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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Osiris
Greig, Andrew (L)
Andrew Greig is the author of Mysteries of the Ancient World: The Secrets of Atlantis[1165], which is a Kindle offering of a few dozen pages. Greig suggests that the Atlanteans were the descendants of extraterrestrials from Osiris, who became stranded on Earth. He claims that they eventually settled off the Atlantic coast of Morocco on an island that was destroyed by a meteorite! This book is full of inaccuracies as well as unsubstantiated speculation. Keep you money in your pocket.
Cassaro, Richard
Richard Cassaro (1972- ) is a journalist from New York City, now based in Madrid, with a passionate 
interest in ancient mysteries. His 2011 book, Written in Stone[1207] is a study of parallel architectural features to be found in ancient structures on both sides of the Atlantic and further afield in Asia. He focuses on the ubiquity of what he calls a “triptych’ feature in sacred buildings around the world and ascribes their continued use to the influence of Freemasonry. In January 2013 he published(f) a further selection of these triptych features found in China.
Up to this point, I find his work credible but I think that he pushes the boat out too far when he speculates that these structural similarities are the result of the influence of a much earlier mother culture – Atlantis.
His website(a) includes excerpts from his book and interesting video clips.
Included there in January 2017 is an illustrated article on the ‘cyclopean’ wall that surrounds the ancient city of Tarragona situated southwest of Barcelona as well as a comparable wall at Orbetello in Italy. He maintains that this was a colony of the Cyclopes, a mythological race of one-eyed giants. Well, if they were giants, why does the height of the doorways in Cassaro’s images appear no greater than standard doorways today? Cassaro also implies that the Cyclopes were Atlanteans, which explains the title of the article – Atlantis Ruins in Europe? The Megalithic “Master Masonry” of a Cyclopean Colony in Tarraco (Tarragona), Spain.(n)
Cassaro also produced an article and video(b) on the frequency with which a pagan concept of a sacred trinity is expressed in symbolism found across ancient pre-christian Europe. The Wikipedia entry for ‘triskelion’(c) augments Cassaro’s case.
He has recently written an article(d) claiming that the Egyptian god Osiris was the first Messiah and that Jesus was the second! However, I must advise readers that this is not an entirely new idea(e).
October 2013 saw Cassaro publish(g) a large series of images from around the world that various deities all posing in a comparable manner! His conclusion is that “the (god) icon is the chief symbol of a lost ancient universal religion.” He also endeavours to link this ancient symbology with later esoteric ideas and Freemasonry. He published a second series in January 2014(i).
He has also examined the Egyptian ankh and tau symbols and identified counterparts in South America(j). In 2015, Cassaro published images online that show the ‘third eye’ symbol as found in Asia and across the great ancient civilisations of the New World(k) and expanded on this in a later article on Graham Hancock’s website(l).
I should point out that Jim Allen has published an even more impressive collection of images of artefacts (h) that clearly demonstrate that the early civilisations of America were greatly influenced by cultures in both the east and west. The contributions of Allen and Cassaro offer a persuasive argument for cultural diffusion occurring at an early date in man’s development.
Cassaro has now delved further into what he refers to as the ‘godself’ icon and published his findings in a new, fully illustrated, book, The Missing Link[1208] together with another promotional article on Graham Hancock’s website(m). Coincidentally, on the same day that I read of Cassaro’s new book, I also read of one element in the iconography at Göbekli Tepe, which was also to be found at other sites around the world. Cassaro’s work on diffusion should now be given wider consideration, although in my view hyperdiffusion is still unproven.
In his latest book, Mayan Masonry [1659], Cassaro returns to familiar suspects in which he speculates on the possibility that the ancient Maya were an older branch of the Masonic family tree(p)! He has also posted a lengthy excerpt(o) from the new book.
Those interested in his work can sign up for Cassaro’s newsletter.
(a) https://www.richardcassaro.com/
(b) https://www.richardcassaro.com/pagan-trinity-discovered-shows-holy-trinity-a-cover-up
(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion
(d) https://www.richardcassaro.com/osiris-the-first-messiah-was-jesus-the-second-coming-of-egypts-christ
(e) https://web.archive.org/web/20200223181545/http://www.egyptorigins.org/osirisandjesus.htm
(f) Articles – Richard Cassaro (archive.org) *
(h) https://web.archive.org/web/20200629021253/http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/artefacts.htm
(I) https://www.richardcassaro.com/pagan-god-self-icon-found-worldwide-rewrites-history-pt-2-of-2
(k) https://www.richardcassaro.com/discovery-of-the-third-eye-in-the-ancient-Americas
(l) https://grahamhancock.com/cassaror2/
(m) https://grahamhancock.com/cassaror3/
(p) https://grahamhancock.com/cassaror4/
Ninus, King
King Ninus is frequently attributed as the builder of Nin-eveh, in which his name is preserved. Nineveh is today encircled by the modern city of Mosul in Iraq and is reputed to have been the largest city in the world 2,700 years ago. Ashley Cowie published a short paper on the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC(e).
