THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 29 The Anubis and Wepwawet levitating sleds

Anubis and Wepwawet are two complementary glorifications of the sleds used by ancient Egyptians, whether it was for the transport of heavy loads on land or to operate the composite impactor of the Great Pyramid. Anubis is represented here lifting some kind of frame into the air, because he really is that frame: a wooden frame, a sled. This is why Anubis and Wepwawet were known as "the Opener of the ways".  [illustrations] "Giant size realistic replicas of Ancient Egypt makes an impression at Universal Studios Singapore". Photograph by William Choe (left): https://www.flickr.com/photos/adforce1/5038237869/in/photostream/ and by John Wah 华约翰 (right): https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnwah/6794236531

THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Study written by Bruno COURSOL (January 2021 to September 2025)

Section E • The skate blades of the composite impactor of the Great Pyramid of Giza

The impactor Horus, was powered by four skate blades at each corner of the wooden structure. These four blades are what the Four Sons of Horus truly are about, and because they were metal, they resembled actual cutting blades.

Chapter 29 • The Anubis and Wepwawet levitating sleds

In summary: in this chapter, with Anubis and Wepwawet, we'll see another example of the obsession of the ancient Egyptians for describing and glorifying two opposite but complementary ideas on one of the most important technological tool used for transporting either very heavy loads on land or for the operation of the impactor of the Great Pyramid. This tool, Anubis and Wepwawet are all about is a sled. But there is one major trick here: sleds represented by ancient Egyptians in drawing, painting or in wooden artifacts aren't even complete: like we've already seen, Egyptians used metal skate blades into corresponding hollow guide rails lubricated with water for this kind of transportation; what it means is that Egyptians never represented complete sleds, and that they can almost be seen as decoys. The most important part of the sleds has been hidden; the skate blades have been hidden.

Because Egyptians constantly tried to compare their own scientific and technological accomplishments with what mother nature have done, they associated sleds with jackals, because of the way the animal is running into the desert, not very fast, but on very long distances. Anubis also has dog characteristics and he has been associated with graves and cemeteries because one thing dogs do all the time is digging holes and trenches all over the place. In some ways, Anubis has become the 'Great Master Grave Digger', and it was him Anubis, who was invoked by ancient Egyptians every time it was necessary to dig another tomb, because a tomb is just another hole in the ground.

Because the sleds were operated inside hollow guide rails, they could only have moved in two directions: this is why Anubis was known as 'the Opener of the Roads to the North', and Wepwawet as 'the Opener of the Roads to the South'. And even if Anubis and Wepwawet were already perfectly well known before the Great Pyramid was built during the Fourth Dynasty, operated and then glorified, most probably their influence dramatically gained in intensity starting with the Fifth Dynasty.

29.01  The “Great Master Grave Digger” metaphor about Anubis: why the god of the dead, graves and cemeteries has been represented into a dog or a jackal

But before getting to the difficult part of the deciphering of Anubis, let’s start with the easy part: Anubis, god of graves and cemeteries. The academic explanation of why Anubis was the god of graves and cemeteries really is one of the most funny/stupid/outrageous story that egyptologists are reciting since more than 200 years now without anybody questioning it. “Does your dog dig holes in the garden?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=P0vPRSxQWdM

Of course there is nothing they could have done to avoid telling again and again the same stories from the 19^th century, at a time when almost nothing could have been understood about ancient Egypt. Egyptologists have always been bound hand and foot to these cute stories because contemporary Egyptians certainly wouldn’t accept any rewriting of their history: every year, millions of tourists bring to Egypt between one and ten billions US dollars. Why would they want to change anything?

But what puzzles me, is why everybody who is listening to all these funny/stupid/outrageous stories don’t say anything to make it stop. Why isn’t there anybody to say that the explanation of why Anubis, god of graves and cemeteries has been represented into a dog or a jackal, is simply funny/stupid/outrageous?

How the hell can you imagine that ancient Egyptians would have chosen a dog or a jackal as protective deity of their cemeteries if dogs or jackals were the ones destroying their graves and eating the body of the deceased? Do you really think they wouldn’t have been intelligent enough, let’s say… to dig deeper in the ground so that it wouldn’t happened in the first place? You really think they were that stupid?

“Stroke doesn’t stop 64-year-old woman from digging graves”: https://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/stroke-doesnt-stop-64-year-old-woman-from-digging-graves/

Above illustration of a dog, laying down into the trench he has just made to cool himself down (and just like a skate blade running into its U-shape hollow guide rail): https://outdoorlightschattanooga.wordpress.com/2023/04/14/stop-your-pet-from-digging-up-your-lighting-and-wire/

29.02  Dogs most of the time not only dig one single hole but many holes next to each other and they also dig trenches where they like to lay down into them… just like they would in a grave

And here we are, with the perfect illustration of why the god of graves and cemeteries Anubis has been represented into a dog: particularly in desert areas, when dogs are hot, they dig holes and trenches and they lay down into them in order to cool themselves down. Here is your grave; and in some ways, Anubis was probably seen as “the Great Master Digger”. The troubling thing here, is that the metaphor about Anubis and the graves, probably is the easiest one I’ve seen so far: if Anubis has been represented into a dog or a jackal, of course it only is because these animals were the perfect illustration of how you dig a grave in the first place.

• in short: each time ancient Egyptians needed to dig a new grave, they invoked the power and benevolence of the masters of the digging: dogs and jackals. And the metaphor is perfect, because dogs rarely dig only one hole: they dig many holes; metaphorically they were digging “millions of holes” everywhere, just like you have “millions of graves” in a cemetery. Certainly, Anubis was seen at the time as “the Great Master Grave Digger”.

“Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, jackals had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of "fighting like with like," a jackal was chosen to protect the dead, because "a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis

29.03  Anubis and the beautiful tunnel boring machine metaphor

There is another metaphor to point out about Anubis and the way sleds were sliding into their rails: that is the tunnel boring machine metaphor. Because one way of looking at how the skate blades of the sleds were moving into their rails, is that it was the sled itself that was digging its way through land. The sled was like a tunnel boring machine!

