TAHRIR – EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY NEWS

Pope FRANCIS I. Everyone immediately assumed, probably wrongly, that the new Pope chose this name because of Francis of Assisi being himself humble, loved animals etc… But it has been pointed out that the new Pope is also a Jesuit, and the first ever Jesuit to become Pope. So why would he choose a name from the Franciscan Order when he is himself from the Jesuit Order? The answer may be that one of the co-founders of the Jesuit Order was called Francis (apparently canonized as St. Francis as well in 1622). This was San Francesco Javier, called Severino in Italy. He was one of the seven original ‘soldiers’ priests who, along with Ignazio de Loyola, founded the Society of Jesus/Jesuit Order in 1534.

By Robert Bauval © 2013

Before the coming of Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, Egyptian had suffered a brutal and humiliating century of occupation by the Persians who desecrated and destroyed many of its temples and even whole cities, leaving the country badly scarred, physically and mentally. Not surprisingly then, when Alexander defeated the Persian army of Darius III at Issus in Syria, and afterwards marched triumphantly into the ancient land of the Nile, the twenty-four year old Macedonian hero was treated like a god, a returning pharaoh come to liberate Egypt. The priests of Egypt already knew that since his childhood this young and valiant prince had entertained the belief that his true ‘father’ was the solar god of Egypt, Amun, whose oracle was at the oasis of Siwa. This belief was put into Alexander’s young mind by his highly strung and mystical mother, Olympias, who had once been a priestess at the Oracle of Zeus at Dodona twinned with the oracle of Amun at Siwa. Endowed with a deep mystical nature, Olympias believed she was destined to give birth to a divine male child who would conquer and unite the known world like Dionysos, the handsome and heroic son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. To the Greeks, Zeus was akin to Amun, and even said to be the same. When Olympias married Philip II of Macedonia in 357 BC,  she claimed that on her wedding night she had been visited by the god Zeus-Amun and was made pregnant by him.

Alexander’s dream was not just to unite the known world but also to rule it from city dedicated to wisdom and learning, an intellectual haven where scholars would share their knowledge and discoveries to enlighten the world. It is probable that such an idea had been drummed into him by Aristotle, who had tutored Alexander for many years. Aristotle had written his famous tract on Politika, The Politics, in which he examines various systems of constitutions and the Ideal State, and which he surely must have discussed with Alexander. Was the future Alexandria to be that ‘Ideal State’? It certainly became the universal center of learning for several centuries, as well as the place where its inhabitants saw themselves as ‘cosmopolitans’, citizens of the World,  and where all religions and races could cohabited. The term ‘cosmopolitan’ probably comes from the statement of Diogenes of Sinope (c. 415 BC) who, when asked to which state he belonged, answered: “I am a citizen of the World’ –Kosmopolites. Alexandria was probably the nearest thing to a ‘Cosmopolitan Utopia’ the world has ever known.

Tradition has it that it was the architect Dinoclates of Rhodes who, under the orders of Alexander, designed the city plan of Alexandria. The layout of the new city, however, shows an Egyptian influence that, for lack of better words, can be termed ‘solar’, a sort of ‘City of the Sun’ to emulate perhaps in some ways Heliopolis, the quintessential ‘City of the Sun’ of the ancient world, or the great sun-temples of Amun-Re at Karnak and Luxor [fn: A chapel dedicated to Alexander the Great was built within the holy of holies of the Luxor temple]. Take for example the two principal arteries of the ancient city, the Canopus Way and the Soma. The Canopus Way ran west to east and headed towards the town of Canopus some 20 kilometers from Alexandria, and the Soma ran south to north, crossing the Canopus Way to form a huge cross at the center of which was the Agora, the traditional square or piazza in the heart found in most ancient Greek cities. The Canopus Way was probably named after Kanopos, the legendary Homerian navigator who piloted the fleet of Menelaus in the Iliad. According to a Homeric myth, the town of Canopus (modern Abukir) in Egypt was founded by Menelaus, who named it after the pilot of his ship who died on its shore. Homer says that Menelaus built a shrine to his memory there, around which the town was later developed. A temple dedicated to Osiris was later built at Canopus by Ptolemy III.  Herodotus, who wrote a century or so before the foundation of Alexandria, claimed that there was a temple dedicated to Heracles in that region. According to some Egyptologists, however, the name ‘Canopus’ was because the road led to a temple where pilgrim deposited ‘canopic jars’ used in funerary rituals. Alexander is also well known to have claimed descent from Dionysos and Herakles, both of whom were associated with the Egyptian god Osiris by the historian and author Herodotus whose celebrated books The Histories Alexander had diligently read. So at least since the time of Herodotus it was known that a temple dedicated to Herakles-Osiris at a town called Herakleon near modern day Abukir. The future Canopus Way axis, when extended towards the eastern horizon would have passed near Herakleion, something that Alexander would certainly have been made aware of. Herakleion was later submerged after a terrible earthquake but has been rediscovered by recently by French marine archaeologists.

