UPDATE: 3 global conspiracies with roots in ancient Egypt... in adventure Egypt Series

The secret of Egypt's Great Lost Labyrinth of pharaoh 

Amenemhat III... and the conspiracy of The Smiting Texts

Can a renegade Egyptologist stop a New Age conspiracy to trigger the return of an ancient apocalypse in Hathor's Holocaust?

Egypt's forbidden Stela of Thoth.... a threat to the world emerges in the conspiracy of The Ibis Apocalypse

"A heady mix for mystery adventure thriller readers"...

Here is a mixture of enthralling Egyptian archaeology, the discovery of forbidden artefacts, dangerous conspirators including New Agers, radical Islamists and Christian fundamentalists eager to bring on the end times... plus the involvement of the Intelligence agencies of the USA, Israel, Britain and Egypt, who turn to a renegade Egyptologist for help. 

 The Smiting Texts, Hathor's Holocaust and The Ibis Apocalypse. In Kindle and paperback (UPDATE: And now also in a 3-in-one edition).

NOW A SERIES OF EGYPTIAN THRILLERS

Egyptologist consultant to US Homeland Security on dangers from Egypt's ancient past

What kind of Egyptologist believes in unseen realities and dangers from the ancient past?

 

ANSON looked at his watch, again. He was waiting in the lamplit interior of an occult bookshop in London and longed to be somewhere else.

A sign in the window said:

MEET ANSON HUNTER

Alternative Egyptologist and author of ‘The Secret Stela of Destiny’ (11 – 12 noon)

“You can sign a few more copies, if you like.”

It was the bookseller speaking, a saturnine lady who presided from a table near the back. She had the air of a spirit guide channelling the mystical wisdom of the books in her shop. Did she conduct Tarot card readings back there?

“We don’t charge our customers extra for signed copies of our books, not like the Americans,” she said.

But her sales strategy wasn’t working, he thought. The place was packed, but only with books.

Any general bookstore would be better than this, even The British Museum’s Bookshop, situated just a stone’s throw from this occult-New Age establishment. Or should that be a crystal’s throw? The scent of incense laced the atmosphere of the bookshop like a mystical cobweb. Depressing. A bookshop should have a whiff of imagination, mental rigour and print, he thought, not of dreamy nirvana.

So close, and yet so far from mainstream acceptance, in fact he was a long way from any acceptance right now. Few took him seriously and right now he was chasing a new and even more sinister obsession about danger from the ancient past - the Destiny Stela, subject of his latest book.

A pile of his new books sat ignored among others on a book table beside him, the cover showing a stone relief of the ibis-headed Thoth, ancient Egypt’s god of writing and magic, or heka. Narrow paper tags ran across the covers and carried the bookstore’s New Age logo and the words ‘signed copy’. Anson had signed a batch lingeringly to pass the time.

He glanced around the shelves with eyes that normally held an obsessive light, but now appeared morose. Which books would The Secret Stela of Destiny end up rubbing covers with? That one over there about the eternally lost continent of Atlantis and the ten plagues of Egypt, or that one about the pyramids going unrecognised as ancient power plants? Dispiriting.

The bookseller revealed the skills of a clairvoyant.

“I’ll be putting you in the ‘mystery history’ section, following the launch period,” she said, “in case you’re wondering.”

The information did little to cheer him.

The shop door opened and a man swept in. Was he a prospect for a signed copy of his book?

The new arrival brought a swirl of cold air and turbulence into the shop with him, like a man in a hurry. Perhaps the blue Lufthansa travel bag slung over his shoulder gave a clue. On the other hand, he could just be anxious to get his hands on a signed copy of Anson’s new book.

Anson reminded himself that the Germans were pillars of Egyptology and he tried to engage the newcomer. But the man barely paused to meet Anson’s stare, before checking out the bookseller at the back of the shop. Then he ran a hand over sparse blond hair before directing his attention to the shelves where he began to browse among the books.

