The Egypt enigma
The Great Pyramid of Giza, with its awesome size and singularity, continues to amaze anyone who stands in its ancient shadows. Commercial airline pilots flying thousands of miles above Cairo, obligingly inform their passengers of the pyramid’s clearly visible apex view—a salute of sorts, by a nine hundred thousand pound flying feat of modern cutting-edge technology, to an ancient colossus of equal inconceivability.The pyramids are without a doubt an enduring and eerie enigma. Indeed, the theory that they were built possibly by aliens, using inconceivable technology and served an yet unknown function, has yet to be convincingly put to rest.
It is therefore arguable that the pyramids may have been partly responsible for identifying the ruins in Africa as that of ancient Egypt. Egypt was after all, the veritable hub of the ancient world. Fine art and architecture are indeed the hallmarks of a mature civilization, and the pyramids leave absolutely no room for doubt in this regard.
However, on close examination, these very pyramids, in all their colossal majesty, help realize a different reality. True, they speak volumes about architectural refinement. Yet, from an economic, social or political perspective, the ‘sophisticated civilization argument’ fails to make sense. For, to build these mountains, for whatever reason, one would have had to engage almost the entire work force and resources of the kingdom. This would have been a severe drain on the country’s economy. The indisputable fact is that the pyramids did not, could not, have happened innocuously on the side. The entire nation’s focus would have been on them, as they engaged in the various tasks of executing these gargantuan construction projects. The reality was that, as modern archaeologists are beginning to find out, this was a nation totally stripped of all civic rights, poverty stricken, illiterate and entirely exploited. Generation after generation were engaged slavishly in the continuous construction of pyramids, one after another, without respite, to appease perhaps a cruel and perverse royalty. In other words, the pyramids and other massive and elaborately decorated superstructures that we so admire, though wonderful, speak of obsession, rather than progress. They darkly hint of depravity, abuse, isolation and abnormality.
To complicate matters, Herodotus records that the ‘real’ Egyptians were in fact poor builders. Meaning, from the architectural point of view, Egypt incredibly had very little to show. The truth is, real Egypt, according to this historian who purportedly walked its ancient roads, was in fact a commercial hub, much like the modern cities ones sees today. All it really had were bursting warehouses, buzzing ports, bustling bazaars and broiling brothels. It reverberated
not with the sound of chisel on stone, but with the din of commerce and the tinkle of money feverishly changing hands.
Real Egypt, the one described by Herodotus, Strabo, Manetho or any other ancient world historians, was anything but abnormal. It was spared the quirkiness of aberrant rulers, of autocratic monarchs. It engaged in perfecting the art of living well, much in the same fashion as modern-day progressive nations do. The historical accounts of Egypt speak of a sophisticated populace, comfortably settled and enjoying numerous civic amenities. A sense of democracy prevailed in its corridors of power and the general populace nurtured a sense of liberty. Even foreigners were welcome, allotted choice lands to settle in and peaceful co-exist. Poverty and illiteracy were perhaps conspicuous by their absence.
Ancient Egypt rang with laughter and not with the groans of an oppressed people, slavishly engaged in one construction project after another, to appease a perverse royalty.
Could such an advanced and sophisticated civilization have put up with this incredible pyramid-construction mania? Does this Egypt, whose kings and governments protected the interests of the common people, encouraged trade and traders with land grants and other concessions, absolutely spoiled their soldiers with high income and land grants; reflect exploitation or oppression? Does it reek of despotism, or God obsession as evident in the land of the pyramids? Can the oppressive, spine-crushed people who subsisted in the shadow of the pyramids, ever be mistaken for the Egyptians, who perhaps took pride in the ‘Egyptian way of life?’ To all the above questions, the answer is a resounding no.
Here is an interesting peek in to their medical profession. In Egypt, a host of doctors, specialists really, for each and every part of the body, plied their trade. Our GPs of yesteryears would have been laughed right out of the BCs were they to come armed with their antacids, aspirins, and cortisones. Our heart surgeons though, with their open-heart theatrics, pacemakers and pigskin valves would have been welcomed with open arms, and our cloning specialists… why, they could expect to be deified and booked all the way into the ADs!
The Egyptians wore a linen tunic fringed about the legs called a ‘calasiris.’ Over this, they wore a white woolen skirt. Also, the Egyptian male, from early childhood, had his head shaved. Regarding their shaving their head bit, our man from Halicarnassus even spun a theory complete with a ‘scientific experiment’ to establish this fact. By throwing stones on the sun-bleached skulls scattered on a battlefield, where the Egyptians and Persians had fought, he found that some broke easily, while others did not. Herodotus concluded the Egyptians who regularly shaved their heads were the case-hardened skulls, while the weaker ones belonged to the Persians, thanks to their turbans and long hair. Now admittedly, Herodotus does have his unhinged moments, nevertheless, thanks to his bizarre experiment, we know that all Egyptian males, from priests to the pilferers, king to the commoners, regularly shaved their heads.
But do we see shaven heads in the frescoes or wall carvings in the Egypt-in-Africa scenario? No, never. On the contrary, the people are always depicted with hair. They definitely did not shave their head as Herodotus documents. So where did Herodotus’ shaven-headed Egyptians go? Was Herodotus making this up, as modern-day scholars are inclined to believe?
To the above questions all I can say is, Herodotus’ shaven headed Egyptians existed and there is even archaeological proof for it. Artifacts carved in stone, marble and basalt have been excavated, that strikingly resemble the historian’s Egyptians. An array of shaven headed men with beards, exactly as Herodotus describes, bearing mute testimony to the remarkable accuracy of his documentations, are to be found in almost any book of history. The only thing is, they are not considered Egyptians, for they were not found in Egypt, but in Mari and numerous other archaeological sites in modern-day Syria. One is struck with wonder by the keen similarity of these shaven-headed figurines, complete with full beards and fluffy sheepskin skirts over their calasiris (pleated white cotton skirts), with that of the historian’s Egyptians. Butchers, bakers, barbers, priests, pilferers and pharaohs... all fashioned in roughly the same style. Go on, take a look at the accompanying picture. Surely, these are Herodotus’ Egyptians... but whatever are they doing in Syria?
Diagram 2: The Real Egyptians? Spitting images of Herodotus’ bearded, shaven headed Egyptians, complete with calasiris and woolen skirts. These genuine, 2500 BC artifacts were found in modern-day Syria.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright © 1998 by James Natchurivalapil Rappai. All rights reserved. James Natchurivalapil Rappai (also known as James Rappai or N. R. James) has asserted his rights under the Indian and International Intellectual Property Rights (Copyright & Related Rights and Industrial Property Rights including patents) to be identified as the author, discoverer, and creator of this body of work. The material contained in this website, including the text, including the reinterpretation of ancient texts, all of which has also been codified into diagrams, maps, charts, tables, diagrams, & photographs and altogether gives this work its uniqueness of expression, cannot be copied, communicated, transmitted, reproduced, adapted, translated or cinematographically reproduced, in part or in full, or in a reconstituted manner. Any manner of infringement will swiftly and legally be dealt with to the full extent of the law.