[illustration] "A North South Rail Connector for Boston": https://www.northsouthraillink.org/construction

“Funerary papyrus of Djehutymes. To the right is depicted the solar boat pulled by four dogs or jackals. This differs from most of the canonical representations, in which they are human beings. In the lower register, two falcon-headed capture whoever would threaten the sunrise. To the left, two pairs of cobras are workshipping the hieroglyph of the horizon, symbol of the sun as it rises. In the upper register, the seven seated characters with cobra heads represent darkness”. Museo Egizio, Torino, Italia: https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_1781

29.04  Why sleds and sled runners have been associated with jackal Anubis and other canine gods

Now, we are gonna see the most important thing about Anubis; because if he was indeed the god of graves and cemeteries, Anubis was most of all the god of the mummification process. But to understand why he was the god of mummification, we first have to understand the 'runner' metaphor and the reason why canines in general (whether you see dog, jackal or wolf into the composite canine gods Anubis, Wepwawet and Anput), have been clearly associated with sleds.

Because if the above images are crystal clear about the fact that for some reason, dogs and jackals, canines in general, have indeed been associated with sleds (above hieroglyphs and statuette from the Museo Egizio), the question of why remains unsolved. For now we’ve just seen that canines have been associated with graves because of the “Great Grave Digger” metaphor. The funny thing is that if we ask anybody, today, what is the link between dogs and sleds, surely everybody will give the exact same answer: dogsleds.

“Statuette of a jackal on an inscribed plinth”, showing that jackals were actually all about sled runners. Museo Egizio: https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_914

“Jackal-headed sled hieroglyphs”. After Kurth, 2008, I, p. 406: https://journals.openedition.org/pallas/2130?lang=fr

[Above illustration] dog sledding with Terre Sauvage, in the Arriège department, France: https://www.terre-sauvage.org/

29.05  Why would it be so hard to accept the idea that Egyptians used dogs as sled dogs (like every other civilization did) and why nobody is talking about it?

These two jackal-headed hieroglyphs really are something, because just like ancient Egyptians perfectly showed in drawings that they were able to produce flash-evaporative cold by creating a fog of microdroplets of liquid water (the Dendera Light), they are here with these hieroglyphs showing in drawings that they were also using dog sleds. For some obscure reason, egyptologists feel uncomfortable with the idea of depicting this kind of evidence, but it is about time that that this kind of conformism finally ends.

29.06  Anubis and Wepwawet: the jackal metaphor is about the relative moderate speed of the sleds but also about their long-distance operating capabilities

The following excerpt about the running capabilities of jackals is the key to understand the link between sleds and jackals. This is important because ancient Egyptians didn’t really have to literally use dog sleds like it is suggested into the above papyrus: the one important thing was to use the jackals as metaphors for the operation of sleds, even if 100% of all sleds would have been human powered.

From the Egyptian point of view, human powered sleds operated inside their counterpart U-shape hollow guide rails, would have just looked like jackals running into the desert: with relatively moderate speed, but for extended periods of time. In short: sleds would have moved through the desert just like jackals.

“All jackals are opportunistic omnivores, predators of small to medium-sized animals and proficient scavengers. Their long legs and curved canine teeth are adapted for hunting small mammals, birds, and reptiles, and their large feet and fused leg bones give them a physique well-suited for long-distance running, capable of maintaining speeds of 16 km/h (10 mph) for extended periods of time.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackal

"Sledge from mortuary complex of Senwosret I, Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12", from the MET: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545485

Both the left part and the right part of the image are actually depicting the same thing: how did the impactor of the Great Pyramid move on its four skate blades: the runners moved into two guide rails (probably the two notches on the weird beam the jackals are standing on are about the two rails) and they were all individually lubricated with water (the four snakes, because of the endless metaphor of running water and rivers resembling to snakes).

29.07  About the literal and metaphorical use of dog sleds: the skate blades and their lubrication by water

If there is no question about the fact Egyptians could have used (and probably really did all the time) dog sleds to move personnel, light weighed blocks or other type of merchandise all over Egypt (and maybe even very heavy loads who knows?), the above image is an example where sled dogs had also been used metaphorically to represent and glorify sleds.

Here, in the above representation of the 'hauling of the Sun-boat' by jackals and snakes, and because we’ve already seen that this scene is about the operation of the impactor of the Great Pyramid (Ra is the wooden part “vessel” of the composite impactor in which the Osiris weight was inserted), and of course because there certainly wasn’t any jackal in the Grand Gallery in the first place, we can now have a much more deep understanding of:

• what really are about the four jackals

• what really are about the four snakes

The difficulty here, and the paradox, is that even if the Grand Gallery was with no doubt used to really proceed to the act of hauling the impactor up at the end of every operating cycle, the four snakes and the four jackals aren’t doing the hauling at all. This is a perfect example of the complexity and sophistication of the entire glorifying process realized by Egyptians to demonstrate everything they’ve accomplished and at the same time to hide it behind multiple layers of metaphors and false leads.

In short: the above image isn’t about how was hauled the Solar-boat, but instead how it moved.

We’ve already seen this kind of “double meaning” many times now: both the left part and the right part of the image are actually depicting the same thing. There is not a left part about the boat, and a right part about how was hauled the boat: the entire scene is all about the boat itself (the impactor really).

This is why the same weird beam with two notches appear in both the left and the right part of the scene.

• on the left part is described the fact that the boat (the impactor) was floating onto water, just like any other boat

• on the right part is described how it was floating on water: if there are four jackals, it is probably because for each single sled, there was four skate blades underneath the wooden structure, and because every single skate blade had to be in contact with water inside the two guide rails, underneath every single jackal is a little snake (the same metaphor about water that the one used on the left side of the image: the big snake for the entire boat becomes four little snakes for every single blade).