Anson felt his shoulders sink. Right at that moment, he could almost have exchanged his life as a renegade Egyptologist, theorist and phenomenologist working in the shadows of the sacred and mysterious, for the ivory tower of respectability.

Almost.

He thought about signing another copy of his book and wondered how long he could stretch out the scrawling of another signature. Perhaps he could include a written message inside:

Dear New Age/occult reader, 

Here’s hoping my book puts the fear of God into you.

But wait, all was not lost. The browser was working his way around the book table. He was approaching and making eye contact.

“Mr Anson Hunter, the Egyptologist? I am hearing that you are signing books today,” the man said in a low voice, speaking in accented, present continuous English.

Hope surged.

“I am. In fact I have been.” He picked up a book to hand it over. “Here’s one I prepared earlier.”

The man made no attempt to take the book. “I do not want it,” he said, shaking his head.

“You don’t want it signed?”

German. Maybe he’d prefer a pure copy without Anson’s seismographic graffiti inside.

“No, I do not want your book for me. I do not like it.”

“Maybe try a few pages before you decide.”

“I do not study Egyptology.”

So a little author adulation was out of the question, Anson thought.

“It is about my grandfather that I come here.”

Anson did some arithmetic. The answer was not encouraging. Judging by the gift-shopper’s age, the grandfather would have to be pretty decrepit by now.

“Your grandfather likes Egyptology?”

The man shook his head again.

“He is dead.”

Past tense. No grandfather. He failed to see where this was going.

“Then a suggestion. My book could make a doorstop. You could cover it in a funky fabric and sit it at the front door.”

The man took a notepad and a pen out of a coat pocket and began to scribble.

“I write my name here - it is German and maybe uneasy to spell.”

An autograph from a reader? No, make that a nonreader. This was certainly unexpected. The man wrote and wrote. A long name evidently. Finally he tore the message off the pad and slipped it to him, throwing a guarded glance at the bookseller.

Anson read it.

I am Reiner Faltinger. In Berlin I have clues for your search. We talk more on the Internet.

Anson shrugged. “You’re going to have to give me a clue.”

The man appeared to engage in some inner struggle. He sighed.

“Okay. I give you one clue now - Tot.”

“Tot? As in ‘a splash of whisky’?”

The man frowned and shook his head.

“Tot, the Egyptian God.” He pointed to the book cover. “It is correct in your book.”

Anson blinked at him in surprise.

“So you really have read my book?”

He shook his head.

“I am reading about it on the Internet. It is correct.”

Had he taken the trouble to read Anson Hunter’s ancient Egypt Blog, ‘The Other Egypt’?

“What’s correct?”

The man lowered his voice to a whisper.

“It is correct about the Stela of Tot.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“But it is incorrect to say the Stela is lost. My grandfather - a genius - found it. He located this relic in Egypt. He took rubbings of the texts. He took them to Germany before the war. To Berlin, in nineteen thirty nine.”

“Your grandfather found the Stela of Destiny?”

He nodded. “Ja, but he again put the texts back in Egypt, before the Stela can destroy him and all of Germany. I come here today so that you see that I am real. Genuine. We talk more on the Internet.”

He pressed a finger to his lips and went, leaving the shop, taking a swirl with him.

A bookshop with this sort of specialty was bound to attract cranks.

He slipped the note into a pocket.

Yet the man’s disclosure found a resonance in his mind.

(Excerpt from "The Ibis Apocalypse")

You can buy it here on Amazon Kindle or in paperback  - and others in my ancient Egypt Trilogy of adventure thrillers.

 

Time lapse: Egypt's Abu Simbel Temple... arrival by water is especially stirring

The self-glorification of pharaoh Rameses is sometimes hard to resist

Arriving by cruise boat on Lake Nasser at the temple of Abu Simbel is especially stirring. Here's a time-lapse series of shots in video form.

