When the word "pyramids" is pronounced, "Egyptian" is almost automatically added. Although there are pyramids not only in Egypt. In our hemisphere, for example, pyramids have been found in Bosnia and Serbia. But few people know that there is a pyramid in Israel.
Let's turn to English. When archaeologists and historians talk about the Egyptian pyramids, they call them "pyramid". And the Israeli pyramid in scientific works is written as "The Pyramid". That is, the Pyramid with a capital letter. Because there is no second such structure on the Promised Land. And because there are solid riddles around her.
Where is the Pyramid located? The address is simple: the Judean lowland (Shfela district), the Adulam national park, the ruins, which are called "Khurvat Midras", and there you can't go wrong - the Pyramid is visible from everywhere.
Adulam is an incredibly ancient city. For the first time, a resident of this city, a Canaanite named Hira, is mentioned by the Torah in connection with Yehuda, one of the sons of Jacob, with whom he lived in the neighborhood. And it was about 16-17 centuries BC. But if someone is called Adulamite, then his hometown already existed.
Fast forward to roughly the 13th century BC. Yeshua bin-Nun conquers the Land of Canaan, and Adulam is mentioned among the 36 cities he captured. After the conquest of the Promised Land by the Jews, Adulam entered the area that belonged to the tribe of Yehuda. And before that there was for some time the throne of one of the kings of Canaan - most likely the head of the region. Adulam existed until about the 6th century AD, that is, over 2000 years. This is a lot for the city. When did the pyramid appear there?
Members of the "Cosmopoisk-Israel" group left for Adulam and inspected the building.
The height of the pyramid is small - about 3.5 meters, but this does not take into account the cultural layer that has grown over at least one and a half millennia. The pyramid is located on the top of a hill, on one of the slopes of which you can see the excavated entrance to the tunnel. Apparently this tunnel led to a burial chamber. But if we assume that it was once located on the edge of the pyramid, then its initial height is about 10 meters!
A pyramid is made of relatively small hewn stones - 40-50 centimeters long and 30 centimeters wide. Of course, this cannot be compared with the blocks of the Egyptian pyramids, but ours is very similar in structure to some of them. It is not smooth, but stepped: this is how, from hewn limestone stones, the pyramids of the pharaohs of the third dynasty were built in Ancient Egypt! But this is a completely different era - 25-26 centuries BC …
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As for the time of the construction of the Pyramid, the few historians who have written about it are at a loss. The latest creation time that I have read about is the 3rd century AD. Although it is completely unclear who and why could have built the pyramid in that troubled time after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba uprising.
Perhaps the Pyramid was built earlier. But when?
As the reader probably knows, the pyramid is a burial structure. In Egypt, the pyramids were intended for the burial of pharaohs; ordinary officials and merchants, even the very rich, did not build pyramids for themselves. Our Pyramid, as I have heard, was built for the burial of a wealthy Jew from the Second Temple period. From my point of view, this is completely out of the question. The Jews in their prayers every day thank the Almighty for the fact that he "brought them out of the land of Egypt." So it is unlikely that any Jew would want to rest in a pyramid, like the Pharaoh.
Perhaps the Pyramid is even older, and belongs to the Canaanite period? It is known that the Canaanite princes maintained close relations with the Egyptians, but they had their own religion, which did not imply the construction of pyramids. Otherwise, the pyramids, or at least their remains were found throughout the land of Canaan. In addition, take into account the huge cost of such a structure: in order to build a pyramid, even of a relatively low height, it is necessary to involve a team of builders with the appropriate technologies. And where to get them?
In search of explanations, I turned to the famous historian Alexander Koltypin, who conducted several research expeditions in Israel.
- Alexander, have you investigated the Pyramid in Adulam?
- Yes, and wrote about her. In my opinion, it is not of particular interest - its age does not exceed 12 thousand years. The fact is that exactly so many years ago the same Great Flood, which TANAKH speaks of, took place. I have not found any traces of the flood on the walls of the Pyramid. Much more interesting is the underground megalithic complex located next to the Pyramid - the so-called Bell Cave. On its walls, you can see hundreds of cells in which pigeons were supposedly bred. But the surprising thing is that today pigeons do not live in these cells. In addition, archaeologists have found hundreds of columbarium caves in the Judean Lowlands, each containing hundreds of cells. It is unclear why such a huge number of pigeons could be needed.
-And what do you think?
- I think for some acoustic purposes. The task of the cells was to create specific sound tones. More precisely, this could be determined by conducting experiments in similar caves.
- How old are these ancient caves?
- Most likely, they belong to a previous civilization that lived on our planet. I believe 16 to 5 million years ago.
- That is, the Pyramid is not connected with the underground megalithic complex located in the neighborhood?
- No, it was built later.
Columbarium caves are another mystery in the Middle East region. There are similar buildings in Israel, in Turkey - right up to Iran. Their walls are strewn with hundreds of cells, where pigeons were supposed to live, which were supposedly used as messenger pigeons. Such structures imply a highly developed mailing system, but the ancient manuscripts say nothing about this. The Talmud mentions several times about the "people raising pigeons", but most likely it is about raising these birds for sale for temple sacrifices.
However, back to our only Pyramid. Let me make a hypothesis about its origin.
As is known from the history of Ancient Egypt, the dynasties of the pharaohs there changed several times. There were about thirty of them in total. And each change of the dynasty was accompanied by cataclysms. Perhaps some pharaoh or his son fled after the coup in Canaan, under the wing of the friendly king Adulam. And there he lived, continuing to consider himself "the rightful ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt" until he died. A man like this deserved to be buried in a pyramid.
And our Pyramid (with a capital letter, let me remind you, letters) deserves to be more actively studied by archaeologists and more often visited by tourists.
Alexander Rybalka