[Tomb of Inherkhau] Servant in the Place of Truth, Dynasty 20. Edited from a photograph by Richard Mortel: https://www.flickr.com/photos/prof_richard/24187687583

29.08  The Four Jackals and the ribbon/scarf

On the Funerary papyrus of Djehutymes, we've already seen that the four jackals are all linked together and to the Sun-boat, and we’ve just seen that the jackals are here the glorifying representation of the four skate blades on which the composite impactor of the Great Pyramid was operated. On the above papyrus from the tomb of Inherkhau, the link that appears like a red rope is also metaphorical and only means that it was because of the jackal runners that the impactor Sun-boat was able to move. When both the Sun-boat and the jackal runners appear in the same picture, it is easy to represent and understand that red rope. But what would you do when you only want to represent a jackal runner (without the Sun-boat), and still want to glorify the capabilities of the runner? The answer is represented here: you depict a jackal wearing a red ribbon/scarf.

29.09  A more precise identification of Anubis versus simple jackals

The above image from the Tomb of Inherkhau, is also extremely important, because once again, the jackals seem to be strongly associated with the number four. If you click on the above link pointing to the original picture, you’ll see that:

• there are clearly four sets of limbs, noses and tails

• there are four ribbons/scarves

• but there are only four eyes and four ears instead of eight eyes and eight ears

Also when you look at the many representations of Anubis, you always have his four limbs perfectly straight and perfectly set onto the ground. So, it is only logical to say that:

• generally, jackals are about individual skate blades

• gods like Anubis and Wepwawet are about the association of four of these skate blades

"Giant size realistic replicas of Ancient Egypt makes an impression at Universal Studios Singapore". Photograph by William Choe (left): https://www.flickr.com/photos/adforce1/5038237869/in/photostream/

and by John Wah 华约翰 (right): https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnwah/6794236531

29.10  The dual function of the Anubis sleds: lift and run as fast as possible

1 • Jackal Anubis = LIFT. Again, the four jackals are right here in the above giant replicas at Universal Studios Singapore: the true meaning of the jackal couldn’t be better demonstrated. It is almost like they are all shouting at the same time “1, 2, 3, 4… lift”

1 • Jackal Anubis = RUN

Illustration: black-backed jackal running at full speed, just like he was flying over the desert.

Anubis represented operating the sliding weight of the 'weighing of the Heart' scale in 'Book of the Dead', Papyrus of Ani (frame 3) at the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10470-3

29.11  Anubis was the One to slide: how to represent the sliding movement of sleds with the counterweight of a scale

I’ve already discussed of the real meaning of the famous scene of the weighing of the heart, but now that we know that Anubis is all about the glorification of a sleds, we can understand why it is precisely him who is running the counterweight: to operate this type of scale, the counterweight has to be slid from left to right and has to be guided by a rail. Here, with Anubis operating the counterweight, he is only showing what he was really all about: a moving frame, running through some kind of rail.

Scale adapted from the mechanical column scale, by Seca: https://www.seca.com/en_gb/company/stories/details/article/the-mechanical-column-scale-nostalgia-with-a-modern-spirit.html

"Justice scene: tomb owner Baennentiu conducted by Maat, Anubis and Horus with scales", right wall in the sarcophagus chamber of the tomb of Baennentiu, Qarat Qasr Salim, Libyan desert, Egypt. Photograph courtesy of Roland Unger: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/BawitiSelimBanentiuSanctRight.jpg

29.12  The mandatory lubrication by water of such a system associating skate blades and U-shape hollow guide rails

I’ve been working on this extraordinary scientific adventure of deciphering what really was ancient Egyptian religion since January 2021, but since a few weeks now and the deciphering of the central wooden Djed pillar in January 2025, things are like magically finding their natural places in the whole puzzle. It is very exiting to be honest; and here not only do we have a whole new understanding of the role of Anubis in the 'weighing of the heart' scene, but we also have a brand new understanding of the role of the baboon which is very often represented on top of many of the scales of this kind of scene.

Remember, Anubis is nothing but the glorification of wooden sleds with metal skate blades, and in the above 'weighing of the heart' scene, he is still here, but there is no more counterweight; so he isn’t demonstrating that the blades were moving by sliding into a special hollow guide rail anymore; instead this particular scene is about the proper lubrication with water of that rail. Without lubricant, the whole thing couldn’t have worked; and that is why on many representations of the weighing of the heart scene, there is a baboon on top of the scale. The baboon is about water.

Egyptologists, for some reason never talk about the fact that baboons have been used as a representation of water (it is clearly not in the official and academic narrative), but this is clearly suggested by the fact that many water clocks from ancient Egypt do show a baboon: the baboon animal (probably representing Thoth most of the time) is always represented seated right above the water outlet of the clock, i.e. exactly above the water flow.

What is very interesting is that this kind of instrument is only releasing a very small amount of water at a time, but it never stops. And if you want to perfectly lubricate the guide rail system, this is also exactly what you want to do: a very small but constant supply of water inside the guide rails for lubrication. This is why in the above weighing of the heart scene, there is no more Anubis playing with a counterweight, but a baboon peeing water instead. Look closely, and you'll see that the baboon is actually peeing towards Anubis himself.

29.13  Both the four skate runners (Anubis) and the impactor itself (Horus) beneficiated of the water

Remember also, that if Anubis is about sleds and their skate blades, Horus (the one catching the water from the baboon in the jar), is the impactor himself. It’s like the artist wanted to show that the water was aimed for Anubis, but at the end it was Horus (the impactor which was standing on top of its blades) who finally beneficiated of the water.