(sorry, video may not play on iPads etc)

Here's how fiction's Egyptologist hero Anson Hunter tells it in 'The Ibis Apocalypse'... third in my ancient Egypt series of adventure novels.

 

Buy The Ibis Apocalypse HERE at Amazon 

A princess trapped in Egypt's underworld - without her passport to the afterlife! THE PRINCESS WHO LOST HER SCROLL OF THE DEAD

'The Princess Who Lost Her Scroll of The Dead.'

"One terrific story..." -- N. Ignatowicz, Editor-at-Large, Children's Books, New York

She opened her magical scroll - her guide through Egypt's terrifying underworld - only to find it totally blank!

Books of the Dead were magical scrolls that acted as passports to the other world. They were essential to the ancient Egyptians, a guide that allowed them to pass safely through the challenges of the gates and guardians of the underworld.

What happens when a young Egyptian princess discovers she has been tricked by a greedy scribe, her costly scroll swapped for a blank one so the original can be sold again?

Now young Nefera must face the terrors of the underworld alone, clutching a worthless scroll.

Then a boy tomb robber, Ipy, and his pet monkey join her.

Can they help her find her way to the Fields of the Blessed?

What is the secret they are keeping from her?

They must hurry and reach the Judgement Hall before dawn or be lost forever...
 

Enhancing the digital fiction reading experience with photos of real Egyptian artefacts...
 

"An enthralling drama and educational."

Below is the mock-up pre-storyboard I put together in planning the book, using my own shots and Googled pics.

AMAZON Kindle edition

Sample this and other ancient Egypt fiction (click)

NOTE: Roy Pond writes fiction for younger readers - and writes for adults under the full name of Roy Lester Pond

Goodreads - Amazon paperback edition

EERIE EGYPT – the 'tingle' that inspires my ancient Egyptian adventure writing

The relics of ancient Egypt possess a magical frisson. 

You feel on the surfaces of your skin and on the back of your neck. 

Unmistakeable. That's because everything they turned their hands and minds to was inspired by, and invested with the  elemental force known as heka, or ancient Egyptian magic…

Here are some of my images of eerie Egypt that do it for me.

They have helped inspire my ancient Egyptian trilogy of adventure thrillers The Smiting Texts, The Hathocaust and The Ibis Apocalypse, and also my novella The Delta Dilemma.

Have a sample read for FREE on Amazon Kindle (or 'Look Inside' the paperbacks)  – I hope you too will experience that eerie tingle of ancient Egypt!

FOR ANCIENT EGYPT READERS OF ACTION ADVENTURE FICTION

Click here to see them

"Wonderfully clever and original story." Egypt mythology tale within a thriller

Here's the mock-up/pre-storyboard images I used when writing the mythological Egyptian tale within The Smiting Texts - again using just scrap art and Googled references.

I never guessed this would inspire the scene of a murder mystery in a tomb I first visited years ago. (The Smiting Texts')

The Smiting Texts is also a murder mystery thriller with a surprise ending.

Another 'mocked-up' pre-storyboarded novel scene I made using library or Googled shots - this one is from the first in my ancient Egyptian trilogy, The Smiting Texts. A crime mystery is the mainspring of the plot. (Amazon Kindle, $3.99) UPDATE. The book launched a huge archaeology mystery thriller series. (Available on Amazon Kindle and Paperback).

A thriller writer’s ANCIENT EGYPT SCRAPBOOK - top Egypt gallery of photos

 

 (Scrapbook version)

Here’s a gallery of our top Egypt photos, mostly taken by my wife Brenda. Images that keep bring us both back to Egypt with its inspiring mystery and magic – and keep me writing.

