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| Echoing Ra, the satellite rides in a sun-synchronous orbit |
“This is a new view of Egypt,” he said. “Thanks to satellite technology.”
He clicked
on a photograph of a satellite in space.
“This is a
satellite gazing down on Egypt from an altitude of 570 kilometres. It gleams in
the heavens like the golden barque of the sun god Ra, powered by sails in the
form of outspread solar panels. Gold covers its 1.4-ton body like the flesh of
the gods - a skin of gold-coated Mylar. Pure, imperishable gold not only
protects it from corrosion on the outside. The sacred metal also forms its
veins and nerves in gold wires and gold-plated electronic circuits and contacts
for switches, relays and connectors.
“Echoing
Ra, the satellite rides in a sun-synchronous orbit, and, from its inclination
of 98 degrees, it sees Egypt below, in particular our focus for today, the most
ancient burial ground said to be the legendary burial place of the Egyptian god
of the dead, Osiris, and birthplace of the cult of death and resurrection. But
unlike Ra in his other form as Aton the sun disk, the satellite does not send
down rays ending in little beneficent hands to touch the land. Instead it sends
a series of radio wave pulses at the rate of 1,700 per second to probe the
density of objects on the ground and beneath the dry sand, which it collects in
a backscatter of echoes. Then it ponders this knowledge, analyses it and
communicates it to mankind through visions seen on a screen.
“It sees
stone temples, chapels, mud-brick enclosures, boat graves – a fleet of fourteen
23-metre long boats marooned in an ocean of desert. It sees mounds of broken
pottery, spoil heaps, the spectral signatures of tombs of the earliest kings...”
