THE ATLANTEAN SYMBOLISM OF THE EGYPTIAN TEMPLE (PART II)
 

I have seen the wicked man rising like a mighty cedar tree.

Yet, he passed away, and could be found no more.

Psalm 37:35

Introduction

In the present section — the second part of our work on the symbolism of the Egyptian temple — we study two fundamental aspects of that symbolism which, to our knowledge, have never been pointed out before:

1. The Egyptian temples are stylized replicas of Atlantis, with its mountains, its pillars and its crypts represented explicitly.
2. The Egyptian temples derive their architecture and conception from that of the Hindu temples of India and Indonesia, particularly those built in the so-called South Indian (or Dravidian) style.

We begin by discussing the features of the Egyptian temples and their Atlantean symbolism, and then pass on to their Hindu archetypes. Finally, we discuss the Atlantean (Indonesian) origin of the Egyptians themselves and of the language they spoke, showing how they kept abreast of the Hindu conceptions by means of periodic visits to the Land of the Gods (Punt or Indonesia). Let us start by reviewing the conception and symbolism of the temples everywhere.

The word "temple" derives from the Latin templum, itself derived from a radix tem- meaning "open court", as in the Greek temenos. We are used to temples built as closed edifices, such as Christian cathedrals, Arab mosques and Jewish synagogues. However, in the early temples everywhere, the place of worship consisted of an open court, at whose center stood the inner sanctum (or holy of holies), which was indeed closed.

The worshippers were admitted to the temenos or open court, but their entrance in the inner sanctum was forbidden. There, an image of the god was kept and catered to by the priests who, alone of all people, were admitted there. The Hindus call this inner sanctum by the Sanskrit name of garbhagriha meaning "womb abode" (or "inner room"). In the inner sanctum the dead god "slept" quietly with his entourage, awaiting the instant to resurrect and come out in triumph, announcing the return of the Golden Age.

This resurrection of the dead god (Osiris in Egypt, Shiva or Vishnu in India, Tammuz in Babylon, etc.) was periodically enacted by the priests, who brought out the image of the god for the ritual. The image was processioned in triumph (often by boat), usually meeting with its lover. After a few days of festivities, the god (or goddess) was again returned to the inner sanctum until it was time for a new resurgence.

The adytum (or inner sanctum) often took the shape of the Holy Mountain under which the dead god and his court were buried. In Zozer's complex, built by Imhotep, and possibly the very first such structure to be built in Egypt, the garbhagriha took the shape of the famous stepped pyramid that survives even today to the delight of tourists and specialists both. In Babylon, the temple court surrounded the ziggurat, itself a kind of stepped pyramid not too far distinct from Zozer's stepped pyramid or, for that matter, from the similar structures found in Indonesia and even in the Americas (Yucatan, etc.).

As a matter of fact, as we show elsewhere, Zozer's complex is a verbatim copy of pyramidal complexes of Angkor and Java. It is likely that Imhotep, a most mysterious figure, was fetched from there, along with a gang of expert masons, in order to teach the Egyptians the arts of stone-masonry and city-building, among others.¹

The Symbolism of the Christian Temple

The symbolism of the Christian temple is masterfully described by J. Hani (Le Symbolisme du Temple Chrétien, Paris, 1978). Hani starts by asserting that "every sacred building is cosmic, and is made in the image of the world". He quotes St. Peter Damien, who affirms: "the church is the image of the universe".

The walls and the columns of the church represent Heaven and Earth and, in a way, "a cathedral is a visual encyclopedia illustrating Creation". In no way the temple, Christian or not, is a realistic image of the Cosmos. It is, far more, a symbolic representation that portrays the inner mathematical structure of the world. The square shape of the Celestial Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12) — one which many authorities assimilate to the Great Pyramid — is the basic essence of temple architecture. As Hani asserts:
 

The whole of sacred architecture consists, in reality, in the operation of "squaring the circle", that is, of transforming the circle into a square. The foundation of the building starts by its orientation [along the Cardinal Directions], done in a ritual manner... This process is traditional and universal, and is found everywhere there is a sacred architecture. It has been described by Vitruvius and was practiced in the Occident until the end of the Middle Ages.
Hani then goes on to describing the traditional utilized in orienting the temple and lying its foundations. With the help of a gnomon (sundial), the architect determines the two axes of the Cardinal Directions (Cardo and Decumanus). This consists of a stake driven into the soil, to mark the center of the edifice. The maxima and minima of its shadow determine the axes of the Cardinal Directions. A circle is traced using the stake as a center, and the two axes serve as its perpendicular diameters. In a way, this operation is a "squaring of the circle", as it combines the fundamental elements of sacred geometry: the Center, the Circle and the Square or Cross.²

The Circle represents Heaven (the circular horizon) and the Square represents Earth (the crossing Equator and Meridian Zero). So, the Crossed Circle symbolizes the Cosmic Hierogamy, the union of Heaven and Earth. This "squaring of the circle" is a central feature of temples everywhere. In Christian cathedrals we have the square nave at the center and the round dome or cupola above, representing Heaven.

The Squaring of the Circle

In the Far East, many pagodas and temples blend the square base (the Earth) and the round (often conical) top above (the Skies). Two other instances from the Far East are the holy mantle of the Chinese emperor and the ritual basket of the Polynesians. The royal mantle of the Chinese emperor had a squared rim, which tapered to a circle at the waist. The ritual basket of the Polynesians had, likewise, a square wooden base to which the round upper portion of wickerwork was attached.

In the Great Pyramid — indeed a temple of Osiris (his Holy Mountain) and not at all a fancy tomb of vainglorious pharaohs — the circle is squared in a most ingenious way. The height of the Great Pyramid is worth precisely the radius of a circle having a circumference equal to the perimeter of the pyramid's base.

That this symbolism is not originally Jewish, nor Egyptian but far older and far more universal, is proved by the fact that it is found just about everywhere. It is found in the Far East, in the pyramidal complexes of Angkor, Burma and Java. Borobudur, for instance, also masterfully marries the round shape of the Celestial stupa at its top with the square, stepped pyramid at the base.

This same idea of "squaring the circle" is also found in certain American pyramids, for instance, in the well-known "Whirling Mountain" sandpainted mandalas of the Navajo Indians of North America. Likewise, the pediment of Greek temples such as that of the Acropolis also had a height equivalent to the radius of a circle having a perimeter equal to the width of its base. We could quote a further dozen of instances where the "squaring of the circle" is ingeniously embodied in the geometry of the temple. But the above examples will have to do for now.

The Great Pyramid Is a Replica of Mt. Meru

The above analysis discloses a fact of fundamental importance. The Great Pyramid is, itself, a replica of Mt. Meru as a representation of the Holy Mountain of Paradise. This Holy Mountain is located at the center of the world, right at the spot where Atlas — or, more exactly, the Serpent Shesha, his Hindu archetype — supports up the skies, as a sort of tent above the earth. Hence, the Holy Mountain is indeed Mt. Atlas. More correctly, this mountain is identical with Mt. Meru, the Holy Mountain of Paradise of the Hindus from which all such replicas were originally copied.

The pyramids and, particularly, the Great Pyramid, was called M'R in Egyptian. As the Egyptians never wrote the vowels of the words, very likely the word M'R was indeed pronounced MeRu, precisely the name of the Holy Mountain that was its archetype. Likewise the temples and even the Christian churches and cathedrals — built right on top the stake driven into the head of the Naga that represents Shesha — also represent the Holy Mountain, that is, Mt. Atlas or Meru. Since this serpent is no other than Atlas, the temple built above the Standing Serpent represents the Holy Mountain of Paradise which, in turn, symbolizes the world being supported by the Titan Atlas. Anyone who takes the trouble to study a little bit closer the Hindu symbolism of the Holy Mountain Meru and that of the world-supporting naga, the Serpent Shesha, will immediately recognize its fundamental identity with the ones pointed out here.

The Great Pyramid had its four faces indented at the middle, so as to form a Cross or a four-sided star as seen from above. These indentations formed a sort of giant troughs theoretically intended to concentrate and drain the rain waters that fell over the Great Pyramid. As it seldom (or never) rains in the region of Egypt (a desert), the real function of these troughs is purely symbolic, and is obviously quite another.

In reality, pyramids represent the shape of Mt. Meru, itself pyramidal and indented at the center of its four faces like the Great Pyramid. These troughs and their waters correspond to the Four Rivers of Hindu Paradise which flow from the top of the Holy Mountain along the four Cardinal Directions. This shape is also the classical one of Eden, as described in the Bible and in works such as these of Flavius Josephus.

The Judeo-Christian Paradise was visibly copied from Indian traditions, which are identical, but are far older than Judaea itself. The same symbolism is found even more explicitly in ancient Mesopotamia, where the so-called "Seal of Shamash" represents the Holy Mountain of Paradise as an indented pyramid seen from above, with the wavy lines of the four rivers descending along troughs indented on the middles of the four faces, as shown in Fig. 1. This figure reproduces a very ancient Sumerian seal, and the motif originally dates from about 3,000 BC or possibly even earlier. The indentations in question transform the pyramids into stars, and indeed allude to the Pole Star rather than the Sun. They are a feature not only of the Egyptian pyramids or their Babylonian counterparts just discussed, but also figure, say, in the Chinese pyramids which we discuss elsewhere.

The Temple of Solomon Is Purely Legendary

The Temple of King Solomon is purely legendary. But its idealized architecture is obviously derived from the Phoenician one, as it was built by Hiram, a Phoenician. It can be reconstructed from the fairly accurate biblical descriptions, as well as from archaeological remains of temples such as the ones of Herod, the Great, and the Phoenician temple of Tall Tainat (Syria), dated at about 1,000 BC, the epoch of King Solomon.

Solomon's temple followed the general plan of the ancient temples described above. In the front there was the monumental gate giving access to the vestibule (or introitum). This, in turn, led to the temenos or court, built as a sort of hall. Next, at the bottom, we had the holy of holies with the square plan characteristic of the Holy Mountain. This inner sanctum was closed by a curtain, and access to it was denied to all but the high priest.³

An interesting description of the ideal temple of the Hebrews is the one of Ezekiel (ch. 40-46). This account closely parallels that of Revelation concerning the Celestial Jerusalem (ch. 21). And these, in turn, are copied from the Hindu ones concerning Paradise ("Pure Land"), as illustrated in the so-called Kalachakra mandalas. Ezekiel's ideal temple, like the Celestial Jerusalem, was edified "upon a very high mountain" that is obviously the same as the Mt. Meru of Hindu traditions.

There was, at the top of the Holy Mountain, just as in the Hindu traditions concerning Lanka, a holy city (the Celestial Jerusalem). This city or temple — the text is obscure and confuses the two — was "surrounded by a wall round about". This wall was square and was aligned with the Cardinal Directions, having a gate on each of its four sides. It delimited a court paved with stone on which were built thirty chapels and an inner court, on the south side.

The adytum (temple proper) was square and had two pillars in front, each 6 cubits (about 3 meters) broad. The temple was of enormous size (500 canes (or 1600 meters) on a side), being square in plan (probably cubical or pyramidal). It was surrounded all around by a wall that isolated it from the court destined to the public. The inner sanctum was decorated with palm-trees and cherubs, motifs that are allegedly of Mesopotamian derivation, but which ultimately originated in Hinduism. All in all, Ezekiel's ideal temple closely evokes Zozer's pyramidal complex and, better yet, its archetypes from Malasia, which it closely parallels. When one carefully compares the underlying symbolism of these strutuctures from different corners of the world, their unity of shape, conception and purpose becomes self-evident.

