Saturday, March 24, 2012

Volcanoes in Egypt


I've been thinking for a while now that perhaps the pyramids of Egypt represented volcanoes. 'The Most High', 'The Rock', etc. A brief search into volcanoes in Egypt would suggest there aren't any, however Egypt does have volcanic fields. The African Rift ensures East Africa has plenty of volcanic activity. It is very hard to find information though and even when you do find it it is misleading or incomplete.



For example, this article says the hills in the Black Desert are 'volcano shaped' and the area is covered with 'black stones' when the truth is that the hills are not hills but volcanoes and the black stones strewn everywhere were shot out of the volcanoes as Yahweh shot out his fiery darts. Would Egypt get as many tourists if the pyramids were known to represent volcanoes?


Black Desert, Egypt


The man who, as a child, drew this picture now finds it amusing stating, 'Apparently I thought the pyramids were some sort of man-made representation of a volcano.' I think a lot of the world's puzzles could be explained away if the adult experts were replaced with children who not only have simple and unbaised minds able to see the truth through the deception but also have magical thinking, which is useful when trying to empathise with those in the past who also had magical thinking. You either have to have it or have had it in order to understand it.

Another reason why I suspect the Egyptian pyramids were based on volcanoes is because the Mayans also built pyramids and they also lived in a volcanic area.

In general, Sheets said, volcanism was an integral part of ancient Maya life. Some of the temples in the highland Maya cities, for example, mimic sacred volcanoes.

"The temple buildings have doorways in the tops, where they burned incense, and the rising smoke was used to carry various messages to ancestor spirits and the deities," Sheets explained.

Volcanic eruptions also fit into the Maya worldview that life is full of phenomena that can be either hazards or opportunities, and that human behavior can tip the balance, Sheets said. For the Maya, a smoking volcano wasn't always a harbinger of doom. Humans could turn its ash into a benefit, such as fertilizer or additives to strengthen pottery clay. The Maya could also stall the eruption altogether—or so they thought.

"They did bloodletting rituals, respected the deities, fed the spirits of their ancestors, and so on" to try to control volcanoes, Sheets said.

Study leader Tankersley emphasizes that the unpredictable mountains, too, were at the crux of Maya culture.

"They built temples in the shapes of volcanoes, and their ceremonies replicate volcanic events," he said."To the Maya, volcanoes were part of life—an essential part of their life."

It all sounds very familiar to the animal sacrifice and blood letting of the ancient Hebews at the foot of Mount Sinai, all in the hope of appeasing the volcano god Yahweh.




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