At both ends of the Canopus Way were gates leading in and out of the city of Alexandria. The west gate was called the “Gate of the Moon” (Selene) while the east gate was the “Gate of the Sun” (Helios). Although historians have assumed that the layout plan of the city was based on the classical Greek system of grids, it has been pointed out that much older Egyptian cities such as Akhetaten, the ‘solar’ city of Akhenaten at Tell el Amarna, also had a gridded layout. It must be remembered that Alexander had been proclaimed pharaoh of Egypt, a role that associated him to the sun god of Egypt, Amun-Re. As pharaoh, Alexander was regarded as the reincarnation of Horus, the solar falcon god or, to put it in other words, a solar Horus-king. The divine birth of such Horus-king were associated to the first appearance at dawn of the star Sothis (our modern Sirius) which in antiquity took place near the time of the summer solstice. At the epoch of Alexander this cosmic event took place at the location of Alexandria on the 20 July on the Julian calendar, and it cannot be a coincidence that many classical authors fixed the date of Alexander’s birth, now himself a ‘solar’ king of Egypt, also on that same date. It would seem unlikely, knowing the mystical aspect of Alexander’s birth and his coronation as a divine Horus-king of Egypt, and also knowing that main axis of cities and major temples in Egypt were often aligned to sunrise on some important day, it would seem highly unlikely and quite atypical of the mental state of its designers that the Canopus Way, the main axis of which was probably decided by Alexander himself, would not have a similar solar alignment fixed on an important day associated to Alexander’s solar divinity.

The alignment of the Canopus Way has been determined to be some 24 degrees north of east. [This was confirmed in the 1860s by the eminent Egyptian astronomer Mahmoud El Falaki Bey, who carried out excavations and showed that there had been eleven main streets running parallel along the width of the ancient city, and seven others also running parallel but at right angles to the other eleven. The two principal arteries were the Canopus Way running the length of the city, and the Soma running the width of the city. Several trial pits and trenches that were dug out by Mahmoud Bey established that the Canopus Way was some 2300 meters long and that it was oriented to 24º north of east, within + - 30 minutes accuracy]. This specific alignment does not appear to be accidental.  The sun’s rising points on the eastern horizon as observed from Alexandria fluctuate between 28º south of east (winter solstice) and 28º degrees north of east (summer solstice), with the mid-point, due east, falling on the spring and autumn equinoxes. In Plutarch’s Life of Alexander the 1^st century the author tells us that,

“Alexander was born the 6th of Hecatombaeon, which month the Macedonians call Lous, the same day that the temple of Diana at Ephesus was burnt…”

Hecatombaeon was the first month in the Greek year, and it started on the first new moon immediately following the summer solstice. It has been calculated that in 356 BCE the year of Alexander’s birth, the new moon after the summer solstice was on 14 July (Julian), thus Alexander’s birth fell six days later on 20 July. At this time the sun also was in the sign of Leo, which may also explain the leonine attributes that ancient writers associated with Alexander. As we have said earlier, Alexander himself probably determined the alignment of the central axis of the future city of Alexandria, later to be known as the Canopus Way, and it is therefore very significant to note that this axis, which is at about 24 degrees north of east, targeted the rising sun on the 20 July Julian.

 [Postscript: In 2004 I presented this hypothesis in my book TALISMAN: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (Penguin Books, 2004, pp. 204-209). Later in 2012, the Italian astronomer Giulio Magli of Milano Politecnico and his colleague Dr. Luisa Ferro, an architect from the same polytechnic, have published a peered reviewed article which confirmed this theory (G. Magli and L. Ferro “The Astronomical Orientation of the Urban Plan of Alexandria”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Volume 31, Issue 4, November 2012, Pages: 381–389). The Oxford Journal of Archaeology is publishing in its next issue, Volume 32.2, the following text by Magli and Ferro: “'In the paper ‘The astronomical orientation of the urban plan of Alexandria’ we have applied rigorous archaeoastronomical and archaeological arguments to show that the Alexandria main axis was deliberately oriented to the sun rising on the day of Alexander's birth and to the king's star Regulus. After publication we have been informed that a similar solar orientation of the Alexandria main axis also related to Alexander's birth had already been proposed in 2004 in the book ‘Talisman:Sacred Cities, Secret Faith’ by Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock (Penguin Books, London 2004), whose priority in elaborating this idea is therefore here acknowledged.”]

DID CLEOPATRA VII CHOOSE THE DAY OF HER SUICIDE?

