Recently, archaeologists announced an important find has been brought to light, a major series of tombs found in the Valley of the Kings, the burial vaults of the sons of Ramses II. What is amazing is that previously, the Valley had been thoroughly searched for almost a century, and was thought to be completely exhausted for any further investigation. That a find of such major proportions could have eluded so many Egyptologists, including Howard Carter, the discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamen in the same Valley, goes to show that the land of the Nile still has many secrets. What else, we may well ask, lurks below the sands?

For untold centuries both historical and esoteric sources have passed down stories of a forgotten time-capsule of Ancient Wisdom, far greater in importance than the golden treasures of Tutankhamen. The various accounts speak of chambers located beneath the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx at Giza, filled with a technological legacy left by lost advanced civilizations older than Egypt itself. Along with the stories are also preserved a number of prophecies foretelling who, when and how the vanished time-capsule will be opened.

The Messages in Stone

Our search begins with several stone stelae or tablets from the Middle and New Kingdom periods (between 4,000 and 3,000 years old), found in the vicinity of the Sphinx, which show the great animal reclining on top of a high pedestal surmounted by a cornice. One ancient artist, a Twelfth Dynasty scribe named Mentu-her, made sure his viewers knew his subject matter was the Great Sphinx and not other sphinxes found along the Nile, by drawing in the Pyramids in perspective in the background, a technique very rarely seen in Egyptian art.

Seven other stelae go further, and show a door on the side of the pedestal. The famous Stele of Thutmose IV, located between the paws of the Sphinx, likewise depicts at its top the Sphinx Iying upon an understructure, with a doorway clearly seen. Finally, on yet another stele, made by an official named Nezem, and now kept in the Louvre, there is clearly depicted a flight of six steps leading to the door.

Conservative scholars have attempted to explain the pedestal as simply a representation of the nearby Temple of the Sphinx, because from a front view perspective the Sphinx does look like it sits on its roof. But this illusion can only be seen from the front and on the surface. The ancient artists, on the other hand, depicted the pedestal from the side and from below.

In the 1930's, the sands around the Sphinx were finally completely cleared away, and we now know that the ancient monument rests firmly on bedrock. But the bedrock itself may have been the pedestal the Egyptian artists had in mind. And deep below somewhere along the southern side may yet be discovered the six steps and doorway, the entrance to secret hollowed out chambers undisturbed.

An important early Egyptian source that tells us much about the Hall of Records is called the Building Texts, found among the hieroglyph inscriptions on the inner enclosure wall of the temple of Horus at Edfu, in the heart of southern Egypt. The Building Texts refer to a number of now lost documents, grouped together into what was called The Sacred Book of Temples, which gave a history and description of the major shrines along the Nile from a very remote period. These were first established by a group of creator-entities called the Shebtiw, who were associated with the god Divine Heart or Thoth, the Egyptian deity of Wisdom.

According to the Building Texts, the sacred books and power objects were eventually placed back inside the bw-hmn or Hall, and the Shebtiw sealed the entrance, constructed a new enclosure about it, and erected power staffs and pillars outside to protect its secrets, hidden away again from all but its guardians. The site thereafter became known as bw-hmr, the Place of the Throne of the Soul, regarded as the location where only the highest Initiations were performed.

In another Egyptian text, known today as the Westcar Papyrus, which bears evidence of dating to the Fourth Dynasty, is the story of an enigmatic sage named Djeda who could not only perform miraculous feats of magic, but who also possessed certain information concerning what he called the secret chambers of the books of Thoth. In the narrative, Djeda told Pharaoh Khufu the location of specific keys that will one day open the hidden place, which he described as follows: In the city of Ani (Heliopolis) is a temple called the House of Sapti, referring to Septi, the fifth Pharaoh of the First Dynasty, who reigned about 3000 B.C. Within the temple is a special library room where the scrolls of inventory are kept. The walls of this room are made of sandstone blocks, and either within or behind one of these blocks is a secret niche containing a small box made of flint or whetstone. It is within this box that the ipwt-seals or keys that will open the secret chambers of Thoth, the Hall of Records, may still be hidden.

When Khufu asked Djeda to bring these keys to him, the sage replied he did not have the power to do so, but prophesied that he who some day would find the keys would be one of three sons born to Rad-dedet, the wife of the chief priest of Ra in Heliopolis, Lord of Sakhbu (the second Lower Egyptian nome or district in the Nile Delta), and that the three would be born on the 15th day of the month of Tybi (our October-November).

Now it is generally interpreted that the three mentioned were the first three Pharaohs of the succeeding Fifth Dynasty. But because much of Egyptian literature is multi-leveled in its symbolism, there is reason to believe that a more hidden meaning may have been intended, that the three enigmatic brothers may also be those yet future individuals who will one day find and open the Hall of Records.

