Another piece of evidence for the theory, that the pyramids, at least the one attributed to Chufu and the great Sphinx, are older than our science tells us, is the inscription of a stele found in an old temple besides the Great Pyramid. On this stele is written, that Chufu only built a small, about 30 m high satellite pyramid. And that the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx already stood there when he came to Giza.
This is very important because it contradicts all egyptologic ideas about the 4th dynasty. This critical evidence was first published in the book Stairway to Heaven from Zecharia Sitchin in the year 1976. OK, not really. The passages were translated much earlier, the first I know is in James Henry Breasteds Ancient Records of Egypt from 1906! This translation seems to be the base for Sitchins interpretation. But no one before Sitchin was able to spot the explosive potential. Here is what Sitchin writes about the Isis stele[ 1 ]:
'Live the Horus: Mezer, King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Chufu, who is given life. He found the house of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid, beside the house of the Sphinx
According to the inscription on the stele [...] the Great Pyramid already existed when Chufu appeared on the scene. [...]
Chufu tells then, that he built "besides the temple" a pyramid for princess Henutsen. [...] Everything in this inscription supports known facts; but Chufus only announcement of building a pyramid means the small pyramid for Henutsen. The Great Pyramid was already there, writes Chufu, and the Sphinx (which leads to the conclusion, hat the other two large pyramids had also been there).
This stele was classified as "later fake" by archaeologists. But the before mentioned James Henry Breasted had put it into his section of protocols from the 4th dynasty and therefore seems to believe that its genuine[ 2 ].
If one compares the original translation of Breasted with the version Sitchin has in his book, some discrepancies show up. Here Breasted[ 3 ]:
Live the Horus: Mezer, King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Chufu, who is given life. He found the house of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid, beside the house of the Sphinx of [Harmakhis] on the north-west of the house of Osiris, Lord of Rosta. He built his pyramid beside the temple of this goddess, and he built a pyramid for the king's-daughter Henutsen beside this temple.
Contrary to Sitchins claim clearly two pyramids are mentioned. One for Chufu, one for his daughter. And I could find not a shred of evidence on the stele for Sitchins claim that Chufu wrote that the Great Pyramid already stood when he came to Giza.
What Sitchin doesn't say is that Breasted makes clear that there are signs on the stele which show that it is from a much later time than the pyramids. Words like "House of Isis" or "Lord of Rosta" were first used after Dyn. 20, 1500 years after the time of the pyramids. The first mentioning of Isis as "Mistress of the pyramids" came in the Egyptian late period (700 BCE)!
On the inset inner part of the stele we find gods mentioned which didn't even exist in the time of the pyramids. They came from the conquerors of the second and third intermediate period and were then included into the Egyptian pantheon. It is therefore impossible that the stele was made before that time.
The descriptive portion of the stele is quite similar to orientation tables we find today in restored old city parts, like for example:
"The tower (ca. 1350 AD) stands at the northern wall of the old monastery (ca. 1533 AD) and has been renovated several times now. It was built by Count XYZ....."
In such descriptions we also mix up descriptions of locations which are NOW in a context, but not at the time the oldest buildings stood (because the newer ones didn't exist then). The stele also describes the locations as viewed from the time from around 600 BCE and not from 2500 BCE.
Newer translations and examinations could clarify the riddle more: The stele does not describe the deeds of ONE pharaoh, it mentions two! Egyptologist Eva Lange explained on my message board in this message:
"On the right of the Chufu title we can see another text section, but this is not about Chufu but about Amasis (about 570 BCE, FD):
'He made for his mother Isis, the godly mother, and for Hathor, mistress of the western mountains, an inspection for this stele. He reintroduced new offerings for her and he built for her a temple in stone by repeating what he had found. The "Chosen of the Gods" (gold horus name of Amasis) sits on his throne.'
The rest of the text describes how Amasis ordered several restorations, so the restoration and repainting of the Sphinx. Due to destruction of the text there are gaps, but the activities described are definitively ordered by Amasis and not by Chufu. They are no evidence that Chufu had found the Sphinx. By the way: The attribution of the temple to Isis comes from a confusion with the name of the pyramid owner, Henutsen, since "henut" means "mistress"."
And a funny aside: Sitchin made another mistake in his book. He wrote, that Chufu founded the temple of Isis. But in the original translation we can read that he in fact found the temple. Sitchin clearly has misread the passage. But even funnier as that is, that every book I have found which contains the "Isis mystery" repeats this mistake. For more than 20 years no author cared about what is really written there!
Find or found? This led to some confusion in the last years. Some readers think that a temple FOUND by Chufu is a strong case for an older temple, but the contrary is true. The first saitic kings concentrating again on the Giza plateau really found a temple, the mortuary temple of Henutsen. But since Isis was at that time the mistress of the pyramids, and a suspicious name (Henutsen, see above) was found in the temple, the maker of the stele was sure that it must have been a temple for Isis. And since Isis then was believed to be the oldest of all gods, the temple must be the oldest one on Earth.
I found disturbing that no author really tells where that temple can be found. "To the east of Chufus pyramid" is not really a great help, since on the so called eastern cemetery there are several dozens of mastabas, temples and other structures from the time of Chufu.
But it should be directly besides the pyramid of Henutsen. This is the southernmost of the three satellite pyramids.
The picture on the left shows the debris of the temple as seen from Henutsens pyramid (which is called "G1C" by Egyptologists). There we see a strange phenomenon: the temple runs straight over a sort od street right into a stone building. The building was even torn down partly to make room for the temple. This building is a so called "Mastaba" (named after the Arabic word for a small bench). Such mastabas were built for family members or high officials. The building definitively belongs to Chufu time, because his name is mentioned in it. But why was a building like this torn down for a temple which according to the Isis stele already was there? Another clear sign that the Isis temple is not connected with Chufus time.
Even better: this inscription gives the name of the tomb owner: It's the "Son of the King Chufu-Cha-ef" (goose, Chufu-name in the cartouche and the two signs below). And this was the prince name of the second king who built in Giza, Cha-ef-re (Kafre). He got this tomb at a time when he was not "planned" as king.
Successor of Chufu was Djedefre. He built his pyramid at Abu Roasch. But after only 8-11 years he died without a heir. So the unplanned Kafre entered the throne. And only at this time his old mastaba was obsolete.
It is clearly illogic to assume that Chufu tore down the tomb for his son, so it demonstrates that Chufu did not find, restored or built that temple.
Quite contrary, it demonstrates that the stele comes from a much, much later time where the details of the building order were long forgotten. From several inscriptions found in the temple could be deduced, that the temple was built in three phases between 1000 and 550 BCE.
Before that only the small mortuary temple for Henutsen stood there, a small 3 x 4 m cubicle at the eastern wall of the small pyramid, which was seen as the ruin of an Isis temple by the Saites.
| Remarks: | ||
| [1] | Sitchin, Zecharia; Stufen zum Kosmos, German ed. of "Stairway to Heaven", p. 289 | |
| [2] | ibd., p. 290 | |
| [3] | Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol 1, p. 85 §180 | |
Pyramid mysteries