CITIES OF THE GODS

THE STORY of the first settlement of Earth by intelligent beings is a breathtaking saga no less inspiring than the discovery of America or the circumnavigation of Earth.

It was certainly of greater importance, for, as a result of this settlement, we and our civilizations exist today.

The "Epic of Creation" informs us that the "gods" came to Earth following a deliberate decision by their leader. The Babylonian version, attributing the decision to Marduk, explains that he waited until Earth's soil dried and hardened sufficiently to permit landing and construction operations.

Then Marduk announced his decision to the group of astronauts:

In the deep Above,
where you have been residing,
"The Kingly House of Above" have I built.
Now, a counterpart of it
I shall build in The Below.
Marduk then explained his purpose:
When from the Heavens
for assembly you shall descend,
there shall be a restplace for the night
to receive you all.
I will name it "Babylon" -
The Gateway of the Gods.

Earth was thus not merely the object of a visit or a quick, exploratory stay; it was to be a permanent "home away from home."

Traveling on board a planet that was itself a kind of spaceship, crossing the paths of most of the other planets, the Nefilim no doubt first scanned the heavens from the surface of their own planet. Unmanned probes must have followed. Sooner or later they acquired the capacity to send out manned missions to the other planets.

As the Nefilim searched for an additional "home," Earth must have struck them favorably. Its blue hues indicated it had life-sustaining water and air; its browns disclosed firm land; its greens, vegetation and the basis for animal life. Yet when the Nefilim finally voyaged to Earth, it must have looked somewhat different from the way it does to our astronauts today.

For when the Nefilim first came to Earth, Earth was in the midst of an ice age - a glacial period that was one of the icing and deicing phases of Earth's climate:

Early glaciation - begun some 600,000 years ago First warming (interglacial period) - 550,000 years
ago Second glacial period - 480,000 to 430,000 years ago

When the Nefilim first landed on Earth some 450,000 years ago, about a third of Earth's land area was covered with ice sheets and glaciers. With so much of Earth's waters frozen, rainfall was reduced, but not everywhere. Due to the peculiarities of wind patterns and terrain, among other things, some areas that are well watered today were barren then, and some areas with only seasonal rains now were experiencing year-round rainfalls then.

The sea levels were also lower because so much water had been captured as ice on the land masses. Evidence indicates that at the height of the two major ice ages, sea levels were as much as 600 to 700 feet lower than at present. Therefore, there was dry land where we now have seas and coastlines. Where rivers continued to run, they created deep gorges and canyons if their courses took them through rocky terrain; if their courses ran in soft earth and clay, they reached the ice-age seas through vast marshlands.

Arriving on Earth amidst such climatic and geographic conditions, where were the Nefilim to set up their first abode?

They searched, no doubt, for a place with a relatively temperate climate, where simple shelters would suffice and where they could move about in light working clothes rather than in heavily insulated suits. They must also have searched for water for drinking, washing, and industrial purposes, as well as to sustain the plant and animal life needed for food. Rivers would both facilitate the irrigation of large tracts of land and provide a convenient means of transportation.

Only a rather narrow temperate zone on Earth could meet all these requirements, as well as the need for the long, flat areas suitable for landings. The attention of the Nefilim, as we now know, focused on three major river systems and their plains: the Nile, the Indus, and the Tigris-Euphrates. Each of these river basins was suitable for early colonization; each, in time, became the center of an ancient civilization.

The Nefilim would hardly have ignored another need: a source of fuel and energy. On Earth, petroleum has been a versatile and abundant source of energy, heat, and light, as well as a vital raw material from which countless essential goods are made. The Nefilim, judging by Sumerian practice and records, made extensive use of petroleum and its derivatives; it stands to reason that in their search for the most suitable habitat on Earth, the Nefilim would prefer a site rich in petroleum.

With this in mind, the Nefilim probably placed the Indus plain in last place, for it is not an area where oil could be found. The Nile valley was probably given second place; geologically it lies in a major sedimentary rock zone, but the area's oil is found only at some distance from the valley und requires deep drilling.

The Land of the Two Rivers, Mesopotamia, was doubtless put in first place. Some of the world's richest oil fields stretch from the tip of the Persian Gulf to the mountains where the Tigris and Euphrates originate. And while in most places one must drill deep to bring up the crude oil, in ancient Sumer (now southern Iraq), bitumens, tars, pitches, and asphalts bubbled or (lowed up to the surface naturally.

(Interestingly, the Sumerians had names for all bituminous substances - petroleum, crude oils, native asphalts, rock asphalts, tars, pyrogenic asphalts, mastics, waxes, and pitches. They had nine different names for the various bitumens. By comparison, the ancient Egyptian language had only two, and Sanskrit, only three.)