Illustration: “Clepsydra or water clock with squatting baboon. This piece is considered to be a model of a water clock. Water within could drain from a hole between the baboons legs over a measured time”. From the MET: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/549190

Look at the weird perfectly straight four limbs of the jackal: the four of them are all about the skate blades inside the rails. “Wooden figure of the Anubis-jackal”: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA35831

29.14  The fake 'recumbent' Anubis is actually all about a jackal running at full speed: it is about the French metaphor of running as fast as possible 'ventre à terre' (literally 'the belly against the ground')

What is hard, funny and beautiful all at the same time, is how tricky the metaphors can be. The position of Anubis, known as the 'recumbent' Anubis is one of those metaphors, because while everything is done to make people believe that Anubis is still and recumbent, laying on his four perfectly parallel limbs , the hidden metaphor is about what we call in French 'ventre à terre', literally 'the belly against the ground', and the meaning of the expression is about running as fast as possible… just like the jackal in the above photograph. The 'recumbent' Anubis is actually running at full speed, whether it is about the operation of the impactor of the Great Pyramid, or the transport of heavy loads on land.

And there is something else: just like I encourage everybody to try to imagine the sounds that would have produced the operation of the Grand Gallery and the flash-evaporative passage, I encourage you to imagine what kind of sounds would have produced hundreds of sleds running through the desert inside their guide rails. Because one of the most characteristics of the jackal is his famous “howling” habit.

Black-backed jackal howling in grasslands. Adam Tusk: https://www.flickr.com/photos/148468630@N02/33204337335

Le 'réveil d'Osiris' (Awakening of Osiris) at the Exposition Osiris, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris. Skeleton infographic by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation: https://www.ibsf.org/en/our-sports/skeleton

29.15  The same false inactive 'recumbent' metaphor in the 'awakening of Osiris': Osiris only is all about speed and how he was in action onto skate blades

Probably the 'Awakening of Osiris' as shown on the above photograph, is the most remarkable illustration of how wrong are egyptologists and how far away their representation of ancient Egypt is from what Egyptians really were 4,500 years ago. How could nobody ever noted that the 'Awakening Osiris' was only about 'Osiris on a sled' and in the exact same position than one have to use when on board of a skeleton?

This skeleton position is so characteristic that it really is outstanding nobody ever talked about it; but of course, this is only possible because egyptologists had wonderfully achieved to force their own representation of ancient Egypt into our minds. In some ways, ancient Egyptian themselves would be amazed to see how easy it is to make believe anything to anybody (see the Disc of Sabu), or to make even the most obvious things disappear like they were magicians.

Of course, now we know better, because we know that Osiris was only one way for ancient Egyptians to glorify the weight of the Great Pyramid’s impactor; it was that weight which gave all its force, ramming power and speed to the impactor. On the above figure of Osiris, egyptologists only forgot to talk about the most important thing about the figure: the block on which he is so proudly standing on. Because Osiris really is that block.

Figure of Osiris at the Walters Art Museum, perfectly showing the block at the feet of Osiris. That block is Osiris himself, the weight of the Great Pyramid's impactor: https://art.thewalters.org/object/54.551/

Operation of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cold production (Dynasty 4). The use of a composite impactor allowed to generate both pressurized air and pressurized water. Starting with Dynasty 5, the whole process has been glorified metaphorically into gods, goddesses and myths. Osiris only is the impactor's weight.

29.16  The operation of the Great Pyramid for Flash-Evaporative Cooling of chemical manufacturing of sodium carbonate salt of mummification natron through a Solvay or Solvay-like process

Diagram last updated on January 28, 2025. Other diagrams of the operation of the Grand Gallery in previous Section 51

Just to put the 0.3% slope of the flash-evaporative cooling conduct into perspective and because the only purpose of this ramp was to redirect the liquid water that didn’t evaporate towards the basin of the Queen's chamber: “Since the aqueducts were operated by gravity the course of the channel had to be carefully planned so that it would maintain a steady slope. A steep gradient was avoided, since faster flowing water would erode the channel walls and threaten the stability of the structure, especially at bends. These constraints would have affected possible courses the aqueducts took. Vitruvius gives a figure of 0.5% as an ideal angle of descent, but in practice this varied considerably, the average gradient usually lying between 0.15% and 0.3%, due to the constraints of geography.” From a thesis by Evan J. Dembskey: http://www.romanaqueducts.info/picturedictionary/pd_onderwerpen/surveying.htm

And from another source: “The slope of the aqueducts [in ancient Rome] ranged from 0.07% to 3.00%, with an average slope of 0.20%: https://engineeringrome.org/the-water-system-of-ancient-rome/

"Transport of a colossus, from a tomb at El Bershehn Egypt" from The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1881 - 1882. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Picture Collection:    https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-37f4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

29.17  The underestimated role and operation of sleds in ancient Egypt

Probably everyone goes with the assumption that ancient Egyptians didn’t use the wheels at the time of the construction of the great pyramids, and that may be very well true. But the thing is that they didn’t need the wheel in the first place; and for the simple reason that they had something else instead: sleds. Sleds were used because with them you don’t have to worry about the problem of the weight of massive blocks to break anything. If Egyptians would have used wheels, they would have to worry constantly about the physical resistance of the axle operating the wheel. You don’t have this problem with sleds.

We've already seen that ancient Egyptians not only used sleds, but actually used sleds and U-shape hollow and wet guide rails, lubricated with water. They’ve used it and they’ve represented it in the famous representation of the transport of the colossus in a tomb at El Bersheh. In the Annex section, I explained how the Egyptians did represent the guide rails in the weird 'beam' that is right under the sled (the notches are about how you are making the hollow part of the rail: it is about the chisel cuts that make the internal groove). But the most important thing to keep in mind, is that these sleds not only never were operated directly onto the ground, but that they've been operated onto skate blades made of metal.

29.18  The operation of sleds with skate blades in U-shape hollow guide rails (think of our modern road system)

So, what we really need to force ourselves to do is to imagine, instead of a whole network of roads for chariots on wheels, a whole network of guide rails everywhere for the operation of sleds in ancient Egypt. If Egyptians would have wanted to use the sleds directly onto sand or onto simple round beams like if they were “primitive indigenous people”, they would never have used sled runners that would have act as if they were anchors in the ground and complicated their every move if round beams were used. In short, if Egyptians did used skate blades as sled runners, there had to be the corresponding counterparts: the hollow guide rails.