Today, many portions of the old city of Heliopolis are still buried and unexcavated, silently resting underneath the expanding suburbs of Cairo. The secret of the House of Septi may yet await discovery.

Ancient Tales

Interpreter of ancient languages Zecharia Sitchin cites a hymn composed in the Eighteenth Dynasty which speaks of the god Amun taking on the functions of the heavenly Harakhty (the Sphinx) who attains perception in his heart, command on his lips as he enters the two caverns which are under his (the Sphinx's) feet. The command of Amun is then placed into the writings of Thoth, the god of Hidden Knowledge and Initiation.

The famed Greek historian Herodotus, in 443 B.C., recorded after his visit to Egypt that extending beneath and in all directions far beyond the pyramid whereon great figures are graven is a vast labyrinth, and a way into it underground.

In the Corpus Hermeticum, a body of treatises compiled from older materials toward the beginning of the Christian era, we find in one of these works, the Virgin of the World, these words:

The sacred symbols of the cosmic elements, the secrets of Osiris, were hidden carefully. Hermes (the Greek equivalent to Thoth), before his return to Heaven, invoked a spell on them, and said, O holy books which have been made by my immortal hands, by incorruption's magic spell remain free from decay throughout eternity and incorrupt by time. Become unseeable, unfindable, from everyone whose foot shall tread the plains of this land, until old Heaven shall bring instruments for you, whom the Creator shall call His souls. Thus spake he, and laying the spells on them by means of his works, he shut them safe away in their rooms. And long has been the time since they were hid away.

The Roman Marcellinus, in the 4th century, stated: There are certain subterranean galleries and passages full of windings beneath the pyramids which, it is said, the adepts in the ancient rites (knowing that the flood was coming, and fearing that the memory of the sacred ceremonies would be obliterated), constructed vaults in various places, mining them out of the ground with great labor. And upon leveled walls they engraved the hieroglyphic characters.

Marcellinus contemporary, Iamblichus, wrote a treatise on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, and described the Initiation associated with the Sphinx. In a secret location between the paws of the feline monument, he said, is a bronze door, its opening triggered by a hidden spring. Beyond it, the neophytes went into a circular room. From this point on, they were subject to a series of trials to become full members among the Initiates, eventually reaching Masterhood.

In similar fashion, the tenth century Coptic chronicler Al Masudi observed from earlier accounts that in the area of the Sphinx were subterranean doorways to the Giza monuments: One entered the pyramid through a vaulted underground passage 100 cubits or more long; each pyramid had such a door and entry.

In later centuries, the medieval Arab chronicler Firouzabadi noted that the chambers of the Sphinx were constructed at the same time as the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid was erected by Esdris (Hermes or Thoth), to preserve there the sciences, to prevent their destruction. And also, the first priests, by observations of the stars, preserved records of medicine, magic and talismans elsewhere. Likewise, Ibn Abd Alhokim, who told the story of the antediluvian king Salhouk's dream of the Flood and his building of the Pyramid to save wisdom, also recounted that Salhouk dug a vault nearby the Pyramid, filling it with all manners of works on mathematics, astronomy and physics: And they built gates (entrances) of it forty cubits underground, with foundations of massive stones from the Ethiopians, and fastened them together with lead and iron. When Salhouk was finished, he covered it with colored marble from top to bottom and he appointed a solemn festival, at which were present all the inhabitants of the kingdom.

The Jewish historian Josephus recorded further that Enoch built an underground temple of nine vaults, one beneath the other, placing within tablets of gold. His son, Methuselah, also worked on the project, putting in the brick walls of the vaults according to his father's plan. As Manly P. Hall noted, the Freemasons predict that someday a man will locate this buried vault, and that he will be an initiate after the order of Enoch.

Prophetic Code

Ever since two centuries ago when Sir Isaac Newton took a special interest in the sacred geometry of the Great Pyramid, and speculated that its inner labyrinth of tunnels and chambers was a prophecy calendar in stone, a host of scholars who have attempted to elaborate on this idea, and crack the Pyramid's prophetic code.

In correlation with the prophecy inside the Great Pyramid, the nearby Sphinx may hold its own symbology of past and future happenings. According to ancient Egyptian and Coptic traditions, one of the earlier forms of the Sphinx, before it was carved into its present configuration, is that it had the front paws of a lion, the back legs and tail of a bull, the face of a human, and along its sides where today one can see the remains of stone incendiary boxes, fires were lit at night to give the Sphinx the appearance of having the flaming wings of an eagle.

Lion. Bull. Human. Eagle. We have here not only the Four Beings before the throne of the Divine as described in the Books of Ezekiel and the Revelations, but we also have here the four Fixed signs of the Zodiac, Leo, Taurus, Aquarius and Scorpio.

