The
Phoenix Solution: Secrets of a Lost Civilisation
by Alan E. Alford
In The Phoenix Solution: Secrets of a Lost Civilisation,
British author Alan Alford brings novel and interesting insights
into the "lost civilization" theory made famous by
Plato nearly 2,500 years ago. By his own description a
"non-expert," Alford began his quest with a study of
the mysteries of the Pyramids and Sphinx of the Giza plateau;
soon he was encountering hidden knowledge which revealed, in his
words, "that the match between mythology and astronomy is
somewhat on the order of 100 per cent." Alford concludes
that such knowledge was precise enough to suggest a lost,
pre-historic culture of tremendous advancement.
Alford starts his story with the mysterious Sphinx, the date
of which has lately been challenged and pushed back thousands of
years, ostensibly based on geological observations. This view, of
course, is rejected by orthodox Egyptologists, who are not
prepared to accept its implications: To wit, that a
technologically advanced culture existed eons before the current
era of human history. This rejection continues despite the
tantalizing evidence presented by such mavericks as von Daniken,
John Anthony West, Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval. As Alford
points out, it seems unreasonable that the orthodoxy denies the
antiquity of Egyptian culture while embracing that of other
cultures.
Regarding the Sphinx itself, Alford reiterates the fact that
its head is too small for its body and the hypothesis that it had
been recarved, possibly millennia after the original, which may
have been a lion or, possibly, a dog. As concerns the Great
Pyramid, Alford points out that it seems to have been built at
the same time as the Sphinx and posits that it is the oldest
pyramid in Egypt. The new date of the Great Pyramid thoroughly
disturbs the orthodoxy and raises perplexing questions as to
construction methods, questions that have always existed, since
the Pyramid is among the most astounding feats of engineering
ever devised by human hands - how much more astonishing is this
feat if pushed back several centuries or millennia?
In his analysis of the age of the Pyramid, Alford dissects
and dispenses with the "evidence" of it having been
constructed by the 4th Dynasty Pharaoh, Khufu, or Cheops,
"discovered" by English traveler Col. Howard Vyse, who
claimed to have found "inscriptions" hidden in the
"construction chambers" above the so-called King's
Chamber. These inscriptions, Alford concludes, are bogus, an
opinion concurred with by this reviewer. He also disposes of the
cherished notion that all Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs,
a belabored opinion that should in all reasonableness be put to
rest. Reiterating the words of Bauval, Alford says, " . . .
the Great Pyramid has a complexity akin to some giant machine
which is beyond our comprehension." To turn the Great
Pyramid into a "tomb" built by a megalomaniacal Pharaoh
using slave labor degrades it tremendously and buries its
magnificent secrets under a mound of the mundane.
Alford hypothesizes that the Great Pyramid, Sphinx and other
"ooparts" ("out-of-place-artifacts") were not
built by 4th Dynasty kings but were adopted by later dynasties,
an idea that causes great distress to Egyptian Egyptologists, who
have loathed the idea that anyone but the known Egyptian state
built the Great Pyramid, because it implies that another race was
involved. It is worthwhile mentioning that the current Egyptian
people is not the same as the ancient, so this ethnic pride
should not be a factor in any case. Alford asks, "Is it so
crazy to suggest that the unique design of the Great Pyramid was
a legacy from an earlier, more advanced culture?" He then
continues, "In my view, it is certainly less crazy than
continuing to believe that the Pyramid was constructed as a tomb
for a dead king, and that he built this totally over-engineered
and revolutionary wonder of the world with absolute perfection at
the first attempt." While marveling at its construction,
however, Alford refrains from ascribing this wonder of
engineering to "aliens" with superior technology, as is
one popular theory of today.
In his examination of the ancient Egyptian religion, although
not an expert, Alford does a decent job, apparently without the
benefit of the important body of work produced by such
extraordinary mythicists and experts on Egyptian religion as
Gerald Massey, Albert Churchward and Barbara Walker. Alford also
displays astute insight as to the duplicity and chicanery of
priests, who deliberately change myths in order to establish
their superiority over rivals. Whereas so many before him have
utterly failed to appreciate the cosmic, rather than mundane and
historical, significance of the Egyptian myths, Alford steps up
to the plate and gets a hit, although he stumbles and misses the
mark on a number of highly important aspects. "Could these
'gods,'" he asks, "represent celestial bodies and their
cycles?" - an query to which this reviewer says,
"Amen!" If, however, Alford had encountered the works
of those great scholars mentioned above, he would not have needed
to ask this and other questions, such as whether the enigmatic
"Ennead" were the nine planets, because he would have
more clearly seen that the ancient Egyptian religion is a version
of the ubiquitous, standardized celestial mythos that revolves
around the daily, monthly, annual and equinoctial movements of
the known heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon, stars and
planets, rather than unknown bodies and cosmic cataclysms à la
Velikovsky and Sitchin, towards whose work Alford fortunately
later turns a critical eye. This initial error and oversight
undermines Alford's main thesis, however, and makes a significant
portion of his book tedious to read, with Alford himself failing
to live up to the principle of Occam's Razor ("invent no
unnecessary hypotheses"). Alford nevertheless brings some
new and valuable insight into Egyptian religion and, by
extension, that of many other parts of the world, and assists in
restoring the monumental, cosmic significance of these myths,
which have been dismissed and denigrated by later cultures. Also,
he does get briefly back on track when he attempts to synthesize
the "exploding planet hypothesis" with the important
celestial mythos, as well as with his short discussion of
freemasonry; for, it is within the secrets of masonry that we
will find many of the answers to our questions about ancient and
modern cultures. It is masons who built the pyramids and who
created the celestial mythos that has been the basis of nearly
every religion, as they were also master astrologers, not just
astronomers, who encoded their extensive knowledge within the
Great Pyramid, which thus serves as a "cosmic
computer," as well as a temple of great importance.
This awesome cosmological understanding, then, cries out for
the explanation provided by the Lost Civilization Theory. In
explaining this lost, technologically advanced culture, Alford
suggests that it may have consisted of "wandering
nomads" of the type we would expect of space explorers. This
nomadic theory would explain why there is little evidence of a
"full-blown" civilization at Giza that would allow for
an early date for its construction. "Why should we assume
that the Sphinx and Pyramids were the brainchild of 'local'
sedentary cultures?" he asks, and then continues,
"Perhaps we should instead be searching for a wandering race
who eschewed the idea of the organised state, being motivated
instead by something other than power and vainglory."
In sum, this reviewer enjoyed Alford's book, as it combines
scholarship with creative thinking, providing some reasonable
solutions to the flaws of both the orthodox and unorthodox
opinions concerning these great mysteries of human history.
Especially enjoyable is his insistence upon restoring to the
ancients their proper level of wisdom and advancement, long
subordinated by culturally biased "experts" who have
depicted these peoples as little more than cavemen who
"accidentally" blundered upon the ability to create
amazing and mesmerizing tales and megalithic buildings.
Acharya S is a classically trained archaeologist, historian,
mythologist, linguist and expert on the celestial mythos. She is
the author of three books, Paradise Found, The
Aquarian Manifesto, and The Christ
Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold. Her website is
Truth Be Known.