Tiny Land Wooden Train Tracks Set: https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Land-Wooden-Train-Tracks/dp/B0BNNHRWVN

“Portable shrine of Anubis, exposition in Paris, from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62)”. The two important parts of the above “portable shrine” are 1: the sled runners and 2: the “bars” which really are about the guide rails themselves. Here, the idea is all about representing the fact that the skate blades were passing though the guide rails. Photograph by Traumrune: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis#/media/File:Toutankamon-expo_62_anubis.JPG

29.19  The true nature of Anubis is right there: the skate blades going through the guide rails (the rails are the bars)

For maybe the umpteenth time now, what Egyptians loved to do is to explain things; and that is what they did here on the above 'portable shrine of Anubis' discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun: exactly like they’ve already done with the god Bes standing onto himself (the temporary granite wedging block that was inserted in the floor of the lower part of the inclined well and blocked the Taweret granite plug in its waiting position), they’ve represented Anubis standing on himself as well. Of course, the whole thing is designed to look like a portable shrine, but the real meaning of it was to demonstrate:

• that Anubis was about a sled and the skate blades

• and that these skate blades were operated inside a guide rail

In short, the 'shrine' probably doesn’t have other importance than just elevating Anubis in the air, because it was the role of the skate blades: lift and almost levitate in the air, above the ground. Of course, the bars are about the guide rails; and they are as important as the blades themselves.

Recumbent figure of Jackal Anubis, from The Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara, and now  at the MET (Limestone, originally painted black): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544075

29.20  Anubis and the guide rails: again, the rails are right here, on the base of the statue, ready for the Anubis sled and his tail to slide in

On the above image, the drawer is actually a simple box on a shelf, but it is designed to slide anyway; and that probably is the exact same thing about the Recumbent Anubis from the MET: we can very well imagine the tail of Anubis sliding through the 'guide rails' on the base of the statue.

Woodworking by Matthias Wandel: https://www.woodgears.ca/drawers/index.html

Jackal Anubis onto the sliding cover of the famous Anubis shrine found in the tomb of Tutankhamun KV62. Above image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/26885812817/ and below: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/41766431981/in/photostream/

29.21  If you still doubt that Anubis was all about 'something' sliding inside guide rails, the Anubis shrine found in the tomb of king Tutankhamun may help you change your mind

We’ve already discussed of the skate blades supporting the shrine and the golden bars representing the guide rails, well again, Egyptians represented actually twice the same thing on the same artifact and they even described exactly how it worked by putting Anubis onto a sliding cover: Anubis worked exactly like this sliding cover.

“This statue of Anubis was fixed on the sliding cover of a casket in the form of a shrine. The shrine rested on a litter which was used to carry the image of the god in processions. The statue was found at the entrance to the Treasure Room with its nose turned towards the funerary chamber. Probably so that its threatening appearance would frighten any intruders.” https://egypt-museum.com/anubis-shrine-of-tutankhamun/#google_vignette

More photographs of Anubis on his shrine, courtesy of Aidan McRae Thomson, Rugby, Warwickshire, England:   https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/page356

The south and north orientation of the Grand Gallery where Anubis 'the opener of the ways to the North' and Wepwawet 'the opener of the ways to the South' who 'rose in the sky like Horus' probably gained most of their glory, even if as the glorifications of sleds used in a regular transportation system, they had been mentioned since the early Dynastic period. 

"According to E.A. Wallis Budge in The Gods of the Egyptians Anubis shared the duty of guiding the dead through the afterlife with another jackal-headed god ... "Opener of the Ways"). These two gods both "opened the ways", although Anubis was the opener of the roads of the North and Wepwawet the opener of the roads to the South.” http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/anubis.htm

29.22  Both Anubis and Wepwawet are the glorification of sleds viewed from the opposite sides of their operating cycle: because sleds could only move in two directions inside their guide rails, Anubis was known as the One going North, and Wepwawet the One going South

The following excerpts are given to us the first clues about what should be seen as the 'couple' of Anubis and Wepwawet, the two most famous canine gods. If most of the time Wepwawet isn’t known by most people, its counterpart Anubis is of course known to everybody; but this is really unfair, because what we’re gonna see is that both Anubis and Wepwawet are actually about the exact same thing: sleds either moving in one direction or the other.

Because like we’ve already seen so many times now, ancient Egyptians were obsessed with the idea of cycle: they did with sleds, the exact same thing they’ve done with the two hauling ropes that were operating the impactor, depending on what part of their operating cycle they wanted to focus on (these ropes were seen as Isis when they were hauling the impactor up, or Seshat when these ropes were unrolled from the drive shaft just like you do with a tape measure, or Nephthys when these ropes were descending the Gallery, or Hatmehit when they were fishing up the floating impactor).

Most probably, the references to North and South about Anubis and Wepwawet are directly the consequence of the successful operation of sleds inside the Great Pyramid:

• Wepwawet was “the opener of the ways to the South”

• Wepwawet was “ascending to the sky”, “rising like Horus” and he has "gone up like Ra"

• Wepwawet was always represented standing up

• Anubis was “the opener of the ways to the North”

• Anubis was always represented in his false “recumbent” position but really indicating speed

“Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis

"According to E.A. Wallis Budge in The Gods of the Egyptians Anubis shared the duty of guiding the dead through the afterlife with another jackal-headed god ... "Opener of the Ways"). These two gods both "opened the ways", although Anubis was the opener of the roads of the North and Wepwawet the opener of the roads to the South.” http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/anubis.htm

“Wepwawet is a God of the hunt as well, and was in particular thought to accompany the Pharaoh on his royal hunts to protect and aid him. In this aspect Wepwawet was called “the One with the Sharp Arrows Who is More Powerful Than the Gods.” In Memphis, Wepwawet is called “Opener of the Body”, making a connection to the process of childbirth as well. In certain pyramid texts in later times, Wepwawet is given the title “Ra who has gone up from the horizon,” probably meant to be seen as the “opener” of the sky. In Pyramid Text utterance 301 the rising sun is called upon as Wepwawet. One of His many epithets is “He Who Rises” or “He Who Shines/Glitters”. https://templeofathena.wordpress.com/tag/wepwawet/

