Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of the Kings (26 page)

From every excavated site on Crete there can be no doubt that the Minoan civilization suffered from a major seismic event at the very end of its period of supremacy – when palaces, villas and entire settlements were abandoned permanently. From the geological findings of Ninkovich and Heezen, together with the archaeological discoveries of Spyridon Marinatos, we know that Thera was responsible. From the late Minoan style of pottery found at Akrotiri, we also know that Thera cannot have erupted before the fifteenth century
BC
. The ice core samples and the latest radiocarbon tests do not contradict any of this. However, archaeologists have tended to place the eruption of Thera no later than 1450
BC
, whereas the ice core and latest radiocarbon dates all provide a central date well into the 1300s
BC
. Although this would not contradict the archaeological evidence, it would require a certain reinterpretation of the events at the end of the Minoan era.

From the historical perspective, Thera weakened Minoan power, resulting in the empire's gradual decline over a period of around a century before being overrun by the Mycenaeans. If Thera did not erupt until the first half of the fourteenth century
BC
, then its affects on the Minoan civilization would have been much greater than is generally thought, causing its empire to collapse within a few decades. This, however, would seem quite plausible. The tidal wave alone could have destroyed half of the
Minoan fleet and devastated the empire's ports all over the Aegean. It had been a sea-based empire with little power on land. The Minoans were seemingly involved in a pact with Egypt against the Hittites in Turkey, who would no doubt have taken full advantage of the situation. Indeed, the Minoan decorations from Amonhotep III's Malkata palace appear to show that the Minoans were still well placed during the early fifteenth century
BC
(see Chapter Four). On the balance of evidence, therefore, Thera would seem to have erupted in the first half of the fourteenth century
BC
–
circa
1400 to 1350
BC
.

This would certainly sit within the reign of Amonhotep III. This can be dated from the Sothic Cycle discussed in Chapter Two. One particular calendar alignment occurred in the ninth year of the reign of the pharaoh Amonhotep I. It happened on the 309th day of the civil calendar, meaning that 1236 years had transpired since the beginning of the Sothic Cycle in 2781
BC
, making the ninth year of Amonhotep I's reign 1545
BC
. The first year of his reign was therefore 1554
BC
. From various inscriptions from which the lengths of his and the subsequent eighteenth-dynasty kings' reigns can be determined, together with the calculated overlaps of co-regencies, Egyptologists generally estimate some 165 years separate the beginning of Amonhotep I's reign from the beginning of the reign of Amonhotep III. That means that Amonhotep III's reign began around 1389
BC
. We know he lived for another thirty-seven years, which would place his death around 1352, the orthodox date Akhenaten came to the throne. However, as we have seen, there seems to have been an overlapping co-regency that has not been taken into consideration. If Cyril Aldred is right (see Chapter Six), Amonhotep died in Akhenaten's twelfth year, which would mean that Akhenaten came to the throne around
1364. Interestingly, this coincides almost exactly with the latest central radiocarbon dates for the Thera eruption.

The affects on Egypt of the Thera eruption would certainly account for Amonhotep's erection of the Sekhmet statues – the darkening of the skies, perhaps for days on end, and the shower of volcanic ash, would have terrified the Egyptians. They were not able to see the volcano erupting hundreds of miles away, although, if Krakatau is anything to go by, they would certainly have heard it. Witnessing something completely unprecedented, and totally outside the assumed order of things, the Egyptians would surely have thought that the world was coming to an end. In their mythology, this had almost happened once before, when Sekhmet had decided to annihilate the human race. She was the negative aspect of the sun's power, and it was the sun that was being obscured. She was also the goddess of devastation. Sekhmet would almost certainly have been considered responsible. Amonhotep may, therefore, have attempted to appease her by erecting the statues and making her supreme deity. However, the sun would continue to appear strange, its colour repeatedly turning sickly months, even years, after the ash cloud had dissipated. This may well have been taken as a sign that it could all happen again at any moment – and next time the world
would
end. Amonhotep and his policy of appeasing Sekhmet would accordingly be questioned – it clearly hadn't worked. Under such circumstances it is doubtful whether the frightened population would have opposed Akhenaten when he assumed control and installed an aspect of the god Re as chief deity.