Most significantly, in the Precession of the Equinoxes, the distant Age of Leo 12,000 years ago saw the burial of the Hall of Records beneath the Sphinx's front paws. Recent archaeological and geologic surveys conducted by John Anthony West and Robert Schoch have demonstrated that the Sphinx does indeed date to such a remote time period.

Today we have just entered the Age of Aquarius, and the face of the Sphinx symbolizes the face of global humanity joined in one mind and one heart, the goal of evolving Aquarian civilization.

Another 6,000 years into the future will complete the Sphinx's prophecy in the distant Age of Scorpio, when perhaps humanity's spiritual evolution will be complete. The flaming wings of the Sphinx may be more than just that of an eagle; they may signify the fire of the Phoenix, the higher form of Scorpio that epitomizes its central themes of death and transfiguration. It is striking to note that the Pyramid's time line ending in the 83rd century will also fall in the Age of Scorpio.

Another theory sees the Sphinx embodying not only the four Fixed signs, but more specific astrological locations which Philip Sedgwick in his book Astrology of Deep Space identifies as the Four Points of Avatar, found at 14 degrees of Leo, Taurus, Aquarius and Scorpio. There are those students of the Egyptian Mysteries who believe that when all Four Points of Avatar will be triggered by planetary configurations, this may be a cosmic key for opening the doorway into the Sphinx's forgotten secrets.

Significantly, the next occurrence will take place on August 6, 1999. Will this presage the opening of the hidden Hall of Records? After that, the only other Four Points of Avatar hits to take place in the foreseeable future will be from May 4-14, 2003; November 6-11, 2005; and January 2-10, 2006.

The Visionaries

America's most famous psychic, Edgar Cayce, who lived from 1877 to 1945, saw in vision that at the same time the Great Pyramid was being built over 12,000 years ago, other activities were underway to preserve books of knowledge. The hiding place for these books Cayce variously described as the hall of records yet to be uncovered, a storehouse of records, a time-capsule, a small tomb or pyramid, the pyramid of unknown origins as yet, the holy mount yet to be uncovered. As to which direction from the Sphinx the Hall lies, the seer specified in several trances that it is between that monument and the Nile river, toward the east, as the sun rises from the waters, the line of the shadow (or light) falls between the paws of the Sphinx.

Renowned as France's most famous seer, Nostradamus in 1558 published the completed edition of his book of prophecies, Les Vrayes Centuries, The True Centuries. The book was composed of 969 prophetic quatrains or four-lined poetic verses, all purposely written cryptically as a defense against the Inquisition of his day, who took a dim view of all forms of forecasting.

Despite the obscuring of his words, many of Nostradamus prophetic verses have seen their fulfillment to a remarkable degree of accuracy, describing such twentieth century events as the World Wars, the landing of a man on the Moon, and even such modem happenings of the 1990s as the fall of Communism in Russia, the end of the Cold War, the Gulf War, the reunification of Germany, plus the rise of global pollution and the AIDS epidemic.

Nostradamus also left behind a significant group of verses which, once we work out the seer's puzzling cryptics, offers us invaluable information about the coming opening of the lost Hall of Records in Egypt.

Here's one example:

They will come to discover the hidden topography of the land (at Giza),

The urns holding wisdom within the monuments (the Pyramids) opened up,

Their contents will cause the understanding of holy philosophy to expand greatly,

White exchanged for black, falsehoods exposed, new wisdom replacing the established tradition that no longer work. VII,14.

The Message From the Past to the Future

When we look at the sum total of information from both historical and psychic sources regarding the Hall of Records, we find some remarkable correlations. These include: its location (below and around the Sphinx), age (at least twelve millennia old), identity of its builder (Thoth-Hermes), purposes (a storehouse and Initiation site), descriptions of its contents (advanced wisdom and science), the number of its future openers (three), the circumstances of its re-discovery (found by spiritual intuition), and the coming time-frame when it could possibly be brought to light (between 1999 and 2012).

Most modern conservative Egyptologists believe that the Hall of Records is nothing more than a mere myth or fable, because its existence does not fit into currently acceptable views of ancient history. Yet the stubborn persistence of the story of the lost Hall through the millennia, plus the consistency of its description and the integrity of the many sources testifying to its reality, suggests there is something very substantial to the story, that it may be based on fact. Perhaps very soon, within the next fifteen years if the prophecies are right, we will be able to agree with Egyptologist Gerald Massey, who wrote: Someday what we thought was myth will be found to contain the true history of the past, while what we always regarded as history will be relegated to a myth of our own making.

Finding of the Hall of Records will no doubt catalyze the transformation of everything we know about the past, and in so doing, will also revolutionize how we will enter the future ahead. The lost time-capsule from the past may be destined to change the very nature of time itself, as we know it.

Copyright 1995. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All rights reserved. Excerpted from Joseph's book, Time-Capsule: the Search for the Lost Hall of Records in Ancient Egypt.