Description
A few kilometers outside the modern city of Cairo, on a large, flat elevation at the edge of the Sahara overlooking the Nile, is the world’s very first architectural complex. Nearly 5000 years old, the centerpiece of this mindboggling complex is a huge stepped pyramid surrounded by strange temple-like structures. Aligned conspicuously towards the four cardinal directions, the whole mood of this strange place evokes, for lack of better words, ‘sacred architecture’ or, perhaps more aptly, ‘sacred astronomy’.“ —from the Introduction In this ground-breaking book, Egyptologist Robert Bauval and astrophysicist Thomas Brophy uncover the mystery of Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian superstar, pharaonic Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, and Newton all rolled into one. Based on their research at the Step Pyramid Complex at Saqqara, Bauval and Brophy delve into observational astronomy to "decode" the alignments and other design features of the Step Pyramid Complex, to uncover the true origins and genius of Imhotep. Like a whodunit detective story they follow the clues that take them on an exhilarating magical mystery tour starting at Saqqara, leading them to temples in Upper Egypt and to the stones of Nabta Playa and the black African stargazers who placed them there. Imhotep the African describes how Imhotep was the ancient link to the birth of modern civilization, restoring him to his proper place at the center of the birthing of Egyptian, and world, civilization.