The Temple as an Allegory of Paradise

The city-temple just described is indeed an allegory of Paradise. More exactly, it represents Lanka, the Celestial Jerusalem that was the archetype of its biblical counterpart. In Ezekiel, the "lofty Mountain" that corresponds to Mt. Atlas (or Meru) is called Ariel (or Harel = "Mountain of God"), and is identified with the sacrificial altar (ara). This Sacrificial Mountain is, as usual, an allegory of Mt. Meru (or Atlas), where the Primordial Sacrifice — that of Atlantis (or Paradise) — was performed in the dawn of times.

In front of Solomon's temple stood the two huge pillars of bronze called Jachin and Boaz. These two pillars closely evoke the two "Pillars of Hercules" that were the central feature of the Phoenician temples of Baal Melkart. Baal Melkart, "the Lord of the City", was the alias and archetype of both Hercules and Atlas, the two deities commemorated by the twin pillars of the Phoenician temples. These twin pillars indeed commemorated, as they did in Gibraltar, the strait that led into Paradise. The Pillars of Gibraltar were just a replica of the primordial ones of Eden (Eden = India or, rather, Indonesia, the "Indian Islands"), just like so many the Phoenicians posted in the temples they built at all such crucial passageways to honor Hercules (Baal Melkart), their supreme lord and patron of navigants.

The two pillars also correspond to the twin obelisks invariably posted at the front of Egyptian temples. The inner sanctum of the Temple was a cube of about 9 meters on each side. This structure evokes the Kaaba of Meccah, whose name and shape are those of a cube. But, as usual, the cubic structure is just a variant of the similarly shaped pyramid.⁴

The fancy capitals of the pillars Jachin and Boaz were all decked with lilyworks and pomegranates, in the traditional way used for both the Tree of Life and the omphali found all over the Mediterranean Basin. The "lilyworks" are really lotus motifs, as many experts have recognized. This type of decoration, very much used in Egypt, ultimately derives from the Indies, as we discuss elsewhere.

Such "lilyworks" invariably figure on top the Indian stupas, which are the true archetypes of omphali and decorated pillars everywhere. And they indeed represent Mt. Meru submerged under the seas, with reeds and sargassos attached to it. Alternatively — and that amounts to the same — they symbolize the stump of the Tree of Life with its dual, the Tree of Death, growing down from its top. The motif is famous in India, as we discuss elsewhere.

The Riddle of Cedar Wood

The interior of the holy of holies was all lined with cedar wood imported from Ophir by Hiram and his men. Cedar, was an exclusivity of the Indies in antiquity, and had to be imported from there by both the Hebrews and Mesopotamians, as well as by the Egyptians, who loved its wood. Despite its name, cedar was always a rarity in Lebanon and other regions of the Near East, where it was not native, but cultivated in memory of the primordial Paradise lost.

The fact that the inner sanctum of the Temple of Solomon was built of cedar wood (erez, ezrah, Cedrus libani) — a native of the Himalayas later transplanted to the mountains of Lebanon — is highly indicative of the fact that the Jews, as well as their god, indeed originated in the Indies, and later moved to the Near East.

A parallel tradition in temple building and decoration existed in Egypt, whose sailors regularly went to the region of Punt (their Paradise) in order to bring the precious wood for the decoration of their temples and their palaces. Such commercial expeditions to Punt cannot be doubted. They are recorded in detail since the Old Dynasty in Egypt, and extend to the times of Queen Hatshepsut, and later. King Sneferu, the father of Khufu (Kheops), brought from there a large shipment of meru wood, which sufficed both for his own needs and those of his famous son.

Since Solomon's and Hiram's ships departed from Ezion Geber, in the Red Sea, in order to get to Ophir, it suffices to look at a map of the region in order to verify that the cedar they imported came not from Lebanon itself, but from somewhere beyond the Indian Ocean. And this somewhere can be no other than the Indies, where the so-called "cedar of Lebanon" grows in abundance, in the Himalayas and its eastern extensions.⁵

The Parable of the Eagle and The Tree of Life

Ezekiel (ch. 17) tells an enlightening parable on the origin of the Semites. He recounts how "a great big eagle with broad wings and multicolored plumage" (the Phoenix) came from Lebanon, whence it brought a twig of the Cedar Tree (the Tree of Life), transplanting it to "a land of commerce, a city of merchants". The Eagle (or Phoenix) represents the sail ships — often described as "birds", in antiquity, as in Isa. 60:8-10, etc. — used to bring the survivors out of destroyed Eden.⁶

The "Land of Commerce" is Lebanon, rebuilt in the Near East as a replica of the former one, in Paradise. As innumerous traditions record, the original homeland of the Phoenicians of Lebanon and Syria lay beyond the Indian Ocean. It was from there that they originally came, just as did the Jews and other nations, when their land was destroyed by a volcanic conflagration. From their sunken Paradise in Indonesia, these proto-Phoenicians passed into India. Expelled from there, they moved to Egypt, where they are known to Egyptology as the Gerzean Civilization (c. 3,500 BC). Expelled once more, probably by King Menes, they again moved, this time to Northwest Africa (Libya, Morocco, Tunisia) and to Palestine (Syria and Lebanon).

The "Sea of Bronze", built in front of Solomon's Temple by Hiram Abiff, is also telltale of Hindu connections. Such sacred pools were an invariable feature of Indonesian temples. They corresponded to the barays (or "sources") of Indonesia's pyramidal complexes, which represented the Fountain of Life (that is, of the Elixir of Life). One such fountain also existed in the Temple of Ezekiel, and replicated the one of the Celestial Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1).

The Egyptian Temples also invariably had such a source either as a natural spring or as a cistern filled by the waters of the flooding Nile. Such sources or cisterns correspond to the ghats of the Indus and the Ganges rivers, used even today in India by the worshippers. They also correspond to the sacred pools excavated by the archaeologists in the site of the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro), and which date from far earlier times than those of Solomon.

Even the Medieval cathedrals had, just as did the temples of Isis everywhere, such magical sources springing inside their underground crypts and filling their baptismal fonts. As a matter of fact, the early Christian cathedrals were almost always built upon the ruins of the temples of Isis which abounded everywhere in Pagan Europe. Such was the case, in particular, of the cathedrals of Rheims, of Chartres, and of Notre Dame, among many. Even in the Americas we find precisely the same conception of barays placed on top the Holy Mountain of Paradise. For instance, the famous Incan pyramid of Akapana (Peru-Bolivia border) had a huge cistern (water reservoir) at the top. This reservoir fed a sophisticate network of hydraulic facilities used in irrigation and internal plumbing of the other buildings, in a way that closely parallels the similar devices of the Egyptian temples which we mentioned above and elsewhere.

The Twin Cherubs and the Twin Goddesses

The two enormous Cherubs that guarded the Ark placed inside the inner sanctum of the Temple, enwrapping it with their wings (II Chr. 3:15; 5:8; Exo. 25:18; Heb. 9:5, etc.) closely evoke the winged figures of Isis and Nephthys guarding the ark inside which lay the deceased body of deceased Osiris (see Fig. 2).

They also recollect the twin winged guardians (or cherubs) that guarded the Tree of Life everywhere. The cherubs of Israel, of Phoenicia, of Crete, and of Mesopotamia also corresponded to the Egyptian sphinxes, and were often represented as such guarding the Tree of Life, just as the Great Sphinx of Giza guards the Great Pyramid.⁷

The two cherubs may well be the two kas (doubles or souls) of the twin gods (Osiris and Seth, etc.). These, in turn, are identified to the twin obelisks of the Egyptian temples and their twin pillars or pylons which represent the twin Holy Mountains of Paradise. This identification is also suggested by the text of Revelation, which speaks of two Jerusalems (Celestial and Terrestrial), two Temples (idem) and two gods (Christ and Jahveh) "who are their temples themselves", as well as their twin Trees of Life and the twin sources of the Elixir (Rev. 21:22).

The Architecture of the Egyptian Temple

The temples of Luxor and Karnak (see Fig.2 below) — dated at the 19^th dynasty (c.1,300 BC) — can be considered typical examples of Egyptian temple architecture. The entire area was surrounded by a rectangular wall that delimited a holy court (the temenos). In front, stood a monumental gate or pylon flanked by two tapering towers which formed its jambs. These twin pylons had a truncated pyramid shape, as can be seen in Fig.3(a) below. This pylon led into a colonnaded room (called the hypostyle hall) illuminated by means of small clearstory windows. Through this hypostyle room, the inner court was reached via two other pylons and a series of halls.

At the far end of the inner courtyard was the temple proper (or inner sanctum), dwarfish in comparison to the huge pylons and hypostyle rooms. The layout was monumental in style and developed along a central axis aligned with the Cardinal Directions in most cases. The processions, typical of the Egyptian liturgy, took place along the center axis of the temple. This type of temple developed during the Ramesside period and continued essentially unchanged until the end of ancient Egypt.

In Fig.3 we show the temple of Ramses III built in Medinet Habu. As usual with Egyptian (and Hindu) temples, the complex was built by several succeeding monarchs. It was started by Queen Hatshepsut (at about 1460 BC) and enlarged by Tutmoses III. The former constructions were, however, eclipsed by that of Ramses III, who turned the temple into his mortuary temple.

In this beautiful reconstruction of Ramses' temple, several features are worth noting. Moving up from the bottom we have the landing stage at the Nile's bank, the low creneleted walls and the Guard Gate, the lofty towers and the crenelated walls of the Southeastern Gate (formally called Oriental Gate). This gate led to the front of the temple where we have the sacred pool and the small temple of Tutmoses. Next comes the huge pylon of the temple (shown at the center of Fig.3(a))with its four flagstaffs and the outer wall of the temple. This pylon leads into the outer court and, at the left, the Royal Palace (possibly a temporary abode of the King during his stays at the place).

Next we have the second pylon with its two guardians. This pylon leads into the inner court which has, at the rear, the vestibule of the great hypostyle hall. This, in turn, leads into the Inner Sanctum and exits to the great northwestern (formerly western) Gate. The sacred pool was, as we said further above, the invariable feature of Egyptian temples. It was also the counterpart of the Sea of Bronze of Solomon's temple, and the ghats of Hindu temples. In all probability they were used, as in India and elsewhere, in purificatory ritual ablutions akin to Baptism. Such sacred pools — called ghats in India — are attested from remotest antiquity in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, the sites of the mysterious Indus Valley Civilization, one of the oldest known to archeologists.

Atlantis as the Land of the Dead

The imposing structure of the Ramses III temple is closely reminiscent of that of Atlantis and its lofty towers. Except that the square shape (Terrestrial) replaces the circular geometry (Celestial) of its Paradisial counterparts. Besides the lofty crenelated watchtowers that were a typical characteristic of Atlantis and its many aliases (Hades, Lanka, Abzu, etc.), we also have here the triple wall mentioned by Plato, as well as the sanctuary or inner temple at the center.

In this temple complex, which is indeed a replica of Paradise, the river Nile replaces the River Oceanus that surrounded Atlantis in the Greek myths. The River Oceanus was a direct replica of Hindu archetype, the Vaitarani. This impassable river or ocean was also called Açayana = "round goer", in Sanskrit. This Hindu name is the true etym (or etymon or etymology)of the word "Ocean", whose circular nature and meaning become then obvious. The name of the Vaitarani (Dvai-tarani) also means the same thing as Açayana in Sanskrit.

