The Delhi Pillar, the invincible Pillar of Destiny
Is the iron pillar that has resisted rust for 1600 years made of Damascus Steel?
The term OOPARTS refers to objects that don't fit into the official chronology established by human history. These are objects that, for various reasons, shouldn't exist: either because there was no technology to create them at the time, or because their temporal placement deviates by millions of years from the commonly accepted theories about the course of human events. Finding a metal vase in a coal mine dating back to the Permian period, an era before the dinosaurs, seems "impossible" to scientists, who then have to draw the necessary conclusions. The most frequent outcome is that the OOPART (Out Of Place ARTifact) ends up in a museum storage and is forgotten, except by us fanatical mystery enthusiasts who occasionally try to investigate the origin of these artifacts despite enormous difficulties. This is what happened with the incredible Dorchester Vase! Yet, there must always be an explanation. We might not be interested in overturning historical theories that aim to be the legitimate foundation of our civilization's social order. Practically, we are more interested in understanding how a metal vase made of an unknown alloy ended up in that coal deposit. Whether it was aliens or a civilization billions of years old, we leave to our imagination. But as heterodox scientists, albeit amateur ones, it is our duty to formulate reasonable hypotheses without prejudice based on the scant data we have. Data that are sometimes very limited if not non-existent.
But it’s not always like this. There are OOPARTs that benefit from good documentation and can provide us with elements to develop new and interesting hypotheses: one of these is the famous Delhi Pillar, also known as the "Pillar of Destiny." Some time ago, an article appeared in magazines specializing in mysteries, reporting the chemical-physical analyses of this enormous column of pure iron, which hasn't rusted for 1600 years. The first to mention it was the legendary Charles Berlitz in 1978, one of the fathers of our Mysterious Archaeology. He confused it with the famous Ashoka Pillar, cited in many Indian texts and thousands of years old. The article in question somewhat disparaged the extraordinary work of the great Berlitz.
But in reality, the Delhi Pillar is not the same thing, and its origin is well-known. Although it is now displayed in the courtyard in front of the Quwwat ul Islam mosque, near the famous Qutb Minaret dating back to 1193, it was most likely constructed by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty, who ruled the Delhi area from 375 to 413 CE. This identification is facilitated by the Sanskrit inscription on the pillar, which references a King Chandra of the Gupta dynasty. It's worth noting that this same inscription might have been a dhvajastambha, the flagstaff of Vishnu in front of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god. It was Anangpal, king of the Tomar dynasty, who transported it near the ancient Indian capital around the year 1000 from the ancient Vishnupadagiri, a mythical city that is possibly identified with the archaeological site of Udayagiri today.
The history of the pillar is relatively certain, as are its characteristics: it stands 7.3 meters tall, with a diameter ranging from 48 cm at the base to 29 cm at the top, beneath an extraordinary capital; it weighs around 6.5 tons and is forged from a single block. What makes the Delhi Pillar an OOPART is the composition of the iron it is made from. Exposed for 1600 years to the monsoon rains typical of India, it shows extremely reduced, if not non-existent, traces of corrosion - simply put, rust. It's clear that if iron is chemically fused with another substance like carbon, it forms an alloy that can resist corrosion, such as steel, which was known even in ancient times. However, the Pillar of Destiny is a single block of iron! Iron to which phosphorus has been added in minimal yet significant quantities. The Indian Institute of Technology discovered that the pillar is covered in misawite, a compound made of iron, oxygen, and hydrogen, generated by the phosphorus contained in the fusion. Despite the low percentage, the phosphorus superficially transforms the iron into a kind of steel that completely insulates the pillar from erosion.
Now, how is it possible to have such knowledge of fusion mechanisms? It’s truly remarkable, as if the entire column can develop a "skin" of steel capable of preserving it for centuries. This idea has even been developed today with "Corten" steel, patented in 1933, which is based on phosphorus and used for cladding nuclear power plants and atomic waste storage sites.
This naturally raises a question: how did the ancient Indians possess such knowledge of the physics and chemistry of iron? This knowledge is "impossible" according to official science and yet, if we look closely, it takes us to a land where mystery is the essence of its existence: Egypt.