29.23  When Wepwawet was indeed identified with Ra ascending the sky

“Wepwawet is a God of the hunt as well, and was in particular thought to accompany the Pharaoh on his royal hunts to protect and aid him. In this aspect Wepwawet was called “the One with the Sharp Arrows Who is More Powerful Than the Gods.” In Memphis, Wepwawet is called “Opener of the Body”, making a connection to the process of childbirth as well. In certain pyramid texts in later times, Wepwawet is given the title “Ra who has gone up from the horizon,” probably meant to be seen as the “opener” of the sky. In Pyramid Text utterance 301 the rising sun is called upon as Wepwawet. One of His many epithets is “He Who Rises” or “He Who Shines/Glitters”. https://templeofathena.wordpress.com/tag/wepwawet/

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Giza, showing the hauling process of the impactor in progress. When in this part of the operating cycle, the four skate blades have been glorified into Wepwawet “the Opener of the ways to the South”.

29.24  When Wepwawet was indeed identified with Horus ascending the sky

“The object before which the canine god [Wepwawet] stands is known as the shedshed because in the Pyramid Texts an identically shaped sign is used to determine this word. Specifically, the deceased king is said to ascend to the sky upon the shedshed (PT 539 and PT 540), and to rise  like Horus, who is  over the  shedshed of  heaven (PT  800 and PT 1036). The  shedshed  has  yet  to  be  identified  conclusively. [...]  “Like Anubis, however, its physical features are representative of  more than one canid species: while its head and muzzle shape are common to all canids, its extremely slender physique is  only found in a few domesticated dog  breeds (e.g. greyhounds). Its ears more closely resemble those of foxes, but the narrow width of  its tail evokes jackals; its excessive length, however, is again fox-like. As it cannot be classified as belonging to any one  species, the  Wepwawet figure  is hence  perhaps  best viewed  as  a generic or composite canid.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 97 (2011), “The Shedshed of Wepwawet: an artistic and behavioural interpretation”, by LINDA  EVANS: researchgate.net/publication/297988180_The_Shedshed_of_Wepwawet_An_Artistic_and_Behavioural_Interpretation

Above illustration of the Shedshed of Wepwawet: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vepuauet_leps.jpg

“Triad statue of pharaoh Menkaure, accompanied by the goddess Hathor (on his right) and the personification of the nome representing the emblem of Anput, Anubis’s "female counterpart" and wife”. Photograph by Jacqueline Engel: https://laciviltaegizia.org/2023/01/06/triads-of-king-menkaura/

29.25  Of course, because Anubis is about the sleds and the skate blades, his wife and 'female counterpart' Anput 'She who brings the water' has to be about  the U-shape hollow guide rails

Until now, we’ve only seen glorifications of sled and skate blades with Anubis and Wepwawet, whether they were about real sleds used in the desert to move personnel and 'light' weighed materials like blocks on land, in what probably was the first transportation system in Human history, or whether they were about the impactor of the Great Pyramid. Of course, this is because of the impactor that Anubis and Wepwawet got most of the credit and the attention, but the 'utility' sleds explain why Anubis has been worshipped since the very first Dynasties.

But one thing was missing, and that is the guide rail. We’ve seen how ancient Egyptians had represented graphically these U-shape hollow guide rails (the beam with notches underneath the sled, because the notches are about how you make the groove in the rail, in the Annex section), but again no trace of any deity glorifying this extremely important piece of equipment.

Hopefully, Anubis is giving us the answer; and that is his wife Anput (also Anupet), who is literally  presented as 'the female counterpart' of Anubis and 'the One who brings the water'. The female counterpart of the sliding sleds and skate blades, cannot be anything else than the guide rails themselves; the rails that brought water for lubrication of the blades:

1 • Anput was the female counterpart of Anubis

2 • Anput was strongly associated with the idea of 'guiding'

3 • Anput was protecting the body of the deceased during the mummification process

4 • Anput was literally supposed to supply water

Because like we’ve already seen:

1’ and 2’ • Anubis was perfectly sliding into the hollow guide rail system

3’ • The first step of mummification is put the body of the deceased onto an embalming table, which have a big guide rail to drain the blood that otherwise will damage the rest of the body

4’ • There wouldn’t be any possible sliding of the runners in the guide rail if there wasn’t any water as lubricant.

“As the female counterpart of her husband, Anubis, who was known as jnpw to the Egyptians, Anput's name ends in a feminine "t" suffix when seen as jnpwt. […] She is depicted in the Pyramid Texts as the serpent who "refreshes and purifies" the pharaoh and is believed to bring water to the spirits of the dead, as they wait for the completion of their mummification.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anput

“In Egypt's Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a "jackal" head and body. A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis

“Embalming tables are designed to make blood drainage more efficient with tilting ends directing blood flow into the drain to minimize blood pooling.” https://www.medical-supplies-equipment-company.com/more-than-meets-the-eye-mortuary-tables-offer-convenience-and-safety-899.htm

29.26  Anput 'She who Brings Water' and her relation to the desert: the 'qanat' metaphor

On the above image of the embalming table, of course the drain is very visible and it explains why Anput, as the glorifying representation of the guide rail that allowed 'utility' sleds and skate blades to work, has been associated with such embalming table. But what isn’t visible on the picture is the fact that just like it was inside the Great Pyramid, the table has tilted ends. In short, the embalming table is inclined, just like the guide rails in the Pyramid.

Of course, in the Great Pyramid, the Grand Gallery offers a very steep slope, but this slight inclined characteristic of the embalming table has been reused in one of the most important epithet of Anput 'She Who Brings Water' and her relation with the desert: Egyptians saw in Anput (the glorification of guide rails for sleds and skate blades), the perfect deity to invoke when they were dealing with the transport of water through the desert. To bring water to cultures or to bring water to the guide rail system itself, you need to transport water, and there comes into play, the qanat.