We should recall that the Atlantic Ocean was, originally, deemed to go round the whole earth. That means the ancient world of Eurasia and Africa, such being the reason of its name of "Ocean" or "Round Goer". This was the sense in which the name was used by the ancients, including Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle. But modern users applied the name only to the western portion of the Atlantic Ocean, forgetting its eastern moiety, the Indian Ocean. Herein lies the root of all the confusion of those who unwisely insist in seeking Atlantis in what we now call by the name of the "Atlantic Ocean". Once this essential difficulty is realized, the solution of the riddle becomes real easy and natural, as we argue in detail elsewhere.

The temple of Ramses III was built as a mortuary complex in order to commemorate the fact that Atlantis too was dead, just as was its great god (Osiris, Atlas, Shiva, Poseidon). Osiris was indeed, like Atlas, the true "Pillar of the World". Such is the reason why he was commemorated by the Djed Pillar, indeed the Pillar of the World (Djed, Stambha, Matseba, Atlas, Meru, etc.).

It is no coincidence that the Oriental Gate, the main entrance to the temple of Medinet Habu, opens to the southeastern direction. In fact, it points to the direction of Punt or Amenti (Indonesia) to be reached by heading in this exact direction along the Red Sea and beyond. This point is crucial, for it indicates that Amenti lay, in contrast to what its name suggests, to the south rather than to the west of Egypt.⁸

The triple girding wall of the temple of Medinet Habu was, as we said above, mentioned by Plato as a feature of Atlantis. This coincidence suggests that Plato indeed obtained his information concerning Atlantis from Egyptian sources, just as he claimed in the Timaeus and the Critias. Why would the great philosopher lie in such holy, fundamental issues, so important to the humanity to whom he devouted his life to enlighten?

The Egyptian temples were verbatim copies of Hindu temples, themselves replicas of the Atlantean Paradise. This model city — also the archetype of the Celestial Jerusalem — is Lanka, the capital of Ravana's worldwide empire (Atlantis). This City (Pure Land) is illustrated in the so-called Kalachakra mandalas, and its triple wall (trimekhala, in Sanskrit) is its most characteristic feature. By the way, the Celestial Jerusalem is also traditionally equipped with a triple wall, like Atlantis.

The Meaning of the Temple's Pylons

The pylons of Egyptian Temples — their most outstanding feature — have a very specific symbolic meaning. Before entering their analysis, let us quote the excellent British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by I. Shaw and P. Nicholson (London, 1995) on the entry "Pylon". Pylons are, according to this erudite source:
 

Massive ceremonial gateways (Egyptian bekhenet) consisting of two tapering towers linked by a bridge of masonry and surmounted by a cornice. Rituals relating to the sun-god were evidently carried out on top of the gateway... The earliest known pylons may have been constructed in the pyramid complex and sun temple of the 5th Dynasty ruler Nyuserra (2445-2421 AC)…

Many [pylons] also contained internal stairs and rooms, the purpose of which is uncertain. Ancient depictions of pylons show that the deep vertical recesses visible along the façades of surviving examples were intended to hold flagstaffs... Such flags would have had particular significance in the context of the temple, in that the Egyptian word for "god" (netjer) took the form of a symbol usually interpreted as a fluttering pennant.

Pylons were frequently decorated with reliefs enhanced with bright paint and inlays, in which the scenes tended to emphasize the theme of royal power... The most common motif on the pylon was that of the king smiting foreign enemies or offering captives to a god.

The illustrious authors go on to say further:
  Many important temples had only one pylon, but the more important religions complexes consisted of long successions of pylons and courtyards, each added or embellished by different rulers; the temple of Amun in Karnak, for instance, had ten pylons.

In the unusual temples dedicated to Aten... the pylons consist of pairs of separate towers without any bridging masonry between them. It is likely that the pylon represented the two mountains of the horizon (akhet) between which the sun rose, thus contributing to the temple's role as a symbol of the cosmos and the act of creation. The towers were, each, identified with the goddesses Isis and Nephthys.

The Gerzean Connection

The Gerzeans were a civilization of pre-Dynastic Egypt during the Nagada II Period (3,500-3,000BC). The Gerzeans were probably Semitic, probably of proto-Phoenician stock, to judge from their symbols and their white, bearded figures. The Gerzeans invaded and conquered Upper Egypt, where they became established down to the start of dynastic period, when they were apparently expelled by King Menes, the unifier of ancient Egypt. Gerzean vase decorations are rather unique for their epoch. As can be seen in Fig.3(c), these decorations center on galley ships of up to 200 rowers each, which are amazing large for the epoch in question. These decorations also include a dancing naked goddess, the ithyphallic twins, palm-trees, twin pylons, peaked volcanic mountains, standards and streamers.

Other vases (not shown) display a hilly foreign country (Punt?), flamingos and tiger or leopard skins. As we explain elsewhere in detail, these strange decorations are all typical Atlantean motifs. Atlantis — and its many aliases such as Punt, Ophir, "Tyre", "Phoenicia", Phaeacia, etc. — is often symbolized by a huge ship that sunk to the bottom of the seas, as described in Part I of the present article. This ship is the same as the Holy Barque of the Egyptian temples. It is also the Celestial Ship, the Argonavis constellation, as well as the Ark of Salvation, the Argos ship, and so on, as we adduced further above.

Likewise, the twin cabins shown at midships of the vase decoration of Fig.3(c) are visibly the archetypes of the sacred pylons of the Egyptian temples. So, they too represent the twin Pillars of Hercules, the Gates of Paradise, that is, of Atlantis, as we already said. The fact that they represent the twin mountains of Punt (Paradise) is directly indicated by the hieroglyph of the twin mountain on top the two cabins and on the standard of the ship. Again, the ithyphallic twins represent Atlas and Hercules and, more exactly, Seth and Osiris, their Egyptian counterpart. If this interpretation is correct, we see here the antecedents of these important Egyptian gods, as well as that of the Tale of the Two Brothers, famous in both Egyptian and Phoenician mythologies.

The Dancing Goddess is another important, universal motif. She is Hathor, the Great Mother, as well as the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, dancing before the two armies ready for battle (the Battle of Atlantis = Armaggedon). She is Dawn or Aurora (Ushas, Eos), and represents Lemurian Atlantis (Eden), the Great Virgin Mother of both gods and men. Her "dance" is the fatal dance which allegorizes the earthquake that razed Atlantis, sending it to the bottom.

In reality, the Goddess personifies the Cosmic Yoni, the Submarine Fiery Mare of Hindu myths, the gaping abyss opened by the cataclysm, and which is no other than the giant volcanic caldera of the volcano that destroyed Atlantis. The ithyphallic Twins are, again, the other two peaks of the holy Triple Mountain of Paradise, with the "sun" at the center representing the third, collapsed peak, the Vadava-mukha. The Triple Mountain was the site of Paradise (Lanka or Atala) in Hindu traditions, and its central peak was deemed "the Pillar of Heaven", just like Mt. Atlas.

The palm trees are again connected with Atlantis. They represent the Primordial Phoenicia, a name signifying "Land of the Palm Trees" in Greek. This name is a translation of the Hindu name of Atala, which means the same thing in Sanskrit. The streamers and standards again identify Punt with Atlantis and, more exactly, with the Indonesian sunken continent. They are the glyph of Punt, as well as the symbol of the Pillars of Hercules in Phoenician traditions. In reality, the streamers visually translate the ancient local name of the Malay Peninsula, Setubandha (called Punt in Dravida), which means "Connecting Band" or "Connecting Bridge" in Sanskrit.

The Pylons Represent the Pillars of Hercules

The above comments are very enlightening in what concerns the symbolism of the pylons of Egyptian temples. First of all, let us moot out the fact that they represent the twin peaks of the Mountain of the Orient (or "Horizon") between which the sun rose daily. This mountain was — in the whole of the Ancient World, and not only in Egypt — considered to be the abode of the sun-god. In fact, as we already said, the twin peaks of the Mountain of the Orient and the Occident which is so prominent in Egyptian and in Phoenician mythologies, ultimately derives from the Hindu traditions on Mt. Meru, called by precisely these epithets in India. The twin peaks of Meru are called, respectively, Sumeru and Kumeru, the radix su meaning "to rise" and ku meaning "to sink" in Sanskrit.

One aspect of Horus (and of the Great Sphinx) was called Horemakhet (or Harmakhis), that is, "the Horus of the Horizon" (or of the Orient). This is the old Horus (Aroeris), the brother or alias of Osiris, in contrast to the new Horus (Harpocrates), the son (or renewed avatar) of Osiris. "Horizon" here has the sense of "Orient" or, rather, of Lanka (Indonesia), the Land of Sunrise whence both the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, as well as their gods, originally came.

In Fig.4 we have Egyptian representations of the sun rising between the two peaks of the Mountain of the Orient. In Fig. 4(a) the mountain is represented as a pylon or gate as in the Egyptian Temples.⁹

In Fig. 4(b) the characteristic hieroglyph of the sun rising between the two peaks of the Mountain of Sunrise is topped by the one of "heaven", as well as by the Twin Lions (Acker or Ruty). The Twin Lions stand for Lanka ("the Island of the Lions") and its Indian dual, Shri Lanka. They also represent Orient and Occident (Rustu and Amh). In reality, as we explained above, the Mountain of the Orient represents Trikuta, the three-peaked mountain on whose top Lanka, the capital of the Atlantean empire, was edified. As we said, the central peak of Trikuta sunk away, becoming the giant submarine caldera of the Krakatoa volcano that separates the islands of Java and Sumatra.

The "sun", here, is an allegory (just as is the blooming lotus) of the colossal explosion of its central peak (Mt. Atlas, the central pillar), an event that, according to tradition, was "brighter than a thousand suns". The central peak collapsed and disappeared underseas, leaving an open passage (a strait or "door") in its place. Hence, the Triple Mountain became the twin pylons, the equivalents of the two Pillars of Hercules. The central peak, Mt. Atlas, the Pillar of Heaven — having disappeared from view and leaving behind merely the glow of its explosion, bright as a new sun — became the "Door" they flank. And this "door" or "gate" is the Gateway of Heaven, symbolized by the pylons of Egyptian temples. In reality, this Gate of Heaven is no other than the maritime Strait of Sunda, in the Orient, replicated by that of Gibraltar in the Occident. Together, they form the Four Pillars of the World which the Egyptians allegorized as the four legs of Hathor as the Celestial Cow or as the four members of the goddess Nut posed on the ground, as illustrated in our discussion in Part I of this work. ¹⁰

Almost invariably, the pylons of Egyptian temples were decorated with bas-reliefs showing the king (the alias of the god) striking down masses of prisoners in a display of his power. The king has a raised arm wielding the mace with which the strikes down his victims. Again, this motif is, far more than just a decoration, indeed another allegory of the destruction of Atlantis.¹¹

As shown in the pylon of Medinet Habu (Fig.3(a)) and, more clearly, in Fig.5, below, the striking god often wears the triple crown that symbolizes Trikuta, the triple-peaked mountain. This triple-peaked mountain, often with the central summit represented explicitly or, conversely, symbolized by a stunted, sunken down portion is also represented in the triple spires of Christian cathedrals and churches. The "sun" that shines at the center of the Holy Mountain of the Egyptians is an explicit representation of the colossal explosion of its volcano. In Christian symbolism, this "sun" is often figured by a rose-window, a symbolism taken directly from Hindu and Egyptian archetypes. The rose-windows represent the Golden Lotus, itself an allegory of the colossal "mushroom" generated by the giant explosion of Mt. Atlas. ¹²

The Temple of Herod, the Great

In Fig.6 we show, in perspective and in plan, an ideal reconstruction of the Temple of Herod, the Great. We see how this temple — built in Jerusalem and often mistaken with the (fictive) Temple of Solomon — roughly follows the plan of Egyptian temples. In particular, the triple structure is visible, and so is the separation into an outer courtyard for the gentiles and an inner one for Israel and the priests.