Controversially, Nineveh has recently been claimed(a) as the true location of the legendary “Hanging Gardens” rather than Babylon as a result of an earlier mistranslation! A more radical idea has come from Constantinos Ragazas, who insists that Göbekli Tepe is the site of the Hanging Gardens(d)!
He is also sometimes identified with the biblical Nimrod (Nimrud), Zoroaster(b), while Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons[1135] equates Ninus with Tammuz, Osiris, Adonis and Bacchus(c).
Ninus’ wife, Semiramis, who reputedly succeeded him to the throne of Assyria, is remembered in legends throughout the Middle East.
Anton Mifsud used the reign of Ninus as an anchor for his preferred date for the destruction of Atlantis of around 2200 BC. He points out[209] that Eumelos of Cyrene dated the demise of Plato’s island to the reign of Ninus and links this with the calculation of the Roman historian Aemilius Sura (2nd cent. BC) who placed the reign of Ninus around 2192 BC. A number of other authorities attribute similar dates to his reign as recorded by John Jackson in volume one of his 1752 Chronological Antiquities[1555.251]. The collapse of the Egyptian Old Kingdom also took place around 2200 BC(e).
David Rohl, a leading advocate for a radical revision of the accepted chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, identifies Nimrod as the great-grandson of Noah and goes further with a claim[230] that he was also known as Enmerkar, King of Uruk, and places his reign around 2900 BC. On the other hand, The American Encyclopaedia opts for a date circa 1230 BC.
(a) The Hanging Gardens of … Nineveh? (archive.org) *
(b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninus
(c) https://www.cbcg.org/twobaby/sect221.html
(d) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271076011_The_Hanging_Gardens_of_Gobekli_Tepe
(e) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1458327.stm
(f) August 10 612 BC: Nineveh, the Largest City in the World, Fell | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)
Abydos *
Abydos, known locally as Umm el-Qa’ab, is a site in Upper Egypt that contains a variety of structures including the Osirion, which is alleged to be the burial-place of Osiris, the Egyptian deity who was the father of Horus and the brother and husband of Isis. It was discovered in 1901/2 by Sir William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) and Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963)(c).
An illustrated tour of the Abydos Temple of Seti I and the Osirion is offered by Jimmy Dunn, writing as Peter Rome(t).
The Osirion (Osireion) has several unusual features that have led some, such as John Anthony West(a) to reasonably conclude that it is from a much earlier or at least a different period than the adjacent Temple of Seti I.
This view is based on at least three observations.
(i) The foundations of the Osirion are much lower than those of the Temple of Seti, a feature that would have been unprecedented. It is more likely that the structure was originally designed to be built at ground level in a conventional manner. However, after construction, the ground level rose over succeeding years with the deposits of silt from the annual inundation by the Nile. Consequently, when the adjacent Temple of Seti was built, a considerable number of years later, it was erected on the much higher ground beside a buried Osirion.
(ii) The Temple of Seti has an unusual unique outline being ‘L’ shaped instead of having the usual rectangular form. This would seem to suggest that during the construction of the temple, the builders discovered the buried Osirion and had to alter the original design.
(iii) For some, the most compelling reason for dating the Osirion differently to Seti’s Temple is that stylistically the structure is totally at variance with anything else from Seti’s era.
In response to the last point, conventional archaeologists have proposed that “the Osireion was purposely archaized by New Kingdom architects to make it appear to be ancient. Such a design would be appropriate for the tomb of an ancient god. Any resemblance to Khafre’s Valley Temple, then, would be purely intentional.”
A 2006 article pointed out that “the Osirion is the only temple known from Ancient Egypt to be built below ground level!(o)
In 1995, Graham Hancock drew attention[275] to this difference in style and a 2019 article, Freddy Silva also commented on this incongruity(h)(k), but notes that while the Osirion at first sight, does not appear to have any obvious astronomical alignment, “only in the epoch of 10,000 BC do connections begin to emerge, for the constellation Cygnus appears in full upright ascent over the horizon in conjunction with the axis of the temple, the entrance framing its brightest star, Deneb.”
Silva added that the Osirion “represents a complete departure from standard temple design. However, a geological appraisal contradicts this opinion. In ancient times the level of the Nile was fifty feet lower than today, its course seven miles closer to and beside the Osirion. When North Africa was subjected to major flooding between 10,500-8000 BC, layers of Nile silt gradually compacted and rose inch by inch until they surrounded and covered the Osirion. In other words, the temple was originally a freestanding feature on the floodplain.”
