THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 31 How the impactor, sliding onto its four skate blades inside wet hollow guide rails just like it was a crocodile, was glorified into Sobek

In summary: until now, we've seen many glorifications and deifications of how was operated the Great Pyramid of Giza, and in particular the impactor; but one major part of the cycle was missing, and it was how the impactor had been glorified when it was getting inside the well. The answer of that question is Sobek, the crocodile god: it is known that "Sobek was sometimes considered to be an aspect of Horus, because Horus took the form of a crocodile to retrieve the parts of Osiris’ body which were lost in the Nile", and in a different version of the tale of Osiris, "it was Sobek who carried the dead body of Osiris to the bank of the Nile on his back". This is extremely important, because we already know that Horus, precisely is the glorification of the impactor. Horus is about the endless operating cycle of the impactor, and Sobek is only another aspect of Horus: it is when the impactor got in and out of the waters of the well, just like a crocodile.

That last sentence is key: if Sobek is the one "carrying the dead body of Osiris to the bank of the Nile on his back", it is because the impactor, in its wooden and vessel form Ra, has become Sobek, carrying the Osiris weight without any energy left in him. Also, there  is another part of the myth that we can explain, now that we know that the Four Sons of Horus are the glorification of the four skate blades of the impactor: "It is said that Sobek was the god who caught the four sons of Horus in a [fishing] net". And indeed, the four skate blades really were caught in the structure of the wooden impactor, whether you call it Ra (it was endlessly moving up and down just like the Sun), or crocodile Sobek (sliding into shallow waters into deep waters.

Of course, we’ll also see that because the three gods Ra, Horus and Sobek are all the deification and glorification of the impactor of the Great Pyramid, simply representing different aspects of the impactor, these three gods ended up by forming one single god other time, just like in the artifact below, with “the fusion of crocodile god Sobek with the falcon-headed god Ra-Horakhty [already the fusion of Ra and Horus].

“This Late Period (c. 400–250 BCE) statue shows Sobek bearing the falcon head of Re-Harakhti, illustrating the fusion of Sobek and Re into Sobek-Re” [this image] from the artifact 22.347 at The Walters Art Museum

31.01  Basic mathematics applied to Sobek reveals that Sobek = Horus = Ra

I really didn't expect that Sobek's study would be so prolific, but it turns out that he is maybe one of the most crucial gods of all, kind of at the heart of the abstract and metaphorical construction of what is the ancient Egyptian religion. Crocodile Sobek is a wonderful example of the real meaning of the ancient Egyptian deities, and in particular the fact that they were only tools, like paint for an artist or the instrument for a musician. Egyptian gods and goddesses have only been created as personified illustrations and demonstrations of very real and concrete objects most of the time (we’ve seen with Shu and Tefnut that these deities could also have represented abstract concepts like the creation of evaporative cooling itself; Shu being about dry warm air and Tefnut about any kind of water that is in the form of droplets).

We’ve also seen that the one thing which was worshiped the most by Egyptians, the one thing from the operating Great Pyramid which attracted the most attention and awe was the impactor; and that it had been glorified in many ways. Some of these glorifications have already been discussed in this study, certainly many more will be discovered in the future as well. Two of the most important main glorifications of the impactor are Horus and Ra:

• Horus being the impactor considered in its operating cycle: falcon headed Horus being about the fast and almost flying impactor speeding down the Grand Gallery, when Horus the elder is about the painstakingly hauled impactor back to its starting position. In short, Horus is about what the impactor looked like in its operating cycle.

• Ra is very different: he is the assimilation of the endless up and down movement of the impactor with the endless movement of the sun in the sky; and of course there is also the assimilation of the waters of the inclined well with the waters of the Nile, when the sun disappears into the Nile river.

• This is because of this same Nile river associated with the impactor, that Ra also comes with his famous solar barque; and there is a very interesting trick: just remember that “there is no real barque of Ra, because Ra really is the barque itself”. The barque of Ra is absolutely key here, because the impactor couldn’t be anything else than a wooden impactor, and because it also had to be weighed to be efficient, Egyptians used this barque of Ra as metaphor to describe the wooden vessel that was the wooden part of the impactor. In short, sun god Ra only is the glorification of the wooden vessel part of the impactor.

