What is the draw to ancient Egypt? In a few days I will be setting out for my third Egypt tour in the past four years. It is becoming a yearly pilgrimage as I have been co-hosting the “Stargates of Ancient Egypt” tour along with Egyptologist and tour guide Mohamed Ibrahim who has been operating a class act operation for more than 20 years. This is the second incarnation of the Stargates tour, and I’m greatly looking forward to exploring new locations and discovering new secrets at places we’ve already explored. Once again, throughout the tour I will be uploading a daily video blog to the Connected Universe Portal which you won’t find anywhere else. What might we find along our travels?
Giza Plateau and the Pyramids
The pyramids on the Giza Plateau are not only the most iconic structures in Egypt, but they are some of the most iconic structures in the entire world. That we get to venture inside them continues to be awestriking, no matter how many times we enter, but the special treat is when we have the Great Pyramid of Giza all to ourselves for two hours. During this time, the entire pyramid is open to us. Typically, the public will climb the Grand Gallery up to the King’s Chamber, but for us, we’re able to also explore the Queen’s Chamber and climb down into the Subterranean Chamber. To me, the smoking gun of the Great Pyramid being some sort of machine lies in the Queen’s Chamber, so it’s important that we get a chance to explore it. And, of course, there’s the Great Sphinx.
Saqqara
Saqqara is a vast site that includes the Step Pyramid, the Serapeum, and miles and miles of tombs and tunnels. Every time we visit here there is always something new Mohamed shows us that I hadn’t yet previously seen. Last time it was one of the other shafts that is built exactly the same as the shaft upon which the Step Pyramid was built. For what purpose were those shafts built, and how many more might also be hiding out there in the desert?
Bent Pyramid and Dahshur
The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur is an absolute gem, and it is the most difficult climb into any of the pyramids – but it is absolutely worth it. This building is certainly some kind of harmonic resonance device with its myriad of corbeled structures built within it, which include tall shafts and smaller variations of the Great Pyramid’s Grand Gallery. Adjacent to the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, which lies just to the north, is a military site known as “Egypt’s Area 51.” The remnants of two other pyramids rest on this property, and it is rumored that there is an actively-working stargate within the installation.
Alexandria
We will be venturing to the fabled city of Alexandria this year, which is a city I have not yet toured. Another one of the ancient wonders once stood here – the Great Lighthouse – and, of course, the famous Great Library. I would have loved to have visited both when they existed. There is now a massive modern library which was built in honor of the ancient one, and modern excavations and underwater explorations have revealed much of the old city.
Luxor
Depending on the schedule of the river boat and the day we’ll be flying south to Upper Egypt (yes, you read that correctly, Upper Egypt is in the south – it’s based on the flow of the Nile River), we may fly into Luxor from Cairo or fly in to Aswan. The entire Luxor area is riddled with temple, which is where we get the name Luxor from: when the Arabs took over in the Seventh Century, they thought the temples were palaces and called the city Al-Uqsur, their term for “the palaces.” Prior to that, the Greeks called it Thebes, after their own great city, and Homer actually called it “Hundred-gated Thebes,” referring the many temple entrances. The ancient Egyptians, however, called it Waset, which meant “place of great power.” The Luxor temple itself boasts a Muslim mosque built on top of a Christian church which was built into one of the corners of the ancient Egyptian temple.
Karnak
Massive. There is so much to see here, and if you’re looking for stargate symbolism, during our last tour it became a scavenger hunt within the group, and my fiancée, Jennifer, found several stargate symbols here. The site also contains massive obelisks, a broken one of which used to lay on its side, and if you sneaked behind it and knocked on it with your knuckles, you could hear and feel the reverberation from the energy of all of the quartz embedded in the granite. Unfortunately, they have now propped up this broken obelisk upright onto a cement slab, which just looks awkward.
Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple
This temple is the absolute epitome of a stargate. I gave a brief overview of it in my book Travels Through Time which I will include here:
“At Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple outside of Luxor, we find a massive staircase that stretches upward into the temple, which is built into the cliff face, and is the beginning of a direct path into the Holy of Holies. The sides of this staircase are flanked by sculptures of falcons, representing the god Horus, but on closer inspection, one can see that these falcons have snake tails that lead all the way up the staircase. It is believed by many that these falcons were once snake heads, possibly cobras, re-carved in ancient times when the temple was repurposed. Back in Chapter 1, we discussed how the serpent in the ancient world was a symbol of energy – life energy, healing energy, universal energy. To the southeast side of the temple iare the remains of the base of a small pyramid – there is almost nothing left. Engaging in the debate on whether Egyptian pyramids were power plants or not is beyond the scope of this book, but whether you believe it was a power plant or that it was harnessing electrical energy from the telluric currents of the earth, it was there to power the temple. As one walks up the staircase, into the courtyard, and into the barque hall for Amun, each entrance that is passed through is marked with the hieroglyphs for “stargate,” or saba. The barque hall, literally means transportation for the god, but there is more beyond, although the next chamber, the Holy of Holies, is blocked by a set of Egyptian guards. If one arrives early enough before the crowds and offers a large tip to these guards, entrance might be granted – but you didn’t hear that from me. Inside the Holy of Holies is a cartouche full of stars, the ultimate symbol of passage to the cosmos. So, here we have an amazing setup: the symbolism of energy along the stairs, each entrance adorned with the stargate hieroglyphs, the cartouche full of stars within the most sacred room of the whole complex, and a pyramid powering it all. This lost esoteric symbolism and history is why I have joined forces with Egyptologist Mohamed Ibrahim to host an annual “Stargates of Ancient Egypt” tour.”
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