In mythology it had been Re's intervention that had previously saved the world from the fury of Sekhmet. The priests of Heliopolis would have been quick to draw attention to this
fact. Re's assimilation with Amun, they would argue, had obviously displeased the god. If he was not reinstated, individually, as supreme deity, he would no longer restrain the wrath of his heavenly daughter. We know it was the cult of Heliopolis which had principally influenced Akhenaten. Indeed, to begin with, Akhenaten sees virtually no difference between Re and the Aten: many early references refer to him as 'only one of Re' (on the Boundary Stela at Amarna, for instance [see Chapter Three]). An early scene from the tomb of the vizier Ramose, at Thebes even describes Akhenaten as 'the image of Re who loves him more than any other king'.

As for the Amun priesthood: it is unlikely that they would have had much support if they tried to oppose the new religion Their cult revolved around the daily supplications to Amun, to keep the world in order and the forces of chaos at bay. Even from their own perspective, this had clearly failed. Akhenaten's logic would seem impeccable: Amun was no longer the chief god. Within a few years, once Akhenaten installed his new religion, the dust in the atmosphere would have subsided and the sun's appearance would have returned to normal. Surely, no one, no matter how much the new regime has altered his status, is going to risk the end of the world by opposing Akhenaten.

This scenario fits perfectly with everything we have so far examined – indeed, something along these lines is just about the only scenario that makes any sense of the Amarna era. It explains Amonhotep's Sekhmet statues, Akhenaten's new religion, the apparent wholesale acceptance of Atenism, even by the Amun priesthood, and it explains why the army went along with it all even when they had so much to lose. Does it, therefore, also explain the apparent Hebrew link with Akhenaten's religion?

Remarkably, the effects of the Thera eruption on Egypt bear
a striking similarity to the plague of darkness and other ills which the Bible tells us God inflicted upon Egypt when the pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave. Had Akhenaten come to believe that it was the God of the Hebrews who had been responsible for the terrifying phenomena, and ultimately incorporated their beliefs with his own?

CHAPTER TEN

Exodus

According to the Exodus account, the pharaoh, concerned about the growing number of Israelites, orders that all their newborn sons should be killed. Although many are murdered, the baby Moses is saved when his mother places him in a basket made from bulrushes and hides him below the river bank. The daughter of the pharaoh then discovers the child and decides to raise him as her own son. Years later, although he has been brought up as an Egyptian prince, Moses still has compassion for his countrymen, and when he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave he kills the man. When the deed is discovered, the pharaoh orders Moses to be executed. However, he manages to escape and settles in the land of Midian, east of the Gulf of Aqaba. After many years, God appears to Moses and charges him to return horne and confront the new pharaoh of Egypt. Moses does as God asks and, accompanied by his brother Aaron, appears before the pharaoh with God's command: he must free the Israelites and let them return to Canaan. When the king refuses, and actually makes life harder for the Hebrews, God punishes the Egyptians by a series of plagues: bloodied water, frogs, lice, flies, cattle deaths, boils, hailstorms, locusts and darkness.

In 1985, British author Ian Wilson, in his book
The Exodus Enigma,
drew scholarly attention to the astonishing similarities between these biblical plagues and the likely effects on Egypt from the Thera eruption. At the time the eruption was thought to have occurred around the mid 1450s
BC
, and accordingly Wilson placed the event around the reign of Tuthmosis III. However, as we have seen, it now seems more likely that the volcano really erupted over half a century later, during the reign of Amonhotep III. Unfortunately, neither reign – nor any other from ancient Egypt – has records making direct allusions to the Thera eruption. If any records were made during Amonhotep's reign or during the time of Akhenaten, the former would probably have been destroyed during the anti-Amun desecrations of the late Amarna period, and the latter would have been destroyed during the anti-Atenist backlash during the period of Horemheb. Although we cannot make direct comparisons between biblical plagues and Egyptian reports of the Thera eruption, we can compare the Exodus account with modern reports of Thera-like eruptions. When we do, we find them to be almost identical.

