Page Content (OCR)
25 occurred to him that being two-thirds divine ought to make a difference; why should he “peer over the wall” like an ordi- nary mortal? he asked his mother. She agreed with him, but explained to him that the apparent immortality of the gods was in reality longevity due to the long orbital period of their planet. To attain such longevity he had to join the gods on Nibiru; and to do that, he had to go to the place where the rocket ships ascend and descend. Though warned of the journey’s hazards, Gilgamesh was determined to go. If I fail, he said, at least I will be remem- bered as one who had tried. At his mother’s insistence an artificial double, Enkidu (ENKI.DU meant “By Enki Made”), was to be his companion and guardian. Their adventures, told and retold in the Epic’s twelve tablets and its many an- cient renderings, can be followed in our book The Stairway to Heaven. There were, in fact, not one but two journeys (Fig. 13): one was to the Landing Place in the Cedar Forest, the other to the spaceport in the Sinai peninsula where—ac- cording to Egyptian depictions (Fig. 14)—rocket ships were emplaced in underground silos. “And It Came to Pass” FIGURE 12