groaning, silence was his answer. And that could mean anything, even the worst. Maybe Shu and Tefnut got lost and died in Chaos.

In complete despair, Atum tore out his Eye and sent him in search of Shu and Tefnut. “Do as I tell you. Go to the ocean, find my children Shu and Tefnut and return them to me. " The eye went to the ocean, and Atum sat down and waited for his return. Time passed slowly, days after days, centuries after centuries. Everywhere there was darkness, silence, cold. The patience of the god finally ran out. And, having lost all hope of seeing his children again, Atum shouted: “Oh woe! What should I do? Not only have I lost my son Shu and my daughter Tefnut forever, I also lost my Eye! " And he created a new Eye, placed it in his empty eye socket and named it "Magnificent."

Meanwhile, Old Eye wandered through the watery desert, and after many years of searching, he found Shu and Tefnut, and led them back to Ben Ben Hill. But as soon as Shu and Tefnut stepped onto the hill and the god rushed to meet them in order to quickly embrace them, suddenly Old Eye, all flaming with rage, jumped up to Atum and rasped in anger:

- What does it mean?! Was it at your word that I went to Ocean Nun and gave you back your lost children! I have done you a great service, and you - and this is gratitude! - in the meantime, you have created a new Eye for yourself and placed it where by right it should be for me!

- Do not be angry, - said Atum. - I will place you on my forehead, and from there you will contemplate the world that I will create, you will admire its beauty.

But the offended Eye did not want to listen to any excuses. Striving at all costs to punish God for betrayal, he turned into a poisonous snake cobra. With a menacing hiss, the cobra puffed out its neck and bared its deadly teeth, aimed directly at Atum. However, the god calmly took the snake in his hands and placed it on his forehead. To pacify the Eye, Atum entrusted him with a great mission - to be the keeper of it and the world order established by him and the goddess Tefnut-Maat, and if enemies meet on their way, destroy them. Since then, the Sun Eye in the form of a cobra snake began to be worn on their crowns by all the gods, and then by the pharaohs, who inherited earthly power from the gods. The Sun Eye in the form of a cobra is called urey. Placed on the forehead or on the crown, the urei vigilantly looks into the distance and emits dazzling rays that incinerate all enemies that meet on the way. Thus, he protects and protects the laws of the universe, established by the goddess Maat.

A white lotus rose from the waters of the ocean. The bud opened, and from there flew out the sun god Ra, who brought the world the long-awaited light. Seeing Atum and his children, Ra wept with joy. His tears fell to the ground and turned into people.

According to another version of the myth, people were born from the tears of Atum himself, who, unable to believe in the happiness of having children, wept with joy. His tears rained down on Ben Ben Hill and turned into people.

In some versions of the Heliopolis cosmogonic myth, the primordial divine bird Bennu is mentioned, like Atum, which was not created by anyone. Bennu - "The one who arose from himself" ("ben" means "to arise"). At the beginning of the universe, Bennu flew over the waters of Nun and made a nest in the willow branches on Ben Ben Hill (therefore, the pussy willow was considered a sacred plant).

Shu married Tefnut. From the marriage of Shu and Tefnut, a second divine couple was born: the god of the earth Geb and his sister and wife, the goddess of the sky Nut. Nut gave birth to - Osiris (Egyptian Usir), Horus, Seth (Sutekh), Isis (Iset) and Neftida (Nebtot, Nebetkhet). Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Nephthys, Set, Isis and Osiris make up the Great Heliopolis Ennead, or the Great Nine of the Gods.

Geb and Nut were very fond of each other and were born tightly hugged. Therefore, at the beginning of creation, heaven and earth were merged into one. But one day Geb and Nut quarreled. The reason for the quarrel was that the goddess of the sky devoured her children - the stars. The angry Geb went down on his wife and began to shower her with curses. Wanting to put an end to their discord, the sun god Ra ordered Shu: “Go and separate them! Since they cannot live in peace, let them live apart. " The god of the wind had no choice but to fulfill the order of the lord. He waved his hands, uttered a spell, and at the same moment a terrible storm broke out throughout the Universe, a hurricane raged. No matter how much Geb and Nut resisted, no matter how much they strained their forces, the wind tore their embrace. The sky has separated from the earth. All over the ocean, small islands and huge continents were blackened, mountain ranges rose, rivers flowed.

Born from the tears of Ra, people with joyful shouts left the Ben Ben Hill and dispersed to the verdant valleys. They built cities, erected magnificent temples for the gods and palaces for nobles, began to cultivate arable land and built the city of Iunu (Heliopolis). And on the very hill they built a sanctuary. The golden age has come - a time when people and gods lived together on earth.

On Ben Ben Hill, the people subsequently built the main temple of Ra-Atum at Yunu, "Hut Aat," or "Great Abode," the main sanctuary of Egypt. It was once the most significant temple in the country, more than twice the size of the Karnak complex of the god Amun in Thebes. This place was considered by the Egyptians to be one of the most sacred.

This legend is partly confirmed by historians and archaeologists. They found plenty of interesting evidence that the legendary Ben Ben Hill Temple existed. According to archeology, the first settlement on the site of the future Heliopolis existed in the pre-dynastic era. The dwellings of these people have not yet been discovered, if anything has survived from them at all, but their burials are known; they are located in the necropolis on the border with the desert southeast of the Ra-Atum temple. Along with the remains, many ceramic vessels were discovered, which are noticeably different in decor from the contemporary ceramic products of Upper Egypt and even from those vessels found nearby, in Maadi, where the trade routes of Egypt and Asia converged.

After working four weeks in Yunu in 1912, Sir Flinders Petrie discovered in the center of the city a huge, almost square-shaped mound with rounded corners, which served as a platform for a structure that had long been destroyed. He considered that he had found the fortress of the Second Transitional Period, but he was mistaken, taking the basis of the large temple of Atum-Ra for the traces of the military activities of the pharaohs. It was here, at the base of a large church, that a mine was discovered in 1903–1904, filled with fragments of statues and royal inscriptions. The finds were made by Egyptian archaeologists together with European colleagues near the site where the main sanctuary of the sun god was once located.

But let us return to the time of the glory of Iunu, during the heyday of the "Great Abode" of Atum-Ra.

Atum or Ra?

And by the way, what does Ra have to do with it, if at the time of the creation of the world, as they say, “was not near and close”? Why did the “Great Abode” become the sanctuary of Atum-Ra, if the world and the hill Ben Ben created exactly Atum, and completely alone? And in general, are we talking about one temple?

