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| Great Pyramid of Giza taken by author |
Deep in the land of Siriad (Egypt), where the hot sun beats down mercilessly during the day, while the cold still of the night chills one’s body even to the very marrow, if not properly attired, a mystery lingers among the many curiosities that lay sprawled across the vast open plains near Cairo. A mystery that until recently was thought to be too insignificant to warrant any further investigation. Even though its very existence presents man’s most important link with the past.
It all began when a professor by the name of William Whiston decided to translate a copy of the manuscript ‘Antiquities of the Jews’, by Josephus the Jewish historian, from Latin to English. Even at the very beginning, a curious paragraph came to light. It read like this: “They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom, which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And, that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone; they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind, and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.”
Intrigued by the claim made in this statement, and the very fact that mankind’s link with the past offered a chance to regain knowledge that had up to then been considered lost, it was decided that a group should visit the area and identify this ‘Pillar’. Once identified, if it existed, they would be able to glean from it that much coveted knowledge. Some years later, after a thorough search throughout the land of Egypt had been carried out, the group returned to Britain with their report. It was felt that Josephus had made an error in his statement, and confused the ‘pillar’ erected by Seth (Sesostris) King of Egypt, with that which he felt had been erected by Seth, son of Adam. And yet today, if we were to visit that ancient land of mystery and wonder, and stand on the same spot as Josephus, there in front of us, dominating the landscape for all to see, is the pillar in the land of Siriad! But how could such a small pillar such as the one erected by Sesostris, hold such command over all that surrounds it? We might well ask.
The answer is as intriguing as the statement first made by Josephus. After further investigation, we would interpose a suggestion here. It is simply, that Josephus was not in error. The Emperor Vespasianus, patron of the Jewish Writer, had previously visited the area mentioned. Being a shrewd character, he would know if Josephus had made a mistake. The key to most mysteries of this sort lies in the translation. The people of his time were able to see the edifice spoken of in his writings while Josephus was still alive. They too would have recognised this monument of antiquity by its exterior. Until its white marble casing stones were removed to build the mosques and palaces of Cairo, they remained in place for all to see, engraved with letters and symbols expressing the entire knowledge of antiquity.
This knowledge written and engraved in the ‘pure’ language, was spoken by all persons before the confusion of the tongues at Babel. Therefore, no one during the time of Josephus, would have had any difficulty whatsoever in identifying this historical gem. Of course, as it was written in the ‘pure’ language, no-one could understand it. Hence, yet another established proof of that which was written by Josephus.
So the query in the footnote on page 49 of Whiston’s translation of Josephus Volume 1? When translating the document into English, Whiston copied from an earlier Latin translation. Josephus however, wrote his original manuscript in Greek. With such a limited language as Latin, the nearest word to describe this self standing shape is Columna, meaning ‘Column’ or ‘Pillar’. In Josephus’ Greek original, it is suggested that he used instead of στύλος meaning ‘pillar’, he wrote πυραμος meaning ‘pyramos’ a ‘self standing pillar of fire and knowledge’. This is borne-out in the statement by Isaiah when concerning this same edifice he proclaimed:- “In that day there shall be an altar to the lord, in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt;” (Isaiah 19:19,20)
The root-word for pillar used in this statement is the Hebrew מַצֵבָה ‘matstseba’ which means a thing set up, a standing pillar. This is far different to the Hebrew root-word ﬠמּוּה ‘ammud’ which simply means column. An interesting addition to this is found in the ancient Coptic records of Masoudi in the Arabic manuscript of the Akbar-Ezzeman, at Oxford, which relates that “Surid (Seth)… one of the kings of Egypt before the flood, built two great pyramids.”
In the account the Great Pyramid is referred to as “the Eastern Pyramid.” “…In the Eastern Pyramid (the Great Pyramid) were inscribed the heavenly spheres and figures representing the stars and planets…”
The manuscript of Makrizi gives a similar account stating that “the first (the Great) Pyramid was especially dedicated to history and astronomy; the second (Pyramid) to medical knowledge.”
Many more accounts giving testimony in this way are extant today. However, whatever their validity, one thing is now certain. The ‘Pillar’ or ‘Pyramus’ erected by Seth and the antediluvians in the land of Siriad (Egypt) as stated by Josephus, and still standing today for all to see, is none other than the ‘Great Pyramid’!