A third inner court was reserved for the women (hierodules?) and in the innermost region lay the holy of holies and the sacrificial altar. Herod's temple was built after the ideal models of the Temple of Solomon and the Temple of Ezekiel. The holy of holies (or inner sanctum) was separated by a curtain from the outer sanctum. Only the high priest could enter this most sacred precinct.

There is yet an important point connected with the symbolism of the Temple of Jerusalem: the insistence on the number ten. This number is precisely the one of the independent realms composing the Atlantean empire, according to Plato. The Sea of Bronze of the Temple had a diameter of ten cubits. Hiram built ten bronze basins and ten carts for them, so that they could be easily moved around is order to be used in ritual ablutions.

Likewise, the altar of the Temple, built of bronze, was ten cubits high and twenty cubits (2x10) on a side. The inner sanctuary was decorated with ten golden candlesticks "built in the prescribed manner" and posted at ten tables, probably also of gold or bronze. The width of the Temple was twenty cubits (about 10 meters) and its inner sanctum was a cube of about 10 meters on a side (20 cubits).¹³

The vestibule of the inner sanctum was also a cube of about 10 x 10 x 10 meters (20 cubit on a side). The altar was 20 cubits on the sides and 10 cubits tall, that is, a half cube of about 10 meters on a side. Ten was indeed the sacred number of Jahveh (the Ten Commandments, etc.), just as Seven (the Seven Days of Creation, etc.) was the one of Elohim. Hence, it is not unreasonable to suppose that there was a connection between Jahveh and his Temple with Atlantis and its ten realms.

The Twin Flags of Egyptian Temples

The flags shown in the Ramses temple of Medinet Habu (Fig.2) were a feature of essentially all Egyptian temples. As we saw above they represented the netjesr (or neters = "gods") and served as an emblem of godliness and, more exactly, of the Land of the Gods (Punt) that the temple replicated in miniature. This identification can again be traced back to India and the traditions concerning Jambudvipa and its lofty ensign, "visible to all nations".

The ensign or banner also came to symbolize, in the ancient world and, in particular, among the Phoenicians, the same as the Pillars of Hercules. These are often represented by a pair of flagstaffs or beams, on whose tops were hung flags or hanging strips of cloth. ¹⁴

The strip of cloth (banner, streamer, etc.) also represents Setubandha (lit. "Connecting Strip (or Band)") the other name of Jambu-dvipa and, more exactly, of Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula. Hercules, the personification of the pillars that bear his name, invariably wore a bandolier or stole which was the alias of the connecting strip of land that linked his secret realm to the continent.

In reality, we had two pairs of Pillars of Hercules, precisely as shown in the outer pylon of the temple of Medinet Habu (Fig.2). One pair corresponded to the illusory pillars of Gibraltar and the other pair to the real ones that flank the Strait of Sunda, in Indonesia.¹⁵

So, in the outer court of the temple — the one allowed to the uninitiated profanes — we had two pairs of Pillars of Hercules: the one of Gibraltar (known to all, but "virtual") and the one of Sunda (real, but known only to the initiates). In contrast, at the inner pylon (see Fig.2) we have only one pair of flagstaffs.

This gate, accessible only to the initiates, represents the actual reality that the two pairs are indeed only one. The message is clear. One has first to cross the virtual gate of Gibraltar in order to reach the second gate or pylon that accesses the real Paradise, here figured by the multitude of pillars of the hypostile chamber that represents Atlantis.¹⁶

The Saints and the Gods of Atlantis

These pillars represent the "saints and gods of Atlantis". Far more than sheer metaphor, the idea refers to the fact that the Atlanteans were literally turned into stony "pillars" by the volcanic ash that settled upon their dead bodies. This is what happened in Herculaneum and Pompey and this is indeed what is meant by the tale of Lot's wife turning into "a pillar of salt" on the occasion of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra by a volcanic conflagration (Gen. 19:26; cf. Luke 17:32).

In front of the jambs of the second pylon of the Temple of Medinet Habu (Fig.2) stand the gigantic figures of two deities guarding the entrance to the inner chambers. These two guardians, either seated or standing, were an invariable feature of Egyptian temples. They represent the two cherubs that guard the entrance to Paradise itself. That they do not indeed represent the pharaoh is attested by the fact that these gods are twin, whereas the pharaoh was the monarch, the single ruler of both Upper and Lower Egypt.

These two Guardians correspond to what the Hindus call Lokapalas or Dvarapalas. They often change into lions, karibus, sphinxes, standing serpents (nagas), dragons or similar monsters. In reality they correspond to Atlas and Hercules, the twins (or "pillars") that guard the straits that serves as the Gates of Paradise. The inner court is elevated, and is accessed by means of stairs, as can be seen in the reconstruction of Fig.2. The stairs represent the ascent to Heaven (or Paradise) placed, as it is, upon the Holy Mountain (Mt. Meru) that is everywhere represented by stepped pyramids.

The Stepped Pyramids and the Babylonian Ziggurats

In Egypt and Babylon — where mountains essentially inexist — the Holy Mountain was represented by stepped pyramids or by stepped ziggurats. The shape eventually evolved into that of smoothed out constructions. But the idea that they represented the stairway to Paradise was preserved in myth and ritual and, as here, in the symbolic staircases of the temples. However, the step pyramids everywhere represent the Mountains of Paradise (Meru or Trikuta) which were indeed stepped due to the terraces built on their slopes for agricultural purposes.¹⁷

Finally, the inner sanctum (or adytum) of the Egyptian temples was, like the one of the Temple of Jerusalem, the sacred precinct where the dead god of Paradise reposed inside his ark or coffin, until the time came for him to resurrect back to life. As we said above, Osiris inside his ark, dead and guarded by the winged figures of Isis and Nephthys literally correspond to Jahveh inside his ark (tebah) and, likewise, guarded by the two winged Cherubs.

The inner sanctum of the temple represents the Holy Mountain inside which Osiris and his many aliases (Yama, Kronus, Saturn, Shiva, Jahveh, Christ, and so on) lay entombed, awaiting for the moment when they are to resurge in the glory of the parousia to bring back the Golden Age and the Millennium.

By the way, the century old discussion whether the pyramids were tombs or cenotaphs of vainglorious pharaohs or, yet, initiatic temples or otherwise is utterly foolish. The same question can be asked of Christian cathedrals and indeed of any of temple or church or synagogue or lodge or crypt.

They all serve the same ritual purpose and they all commemorate the same event: the death of Atlantis-Paradise represented by its deity and the hope (or certainty) that it will resurge back to life with its god and all its saints in the day of the Resurrection of the Dead. Such is the tenet of Christianism, of Judaism, of Hinduism and, in all probability, of all religions, including that of ancient Egypt. For, religion is hardly anything else than the hope of the return of Paradise. And this is proven by the fact that we daily pray to God to "let Thy Kingdom come". So do the Hindus with their "Om, Mani Padme Hum!". And so also the other nations, each in their own peculiar way, daily beg for the immediate coming of the New Era, when Atlantis-Eden and its many dead will resurge from the waters where it lies buried.

The Pyramids of Egypt As Mortuary Temples and Cenotaphs

The pyramids of Egypt — just like the ones of Indonesia, of the Far East and of the Americas — were mortuary temples built for the repose of the dead god. This god was often represented by the person of his dual and replica (ka), the pharaoh, the Living Osiris. Whether the pharaoh was buried or not inside the pyramid he built for his double is immaterial. Indeed, the pyramids were mostly cenotaphs, that is empty mortuary temples. The body of the pharaohs was usually buried elsewhere, generally in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

Likewise, many kings and emperors of the ancient and the medieval times were actually buried inside churches and cathedrals, which no one ever equated with tombs. Like the pyramids and temples of Egypt and elsewhere, the Christian churches too are stylized replicas of the Holy Mountain of Paradise inside which the saints and gods of Atlantis lie entombed. And, as we said above, their triple spires explicitly represent Mt. Trikuta, the Triple Mountain of Paradise.

The coffins and sarcophagi found inside the Egyptian pyramids were either due to intrusive burials or utterly empty, as many specialists have concluded. This fact proves beyond reasonable doubt that the pyramids of Egypt were, like the temples, the symbolic sepulchers of the dead god. This is the reason why they were utterly empty, at least in a physical sense. It is in the same sense that the throne of Buddha is traditionally represented as empty. So is its counterpart, the Ark of Covenant, the throne (or footrest) of Jahveh.

The Far Eastern Origins of Egypt

Turning now to the Far East and to the origins of Egyptian civilization. We already mentioned above that the Egyptian pyramids derived — in both form and symbolism — from the pyramidal complexes of Indonesia. Indeed, as we argued above, everything indicates that Imhotep — with whom the art of pyramid building arose in Egypt ready and perfect from the start — was probably just the leader of a workgang of skilled stone masons and artificers imported from Indonesia. This was done in the same way that Solomon would later import from the same region a similar staff led by Hiram Abiff, the semi-legendary founder of Free-Masonry.

The stepped pyramids of Angkor and Indonesia are not only as perfect and as magnificent as those of Egypt. They derive from local traditions like those of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are far older and far more local than those of Egypt. The sole exception may be the three great pyramids of Giza. But then, many clues point to the fact that they are of Atlantean origin and far predate the presence of the ancient Egyptians in the region. Indeed, these three sister pyramids apparently represent the three peaks of Mt. Trikuta, the triple Mountain of Paradise which we have been discussing.

We disagree with the theory which holds that these pyramids represent the stars of Orion's Belt. We calculated the discrepancies in that representation, and they are grossly in error insofar as the angles, the intensities and the relative distances are involved. All three magnitudes deviate by more than 20% or so, an error far above the capabilities of the meticulous Egyptians, whose precision was typically within 0.01% or better under similar circunstances.

Unfortunately, the older monuments of India and Indonesia have mostly disappeared. And this was due not really due to the passage of time but mostly from the action of man himself, who consistently pillaged the ancient monuments either to construct new ones or, worse still, for sheer fanaticism and wantomness.

Besides, the cataclysm that sunk Atlantis under the South China Sea probably carried under all or most of the magnificent structures that we are allowed to expect from such a superior civilization of semi-divine ancestors. Who knows what wonders and treasures await the undaunted explorer who dares to search where no man has yet looked so far? People have systematically been searching in the wrong places for Atlantis, which is indeed the true site of Eden and of the Eldorado, and other such Golden Paradises. Small wonder then that their results so far have been essentially nil.

The Pyramids of Borobudur

Even the meager remains of Indian and Indonesian pyramids that have survived from a relatively recent past are splendid enough to dazzle even the hardiest of skeptics. The fact that the pyramidal symbolism is very much alive and meaningful in the Indies, in contrast to, say, Egypt, where it never was explained at all, is proof enough of its origin there, in these countries full of the mountains portrayed by the pyramids themselves. The pyramid complex of Borobudur (Java) has been hailed as the most significant monument in the Southern Hemisphere and, perhaps, even of the whole world. Its pyramid stands on a hill and rises 35 meters from its base, which measures 123x123 square meters.