Atum began to be associated with the solar god Ra in the era of the pyramids, and later Ra completely took the place of Atum. However, in earlier times, it was Atum who was considered the "first god", something like God the Father in Christianity. Atum belonged to the main creative role after the Sun. At the turn of the III millennium BC. NS. The sun and its cult did not yet play that role in the life of Egypt, which will be given to it in the classical epochs of the Egyptian pharaohs. Only at the dawn of the construction of the pyramids, during the III dynasty, the Sun gradually took the leading place in the ideas of the Egyptians about the supreme deity. The cult of Ra began to form in parallel with the unification of Egypt and began to dominate during the period of the Old Kingdom, displacing the more archaic cult of Atum. The pharaohs of the IV dynasty, who erected the pyramids, gave the worship of Ra the status of a state religion, and three of them even bore a name that included the word "Ra" (Djedefra, Khafra, Menkaure). However, the priesthood of Ra achieved really the highest position in the country under the pharaohs of the V dynasty, which, probably, was established not without the help of influential Heliopolis priests. In the later ancient Egyptian legends, primarily "Khufu and the sorcerers", it was asserted that the first three pharaohs of this dynasty (Userkaf, Sahura, Neferikar) were the sons of Ra.

Ben ben and obelisks

Solar symbolism concerns Atum in the same way as Ra. Another phenomenon is associated with this, another object of the cult of both Bennu Phoenix and the solar gods of Egypt - what the Egyptians called Ben Ben (as well as the Sacred Hill, since this object is a symbol of the Primordial Hill), and we know by the name "obelisks". In Yunu, where the Sun first rose from the Sacred Hill (or, according to other inscriptions, this place was first touched by a sunbeam), in the "pre-pyramidal" times, the first sacred column, the obelisk, was erected. More precisely, a simpler, roughly worked form, such as a menhir, is not yet a classic geometrically correct obelisk with a top in the form of a pyramidion (a small pyramid). This sacred column, most likely, gave the city its ancient name Iunu - the City of Pillars. Later, the obelisks became symbols of Ben Ben Hill. The pyramidal peaks of the obelisks, covered with sheet copper, electrum (an alloy of silver and gold), or gold, were considered the seat of the Sun at noon.

At the beginning of the pyramid era, the top of the first obelisk in the holy capital was replaced by an even more sacred relic. This relic was Ben Ben, a mysterious conical or rather pyramid-shaped stone (not to be confused with the mythological Primordial Hill). Hence the geometric shape of all subsequent peaks of the obelisks. All Egyptian obelisks, in one way or another, repeat the shape of the sacred Ben Ben: these are pillars of a regular square cross section with a pyramidal top, which was usually covered with a reflective layer. Obelisks were erected, as a rule, in pairs. Almost all known obelisks are made of pink granite. This stone played a special role in the life of the Egyptians: portals of temples, sarcophagi, statues of kings and, as already mentioned, massive obelisks were made from it. Where the Nile cuts through the Nubian Highlands and breaks out onto the plain, are the famous Aswan quarries. Pink granite, starting from the era of the Old Kingdom, and possibly even earlier, was mined in these quarries.

About a third of the 27 stone statues that have survived to this day do not exceed 10 meters in height. Almost all obelisks known today are covered over the entire surface with inscriptions glorifying the kings and their deeds. It is curious that a considerable number of obelisks are located outside of Egypt. After establishing their rule, the Romans actively exported them to Italy. Today, the Eternal City is adorned with thirteen obelisks from Egypt. And in the 19th century, a real hunt for ancient Egyptian antiquities was organized by the French and the British. Obelisks did not pass by their attention, therefore they can be seen in Paris, and in London, and in New York.

The mysterious stone Ben Ben played a huge role in the religious worldviews of the ancient Egyptians. Herodotus wrote the following about him: “According to legend, Ben Ben fell from the sky. Unfortunately, it was lost so long ago that by the time of the accession of Sunuseret [in 1971 BC. BC], no one remembered his appearance any more. At this time [the era of the XII dynasty], only that it had the shape of a pyramid was preserved in memory ”.

More or less confidently, we can say that Ben Ben was still kept in the temple during the time of Pharaoh Pi-Anha (about 750 BC), since a record was found that tells about the Pharaoh's visit to this shrine. Intending to enter the holy of holies and contemplate a celestial object, the pharaoh at sunrise in the front yard of the temple made abundant sacrifices. Then he entered the temple, bowing low to the great god as was custom. After that, the priests read a prayer for the safety of the pharaoh, so that he could enter the sanctuary and then leave it without harm to himself. This was followed by the preparation ceremonies for entry into the "Star Room" - that was the reverent name of the sanctuary. These ceremonies included washing the Pharaoh, cleansing, and rubbing with incense. Then the ruler was given rare flowers or branches of plants, which he was to present to God, placing them in front of the Ben Ben stone. After that, he climbed the steps to the "great tent" in which the shrine was located. Reaching the top steps, the pharaoh pushed the bolt, opened the doors and "saw his forefather Ra in the monastery of Ben Ben." At the end of the ceremony, he stepped back, closed the doors behind him and sealed them with a clay seal.

The riddles of the pyramidions and the mystery of the numbers of Thoth

It is not known for certain where exactly the mysterious stone came from: it disappeared long before Herodotus visited Egypt. But its name passed to the pyramid stones (pyramids), which were usually placed on the tops of the pyramids and, later, on the tops of the obelisks. When the "superintendent of all the work of the king" completed the construction of the pyramid, a pyramidion was installed on its top, which meant the end of the grandiose work, symbolized the beginning of the festival, during which the whole country rejoiced and rejoiced. It was usually made of polished granite and covered with copper or gilding, more precisely, electrum (of course, the metal coating has not survived to this day), it could have inscriptions or images carved in stone. Very often, the Bennu bird was depicted on the pyramidions. It represents the "soul" ("divine spark", "life force"), which is in each person in the center of the skull.

The height of the pyramids, apparently, ranged from a meter or two for the smallest to 5-6 meters for the largest. The angle of inclination of the pyramid's faces exactly corresponded to the angle of inclination of the pyramid's faces. To protect it from sliding to the side, the stone had a square protrusion on the base, which fit into the corresponding recess on the upper stones of the pyramid's masonry. At sunrise and sunset, when it was still over the horizon, the pyramidions shone brightly with reflected light in the twilight. Not a single pyramid has survived at the top today, but some have survived to this day in very good condition and are kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

In ancient Egypt, the shape of the pyramid was considered sacred. Some buildings were decorated with pyramidions ranging in size from several centimeters to tens of centimeters. Festive food was prepared in the form of small pyramids. Murals in temples depict Nubians offering gifts and sacrificial food, including incense, in the sacred pyramid shape. The bread was also sometimes baked in the form of pyramidal loaves.

There is a strong opinion that the inexplicable properties of the Egyptian pyramids (a special microclimate inside, a change in the physical and biological characteristics of placed objects, etc. built-in pyramidion structures.