The Lychnapsia and the ‘Birth of Isis’

By Robert Bauval ©2013

The most celebrated ‘suicide’ in history, and one which has fired the popular imagination for centuries, which has inspired Shakespeare, poets and authors and even Hollywood, is surely that of Queen Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies.  In consideration of the universal notoriety of this event, it is a irony of historical that the date and time of her famous and tragic death has not been recorded in any contemporary or near contemporary record –at least none that have survived.  

In 1953 Professor Theodore C. Skeats  (1907-2003) of the British Museum, realized that this curious paradox of history and decided to investigate the matter.  Skeats wisely decided to work on one date that was known with certainty and which was related indirectly to the death of Cleopatra VII: the day of the fall of Alexandria to the armies of Octavian (later Augustus Caesar).  Octavian is known to have reached the gates of Alexandria sometime towards the end of July 30 BCE and, from records kept at the Roman Senate it is known that he took Alexandria on the 1^st August of the Roman Calendar.  Skeats established that this date corresponded to the 8 of Mesore according to the Egyptian Calendar  —Mesore being the last month of the Egyptian Calendar. He then used another known day also associated to this historic event:  the 1^st of Thoth, which was the coronation of Octavian as ‘pharaoh’ of Egypt. The 1^st Thoth was the New Year’s Day which fell after the 5 Intercalary Days (the Epagomene) that were added to the last month of the year i.e. Mesore. Skeats also found contemporary records that allowed him to deduce that the death of Cleopatra occurred 18 days before the coronation of Octavian.  Working backwards from the coronation date, Skeats concluded that Cleopatra died on the 17^th Mesore.  Converting the 17^th Mesore into the Roman Calendar, this gave the 10^th August as the date of Cleopatra’s death on the Roman Calendar. However, at that time the Roman Calendar was two days behind the Julian Calendar, which gave SKeats the date of 12^th August (Julian).

In 1937, thus six years before Skeats groundbreaking article, professor M.S. Salem, an authority on the influence of ancient Egyptian cults in Rome, investigated the well-known Roman Feast of Lychnapsia that was celebrated in the early centuries.  This was an Isiac feast i.e. a feast of Isis, and was incorporated in the calendar of Rome by the Emperor Caligula around 39 CE, and was celebrated on the 12 August (Julian).  Knowing that the Lychnapsia was also called the ‘Feast of the Lamps’ or the ‘Feast of Light’ in honor of the Goddess Isis, M.S. Salem sought to find its source in one of the many feasts of Isis celebrated in Egypt at the time.  He first noted that the Roman Lychnapsia feast was incorporated into the Julian Calendar in 39 CE from the Egyptian Calendar. At that time the 1st of Thoth fell on the 14^th August (Julian).  Salem knew that in Egypt the ‘Birth of Isis’ was celebrated on the 4^th Intercalary Day of the Egyptian Calendar, thus 2 days before the 1^st of Thoth i.e. the 12^th August. There was little doubt that the Roman Isiac Lychnapsia feast was also regarded as the ‘Birthday of Isis’. 

Cleopatra VII close relationship with Rome and Roman affairs need no further reminding. It must also be born in mind that it was Cleopatra who, in 47 BC,  had introduced  Caesar to her court astronomer, Sosigines. It was upon Sosigenes’s advice that Julius Caesar adopted the 365 days calendar (with an extra day added every fourth or ‘leap’ year), which became known as the Julian Calendar. Cleopatra herself was well learned in matters of astronomy and the calendar and, therefore,  must have been acutely aware that now the ‘Birthday of Isis’ fell on the 12^th August Julian. Cleopatra is also well known to have presented herself as the ‘New Isis’ and, in 44 BC had made a spectacular entry into Rome as such.  Also while Cleopatra was in Rome, Julius Caesar placed a golden statue of her as ‘Isis’ in the temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum Caesaris.

The question, therefore, must arise: Did Cleopatra chose the 12^th August as the day of her suicide to coincide with the ‘Birthday of Isis’ and the Lychnapsia? By doing so she would have linked her own ‘rebirth’ (death was ‘rebirth’ in Egypt) to both Egypt and Rome  —something that this very bright, very beautiful and very ambitious queen would have liked very much.

References

M.S. Salem, ‘The Lychnapsia Philocaliana and the Birthday of Isis’, in The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 27, Part 2, 1937, pp.165-7

T.C. Skeats, ‘The Last Days of Cleopatra: A Chronological Problem’, in The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 43, 1953, pp. 98-100

Lambert Dolphin, a retired American scientist, wants to build the ‘Third Temple of Solomon’ on Temple Mount in Old Jerusalem. The trouble is that in order to do that, you would have to demolish some of the most sacred monuments of Islam: the ‘Dome on the Rock’ (Omar’s Mosque) and the Al Aqsa Mosque, not to mention causing World War III.  In 1983 Dolphin caused a huge scandal in Jerusalem when he collaborated with Stanley Goldfoot, a founding member of the fanatical ‘Temple Mount Faithful’, for attempting to conduct explorations on the Temple Mound.

