ANHOW Review of books: <I><B>Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization</B></I> -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 02:25:28 07/04/04 Sun
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject:

ANHOW Review of books: Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization

Authors: Graham Hancock and Santh Faiia
Published: 1998 by Crown Publishers
Genre: Non-fiction

Short Summary:

Graham Hancock is an enthusiastic supporter of the idea that there was a worldwide civilization prior to our own written history and that ancient civilization had a profound influence on a diverse number of cultures throughout the ages, including the ancient Egyptians, the peoples that created Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Mesoamericans, the Incans and Easter Island.

This book lays out a number of facts to help to prove his point, including the use of the word "Ra" for sun across in Egypt, Easter Island and South America, Angkor can be phonetically translated into Ancient Egyptian as "the god Horus lives", and the fact that Angkor Wat and many of the Egyptian pyramids and temple complexes seem to mirror constellations in the sky as they would have appeared at about 10,500 B.C.

There also seems to be a fascination with the number 72 in Egypt and at Angkor Wat (he asserts that it is because the constellations in the sky move 1 degree in the sky every 72 years, approximately. It is odd that Angkor Wat is 72 degrees East of Giza when following our current 360 degree worldwide grid pattern. Easter Island is approx. 144 degrees East of Angkor Wat and there is a lesser known site halfway between them. (there is no 5th site to make it all of the way around the globe, but Mr. Hancock would presumably assert that it has only to be found - why do I presume to think for Mr. Hancock? See my comments below)

The book is filled with wonderful photographs taken by his wife and collaborator Santha Faiia

My Review:

This book was interesting to read. His theories are infectious and at times you find yourself marvelling at all of the wonderful coincidences and halfway believing Mr. Hancock. Other times, he takes liberal use of supposition (even going so far as to suppose what Albert Einstein would have thought of one of his ideas) and he throws out so many ideas that he reminds me of a desperate defense attorney who throws out any idea to throw doubt on the prosecutor's case. Here, Mr. Hancock throws out any number of theories, including Atlantis; aliens (but never says it - but he leads you that way); Egyptians coming to Europe, Asia, South America and Polynesia; the use of magic or an unknown force to build ancient megaliths and more.

I enjoyed the book but there are occassional bad photographs that mar the book - he refers to one picture two or three different times and the picture is not clear - the image has been worn too much over time. That would have been the perfect time for a traced outline of the picture, like he does at other times. Sometimes shadows obscure the images he would like us to see - the shadows make the pictures quite beautiful but the images are the point of the exercise. However, in general the quality of the pictures reminds me of those of Nationa Geographic.

Mr. Hancock poses so many theories that he is sorely in need of a chart in the back of his book so that we can quickly see some of the theories and how the data looks when compared across the board.

However, in defense of his book, he quite freely admits that this is a work in progress and the research has barely begun. I would not consider this to be the final word from Mr. Hancock - rather, I would treat this as more of an interim report stating some of the interesting things he has found and a few theories that might help to explain them.

I give this book an "A" because he writes about so many of the interesting ancient sites and, if nothing else, has thrown an interesting new light on them (Graham points out that most 'legitimate' researchers won't even come to Easter Island anymore for fear of being thought to be oen the 'crazy' researchers). I don't quite buy his theories, but I'm open to reading more of what he has to say.

YOu may also see Mr. Hancock on TLC or Discovery Channel with entertaining documentaries that cover most of these same topics in a less thorough but highly entertaining manner.

Link to Graham Hancock's official site. A number of the wonderful pictures from the book are also here: http://www.grahamhancock.com

Here is the link for the book at Amazon.com: Amazon.com link There are 50 other reviews of the book so you can see what others think.

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