For the ancient Egyptians, the territory around the Nile was very rich in gold and copper but lacked iron mines. There was only one, located in the Aswan area, and it was exploited much later. It’s clear that from the first uses at the beginning of the third millennium BCE (though some say even from 4000 BCE), the primary source of this metal was native iron, present in meteorites. This origin is verifiable by the nickel content, which in meteoric iron is at least 4-7%, and by its resistance to corrosion: indeed, siderites (from "sideros," celestial object, in Greek, and "sidus," star, in Latin), meteors composed of metal and found in relatively large quantities, do not rust.
This "gift" made objects made of meteoric iron in Mesopotamian and Egyptian areas objects of worship, of much higher value than gold. The Sumerians called it AN.BAR (sky and fire), for the Egyptians it was B'ja (divine metal), indicating its celestial origin. Even a Hittite text from the 14th century BCE states that their kings used "black iron from the sky" as weapons. And who can forget that an immense siderite was worshipped in the temple of Heliopolis from the Fourth Dynasty? Known as the Benben Stone, it was represented in inscriptions in a pyramidal shape, precisely the stone that capped the pyramids and was called Pyramidion or "Benbenet," "little Benben." Iron began to replace copper in alloys starting in the second millennium BCE, and around the 12th century BCE, the Iron Age began in Europe and Asia, with the Hittites producing an iron-carbon alloy, namely steel. For centuries, this new alloy (iron and carbon in a percentage not exceeding 2.11%, after which the material changes its chemical-physical qualities and becomes cast iron) was not resistant enough by current standards: forging techniques had to combine primitive steel with elements of cast iron to obtain a more resistant fusion. In fact, what is now defined as Wrought Iron cannot be tempered; it is the so-called Wrought Iron, contrasted with the more resistant Pack Steel, invented by the Celts and which became the hardness standard for weapons for a millennium.
However, discoveries in this field enabled remarkable things. If we observe the composition of the Pillar of Destiny, we notice how it is similar to certain Egyptian and Carthaginian products from the Hellenistic age: the process for extracting iron from African iron ores used fuel with high phosphorus content, generating an alloy known as Phosphorus Steel, very resistant and malleable, very similar to today’s Corten steel. Is this where the Delhi Pillar came from?
Before the undeniable similarities in form with the Egyptian stone columns tempt us, let's return to India and consider that the first method for producing true steel was the "Wootz" system. According to some sources, this method was in use as early as 200 BCE and became widespread by 300 CE. The name Wootz is derived from the westernized pronunciation of the Hindu name for steel, urukku. Its preparation involved crucibles containing iron ore, charcoal, and pieces of glass. The result was a pure and extremely resilient steel, whose production remained a closely guarded secret for half a millennium and only spread to neighboring countries—today’s Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan of the Kingdom of Samarkand—in the 10th century. From Samarkand, it quickly reached the Islamic world. Shortly after the year 1000, the Indian Wootz technique arrived in the Middle East and is said to have been further refined there. This was perhaps the origin of Damascus Steel, so strong and flexible that swords forged from it became the nightmare of the Crusaders. The quality of those weapons was incredible, to the point that legends arose about their extraordinary properties: Damascus Steel could cut through rock (and the paladin Orlando, who famously split the eponymous boulders, owned a sword made of this alloy); a blade could be wrapped around a man and then return to being straight; it was also said to be cooled in blood and never lost its edge.
According to metallurgical historians, the Saracens' Wootz technique produced a flexible sword that could withstand impacts without breaking, while at the same time maintaining a very hard blade with a sharp edge for a long time—perhaps a blade that did not rust? Variations in carbon content between the edge and the center of the sword created a beautiful wavy pattern on the surface, giving rise to the actual damascening that gives the steel its name. But whether it is Wootz steel, Hellenistic phosphorus steel, or a mix of these types, we will never know. The secrets of Damascus production were lost around 1300, and no documents or formulas for its manufacture remain. The special steel swords simply disappeared, and the few surviving relics show evident discrepancies with both Pack Steel and Japanese manufacturing techniques, as well as with Crucible Steel, which was rediscovered in the 18th century in England and was a replica of the Indian Wootz method.
So, what can be said? Is the secret of Damascus Steel hidden within the invincible "Pillar of Destiny"?
