Chapter 5

SHADOWS OF THE SERAPEUM

Before visiting the temples in Upper Egypt, I descended into the shadows of what must be the most confounding and enigmatic archaeological site in the world--the Serapeum. The site has little left above ground to identify it except a gaffirs’ hut and low walls on both sides of an inclined path that lead to formidable dungeonlike iron doors. Attached to the iron bars that form a transom above the doors there is a sign in Arabic and English that reads:

SERAPEUM DYN XVIII PTOLEMY XII C.1405–30 B.C.E

Though dark and dusty, the Serapeum was a welcome relief from the heat. Shadows were thrown at intervals along the numerous tunnels by incandescent bulbs, and alcoves or crypts cut at right angles on each side of the tunnel made the place even more mysterious. Both the tunnels and the crypts had barrel-shaped, vaulted ceilings that had suffered damage over the millennia with places where large pieces of limestone had separated from the bedrock and fallen. Some areas had wooden frames with thick plywood sheets on top for protection. A fine dust kicked up from the floor hung in the air.

In the center of each crypt was placed a large granite box with a lid on top. All of the boxes were finished on the inside and the bottom side of the lid, but not all were finished on the outside. It appears that work stopped suddenly in the Serapeum, for there were boxes in several stages of completion: boxes with lids, boxes that yet had to have the lid placed on them, and a rough box and lid near the entrance.

The historical explanation for the boxes in the Serapeum is that they were funerary sarcophagi used to hold the carcass of the sacred Apis Bulleven. The Apis Bull was considered to be a god by the ancient Egyptians, and the Serapeum was reputed to house the burial vaults of the Apis cult. Bull heads were found in niches in the tunnels, and a statue of a bull was retrieved from the tunnels and now sits in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped the Apis as a god, and a search was made throughout the land for a replacement of a bull that died or was about to be sacrificed. When an Apis died, there was mourning throughout the land and a self-imposed celibacy. Until another Apis with the specific markings was found, there was no sex. To say that the mourners were motivated to find one, and in a hurry, would be an understatement. Once found, the new god incarnate was installed with celebration and joy, in that continuity of the Apis god among the Egyptians was assured and signifying that the heavens were pleased and the land and its people would be protected and flourish.

One of the crypts has a granite box that has a corner broken out of it and is accessible by means of steps down to the lower floor. The outside of the box appeared to be roughly finished, but the glint of a high polish on the inside surfaces beckoned me to climb inside. Running my hand along the surface of the granite reminded me of the thousands of times I have run my hand along a granite surface plate when I was working as a machinist and later as a tool and die maker. The feel of the stone was no different, though I was not sure of its flatness, or precision. To check my impression I placed the edge of my precision-ground parallel against the surface--and saw that it was dead flat. There was no light showing through the interface of the steel and the stone, as there would be if the surface was concave, and there was no rocking back and forth along the length of the steel, as there would be if the surface was convex. To put it mildly, I was astounded. I did not expect to find such precision, because this order of precision is not necessary for the sarcophagus of a bull, or any other animal or human.

I slid the parallel along the surface both horizontally and vertically, and there was no deviation from a true flat surface, similar to precision-ground surface plates used in manufacturing to verify precisely machined parts that require extremely accurate surfaces and dimensions. Those familiar with the relationship between gauges and surface plates understand that the accuracy of the reading is constrained to the length of the gauge with which the comparative check is made. In other words, the gauge may show that the stone is flat within the tolerance of the gauge--in this case .0002 inch (.00508 mm) flatness. However, if the gauge is moved six inches along the stone surface and the same conditions are found, it cannot be claimed with certainty that the stone is within the same tolerance over the full 12 inches--unless the plate has been inspected by another means and is calibrated to a known standard. In light of this, I determined that a longer straightedge was needed and, preferably, even more sophisticated alignment equipment before I could come to any further conclusions.

Returning to the hotel that evening, my mind was consumed by what I had seen. These artifacts were precision-crafted boxes on a very large scale. It just didn’t make sense to think that the ancient Egyptians would pour such resources into manufacturing a coffin while the mausoleum where the God Apis rested was rough cut and undecorated. Once the lid was on top of the box, nobody would see the perfectly flat and polished surfaces or the conformity to orthogonal precision.

But I am not thinking like an Egyptian or an Egyptologist. I am thinking like an engineer, and the challenges that these boxes would present to an engineer with modern stone-working tools are significant.