The Book of Genesis describes God's abode on Earth - Eden - as a place of temperate climate, warm yet breezy, for God took afternoon strolls to catch the cooling breeze. It was a place of good soil, lending itself to agriculture and horticulture, especially the cultivation of orchards. It was a place that drew its waters from a network of four rivers. "And the name of the third river [was] Hidekel [Tigris]; it is the one which floweth towards the east of Assyria; and the fourth was the Euphrates."

While opinions regarding the identity of the first two rivers, Pishon ("abundant") and Gihon ("which gushes forth"), are inconclusive, there is no uncertainty regarding the other two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars locate Eden in northern Mesopotamia, where the two rivers and two lesser tributaries originate; others (such as E. A. Speiser, in The Rivers of Paradise) believe that the four streams converged at the head of the Persian Gulf, so that Eden was not in northern but in southern Mesopotamia.

The biblical name Eden is of Mesopotamian origin, stemming from the Akkadian edinu, meaning "plain." We recall that the "divine" title of the ancient gods was DIN.GIR ("the righteous/just ones of the rockets"). A Sumerian name for the gods' abode, E.DIN, would have meant "home of the righteous ones" - a fitting description.

The selection of Mesopotamia as the home on Earth was probably motivated by at least one other important consideration. Though the Nefilim in time established a spaceport on dry land, some evidence suggests that at least initially they landed by splashing down into the sea in a hermetically sealed capsule.

If this was the landing method, Mesopotamia offered proximity to not one but two seas - the Indian Ocean to the south and the Mediterranean to the west - so that in case of an emergency, the landing did not have to depend on one watery site alone. As we shall see, a good bay or gulf from which long sea voyages could be launched was also essential.

In ancient texts and pictures, the craft of the Nefilim were initially termed "celestial boats." The landing of such "maritime" astronauts, one can imagine, might have been described in ancient epic tales as the appearance of some kind of submarine from the heavens in the sea, from which "fish-men" emerged and came ashore.

The texts do, in fact, mention that some of the AB.GAL who navigated the spaceships were dressed as fish. One text dealing with Ishtar's divine journeys quotes her as seeking to reach the "Great gallu" (chief navigator) who had gone away "in a sunken boat." Berossus transmitted legends regarding Oannes, the "Being Endowed with Reason," a god who made his appearance from "the Erythrean sea which bordered on Babylonia," in the first year of the descent of Kingship from Heaven.

Berossus reported that though Oannes looked like a fish, he had a human head under the fish's head, and had feet like a man under the fish's tail.

"His voice too and language were articulate and human."

The three, Greek historians through whom we know what Berossus wrote, reported that such divine fish-men appeared periodically, coming ashore from the "Erythrean sea" - the body of water we now call the Arabian Sea (the western part of the Indian Ocean).

Why would the Nefilim splash down in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from their selected site in Mesopotamia, instead of in the Persian Gulf, which is so much closer?

The ancient reports indirectly confirm our conclusion that the first landings occurred during the second glacial period, when today's Persian Gulf was not a sea but a stretch of marshlands and shallow lakes, in which a splashdown was impossible.

Coming down in the Arabian Sea, the first intelligent beings on Earth then made their way toward Mesopotamia. The marshlands extended deeper inland than today's coastline. There, at the edge of the marshes, they established their very first settlement on our planet.

They named it E.RI.DU ("house in faraway built"). What an appropriate name!

To this very day, the Persian term ordu means "encampment." It is a word whose meaning has taken root in all languages: The settled Earth is called Erde in German, Erda in Old High German, Jordh in Icelandic, Jord in Danish, Airtha in Gothic, Erthe in Middle English; and, going back geographically and in time, "Earth" was Araiha or Ereds in Aramaic, Erd or Ertz in Kurdish, and Eretz in Hebrew.

At Eridu, in southern Mesopotamia, the Nefilim established Earth- Station I, a lonely outpost on a half-frozen planet.

Sumerian texts, confirmed by later Akkadian translations, list the original settlements or "cities" of the Nefilim in the order in which they were established.

We are even told which god was put in charge of each of these settlements. A Sumerian text, believed to have been the original of the Akkadian "Deluge Tablets," relates the following regarding five of the first seven cities:

After kingship had been lowered from heaven,

after the exalted crown,

the throne of kingship had been lowered from heaven,

he ... perfected the procedures,

the divine ordinances...

