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NILE LAKES

From the end of the Ice Age about 11,600 years ago until about 6,000 years ago, the Nile River Valley was a good place to live where the people of the Ice Age Civilization could continue their high culture without much disruption, in marked contrast to the situation in China where the end of the Ice Age brought great turbulence.


According to Gerald Massey's Lectures (Forward and Introduction) by Sibyl Ferguson:

"... Gerald Massey['s] ... research led him to the conclusion that in Africa alone could be found the origins of myths, mysteries, symbols, languages and religions. Egypt was the mouthpiece. ...".


Here are some details about the post-Ice Age Nile River Valley:

At 11,600 years ago, 
about when the Vela X supernova was seen in Earth, 
a very sudden (50 years or so) warming event 
ended the Ice Age and marked the start of the HOLOCENE AGE 
of warm climate and glacial retreat.  
 
As the glaciers melted, lakes filled the Nile River Valley.  
 
From 11,600 years ago to 9,000 years ago, the lakes wre filling up. 
 
From 9,000 years ago to 6,000 years ago, the lakes were full, 
and the Nile River Valley was rainy, 
with over 30 cm per year net precipitation over evaporation loss.  
 
From 6,000 years ago to 4,500 years ago, the lakes dried out, 
leaving few with high levels, some medium, but most low, 
and the net precipitation declined.  
From 4,500 years ago to now, the Nile River Valley had few lakes 
and a dry climate.  
 
As Schwaller de Lubicz, West, Schoch, Bauval, and Hancock have noted, 
the Sphinx shows clear geological signs of rain-water weathering, 
so the Sphinx must have been built 
before the end of the rainy weather in the Nile River Valley. 
 
The Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids were probably all built together, 
either by the Ice Age Civilization of 36,525 to 11,600 years ago, 
or later, but no later than 6,000 years ago.  
 
The 11,600 to 6,000 year old civilization occured 
after the sudden warming event ended the Ice Age 11,600 years ago.  
There was a continual benevolent Nile River Valley climate 
until the rains stopped and the lakes dried up 6,000 years ago. 
 
The period from 6,000 to 4,500 years ago 
must have put great stress on the Sphinx-Giza Civilization, 
as it was losing its lakes and rains.  
 
To see what happened, look at the geography of the Nile River Valley. 
 
In the video The Mystery of the Sphinx (The Sphinx Project, 1993), 
paleoclimatologist John Kutzbach shows 
the general region of African lakes 9,000 years ago as: 
A more detailed view of African lake levels 6,000 years ago, 
as compared with now, is: 
To see specifically how the Nile River Valley was affected, 
look at its topography (compiled from MacGlobe):
The map shows elevation of the region 
from the headwaters area of the Nile River 
around the Abyssinian Highlands  
to the mouth of the Nile River 
at the Mediterranean Sea in the North.  
The Red Sea is on the East.  
 
The lowest levels are the dark green, 
under 656 feet, roughly the elevation 
of the top of the two large Giza Pyramids. 
The lowest lands are mostly North of  
the Safsaf Oasis, marked x labelled SafSaf. 
It is about 200 miles West 
of the current bed of the Nile River.   
 
Safsaf was mapped by synthetic aperture radar 
on 9 April 1994 from the Space Shuttle Endeavour: 
To parapharase part of a report on the 
JPL Imaging Radar Home Page of Bruce Chapman: 
 
    The image is centered at Safsaf, 22 degrees North latitude, 
    29 degrees East longitude. 
 
    It shows detailed structures of bedrock; 
    the dark blue sinuous lines are braided channels 
    that occupy part of an old broad river valley. 
 
    On the ground and in optical photographs, 
    this big valley and the channels in it are invisible 
    because they are entirely covered by windblown sand. 
 
    The Nile flows north about 200 miles to the East. 
 
    The small channels probably formed 
    during relatively wet climatic periods.
 
    The image clearly shows that in wetter times, 
    the valley would have supported game animals and vegetation. 
 
    Today, as a result of climate change, 
    the area is uninhabited 
    and lacks water except for a few scattered oases.
 
You can see that during rainy times, such as the time 
of the civilization of 11,600 to 6,000 years ago, 
a broad region (roughly light green + dark green) 
was probably covered by a network of lakes and rivers.  
 
