The unsolved enigma of the giant sarcophagi of the Egyptian Serapeum of Saqqara
Gigantic granite sarcophagi weighing 70 tons positioned in narrow niches dug deep into the earth. It is the enigma of Saqqara, one of the oldest and largest archaeological sites in ancient Egypt. How was it possible to place these huge artefacts in such small spaces? And, above all, why?
Located on the west bank of the Nile, about 30 km south of Cairo, is the site of Saqqara, one of the oldest and largest funerary areas in all of ancient Egypt.
The pyramid of Teti, the first ruler of the 6th dynasty of Egypt, towers above the immense necropolis. The pharaoh built the pyramid and the nearby mortuary temple during his reign, more than 4 thousand years ago.
The pyramid of Tethys is very important, as it contains the oldest inscriptions in the world, part of the so-called "Pyramid Texts", a collection of ancient religious writings dating back to 2400 BC, containing passages about Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, and instructions on how to prepare Pharaoh's remains for his ascension to heaven after death.
“In the pyramid texts everything revolves around the stars, the king who becomes a star, and who ascends to the sky to join Osiris-Orion in the firmament”
explains Robert Bauval, co-author of The Mystery of Genesis.
What is important to point out is that the ancient Egyptians believed that in an era called “ZP TPJ” (usually transcribed as Zep Tepi, literally “the first time”), the gods lived among them, only to disappear again.
“What the pyramid texts mean is that man can rejoin the gods again. To do this, you have to go through death: we are talking about an extra-dimensional journey of the soul”
comments Philip Coppens, author of The Rosslyn Enigma.
“Egyptologists call these monuments tombs, but for the Egyptians they were not tombs at all, but doors to the afterlife”
Bauval continues.
“It was through these structures that the king began his journey towards the otherworldly world, encountering obstacles, dangers and threats. If he had overcome this threat, he would have gained access to the kingdom of Osiris."
The creation myths of the Ancient Egyptians
Most of the information regarding Egyptian creation myths comes from the wall decorations and writings that are part of the Pyramid Texts, dating back to the Old Kingdom (2780 – 2250 BC) and which are among the oldest religious inscriptions in the world.
In all myths, a time known as ZP TPJ (Zep Tepi) is referred to, in which the activities of eight primordial deities (Ogdoade) are told, from which emerge the figures of the self-begotten god Atum and his progeny, the deity contemplative Ptah and the mysterious god Amun.
The mention of Zep Tepi in the texts of many ancient Greek and Roman authors leaves no doubt about its historicity or the authenticity of its testimonies. Ancient historians and Egyptian texts all agree in affirming the extreme antiquity of Zep Tepi.
The Turin Papyrus lists the divine and semi-divine kings who ruled in the Predynastic Period of Egypt, a little-known era that began in the ancient Neolithic and lasted until around 3060 BC.
Manetho begins the predynastic history of Egypt with the dynasty of the gods in 30544 BC (an era which curiously corresponds to the times of the disappearance of Neanderthal Man and the appearance of Cro-Magnon Man, both of which occurred around 30 thousand years ago), which lasts a total of 13,900 years, and of which Osiris is the fifth ruler.
This is followed by a dynasty of demigods, which lasts 1255 years, followed in turn by a first lineage of human kings, who reigns for 1817 years. Thirty other kings, reigning for a total of 1790 years. Then ten other kings reign over Thebes alone for 350 years.
Finally, for 5813 years, we have the last predynastic period, that of the "Spirits of the deceased" (or "Spirits of death") which the Turin Papyrus calls "Spirits who were followers of Horus" or "The followers of Horus".
Remaining undisturbed under the desert sands for centuries, the ruins of Saqqara hold the true mystery of the entire site, an enigma located just 800 meters from the pyramid of Teti.
In 1850, the French archaeologist Auguste Mariette made an extraordinary discovery: a huge underground bunker, the Serapeum of Saqqara, a maze of tunnels dug into the rock.
Inside, there are huge granite sarcophagi that are thought to have been transported from the city of Aswan about 960 kilometers away. There are dozens of them and they weigh about 70 tons each, each made from a single block of granite, so smooth that it can be reflected in it.
But the real mystery is how the ancient Egyptians managed to transport these enormous boulders for kilometers and then place them in the narrow underground labyrinth of the Serapeum. For what purpose?
“It's a real puzzle,” comments Erich Von Dänikem, one of the founding fathers of the Ancient Astronaut Theory. “You have to imagine the ancient Egyptians who dug kilometers and kilometers of underground tunnels into the rock, creating niches on the sides. Then, they travel for days until they reach the city of Aswan to extract the hardest granite that exists from the rock and transport it, in some way unknown to us, down these underground tunnels."
Most scholars hypothesize that the Serapeum and its enormous sarcophagi were made to house the mummified remains of the sacred Bull Bees, believed by the ancient Egyptians to have come from heaven and honored with very elaborate ceremonies.
However, when Mariette opened the sarcophagi she discovered that they were empty, except for a few bones. In fact, the mummy of a single Bee Bull was found on the site.
This fact has led some scholars to believe that the Egyptians actually feared the Bull Bees, rather than venerating them, because they were created by the gods: being sacred animals, they were expected to die a natural death and once dead they were destroyed, shattering their bones which then they were sealed in sarcophagi.
This is a unique practice of its kind, given that in ancient Egypt even animals were mummified, therefore, when you find sarcophagi with only a pile of bones inside, you have to ask yourself why when a Bull Bee died, the Egyptians crushed the bones and put a 35 ton lid on it? Did they want to ensure that they would never return in the future?
However, scholars are perplexed as they cannot fully understand the original purpose of these boxes. Why are many of them empty?
Some hypothesize that in reality the Serapeum of Saqqara is much older than is thought and that it was only reused for sacred purposes by the Egyptians who lived at the time of the VI Dynasty. According to Ancient Astronaut Theorists, the sarcophagi could come directly from the predynastic era, when the “gods” were here on Earth.
If this were the case, the sarcophagi may have had a function that was completely unknown to us and which we could hardly understand with current knowledge. The Serapeum of Saqqara delivers to current generations a message yet to be deciphered and which could reveal the true origin and destiny of the human race.