It is possible that the original Ben Ben was not lost, on the contrary, honoring his great value, the Egyptians hid him in a sacred vault. And it is he who activates the mysterious power of the pyramids. There is a hypothesis that Ben Ben is hidden in the Cheops pyramid. That is, until the IV dynasty Ben Ben is in Yunu, then the Great Pyramid was built (in the shape of this Ben Ben himself), the stone was hidden in the "secret room", and starting from the V dynasty, obelisks, images of Ben Ben on the pillar, were actively erected, designed as to replace the "missing" (actually hidden) relic.

The ancient Westkar Papyrus, now kept in the Berlin Museum (it was written during the New Kingdom, but, no doubt, was a copy of a document from the 5th Dynasty), the magical story “King Cheops and the Sorcerers” is also mentioned. The Westkar papyrus testifies: “His Majesty King Cheops spent all his time trying to find the secret tombs of the sanctuary of Thoth in order to create the same ones in his own 'horizon' (pyramid).” This is a very old legend, which may have been told by itinerant storytellers. The story begins with how Cheops asks his sons to tell him the legends about the great sorcerers of the past. The first prince - Khefren - told his father about a magician (heriheb) named Ubaoner, who lived during the time of Pharaoh Nebka (ancestor of Cheops). He suspected his wife of infidelity and made a crocodile from wax. Then he ordered the servant, at the moment when his unfaithful wife would receive a secret lover in the gazebo by the pond, to throw a wax crocodile into the pond. Evening came, her lover (who was also a commoner) came to Ubaoner's wife, he went down into the pond, and then the servant threw a wax crocodile there. The crocodile came to life, turning into a real giant, and grabbed the unfortunate one. The wife's infidelity was proven, and the commoner was punished. Pharaoh Nebka himself witnessed this miracle.

The second story was told to Cheops by Prince Baufra. This miracle happened during the time of his father Sneferu. A certain heriheb named Jajaemanakha managed to roll the water like a cloth, at one command of the pharaoh, and then the mighty priest again uttered the magic word, and the water returned to its place. The fourth son of the king, Hardedef, promised to bring a man with supernatural powers to his father. This man turned out to be a certain Jedi, who was already one hundred and ten years old. He could revive a man after his head was cut off, pacify the lions, which behaved like innocent kittens in front of him, and, finally, and most importantly, he knew the full numbers of Thoth (scientists still puzzle over the question that they represent, that is, what exactly these hieroglyphs mean).

The last passage narrates: “Then King Cheops said (addressing Jedi): 'They told me, you know the numbers of Thoth? in that box! “” Then it is told that not Jedi will deliver the box to Pharaoh, but the last of the sons, who is still in the womb of Redgedet (Cheops' wife), and finally follows the story of the birth of three boys, who later became the founders of the V dynasty.

What mysterious numbers of Thoth did Pharaoh seek so painfully? According to one version, these numbers indicated the number of secret chambers in the vault or Thoth's tomb. And Cheops was looking for not all of them, but only a secret, in order to build a similar hidden refuge for himself in his "horizon". Perhaps Cheops managed to fulfill his intentions and find the secret tombs of Thoth and his encrypted numbers.

Some researchers of the pyramids believe that the Ben Ben stone was the very sarcophagus box (ie, the archive) where the books of Thoth, written in the "first time", when Osiris himself ruled Egypt, are kept. According to scientists, in the recently discovered chamber in the mine of the Cheops pyramid there may well be something so incredible that it will turn our knowledge of the world upside down. In general, they will open a cache in the pyramid of Cheops, hints of which archaeologists seem to have, and everything will be clarified.

The Mystery of the Temple of Atuma-Ra, Temple of Benu and the Abode of Ben Ben

There is a version, at first glance opposite to the one stated above, that the Ben Ben stone was not in the temple of Atum-Ra, but in another sanctuary (also in Iuna) - in the Temple of Bennu-Phoenix (perhaps he also stood on some sacred pillar), and served as a symbol of this legendary space bird, personifying cyclicity, capable of resurrection and rebirth.

So what - the temple of Atum-Ra is the "Abode of the Bennu bird"? And also in the "Texts of the Pyramids" a certain "Abode of Ben Ben" is also mentioned. Is this the same place or different? And where was the mysterious stone after all? Let's try to figure it out. Again, archaeological finds and obelisks, which may be the keys to the riddle, will help us in this.

In 1972, Egyptian archaeologists found traces of a sanctuary and the top of the obelisk of King Teti on the territory of ancient Iunu; this fragment of the obelisk is currently the oldest surviving example of such monuments. From the biographical inscription of one of the rulers of the Elephantine region - Sabni, who controls the southern borders of Egypt, we know that a pair of obelisks was installed in Yunu about a century later, during the reign of Pharaoh Pepi II. Sabni tells how, under his leadership, two barges were built to transport the monoliths from one end of the country to the other. The obelisks appear to have been colossal if each required a separate vessel.

In the 19th century, American engineer Robert Hekekian discovered a massive pedestal lying 20 meters from the only surviving obelisk in the city of Iunu - a monolith inscribed with the names of Senusert I, which, naturally, in ancient times was part of at least a pair of "stone needles".

The Arab scientist Abdel Latif, already mentioned by us, described these obelisks as follows: “It is in this city that there are two obelisks, which are called“ Pharaoh's needles ”. Both of these obelisks consist of a square base, ten cubits wide and almost the same height, supported by a massive foundation in the ground. Above this base rises a square pillar of pyramidal shape and a height of one hundred cubits, which has a diameter of five cubits at the base and ends in a dot. The top is covered like a cap of copper ... This copper, as a result of rain and years, has deteriorated and turned green; some of this oxide ran down the obelisk itself. The entire surface of the obelisk is covered with inscriptions. The copper that covered the top of this obelisk was removed. There are many others around these obelisks that cannot be counted. These have only half or a third of the height of the big ones. "

Thanks to this passage, it is clear that between the obelisks there was once an entrance to the temple, which, if it was located to the west of the obelisks, occupied the central part of a large hill. Blocks of large gates have been found in the wall that once surrounded the complex. From a hieroglyphic inscription depicting the conquest of Egypt in the 8th century BC. NS. By the Nubian king Pi-Anhi, it follows that the victorious king moved from Herakh (an area in the area of ​​the modern quarters of southern Cairo) to Red Mountain, the quartzite "treasury" of Yunu, and then went from the west to the temple of Ra. One of the entrances of the temple was supposed to be near the river, from the west, but it is clear that the other was located on the side of the desert, from where the stone for buildings was mined.

The solar temple had to be oriented with pylons to the east in order to meet the first rays of the Sun. A sanctuary similar to the temple of Ra in Yunu did not exist, however, for other temples, as some inscriptions say, it was an indisputable model. Therefore, it is possible, looking at the structure of the surviving buildings, to make certain extrapolations. For example, the structure of the temple at Karnak has the same plan, where the solar sanctuary with the colossus of Ramses II and the only obelisk were oriented to the east and were located at the rear, that is, the eastern gate of the temple of Amun, behind the sanctuaries of its main axis.