Most of the real-estate development 
of the Sphinx-Giza Civilization would probably 
have been along the banks of those old lakes and rivers, 
now buried by sand and only visible by radar.  
[Compare the now-arid Northern Lowlands of Mars.]
 
WHERE WOULD THE CENTER OF THE SPHINX-GIZA CIVILIZATION 
HAVE BEEN LOCATED?
 
My opinion is that it would not have been located 
in the lowlands North of Safsaf, 
because too much of the region would have been 
in the flood plain to be developed. 
A prominent exception would have been the Giza Plateau, 
the site of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids. 
 
The part of the Nile River Valley 
from its headwaters near the Equator 
running North to Safsaf is shown in this 
map (compiled from MacGlobe): 
You can see that much of the White Nile  
part of the region is even now swampy, 
so I don't think that the Sphinx-Giza Center 
would have been there.  
 
However, the Blue Nile, 
and other Nile tributaries to its North and East, 
drained from the Abyssinian Highlands.  
The Blue Nile Basin may have been 
a relatively stable system of land, lakes, and rivers 
that could have been the basis for a 
high civilization centered in 
the Abyssinian Highlands.  
 
Another reason why I think that 
the Sphinx-Giza Center may have been 
in the Abyssinian Highlands 
is that it had the best climate: 
a high-altitude tropical climate.  
(To see how nice such a climate is, 
and why the leaders of the Sphinx-Giza Civilization 
would have wanted to live there, go to Asmara today.) 
 
Still another reason is that   
Egyptians called all of the lands 
south and southeast of Egypt: 
Ta-netjer, "God's Land". 
 
A WWW page maintained by Paul Kekai Manansala 
shows many avenues whereby the flow of civilization in Africa 
went from South to North along the Nile River.  
 
Further (see The Message of the Sphinx, 
by Hancock and Bauval), The Book of Two Ways, 
written on Egyptian coffins about 4,000 years ago, 
refers to: 
the Highland of Aker, which is the Dwelling Place of Osiris. 
 
According to Hancock and Bauval, the word Aker 
is similar to the word Akeru meaning ancestors of Re, 
and to the word Akhu meaning 
Venerable, Transfigured Being, Shining Being, or Astral Spirit. 
 
Since the Great Rift Valley of East Africa is nearby, 
people living there could directly observe a lot of 
natural geological and chemical activity.  
As they could have learned from what they saw, 
the Abyssinian Highland Civilization could have 
been technologically advanced.  
 
What do we now know about the Abyssinian Highlanders? 

Their history is written in the Kbre Nege'st.  
The Kbre Nege'st is roughly consistent with the Jewish Old Testament, 

in that it describes the story of Solomon and Sheba, whose son (with the help of angels and friends) took the Ark of the Covenant (which is symbolized by the Sun) from the Temple of Solomon to the Abyssinian Highlands of Africa.

Abyssinian Christians celebrate Ganna (Christmas) on 25 December of the Julian Calendar.

Abyssinian Islam began in 615 AD, before the violent battles associated with its rise to power in Arabia.

Its language, Ge'ez, 
may be a late version of the Global Early Language, 
 
There are some spectacular structures, 
such as a 4-story church at Lalibela carved out of a solid rock: 
However, if the Abyssinian Highland Civilization  
is the Sphinx-Giza Civilization, 
it is fair to ask: 
WHERE ARE THE INTERMEDIATE ARTIFACTS 
BETWEEN THEM AND THE LOWER NILE TEMPLES AND STRUCTURES? 
 
To answer this, 
consider the period from 6,000 to 4,500 years ago. 
 
The Blue Nile Basin was losing its lakes 
and rainfall, so that it could no longer support 
the Abyssinian Highlanders in the manner to 
which they had become accustomed.  
 
About 5,100 years ago, Manetho, ruler of Southern Upper Nile 
and the Abyssinian Highlands, conquered the Northern Lower Nile, 
thus re-uniting Egypt and gaining access to the lowland 
Lower Nile River Valley.   
 
The entire region south of Safsaf dried up. 
It was transformed from the most productive part 
of the Sphinx-Giza Civilization to an arid desert.  
 