When Krakatau erupted, the explosion was so loud that in the Northern Territory of Australia – 4,800 kilometres away – people were woken from their sleep by what they thought were inconsiderate quarry workers blasting rocks nearby. The Egyptian coast is only 800 kilometres from Thera and so its explosion, six times bigger, would have sounded like thunder throughout the country. In fact, its shock waves would have rattled the windows of modern Cairo. They would certainly have been felt by the ancient Egyptians. Within a day of the eruption, the fallout cloud would have drifted high over Egypt and the skies would have darkened. After Mount St Helens, the sun was obscured for hours 500 kilometres from the volcano, and after Krakatau the skies were darkened to a much greater distance –
it was actually as dark as night for days on end up to 800 kilometres away. Because of the greater magnitude of the Thera eruption, we can assume that the same must have been true for much of Egypt.

According to Exodus 10: 21–23:

And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand towards heaven; and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

Apart from the fact that the event is being attributed to divine intervention, the account might as well be a description of the effects of Thera. That just one of the ten plagues matched the likely effects of the Thera eruption would be interesting enough: the truth is, they all do. In Exodus 9:23–26, we are told that Egypt is afflicted by a terrible fiery hailstorm:

And Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote all throughout the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and brake every tree in the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

This would be an accurate description of the terrible ordeal suffered by the people on the Sumatran coast after the eruption of Krakatau – pellet-sized volcanic debris falling like hail; fiery pumice setting fires on the ground and destroying trees and houses; lightning flashing around, generated by the tremendous turbulence inside the volcanic cloud. Even after the lesser eruption of Mount St Helens, volcanic debris fell like hailstones, flattening crops hundreds of kilometres away. Remarkably, both this and the previous account tell of something which may specifically relate to the Thera eruption. Weare told that the children of Israel, in the land of Goshen, were not affected by these or any of the other plagues. Based on the ancient sea bed pumice samples taken during the
Vema
survey, the estimated destruction of the communities on Crete, and a comparison with the Mount St Helens devastation (see Chapter Nine), we can determine the approximate direction and swath – or width – of the fallout cloud. It seems that it may only have crossed over southern Egypt including Thebes, but may have missed part of the Delta region which included the land of Goshen around Avaris. Interestingly, northern Egypt, where the Aten cult seems to have persisted, is also in this unaffected area. In such circumstances, like the Hebrews, the cult of Re may have believed that
their
god had spared them from the carnage, and consequently concluded that he was punishing the Amun cult at Thebes. Here we may have another – and perhaps the original – link between the Israelites and the Atenists.

The Exodus account of another of the plagues could easily be a report given by someone living in the states of Washington, Idaho or Montana after the Mount St Helens eruption of 1980: 'And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.' (Exodus 9:9.) Fine dust causing boils and blains!
Hundreds of people were taken to hospital with skin rashes, sores and pustules after the Mount St Helens eruption, and many cattle, horses and other livestock perished, while as many again had to be destroyed due to prolonged inhalation of the acidic ash. According to Exodus 9:6: 'And all the cattle of Egypt died.'

After Mount St Helens fish also died and were found floating on the surface of hundreds of kilometres of waterways. The pungent odour of pumice permeated everything, and water supplies had to be cut off until the impurities could be filtered from reservoirs. According to Exodus 7:21: 'And the fish that was in the river died: and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the river, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.'

