Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [27]
It was headed ‘The Golden Capstone’ . . .
THE GOLDEN CAPSTONE
From: When Men Built Mountains: The Pyramids
by Chris M. Cameron
(Macmillan, London, 1989)
Perhaps the greatest mystery of the pyramids is the most obvious one: the Great Pyramid at Giza stands nine feet shorter than it should.
For once upon a time at its peak sat the most revered object in all of history.
The Golden Capstone.
Or, as the Egyptians called it, the Benben.
Shaped like a small pyramid, the Capstone stood nine feet tall and was made almost entirely of gold. It was inscribed with hieroglyphics and other more mysterious carvings in an unknown language, and on one side—the south side—it featured the Eye of Horus.
Every morning it shone like a jewel as it received the first rays of the rising sun—the first earthly object in Egypt to receive those sacred rays.
The Great Capstone was actually made up of seven pieces, its pyramidal form cut into horizontal strips, creating six pieces that were trapezoidal in shape and one, the topmost piece, that was itself pyramidal (small pyramids such as this were called pyramidions).
We say that the Capstone was made almost entirely of gold, because while its body was indeed crafted from solid gold, it featured a thin bore-hole that ran vertically down through its core, in the exact centre of the Capstone.
This hollow was about two inches wide and it cut downward through each of the seven pieces, punching holes in all of them. Embedded in each of those circular holes could be found a crystal, not unlike the lens of a magnifying glass. When placed in sequence those seven crystals served to concentrate the Sun’s rays on those days when it passed directly overhead.
This is a crucial point.
Many scholars have noted that the construction of the Great Pyramid by the pharaoh Khufu curiously coincides with the solar event known as the Tartarus Rotation. This phenomenon involves the rotation of the Sun and the subsequent appearance of a powerful sunspot that comes into alignment with the Earth.
Accomplished Sunwatchers that they were, the Egyptians certainly knew of the Sun’s rotation, sunspots, and indeed of the sunspot that we call ‘Tartarus’. Aware of its intense heat, they called it ‘Ra’s Destroyer’. (They also knew of the smaller sunspot that precedes Tartarus by seven days, and so labelled it ‘The Destroyer’s Prophet’.)
The last Tartarus Rotation occurred in 2570 BC, just a few years after the Great Pyramid was completed. Interestingly, the next Rotation will occur in 2006, on March 20, the day of the vernal equinox, the time when the Sun is perfectly perpendicular to the Earth.
Those theorists who link the construction of the pyramid to Tartarus also claim that the Capstone’s unique ‘crystal array’ has the ability to capture and harness solar energy, while the more outrageous authors claim it possesses fabulous paranormal powers.
Having said this, however, it should be noted that the Golden Capstone only sat atop the Great Pyramid for a very short time.
The day after the Tartarus Rotation of 2570 BC, the Capstone was removed, and taken to a secret location where it rested for over 2,000 years.
It has since disappeared from history altogether, so that now all that remains of it is an ominous inscription found on the empty summit of the Great Pyramid at Giza itself:
Cower in fear, cry in despair,
You wretched mortals
For that which giveth great power
Also takes it away.
For lest the Benben be placed at sacred site
On sacred ground, at sacred height,
Within seven sunsets of the arrival of Ra’s prophet,
At the high-point of the seventh day,
The fires of Ra’s implacable Destroyer will devour us all.
A door slammed somewhere. Abbas looked up from his reading.
Footsteps.
Then the sitting room door opened, and through it stepped—
—Professor Max T. Epper and Captain Jack West Jr.
Epper wore a classic academic’s tweed coat. His beard back then was just as white and long as it would be 10 years later.
West wore his miner’s jacket and some brand-new steel-soled