The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

the granaries of Joseph, as some have thought ” (including that de Rougemont of the fourteenth century, Sir John Mandeville), ‘‘ but marvellous structures built over the tombs of ancient kings.”

Note F: Masoupi oN THE GREAT PYRAMID (page 12)

This account from Masoudi is taken from an interesting essay on the Great Pyramid published in 1882, and entitled The Origin and Significance of the Great Pyramid, by C. Staniland Wake, who himself cites Col. Vyse. Mr. Wake regarded the Great Pyramid as a religico-scientific structure, a monument to Sabaism or worship of the stars, which, originating with the Babylonians, had a wide vogue in the ancient world, and which was closely connected with “ serpent-worship ”. For this reason he depicts on the cover of his book—a small octavo of 102 pages—a design taken from an ancient engraved gem, showing a serpent enclosed in a pyramid and surrounded by five stars.

Note F1; THe GReAT PYRAMID AND THE DELUGE OF GENESIS (page 18)

The criticism is sometimes advanced, more particularly by those who maintain the Noachian Deluge was universal, that if the Great Pyramid was erected in pre-Deluge times, it would not be standing to-day.

While our A.V. certainly gives the impression that this visitation was universal, it does not necessarily follow that this was the idea intended by the writer of the original. The idea of a universal deluge is due to an unfortunate translation of the word eretz as “ earth » in the sense of the whole globe, whereas it can equally well be translated (and is so translated in other passages where it occurs) by “ country ” or “ district”, and in this instance refers solely to the district in which the ‘‘ generations of Noah” (Gen. vi, 9) lived. This district the writer shows in his

‘itness of the Great Pyramid (pp. 241-63) to have been most probably the plateau of Central Asia, a district which fulfils all the necessary requirements of the Adamic

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