The pyramidal monument itself consists (like Zozer's pyramid) of six square steps. Upon them are three further round steps topped by a bell-shaped stupa. In all, we have ten steps (the number of Atlantis and of Jahveh). The beautiful structure of the Borobudur pyramidal complex is shown in Fig.7. As can be seen, this magnificent pyramid is the stony embodiment of a mandala, a stylized representation of Paradise and its several stages.

The topping stupa (chapel) contained the Adi Buddha, that, is "the Primordial Buddha". In the Buddhist conception, Adi Buddha was the Primordial Man, the same one who the Judeo-Christians equate to Adam, the Hindus with Purusha and the Egyptians with Osiris. One can also see, in Fig.7 above, the trimekhala (or "triple surrounding wall") that is a feature of all such representations of Paradise. This triple wall corresponds to the one of Atlantis, and is encountered in all such Hindu representations of Paradise. It also figures in the description of sunken Paradises turned Hell such as the one of Tartarus in Hesiod (Theog. 726) and in the one of the Celestial Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation.

As we said, Borobudur is one of the most impressive monuments ever erected by man. It is both a temple and a memorial where the cryptic doctrines concerning Adi Buddha and his mysterious Paradise are exposed to the initiates. And these doctrines center on its destruction by fire and water, just as happened to Atlantis. If that connection is allowed, there can be no doubt that the myth of Atlantis originated in the Far East, as it indeed did.¹⁸

The pyramid of Borobudur represents the Holy Mountain (Mt. Atlas or Meru), just as the whole complex represents the Holy City. This six stepped pyramid is capped by a shrine (or stupa) itself composed of three round stages topped by a bell-shaped shrine where the relics of Adi Buddha were contained. In this, Borobudur closely corresponds to Zozer's pyramid which is, likewise, six-stepped and was (originally) topped by a shrine now gone. This seven stepped structure is also characteristic of Egypt. Its pyramids almost invariably have seven steps, even though these may been hidden under the smooth outer cladding. As we see, both in Indonesia and in India, pyramids fit the local traditions and the local geography, in contrast to Egypt and Mesopotamia, or even the Americas, where they make no sense at all, and where archaeologists still argue whether their purpose was to serve as tombs, cenotaphs, temples or whatever.

Borobudur and the Several Levels of Reality

The symbolism of Borobudur centers on the gradual revelation of the several levels of reality to the initiants, more or less in the way the Egyptian temples did, as explained above. The lowest levels of Borobudur corresponds to the basest manifestations of reality and progress in the upper levels, until the ultimate reality — the one corresponding to the highest condition of spiritual enlightenment — is reached in the uppermost level. It was meant to enlighten the visitor and to cause his spiritual progress, as he ascended gradually and finally reached the summit.

The monument proclaimed the unity of the Cosmos permeated by the light of Truth. It explained the apparent paradox of the union of incongruals such as Good and Evil, Fire and Water, Truth and Illusion, Creation and Destruction, Male and Female, and so on, in the one person of God as the Supreme Reality. Adi Buddha, "the Primordial Wisdom" is precisely the knowledge of our paradisial origins in the Far East, in the region of Indonesia.

Adi Buddha is the same spiritual reality that the Hindus call Mahavidya ("Supreme Wisdom"); that the Gnostics call Gnosis or Sophia ("Wisdom"); that the Jews named Hokhmah ("Wisdom") or Binah ("Understanding"), and so on. It is no coincidence that we have ten sefirots (or "aspects of divine manifestation"), just as we also have ten steps in Borobudur's pyramid or ten "lights" in the Temple of Solomon. For, after all, ten is the number of (Indian) Atlantis, just as seven is the one of Paradise (Lemurian Atlantis).

The Wondrous Pyramids of Southeast Asia

Another wonder of Southeast Asia are the temples of Angkor and, particularly, Angkor Vat and Angkor Thom. The Wat is an enormous pyramidal complex of some 1500 x 1400 m² . The complex is surrounded by a vast cloister and is approached from the west. This is done via a monumental paved road built upon a causeway delimited by balustrades formed from standing serpents (nagas). These Nagas symbolize the Cosmic Pillars that support the world, and which are the Eastern counterparts of the Titan Atlas. The reference to Atlas suggests an undeniable connection with Atlantis.

The Wat rises in three concentric enclosures that define three courtyards, as in the Jewish and the Egyptian temples discussed above. The symbolic meaning of the Wat pyramidal complex is clear to specialists. It corresponds to the Polar Mountain (Meru), the hub of the universe. The central shrine corresponds, as in Borobudur, to the supreme reality, while the lower levels, the gate complex, the cloister, the city of Angkor and the outer world represent, in descending order, the outer shells of reality. The orientation of Angkor Wat towards the West represents the fact that it was a mortuary temple.

The Angkor Thom is even more grandiose than Angkor Vat. Like its predecessor, it replicates the sacred city of Paradise (Lanka), built upon the slopes of Mt. Meru. The city was in turn, also a symbolic replica of the Cosmos, on whose shape it was designed. This symbolic universe follows Hindu Cosmological doctrines. When possible, the kings of Angkor utilized natural hills for the construction of their holy cities. When this was impossible, they built artificial mountains in the shape of stepped pyramids like the beauttiful ones of Angkor Thom and Angkor Vat.

The central pyramidal complex of Angkor Thom, the Bayon, is the biggest though not by all means finest of them all. Within the moats of Angkor Thom, fully 16 km around, lie the huge complexes of buildings and of barays (dams), lakes and irrigation channels that formed the sacred city, its temples, houses and palaces.

The plan and conception of angkor Thom are both grandiose. But the execution — pressed by the huge size and the enormity of the work to be done — is somewhat poorer than the refined art of its predecessors such as Angkor Vat and others. The plan of Angkor Thom illustrates the creation of the Cosmos darting from the Center (Mt. Meru), and spreading in successive waves from it. This plan is based in the Cosmogonic myth known as The Churning of the Ocean of Milk and, even more exactly, in the lotus-like mandalas such as the beautiful Shri Yantra.¹⁹

The two monumental roads leading to the central tower of Angkor Thom are lined with a mile-long road of divine personages pulling on the body of the Serpent Shesha (Vasuki) in a giant tug-of-war, exactly as in the myth just mentioned. The serpent is coiled around the Polar Mountain (Meru) that served as the giant churning stick activated by the devas and the asuras. The two parties pull on opposite sides of the churning rope which consists of the immensely long body of the Serpent Shesha. Below, at the bottom, lies the Turtle (Kurma), that represents the Paradise sunken to the bottom of the Ocean of Milk in consequence of the war.

The Paradisial Fountains of Life

The complex of Angkor Thom is also decked with lakes and ponds and fountains representing the healing waters of Paradise (called Barays). These symbolize the Fountains of Life that are the central feature of Paradise everywhere. Another important myth illustrated in Angkor is the Legend of the Leper King and his magic healing by means of these wondrous waters which are no other than the Elixir.

This ancient Hindu myth somehow passed into Christianity, where the Leper King is identified with King Abgarus and his magic healing is attributed to the Holy Sudary, the actual image of Christ obtained by equally magical means. There can be no doubt that the legend of the Leper King originated in the Indies. There it dates from times well before the advent of Christianism as a religion on its own. This serves to prove the force of diffusion of myths, legends and religions traditions from earliest times and from the most remote regions of the world.

Hence, it should not come as a surprise to find out that a similar diffusion also took place for the far more important traditions concerning Atlantis and its destruction at the dawn of times. It was precisely the destruction of Paradise that forced the survivors to come out from Eden and move into distant regions of the world to which they brought the light of their civilization and their beautiful religion.

The Origins of Religion and Civilization in Paradise

There can be no reasonable doubt then that Religion and Civilization developed in Paradise, just as our myths and traditions affirm. From there, after its destruction it was handed down to us by the survivors of the Atlantean cataclysm. They appeared to us primitives as the gods the angels, the saints, the heroes and the demons that are invariably mentioned in all ancient traditions. Hence, just as the Hindus philosophically affirm, there are evils that come to good. And we also see that Catastrophism is indeed a fundamental aspect of Evolution, despite the skepticism of the academicians imbued with the arrogance of the science they mistake for Wisdom and, often, for Compassion.

Creation spreads from its Cosmic Centers due to the impact of bangs and catastrophes such as the one that destroyed Atlantis and caused the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age. Such is the idea embodied in the Shri Yantra and in the Kalachakra mandalas that are precisely the graphic expressions of the doctrines of Tantrism and of Kalachakra Buddhism. Hence, we see, much to the surprise of most of us, that Religion is indeed Wisdom, and that it is invariably far more right and truthful than Science.

The Egyptian Pylons Are Indeed Truncated Pyramids

The giant pillars (or "pylons") characteristic of the gateways of the Egyptian temples are indeed truncated, rectangular pyramids.²⁰

Truncated pyramids and obelisks are a constant in Egyptian symbolism. This symbolism has passed into Masonic ones, and a topless pyramid figures in the Great Presidential of the U. S., as shown in Fig.8. The shiny "Eye of God" which substitutes the top of the Great Pyramid in Fig.6 symbolizes the fact that the Holy Mountain was indeed a volcano that had its top blown off. Such is also the symbolism of the stunted pylons of the Egyptian temples as well as the one of their archetypes, the gopuras of Hindu ones.

The Reality of the Triple Mountain (Trikuta)

In reality, the pylons of Egyptian temples represent the Triple Mountain (Trikuta), the true archetype of Mt. Atlas. More exactly, as we already said, the Central Pillar was blown off by the explosion and became a "naval passage" or "gateway" (a strait) flanked by the two remaining pillars, the Pillars of Hercules.

Such is indeed, we repeat, the symbolism of the imposing pylons that invariably garnished the entrance of Egyptian temples of Ramesside and later times. The same symbolism was also expressed by the two obelisks that very often also figured before the pylon itself. These corresponded to the pillars of Solomon's Temple (Jachin and Boaz).²¹

As we discussed further above, the two flagpoles that also decorated the pylons of Egyptian temples likewise corresponded to the two Pillars of Hercules. More exactly, the twin poles represented the Twins of Gemini, a word that means "Twins" in Latin. The Celestial Twins are represented in the Zodiac by a pair of parallel poles, another symbol of the Pillars of Hercules. The Twins, often identified with Castor and Pollux, are also called the Dioscuri (from Dios-kouroi, "the Divine Boys (or Twins)"). The Dioscuri are copied, almost verbatim, from their Vedic archetypes, the Ashvin Twins. But these two founders of the world are no other than the archetypes of Krishna and Balarama and, hence, of Atlas and Hercules. As we commented further above, these gods are also the Twins figured on the two jambs of the pylons of Egyptian temples and indifferently butchering the Atlantean residents of Paradise, at its destruction.

All Roads Lead to Paradise

As we see, no matter where we look, we always end up with the myth of Atlantis. Hence, recapitulating what we just adduced above. The two pylons (or stunted pyramids) of the Egyptian temples correspond to the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) that decorated the Temple of Solomon. They also correspond to their two obelisks and their two divine flagpoles (neters), and even to their twin guardians.

