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The culture of the Egyptians appeared full-blown, without any history antedating the First Dynasty. About the year 450 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus journeyed to both Memphis and Thebes on the Nile and talked at length with the priests there about their country and its history.
Herodotus was told by the priests of Memphis that their records went back 11,000 years. If they had survived a cataclysm, wouldn't accounts of it have played important roles in what the priests told Herodotus?
Unfortunately, the Egyptian records were on papyrus and skin scrolls, housed in one of the greatest libraries of antiquity, the Alexandria Library. Much of that library, along with a large portion of its 700,000 scrolls -- the equivalent of 10,000 textbooks of today -- was lost to fire during the reign of Caesar. Nevertheless, the Alexandria Library was rebuilt and continued to be a great repository of ancient records until AD 390. In that year the Bishop of Alexandria, evidently insane and a religious fanatic, led a mob through the streets of the city and pillaged the library of half a million of its scrolls, all of which were burned at his order. Not too long after that, the remainder of the collection was destroyed by the invading army of Caliph Omer.
Fortunately, though, during his visits, Herodotus noted some other very peculiar information passed on to him by the priests... information which heretofore has been discounted as imaginings.
Assuming that an observer in one of the so-called safe areas of Earth at the time of a capsizing were looking at the heavens, he would note a drastic change in the course of the moon, stars and sun. The sun might rise in the south instead of the east, and set in the north instead of the west. Or it might even shift a full 180 degrees, so that the sun would appear to rise in the west instead of the east.
Imagine that at the moment of the last capsizing it was nine in the morning in Memphis. The Earth suddenly began moving sideways even while continuing the normal rotation from west to east. To an Egyptian looking upward at such a time, it would appear that the sun had stopped in its path, then moved about erratically for a while and finally set very close to where it had risen.
An impossible supposition? So it has always seemed. Consider, though, what else the priests of Memphis told Herodotus. They told him with great assurance that in the history of their country, spanning 11,000 years -- or, as they put it, 341 generations (Egypt had by then had 341 kings and a similar number of high priests) -- the sun had twice risen where it had set, without any great change in the productivity of their country!
This heretofore inexplicable statement begins to have considerable relevance. There is a possibility that Egypt was fortunately situated where it could survive two capsizings with little damage. In other words, two capsizings ago, one of the poles was at Hudson Bay. When the capsizing occurred, the area now known as the Sudan Basin became a polar site. The Egyptians then lived in a climate not unlike that of Fairbanks or Reykjavik.
Then another rollover occurred and once again the sun seemed to stand still and then set where it had risen, and what had been a pole became the Sudan Basin of today. The reference by Herodotus to the sun rising and setting twice in the same direction fits into the precepts of the HAB Theory very nicely.
The HAB Theory contends that when a capsizing occurs, the ice caps suddenly move to the equator, and areas which were previously equatorial become sites for the new poles. This goes wholly against long-established geological estimates which, for example, place the age of the South polar ice cap at approximately 13 million years (though these estimates were revised downwards, to 130,000 years, in the mid 1980s).

The shift of the earth's relationship to the sun and the planets in the solar system was recorded in the myths of most civilized cultures. Some accounts are quite specific. Plato wrote in Politicus:

"I mean the change in the rising and setting of the sun and the other heavenly bodies, how in those times they used to set in the quarter where they now rise, and used to rise where they now set ... the god at the time of the quarrel, you recall, changed all that to the present system as testimony in favour of Atreus.

He continues:

At certain periods the universe has its present circular motion, and at other periods it revolves in the reverse direction ... Of all the changes which take place in the heavens this reversal is the greatest and most complete ... There is at that time great destruction of animals in general, and only a small part of the human race survives."

Despite being of an eminent pedigree, the above is but one series of accounts. Plato has a lot of interesting things to say, and we may have time to return to a few of them later. Let's look at other myths supporting the theory of crustal displacement or significant changes in the earth's axis. Egypt again, is an excellent source. Pomponius Mela, a Latin author of the first century, wrote:

"The Egyptians pride themselves on being the most ancient people in the world. In their authentic annals ... one may read that since they have been in existence, the course of the stars has changed direction four times, and that the sun has set twice in that part of the sky where it rises today."

"In the second book of his history, Herodotus relates his conversations with Egyptian priests on his visit to Egypt some time during the second half of the fifth century before the present era. Concluding that history of their people, the priests told him that the period following their first king covered three hundred and forty-one generations, and Herodotus calculated that, three generations being equal to a century, the whole period was over eleven thousand years. The priests asserted that within historical ages and since Egypt became a kingdom, 'four times in this period (so they told me) the sun rose contrary to his wont; twice he rose where he now sets, and twice he set where he now rises

Distant civilizations have similar traditions. Mayan legend tells us that;

"... it was not known from where the new sun would appear. They looked in all directions, but they were unable to say where the sun would rise. Some thought it would take place in the north, and their glances were turned in that direction. Others thought it would be in the south. Actually their guesses included all directions because the dawn shone all around. Some, however, fixed their attention on the orient, and maintained that the sun would come from there. It was their opinion that proved to be correct."

The Chinese annals say that in the time of Emperor Yahou the sun did not go down for ten days. The world was in flames, and in their vast extent the waters over topped the great heights, threatening the heavens with their floods. The water of the ocean was heaped up and cast upon the continent of Asia; a great tidal wave swept over the mountains and broke in the middle of the Chinese Empire. The water was caught in the valleys between the mountains, and the land was flooded for decades.

"In a general convulsion of nature, the sea is carried out of its bed, mountains spring up out of the ground, rivers change their course, human beings and everything are ruined, and the ancient traces effaced . . ."
Emperor Yahou sent scholars to different parts of China, and even to Indo-China, to find out the location of north, west, east, and south by observing the direction of the sun's rising and setting and the motion of the stars. He also charged his astronomers to find the duration of the seasons, and to draw up a new calendar."

"In that time the miracle is said to have happened that the sun during a span of ten days did not set, the forests were ignited, and a multitude of abominable vermin was brought forth."

and a multitude of abominable vermin was brought forth."

So that is where Demoncrats came from!

a.cricket

From a totally naturalist perspective, for the earth's surface to get jerked around the way it would have had to in order to get a "Sun rising in the South" would have provoked so many earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, floods, etc. that it would be questionable how anything but small aquatic life and microbes could survive.

If (of course) we have true supernatural action which can supersede the operation of physics as we know it, all bets are off.

The shift of the earth's relationship to the sun and the planets in the solar system was recorded in the myths of most civilized cultures. Some accounts are quite specific. Plato wrote in Politicus:

"I mean the change in the rising and setting of the sun and the other heavenly bodies, how in those times they used to set in the quarter where they now rise, and used to rise where they now set ... the god at the time of the quarrel, you recall, changed all that to the present system as testimony in favour of Atreus.

This would indicate the earth STOPPED rotating or shifted it's axis of rotation to place that location in a polar orientation. This is describing a PHYSICAL change in the direction and orientation of the rotation of a planet.

Does anyone remember a little thing called INERTIA? Such a change, even spread out over a matter of days would destruct this planet to the very core, not just create a "phenomena" that they used to set in the quarter where they now rise, and used to rise where they now set , it would have the effect of a planetary paper shredder... right to the core and then some.

Hogwash... nothing more.

Good summarizing post!