As my independent Egyptologist hero reflects in The Smiting Texts:

“I often wish I could put all of Egypt back, restore every flake of missing pigment in every painted Egyptian face in every fresco in every tomb and every temple relief, to bring back to the touch and the eye all the seductive allure of this civilization. I couldn’t imagine living in a world without Egypt. In fact, there are times when I can hardly live in today’s world, knowing what little of Egypt remains. It seems as vital to me as rainforests to the earth and the prospect of its vanishing forever is more scary than the destruction of trees. Something great and deeply thrilling happened here once.”

VIDEO EXAMPLE - PRE-STORYBOARDING MY KEY NOVEL SCENES

 

Opening scene from The Ibis Apocalypse

 

Video example of how I like to pre-storyboard key scenes in my fiction, using scrap art or Googled pics to create a scene before I begin writing. 

This is the opening scene from The Ibis Apocalypse (third in a trilogy of ancient Egyptian adventure thrillers).

A rumble of thunder came to deepen his puzzlement and then a screech, the sound of stone moving over stone, grinding, scouring. He felt a tremble under his feet. He spun his flashlight. The abrasion grew to a roar that made his eardrums cower.

A slab of darkness surged out of deeper darkness. His beam flared on a block of granite in a humanoid shape. A man mountain. It was a stone block with a carved head on top… a colossal block-statue of a High Priest of Thoth, weighing tons.

The cubic man, with head, feet and hands protruding, squatted on a base with his knees raised and arms folded across them under a cloak to form a crushing volume in stone.

In the turmoil, the passage trembled and so did Anson.

The wigged and bearded face on top of the block wore a smile that belied the missile’s crushing intent as the statue shuddered over the floor. Hieroglyphs on the front of the block leapt into Anson’s vision like an execration hurled at him, a spell to obliterate an intruder...

Available in Amazon  Kindle edition ($3,99) and in paperback - BUY them here

STONE WRONG-SIDE UP IN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE! WHERE IS IT?

When they moved this temple and reassembled it they placed this temple stone upside down.

Anson Hunter, renegade Egyptologist in my action adventure trilogy isn't the only one who has turned ancient Egypt upside down.

This stone appears inset in a column inside Philae Temple.

As in the case of the temple of Abu Simbel, the rising waters of Lake Nasser threatened Philae too, so the rescuers chose a substitute, the nearby island of Agilqiyyah, which they bulldozed to match the exact shape of Philae. Then they moved the whole thing stone by stone. Somehow, they also succeeded in transporting its mystery to the new location in spite of one upside down stone!

Egypt’s Abu Simbel and a Dangerous New Dawn for Humankind?

A real threat to humankind?

(Excerpt from ‘The Hathor Holocaust’, 2^nd in my Egypt Adventure Thriller Trilogy, Amazon Kindle $3.99), and in paperback.)

Sunrise splintered light over the rim of the earth and into the temple doorway.

Anson, Neith and her party of New Agers stood among a throng of visitors who waited in the pre-dawn chill of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel in Egyptian Nubia.

“Here it comes!” someone in the crowd whispered.

Light beams ran a gauntlet of sixty metres between a double line of eight Osiride pillars in the image of Rameses the Great bearing flails and crooks in their crossed arms, to penetrate the holy of holies, where a group of divinities sat enthroned in darkness.

There were gasps and sighs from the international assembly of visitors.

Gasp away, Anson thought. Not in awe at the mighty works of Rameses, nor in wonder at the achievement of temple axiality and the symmetry of sun and stone that for thousands of years had produced this phenomenon on just two days of the year. But rather, in dread at what the moment symbolised.

The excitement of temple-invading birds rose to fill the sacred spaces of Abu Simbel’s roof, echoing, high-pitched squeals and screeches. He imagined the sound came from the statues at the back of the sanctuary, waking from their sleep and moving stiffened joints - stone shrieking on stone.

Ptah. Amun. Rameses. Ra-Horakhty.

Over the minutes, as all watched, sunlight transmuted stone into gold - the flesh of the gods - bathing three of the images in turn, while the fourth, Ptah, a deity of darkness, remained in shadow.