They also evoke the Phoenician twin pillars dedicated to Baal Melkart (Hercules) and his twin and dual, Yam or Mot ("Death"). These two objects also stood for the Dioscuri Twins (Castor and Pollux) and for their Hindu archetypes, Krishna and Balarama. In Vedic terms, they refer to Gada and Agada, the Ashvin Twins who stand for the two destroyed Paradises, Atlantis and Lemuria.²²

To sum it all up: the two pillars (or "pylons") correspond to the two Pillars of Hercules that demarked the entrance to Atlantis or, yet, the Gateway of Eden. But these Pillars of Hercules were not indeed the ones at Gibraltar (phony ones) but the ones that flank the Strait of Sunda in Indonesia and which are the real Pillars of Hercules that allowed the ingress to Paradise in antiquity, before Atlantis was destroyed by the Flood.²³

Christian Cathedrals Equivalent to Egyptian Temples

It is interesting to note that the symbolism of the Christian cathedrals and churches closely correspond to the one of Egyptian temples. In them, the spires or towers substitute the twin pylons or pillars of Egyptian temples. The towers of many cathedrals such as Notre Dame (see Fig. 9) are stunted in just the way that the two pyramids of the pylons of Egyptian temples also were. The idea is to represent the fact that their tops were destroyed in a giant volcanic explosion, the one that destroyed Paradise.²⁴

The flimsy third tower of Notre Dame represents the regrowth of the destroyed Paradise. More exactly, since volcanoes are eternal and start to grow back as soon as they explode, the flimsy third tower of Notre Dame's cathedral represents the volcanic peak growing back and starting a new era of mankind in the eternal succession of Cyclic Time.

Many authorities such as Hani — whom we already quoted at the opening of the present chapter — recognize the fact that Christian churches and cathedrals are a replica of Paradise. They also recognize that their spires represent, just as do those of Hindu and Egyptian temples, the lofty mountains of Eden. Thence flowed the River of Life, branching out into four rivers, in perfect correspondence with the Hindu myths on Mt. Meru, the Mountain of Paradise. In other words, the three traditions — Hindu and Christian, as well as the Egyptian one — agree not only in what concerns geometrical patterns, but also in the symbolism intended.

As it is not conceivable that the far older and extremely conservative Hindus cribbed their temple symbolism from that of the Christians, or even from the Egyptians, we are compelled into accepting that the diffusion took the opposite direction. In fact, both the Egyptians and the Christians acknowledge that their doctrines, symbols and traditions originated in Paradise. The Terrestrial Paradise was indeed an actual place, called Punt by the Egyptians and Eden by the Jews. Now, these two sites are one and the same thing. They were located Indonesia or, rather, in the Australasian continent beyond it. This vast piece of land was sunken down at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, some 11,600 years ago, the very date given by Plato for the demise of Atlantis. Coincidences? No chance!

Are Indian Temples Older than Egyptian Ones?

Egyptian temples appear to be consistently older than their Hindu and Indonesian counterparts. This is due to the fact that the Egyptian temples were buried under the desert sands, and were thus spared in great extent from the fanatic destruction by the early Christians and their successors, the Muslims. The Indian temples were methodically razed by the Muslims, and hence only date, with minor exceptions, from later epochs, when religious fanaticism finally yielded to the voice of reason.

But we find the Hindu traditions and temple symbolism throughout the Far East, and who knows the surprises that await us in the forests of Indonesia or under its shallows seas, the burial place of Atlantis. The symbolism of Hindu temples and pyramidal complexes extends farther out into the Pacific region, all the way to the Americas (Mayan and Aztec pyramidal complexes and temples). It is, hence, reasonable to ask: where did this universal tradition first started?

No one will reasonably argue that diffusion took place under the aegis of historical or even prehistorical Egypt and, even less, of Mesopotamia or of Phoenicia or Israel. Their traditions and records — which would never fail to mention the important fact — thoroughly exclude this possibility. We are left with India and Indonesia and a very, very ancient tradition that can only date from Atlantean times and her worldwide empire. As we commented further above, the tradition that eventually resulted in the sacred geometry of the Egyptian temples was probably brought to Egypt by the Gerzeans, who conquered pre-Dynastic Egypt, some five or six millennia ago. The Atlantean tradition is intimately connected with the Phoenicians, and the Gerzeans seem to have been proto-Phoenicians. And they apparently came from Punt, to judge from their symbolism, which we study in detail elsewhere.

To this pristine tradition that forms the base and essence of the ancient religion guessed by many specialists, belong not only Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism, but also Egyptian religion, that of Mesopotamia, the one of the Mayas and Aztecs and, why not, that of the Christians and the Jews. We are all brainwashed into believing, from earliest childhood, that our own religion is unique, historical and original, whereas those of the Pagans are all impious, diabolic inventions, which are, furthermore, grossly polytheistic and idolatrous.

But this is only an illusion, for essentially all regions derive from the Urreligion which we just mentioned. "The fear of the Lord that is the beginning of Wisdom". And this fear of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans is indeed nothing else but the salutary panic fear inspired by the subconscious recollection of the cataclysm that wiped paradisial Atlantis off the map, killing our godlike ancestors by the millions and, indeed, making Man "rarer than gold of Ophir". It is this killing en masse that is depicted in the pylons of Egyptian temples, as we mentioned above.

The Triple Towers of Christian Cathedrals

As is the case of Notre Dame, most Christian churches and cathedrals have three towers (spires). Except that the third, central tower, is usually smallish and stunted, and is often almost invisible. The three towers are often pyramidal in shape, just as is the case of the pylons of Egyptian temples or the gopuras of their Dravidian counterparts. The stunted central tower commemorates Mt. Atlas, the central Pillar of Heaven that exploded and collapsed, causing the skies to fall down over Atlantis sinking it under the sea. The central, stunted tower of Christian churches and cathedrals is often placed upon the front door of the edifice as a sort of pediment. This is done as shown in Fig. 9 above.

The structure of St. Paul's cathedral, shown in Fig. 10 is also typical. The two lateral spires are pyramidal in shape and are far taller than the central, more massive structure. Here this structure is domed to represent the Celestial hemisphere that collapsed over Paradise. At the front we have the huge door or gateway, with its triangular pediment above. The lowly pediment represents the fact that Mt. Atlas was crushed down by the weight of the overloaded skies it was unable to support.

The Many Pillars of St. Paul's Cathedral

The many pillars in front of St. Paul's vestibule evoke the ones of Atlantis, the land of the pillars (a-tala). Indeed, they commemorate Dvaravati, the many pillared capital of Krishna, that sunk away in the Flood, and whose name means precisely "many-doored" or, more exactly, "many-pillared".

Likewise, the clocks that often decorate churches and cathedrals are intended to remind us that time flows inexorably, leading the world to the end of the present era, just as happened in the former one. And that end is now impending on us, according to the Gospels and innumerous other traditions that affirm that the end is near.

At the forefront of St. Paul's cathedral we have the monument that stands for the sacred fountain spring or pool that was the invariable feature of the ancient temples. This fountain commemorates the well-watered barays of Far Eastern Paradises, as we discussed further above. Hence, the architecture of Christian churches and cathedrals — particularly those of the Middle Ages — almost invariably follow the sacred geometry of Paradise.

In other words, they replicate, just as did the ancient Egyptian temples, the Triple Mountain of Paradise with its central peak collapsed and turned into a gateway. This gate is often decorated by pillars precisely as was the case of the Temple of Solomon or that of Egyptian temples. These pillars — originally represented as palm-tree trunks — commemorated Atlantis or, rather, Atala, the sunken Hindu Paradise that was turned into a hell by the cataclysm. They embody a play on the word Tala (or Atala) that means both "pillar" and "palm-tree" in Dravida and Sanskrit. Such puns do not obtain in any other language we know of, except insofar as they are derived from the tongues just mentioned.

Dendera, Dvaraka, and Other Archetypes of Atlantis

Hence, we see why Egyptian temples such as the one of Dendera and, indeed, most if not all others, were full of palm-tree stems figuring the pillars of Atlantis. As we just said, the many pillars of Christian churches and cathedrals also commemorated the same fact, perhaps unwittingly. The temple of Dendera (and others in Egypt) was built underground, with the city of Dendera constructed above it. Again, the idea was to represent the realm of Atlantis sunken underground by the cataclysm that turned this former paradise into a veritable hell, with a new world built over it, the former one.

The name of Krishna's sunken capital, Dvaraka, mentioned above, means "many doored" or, rather "many pyloned" or "many-pillared". So do its many epithets such as Dhara ("Pillar" or "Trunk"), Hastina-pura ("City of the Elephants"), Dvaravati ("Many Pillared"), Bhoga ("Standing Serpent"), and so on. The word "pillar", in Sanskrit (tala or atala) also implies the idea of "standing serpent", "elephant's trunk", "erect phallus".

Ultimately, these ideas refer to the Shiva-linga ("Phallus of Shiva"), the great god and the emblem of primordial Atala. It also represents Shesha, the Standing Serpent who was the alias and archetype of Atlas. Indeed, Atlas was a Titan (or Naga, rather), one of the anguipedal giants, whose "serpent feet" were a memento of their serpentine origin.

Conclusion

All in all, the symbols and the sacred geometry of temples and cathedrals everywhere only find their full explanation in the languages and archetypes of India and Indonesia. And this can only mean one thing, when we pause to think the problem over: these replicas of Atlantis all originated there, in the dawn of times. If this undeniable reality is accepted, we can only conclude that therein lies the true site of Paradise-Atlantis. Where else?

We would also like to point out the fact that, though the ancients had to follow the rigid canons pertaining to the sacred geometry of temples and cathedrals, this in no way hampered their creative freedom. Though always following these stringent canons, the ancient architects and stonemasons exercised their creativity and came out with the magnificent temples and cathedrals that we can see, even today, just about everywhere in the world.

Temples, more than anything, attest the unicity of the Primordial Religion, for they all obey the same Sacred Geometry everywhere and everywhen. The fact that they all imitate Paradise and, more exactly, Atlantis, is, in our view, the most compelling evidence that the Lost Continent indeed existed, just as Plato stated.

It was Atlantis that civilized the whole of the ancient world, in prehistoric times far earlier than the rise of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and the other civilizations we know of. Atlantis is indeed so old that its existence was utterly forgotten by all but the pious traditions that come to us from antiquity. The existence of Atlantis-Paradise is indefinitely stated in our holy rituals and in the sacred symbols of all religions. But we utterly forgot their meaning and purpose long ago. And we only perform our rites apishly, and copy our symbols blindly, never connecting them to the originals at all, and never realizing that they indeed commemorate Atlantis and its demise, in the dawn of times.

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¹ Imhotep was a semi-legendary hero and god who was later identified with Asclepios (or Aesculapius). Imhotep was not only the inventor of the arts of architecture and metallurgy, but also of the art of writing (cursive?), city-planning, astrology, magic, divination and so on. Imhotep was, allegedly, the son of Ptah, the god of Punt, the Land of the Gods. And Punt was no other than Indonesia, as we already said. So, Imhotep was indeed a Hindu from Indonesia, the name we now give to Punt.

Imhotep-Asclepios was often identified or associated with serpents, an emblem of his Naga nature, the Nagas being the white Serpent People (or Dragons) of India and Indonesia. The mysterious figure of Imhotep evokes the no less enigmatic than the one of Hiram Abiff, the builder of Solomon's Temple. Solomon imported Hiram and his gangs of workers and artificers from the equally legendary Tyre (the Primordial Phoenicia that is the same as Ophir or Punt).

