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The Orion Mystery

Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids

Published 1994 (c) Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert
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Buy Online from Amazon
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Introduction

In the centuries before Christ, when Alexandria was pre-eminent among
the cities of the Greek world and its citizens were great travellers,
there were seven wonders whose reputation surpassed all others and
which everyone wanted to see. Six of these have disappeared. Only one
remains for us to visit: the pyramids of Egypt.

Without the benefit of so much as a single pulley, the Egyptians built
mountains of stone and, with a precision that is truly astonishing,
laid these out on the desert floor. Yet the more puzzling question is
why and not how they built them. Why did the Egyptians choose to build
pyramids when, so far as we know, they had never been built before?
Why did they build them so big and of such precision? Why did they
scatter them around the desert instead of building them all in one
place?

Contemporary Egyptology has no convincing answers. Pick up any
textbook on the subject and you will encounter the same statement,
that the pyramids functioned as royal tombs. But why, when a simple
hole in the ground would have surficed, should the Egyptians have
chosen to build tombs up to 147 metres high? Why make this prodigious
effort to house a dead body? Even given that the pharaohs were
autocrats and were revered as living gods, this seems like a colossal
waste of time and energy.

In fact the Egyptians were highly civilised and deeply religious at a
time when Europeans were still primitive. There is much to suggest
that they built pyramids more as an affirmation of their religious
convictions than to glorify dead pharaohs, however powerful. But they
were also an extremely reserved people, who kept the inner mysteries
of their religion from all but a few chosen initiates. Now at last, in
this ground breaking book, The Orion Mystery, we are beginning to
understand their motives.

Since 1979 when he first became interested in the star religion of the
Egyptians, Robert Bauval has been researching the secrets of the
pyramids. Almost by accident he stumbled upon the central mystery of
the Egyptian religion, their preoccupation with the constellation of
Orion as their hoped-for afterlife destiny. At first tentatively and
then with growing conviction he presented his findings to a mostly
hostile establishment that the major pyramids of the IVth Dynasty were
built to represent the stars of this afterworld. This, at first site
bizarre, theory he was able to back up with ancient texts, ceiling
paintings, star-maps and other data that when taken together makes up
an extraordinarily convincing case. The question then becomes not
whether what he had discovered is true but rather why had noone
noticed these things before?

On meeting Adrian Gilbert, author and Hermeticist, Bauval's work
received a new impetus, coming into focus as The Orion Mystery. The
discovery in March 1993 of a secret chamber in the Great Pyramid, at
the end of a long shaft confirmed what they already suspected, that it
was not a mere tomb but a machine, its function being to aid the
pharaoh's soul in its journey to distant stars...

This is an exciting book, part adventure part science, that seeks to
present these ideas in a way that is accessible to all. World-wide it
has been greeted with wide acclaim, as has the BBC (A & E)
Documentary: "The Great Pyramid - Gateway to the stars" that was based
upon its findings. The Orion Mystery is currently available in five
languages and translation into seven more is under way.

Reviews

* "Absorbing and fascinating...how they reach their conclusions is
clearly and rivetingly told...highly and compulsively readable."
(Sunday Times)
* "Persuasive and scholarly." (The Observer)
* "An elegant theory that reads like a detective
story...remarkable." (Daily Mail)
* "A discovery about the pyramids that could change our whole view
of human history." (Evening Standard)
* "fascinating." (Literary Review)
* "A fascinating, ground-breaking book which provides an entirely
new take on the origin and meaning of the most enduring mystery of
the ancient world." (Esquire)

Table of Contents

Prologue - The Last Wonder of the Ancient World. 1. The Genesis of the
Orion Mystery. 2. The Mountains of the Star Gods. 3. The Discovery of
the Pyramid Texts. 4. Let the Pyramid Texts 'Speak'. 5. The Giza Plan.
6. Giza and the Belt of Orion. 7. The Star Correlation Theory. 8. The
Brother of Osiris. 9. Intermezzo at the Pyramids. 10. The Great
Star-Clock of the Epochs. 11. The Seed of the Phoenix. 12. The Roads
of Osiris. Epilogue. Appendices (by Robert Bauval unless otherwise
stated). 1. Astronomical Investigation concerning the so-called
Air-shafts of Cheop's Pyramid (by Virginia Trimble). 2. Precession. 3.
The Secret Chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth (by Alan H. Gardiner).
4. The Survival of the Star Religion. 5. Logistics of the Shafts in
Cheops's Pyramid. 6. The Horizon of Khufu. 7. The 'Sons of Ra' and the
Osirian Rebirth of the Pyramid Kings (by Robert Bauval with Robin
Cook). *8. Planning Considerations for the Fourth Dynasty Pyramid
Project. *9. The Geological Considerations for the Setting Out of the
Three Giza Pyramids. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 337 pages in all.
(*Appendices only in updated, UK Mandarin edition)

Publishing details

The Orion Mystery is published in the following countries (prices and
ISBNs where known):
* UK (Mandarin Books) Paperback, £5.99 ISBN 0-7493-1744-2
* US ( Crown Trade Paperbacks), $14 ISBN 0-517-88454-2
* Canada (Doubleday)
* Germany, (Paul List Verlag) "Das Geheimnis Des Orion", Hardback,
DM 44, ISBN 3-471-77183-2
* France, (Pygmalion) "Le Mystere d'Orion", Paperback,
* Netherlands (Fibula) "Het Orion Mysterie" ISBN 90-269-6130-8
* Japan (NHK) ISBN 4-14-080215-4

It is due to be published in the following other languages: Spanish,
Italian, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian.

About the authors

Adrian Gilbert is also co-author of The Mayan Prophecies and is
currently working on a new book, provisionally entitled "Magi: quest
for a secret tradition", which will be published by Bloomsbury next
autumn. He has his own Web site.

Robert Bauval is currently working with Graham Hancock on a new book
provisionally entitled "Keeper of Genesis". This will be published by
William Heinemann Ltd. in 1996.
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Buy Online from Amazon
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Other sites of Interest

The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies * The Mayan Prophecies.
Peter James' The Sunken Kingdom * David Rohl's A Test of Time
Fingerprints of the Gods * Indra Girt by Maruts * Red Earth, White
Lies
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