Pharaoh Rameses, flanked by Amun and Ra-Horakhty, transformed in front of their eyes from stone into fire and glory. The brightness made Anson blink.

The solar drama, taking place in front of this audience, was meant to celebrate a glory beyond the earthly variety, greater even than the scenes of triumph carved on the walls of the temple that showed Rameses smiting a multitude of foes.

This was a physical enactment of divine illumination, the moment of man seizing godhood, and this event of sublime transfiguration lay at the heart of the peril that the world now faced.

The warning came back to prod him.

History will soon be made. A new dawn for humankind approaches. The beginning of the end for today’s world order is at hand as a force of hidden power will emerge and precipitate the fall. Hear this prophetic warning to all the nations. On this day, the roots of the old ideology will wither and die and a new order of the ages will commence. Rise to a new illumination.

Crank prophecy? Or a real threat to today’s world?

"What a great book. Hopefully will reach a far wider readership than the Egyptology Community"...

What would the Egyptology Community think of my renegade independent Egyptologist Anson Hunter?

We first meet Anson Hunter in The Smiting Texts, where he is hired by a Homeland Security Think Tank at Johns Hopkins University, presumably for his unusual skills. 

A 'paid up academic', Dr Melinda Skilling, says to him:

"You’re special, not only because of your grasp of arcane Egyptian knowledge and practice, but because of your standpoint. I must confess that mainstream academics, restrained by what has been termed the ‘agnostic reflex’, are somewhat in the position of outsiders looking in, careful to keep an objective distance from Egyptian religion, mystical texts and esoteric practices. You, on the other hand, are a phenomenologist, one who believes that you must grant value and credibility to the sacred and engage with it experientially in order to appreciate it fully. I have a certain sympathy for that position.”

Professor Kanawati of Australia's Macquarie University, an acclaimed field Egyptologist, said "I enjoyed The Smiting Texts."

“Such a great book! Very imaginative and factual at the same time… hopefully will reach a far wider readership than the Egyptology Community – Egypt Then and Now”

Where is Thoth hidden in Egypt? ANSWER.

The wonderful relief of Thoth stands behind a seated colossus of Rameses in the Temple of Luxor.

In order to view the image of Thoth inside the temple (and a matching image of the goddess Seshat), you have to squeeze between a wall and the back of the pharaoh's throne.

Where is this Egyptian god Thoth hidden in Egypt?

This is the finest depiction of Thoth, god of magic, wisdom and writing, and it's hidden from the view of most visitors and even local guides.

(Thoth appears directly beside, and facing, the paired image of Seshat in the temple of Luxor, hidden behind a seated statue of Rameses II.)


Thoth is at the heart of my novel 'The Ibis Apocalypse'. (Amazon Kindle and paperback.) Here is an excerpt...


 

Chapter 3

WHEN THE WOMAN came into the occult bookshop, Anson forgot about the German book browser and his incredible claims.

She was a dark beauty in a long black leather coat, and, promisingly, she looked quite mainstream, he thought. Definitely not a crank, this one. She swept a glance around the deserted interior.

“Tell me you haven’t just popped in here for directions,” he said hopefully.

“Hello Anson Hunter.” Angelic choirs began to sing inside the occult bookshop, or so it seemed to him.

“Come straight to the head of the queue,” he said.

“No need for crowd control here, I see.”

Crowd control. A strange quip. It had a law enforcement ring, he thought. She wasn’t the law, surely. He’d upset the Intelligence community in the past, but the police?

“Would you care for a signed copy?” he said. She had a calm, self-possessed manner.

“No, thanks.”

“No?” She shook her head and made her black hair swing. 

Not another non-reader. This called for desperate measures. “Look, I’ll give you money outside,” he said in a whisper.

“Meaning?”

“It’s been a bit slow in here today and I’ve got to encourage the bookseller. Let’s make her believe that someone’s going to read my book.”