In other ways, you’ll have understood that Horus and Ra are actually the same thing, and this is why it is said that the deity Ra-Horakhty results in the fusion of Horus and Ra. Of course, there is no fusion: they simply are the same thing. What’s very interesting is that Egyptians didn’t stop at a combined deity that resulted from the fusion of the two gods Horus and Ra: they also have added Sobek to this already combined deity. By doing so, Egyptians simply have created a more detailed glorification of the impactor, with many aspects of the impactor’s design and function, represented all at the same time.

The question now, will be to try to understand why that happened? Did ancient Egyptians get tired and bored of the old simple gods that they wanted to make them more and more complex as time was passing?

1 • Sobek = Horus (the fusion of Sobek with Horus)

"Amenemhat and many of his dynastic contemporaries engaged in building projects to promote Sobek – projects that were often executed in the Faiyum. In this period, Sobek also underwent an important change: he [Sobek] was often fused with the falcon-headed god of divine kingship, Horus. This brought Sobek even closer with the kings of Egypt, thereby giving him a place of greater prominence in the Egyptian pantheon".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

2 • Sobek = Ra (the fusion of Sobek with Ra) 

"Sobek first acquired a role as a solar deity through his connection to Horus, but this was further strengthened in later periods with the emergence of Sobek-Ra, a fusion of Sobek and Egypt's primary sun god, Ra".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

3 • If Sobek = Horus and Sobek = Ra, then Sobek = Horus = Ra

What needs to be pointed out, is that if 'Sobek = Horus' is correct, the affirmation 'Horus = Ra' is only approximative, because Ra is not the glorification of the entire composite impactor, but only its wooden part. Though, if you just look at them, they are the same because only the wooden part is visible: the Osiris weight simply cannot be seen.

The composite impactor of the Great Pyramid was made of a wooden vessel, glorified into Sun god Ra (in its endless up and down movement into the sky, or into the Grand Gallery, before disappearing into the waters of the Nile, or in the waters of the inclined well), and Horus (in its endless operating cycle). But when the impactor was around the waters of the well, not only the Egyptians still see the impactor as Ra disappearing into or emerging from water, but they've also associated this impactor with the Great Master of the shallow waters itself: the crocodile; hence crocodile god Sobek, who at some point in Egyptian history, merged with both Ra and Horus to create a new combined deity.

31.02  When the floating impactor Sobek is "carrying the body of Osiris on his back"

We've already seen previously, that "Osiris was the one who gave all his force and energy to Ra", and that is because Osiris is the deification of the weight that was nested inside the wooden impactor; but once in the inclined well, that weight, the Osiris weight, doesn't have any energy left: Osiris is 'dead', and it would require to be hauled back up to the top of the Grand Gallery before being able to do its job, one more time.

That is what the excerpt "it was Sobek who carried the dead body of Osiris to the bank of the Nile on his back" is all about: "In a different version of the tale of Osiris, it was Sobek who carried the dead body of Osiris to the bank of the Nile on his back. The four mummiform sons of Horus - Imsety, human headed protector of the liver, Hapy, baboon headed protector of the lungs, Duamutef, jackal headed protector of the stomach and Qebehsenuef, falcon headed protector of the intestines - were believed to have come out of a water lily that rose from the waters of Nun. Under the orders of Ra, the four gods were rescued by Sobek in a net, and brought them to land." Source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sobeka.htm

Diagram of the Great Pyramid of Giza in operation for flash-evaporative cold production (hypothetically for chemical manufacturing cooling of pure sodium carbonate 'natron', the salt used for the mummification of pharaohs). When in operation, the elevation of the Great Pyramid was not finished, and it is only after the shutdown procedure and the draining of the inclined well, that the three granite plugs finally ended up in their actual positions.