Founded five cities in pure places,

called their names,

laid them out as centers.
The first of these cities, ERIDU,
he gave to Nudimmud, the leader,
The second, BAD-TIBIRA,
he gave to Nugig.
The third, LARAK,
he gave to Pabilsag.
The fourth, SIPPAR,
he gave to the hero Utu.
The fifth, SHURUPPAK,
he gave to Sud.

The name of the god who lowered Kingship from Heaven, planned the establishment of Eridu and four other^ cities, and appointed their governors or commanders, is unfortunately obliterated. All the texts agree, however, that the god who waded ashore to the edge of the marshlands and said "Here we settle" was Enki, nicknamed "Nudimmud" ("he who made things") in the text.

This god's two names - EN.KI ('lord of firm ground") and E.A ("whose house is water") - were most appropriate. Eridu, which remained Enki's seat of power and center of worship throughout Mesopotamian history, was built on ground artificially raised above the waters of the marshlands.

The evidence is contained in a text named (by S. N. Kramer) the "Myth of Enki and Eridu":

The lord of the watery-deep, the king Enki.
built his house.
In Eridu he built the House of the Water Bank.
The king Enki... has built a house
Eridu, like a mountain,
he raised up from the earth;
in a good place he had built it.

These and other, mostly fragmentary texts suggest that one of the first concerns of these "colonists" on Earth had to do with the shallow lakes or watery marshes.

"He brought...; established the cleaning of the small rivers."

The effort to dredge the beds of streams and tributaries to allow a better flow of the waters was intended to drain the marshes, obtain cleaner, potable water, and implement controlled irrigation. The Sumerian narrative also indicates some landfilling or the raising of dikes to protect the first houses from the omnipresent waters.

A text named by scholars the "myth" of "Enki and the Land's Order" is one of the longest and best preserved of Sumerian narrative poems so far uncovered. Its text consists of some 470 lines, of which 375 are perfectly legible. Its beginning (some 50 lines) is, unfortunately, broken. The verses that follow are devoted to an exaltation of Enki and to the establishment of his relationship with the chief deity Anu (his father), Ninti (his sister), and Enlil (his brother).

Following these introductions, Enki himself "picks up the microphone."

As fantastic as it may sound, the fact is that the text amounts to a first-person report by Enki of his landing on Earth.

"When I approached Earth,
there was much flooding.
When I approached its green meadows,
heaps and mounds were piled up
at my command.
I built my house in a pure place...
My house -
Its shade stretches over the Snake Marsh....
The carp fish wave their tails in it
among the small gizi reeds."

The poem then goes on to describe and record, in the third person, the achievements of Enki.

Here are some selected verses:

He marked the marshland,
placed in it carp and... - fish;
He marked the cane thicket,
placed in it... - reeds and green-reeds.
Enbilulu, the Inspector of Canals,
he placed in charge of the marshlands.
Him who set net so no fish escapes,
whose trap no ... escapes, .
whose snare no bird escapes,
...the son of... a god who loves fish
Enki placed in charge of fish and birds.
Enkimdu, the one of the ditch and dike, Enki placed in charge of ditch and dike.
Him whose... mold directs, Kulla, the brick-maker of the Land, Enki placed in charge of mold and brick.

The poem lists other achievements of Enki, including the purification of the waters of the Tigris River and the joining (by canal) of the Tigris and Euphrates.

His house by the watery bank adjoined a wharf at which reed rafts and boats could anchor, and from which they could sail off. Appropriately, the house was named E.ABZU ("house of the Deep"). Enki's sacred precinct in Eridu was known by this name for millennia thereafter.

No doubt Enki and his landing party explored the lands around Eridu, but he appears to have preferred traveling by water. The marshland, he said in one of the texts, "is my favorite spot; it stretches out its arms to me." In other texts Enki described sailing in the marshlands in his boat, named MA.GUR (literally, "boat to turn about in"), namely, a touring boat. He tells how his crewmen "drew on the oars in unison," how they used to "sing sweet songs, causing the river to rejoice."

At such times, he confided, "sacred songs and spells filled my Watery Deep."

Even such a minor detail as the name of the captain of Enki's boat is recorded.

The Sumerian king lists indicate that Enki and his first group of Nefilim remained alone on Earth for quite a while: Eight shar's (28,800 years) passed before the second commander or "settlement chief" was named.

Interesting light is shed on the subject as we examine the astronomical evidence. Scholars have been puzzled by the apparent Sumerian "confusion" regarding which one of the twelve zodiacal houses was associated with Enki. The sign of the fish-goat, which stood for the constellation Capricorn, was apparently associated with Enki (and, indeed, may explain the epithet of the founder of Eridu, A.LU.LIM, which could mean "sheep of the glittering waters").