The fact that there was a grandiose sanctuary in Yunu is also evidenced by another curious fact noticed by archaeologists. All the tombs of the kings of the II-VI dynasties were located so that the top of the central obelisk in Iuna was visible from them: the visible presence of the cult image of the solar deity was necessary for the posthumous existence of the pharaoh. The massiveness of the "personal" royal solar sanctuaries in Abu Gurob and the giant pyramids of the 4th dynasty may have been just an echo of the true dimensions of the "national" solar temple, the grandiose gilded obelisk of which, with slopes more sloping than those of ordinary obelisks, once rose above sandy space of the Mukattam Highlands. The pyramids, pyramidions, obelisks and solar temples in Abu Gurob are all echoes of the Atum-Ra cult forms in Yunu.

Unfortunately, not a single Egyptian document has survived to this day, which would accurately convey the appearance of the "Great Monastery". However, an approximate reconstruction is still possible according to the archaeological evidence available now, the very location of the Atum-Ra temple in Iunu, its gigantic size allow one to get a certain idea about it.

A large platform with obelisks lying on it was located inside a vast outer wall, which was more than a kilometer from east to west. In general, the entire complex, enclosed by an outer wall, resembled a roughly outlined square in plan, one of the edges of which is cut obliquely in the northwestern corner, not far from the present location of the swampy branch of the river. The outer wall divided this space almost exactly in half from east to west. To the north of this wall, perhaps, there was an auxiliary, so to speak, less sacred part of the complex. The southern part of the territory, despite the fact that it was half of the entire complex, is so large that it surpasses the largest temple territories of the shrines of the New Kingdom.

Obelisks erected here can give some idea of ​​this sanctuary. Today only the “needle” of Senusret I stands in its original place in Iunu, but others, taken from here to other places in the world, can be identified both by the inscriptions preserved on them, and thanks to ancient authors. The two obelisks installed in Iunu by Thutmose III were 20.88 and 21.21 m high; even in antiquity, they were transported to Alexandria to decorate a new temple built in honor of Caesar, and in the 19th century they left Egypt: one is in London, on the banks of the Thames, the other is in New York.

Very important information about the Heliopolis temple is contained in the already mentioned triumphal inscription of the Nubian king Pi-Anha. Having captured almost the entire country, he approached the temple of Ra from the south. As the text indicates, he first performed cleansing ceremonies west of the Ichi Canal, which in many sources is described as the main waterway connecting the city to the river. From here he proceeded to the "high sand" Yun, following towards the rising Sun, to the territory of the temple and took part in the ritual of destroying enemies. The inscription mentions the creation of a room called the "House of the Morning" for cleansing ceremonies and sun worship. Appropriate clothing was brought up and put on, incense was burnt, and then branches from Ben Ben's Abode were brought. After that, the king ascended the stairs to see Ra at Ben Ben's Abode.

In order to see his "solar father", the king had to remove the seals and open the doors of the sanctuary. Most likely, we are not talking about an ordinary sanctuary where the cult statue of a deity rests, but about the fact that the king passed into another, more extensive space, hidden from prying eyes by a wall. In any case, the rituals performed by the king are no different from the traditional sacred rituals in other Egyptian temples. This place speaks of the morning boat of Ra and the evening boat of Atum, the size of which is also not indicated. After the "Ben Ben's Abode" was sealed again, the king went to the temple of Atum to burn incense to his father Atum-Khepri, "the elder in Yuna."

The main question, the main secret is whether Pi-Anhi visited two different temples, or was everything happening inside the same sanctuary? The stele indicates that the ritual began in the temple of Ra, then the action passed to the "Abode of Ben Ben", from where the king moved to the temple of Atum. Most likely, we are talking about a single temple building, since even Ramses III in the text of the "Big Papyrus of Harris" speaks of the priesthood of "the temple of Atum, the ruler of the Two Lands, the god Iunu Ra-Horakhte."

Various interpretations are possible, but the most interesting and serious is the hypothesis put forward by the American scientist S. Kirke, according to which we are talking about a double temple, docked with the rear parts to each other. In this case, the facade of the Ra temple went to the east, to the rising Sun and the hills of the desert, while the entrance to the Atum temple was in the west, where the Sun was setting, the Nile flowed and the paths to the afterlife opened up.

It can be assumed that the "Abode of Ben Ben", also referred to in the "Pyramid Texts" as the "Abode of the Bennu bird", was the central sanctuary, which was located between the territories of the sanctuaries of Ra and Atum. Ben Ben's abode was the highest section of the temple grounds, to which the ramps led. Thus, in the center of this temple, there was a special sacred zone where the mysterious Ben Ben stone stood, an object of earthly worship of the Solar Creator. On the stone itself was the figure of Bennu the Phoenix. According to some scientists, Ben Ben was nothing more than a "stone nest" of a bird.

Ben stone Ben is a meteorite

Flying saucer,

Which came before - a phoenix or an egg?

Based on many additional sources, it can also be assumed that the first appearance of the Phoenix on the historical, or rather the mythological scene, apparently caused the emergence of the cult of the Ben Ben stone, which was considered the "egg" or "seed" of the space bird. Can it be ruled out that the stone came to Ancient Egypt from heaven, from space? Can Ben Ben Be Considered an Extraterrestrial Object?

Many Egyptologists of our time believe that the Ben Ben stone was conical in shape. In the earliest known images of Ben Ben with Bennu-Phoenix sitting on it, the stone has a non-pyramidal shape: its ends are slightly rounded, and it looks more like a cone, and only later it was replaced by a pyramidion. This shape may indicate the meteoric origin of the sacred stone. There are two types of meteorites: iron and stone. The former, as a rule, are black in color and sizes exceeding the dimensions of stone meteorites, since when they hit the ground, they practically do not split or remain intact. Entering the earth's atmosphere, some iron meteorites retain their position and do not rotate; after falling, their front part melts and shifts back, and therefore the meteorite acquires a characteristic cone shape.

The Egyptians called iron "the metal of heaven" because for a long time they knew only meteoric iron (containing a large percentage of nickel). Due to the "divine" origin of the metal, meteorite iron was used, in particular, in the manufacture of protective amulets and magical instruments. The inhabitants of Ancient Egypt called this (and they did not know another) iron "bya". The word "bya" is often found in the "Texts of the Pyramids": "I am pure, I take my iron (bya) bones with me, I spread my incorruptible limbs, which are in the womb of Nut"; “My bones are iron (bya), and my members are inextinguishable stars”; "The bones of the king are iron (bya), and his members are inextinguishable stars." As these passages show, there was a belief that when the departed kings were reincarnated as stars, their bones became "bya", that is, the iron "heavenly material" from which the star gods were once created. Such cosmic iron objects as meteorites were the only material evidence of the reality of the Earth in the heavens, inhabited by the stars, the souls of kings, and it is easy to understand why, according to the ancients, the stars consisted of "byah". Since the souls of the departed kings are stars, their bones must also be made of iron. Iron for the Egyptians was one of the metals of a mystical nature. For example, according to legend, Seth's skeleton was made of iron.

