Posted on 08/14/2009 10:09:21 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Aug. 13, 2009 -- An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs.
Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the pyramid field at Giza.
"There is untouched archaeology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow," British explorer Andrew Collins said.
Collins, who will detail his findings in the book "Beneath the Pyramids" to be published in September, tracked down the entrance to the mysterious underworld after reading the forgotten memoirs of a 19th century diplomat and explorer.
"In his memoirs, British consul general Henry Salt recounts how he investigated an underground system of 'catacombs' at Giza in 1817 in the company of Italian explorer Giovanni Caviglia," Collins said.
The document records that the two explored the caves for a distance of "several hundred yards," coming upon four large chambers from which stretched further cave passageways.
With the help of British Egyptologist Nigel Skinner-Simpson, Collins reconstructed Salt's exploration on the plateau, eventually locating the entrance to the lost catacombs in an apparently unrecorded tomb west of the Great Pyramid.
Indeed, the tomb featured a crack in the rock, which led into a massive natural cave.
"We explored the caves before the air became too thin to continue. They are highly dangerous, with unseen pits and hollows, colonies of bats and venomous spiders," said Collins.
According to Collins, the caves -- which are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years old -- may have both inspired the development of the pyramid field and the ancient Egyptian's belief in an underworld.
"Ancient funerary texts clearly allude to the existence of a subterranean world in the vicinity of the Giza pyramids," Collins told Discovery News.
Indeed, Giza was known anciently as Rostau, meaning the "mouth of the passages."
This is the same name as a region of the ancient Egyptian underworld known as the Duat.
"The 'mouth of the passages' is unquestionably a reference to the entrance to a subterranean cave world, one long rumored to exist beneath the plateau," Collins told Discovery News.
Collins' claim is expected to cause a stir in the Egyptological world.
Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has dismissed the discovery.
"There are no new discoveries to be made at Giza. We know everything about the plateau," he stated.
But Collins remarks that after extensive research, he found no mention of the caves in modern times.
"To the best of our knowledge nothing has ever been written or recorded about these caves since Salt’s explorations. If Hawass does have any report related to these caves, we have yet to see it," Collins said.
Atlantis, Cayce, & Artifacts Date:07-22-09 Host:George Noory Guests:Gregory Little
Expert on the American prophet Edgar Cayce, Greg Little discussed new discoveries in the search for Atlantis, mounds in ancient America, as well as findings in Egypt.
He related the research of British science writer Andrew Collins who found an opening into a cave complex that extends underneath Giza, Egypt. Collins has concluded that the pyramids on the Giza Plateau correlate to the constellation Cygnus, rather than Orion, as other researchers have claimed.
Snakes.
Why’d it hafta be snakes?
I hope he will share the information in the future. It sounds like they are vast and it will take years to explore, catalog and present to the public. In the meantime I'm sure he wants to keep prying eyes away from the site. cc
They can't seem to write about anything without injecting this kind of nonsense to make the rest of the article less credible.
Not really to you jdub but yeah, why no one nioticed the bats. A friend pointed to bats, spiders, pyramids, caves so a search engine brought me here.
The directors of the ruins at Chichen and Palenque mentioned that pilgrims to the sites first visited an underground water temple and then others finally the pyramids. Pilgrims were prepared emotinally before attending ceremonies at the temples.
US anthropapology texts still don’t allow the possibility that ideas came to New World on boats from Egypt. The Sarcophagus at Palenque is cut with a footer just like those in Egypt. It makes sense in Egypt since the lath box holding the mummy was wide at the bottem so as to not fall over.
Anyone interested please visit Panchon at the gate of the ruins and verify the footer with Moises Morales who was there when the tomb was opened. Carlos Casteneda and R. Gordon Wasson were his friends as was “Miguel” who was main model for “Don Juan.”
Note that the picture on the lid of the sarcophagus is of a man “dying in meditational death” before the cross on whose crossbar is a serpent whith heads at both ends and a bird of prey at the top. It has all the symbols of the cadducces and the main Christian symbol group. johnshoemaker30@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.