Yet Ea/Enki was frequently depicted as holding vases of flowing waters - the original Water Bearer, or Aquarius; and he was certainly the God of Fishes, and thus associated with Pisces.

Astronomers are hard put to clarify how the ancient stargazers actually saw in a group of stars the outlines of, say, fishes or a water bearer. The answer that comes to mind is that the signs of the zodiac were not named after the shape of the star group but after the epithet or main activity of a god primarily associated with the time when the vernal equinox was in that particular zodiacal house.

If Enki landed on Earth - as we believe - at the start of an Age of Pisces, witnessed a processional shift to Aquarius, and stayed through a Great Year (25,920 years) until an Age of Capricorn began, then he was indeed in sole command on Earth the purported 28,800 years.

The reported passage of time also confirms our earlier conclusion that the Nefilim arrived on Earth in the midst of an ice age. The hard work of raising dikes and digging canals commenced when climatic conditions were still harsh. But within a few shar's of their landing, the glacial period was giving way to a warmer and rainier climate (circa 430,000 years ago).

It was then that the Nefilim decided to move farther inland and expand their settlements. Befittingly, the Anunnaki (rank-and-file Nefilim) named the second commander of Eridu "A.LAL.GAR" ("he who is raintime brought rest").

But while Enki was enduring the hardships of a pioneer on Earth, Ann and his other son Enlil were watching the developments from the Twelfth Planet. The Mesopotamian texts make it clear that the one who was really in charge of the Earth mission was Enlil; and as soon as the decision was made to proceed with the mission, Enlil himself descended to Earth. For him a special settlement or base named Larsa was built by EN.KI.DU.NU ("Enki, digs deep").

When Enlil took personal charge of the place, he was nicknamed ALIM ("ram"), coinciding with the "age" of the zodiacal constellation Aries.

The establishment of Larsa launched a new phase in the settlement of Earth by the Nefilim. It marked the decision to proceed with the tasks for which they had come to Earth, which required the shipping to Earth of more "manpower," tools, and equipment, and the return of valuable cargoes to the Twelfth Planet.

Splashdowns at sea were no longer adequate for such heavier loads. The climatic changes made the interior more accessible; it was time to shift the landing site to the center of Mesopotamia. At that juncture, Enlil came to Earth and proceeded from Larsa to establish a "Mission Control Center" - a sophisticated command post from which the Nefilim on Earth could coordinate space journeys to and from their home planet, guide in landing shuttle-craft, and perfect their takeoffs and dockings with the spaceship orbiting Earth.

The site Enlil selected for this purpose, known for millennia as Nippur, was named by him NIBRU.KI ("Earth's crossing"). (We recall that the celestial site of the Twelfth Planet's closest pass to Earth was called the "Celestial Place of the Crossing.") There Enlil established the DUR.AN.KI, the "bond Heaven-Earth."

The task was understandably complex and time-consuming. Enlil stayed in Larsa for 6 shar's (21,600 years) while Nippur was under construction. The Nippurian undertaking was also lengthy, as evidenced by the zodiacal nicknames of Enlil. Having paralleled the Ram (Aries) while

I in Larsa, he was subsequently associated with the Bull (Taurus). Nippur was established in the "age" of Taurus.

A devotional poem composed as a "Hymn to Enlil, the All-Beneficent" and glorifying Enlil, his consort Ninlil, his city Nippur, and its "lofty house," the E.KUR, tells us much about Nippur.

For one thing, Enlil had at his disposal there some highly sophisticated instruments: a "lifted 'eye' which scans the land," and a "lifted beam which searches the heart of all the land." Nippur, the poem tells us, was protected by awesome weapons: "Its sight is awesome fear, dread"; from "its outside, no mighty god can approach."

Its "arm" was a "vast net," and in its midst there crouched a "fast-stepping bird," a "bird" whose "hand" the wicked and the evil could not escape. Was the place protected by some death ray, by an electronic power field? Was there in its center a helicopter pad, a "bird" so swift no one could outrun its reach?

In the center of Nippur, atop an artificially raised platform, stood Enlil's headquarters, the KI.UR ("place of Earth's root") - the place where the "bond between Heaven and Earth" rose. This was the communications center of Mission Control, the place from which the Anunnaki on Earth communicated with their comrades, the IGI.GI ("they who turn and see") in the orbiting spacecraft.