She smiled. That mouth did not part easily with smiles, he guessed.

“I’ve read your book.” Angelic choirs returned to the occult bookshop. A precious reader. So they did exist. He warmed to the woman. He felt like asking for her signature.

“Zara Margolin,” she said, offering her hand in a surprisingly firm handshake. “You really believe that this ancient stone tablet actually existed?” she said.

“Yes, it actually did and it actually still does.” 

“And it has the powers you fear?” 

“I wrote a whole book in support of that belief.” It was as if a book alone were not enough for her. She wanted to hear it from the author himself.

“You believe the Stela has appeared in history at times before struggles and suffering? In the time of Rameses and the suffering of the Hebrews... and in Hitler’s Germany?”

Suffering - Old Testament - a Jewish woman. Did that account for her interest? She searched his face as he answered, her eyes almost level with his. The intensity of her gaze made him flinch. She was quite rangy, he noted, almost matching his lanky height.

“I’m sure of it,” he said. “In fact, I believe its message is about to resurface, if it hasn’t already done so.”

“This tablet would be very ancient,” she said.

“Exceedingly. It comes from the womb of history – from an age that the ancient Egyptians called Zep Tepi.”

“Zep Tepi,” she said after him. She played with the words.

“An age before the pharaohs, when divinities like Thoth were supposed to have reigned over Egypt.”

A frown briefly disturbed the smoothness of her forehead.

“Yes, but pre- the invention of writing, surely?”

“Not necessarily. They keep pushing back the date of Egypt’s invention of hieroglyphs with new discoveries. I believe writing goes back further than Egyptologists believe.”

“I forget. You’re alternative. But people always called it a scroll - The Scroll of Thoth.”

He shook his head.

“The first books, like the Ten Commandments, were in stone and Egyptian stelae were books in stone. So-called papyrus Scrolls of Thoth appeared later in the New Kingdom.”

“Okay. But to believe in the Stela of Thoth, you’ve got to believe in Thoth. An Egyptian god with a bird’s head.”

“We don’t know who, or what, Thoth may have been,” he said. “But even putting aside the question of whether or not a race called the Neteru, or the gods, actually existed at some distant age, consider it a case of inspired agency. Like the Bible. Egyptian religion and mythology tells us that Thoth was the first example of the divine mind, the logos, or the ‘word’ of creation as Christians call it. He was known as the master of wisdom, writing and time, symbolised by both the sacred ibis and the dog-faced baboon.”

“A bird and a baboon as the god of wisdom?”

“Not so unexpected. Have you ever looked at an ibis? The curve of its beak echoes a crescent moon, or perhaps the rim of an eclipse. Watch the measured way an ibis strides, picking out small fish, snakes, frogs and insects like a master scribe judiciously selecting his words. Thoth was also the god of time and measurement. Picture the way the ibis strides the fields of Egypt, pace by measuring pace, like a scribal surveyor of ancient times re-measuring the land and setting boundaries after mud from the inundation covered the river banks.”

“And a baboon?”

“Before man could utter words, baboons were facing the rising sun and chattering. Look into those deep-set eyes and it’s possible to believe that you’re looking into the depths of mysterious wisdom and it was mainly in the form of a baboon that scribes revered Thoth as the ‘Lord of Script...’”

 'The Ibis Apocalypse' is the third in my Anson Hunter Egypt adventure thriller series of 9 novels (Amazon Paperback and Kindle)

UPDATE - ANSON HUNTER RANGE 2024 on AMAZON

WHERE IS THIS GODDESS IN EGYPT? ANSWER

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS POST. The location of the goddess

is Philae - on a free-standing wall at the back 

of the temple. 

The photographer, my wife Brenda, caught this liminal moment when the sacred and the shadows of Egypt touched.

 

 

The goddess is everywhere of course, defiantly visible even after attacks by zealots over the years, her form in profile, revealed in serpent-like curves of shadow and stone.