31.03  The impactor was getting into the waters of the inclined well just like a crocodile

The following excerpt is telling us one of the reasons why the crocodile has been used to represent the impactor, and it is about the way a crocodile is getting into the water by making splashes. It is the most easy metaphor anyone can understand about the crocodile: the Great Master of the shallow waters simply getting into these waters with speed and energy, splashing water all around him. This is Sobek, the glorification of the impactor of the Great Pyramid, getting into the waters of the inclined well.

“Unis is Sobek, green of plumage, with alert face and raised fore, the splashing one who came from the thigh and tail of the great goddess in the sunlight ... Unis has appeared as Sobek, Neith's son. Unis will eat with his mouth, Unis will urinate and Unis will copulate with his penis. Unis is lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place Unis likes according to his heart's fancy.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

31.04  But the impactor was also getting into the inclined well just like a penis in a vagina

“Unis is Sobek, green of plumage, with alert face and raised fore, the splashing one who came from the thigh and tail of the great goddess in the sunlight ... Unis has appeared as Sobek, Neith's son. Unis will eat with his mouth, Unis will urinate and Unis will copulate with his penis. Unis is lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place Unis likes according to his heart's fancy.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

31.05  And of course, the inclined well with the check valve has been associated with a beating heart

Still the same excerpt, but this time this is about probably the most beautiful metaphor seen in this study: the heart metaphor. We've already seen that ancient Egyptians were highly qualified and trained scientists, engineers and also physicians; and if there really is one metaphor that perfectly fits the reality, is when you see the inclined well as a real beating heart, or should I say the couple formed by both the inclined well where water was pressurized, and the Bastet and Sekhmet check valve that functioned just like a heart valve. So there is no surprise that one of the metaphors used for Sobek, the glorification of the impactor getting in and out the inclined well, precisely is about the heart.

“Unis is Sobek, green of plumage, with alert face and raised fore, the splashing one who came from the thigh and tail of the great goddess in the sunlight ... Unis has appeared as Sobek, Neith's son. Unis will eat with his mouth, Unis will urinate and Unis will copulate with his penis. Unis is lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place Unis likes according to his heart's fancy.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Giza, showing the four skate blades of the impactor.

31.06  Sobek: the master of the shallow waters and the saving of the Four Sons of Horus skate blades

In the following excerpts, it is also mentioned a fishing net used by Sobek to rescue the Four Sons of Horus. To understand the metaphor, you have to remember that the Four Sons of Horus are the glorification of the four skate blades of the impactor Ra. So, when Ra gets inside the waters of the inclined well, the Four Sons of Horus skate blades get in the well as well.

Probably the crocodile was seen by ancient Egyptians as the master of the shallow waters all over Egypt, so when they had to reinterpret and glorify this part of the operating cycle of the impactor where it does stand inside shallow waters, they naturally invoked the master of the shallow waters, and they created Sobek, the one able to save the impactor out of the shallow waters where it was more or less floating, and save its four skate blades at the same time. This is how and why Sobek is not only saving Sun god Ra from the waters of the Nile, but also saving the Four Sons of Horus in the same process.

"Sobek was revered for his ferocity and quick movement. It is said that he was the god who caught the four sons of Horus in a net, as they emerged from the waters in a lotus bloom." http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sobek.htm

"In a different version of the tale of Osiris, it was Sobek who carried the dead body of Osiris to the bank of the Nile on his back. The four mummiform sons of Horus - Imsety, human headed protector of the liver, Hapy, baboon headed protector of the lungs, Duamutef, jackal headed protector of the stomach and Qebehsenuef, falcon headed protector of the intestines - were believed to have come out of a water lily that rose from the waters of Nun. Under the orders of Ra, the four gods were rescued by Sobek in a net, and brought them to land." Source Tour Egypt:  http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sobeka.htm

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery, showing the impactor floating inside the inclined well after the impact.