At this center, the ancient text goes on to say, stood a "heavenward tall pillar reaching to the sky." This extremely tall "pillar," firmly planted on the ground "as a platform that cannot be overturned," was used by Enlil to "pronounce his word" heavenward/This is a simple description of a broadcasting tower. Once the "word of Enlil" - his command - "approached heaven, abundance would pour down on Earth." What a simple way to describe the flow of materials, special foods, medicines, and tools brought down by the shuttlecraft, once the "word" from Nippur was given!

This Control Center on a raised platform, Enlil's "lofty house," contained a mysterious chamber, named the DIR.GA:

As mysterious as the distant Waters,
as the Heavenly Zenith.
Among its ... emblems,
the emblems of the stars.
The ME it carries to perfection.
Its words are for utterance....
Its words are gracious oracles.

What was this dirga?

Breaks in the ancient tablet have robbed us of more data; but the name speaks for itself, for it means "the dark, crownlike chamber," a place where star charts were kept, where predictions were made, where the me (the astronaut's communications)" were received and transmitted. The description reminds us of Mission Control in Houston, Texas, monitoring the astronauts on their Moon missions, amplifying their communications, plotting their courses against the starry sky, giving them "gracious oracles" of guidance.

We may recall here the tale of the god Zu, who made his way to Enlil's sanctuary and snatched away the Tablet of Destinies, whereupon,

"suspended was the issuance of commands... the hallowed inner chamber lost its brilliance... stillness spread... silence prevailed."

In the "Epic of Creation," the "destinies" of the planetary gods were their orbits.

It is reasonable to assume that the Tablet of Destinies, which was so vital to the functions of Enlil's "Mission Control Center," also controlled the orbits and flight paths of the spaceships that maintained the "bond" between Heaven and Earth. It might have been the vital "black box" containing the computer programs that guided the spaceships, without which the contact between the Nefilim on Earth and their link to the Home Planet was disrupted.

Most scholars take the name EN.LIL to mean "lord of the wind," which fits the theory that the ancients "personilized" the elements of nature and thus assigned one god to be in charge of winds and storms.

Yet some scholars have already suggested that in this instance the term LIL means not a stormy wind of nature but the "wind" that comes out of the mouth - an utterance, a command, a spoken communication. Once again, the archaic Sumerian pictographs for the term EN - especially as applied to Enlil - and for the term LIL, shed light on the subject.

For what we see is a structure with a high tower of antennas rising from it, as well as a contraption that looks very much like the giant radar nets erected nowadays for capturing and emitting signals - the "vast net" described in the texts.

In Bad-Tibira, established as an industrial center, Enlil installed his son Nannar/Sin in command; the texts speak of him in the list of cities as NU.GIG ("he of the night sky").

There, we believe, the twins Inanna/Ishtar and Utu/Shamash were born - an event marked by associating their father Nannar with the next zodiacal constellation, Gemini (the Twins). As the god trained in rocketry, Shamash was assigned the constellation GIR (meaning both "rocket" and "the crab's claw," or Cancer), followed by Ishtar and the Lion (Leo), upon whose back she was traditionally depicted.

The sister of Enlil and Enki, "the nurse" Ninhursag (SUD), was not neglected: In her charge Enlil put Shurup-pak, the medical center of the Nefilim - an event marked by naming her constellation "The Maid" (Virgo).

While these centers were being established, the completion of Nippur was followed by the construction of the spaceport of the Nefilim on Earth.

The texts made clear that Nippur was the place where the "words" - commands - were uttered: There, when "Enlil commanded: 'Towards heaven!'... that which shines forth rose like a sky rocket."

But the action itself took place "where Shamash rises," and that place - the "Cape Kennedy" of the Nefilim - was Sippar, the city in the charge of the Chief of the Eagles, where multistage rockets were raised within its special enclave, the "sacred precinct."

As Shamash matured to take command of the Fiery Rockets, and in time also to become the God of Justice, he was assigned the constellations Scorpio and Libra (the Scales).

Completing the list of the first seven Cities of the Gods and the correspondence with the twelve zodiac constellations was Larak, where Enlil put his son Ninurta an command. The city lists call him PA.BIL.SAG ("great protector"); it is the same name by which the constellation Sagittarius was called.

It would be unrealistic to assume that the first seven Cities of the Gods were established haphazardly. These "gods," who were capable of space travel, located the first settlements in accordance with a definite plan, serving a vital need: to be able to land on Earth and to leave Earth for their own planet.

What was the master plan?

As we searched for an answer, we asked ourselves a question: What is the origin of Earth's astronomical and astrological symbol, a circle bisected by a right-angled cross - the symbol we use to signify "target"?

The symbol goes back to the origins of astronomy and f astrology in Sumer and is identical with the Egyptian -hieroglyphic sign for "place":

Is this coincidence, or significant evidence? Did the Nefilim land on Earth by superimposing on its image or map some kind of "target"?

