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| Is ancient Egypt out of this world? (As seen on the web) |
In the form of the lander Philae, sent from mother ship Rosetta.
Philae and Rosetta were just two more examples, and names, in
a long comet’s tail of associations between outer space and ancient Egypt.*
Think of the asteroid Apophis (the great Egyptian serpent
god of outer darkness) that threw a scare into us when it was feared it might
strike earth.
Think of the canonical use of sarcophagus-like sleep capsules used
by distant travellers in science fiction movies, with 'Interstellar' being the latest
example.
Like astronauts, mummies are bound up in elaborate white suits with masks for
their journey through eternity.
Consider the Great Pyramid as the largest ever gantry for a space
shot to put the pharaoh's soul into space and orbit among the imperishable
circumpolar stars.
In fact you might say that ancient Egypt devised the first ‘space
ship’ – a pharaoh’s barque that travelled through the heavens like the sun in a
journey of millions of years.
*(In
one of my fictional adventure mysteries, 'The Ra Virus' I build on this
tradition where a meteorite bearing a deadly pathogen is suspected to
be the cause of an 'Eleventh Plague of Egypt')
