Ancient Mysteries!

Had a few letters from folk asking about Walshe's Pyramid outside Cairns in Northern Australia and The Hapgood Hypothesis of that supposed 10000-6000BC world-wide Egyptian Empire, and I have to say I'm sorry but I totally DON'T want to go there. For one thing, I'm simply your average Ancient History teacher. For another thing, the whole subject is just so bloody stupid.

However, I do know of there is an extremely good book that has a chapter on this subject. It's called "Ancient Mysteries" in which serious scholars and historians look into past mysteries and legends, attempting to incontrovertibly answer these puzzles from the past. I will hunt out publishing details and eventually post them in here:

Title:	Ancient mysteries / Peter James & Nick Thorpe.
Edition:	1st ed.
Publisher:	New York : Ballantine, 1999.
Collation:	xvi, 651 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.

No promises, but I think this could be the one!

It's an amazing book and I can't recommend it highly enough, because it's a scholarly look through all the evidence. A lot of ancient mysteries/legends are discounted, but there's also other stuff that they prove to be true, like, yes, the Chinese city of Li-Xian was founded by ancient Romans, and they trace through the written evidence from Roman, Persian and Chinese history to prove it as such. And, yes, there was a tribe of women called Amazons who lived near the Black Sea. And yes, the Phoenicians did round Africa three times during Ancient Times. And, yes, there was a Suez Canal 4000 years ago, and thus the ancient Egyptians were trading down through that region.

Could they have reached Australia? Who knows? However, you can be pretty well assured they did NOT have an outpost in North Queensland. There's that whole Great Barrier Reef that tells us it isn't so. And have you any idea how difficult it is to get through the Torres Straits. No, the entire subject is ridiculous.

However, if you want to go all jiggy with these stupid subjects, there's a remnant population of Israeli olive trees up in the north of Western Australia that appears to once have been an olive plantation they think is about 2000 years old that totally demands a look-in by archeologists. And there's a series of Javanese style rice paddy structures deep in the jungled mountains of Papua New Guinea that also could do with some serious answers.

Also, the Hittite Tribe from Northern Papua New Guinea could do with some serious research too. The members I've met are jet-black Helenic types who don't bear any resemblance to your average Papuan. However, I should warn you in advance that those members I've met are seriously and dangerously insane - most likely from in-breeding - and investigating them could end up getting you dead. And the three genuine surviving members of Australia's Kalkadoon tribe - who were the only Aboriginals who organised a proper fight-back - don't look Aboriginal at all; although a LOT of Aboriginals claim to be of Kalkadoon descent, the three real ones look like jet black Malays.

Oh, and I know of a LOT of other seriously strange and mysterious things in other parts of Australia and the Pacific, but, either because I was told in confidence, or because I was shown them by people who don't want their rights violated, I don't have permission to talk about them, so won't.

However, from what I know, I do believe that there was much more whizzing around the globe in ancient times than we currently give credence to (like those Roman coins found in Siam Reap in Cambodia, or that thousands of years old "Celt" statue they found in Macau. Or that carved stone arch in Tonga, that proves to be a calender, that was there when the Polynesians arrived in Tonga around 3000 years ago.) but Egyptians in North Queensland?

Nah! Nothing whatsoever behind this Ancient Mystery!