The Nefilim were strangers to Earth. As they scanned its surface from space, they must have paid special attention to the mountains and mountain ranges. These could present hazards during landings and takeoffs, but they could also serve as navigational landmarks.

If the Nefilim, as they hovered over the Indian Ocean, looked toward the Land Between the Rivers, which they had selected for their earliest colonizing efforts, one landmark stood out unchallenged: Mount Ararat.

An extinct volcanic massif, Ararat dominates the Armenian plateau where the present-day borders of Turkey, Iran, and Soviet Armenia meet. It rises on the eastern and northern sides to some 3,000 feet above sea level, and on the northwestern side to 5,000 feet. The whole massif is some twenty-five miles in diameter, a towering dome sticking out from the surface of Earth,

Other features make it stand out not only from the horizon but also from high in the skies. First, it is located almost midway between two lakes, Lake Van and Lake Se-Van. Second, two peaks rise from the high massif: Little Ararat (12,900 feet) and Great Ararat (17,000 feet - well over 5 kilometers). No other mountains rival the solitary heights of the two peaks, which are permanently snow-covered. They are like two shining beacons between the two lakes that, in daylight, act as giant reflectors.

We have reason to believe that the Nefilim selected their landing site by coordinating a north - south meridian with an unmistakable landmark and a convenient river location.

North of Mesopotamia, the easily identifiable twin-peaked Ararat would have been the obvious landmark. A meridian drawn through the center of the twin-peaked Ararat bisected the Euphrates. That was the target - the site selected for the spaceport.

Could one easily land and take off there?

The answer was Yes.

The selected side lay in a plain; the mountain ranges surrounding Mesopotamia were a substantial distance away. The highest ones (to the east, northeast, and north) would not interfere with a space shuttle gliding in from the southeast.

Was the place accessible - could astronauts and materials be brought there without too much difficulty?

Again, the answer was Yes. The site could be reached overland and, via the Euphrates River, by waterborne craft.

And one more crucial question: Was there a nearby source of energy, of fuel for light and power? The answer was an emphatic Yes.

The bend in the Euphrates River where Sippar was to be established was one of the richest known sources in antiquity of surface bitumens, petroleum products that seeped up through natural wells and could be collected from the surface without any deep digging or drilling.

We can imagine Enlil, surrounded by his lieutenants at the spacecraft's command post, drawing the cross within a circle on the map.

"What shall we call the place?" he may have asked.

"Why not 'Sippar'?" someone might have suggested.

In Near Eastern languages, the name means "bird." Sippar was the place where the Eagles would come to nest.

How would the space shuttles glide down to Sippar?

We can visualize one of the space navigators pointing out the best route. On the left they had the Euphrates and the mountainous plateau west of it; on the right, the Tigris and the Zagros range east of it. If the craft were to approach Sippar at the easily set angle of 45 degrees to the Ararat meridian, its path would take it safely between these two hazardous areas.

Moreover, coming in to land at such an angle, it would cross in the south over the rocky tip of Arabia while at a high altitude, and start its glide over the waters of the Persian Gulf. Coming and going, the craft would have an unobstructed field of vision and of communication with Mission Control at Nippur.

Enlil's lieutenant would then make a rough sketch - a triangle of waters and mountains on each side, pointing like an arrow toward Sippar.

An "X" would mark Nippur, in the center

Incredible as it may seem, this sketch was not made by us; the design was drawn on a ceramic object unearthed at Susa, in a stratum dated to about 3200 B.C. It brings to mind the planisphere that described the flight path and procedures, which was based on 45-degree segments.

The establishment of settlements on Earth by the Nefilim was not a hit-or-miss effort. All the alternatives were studied, all the resources evaluated, all the hazards taken into account; moreover, the settlement plan itself was carefully mapped out so that each site fit into the final pattern, whose purpose was to outline the landing path to Sippar.

No one has previously attempted to see a master plan in the scattered Sumerian settlements. But if we look at the first seven cities ever established, we find that Bad-Tibira, Shuruppak, and Nippur lay on a line running precisely at a 45-degree angle to the Ararat meridian, and that line crossed the meridian exactly at Sippar! The other two cities whose sites are known, Eridu and Larsa, also Iay on another straight line that crossed the first line and the^ Ararat meridian, also at Sippar.

Taking our cue from the ancient sketch, which made Nippur the center of a circle, and drawing concentric circles from Nippur through the various cities, we find that another ancient Sumerian town, Lagash, was located exactly on one of these circles - on a line equidistant from the 45-degree line, like the Eridu-Larsa-Sippar line. The location of Lagash mirrors that of Larsa.

