Archaeologists have always insisted that lenses never existed and could not exist in antiquity. The real-life detective story of Robert Temple began when he examined an ancient artifact in the British Museum, formally thought to be a piece of rock crystal, and proved that it was sharpened to form a lens.
He then went on to find artifacts around the world, including Greece, Egypt and some excavations from the ruins of Troy, which were identified in some cases as simply jewelry. After linking these artifacts with references in missing or misinterpreted ancient texts, he began to realize that these lenses were used as telescopes in many cases. Also, to ancient humans, the coming of light from heaven to form fire - another function of these lenses - was a great mystery - perhaps the greatest. People thought they were touching God.
The priests who guarded the secrets of the sacred technology encoded it into myths such as the Eye of the Cyclops, the Eye of Horus and the Prometheus myth. Robert Temple was the first to analyze these myths in order to reveal their true esoteric meaning. Finally, he proved that because the ancients had access to telescopes, they were able to build monuments such as the pyramids and Stonehenge along the astronomical and astrological lines that many people have long believed in.
Based on 33 years of research around the world, in museums from Stockholm to Shanghai, Athens to Cairo and thousands of books in multiple languages, Robert Temple has recreated a completely forgotten story: the history of light technology in ancient civilization. It dates back to at least 3300 BC. in ancient Egypt and continues throughout the entire time of antiquity. Unknown to our modern archaeologists and historians, the science of optics and sophisticated lens manufacturing technology was widespread and founded in ancient times. It inspired awe of the cultures that used it, permeated their mythology and religions, and even led to the "theology of light" in medieval Christianity.
Now, at least we can know how the ancient Egyptians built their pyramids and other structures with such extraordinary precision; they used the equivalent of theodolites with lenses and were masters of optical photography techniques. It also explains how, for millennia, ancient people were able to create miniature images on stones, including those so small that they are generally invisible to the naked eye. The burning mirror, with which Archimedes destroyed the Roman fleet, was successfully restored and proved its efficiency. The Greek philosopher Democritus said that the Moon has mountains, and it is the second Earth, because he looked at it through an elementary telescope. A similar instrument was used by the ancient British to study the moon, and Temple found many lost crystal lenses in English museums.
The myths have been explained and many religious motives can now be understood for the first time, from the Eye of the Cyclops and the Eye of Horus to the fire that Prometheus brought from heaven.
Historian Robert Temple is the author of a dozen books, starting with the international bestseller The Mystery of Sirius. His books have been translated into 44 foreign languages. He is a visiting professor of history and philosophy of science at Tsinghua University in Beijing, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, a member of the Egyptian Research Society, the Royal Historical Society, the Institute for Classical Studies and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Research, and a visiting fellow at the University of the Aegean in Greece.