From 4,500 years ago to the present, 
the only productive area has been the narrow 
lowland Nile River Valley, North of Safsaf.  
Safsaf itself, being 200 miles West of the Nile River, 
is too far away to be anything but a desert oasis. 
 
The 1,500 year transition from the Sphinx-Giza Civilization 
with a large productive area including the Blue Nile Basin, 
that ended about 6,000 years ago 
to 
a much smaller narrow lowland Nile River Valley 
productive area of the past 4,500 years 
must have been traumatic. 
 
Since they had a lot of interconnected lakes and rivers, 
from 11,600 to 6,000 years ago, the Sphinx-Giza Civilization 
probably developed water navigation to a high degree.  
The large boats they put next to the Giza Pyramids 
could not only have travelled their lakes and rivers, 
but also could have gone out into the oceans of the Earth.  
Their astronomical technology could have helped them 
to navigate around the world.  
 
One thing that I do not know, but would like to know, 
is the extent of contact between China 
and 
the African civilization of about 11,600 to 6,000 years ago.  
 
A possible connection is a legendary foundation 
of Taoism by people from Shen Zhou, or Spirit Ships, 
which some people say came from a Pacific Ocean "Atlantis", 
which could have been the Sunda Shelf region that
was flooded at the end of the Ice Age, 
or 
which may have come from the Nile Lakes homeland 
of the Sphinx-Giza Civilization. 
 
Other indications of connection include:  

Egyptian art and architecture was set out on a grid of 19 lines, just as a Chinese Wei-Qi board is a grid of 19 lines. The Mayans may have used similar grids;

Chinese I Ching seems to be a simpler version of the FA.

 
As the lakes and rivers dried up, the Sphinx-Giza people 
could have split into three groups:  
1 - Some staying in the Abyssinian Highlands, 
    the area with the best climate, 
    even though it became isolated from the remainder; 
2 - Some continuing to travel the Earth's oceans, 
    becoming the Sea People, living on a world-wide 
    bronze-copper-tin trading empire, 
    and spreading technology to other centers of the Earth; 
3 - Some staying in the lowland Nile Valley, 
    the largest (but much smaller) agricultural area, 
    living on farming.  
 
After settling into a lowland Nile Valley Civiliation 
4,500 years ago, the people there could have 
used the hieroglyphics and mathematics inherited 
from the earlier civilization, 
and 
they could have built some temples and structures.  
 
Most of the Sphinx-Giza temples and structures would 
have been far from the lowland Nile Valley, 
as they would have been in places such as 
borders of the old lakes and rivers South of Safsaf, 
that had become deserts or distant highlands.   
 
The outstanding exception would be 
the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids. 
It would have been an example for 
the lowland Nile Valley Civilization to try to reproduce.  
 
However, the lowland Nile Valley Civilization 
of the past 4,500 years would have had much less 
resources than the Sphinx-Giza Civilization.  
 
The Nile Valley lowlanders tried to copy 
the 52-degrees slope of the Giza Pyramids.  
First, they built step pyramids, with some success.  
Then they tried to make the Meidum Pyramid into 
a smooth 52-degree pyramid all the way to the top, 
but it collapsed. 
Then they started the Bent Pyramid at 52 degrees, 
but changed the top part of the Bent Pyramid to 43-degrees
in order to avoid another collapse.  
After that, they built the 43-degrees Red Pyramid, 
and then they just gave up on pyramids, 
the later ones being worse and worse.  
Since the Giza Plateau was an impressive place, 
the Nile Valley lowlanders modified and added to 
the Sphinx-Giza Civilization structures, 
producing a site with a mixture of things, 
one effect of which is to confuse egyptologists, 
some of whom attribute the Sphinx and 
the Second Pyramid to the Nile Valley lowlander, Khafre. 

 

 

 


According to Gerald Massey's Lectures (Forward and Introduction) by Sibyl Ferguson:

"... Gerald Massey['s] ... research led him to the conclusion that in Africa alone could be found the origins of myths, mysteries, symbols, languages and religions. Egypt was the mouthpiece. ...".