Though the site of LA.RA.AK ("seeing the bright halo") remains unknown, the logical site for it would be at Point 5, since there logically was a City of the Gods there, completing the string of cities on the central flight path at intervals of six beru:

• Bad-Tibira

• Shuruppak

• Nippur

• Larak

• Sippar

The two outside lines, flanking the central line running through Nippur, lay 6 degrees on each side of it, acting as southwest and northeast outlines of the central flight path.

Appropriately, the name LA.AR.SA meant "seeing the red light"; and LA.AG.ASH meant "seeing the halo at six." The cities along each line were indeed six beru (approximately sixty kilometers, or thirty-seven miles) from each other.

This, we believe, was the master plan of the Nefilim. Having selected the best location for their spaceport (Sippar), they laid out the other settlements in a pattern outlining the vital flight path to it. In the center they placed Nippur, where the "bond Heaven-Earth" was located.

Neither the original Cities of the Gods nor their remains can ever be seen by man again - they were all destroyed by the Deluge that later swept over Earth. But we can learn much about them because it was the sacred duty of Mesopotamian kings continuously to rebuild the sacred precincts in exactly the same spot and according to the original plans.

The rebuilders stressed their scrupulous adherence to the original plans in their dedication inscriptions, as this one (uncovered by Layard) stated:

The everlasting ground plan,
that which for the future
the construction determined
[I have followed].
It is the one which bears
the drawings from the Olden Times
and the writing of the Upper Heaven.

If Lagash, as we suggest, was one of the cities that served as a landing beacon, then much of the information provided by Gudea in the third millennium B.C. makes sense.

He wrote that when Ninurta instructed him to rebuild the sacred precinct, an accompanying god gave him the architectural plans (drawn on a stone tablet), and a goddess (who had "travelled between Heaven and Earth" in her "chamber") showed him a celestial map and instructed him on the astronomical alignments of the structure.

In addition to the "divine black bird," the god's "terrible eye" ("the great beam that subdues the world to its power") and the "world controller" (whose sound could "reverberate all over") were installed in the sacred precinct. Finally, when the structure was complete, the "emblem of Utu" was raised upon it, facing "toward the rising place of Utu" - toward the spaceport at Sippar.

All these beaming objects were important to the spaceport's operation, for Utu himself "came forth joyfully" to inspect the installations when completed.

Early Sumerian depictions frequently show massive structures, built in earliest times of reeds and wood, standing in fields among grazing cattle. The current assumption that these were stables for cattle is contradicted by the pillars that are invariably shown protruding from the roofs of such structures.

The pillars' purpose, as one can see, was to support one or more pairs of "rings," whose function is unstated. But although these structures were erected in the fields, one must question whether they were built to shelter cattle. The Sumerian pictographs depict the word DUR, or TUR (meaning "abode," "gathering place"), by drawings that undoubtedly represent the same structures shown on the cylinder seals; but they make clear that the main feature of the structure was not the "huts" but the antenna tower.

Similar pillars with "rings" were posted at temple entrances, within the sacred precincts of the gods, and not only out in the countryside.

Were these objects antennas attached to broadcasting equipment?

Were the pairs of rings radar emitters, placed in the fields to guide the incoming shuttlecraft? Were the eyelike pillars scanning devices, the "all-seeing eyes" of the gods of which many texts have spoken?

We know that the equipment to which these various devices were connected was portable, for some Sumerian seals depict boxlike "divine objects" being transported by boat or mounted on pack animals, which carried the objects farther inland once the boats had docked.

These "black boxes," when we see what they looked like, bring to mind the Ark of the Covenant built by Moses under God's instructions.

The chest was to be made of wood, overlaid with gold both inside and outside - two electricity-conducting surfaces were insulated by the wood between them. A kapporeth, also made of gold, was to be placed above the chest and held up by two cherubim cast of solid gold. The nature of the kapporeth (meaning, scholars speculate, "covering") is not clear; but this verse from Exodus suggests its purpose: "And I will address thee from above the Kapporeth, from between the two Cherubim."

The implication that the Ark of the Covenant was principally a communications box, electrically operated, is enhanced by the instructions concerning its portability. It was to be carried by means of wooden staffs passed through four golden rings. No one was to touch the chest proper; and when one Israelite did touch it, he was killed instantly - as if by a charge of high-voltage electricity.

Such apparently supernatural equipment - which made it possible to communicate with a deity though the deity was physically somewhere else - became objects of veneration, "sacred cult symbols." Temples at Lagash, Ur, Mari, and other ancient sites included among their devotional objects "eye idols." The most outstanding example was found at an "eye temple" at Tell Brak, in northwestern Mesopotamia.