One would think that such a Christian-fundamentalist fanatic would not be allowed anywhere near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem or, for that matter, near any other national monument in the Middle East. Yet as incredible as it may sound, Lambert Dolphin was allowed to work for several years on the Giza Plateau where, as Director of the Stamford Research Institute (SRI), he supervised the drilling of several boreholes around the Sphinx and even sent seismic shockwaves through the Sphinx’s body. The Chief Inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities at Giza was Zahi Hawass who collaborated with Lambert Dolphin between 1977-1980. Hawass was assisted in this activities by Mark Lehner, then the representative of the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Cairo. Directing the drilling and engineering activities was Joseph Jahoda, a Jewish-American business man. Later, in 1996, Zahi Hawass collaborated with Joseph Jahoda and another Jewish-American businessman, Dr. Joseph Martin Schor, who were given a permit to do a radar and archaeological investigation at the Sphinx. Jahoda and Schor were long-time members and funders of the Edgar Cayce Foundation who claim that under the Sphinx are the records of Atlantis. Dr. Schor’s wife, Laura Schor, served as the Executive Director of the Hadassah, the Women Zionist Organization of America. Dr. Abdel Halim Nour El Din, who was Chairman of the Antiquities at the time, rightly cancelled the permit when he found out about this operation at the Sphinx.

Drilling at the Sphinx 1978-9

The President of the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Hugh Lynn Cayce, at the Sphinx in 1978-1980. Hugh Lynn believed he had been in previous lives a ‘Disciple of Jesus’, ‘an Egyptian king’ and and also ‘a leader in the Crusades’

Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner at the Sphinx in 1978-9

Mark Lehner resporting at the Edgar Cayce Foundation c. 1979

My family starts in Egypt in 1785, thirteen years before the Napoleonic invasion (1798). My great-great grandparents (Joseph Siouffi and Therese Tutungi) were born in Cairo in 1785-6. My grandmother, Caroline (Siouffi) Bauval was born in Alexandria in 1876. My father, Gaston Bauval, was born in Alexandria in 1905. I was born in Alexandria in 1948.

My grandfather, Charles Bauval, and my father Gaston Bauval. Alexandria c. 1909

My grandmother Caroline (Siouffi) Bauval. Alexandria c. 1909

My grandparents. From left to right: Robert and Mary Gatt (maternal grandparents), Caroline Bauval (paternal grandmother). Alexandria c. 1950

My parents, Gaston and Yvonne (Gatt) Bauval. Alexandria 1939

My twin sister Therese and I with our parents. Alexandria 1955

The two prominent American-Jewish businessmen, Joseph Jahoda and Joseph Schor, had been members of the Edgar Cayce Foundation since 1951 when they were in their teens, and from that time developed an obsession to find the so-called ‘Hall of Records’ that Cayce had predicted was under the Sphinx of Giza. In later life Jahoda became the head of Astron Corporation dealing in electronics, and Schor got a PhD in Chemistry at the Florida State University, and eventually became vice-president and major shareholder of Forest Laboratories in New York.

In 1976-9 Jahoda directed, on behalf of the Edgar Cayce Foundation several expeditions at Giza to search for the ‘Hall of Records’. Zahi Hawass, along with Mark Lehner (the Edgar Cayce Foundation representative in Cairo) were directly involved in helping obtain the Permits from the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO; later in 1995 called the Supreme Council of Antiquities [SCA]). Hawass and Lehner also worked on these expeditions. The search for the ‘Hall of Records’ was unsuccessful. But in 1994 Jahoda decided to try again, this time with the collaboration of his old friend Joseph Schor.

The Schor Foundation was created by Joseph Schor in 1994 for the purpose of getting a permit from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) to work at Giza to search for the ‘Hall of Records’. In May 1996 the Schor Foundation teamed up with the Florida State University (Schor was an alumni and a donor to the FSU Foundation) and, with the help of Zahi Hawass, they were granted a permit by the SCA. The image here attached show the logo of the Schor Foundation in 1996. It can be seen that a ‘Star of David’ has been added to the logo at the centre of the crossed-keys. The ‘Star of David’ is a well-known symbol of Judaism and used also by the World Zionist Organization. Why would Joseph Schor want to display this logo for his expedition at Giza? Could it have something to do with the fact that his wife, Laura (Strumingher) Schor, was the Executive Director of the Women Zionist Organization of America (Hadassah)? Joseph Schor died in 2005, so we may never know…

The Schor Foundation logo, for the 1996 expedition at the Sphinx in search for the ‘Hall of Records’

Dr. Joseph Martin Schor directing operation at the Sphinx in 1996 (courtesy Boris Said)

Dr. Joseph Schor directing operations at the Sphinx. Joseph Jahoda is the man with white hair. (courtesy Boris Said)

The strange circumstances that connects Zahi Hawass with a Psychic Organization, the Fulbright Commission, the University of Pennsilvania, the National Geographic Society, Dr. David Silverman, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the King Tut World Exhibition, the Attorney General of Egypt, the Public Funds Procecution (Egypt) and the White House.