Perhaps both Imhotep and Hiram Abiff, the legendary founder of the Free-Masons, were indeed the personifications of the crews of specialists imported from the Indies in the primordials of civilization. They are also related to the Oannés (i.e., Nagas) that civilized Mesopotamia (Sumer) and taught them all arts. Perhaps even the Goths who build the Gothic cathedrals belong to the same confrary of Indian experts in guilded crafts such as stone masonry, smithing metals, and so on.
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² In reality, this sacred ritual is of Hindu origin, as discussed by M. Eliade and by A. Coomaraswamy, and is routinely used in the construction of Hindu temples. The stake is driven into the head of the subterranean Naga (Shesha) that supports the earth from below, and who is the alias of Atlas, the anguipedal Titan. The circle with the crossed diameters is, in reality, an image of the earth, usually thus represented in antiquity.

More esoterically, the Crossed Circle is a symbol of Atlantis, which had precisely this shape, as described by Plato. Atlantis imaged Lanka, indeed placed at the Center of the World, at the intersection of the line of the Equator and that of Meridian Zero. This was the origin of geographical coordinates, which, in Hindu antiquity, lay in Indonesia. The Crossed Circle was also adopted as the symbol of Atlantis, as several Atlantologists of note such as Otto Muck have remarked.

These two lines form the figure of the Cross that is everywhere the symbol of Paradise and its Holy Mountain (Meru, Calvary, Alborj, Kailasa, Qaf, etc.). As we argue elsewhere, the Crossed Circle represents the Holy Mountain seen from above. And this Holy Mountain is itself a "squared circle" representing a conical base (circular) that tapers into a pyramid (square). We find the Holy Mountain thus represented both in the Americas (Navajos, etc.) and in the Far East (Burma). The Holy Mountain is also represented as a Cross, as seen from above, in the famous Hindu Kalachakra Mandalas, a standard representation of Paradise.
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³ The Jewish temple was called hekal in Hebrew. The word is said to derive from the Sumerian e-gal through the Akkadian ekallu, meaning "big house". More likely, the Hebrew word and its Sumerian archetype derive from the Dravida e-kal meaning "lofty pillar". The radix e (or he or che) means "lofty", "strait" and implies an idea of "scepter" and "command". The radix kal (or chal) means "stone" and, by extension, a standing stone (menhir, pillar, obelisk, betyl, etc.).

Hence, the Dravidian word can be interpreted as meaning "big house", as in the Sumerian e-galu, a name applied rather to the palace than to the temple. The Dravidian term evokes the Hebrew ones applied to pillars (mazzeba, bethel). These also embody the idea of "erect". More usually, the temples — particularly the Egyptian and the Hindu ones — were characterized by the presence of a lofty pillar (a pyramid, etc.) or even of a pair of such (obelisks, pylons, etc.). Very often, the building itself (adytum) was comparatively small.
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⁴ The cubic structure evokes the one of the Celestial Jerusalem, likewise cubic or pyramidal (Rev. 21:16). The square shape corresponds to the earth, whereas the circle symbolizes the sky (the horizon). Temples usually represent the "squaring of circle", the impossible union of incongruals represented by Earth and Sky, Fire and Water, King and Slut, and so on. In essence all such structures represent Mt. Meru is pyramidal in shape, but is also often represented as a cone. Many temples and pagodas often ingeniously combine the square shape and the round one.
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⁵ Solomon sent Hiram and his men overseas to Ophir in order to fetch him the cedarwood, the sandalwood and the fir (teak?) for the construction of the Temple and of his palace (cf. I Ki. 5-10; II Chr.2, etc.). They departed from the port of Ezion-Geber, in the Red Sea and, hence, could only go southwards, to the Indies, and not north, towards the country now called thus, in commemoration of the primordial Lebanon. The radix leb- (or lev-, etc.) relates to "lion" . Above all, it alludes to Lanka, the legendary Island of the Lions so often equated with Atlantis, Avalon and other such Paradises.

The word "Lebanon" ultimately derives from the Dravida Lev-annon meaning "Ancestral Lanka" or "Ancestral Island of the Lions" in Dravida. Besides, the modern Lebanon never produced fir and, far less, sandalwood (algum or almug = valguka = "sandalwood", in Dravida). The palace of Solomon was also built of cedarwood, and was indeed called "House of the Forest of Lebanon" (I Ki. 7:2). The Song of Songs — so profane in its essence and so clearly copied from Hindu and from Egyptian counterparts — also speaks of this legendary "Lebanon" as of Paradise (S. of S. 3:9; 4:8-16; 5:15; 7:4), etc..
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⁶ Indeed, Ezekiel tells of two Eagles and two Trees of Life (one a cedar, and the other a grapevine, as usual). This mysterious parable is the famous Hindu one concerning the two birds and which dates from Vedic times in India. It figures in the Rig Veda (1:164), in the hymn entitled The Riddle of the Sacrifice. This is the most mysterious of all in the already enigmatic Vedas. We discuss the mysterious parable of the two birds in our book on Alchemy, and will not repeat this subject here.

The passage just mentioned of Isaiah is telling of the return of the children of Israel to their formerly destroyed but recovered Eden, where they will again rebuild the Celestial Jerusalem. Eden is there equated to Tarshish and the Isles (those of Atlantis) and the "ships of Tarshish" are identified to doves, an image often associated to Atlantis (the Pleiades or Atlantides = peleias or "doves", in Greek). Isaiah even tells of the replanting there of the Cedar of Lebanon and of the reconstruction of Jerusalem, "the Zion of the Holy One of Israel" under a new sun and a new moon (that is, in the antipodals).
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⁷ It may well be the case that word "sphinx" — which has no certain etym in Egyptian — indeed derives from the proto-Dravida ech-pinx, meaning "the ghost (i.e., the double or ka) of the dead" or, yet, "the guardian of the dead". The Great Sphinx is mentioned in the famous stele attributed to Honitsen, the daughter and lover of Kheops, as existing in the times of her famous father. Moreover this stele also mentions the Great Pyramid as the tomb of Osiris. There are also other instances in ancient Egyptian records of the existence of the Great Pyramid before the times of Khufu (Kheops). Indeed, both this pharaoh and his whorish daughter are purely legendary, semi-divine characters who often figure in Egyptian tales as well as in those of other nations.

The name of the Sphinx is usually derived from the Greek sphingein, meaning "to strangle". But this may be indeed a corruption of the Greek shesep ankh ("the living image"). This is an epithet often applied to the sphinxes in Egypt. Hence, we see that sphinxes were believed to be the guardians of the dead, just as the Great Sphinx was the guardian of the Great Pyramid, the tomb of Osiris. As her Egyptian name suggests, the Sphinx was the ka (or "double") of Osiris guarding his own tomb against intruders.
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⁸ Amenti literally means "Occident", that is, "the Land of the Dead". The word also alludes to the region where the sun mythically "dies" every day. But this is only a rather transparent image. The sun or, rather, Ra, the Sun-god, was a personification of the dead Atlantis. The Egyptians were so centered on death and its cult, because they — in contrast to us — still clearly remembered the Atlantean cataclysm. Likewise, Atlantis — the true name of Punt or Amenti or Hades, etc. — also lay towards the southeast of Egypt and of Greece, rather than towards the West and the Atlantic Ocean, as so many authorities formerly thought.

The fact that the Egyptians formally called the southeastern gate by the name of Eastern (or Oriental) Gate is also full of esoteric symbolisms. Lanka and its counterparts (Amenti, Punt, Ophir, Dilmun, Hades, Abzu, Yamakoti, etc.) were indeed located towards the Orient in relation to the Mediterranean Basin. There, the Old World civilizations arose and died. Lanka is old even in regards to India, and it was there that its great epic, the Ramayana, was composed. In fact, Lanka was the site of Paradise, the one we know under the name of Eden. Originally, Lanka and its Holy Mountain (Trikuta, Meru, Atlas, Zion, Alborj, etc.) were equated with the Mountain of the Orient, a term identical in meaning with "Mountain of Origin", the birthplace of Mankind.

When it exploded, razing Atlantis-Eden, the name of the Holy Mountain was naturally changed into that of "Mountain of the Occident" (occidere = "to die"). Rather than to directions — which vary with the position of the observer — such names indeed refer to actual places. So, "Orient" designates the place where the sun is born, and the new day starts by convention. And this was Indonesia, the site of Lanka, the meridian of origin in antiquity. Likewise, "Occident", the place where the sun died daily, referred to the western lands of Eurasia, the Old World. The Egyptians, like the Greeks and other peoples, attempted to transfer the myth to their new place of residence. But this never worked, and only led to riddles and paradoxes that even today torment all sorts of experts, unable to solve the puzzle created by this change of point of reference.
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⁹ As such, these pylons represented the Gate of the Sun, another name of the Mountain of the Orient (or of Sunrise), that is no other than Mt. Meru. Such name indeed derives from Hindu epithets of Mt. Trikuta (or Meru). For instance the name of Ophir — the mysterious region visited by Solomon's men — indeed derives from the Dravida o-piru (or o-phiru) meaning "Gate (o) of the Sun (piru)". Mt. Meru, the Mountain of the Orient, is also called by epithets such as Hemadri ("Golden Mountain"); Karnikachala ("Lotus Mountain"); Devaparvata ("Mountain of God"); Trikuta ("Three Peaked"); Sunyodaya-giri ("Mountain of Sunrise"); Ushas ("Dawn" = the Malaya Range), Aruna-chala ("Mountain of Sunrise"), etc..
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¹⁰ We treat this fundamental matter in detail elsewhere. Despite its importance, it cannot be treated here for reasons of space, and we recommend that the interested reader seek our works on this subject. The "blooming lotus" is, yet, an allegory of the explosion of Mt. Atlas. The symbolism of the lotus (in both Egypt and India) is treated in other works of ours,which should be consulted by the more sanguine reader. One of our works on the subject is entitled "The Secret of the Golden Lotus", which also figures in our Homepage.
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¹¹ The giant wielding the mace and striking down the Primordial Serpent is an unequivocal reference to Atlantis and to the fact that it lay in Indonesia. When one looks at a map of the region, the reason for the allegory becomes evident. The figure represents quite accurately the local geography. The raised arm and the mace correspond to the Malay Peninsula, locally called Kra (or Kara = "Hand", "Arm", in Sanskrit).

The "head" of the giant is the Southeast Asian promontory and the sacrificial victim he strikes and cleaves in two formed by is the islands of Java and Sumatra, cleft apart by the giant explosion of the Krakatoa volcano that opened the Strait of Sunda (the "Door"). Far from being an illusion, this allegory is a sad reality which is obsessively mentioned in the Bible (the raised, irate "arm of Jahveh" smiting the impious) and in other mythologies.
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¹² This triple-peaked crown, just as the Triple Mountain, can often assume subtle variant shapes. One such is the three-stepped pyramid that is the characteristic crown of Isis (herself a personification of the Great Mother, Mu or Lemuria). Other variants of the triple crown are the two horns and central disk of Hathor, the two horns and central peak of Reshet, the triple lotus flowers (or papyrus stems) of Hapi, the trident crown of Iabet, the triple-peaked mountain of Ha, the two arrows and shield of Neith, the triple atef crown of Osiris, and so on. In the Christian churches and cathedrals, the Triple Mountain usually assumes the shape of the double lateral spires flanking the central, dwarfed tower. Its stunted size refers to the fact that it exploded and collapsed, as explained further above.
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¹³ The cubit was, theoretically, the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger of an average sized adult. Its value varied, in the ancient world, from about 18 to 21 inches (46 to 53 cm). The cubit is worth about half a yard (36 inches) or half a meter, and it is not impossible that the original measures of the Temple were given in yard or meters with the inner sanctum measuring exactly 10 x 10 x 10 meters or yards. Such a double unit standard of about 1 meter in length seems to have prevailed in the ancient world, and it is likely that the meter unit was accurately known from Atlantean times, as we argue elsewhere.
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¹⁴ Such emblems of deity are also frequently used in India and Tibet. Indeed, the dollar sign $ — which we obtained from the Phoenicians — represents the twin Pillars of Hercules around which is coiled the Serpent of Eden or its equivalent, the banner or bandolier of the Hero. The ensign (or banner or streamer) expresses the idea of "a visible sign", translated in Sanskrit by names such as linga, ketu, dhvaja, etc.. The linga ( that is, the phallus of Shiva) is the emblem of the Supreme God and, hence, of gods in general. It expresses, as does the word ketu, the idea of Mt. Meru as the phallic mountain at the center of the world. It also symbolizes the fall of the vajra, the thunderbolt that destroyed Paradise (Jambudvipa). The linga was the archetype of the concept of the netjer as a sort of omphalos (or raised stone) and, more exactly, as an avatara of the deity fallen from heaven as a sort of very special meteorite.