This fourth-millennium temple was so named not only because hundreds of "eye" symbols were un-earthed there but mainly because the temple's inner sanctum had only one altar, on which a huge stone "double-eye" symbol was displayed.

In all probability, it was a simulation of the actual divine object - Ninurta's "terrible eye," or the one at Enlil's Mission Control Center at Nippur, about which the ancient scribe reported:

"His raised Eye scans the land.... His raised Beam searches the land."

The flat plain of Mesopotamia necessitated, it seems, the artificial raising of platforms on which the space-related equipment was to be placed.

Texts and pictorial depictions leave no doubt that the structures ranged from the earliest field huts to the later staged platforms, reached by staircases and sloped ramps that led from a broad lower stage to a narrower upper one, and so on. At the top of the ziggurat an actual residence for the god was built, surrounded by a flat, walled courtyard to house his "bird" and "weapons."

A ziggurat depicted on a cylinder seal not only shows the customary stage-upon-stage construction, it also has two "ring antennas" whose height appears to have equaled three stages.

Marduk claimed that the ziggurat and temple compound at Babylon (the E.SAG.IL) had been built under his own instructions also in accordance with the "writing of Upper Heaven."

A tablet (known as the Smith Tablet, after its decipherer), analyzed by Andre Parrot (Ziggurats et Tour de Babel) established that the seven-stage ziggurat was a perfect square, with the first stage or base having sides of 15 gar each. Each successive stage was smaller in area and in height, except the last stage (the god's residence), which was of a greater height. The total height, however, was again equal to 15 gar, so that the complete structure was not only a perfect square but a perfect cube as well.

The gar employed in these measurements was equivalent to 12 short cubits - approximately 6 meters, or 20 feet. Two scholars, H. G. Wood and L. C. Stecchini, have shown that the Sumerian sexagesimal base, the number 60, determined all the primary measurements of Mesopotamian ziggurats.

Thus each side measured 3 by 60 cubits at its base, and the total was 60 gar.

What factor determined the height of each stage?

Stecchini discovered that if he multiplied the height of the first stage (5.5 gar) by double cubits, the result was 33, or the approximate latitude of Babylon (32.5 degrees North). Similarly calculated, the second stage raised the angle of observation to 51 degrees, and each of the succeeding four stages raised it by another 6 degrees.

The seventh stage thus stood atop a platform raised to 75 degrees above the horizon at Babylon's geographic latitude. This final stage added 15 degrees - letting the observer look straight up, at a 90-degree angle. Stecchini concluded that each stage acted like a stage of an astronomical observatory, with a predetermined elevation relative to the arc of the sky.

There may, of course, have been more "hidden" considerations in these measurements. While the elevation of 33 degrees was not too accurate for Babylon, it was precise for Sippar. Was there a relationship between the 6-degree elevation at each of four stages and the 6-beru distances between the Cities of the Gods? Were the seven stages somehow related to the location of the first seven settlements, or to Earth's position as the seventh planet?

G. Martiny (Astronomisches zur babylonischen Turm) showed how these features of the ziggurat suited it for celestial observations, and that the topmost stage of the Esagila was oriented toward the planet Shupa (which we have identified as Pluto) and the constellation Aries.

But were the ziggurats raised solely to observe the stars and planets, or were they also meant to serve the spacecraft of the Nefilim?

All the ziggurats were oriented so that their corners pointed exactly north, south, east, and west. As a result, their sides ran precisely at 45-degree angles to the four cardinal directions. This meant that a space shuttle coming in for a landing could follow certain sides of the ziggurat exactly along the flight path - and reach Sippar without difficulty!

The Akkadian/Babylonian name for these structures, zukiratu, connoted "tube of divine spirit." The Sumerians called the ziggurats ESH; the term denoted "supreme" or "most high" - as indeed these structures were. It could also denote a numerical entity relating to the "measuring" aspect of the ziggurats. And it also meant "a heat source" ("fire" in Akkadian and Hebrew).

Even scholars who have approached the subject without our "space" interpretation could not escape the conclusion that the ziggurats had some purpose other than to make the god's abode a "high-rise" building.

Samuel N. Kramer summed up the scholastic consensus:

"The ziggurat, the stagetower, which became the hallmark of Mesopotamian temple architecture... was intended to serve as a connecting link, both real and symbolic, between the gods in heaven and the mortals on earth."

We have shown, however, that the true function of these structures was to connect the gods in Heaven with the gods - not the mortals - on Earth.
 

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