In 1988 the journalist A. Robert Smith wrote the biography of Hugh Lynn Cayce (1907-1982), the son of the world famous American ‘Sleeping Prophet’ Edgar Cayce (1877-1945).  In this biography, which is titled ‘Hugh Lynn Cayce: About my Father’s Business, Smith quotes Hugh Lynn Cayce (from tape recordings he made) as saying that he had arranged for the higher education of Zahi Hawass, the disgraced Egyptian ex-minister of State for Antiquities, and also for the eminent American Egyptologist Mark Lehner, visiting professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago and also director of AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Association). Hawass and Lehner have been friends and colleagues since 1974 and have collaborated on many excavations and research at the Giza Plateau until 2011.

The quotes in question attributed to Hugh Lynn Cayce are:

(Regarding Mark Lehner in 1972): “He [Mark Lehner] asked if I though they’d take him at the [American] University in Cairo. He told me he had some good grades and some very bad grades, and he asked if I’d write him a letter of recommendation. I wrote to the Dean of Admissions who turned out to be somebody who had read all the ARE books. He said he’d love to help Mark.” (Smith, Chapter 19, p. 245)

The ‘somebody’ was Frank  Blanning, the Dean of  Students Admissions at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1972. The ‘ARE’ is the Association of Research and Enlightenment, the executive branch of the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach, Norfolk VA in the USA.  It may be relevant to know that the AUC started in Egypt as a Christian missionary body in the 1920s, and it is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that Frank Blanning ‘had read all the ARE books’ and was impressed by Hugh Lynn Cayce, whose father, Edgar Cayce, was seen as some sort of new age Christian prophet in America and around the world.

It needs to be pointed out that Mark Lehner has never denied that his education at the AUC was indeed arranged and funded by Hugh Lynn Cayce. The actual ‘funders’ who put up the money were Arch and Ann Ogden from Florida, who, in 1973-4, donated $ 3500 per year for Lehner’s fees at the AUC. Apparently Hugh Lynn Cayce told them: “It is very important, in my opinion right now for the ARE to have a man in Cairo.” (Smith, Chapter 19, p. 246)

Lehner primary mission which he himself admits: “I went to Egypt to study at the American University in Cairo and to search for the Hall of Records that psychic Edgar Cayce had prophesied lay beneath the Sphinx.” (AERA Website)

(Regarding Zahi Hawass 1980): “I got him a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania in Egyptology, to get his PhD. I got the scholarship through an ARE person who happened to be on the Fulbright Scholarship Board. He [Hawass] had aided Mark [Lehner] to work at the Sphinx, and I am very appreciative.” (Smith, Chapter 19, p. 250)

The ‘person’ was again Frank Blanning who had now, in 1980, been appointed as Head of the Fulbright Commission in Egypt (an American funding organization for Egyptian students to study in the USA).

In Robert Smith’s book  it is further claimed that the reason for helping Hawass get his PhD was for Hawass “to advance within the [Egyptian] government to further his own career and open doors for Hugh Lynn [Cayce]’s project, [and] he could do it best on the wing of higher education at an American Ivy League college.” (Smith, Chapter 19, p. 250)

But many years later, in 1998 to be precise, both Hawass and Lehner denied that Hugh Lynn Cayce had been instrumental in helping Zahi Hawass obtain a Fulbright Scholarship to study for a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. They made official statements to that effect in the KMT Journal (volume 9, Number 1, Spring 1998, pp.5-6).  Here are extracts of what Hawass and Lehner say regarding this matter:

(Hawass): “The younger Mr. Cayce [Hugh Lynn Cayce] had absolutely nothing to do with my graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. .. The Hugh Lynn Cayce I knew would exaggerate things. Robert Smith, author of the biography, [Hugh Lynn Cayce] About my Father’s Business… sent me a fax apologizing having written the reference therein to Dr. Lehner and myself without having contacted us regarding the accuracy of Hugh Lynn Cayce’s statements. Despite his claim to Mr. Smith, there is no way Mr. Cayce could have had any role in obtaining for me a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania.” (KMT, vol.9, No.1, Spring 1998, p. 5)

(Lehner): “I gather from Mr. Smith’s prologue that he wrote much of the book, including Chapter 19, from taped interviews with [Hugh Lynn] Cayce. Smith never contacted either Dr. Hawass or me to verify or comment on those passages relating to us. Anyone who knew Hugh Lynn Cayce well would have to honestly agree that fact-checking is especially important in this case… I introduced the younger Cayce (Hugh Lynn) to Zahi Hawass. I also introduced him to Frank Blanning, who was the Dean of Students [Admissions] at the American University in Cairo… Later Frank became the head of the Cairo office of the Fulbright Council for Education and Cultural Exchange, in which capacity he met Zahi Hawass…” (KMT, vol. 9, No.1, Spring 1998, p. 6)