"... Gerald Massey['s] ... parents were illiterate--his father was a poorly paid canal boatman. ... Only occasionally was the young Massey able to attend the neighboring school, for which he paid one penny a week. From the age of eight he labored twelve hours a day. At first he found employment in a silk mill. When it was destroyed by fire, he worked as a straw-plaiter. ... at fifteen he went to London as an errand boy. ...

[According to a web page titled Secularized Typology in Working-Class Poet in a Victorian Web Book by George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University: "... Gerald Massey ... has more experience of class injustice, dangerous working conditions, and the effects of being unable to find work ...

... After the enclosure of village lands, creation of factory towns, and growth of urban areas had begun to reshape the face of the [ British ] nation, the established Church long failed to minister to the new working-class populations. During the late-eighteenth century religious revival, Evangelicals within and without the Church of England stepped into the spiritual vacuum created by the Church hierarchy's indifference and inefficiency. ... Although the Evangelicals led the battle to stamp out Negro slavery at home and abroad, they resisted legislation to outlaw child labor, protect the worker from unsafe conditions, or otherwise interfere between master and worker. ... opponents [of the Evangelicals] of whom Dickens was one of the fiercest, argued ... that Evangelicals cared more about black slaves than about English workers who often endured worse physical deprivation than the explicitly enslaved ... Massey's ... Song of the Red Republican, uses ... imagery drawn from the Exodus narrative ... not to call upon God for deliverance, but solely to summon workers ... to battle for their own freedom:

Up, up from the Slave-land; who stirreth to stay us, Shall fall, as of old, in the Red Sea of wrath.

Here, as in so many of his poems, Massey's main interests are to awaken the lower classes to the possibility of freedom and to suggest to his fellow workers that their enemies will receive deserved vengeance. ...".] ...

... Later ... Massey ... studied the extensive Egyptian records housed in the British Museum.

He eventually taught himself to decipher the hieroglyphics. Finally after many years of study he wrote a series of scholarly works on the Religion and Mythology of Ancient Egypt. In 1881 he published in two volumes "A Book of the Beginnings," in 1883 "The Natural Genesis" followed, and finally in 1907 he published in two volumes "Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World,". ... at the British Museum, Massey enjoyed the friendship and wise counsel of Dr. Samuel Birch, an outstanding Egyptologist. He attracted a following of dedicated students ...".

 

In Gerald Massey's Lectures themselves, Massey says: "... the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Hindus, Britons, and other races, reckoned that they had Seven souls, or that the one soul as permanent entity included the sum total of seven powers. ... It is quite possible, and even apparent, that the first form of the mystical SEVEN was seen to be figured in heaven by the seven large stars of the Great Bear, the constellation assigned by the Egyptians to the Mother of Time, and of the seven Elemental Powers. ... When Abraham took his oath at Beer-sheba, the Well of the Seven, we are told that he sevened, or did seven. ... There is a star with eight rays, which is found to be the symbol of Buddha, of Assur in Assyria, of Mithras; and of the Christ in the catacombs of Rome. That was the symbol of the Gnostic pleroma of the seven souls, the perfect flower or star of which was the Christ of the Gnosis ... A very ancient form of the eight-rayed star was a sign of the Nnu, the Associate Gods of Egypt, who were the Seven Ali (Ari) or Companions (Cf. the Babylonian Ili and Gnostic Elohim), as children of the Great Mother, the Gnostic Ogdoas. The same type, with the same meaning, is represented in the Book of Revelation, where the son of man (who is a male with female breasts, and therefore not a human being) holds in his hand the seven stars which symbolise the seven angels or spirits who are in the service of their Lord--like the Seven Great Spirits in the 17th chapter of the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." Seven souls, or principles in man, were identified by our British Druids. In the Hebrew Targummim, Haggadoth and Kabbala, the Rabbins sometimes recognise a threefold soul ... The Rabbins also ran the number of souls up to seven; so likewise do the Karens of India. ...".

 

Charles S. Finch, in his Introduction to Gerald Masseys books A Book of the Beginnings (Black Classic Press 1881, 1995) and The Natural Genesis (Black Classic Press 1883, 1998), says: "... Gerald Massey['s] ... investigations convinced him that ... the keys to discovering ... the roots of modern culture ... lay in myth and symbol, resolvable to their ancient beginnings in Africa. ... For example,

 


 

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