Bauval, Robert *

Robert Bauval (1948- ) was born in Egypt of Belgian and Maltese extraction. He is probably best known as the original promoter of the Orion Correlation Theory (OCT), which claims that the layout of three principal Giza pyramids mirrors ‘Orion’s Belt’ in that constellation. This received widespread coverage when it was outlined in The Orion Mystery ^[1707] written by Bauval and Adrian Gilbert and in Keeper of Genesis ^[1050] written with Graham Hancock, published two years later. In fact, Bauval had first published his theory in 1989 in Discussions in Egyptology^(a).

Nevertheless, Andrew Collins, in a recent paper^(h) has disputed Bauval’s OCT and has instead offered evidence that the alignment of the three principal Giza pyramids matches more closely the ‘wing’ stars of the Cygnus constellation than the ‘belt’ of Orion!

Greg Little in considering the Orion vs Cygnus debate concluded that “the truth is that Cygnus fits the three pyramids at Giza far better than Orion does. Does that mean that Cygnus is correct? No, not really. It means that there is a lot more investigation has to be done. It also means that we may never know. I’m sure that somewhere in the night sky there are three stars that can fit rather precisely onto Giza.” ^(I).

In 2008, Bauval published a paper^(j) on the place of astrology in the ‘Sacred Sciences of the ancient Egyptians. Although this is not a popular view among Egyptologists, Bauval concluded that “it is my opinion that the ancient Egyptians practised an esoteric form of ‘religious astrology’ related to the conception and birth of their kings. It is also my opinion that this ‘religious astrology’ originated many millennia before in prehistoric times in the Eastern Sahara, as the astronomical alignments of the megaliths at Nabta Playa suggest. If this is true, then the stellar observations that originated in the Western Desert of Egypt some time between 8000 – 5000 BC events on earth lie at the root of ‘Astrology’.”

Bauval and Thomas G. Brophy co-authored two books, Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt ^[1508B] and Imhotep the African ^[1509], in which they trace the origins of pharaonic Egypt back to a time before the Sahara became a desert and when dark-skinned people created the Nabta Playa megaliths. When the climate changed these people were forced to move eastward into the Nile Valley developing what we now call Ancient Egypt.

In 2019 a paper^(k) by Larry Pahl, looked again at the Orion Correlation Theory and concluded that Bauval should not have confined his theory to Orion’s ‘belt’, but looked at the entire constellation and sought a more extensive reflection on the monuments of ancient Egypt. Prahl then proceeds to do exactly that.

Similarly, Jean-Pierre Lacroix claimed that other Egyptian structures may have been located to reflect the layout of other constellations in the sky. Specifically, he focuses on Aries and Thebes^(l).

Alessandro Berio went further with the claim^(m) that the entire Nile was ‘designed’ to be a reflection of the constellations above!

Another writer, Wayne Herschel, is claimed to have reinterpreted Bauval’s Orion theory in his book The Hidden Records ^[1706] and not only claims that the Giza pyramids reflect the layout of stars in Orion’s Belt, but that a similar arrangement of ‘pyramids’ in the Cydonia region of Mars is also to be found. Emilio Spedicato is another supporter of this Cydonia-Giza-Orion association^(g)!

Herschel’s volume is a glossy collection of balderdash, which includes such delights as the Martians having a penal colony on Earth, as well as a promise of a sequel that will reveal “two further shocking secrets of the Sphinx.” Eventually, The Alpha Omega Taurus Star Gate was published with a new collection of balderdash. The odd idea of Earth as an alien penal colony has also been put forward by Dr Ellis Silver an American ecologist^(f).

During one interview Bauval declared that “To be very honest, I am not a believer in Atlantis.”^(b) However, he has no difficulty in adopting the idea of ancient astronaut visitors a la von Däniken, as revealed in Cosmic Womb ^[1708], written with Chandra Wickramasinghe and reviewed by Jason Colavito^(c). This conversion to the idea of ancient astronauts was seen by Len Kasten as a natural progression. In an article published in Atlantis Rising (Issue 5), Kasten noted that Bauval “didn’t start out with the extraterrestrial hypothesis, but arrived at it after a painstaking study of the Pyramid Texts, and a corresponding highly scientific astronomical study of the monuments.”  [Kasten, a UFO researcher, was a regular contributor to Atlantis Rising.]

Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities has repeatedly clashed with Bauval, particularly in connection with the proposed Orion correlation. In April 2015, Hancock was due to engage in a debate with Hawass on the subject of their conflicting views of ancient history. However, when Hawass saw that Hancock included an image of Robert Bauval in his presentation, he refused to continue with the arranged format^(d)(e) and after a lot of shouting, from Hawass, he stormed out. This sort of ‘prima donna’ behaviour, although not very professsional, is consistent with Hawass’s well-known temperamental manner.

The antipathy between Bauval and Hawass reached a new level with the publication of Breaking the Mirror of Heaven ^[1913]+  written by Bauval and Ahmed Osman in 2012. The authors claim that “it is not merely the story of a man who dominated and controlled  Egyptian antiquities for several decades as if they were his own but also the story of Egyptian archaeology itself and the way modern  Egypt created such a man.  These  topics  need to be  properly reviewed,  first  to  understand how, and why,  Zahi  Hawass  became  what  he is  and,  second,  to  provide  a  new vision  that  is  desperately  needed  to  save  Egyptian  antiquities  from  decline  and perhaps even total destruction.” David Rohl commented that “This is a book that needed to be written.”

In 2020, Massimo Barbetta published a review of Bauval’s OCT⁽ⁿ⁾.

^[1913]+  Available online: Breaking the Mirror of Heaven: The Conspiracy to Suppress the Voice of Ancient Egypt – PDFDrive.com (archive.org) (link broken) *

^(a) Discussions in Egyptology, volume 13, 1989, pp. 7-18

^(b) https://grahamhancock.com/interview-robert-bauval/

^(c) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-cosmic-womb-the-seeding-of-planet-earth-by-chandra-wickramsinghe-and-robert-bauval

^(d) https://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/HancockG15.php

^(e) https://www.dailygrail.com/2015/04/game-of-groans-egyptologist-zahi-hawass-goes-into-meltdown-during-debate-with-graham-hancock/

^(f) https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/04/where-are-we-really-from-the-bizarre-theory-of-the-prison-planet/

^(g) https://www.q-mag.org/the-pyramids-of-giza-the-belt-of-orion-and-three-volcanoes-on-mars.html

^(h) (99+) (PDF) Orion: The Eternal Rise of the Sky Hunter | Andrew Collins – Academia.edu

⁽ⁱ⁾ Is the Supposed Correspondence Between Orion’s Belt and the Three Pyramids of Giza Genuine? (bibliotecapleyades.net)

^(j) (99+) (PDF) ASTROLOGY IN ANCIENT EGYPT | Robert Bauval – Academia.edu

^(k) https://www.academia.edu/41868838/Expanding_the_Orion_Correlation_Theory_OCT_

^(l) http://www.ancientcartography.net/index1.html

^(m) (PDF) The Celestial River: Identifying the Ancient Egyptian Constellations | Magdi Saleh – Academia.edu (archive.org)

⁽ⁿ⁾ https://www.larazzodeltempo.it/2020/bauval-piramide/