On cue(i), Jason Colavito attacked Silva, pointing out a bad mistake where Silva incorrectly quoted Diodorus Siculus, subtly implying that everything else that he wrote was also erroneous.
As noted above, it is argued(d). that the apparently archaic architecture of the Osirion is just an example of how “the Egyptians had a recurring tendency to build in a ‘pseudo-archaic’ style”, noting that the style of the temple of Khafre in Giza resembles the Osirion. If so, which was copying which? While Khafre’s temple is adorned with hieroglyphics the apparent absence of any contemporary hieroglyphics in the Osirion seems to suggest a preliterate period for its construction!
The Valley Temple and the Sphinx Temple at Giza show similar construction techniques and are also devoid of inscriptions. As I see it, there is no unequivocal evidence on offer to demonstrate that the Osirion could not be much earlier than the nearby Seti Temple. Therefore, I would urge caution before hastily dismissing Hancock, Silva and others regarding this matter.
The conventional view that Seti I was responsible for the building of both the Temple and the Osireion is expressed in a well-illustrated paper by Keith Hamilton on the Academia.edu website(j).
This suggestion of an earlier date, such as in Ralph Ellis’ Thoth, the Architect of the Universe [0517], has added weight to the more general claim that other Egyptian monuments such as the Sphinx and some of the lower courses of the Great Pyramid are also from a predynastic era. This is interpreted by some as evidence of an early civilisation that might be more in keeping with the 9600 BC date in the story of Atlantis told to Solon by the Egyptian priests at Sais. Brien Foerester has also advocated an early date for the Osirion(n).
Another feature that appears to be unique to the Osirion is drawings of the ‘Flower of Life’ (FoL) on one of its pillars! Gary Fletcher touched on this in a 2009 paper(s). However, it is impossible to say when they were placed there. David Furlong has posted an article on the (FoL), noting particularly that some Greek letters have been identified inscribed beside the FoL design. This may suggest that the badly worn lettering was added long ofter the construction of the Osirion(u). Also on Furlong’s site we have an article by Malcolm Stewart describing the circle clusters and Greek writing as graffiti, possibly dating to the 3rd or 2nd centuries BC(v)!
A sceptic’s view of the claimed early date for the Osirion can be read online(d).
It is worth noting that Abydos was also the site of a remarkable discovery of 14 buried boats that have been dated to at least 3000BC and again possibly even pre-dynastic.
Klaus H. Aschenbrenner has produced an Internet article, Giza and Abydos: The Keys to Atlantis, unfortunately in German only, which bravely promotes the idea of an 11th millennium BC date for parts of both Giza and Abydos.
Hieroglyphics in the Temple of Seti at Abydos have also been seized upon by proponents of ancient technology existing in prehistoric times and possible links to a hi-tech Atlantis. These carvings suggest the outline of a helicopter and a submarine! A refutation of this interpretation, by Margaret Morris(b) and others(e)(f), has demonstrated that the carvings have been reworked and that some of the plaster infills had deteriorated. This helicopter claim has been successfully debunked on a number of sites(q), including a December 2022 posting on The Archaeologist website(r), which is particularly graphic. Furthermore, there is clear evidence that images of the hieroglyphics circulating on the internet were digitally ‘tidied up’.
Wayne James Howson offers some radical ideas concerning the Osireion in a 400-page book available on the Academia.edu website(l). Howson was influenced by the work of Jim Westerman(m).
In November 2016, it was announced that a city was unearthed not far from the Abydos temples, where “it is believed the city was home to important officials and tomb builders and would have flourished during early-era ancient Egyptian times.(g)“
(a) http://www.jawest.net/hall_of_maat.htm
(b) See Archive 2727
(c) https://ascendingpassage.com/Osirion-at-Abydos.htm
(d) https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Osireion,
(e) https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Abydos_helicopter
(f) http://www.catchpenny.org/abydos.html
(g) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38084391
(h) https://grahamhancock.com/silvaf4/
(j) https://www.academia.edu/37568156/The_Osireion_A_Laymans_Guide
(k) https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/osirion-abydos-0012397
(m) https://jameswesterman.org/?p=home
(n) Ancient Egypt: The Osirion And The “Mystery ” of the “Flower Of Life” Symbols – Hidden Inca Tours
(o) http://egyptiansecrets.blogspot.com/2006/02/mysterious-osirion-at-abydos.html
(p) Who built the Osireion? (catchpenny.org)
(q) http://www.fineart.be/UfocomHQ/usabydos.htm (link broken)
(r) https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/the-abydos-helicopter-hieroglyphics
(t) http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/setiabydos.htm
(u) The Osirion and the Flower of Life (davidfurlong.co.uk)
(v) The Flower of Life – Malcolm Stewart Article (davidfurlong.co.uk)