What Hawass and Lehner are saying is that what Hugh Lynn Cayce told Robert Smith is not true. In other words, according to Hawass and Lehner, Hugh Lynn Cayce had absolutely nothing to do with Hawass’s Fulbright Scholarship to study Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania. They then suggest that Robert Smith should have checked this matter with them. One would agree that there is not much point inquiring with Hawass and Lehner, not indeed with Frank Blanning or the University of Pennsylvania, Because if what Hugh Lynn Cayce said is true, then by admitting it, all these people would be incriminating themselves as well as their respective institutions.

To put it more bluntly, it the word of Hugh Lynn Cayce (who died in 1982) against the word of Hawass and Lehner.

Zahi Hawass is presently under investigation by the Egyptian authorities for various charges ranging from corruption, misuse of public funds and breaking the law regarding antiquities, which puts into doubt his integrity and credibility. Hardly a week ago, on the 12^th April 2012, Zahi Hawass proved this when he told blatant lies on the front page of the Al Ahram newspaper, claiming that my parents and myself were ‘Belgian Jews’, and that a book I have written  (co-authored with Ahmed Osman, and yet to be published on 15^th August 2012) “attributed Egyptian civilization to the Jews” . Both these claims are outright lies.

(see: http://myblog.robertbauval.co.uk/2012/04/13/zahi-hawass-and-farouk-hosni-ex-ministers-of-disinformation/ )

As for the word of Mark Lehner, all that can be said is that he has been a staunch supporter of Zahi Hawass for 35 years. His comments in the KMT Journal about Hugh Lynn Cayce, however, are somewhat disingenuous, and the matter of who introduced whom to Frank Blanning. There is no question that Robert Smith truthfully reported  what Hugh Lynn Cayce had told him on tape. But it cannot be up to Robert Smith, or anyone else for that matter, now to say whether what Hugh Lynn Cyce said about Hawass’s Fulbright scholarship was true or not. It is also hard to imagine that Robert Smith would willingly put into doubt the credibility and integrity of Hugh Lynn Cayce.

So, who is telling the truth in this matter? The answer to this pertinent question bears enormous implications to the many people involved, not least Zahi Hawass himself. For it clearly puts into serious question the validity of Hawass academic status and his reputation as an Egyptologist.

For the last 60 years, since 1952, the Egyptian people have been ruled by governments whose corrupt methods were to misinform and lie, to cheat and exploit, and to control and repress. Public servants, from the President to the lowliest government employee, thought of themselves as masters, and the ordinary people their servants. It was sad and humiliating to see and hear ordinary citizens treat and call government officials, police and army officers ‘Pasha’ and ‘Bey’, those titles used by their rulers of the past who literally owned Egypt and its people.

I believe that it is vitally important to all ordinary Egyptians, be they liberals or Islamists, that their public servants, from top to bottom, from the President to his cabinet, from Directors of government agencies down to their employees, should always be open and lawful, behave with transparency, and be truthful, and above all serve the people and the nation. Only then will Egypt be on the path of recovery, and towards its rightful place in world history as the Mother and Light of Civilisation.

[BOX: Zahi Hawass stayed from 1980 to 1987 in Philadelphia for his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He lodged his PhD dissertation in January 1987. His main tutor at the university was Dr. David Silverman, a Jewish-American Egyptologist. Silverman was one of three ‘readers’ of Hawass’s dissertation. The two other readers were Dr. David O’Connor and Dr. William Kelly Simpson. In the acknowledgements of his dissertation Hawass gives “very special thanks…to fellow students, Janice Kamrin, Heidi Rancin, and Stacie Olson, for their help preparing the manuscript with their suggestions, typing and editing.” Hawass returned to Egypt in 1987, and soon was made Director of the Giza Pyramids. In 2002 he was appointed Director-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. In January 2011 he was made Minister of State for Antiquities in the cabinet of Hosni Mubarak.  In July 2011 Hawass was fired for his post. During Hawass’s tenure Dr. Silverman and Dr. O’Connor, with their university, have been granted archaeological concessions in Egypt. Hawass and Dr. Silverman have collaborated on many projects and wrote a book together. Dr. David P. Silverman serves as the curator, advisor and academic content creator for the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. in the New York and other cities in the USA. He was also put in charge for the exhibition Treasures of Tutankhamun at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Hawass and Janice Kamrin also wrote books together, and in recent years Hawass had appointed her as Director of Registrars at the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo. During his long tenure Hawass has also helped several times (in 1978, 1991, 1996 and 1998) senior members of the Edgar Cayce Foundation to search for the ‘Hall of records’ that Cayce claimed was under the Sphinx. These senior members were Joseph Jahoda and Joseph Schor two prominent Jewish-American businessmen. Laura Strumingher Schor, the wife of Joseph Schor, was the National Executive Director of the largest women’s organization in the United States, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

