It is believed that the Dutch explorer Willem Janz, who reached the coast of Australia in 1606, was the discoverer of the Australian continent. However, there is striking evidence that this continent was discovered much earlier - by the ancient Egyptians, during the dynasty of the pharaohs in the middle of the second millennium BC … And travel along the coast of Africa, to the semi-mythical country of Punt (at the time of Pharaoh Necho) is by no means the peak of the seaworthy achievements of the ancient Egyptians!
By the way, in Punt (most likely - modern. Ethiopia) there were many expeditions, in fact - an established trade sea route for dynastic Egypt, and not a single successful swim! But let's get back to Australia for now.
Australia on ancient maps
A hundred miles north of Sydney, in the protected forests of Hunter Valley National Park in New South Wales, as early as in the 19th century, mysterious letters were discovered: a hieroglyphic inscription, which says that the Egyptian Jeseb, the son of the glorious Pharaoh Jedefra, the grandson of the divine Khufu, visited this area of Australia. It seemed so incredible that the found hieroglyphs were forgotten for a long time, but did not disappear anywhere …
Until, finally, one of the oldest Egyptologists, Ray Johnson, who took part in translations of the most ancient texts from the collection of the Cairo Museum, again returned to the "Australian" inscriptions and their translation. And it turned out that they recorded the chronicle of the ancient Egyptian travelers who were shipwrecked "on a strange and hostile land," as well as information about the untimely death of their leader. As follows from the inscription, this leader belonged to the royal family and was the son of Pharaoh Jedefra (c. 2566–2558 BC), who succeeded Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) at the head of Egypt. The death of the leader from snake venom and the ritual of his burial are described in detail.
Next to an inscription of 250 hieroglyphs, an image of the god Anubis is carved on the stone, which quite clearly indicates a connection with Ancient Egypt. The text tells of an Egyptian naval expedition shipwrecked off the coast of Australia. They could not go back, having lost the ship. The travelers set up camp on a foreign shore, tried to adapt to unfamiliar natural conditions and suffered terribly from all kinds of poisonous animals.
It also says that they built a pyramid. Indeed, in this area there are indeed several buildings resembling small stepped pyramids in shape …
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Didn't you see the Egyptians?.. And they were here …
And there are not one or two similar Egyptian inscriptions in Australia! There are many more. Back in 1837, the English traveler and geographer George Gray discovered a number of Egyptian drawings and inscriptions in a cave on the banks of the Glenelg River. And in 1931, the same mysterious rock carvings were found - in Central Australia, by a group of archaeologist Michael Terry. In 1961, near the city of Alice Springs, new mysterious rock paintings were discovered - not having anything to do with the work of the Australian aborigines, but clearly correlating with the Egyptian canons …
It is curious that some Australian tribes had a custom to mummify the bodies of the dead. This custom was abolished only by Christian missionaries - at the end of the 19th century. But the mummies remained safe and sound, and their study led to the conclusion: they were mummified in the same way as the ancient Egyptian ones.
And in February 1964, on the site of an ancient city in Egypt, the tomb of a woman was discovered, buried in about 1000 BC. e. Examination of the remains of the body revealed that eucalyptus oil was used for embalming. It seemed incredible. After all, the only place where such oil could be delivered then was Australia and New Guinea. So the contacts were bilateral ?! And the Egyptians were returning home?.. But this, as you know, is only a hypothesis.
At the same time, mysterious signs have been found in different parts of the Australian continent, which, if desired, can be mistaken for hieroglyphs. These signs resemble the hieroglyphic designations of the ancient Egyptian god Aten. Other signs represent the sacred scarab beetle, mummies and human figures similar to typical depictions of people in Ancient Egypt. Numerous cave paintings in Australia are schematic, typically Egyptian images of mummies, sphinxes and other objects that have nothing to do with Australia.
On the Arnhemland Peninsula, on a road near the city of Darwin, the boys found a seemingly strange pebble. It turned out to be a small sculpture of a scarab beetle, sacred to the ancient Egyptians. Archaeologists dated this find to 1 millennium BC. e.
With all this, in Australia, evidence of rather lively contacts between the two regions is by no means isolated - there is a coincidence of a number of local legends and traditions with ancient Egyptian ones. For example, the Aborigines of Arnhem Land and Torres Strait even mummified their dead, adhering to a technology similar to ancient Egyptian! They removed the organs and soft tissues of the deceased from the abdominal cavity, as well as his brain, making an incision in the nostril area with a bone instrument. After inserting a mummy of artificial eyes made of pearls, they embalmed the corpse and transported it two miles west across the sea in a boat, like the boat of the Ra of the Egyptians, to be buried on the island of the dead …
Also back in 1875, Shevert's expedition discovered a mummified corpse and a canoe used in a burial ceremony on Darnley Island. The famous medical scientist Rafael Silento, who examined the found mummy, stated that both the incisions and the embalming method are the same as those practiced in Egypt during the XXIII dynasty (that is, almost three thousand years ago!).
In the Torres Strait Islands, residents still use boats that are remarkably similar to the papyrus boats of the Egyptians.
It is worth mentioning that typical Australian boomerangs were also known in Ancient Egypt. Wooden objects with a characteristic boomerang shape were found, for example, in the famous tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. And on the walls of Egyptian temples people are depicted who are not like any of the peoples conquered by the Egyptians … Perhaps these are the Australians?..
It is no less interesting that the ancient Chinese (!) Cartographers knew about the Australian coastline more than 2500 years ago.
Thus, much says that Egypt not only discovered Australia 4500 years ago (the voyage of Jesseb), but also equipped several sea expeditions there that returned home safely.