This brings us back to the Ben Ben stone in Heliopolis, which many Egyptologists associate with a meteorite. In general, meteorites, in terms of the details of their appearance, fit well into this theory. The flight of the meteorite is a very impressive sight. They sometimes leave a trail of light behind them, and their fall is accompanied by thunder. The meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere at high speed, but then slows down due to air resistance and heats up to a high temperature. It takes the form of a fireball, and a cloud of hot gases makes the ball even larger. The association with a fiery bird suggests itself. When passing through the atmosphere, a shock wave also arises, which makes a sound similar to a cannon shot or a thunderclap, and, apparently, this is why in ancient times meteorites were associated with the gods of thunder, such as Nadtsad in Phenicia or Zeus in Greece.

There is a lot of evidence of the veneration of meteorites in various places on the planet. Such a cult is easy to understand, since in ancient times man saw in meteorites the material embodiment of the heavenly gods and, in particular, the stellar gods. Of course, in this series, the assumption sounds convincing that the Ben Ben stone could also be a conical meteorite. Can Ben Ben, and therefore the Phoenix as his symbol, be considered nothing more than a meteorite? It is possible that a conical iron meteorite fell in the vicinity of Memphis during the Second or Third Dynasties. As it flew across the sky, the city's inhabitants must have observed the movement of a bright dot with a long, feathery "tail." This sight later became associated with the image of a bird. At the place where the meteorite fell, they discovered a stone, which they considered the seed (egg) of this very bird. The sacred bird allegedly left its seed-egg in Egypt as a sign of the gods.

The conical meteorite played an important role in the formation of religious beliefs and in the cult of revival. The British Egyptologist GA Wainwright traced the evolution of the Egyptian "meteorite" cult and its connection with the veneration of certain gods; in particular, he proved that the cone-like shape of the god Amun suggests that the "god" himself was a meteorite known as Ka-mut-f, and, Wainwright notes, the conical shape is very characteristic of small meteorites.

It is curious that, according to Wainwright, another city was closely associated with the meteorite cult, which was called the City of the Lightning Strike. Twenty kilometers north of Giza in the Nile delta, at about the same latitude as Heliopolis, there is another important center: the ancient city of Khem, later called Letopolis by the Greeks. It was oriented strictly west of the Temple of the Phoenix at Heliopolis. Khem was once associated with the name of Horus - the god with the head of a falcon, and an ancient temple (older than the pyramids) has been preserved in it. It is known that Khem existed even before the era of the construction of the pyramids, and many Egyptologists, including G.A. Wainwright, believed that it was the geographical center relative to which distances were measured in Ancient Egypt. Thus, the city of Letopolis was a geodetic point, to which the Great Pyramid was "tied" along the meridian, and in latitude - Heliopolis-Iunu, where the Ben Ben stone was kept. Letopolis served as a kind of "road sign" indicating the "road of Osiris to heaven", and connected, along the meridian and latitude, Ben Ben and the Great Pyramid.

An interesting addition to the theme of Ben Ben's extraterrestrial origin and his cult comes from the Westcar Papyrus. It tells about the beginning of the reign of the V dynasty, whose power was sanctified by the divine will of Ra himself, the sun god. The intervention of God took place during the previous IV dynasty, when Khufu (Cheops) ruled. Perhaps this is a reflection of the desired (albeit earlier) event - the appearance of Ben Ben, for example, the fall of a meteorite or even the arrival of an alien ship. And Phoenix could well become the embodied image of such an object.

It is possible that it is these ancient echoes that can be traced in hieroglyphs resembling aircraft, or an ancient model of a glider found, in particular, at Saqqara. Dr. George Witt from the USA writes the following about this: “We can confidently classify unique finds under the name“ Egyptian glider ”, which is well-known in science, to the category of NIO (unidentified fossil objects). This figurine made of rare ebony, impregnated with a special composition of an unknown recipe to protect it from damage, is fundamentally different from the huge number of preserved ancient images of birds by the shape of the tail - a vertical keel, like in propeller driven aircraft, the resemblance of which has not been found in the animal world. Egyptian researchers at NIO, led by Cairo Science Center professor Khalil Messiha, immediately suggested in this relic a skillfully executed model of a glider, although its age is more than 2200 years! But how and who can prove it? Time seems to have deliberately deprived us of the opportunity to draw an objective conclusion that this mysterious figure is really a copy of a correctly designed and normally flying glider. How can the situation be clarified? Obviously, it is necessary to compare the “Egyptian glider” with finds in other regions of the planet, but having analogues. Experts unanimously chose the no less famous “Colombian golden airplane” as an analogue - this name was given to an elegant 4-centimeter object, which was probably used as an amulet or jewelry pendant and was made no later than the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. In fact, fortunately for the researchers, this product is by no means the only one: a total of 33 such items have been discovered so far, and they have been found not only in Colombia, but also in Peru, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. "

Note that the aerodynamic properties of this "flying bird" of the ancients were investigated in NASA laboratories by American scientists, who came to the conclusion that this is an exact copy (only reduced a thousand times) of some real aircraft.

Phoenix, the mysteries of Osiris and what would Sigmund Freud say about this?

Among other things, Bennu-Phoenix, as the ancient Egyptians believed, performed another important function: this space bird allegedly brings to Egypt from a distant magical country located outside the earthly world, a certain substance "nike" (in any case, as Herodotus called it from the words of the Egyptian priests), giving life. Where is this mysterious country located, in an extraterrestrial or in a metaphysical space? Should we look for it in space or in the world of Egyptian myths?

Here you need to remember the symbolic duality of the bird Bennu-Phoenix, it is both a symbol of the solar Ra and the ruler of the afterlife - Osiris. Legends say that Bennu escaped from his heart. Osiris was one of the most popular gods of the Egyptian pantheon, he was revered as the god of the productive forces of nature and the god of the kingdom of the dead. It was believed that, like the entire plant world, Osiris dies annually and is reborn to a new life, the vital force is always preserved in him, even in the dead. In the images, you can see how a tree sprouts through the coffin of Osiris or stalks of cereals grow from the god's mummy, which the priest waters. Phoenix with its ability to revive fit Osiris like no one else.

