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38 temple. Ninurta—here called NIN.GIRSU, “Lord of the Girsu”—already had a temple there, as well as a special enclo- sure for his “Divine Black Bird” or flying machine. Yet the building of the new temple required special permission from Enlil, which was in time granted. We learn from the inscrip- tions that the new temple had to have special features linking it to the heavens, enabling certain celestial observations. To that end Ninurta invited to Sumer the god Ningishzidda (“Thoth” in Egypt), the Divine Architect, and Keeper of the Secrets of the Giza pyramids. The fact that Ningishzidda/ Thoth was the brother whom Marduk forced into exile circa 3100 B.C.E. was certainly not lost on all concerned. . . The amazing circumstances surrounding the announce- ment, planning, construction, and dedication of the EININNU (“House/Temple of Fifty”) are told in great detail in Gudea’s inscriptions; they were unearthed in the ruins of Lagash (a site now Called Tello) and are quoted at length in The Earth Chron- icles books. What emerges from that detailed record (inscribed on two clay cylinders in clear Sumerian cuneiform script, Fig. 17) is the fact that from announcement to dedication, ev- ery step and every detail of the new temple was dictated by celestial aspects. Those special celestial aspects had to do with the very timing of the temple’s building: It was the time, as the in- scriptions’ opening lines declare, when “in the heavens des- tinies on Earth were determined”: At the time when in heaven destinies on Earth were determined, “Lagash shall lift its head heavenwards in accordance with the Great Tablet of Destinies” Enlil in favor of Ninurta decided. That special time when the destinies on Earth are deter- mined in the heavens was what we have called Celestial Time, the Zodiacal Clock. That such determining was linked to Equinox Day becomes evident from the rest of Gudea’s tale, as well as from Thoth’s Egyptian name Tehuti, The Bal- ancer (of day and night) who “Draws the Cord” for orienting THE END OF DAYS