The Alexandria Connection Read Free

east” heralding his arrival; Dionysus of Greece had the virgin mother Semele, and performed miracles like turning water into wine; Mithra of Persia . . . the list is extensive, but the parallels depicted on this papyrus get even more intriguing,’ Aleta said, pointing to another series of brightly coloured hieroglyphics. ‘Horus was born just after the winter solstice, on 25 December, the same date the Christians chose. His birth was heralded by a star in the east: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Christ’s birth was accompanied by three wise men or what the Christians called magi, but in Egyptian mythology, the wise men are represented by the stars Mintaka, Anilam and Alnitak from Orion’s belt.’
    ‘So you think the early Christian writers drew on all of this?’
    Aleta smiled. ‘The parallels are far too close to be a coincidence, although the Vatican and the evangelicals in America – those who believe Christianity alone provides salvation – they will dispute this vehemently because the Egyptian religion threatens the very uniqueness of Christ. At age twelve, Horus was a prodigal child teacher. At thirty, he began his ministry after being baptised by Anup,’ she said, continuing to translate from the priceless document. ‘Horus had twelve disciples, and he performed the same miracles as Christ was said to have performed, healing the sick and walking on water.’
    ‘Raising the dead? That’s my favourite,’ said O’Connor with a wicked grin.
    ‘For a Catholic boy you haven’t retained too much reverence, have you . . . but yes,’ Aleta said, pointing to a depiction of Horus resurrecting Osiris using the Egyptian cross of eternal life. ‘Like Christ, Horus was said to raise the dead, but the next part of this papyrus would be enough for the Vatican to bury it in the deepest recesses of their Secret Archives . . . but let’s leave that for the moment, because the other papyrus is even more explosive.’ Aleta laid out the second papyrus with even more care than the first.
    ‘This is a map of the old city, and this papyrus dates back to not long after the city was founded by Alexander the Great.’
    ‘You paid twenty bucks for a document that’s over 2300 years old . . . shame on you,’ O’Connor said with a smile, sitting down on one of the gold-backed chairs beside the coffee table where Aleta had laid the papyrus.
    ‘God knows how long this papyrus has been in that basement. Archaeologists can work for a lifetime without making a single significant discovery, but if this is genuine,’ Aleta said, her voice filled with excitement, ‘it will attract worldwide interest, because according to this map, the lost Library of Alexandria would have been located in this region here.’ Aleta pointed to an area near the harbour’s eastern shoreline that was now under water.
    ‘I seem to remember they’ve done quite a bit of exploration already. Wouldn’t they have found this?’
    ‘Those expeditions are all relatively recent, and you’re right, they’ve done a fantastic job. They’ve uncovered a large number of artifacts, but they’ve never found the library. Come and stand on the balcony and I’ll give you an idea of what we’re going to see when we dive this harbour.
    ‘Imagine a straight line between us and Fort Qaytbey on the far side,’ said Aleta. She extended her arm toward the ancient stone fort built in the fifteenth century by the Muslim Mamluke Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbay as a defence against a threat from the Ottoman Turks. ‘A few hundred metres out from the current shoreline they found the submerged island of Antirhodos. That island was the private property of the Ptolemaic kings and some scholars think the palace of the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra was built there.’
    ‘And that line of pharaohs started with Ptolemy I?’
    Aleta nodded. ‘After he conquered Egypt in 332 BC, Alexander the Great was installed as pharaoh, but after his death, a