In early April 2012 Egyptian General Prosecutor referred charges of wasting public money and stealing Egyptian antiquities against Zahi Hawass, former minister of state for antiquities to the Public Fund Prosecution office. Also Nour El-Din Abdul-Samad, Director of Archeological Sites, had filed the accusations against Hawass, and requested that the objects in question be returned to the Egyptian Museum. The Public Funds Prosecution office also received other charges accusing Hawass of wasting public money and exposing Egyptian antiquities to stealing in collaboration with former regime members. Hawass had made a 17 million dollar deal with the US-based National Geographical Society with regard to a Tutankhamun exhibition to raise donations for Suzanne Mubarak's charity, which is a private association not a state body, and as such Hawass was not legally allowed to do this. Apparently the man in National Geographic Society (NGS) who made the deal with Hawass for the King Tut Exhebition was NGS's Vice-President for for Mission Programs, Terry Garcia. Hawass and Garcia have been close friends for the last 15 years. On  May 13th, 2011, four months after the Tahrir Revolution of 25th January, US President Barak Obama nominated Terry Garcia to be Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Commerce. A few days later, on May 17th, Zahi Hawass placed an article on his Blog titled "Terry Garcia" in which he refers to Garcia as 'one of the greatest friends that I have ever had in my life'. The article ends with a rather strange remark by Hawass: "I have faith that my two other good friends at National Geographic, John Fahey and Tim Kelly, will continue to support Egypt in the way that Terry has in the past." What happened next is, to say the least, rather odd. In July 2011 The New York Times revealed that Zahi Hawass had been receiving $200,000 each year from the National Geographic as a 'stipend' for being one of their 'Explorer in Residence'. A few days later, on 19th July, Hawass was fired from his post. Two months later, on September 28th, Terry Garcia announces that he does not wish to be nominated for the post at the US Department of Commerce. Alan Mairson, a member of the National Geographic Society, expressed his serious concerned regarding the connection of Hawass and Garcia and the 'deal' that was made regarding the King Tut Exhebition, but was unable to talk to either Garcia or Hawass. See here: http://societymatters.org/2012/04/05/zahi-hawass-is-back-in-the-news-and-so-is-our-society/ ]

Zahi Hawass and Terry Garcia c. 2009-10

Hugh Lynn Cayce with the Dalai Lama

Hugh Lynn Cayce with Prime Minister Nehru of India

Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass at Giza c. 1978

Mark Lehner reporting on the search for the Hall of Records at the Edgar Cayce Foundation c. 1979

In the front page of the top Arabic daily newspaper Al AHRAM (April 12, 2012 issue), Zahi Hawass, ex-Minister of Antiquities in Egypt, and Farouk Hosni, ex-Minister of Culture, claimed (falsely) that ‘An American book attributes Egyptian Civilization to the Jews’. This book, written by myself  & Ahmed Osman (Breaking the Mirror of Heaven,  publishers Inner Traditions Inc.) will be published on August 15, 2012. Hawass further claimed (falsely) that my parents were ‘Belgians Jews’ from Alexandria —a claim clearly intended to be derogatory, implying that being a ‘Jew’ explains the reason for me writing this book (as an act of ‘vengeance’) and that, in any case, being a ‘Jew’  I cannot be believed.

In response to this, I has shown proof on my Blog that such claims are untrue. My parents were Catholic Christians, and they were baptised (as I was) in the churches in Alexandria. See here: http://myblog.robertbauval.co.uk/2012/04/13/zahi-hawass-and-farouk-hosni-ex-ministers-of-disinformation/

It is not the first time that Zahi Hawass has used the ‘Jews’ to try and discredit his opponents. Since 1991 Hawass has played this ‘Jews’ card against his opponents. In 2009 Hawass went as far as accusing the Jews of ruling the world and controlling the USA.

See here: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2049.htm

Hawass’s and Hosni’s many tirades about the ‘Jews’ are well known. One only has to do a search on Google to find a plentiful supply.

But the amazing irony is that Hawass’s recent outburst evoking ‘Jews’ and his obvious desire to show that he ‘protecting Egyptian civilization’ against ‘Jews’ may, in fact, be a smoke screen to his own very involved relationship with American Jews  –something that today in Egypt would definitely not go down well in the present political climate. It is well known in academic circles that Hawass obtained his PhD in America (at the University of Pennsylvania) with his tutor and a ‘reader’ of his thesis being Dr. David Silverman, who is Jewish (two other readers were Dr. David O’Connor and Dr. William Kelly Simpson). Dr. Silverman, Dr. O’Connor and their  university, have been granted long-tern concessions in Egypt by Hawass, and Hawass and Dr. Silverman have collaborated on many projects and even wrote a book together. It is also well-known that Hawass has ‘facilitated’ the Edgar Cayce Foundation of America to work at the Giza Pyramids many times, and that the principal funders were Joseph Jahoda and Joseph Schor, two promiment Jewish American businessmen.