As well as the grey pumice ash the volcano blasted skywards, Thera had another, more corrosive toxin in its bedrock – iron oxide. (This is the same red material that covers the surface of Mars.) Wilson pointed out that in the submarine eruptions that still occur at Thera, tons of iron oxide is discharged which kills fishes for miles around. As it oxidizes in contact with air, the consequent red-coloured rust stains might explain the reference to blood. It would certainly explain the mention in the preceding verse of the Nile turning to blood, as iron oxide would turn the river red. (And all the waters that were in the river turned to blood.' (Exodus 7:20.)

The remaining plagues do not immediately suggest themselves as having anything to do with a volcanic eruption – frogs, flies, lice and locusts. However, they can be just as linked to volcanic activity as the fallout cloud itself. Those who have not suffered the dreadful effects of a volcanic eruption might imagine that once the eruption has subsided, the dead have been buried, the injured tended, and the immediate damage
repaired, the survivors can begin the task of putting their lives back together, free from further volcanic horrors. This is very often far from the truth, as the entire ecosystem has been affected. Most forms of life suffer from volcanic devastation, but some, remarkably, actually thrive on it.

Geologists estimate that the asteroid or comet collision that exterminated the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago also killed around 75 per cent of life on earth. The impact resulted in a cataclysmic event similar to a volcanic eruption – but on a global scale. Those that survived the holocaust were generally the smallest creatures, including insects, frogs and even our own direct ancestors – tiny rat-like mammals. Crawling invertebrates, and insects in their larval, pupal or egg stage would be safe underground, as would burrowing snakes and rodents; so also would frog-spawn, protected under submerged ledges. Exactly the same set of circumstances prevail over the countryside buried beneath the ash of volcanic eruptions. Insects have a very short life cycle and accordingly reproduce at a frightening rate. After such a cataclysm, therefore, they have plenty of time to establish a head start on their larger predators and competitors. Moreover, compared to bigger animals, they reproduce in vast numbers.

Swarming insects are therefore commonly associated with volcanic eruptions. Having survived the calamity, the ash-cover forces them to seek out new habitations and food supplies – and heaven help anyone who gets in the way! Ian Wilson cited the flesh-crawling aftermath of the Mount Pelee eruption on the island of Martinique in the West Indies in 1902. Volcanic debris covered the nearby port of St Pierre, killing over 30,000 people, but the horrors were not to end there. The survivors were exposed to a terrifying episode. Huge swarms of flying ants descended upon the sugar plantations and attacked the workers. As they fled for their lives, the vicious creatures seared their
flesh with dreadful acidic stings. It was no fluke that the insect assaults had followed the eruption: the creatures had attacked before when Mount Pelee had erupted in 1851. On this occasion they not only drove away workers and devoured entire plantations; they were even reported to have attacked and killed defenceless babies while they were still in their cots. Three types of insect infested Egypt according to the Exodus account: lice, flies and locusts.

Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:17.)

Behold I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. . . . And the Lord did so and there came a grievous swarm of flies . . . and the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. (Exodus 8:21–24.)

And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 10: 14–15.)

Frogs are perhaps the most prepared of all the land-based vertebrates for such cataclysms: like insects, they produce vast
numbers of offspring. Each frog lays literally thousands of eggs. Under normal circumstances this is a biological necessity, as the tiny tadpoles emerge from the eggs almost completely defenceless. The only chance the species has for survival is in numbers. When frog spawn hatches, the local fish are in for a banquet and only one or two of the tadpoles ever survive to become frogs. However, after Mount St Helens the predatory fish were decimated. The tiny would-be frogs, on the other hand, were kept safe inside their spawn. By the time they emerged, the hazardous chemicals had washed away down river, but the fish had not yet returned. The result was a plague of frogs throughout much of Washington State. In their thousands they littered the countryside – there were so many squashed on the roads that they made driving conditions hazardous: they clogged waterways, covered gardens, and infested houses.

According to Exodus 8:2–8, this is exactly what happened to the ancient Egyptians:

Behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall come up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs . . . And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.