Jambu-dvipa ("Island of the Jambu Tree") is the name of the innermost of the seven dvipas ("islands" or "continents") that comprised the Cosmos in Hindu Cosmology. The dvipas were circular and concentric, separated by circular oceanic strips. This Hindu concept of the Cosmos is remarkably similar to Plato's conception of Atlantis, and its sacred geometry was undoubtedly present at the back of the philosopher's mind. The enormous jambu tree planted at the center of Jambu-dvipa was the archetype of the Tree of Life everywhere.

In reality it was the volcanic plume of Mt. Atlas (or Meru) which served both as a lighthouse and as an ensign and a warning to all nations that grow impious and arrogant as Atlantis did. We see, from the above comments, how the idea of representing the idea of "godhead" by a banner or ensign undoubtedly passed from India (where it makes sense) into Egypt (where it does not, at least to Egyptologists).
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¹⁵ The Strait of Sunda separates the island of Java from that of Sumatra. It was opened by a gigantic prehistoric explosion of the Krakatoa volcano that lies at the bottom of the strait. Such is the fact allegorized by the myths of Hercules cleaving open the isthmus and opening a maritime passage ("door") to the outer ocean. Obviously, such a thing did not happen in Gibraltar, at least in the times of Man, in contrast with what indeed took place in Indonesia.

This event, which is central to the understanding of the true story of Atlantis is allegorized in a multitude of myths from everywhere, as we explain in more detail elsewhere. It is interesting to note that the portrait of pharaoh posted at the entrance of Egyptian temples — shown in Fig. 2, for instance — as if smiting open the door of the temple closely recalls the myth of Hercules opening up the Strait of Gibraltar with the blows of his mace, as told in certain Greek myths of the great hero, as we commented further above.
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¹⁶ Atlantis derives its name from that of Atala, the Primordial Phoenicia (or "Land of the Palm Trees") of the Hindus. Atala literally means "the Land of the Pillars" or "the Land of the Palms", the term tala, in Sanskrit, meaning both a pillar or a palm-tree. Small wonder then that the Egyptians, willing to represent Paradise, built their hypostyle temples with "palm-tree pillars". Once again, the visual pun that does not make any sense in Egypt can be traced back to India. More exactly, it can be traced back to Atlantis and the Dravidas, for the wordplays with its name indeed derives from that primordial language, ancestral of that of the ancient Egyptians.

The "pillars" in question allude to both Atlas and Hercules, the two "Pillars of Heaven". However, in the ancient myths the heroes and saints were said to become pillars in Paradise, that is, in Atlantis. It is thus that Cu Chullain and his braves turn into pillars in their final battle. Even in Judaism and Christianism, the worthy are promised to become pillars in Paradise Restored (the New Jerusalem). This fact can be seen, f. i., in Rev. 3:12; Gal. 2:9; 5; 3:6; I Thim. 3:15, etc..
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¹⁷ This type of agriculture is characteristic of mountainous regions and, particularly of the Far East. The terraces are required not only to control the water flow, but also to prevent erosion and to preserve the fertility of the soil. The rain waters are collected at the summit of the mountains and stored in dams called barays in Southeast Asia and Indonesia. This word derives from the Dravida para-tt-is meaning a dam or cistern (para) built upon a mountain or volcanic peak in order to provide water (is) for agricultural purposes and, particularly, for the cultivation of rice in terraced mountains.

It is from this Dravidian base that the word "Paradise" (Sanskrit: Paradesha; Greek: Paradeisos; Latin: Paradisus; Hebrew: Pardes; Zend: Pairidaesa, etc.) ultimately derives. Even today it is possible to observe the terraced mountains used for cultivation in India, in Indonesia, in Southeast Asia and, indeed, in the whole of the Far East. The marvelous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were indeed a local recreation of Paradise and its terraced orchards by Queen Semiramis.
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¹⁸ Adi Buddha is closely connected with the Tantric form of Buddhism called Kalachakra (or "Wheel of Time") which arose in Bengal and spread to Tibet, Java, Nepal and Mongolia. This form of Buddhism is also called Vajrayana ("the Way of the Vajra (or Thunderbolt)"). It is said to have originated in Shambhalla, the mysterious underground realm of the King of the World (Subterranean Atlantis?). Moreover, its doctrines are apocalyptic and center on the return of the Saviour as Kalkin, the White Knight who is the 10th. avatar of Vishnu.

This Primordial Buddha was not accepted by the Southern Buddhists (of Shri Lanka) nor by those of China and Japan. But he became dominant in Tibet, Mongolia and Nepal, and is connected with Tantric doctrines such as those concerning Svayambhu ("Self-born") and Anupapadaka ("He who had no parents"). Adi Buddha was born in the Terrestrial Paradise (Atlantis?) called Bhumi ("Terrestrial") or Agnishtha Bhuvana ("the Burnt Land"). The idea of a land destroyed by fire pervades Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism. It closely evokes Atlantis, another Paradise allegedly destroyed by fire in a volcanic conflagration very much like the one connected with Adi Buddha.

Is it believable that such a sublime religion be founded on a fiction or on a lie rather than on real fact? Moreover, it is a fact that the world was subjected to a global cataclysm of cosmic proportions precisely at the date preconized by Plato and other authorities. That cataclysm was the drastic end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, when a myriad of species such as the mammoth, the mastodon, the saber-toothed tiger, the cave bear, the mountain lion and many such became utterly extinct the world over. So, we have both the tradition and the actual fact behind it. Why insist on rejecting their connection?
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¹⁹ We discuss this profound Cosmogonic myth of the Hindus in detail elsewhere. It is an allegory of the destruction of Paradise as a consequence of the war of the devas and the asuras. This Paradise and this war is no other than Atlantis and its war, narrated by Plato. The interested reader can follow the subtler meanders of this myth, which has baffled experts so far, in the work just mentioned. These two races correspond to the Gods and the Titans of Greek mythology. Their war is the one Plato equates with that of the Atlanteans and the "Greeks". As with Atlantis, the war of the Hindus also ended in a cataclysm of Cosmic proportions.

So, as we see, once more, the myth of Atlantis did not originate in Greece or even in Egypt, but in the Hindu myths and religious imagery. These are told in detail in epic traditions such as those of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the greatest sagas ever written. More than charming initiatic novels, these sagas of the Hindus, and so their many traditions, are indeed Sacred History, concerning real persons and real events that took place in the dawn of times, when Mankind still lived in the Garden of Eden, the true site of Atlantis.
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²⁰ The word "pylon" has, in English, a somewhat confusing etymology. Webster gives: 1) a gateway; 2) a truncated pyramid or two of these serving as a gateway to an Egyptian temple; 3) any slender, towering structure flanking an entranceway. In Greek, pylos means "door", "gateway"; whereas pylon means "threshold", "vestibule". It seems that the second etym evolved somewhat mistakenly, from an association with the idea of pillar (Latin pila), itself confused with pyloros ("gatekeeper" and, hence, "jamb" or "pylon"). We use the word in the Greek sense of "gateway", and call the two huge pyramidal jambs characteristic of Egyptian temples by the name of "pillars".
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²¹ Jachin and Boaz mean, respectively, "Erected by Jahveh" and "Strong". The etym of "Strong" recalls the usual name of Herakles as Bias ("the Strong One"), as well as that of his Indian archetype, Bala (or Balarama = "the Strong One" or "the Strong Dark One"). Other authorities interpret the name of Jachin as meaning "Foundation", a word that seems to be an esoteric reference to Sutala (or Atala), the destroyed Paradise of the Hindus. Atala is truly the archetype of Atlantis and its name means "Foundation" (Sutala) or "Foundered" (Atala) in Sanskrit.

It seems that the name of Jachin ("Erected by Jah") is indeed an euphemism to disguise the fact that Jahveh destroyed the pillar that corresponded to Atlas, sparing the other one that withstood his punishment (the Flood). Sanchuniation — the famous Phoenician priest who disclosed the meaning of the inscriptions on the pillars of the temple of Baal (Hercules) — spoke of two mysterious personages, Misor and Sydyk (Mishor and Sedek), whose names also mean "Upright" (or "Strong") and "Just" (or "Straight"). These two apparently correspond to Jachin and Boaz and, more exactly, to Atlas and Hercules-Gadeiros, the two pillars of Atlantis.
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²² The names Gada and Agada mean, respectively, "Cattle-rich" and "Cattle-poor". Gada corresponds to Gadeiros (meaning the same), the twin brother of Atlas, according to Plato. Hence, Gada and Agada are indeed the Vedic archetypes of Atlas and Hercules, the twins who co-ruled Atlantis according to the Greek philosopher. In Egyptian terms, the eternally disputing twins are represented by Seth and Osiris or, yet, by Horus and Seth. The real Lemuria or, rather, Lemurian Atlantis, should not be confused with the vaunted one of Theosophists. It lies in the Indian Ocean, and corresponds to the Australasian continent sunken at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age.
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²³ The ancient authorities, like their modern counterparts, could never agree on the actual location of the Pillars of Hercules and, hence, of Atlantis itself. The ancient sitings ranged from Gibraltar to the Bosphorus (Black Sea), to the Schott-el-Djerid, the Bab-el-Mandeb and even the Palk Strait between India and Shri-Lanka. In reality the Strait of Hercules in question is the one of Sunda, opened up by the gigantic prehistoric explosion of the Krakatoa volcano now lying at the bottom of the strait. In this case, the Pillars of Hercules are the two majestic volcanic peaks that flank the Strait of Sunda, the Karang (1,778 meters) and the Kalianda (1,281 meters).
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²⁴ The Hindus speak of two Mts. Merus. One is the Sumeru (or Kailasa) in the north, and the other is the Kumeru ("Southern Meru") in the infernal regions of the extreme south. These two are often placed at the two Poles, but this is sheer exoterism. Alternatively, the Kailasa is placed in the Himalayas (really, the Hindu Kush) and the Sumeru in Indonesia (Lanka). The two Merus are held to be pyramidal in shape, being the archetypes of the pyramids of Giza. These are three in number, representing the three peaks of Trikuta. But, of course, the central peak of Trikuta — the one which corresponded to Mt. Atlas, the (central) Pillar of Heaven — exploded, leaving only the two Merus and the "Door" (the Strait of Sunda) behind.
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