In ancient Egypt, there was a legend about Osiris and Isis, who was both the wife and sister of Osiris. Variants of this legend have changed over time, supplemented by details. Osiris would be the fourth of the gods to reign on earth in primordial times, inheriting the power of Atum, Shu and Geb. Reigning in Egypt, Osiris and Isis taught people agriculture and sedentary life, the art of medicine, built cities, introduced marriages. In this they were assisted mainly by Thoth - personified wisdom. Then Osiris undertook a campaign in Asia. After the victorious return, Osiris made a feast. Seth - the younger brother of Osiris - envied his power and wanted to rule himself. He came up with a way to destroy Osiris. Having appeared at the feast with his 72 accomplices, Seth ordered to bring in a luxuriously decorated box (as it turned out, a sarcophagus) and said that it would be presented to the one whose growth would have to. When it came to Osiris' turn, he lay down on the bottom of the box (made specially for his measurements), the conspirators slammed the lid, filled it with lead and threw the box into the waters of the Nile. The current washed the box to the shore, and a bush of heather growing there embraced it with its branches. The wife of Osiris, Isis, found her husband's body, miraculously extracted the vital force hidden in it and conceived a son from Osiris, who was named Horus. (According to another version of the legend, she revived Osiris and conceived a son from him.)

When Horus grew up, he defeated Set. The Eye of Horus, torn from Set at the beginning of the battle, gave it to his dead father to swallow. Osiris came to life, but did not want to remain on earth, and, leaving the throne to Horus, began to reign and administer judgment in the afterlife.

There is another version of the myth, the so-called myth of the 14 parts of the body of Osiris, the origin of which is associated with the existence of the tombs of this god in different cities of Egypt. In each of them, only one part of the divine body allegedly rested. However, this interpretation was contrary to the story that Isis collected all the parts of Osiris' body and buried in Abydos. According to this myth, Set did not imprison Osiris in a box, but cut his body into 14 pieces and scattered these pieces throughout Egypt.

There are also different versions of the resurrection and burial of Osiris. According to some of them, Osiris was revived not by Horus, but by Isis herself. Burial of Osiris is attributed to Isis, then Anubis.

Descending into the realm of the dead, Osiris became the god of the underworld and the afterlife judge, which he appears in the "Book of the Dead". Before Osiris, the heart of the deceased is weighed on a balance balanced by the truth. The Justified One went to the “paradise fields of Ialu”. Each deceased had to enroll in the number of followers of Osiris and even take his name, which in this case became a household name. Osiris is the good beginning and the first person; his myth explained the origin of evil and death, as well as the struggle of fertility with destruction, the Nile - with the desert. From the end of the New Kingdom, Osiris was associated with Ra and began to be depicted with a solar disk on his head.

The tragic death and miraculous resurrection of Osiris served as the basis for the mysteries of Ancient Egypt and the origin of the cult of rebirth for an eternal afterlife. This topic was subsequently developed by the Freemasons. In the book “The Great Pyramid Deciphered”, the modern French researcher of this direction Peter Lemesier writes: “In the ancient texts there are indications that the possible top of the pyramid of the Ben Ben pyramid (and, thus, the completion of the pyramid in full) symbolizes the return to the world of Light , the coming of the Messiah in the form of the reborn Osiris. Take the symbolic arrangement of the glass pyramid in Paris: the pyramid was built on the former prime meridian of Paris. Is this accidental? Ancient Egyptian images - obelisks and pyramids - were actively perceived in Masonic symbolism and not only in it.

There is an interesting theory linking the mysteries of Osiris, the Bennu bird, the mysterious Ben Ben stone and the obelisk cult through etymological connections. John Bynes, professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford, noted that the root ben was used to express sexual, creative, or fertilization-related concepts such as fertilization, insemination, copulation, etc. Interestingly, in languages Semitic groups the root "ben" means "descendant", "son". Since Osiris, his soul, was identified with the Phoenix, and the Phoenix with the Ben Ben stone, it can be assumed that Ben Ben symbolizes, among other things, the seed of the cosmic bird, or the seed of Osiris, and thus the fertilizing force that enabled Isis to give birth son of Horus.

If we recall the above story of Herodotus about the Phoenix, then the fiery bird flies to Egypt to lay its egg (or "ball"). In Herodotus, the word "ball" has a rather broad meaning. The "Father of History" also writes that the ball is made from myrrh, a plant often used in mummification, a procedure that prepares for eternal life in the world of Osiris. The death and resurrection of Osiris served as the basis for the mysteries of the Egyptians, this myth was the source of the cult of the rebirth of the pharaohs in the afterlife. Stone Ben Ben as the divine seed of Osiris was placed on top of the pyramids. It was a symbol of divine creation and rebirth.

However, practically all Egyptian cosmogony is saturated with similar symbolism. For example, from the waters of the primordial watery desert of Nun, Ben Ben Hill emerged - the creative masculine principle. The hill is a metaphor for the universal energy that has arisen from its own center. This myth also explains the origin of the ancient Egyptian symbol for the Sun - a circle with a dot in the center.

It was from this phallic hill that Atum-Ra threw out his seed and gave birth to the Universe and life in it. From this point, the universe expanded in all its complexity, unfolding like a flower. By the way, isn't it true that this mythical act of creation is similar to the creation of the Universe according to the theory of the "Big Bang" popular in science. According to this story, the Universe arose from one point, a proto-atom of potential energy and information, which, having exploded, expanded in all directions. Then the smallest energy centers were formed, which we call atomic and subatomic particles, which became the basis of all that exists.

Atum-Ra was no longer purer in nature or neutral, but affected both opposites (masculine and feminine) and their principles. Immediately after the "Big Bang" of creation, two opposite entities appeared - the god Shu and the female goddess Tefnut. Shu is the "active force" of the Universe - the "masculine principle" that produces the phenomena of things, Tefnut is the "feminine principle" that limits, regulates and directs masculine energy.

In the context of the theme of the reproduction of mythological entities, one cannot ignore such semantically rich objects as obelisks, that is, the same symbols of the original Ben Ben. Pliny the Elder writes: “The kings, as if competing with each other, made of stone pillars, which they called obelisks, and dedicated them to the Sun. They depicted its rays, which is what their Egyptian name means. " In fact, Pliny makes an inaccuracy in the symbolism of the obelisks, the obelisk was called Ben Ben, and this is not a ray, but a hill. But in one thing he is right: it seems that almost every Egyptian pharaoh after accession to the throne had one thing on his mind - to outshine and surpass his predecessor. They acted on the principle "all means are good", among such means were: scraping off the cartouches of the name of another ruler who passed into the world, breaking his statues or altering them for their own and building new temples, higher and on a larger scale. And, of course, obelisks and pyramids.