See here: http://www.passportmagazine.com/businessclass/DrDavidSilverman1079.php

Let it be very clear to everyone that I do not hold any anti-Semitic sentiments whatsoever. And I do not consider it either a detriment or an advantage to collaborate on projects with Jews  –or Christians or Muslims for that matter. Indeed religion, as far as I am concerned, does not and should not be a factor at all in Egyptology or any other endeavour. But we may wonder what Zahi Hawass is playing at by constantly attacking his opponents by labelling them  ‘Jews’. There is, excuse the pun, something not quite Kosher about his behaviour.

On the front page of the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram of April 12, 2012, ex-Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, and ex-Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni have made the following false assertions:

1.) That I am a ‘Jew’ and that I was born from ‘Belgian Jewish’ parents in Alexandria.

2.) That the book I have written with Egyptian author Ahmed Osman, Breaking the Mirror of Heaven, is an “American book that attributes Egyptian civilization to the Jews”.

3.) That I met ex-Minsiter Farouk Hosni to give him a DVD/video about this alleged theory.

http://www.ahram.org.eg/The-First/News/142885.aspx

I Robert Bauval hereby confirm:

1.)  That I was born and baptised a Christian in 1948 in Alexandria. My father (Gaston Bauval) and my mother (Yvonne Gatt) were born and baptised Christians in Alexandria in 1905 and 1915 respectively. (they are both resting in the Latin Christian Cemetry in Alexandria). See certificates below.

2.)  The book ‘Breaking the Mirror of Heaven’ DOES NOT attribute Egyptian civilization to the Jews. A statement confirming this will also be issued by our publishers Inner Traditions Inc.

3.)  I have never met Farouk Hosni, nor ever attempted to give him a DVD/video of any kind. I also confirm that I am a Belgian citizen (born in Egypt in 1948).

The false allegations “American book attributes Egyptian civilization to Jews’ and that my parents were ‘Belgian Jews’ from Alexandria, are clearly intented by those two Egyptian ex-ministers as well as the Al Ahram newspaper to arouse against my person (and my co-author Ahmed Osman) public sentiment in Egypt and indeed everywhere else where Anti-Semitism and Anti-America is rife. This is especially the case for Egypt today.

Baptism certificates of Robert Bauval, father (Gaston) and mother (Yvonne):

Hoda Shaarawi, the wife of Ali Shaarawi, who was Zaghloul’s companion in the Wafd, organized lectures for women in order to bring them out of their homes and induce them to actively participate in Egypt’s social and political reform. Shaarawi also opened a school for girls that taught useful academic subjects rather than the hitherto very limited home economics. Legend has it that in 1923 when Shaarawi stepped out of the train in Cairo’s Central Station (upon returning from a women’s conference in Rome), she defiantly pulled off her veil in front of the hundreds of Egyptian veiled women who had gathered to greet her. At first shocked by this bravado, the women then broke into a loud applause! This was the beginning of the end of the veil in Egypt (ironically, only to return with a vengeance today). Shaarawi became the leader of the Women’s Committee in the progressive Wafd Party and created the first Egyptian feminist movement, demanding better education, better social welfare, and full equality for women. Shaarawi went even further by calling for the abolition of polygamy.

Another of Egypt’s most admired women of the period was Safiya Zaghloul (the wife of Saad Zaghloul), who was known to many as mother of the (modern) nation (om el umma). Alexandria’s main downtown avenue, the fashionable Boulevard Safiya Zaghloul (dubbed Egypt’s Champs-Élysées) was named after this great feminist, yet one cannot help wondering if the black-veiled women who stroll up and down this avenue today (which puzzlingly has stores with window displays flaunting outrageously erotic types of women lingerie) are aware of Safiya’s bold efforts to abolish this ancient tradition, which has been revived in Egypt.

Other well-known feminists were Aisha El-Taimuriya, Nabawiya Moussa, Duriya Shafiq, Malak Hifni Nasif, and Aisha Ratib. One of today’s most outspoken feminists in Egypt is Nawal El Saadawi. According to Khalil Al-Anani, an expert on modern Islamism, “The basic difference between the current movement and the one preceding it lies in capabilities and interests. It is the difference between liberal Egypt, which experienced cultural and political emancipation during the first half of the 20th century, and totalitarian Egypt which has been suffering from political repression and cultural dogma since the 1952 Revolution.”