In short: Egyptians saw the qanat as some sort of reinterpretation of the drain used to redirect blood on embalming tables. For what I’ve read, it doesn’t look like historians are eager to give the paternity of the qanat system to Egyptians, rather to Iranians: “According to most sources, qanat technology was developed by the ancient Iranians sometime in the early 1st millennium BCE and slowly spread westward and eastward from there.”, but with the experience I’ve had 'dealing' with egyptologists’ claims, there is very little chance this position is correct. Probably historians didn’t find any proof of any earlier use of qanats anywhere, or they failed in understanding they did have qanats in front of them, particularly in ancient Egypt; but it doesn’t mean Egyptians didn’t use this kind of water supply system, especially when you consider the fact that they necessarily needed such system to supply water from the Nile to the guide rail system that operated the 'utility' sleds, to evacuate waste towards the Nile from the operating mastabas and pyramids, agricultural needs, and so on.

“As the consort of Anubis, Anput is a goddess of the dead, presiding over funerals and mummification. Additionally, she is a goddess of protection and also represented in relation to the desert, which was the realm of the dead for Ancient Egyptians.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anput

 Canal with ancient stone cover at Petra. Photograph by Le plombier du désert : https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:P%C3%A9tra._Canal_avec_ancienne_pierre_de_couverture.jpg

29.27  Anput: the One who supports Anubis into the air

The above image is the emblem of Anput, and now that we’ve deciphered Anubis and the Anput herself, this is her entire emblem we can decipher. Remember that Anput is about the guide rails and Anubis about sleds and their runners; so it is not a surprise to see Anput supporting Anubis into the air. The emblem is even more interesting, because what Anubis is standing on, is himself: the weird horizontal thing on which he is standing on, that is the sled runner itself!

Again, Egyptians represented the same thing twice: the original piece of equipment that they wanted to glorify (the runners), and the god who is the glorification of these runners.

If you remember, we’ve already seen that the feather was used to indicates the idea of 'lighter than the air' (nothing fancy here, just common sense), and that is exactly what we have here: not only Anput is represented supporting Anubis, but the feather is directly put onto Anubis as well. In short, what it is saying is: Anubis was lighter than the air (i.e. levitating) and above Anput. And because Anput was also “the One Who Brings Water”, we have here the complete system of how was operated sled runners into guide rails in ancient Egypt.

Detail of “Triad statue of pharaoh Menkaure, accompanied by the goddess Hathor (on his right) and the personification of the nome representing the emblem of Anput, Anubis’s female counterpart and wife”. Photograph by Jacqueline Engel: https://laciviltaegizia.org/2023/01/06/triads-of-king-menkaura/

“Anput is the female counterpart of the god Anubis. She is depicted in the Pyramid Texts as the serpent who "refreshes and purifies" the pharaoh and is believed to bring water to the spirits of the dead, as they wait for the completion of their mummification.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anput

29.28  The incorrect interpretation of the horizontal 'feather' is the skate blade itself

I know I can appear very hard on egyptologists, and indeed I point out very often their mistakes and their attempts to hide everything that is invalidating their cute stories from the 1800s. These cute little stories have one major advantage though: there are so easy to comprehend, everybody can understand them, even if you are a 8 year old kid at school.

I’m very hard on egyptologists, but at the same time I also perfectly understand the position they are in, stuck between the necessity of never invalidate the work of the pioneer egyptologists and the total disinterest of modern Egyptians, who probably are only interested in the annual billions of dollars of revenue due to tourism (it is about 10 millions of tourists, every year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Egypt)

Here, the problem is with the emblem of Anubis’s wife, Anput: how come on her wikipedia’s page, appear a feather below the Anubis-like black figure? Because it never is a feather at all, like you can see on so many representations on the Triads of Menkaure.

Draw of Anput by PharaohCrab: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anput#/media/File:Anput.svg

29.29  Menkaure probably wanted to be seen as 'the Great Transporter Master of Sleds', the One who put fancy granite blocks on his pyramid even if they had to be brought from very long distances

I remember having watched a documentary a few months ago, showing a reconstitution attempt of how ancient Egyptians produced and moved limestone blocks. Of course, the part where they were trying to move the block on land, using a sled they’ve tried to make it roll over round wooden beams was hilarious, seriously; but what I want to point out here, is what happened when they tried to put the block (they’ve been only dealing with one single block all along) onto a boat they’ve also reconstructed, as close to reality as they could have done.

And I felt very sorry for these guys when, after a minute or so, the boat started to sink, with only this cute little block on board. So they’ve taken the block out of the boat and cut it out, almost in half maybe, I don’t remember. The funny thing is that they’ve tried to put a quite small block (about 1 meter cube) on the boat before it started to sink. So, could you imagine what size a boat would have been needed to support really heavy loads?

But the most important thing here is: “how the hell, could ancient Egyptians have powered, controlled and navigated these floating beasts?” Maybe egyptologists will say: “we know they’ve used the Nile to transport the blocks, it is written in the pyramids texts”. I would agree on that. They simply didn’t see the metaphor, again. Because in order to move blocks on sleds, they had to endlessly supply the guide rails with water; and of course, the only water they could have used, was the water from the Nile. So, yes in some ways, ancient Egyptians used the Nile to move blocks.

In short: utility sleds and the skate blades of the impactor of the Great Pyramid, indeed were used on water from the Nile river, but they (at least for the vast majority of them) were never put onto any boat: they were put on sleds which were operated through a vast network of guide rails, constantly maintained wet with water from the Nile.