31.07  When the impactor Ra is sending the Hatmehit rope to reconnect with the Distant Goddess Hathor Hauling beetle

We've already seen that after the impactor has been released and is now more or less floating in the waters of the inclined well, and because the two central hauling ropes couldn't have been connected with the impactor during this part of the cycle to avoid premature deterioration of the ropes, it implied three major things:

• for the recovery of the impactor, one man had to get inside the fixed wooden Djed caisson to reattach these two ropes with the two bollards of the impactor (in this part of the cycle they aren't seen as 'ascending' Isis anymore, but in two another goddesses: first 'descending Nephthys' because she was descending the Djed caisson, and then Hatmehit, associated with fishing, because the whole thing would have looked like the impactor was being fished out)

• this one man had to get in the Djed caisson through one hatch at the bottom of the Gallery (the lower hatch)

• what this man is connecting with the impactor Ra, isn't the two ropes themselves, but the Hathor connecting plug (and again, ancient Egyptians used different goddesses for the two main parts of hauling plug's operating cycle: Hathor is really about the hauling process, she only is ascending the Gallery, when Hesat, a form of Hathor, is the one descending in the central wooden Djed caisson; everything was about cycles and the idea of completing these cycles)

Probably that in the following excerpt, the goddess who helps Sun god Ra (that is the impactor) to "find and bring back home to Ra" Hathor, precisely is Hesat herself

[Excerpt from World History]: "When the Distant Goddess [Hathor] eludes Ra's control, a god is sent forth by Ra to find his daughter and bring her home and, when this happens, she brings with her the inundation of the Nile River which overflowed its banks and brought life to the people".  https://www.worldhistory.org/Hathor/

31.08  Sobek "the Splashing One": an argument supporting the hypothesis that the hauling Beetle is still waiting at the bottom of the Gallery when the impactor is released from the top

“Unis is Sobek, green of plumage, with alert face and raised fore, the splashing one who came from the thigh and tail of the great goddess in the sunlight ... Unis has appeared as Sobek, Neith's son. Unis will eat with his mouth, Unis will urinate and Unis will copulate with his penis. Unis is lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place Unis likes according to his heart's fancy.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

Hathor (left) and Sobek, temple of Kom Ombo: wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Kom-Ombo-Sobek-et-couronnement-001.jpg

31.09  An explanation for the atypical temple of Kom Ombo starring Sobek, Hathor and Horus the elder together: the alligator jaws grasping forceps metaphor

The temple of Kom Ombo is completely atypical, as it is based on an unique "double" design starring three main deities: crocodile god Sobek, Horus the elder and cow goddess Hathor. The temple is also atypical because there is a full double design perfectly symmetrical along the main axis.

The explanation I'll describe now is only hypothetical, but now that we have a sufficient understanding of the real meaning of the three deities that are crocodile Sobek, Hathor and Horus the elder, the difficult part is to figure out the story that ancient Egyptians wanted to tell by this particular association.

So, this is what we know for sure now:

• Sobek is the glorification of the impactor when interacting with the waters of the inclined well of the Great Pyramid

• Hathor is the glorification of the hauling plug that connected the two central hauling ropes (Isis) to the impactor

• Horus the elder is the glorification of the impactor itself, when being hauled, slowly and painstakingly

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery, showing the key role of the Hathor hauling plug, with her two magnificent eyes.

So, there is my explanation of all this, and again this is only hypothetical: in my opinion, Hathor is the key, and the meaning of the temple is about the glorification of the firm and powerful grasp of the Hathor hauling plug on the two bollards that were set on the upper and southern side of the impactor. If I'm right, Egyptians used the extremely powerful bite of the crocodile to glorify the powerful grasp of the hauling plug onto the impactor.

This 'alligator jaws grasping forceps metaphor', explains everything, and in particular:

• the fact that the Sobek side of the temple was south and the Horus the elder side was north, because the Hathor hauling plug was indeed south of the Horus the elder impactor

• the fact that there was to complete set of structures, because there was two bollards on the impactor and the hauling plug had to grasp to these two bollards at the same time

"The building is unique because its 'double' design meant that there were courts, halls, sanctuaries and rooms duplicated for two sets of gods. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor and Khonsu. Meanwhile, the northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris ("Horus the Elder"), along "with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister, a special form of Hathor or Tefnet/Tefnut) and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands)." The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Kom_Ombo

[illustration] Laparoscopic Alligator Grasper Forceps: https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/laparoscopic-alligator-grasper-forceps-26015737730.html

Temple of crocodile god Sobek, at Kom Ombo in Egypt, with the double entrance and the two symetrical parts of the temple apart from the central wall where are most of the reliefs showing Sobek, Hathor and Horus the elder. Photograph by I, Rémith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Kom_Ombo#/media/File:Kom_Ombo.JPG

31.10  No trace of Sobek at the time when the Great Pyramid was built (Fourth Dynasty)

One of the most difficult things about the deciphering of the real ancient Egyptian history, is the fact that the study has to concentrate both on very little details (architecture particularities, artifact designs and all kind of mythological details), but also on the widest spectrum of the Egyptian history known today. It is only when you step back at the whole picture that maybe the most important data are visible; and what we know of Sobek is very revealing of the major role that took the Fourth Dynasty: there is simply no trace of Sobek before the Fifth Dynasty.

Nor there is no trace of many other ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses; actually, the 'Pyramid Texts' so often mentioned by egyptologists, first appear during the Fifth Dynasty; there is no other known existing text from ancient Egypt prior to the Fifth Dynasty. It means that during the historical period when the great pyramids of Djoser, Sneferu, Khufu and Khafre, no 'religious' text has ever been written when at the same time, hundreds of thousands of people built these pyramids (and mastabas) over about 656 years. (3150 BCE for the beginning of the First Dynasty to 2494 BCE for the end of the Fourth Dynasty). What I'm saying, is that it is the Great Pyramid who triggered and inspired all the Pyramid Texts. [data] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasties_of_ancient_Egypt

"Sobek (also known as Sebek, Sebek-Ra, Sobeq, Suchos, Sobki, and Soknopais) was the ancient god of crocodiles. He is first mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and his worship continued until the Roman period". https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/sobek/

"Sobek enjoyed a longstanding presence in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, from the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2686–2181 BCE) through the Roman period (c.  30 bce–350 ce ). He is first known from several different Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, particularly from spell PT 317. The spell, which praises the pharaoh as the living incarnation of the crocodile god, reads: Unis is Sobek, green of plumage, with alert face and raised fore, the splashing one who came from the thigh and tail of the great goddess in the sunlight ... Unis has appeared as Sobek, Neith's son. Unis will eat with his mouth, Unis will urinate and Unis will copulate with his penis. Unis is lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place Unis likes according to his heart's fancy".   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

"The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranean walls and sarcophagi of pyramids at Saqqara from the end of the Fifth Dynasty, and throughout the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, and into the Eighth Dynasty of the First Intermediate Period.  The oldest of the texts have been dated to c. 2400–2300 BCE".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Texts

Do you see the alligator grasping forceps? And the teeth of the tool as well? [original image] “A Hymn to Sobek”, by egyptologylessonsgallery: https://www.instagram.com/egyptologylessonsgallery/p/Cwh4eL3uNDa/?img_index=1

31.11  The use of the crocodile metaphors before the Fifth Dynasty

The fact that there is no known text mentioning crocodile god Sobek before the Fifth Dynasty doesn’t mean that there is no trace of crocodile gods before! And there is nothing contradictory here. What changed everything is the operation of the Great Pyramid, but this Pyramid as we’ve already seen, is most probably the final end game of the scientific and engineering quest in which ancient Egyptians were involved in, and some, maybe most of all the individual accomplishments used in the Pyramid had a former life: they have been discovered and developed long time before the Great Pyramid was built.

So, no wonder the crocodile has been worshiped before the Fifth Dynasty; the only problem would be to know why it had been worshiped. Of course, one of the most important use of the crocodile could have been about very efficient tools used to grasp things, just like the alligator jaws grasping forceps we’ve just seen, but maybe ancient Egyptians also used the way the crocodile is sliding into shallow waters to glorify how they’ve been using sleds inside their hollow wet rails; and maybe or probably they’ve also used the crocodile to glorify something else that still has to be discovered yet.

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Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

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