You don't need to have a lot of imagination to see phallic symbols in them. And naturally, Sigmund Freud and his followers saw, developed the theme, interpreted it and extrapolated it. Size, as you know, matters, hence the increased attention to pyramids and obelisks as objects in which the subconsciousness of the pharaohs who built them is expressed. Someone is measured by "prototypes of symbols" (in any case, Freud believed that the desire for these comparisons is inherent in every person), and someone figuratively - by obelisks.

Freudianism can be taken in different ways, it can be taken seriously, but at the same time not forgetting about healthy irony. Be that as it may, and the picture looms really pretentious, namely the following.

The earliest known surviving obelisk is the obelisk of Pharaoh Sesostris I (reigned from 1972 to 1928 BC) in the territory of Iunu-Heliopolis. Its height is 20 meters, and its weight is 120 tons.

Pharaoh Thutmose I (1525-1512 BC) erected another 20-meter obelisk in the Karnak temple complex, on the territory of the modern city of Luxor, it weighs 143 tons.

The production of obelisks reached its peak in the period of the New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC). Pharaohs Thutmose III and Ramses II were especially distinguished in this respect. The latter is believed to have erected 23 obelisks during his reign. The average height of the large obelisks was 20 meters, each weighing more than 200 tons. Ramses II also built a record obelisk for that time, 25 meters high and weighing 254 tons. This monument stands in the Luxor temple complex, which he also rebuilt, the largest of the preserved religious buildings.

But the largest of the obelisks in Egypt belongs to ... Queen Hatshepsut. In the Karnak temple complex, she erected four obelisks, next to the obelisks of her father Thutmose I. Of these, only one survived the onslaught of time - a giant under 30 m high and weighing 323 tons (his twin brother lies nearby on the ground). Hatshepsut wrote the following about this project: “I sat in the palace and remembered Him, the One who created me; my heart directed me to erect two electrum obelisks in his honor, so that their pyramidions could coexist in the sky with [...] the great columns [of Thutmose I] ... My Majesty began to work on them in the 15th year, the second month of winter , The 1st day, and continued until the 16th year, the fourth month of summer, the 30th day, spending 7 months to carve [them] out of the rock. " To suppress unnecessary thoughts, Hatshepsut adds: “I acted for him with a pure heart, like a ruler for any god. Let those who regard my words as boasting say instead, "How is this like her, the one who is faithful to her father." God sees what is in me [namely] Amon, the ruler of the thrones of the two lands ... I truly am his daughter, who glorifies him. "

Freud most likely immediately diagnosed the queen with a whole bunch of complexes and phobias: the Electra complex, and worries about the lack of the desired important part of the body, and compensatory problems, and even gender doubts can be seen in fake pharaonic beards and later androgynous statues of Hatshepsut ... But this interpretation is too primitive, with Queen Hatshepsut everything was much more interesting. However, this is a completely different story ...

At the time of the death of Thutmose II, whose wife was Hatshepsut, the heir to Thutmose III was too small, so Hatshepsut took over the duties of a regent, and then proclaimed herself pharaoh. She rules for a long time and very reasonably (for more details about her, see the article on female pharaohs). But Hatshepsut's stepson Thutmose III survived these years away from the throne, most likely, improving in military affairs and traveling to exotic countries, for example, to Punt. After the death of Hatshepsut, he finally became a full-fledged ruler and did everything to erase the memory of his stepmother and her very name from the face of the earth. And to exalt your own, naturally. In the construction of obelisks, Thutmose III decided at all costs to surpass his stepmother. Therefore, next to the newly built temple of Amun in the Karnak complex, he planned the construction of the so-called "tekhen wati" - a unique single obelisk (as mentioned above, the obelisks were erected in pairs). The monolith of red granite, carved by order of the pharaoh, reached a height of 36 meters and weighed, according to some sources, up to 455 tons. But Thutmose III could not put it. For unknown reasons, this obelisk lay for more than 35 years in a workshop in Karnak, and the work on its construction was completed by Thutmose IV, the grandson of Thutmose III. The final design appeared to be a magnificent sight. The Roman emperor Octavian Augustus planned to ferry the obelisk to Rome, but abandoned the idea and instead took two obelisks from the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis. More than three hundred years later, Emperor Constantine I cut off the obelisk of Thutmose III in order to transfer it to his new capital, Constantinople. But he died before the obelisk left Egypt; and from the port of Alexandria his successor Constantine II transported the obelisk to Rome. There he is now. During transportation, the Lateran Obelisk (under this name it is now known) was slightly trimmed, but remains one of the largest ancient obelisks in the world, reaching 32 meters in height.

But the largest and most mysterious of the Egyptian obelisks is the famous Aswan obelisk, which is still of interest to scientists-Egyptologists.

Riddles of obelisks as a special case of megalithic structures. Traces of a vanished supercivilization?

The Aswan giant was not completed and therefore did not leave the quarries. There are no inscriptions on it, which makes it impossible to determine the date of its manufacture. But experts attribute it to the time of the Old Kingdom, that is, to the era of the Great Pyramids. Today different numbers of its weight are called, but most often you can hear about 1200 tons. Although it is not very clear why. Of course, no one is able to weigh such a giant, and its weight is calculated purely arithmetically. But although the obelisk was not separated from the rock, its planned dimensions are well known. The height should have been 41.8 meters, and the base is a square with a side of 4.2 meters. The sides run parallel along the entire length, only in the upper part they taper, forming a top. If we take the average density of granite as 2600 kg / m3, then we can easily calculate the weight of the monument. And if you do not take into account a slight narrowing at the top, then the estimated weight of the Aswan Obelisk should have been approximately 1900 tons. It can be unambiguously argued that this is the heaviest artificial monolith in the world. Nothing of the kind was created either in the Ancient World or in the modern history of mankind.

The method of its manufacture is still unclear, the obelisk seems to have been carved out of a granite monolith by a giant chisel. It is assumed that in Ancient Egypt, stone cutting for the production of obelisks was carried out as follows: first, holes were cut in the rock, placing them in a straight line, then wooden wedges were hammered into them, which were watered. The tree swelled and broke the rock. The resulting blocks were leveled and sanded if necessary. Even Pliny the Elder mentioned that the cutting of the stone was carried out using thin saws, under the canvas of which finely dispersed sand was constantly poured, which served as an abrasive.

But with the Aswan Obelisk, the situation is somewhat different. It is located on the surface and lies at a slight angle to the granite massif. Along the entire perimeter, the monolith is surrounded by a narrow trench less than one meter wide, which follows the contour of the obelisk. Thus, it turns out that the obelisk is carved into the rock and the work was carried out from above, and not from the sides. What tool was used for this? It is clear that there is no need to talk about the use of saws here. The sides of the obelisk and the trenches surrounding it bear the marks of a large, rounded instrument. The track width is 27 centimeters. In the late 80s of the last century, it was hypothesized that the traces were left by a rotating cutter, which the ancient Egyptians used to carve a monolith from the rock. But where did the ancients get such a tool? However, similar traces are found in abundance on horizontal surfaces around the obelisk and they look more like traces from a giant chisel. But is it possible to imagine a chisel with a working edge of 30 centimeters, cutting granite like plasticine? On the monolith itself, by the way, there are numerous traces of cuts and the traditional splitting technique with wedges. However, they were clearly abandoned in later times, and these attempts did not cause significant damage to the monolith. It was not possible to split or saw it.