 “King Menkaure built the third pyramid at Gizaplateau. This was smaller than Khufu and Khafre's pyramids but partly cased with granite, transported all the way from Aswan.”. https://laciviltaegizia.org/2023/01/06/triads-of-king-menkaura/

“Triad statue of pharaoh Menkaura, accompanied by the goddess Hathor (on his right) and the personification of the nome of Diospolis Parva (on his left). Material: Graywacke. Photograph by Chipdawes: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Menkaura.jpg

Probably the 'scientific era' ended with the Great Pyramid end the mastering of the Solvay process efficiently cooled down by flash-evaporative cold, but then what could have done Menkaure to legitimate himself?

My idea is that his goal was to be seen as 'the Great Master Transporter': he wanted to use the utility sleds like never before; and this could explain why he is so often represented in a triad with Hathor and Anput:

• we’ve just seen that Anput was about the guide rails supporting the Anubis sled runners

• and if you remember, I’ve already understood that Hathor was about the hauling Beetle of the Great Pyramid

So, in some ways Menkaure wanted to be seen as the One powerful enough to move these utility sleds. That could explain why his pyramid had a granite casing: contrary to limestone blocks that were found in proximity of the pyramids, granite came from very far regions. If Menkaure was able to get this granite blocks, it is because he was indeed, the 'Great Transporter Master of Sleds', helped with Hathor and Anput.

Granite casing stones on the East face of Menkaure's Pyramid showing an area of finished stones: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:06_menkaure_casing_2.jpg

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Giza. At this point, the skate blades of the impactor have ceased to be called Wepwawet-moving South (and the impactor has ceased to be called Horus the Elder because of the walking frame metaphor), when it will be finally released, the impactor will become Horus the child (the childbirth metaphor), and the skate blade will be called Anubis-moving North.

29.30  Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery showing the Anubis skate blades

The big question here, is to know if the impactor of the Great Pyramid was set onto some kind of sled, or if the skate blades were just inserted inside the wooden part of composite impactor. This last hypothesis seems more interesting than the first one, at first glance, and this is this hypothesis that is represented on the above diagram.

“Anubis (?) supporting a large djed pillar” at the MET. Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 664–30 B.C.: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/564548

“Rare Egyptian Faience Amulet of Anubis With Djed Pillar”: https://www.denofantiquity.co.uk/product/rare-egyptian-faience-amulet-of-anubis-with-djed-pillar/

29.31  Anubis and the Djed Pillar: Anubis is actually inside the Djed pillar

The fantastic thing now, is that the reconstitution of the Great Pyramid’s operation is sufficiently good enough so that many things can be cross-checked. Here, we have an example with the representation of both Anubis and the Djed pillar on the same artifact. Sincerely, good luck to anyone to try to explain why is Anubis represented apparently 'supporting' a pillar?  And I’m not the one inventing the word 'supporting' here; the MET does. The MET explains that for some reason, Anubis was really supporting the pillar!

On the second image, this is another figure: this time Anubis and the Djed pillar look like they are kind of combined, or amalgamated together; and this particular artifact is closer to the reality, because we’ve already seen that the Djed pillar combined the central wooden Djed caisson of the Gallery with the gantry wooden structure of the hauling Beetle.

So now, that we know that Anubis is about the skate blades which were operated inside the central wooden Djed caisson, it makes perfect sense: Anubis isn’t supporting the Djed pillar, but he is inside the Djed pillar. Of course, you'll have noticed (left picture) that the whole figure has actually been made so that the ribs we've just talked about, are visible: the crossbars of the Djed pillars have become the ribs of Anubis.

Look how meticulous and kind of obsessed Anubis is for the ribs of the deceased! As the glorification of sleds in general and the skate blades of the impactor in particular, Anubis couldn't go anywhere without his guide rails, so he is here represented looking for guide rails: the parallel ribs.

The squeaky jackal noises in "Happy Jackal noises", by saveafox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0vuWeU34mc

29.32  The characteristic 'squeaky' noise made by the jackal when lying on his back explains Anubis’ big erected ears: the ears are showing that part of his deciphering is about these noises

To finish this chapter, I finally have another remark to make, and it points out one more time the obsession of ancient Egyptians to replicate or use mother Nature in their own reinterpretation of their technological prowess: if dogs and foxes are both well known for digging holes and trenches, I may have find another reason why Egyptians also used jackals in the representations of Anubis; because if Anput is the glorification of a guide rail and Anubis the glorification of skate blades, there would have been a lot of noises coming from it, even with proper lubrication. Just look, and hear, at the following video, and you’ll be surprised how the jackal really makes the most beautiful squeaking noises you’ll ever hear. 

And of course, it also explains why Anubis has so big and erected ears: he is also all about sounds and noises.

Jackal head of Anubis in (KV35) the tomb of Amenophis II, Valley of the Kings. Photograph by LBM1948: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis#/media/File:Valle_de_los_Reyes_1999_04.jpg

Tomb of Nefertari, QV66, Valley of the Queens. “There is the image of the winged uraeus, protecting the queen's cartouche with its wings. The black jackal Anubis reclines on a shrine, a sash tied around his neck and a golden flail supported by his hind leg.” Photograph by kairoinfo4u: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/33781706141

29.33  The Flail is all about water splashes... with a directional arrow

Because the impactor is moving onto wet hollow guide rails to reduce the friction, water is violently pushed forward in front of Apis' front hooves: both hooves are pushing the snake's body forward. But water is also projected backwards, creating fabulous plumes of water in the path of the speeding impactor: the flail is these plumes of water, and if it looks "broken", it is only an artistic rendering of the idea of water projected backwards. The flail is exactly like a directional arrow, pointing towards where the water is coming from and in which direction it is projected to.

On the above painting, Anubis is also represented with the flail pointing to its back, because Anubis is the glorification of sleds with metal skate blades, running through their wet guide rails. Anubis could be about the utility sleds used all over Egypt for land transportation or about the impactor of the Great Pyramid that also moved on the same metal skate blades.

Parts of a flail discovered in a tomb in Menphis, perfectly depicting the Dendera Light-like shapes. Ironically, the Louvre is describing that shape as "a pearl in form of a drop”: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010005690

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Table of contents

Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

Timelines

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