It can be assumed that the Aswan obelisk remained unfinished, since a mistake was made during the work and the monolith cracked. Indeed, the upper part of the obelisk is crossed by a longitudinal crack, which has broken its integrity. But the reasons for this "marriage" do not necessarily lie in the builders' miscalculations. This could be, for example, the result of an earthquake. Another thing is interesting. If the ancient Egyptians began to carve such an obelisk, it means that they were going to transport and install it somewhere. And then a number of questions arise. First, how could a monolith, located inside the rock and surrounded by a narrow trench around the perimeter, be separated from the rock mass? After all, the obelisk seems to lie on a rock, and only its lower edge remained undivided. Can saws be used in such a situation? It is doubtful, since it is hardly possible to cut horizontally forty meters of granite rock without breaking the straight plane and avoiding breaking the monolith under its own weight.

And imagine, ancient engineers were going to move such a monolith somewhere and then install it ... How could the problem of transporting a solid monolith weighing almost 1900 tons over uneven mountainous terrain be solved?

But this is not the end of the riddles surrounding the famous obelisk. A dozen meters from it there are two oval wells, punched vertically in a granite rock. They are about 3-4 meters deep and about 80 centimeters in diameter. Egyptian scientists working in Aswan explain that these wells were dug in order to determine the direction of cracks in the rock mass. Perhaps this explanation is correct, since there are about ten such wells on the territory of the quarries. But it remains unclear what tool was used to drill such wells. The fact is that their walls have a flat, smooth surface without any traces of chips. The impression is that the rock was simply removed using a rig similar to that used to drill wells. But here we are talking about granite!

The art of processing this hard volcanic rock reached unprecedented heights in Ancient Egypt. And it evokes not only respect, but also amazement. Indeed, it is impossible to explain everything by the principle of "perseverance and work will grind everything", this is clearly not enough. The surviving examples of ancient Egyptian granite architecture demonstrate the highest level of processing and construction technology. Moreover, the further we go to the origins of Egyptian civilization, the higher, oddly enough, this level is. The skill of the creators of the monuments of Giza has remained unsurpassed. On the contrary, there is a certain degradation that began after the era of the Old Kingdom, that is, after the III millennium BC. NS. The very phenomenon of the emergence of such a cultural complex with an ordered system of hieroglyphic writing, a developed calendar, and a developed technology of monumental construction is striking. Perhaps there is a rational grain in the hypotheses of those researchers who consider Ancient Egypt to be the heir of an even more ancient civilization, the traces of which have not reached us? It is possible that the obelisks are further evidence in favor of such hypotheses.

The same hypothesis about some ancient and advanced civilization is expressed in the context of the riddle of megalithic structures in general, a particular case of which are obelisks and pyramids. Stone monuments made of large blocks or slabs are known as megaliths. They are distributed all over the world, except Australia, mainly in coastal areas, exist on the coasts of Denmark, France, England, Spain, North Africa, Iran, India, Turkey, Bulgaria, the Caucasus and many other places. In Europe, they mainly date back to the Eneolithic and Bronze Age (III – II millennium BC), with the exception of England, where the megaliths date back to the Neolithic. For an unknown reason, approximately in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. their construction has ceased.

For what purpose were they built? It is believed that the megalithic structures were intended for religious ceremonies. The origin of these monuments is still mysterious and not entirely clear. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was widely believed that all megaliths belonged to the same global megalithic culture, but modern research and dating methods refute this assumption. Many of the megalithic structures are embodied mysteries, such as the famous Stonehenge, dolmens in the Caucasus, statues of Easter Island and, of course, the Egyptian pyramids and obelisks.

Megaliths were built for tens, if not hundreds of years. It follows from this that their builders had to think about the layout of the complex and the sequence of work performed for several centuries ahead. Who could have made such a plan?

How was it passed down from generation to generation? There is no historical data that 40 centuries ago the inhabitants of the Earth had any scientific knowledge about their home planet, about the parameters of our solar system. Moreover, they did not have topographic and geodetic instruments, without which the most accurate placement of stones was impossible. And most importantly: why was all this necessary for the tribes engaged exclusively in hunting and primitive agriculture? Maybe they really, as they say, "helped"? One thing is certain: in the megalithic monuments of ancient eras, many unusual and significant things can be discovered for many years to come.

Phoenix mystery and astronomy

Astronomical knowledge in Ancient Egypt was developed at a very decent level. It is known that the temples of Bennu were famous for devices that measure time. A wonderful bird associated with periodic natural phenomena (the Nile flooded every year and the sun rose daily) was also associated with the calendar. The Yunu Phoenix Temple became the center for setting calendar dates. American researcher Randall Clarke quotes from an ancient papyrus: "When the Phoenix utters his cry, he sets all [calendar] cycles, it is he who determines all divisions of time."

It is not known exactly when the Egyptians created their calendar. But, of course, this happened long before the era of the pyramids. The Egyptians divided the year into twelve months, each month into three decans of ten days. In total, there were, accordingly, thirty-six deans in the year. In addition, “five days from the top of the year” were added to the calendar, and on these five days the gods were born - the children of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Hebe: Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys, and the son of Osiris and Isis - Horus. Thus, the gods turned 360 days a year into 365. The Bennu bird and the stone symbolizing it served as a kind of link between the pyramids and the place where the gods are born and reborn and from where they are sent to the world. And if you remember that the Ben Ben stone, quite possibly, had a cosmic origin, then the place where the gods are born was associated with the stars, at least with those that the ancient Egyptians could observe in their sky.

Sacred Ben Ben, "Bennu's nest", was the main subject of the state cult, and this cult led to the construction of the pyramids. The city of Yunu itself belonged to the priests who had tremendous power in the era of the pyramids, and there is no doubt that the construction of the pyramids took place under their leadership. The priests were highly educated people, initiated into secret knowledge - not only religious, but also astronomical, and architectural (including, perhaps, symbolic architecture), they knew hieroglyphs, the "sacred letter" of the Egyptians.

Probably too simple explanations of mysterious phenomena are not always completely correct. Relying on them, we thereby ignore the fact that many symbols, signs, messages in the texts, art and architecture of antiquity and the modern world carry a hidden meaning. However, the other extreme can also lead very far from the correct interpretation. Probably, the truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle ...