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ground level. Both the Book of the Dead and the Pyramid Texts 150 and H. P. Blavatsky as 173. While conclusions reached by make striking references to "The Light-makers", and that extraor- different authors are at a variance, a majority admitted the dinary description may have referred to a body of people respon- existence of the phenomenal lamps. Only a few maintained that sible for lighting the subterranean areas of their complexes. the lamps would burn forever, but many were willing to concede Iamblichus recorded a fascinating account that was found on a that they might remain alight for several centuries without very ancient Egyptian papyrus held in a mosque in Cairo. It was _ replenishment of fuel. part of a 100 BC story by an unknown author about a group of It was generally believed that the wicks of those perpetual people who gained entry to underground chambers around Giza lamps were made of braided or woven asbestos, called by early for exploratory purposes. They described their experience: alchemists "salamander's wool". The fuel appeared to have been We came to a chamber. When we entered, it became auto - one of the products of alchemical research, possibly produced in matically illuminated by light from a tube being the height of the temple on Mt Sinai. Several formulae for making fuel for the one man's hand [approx. 6 inches or 15.24 cm] and thin, lamps were preserved, and in H. P. Blavatsky's profound work, standing vertically in the corner. As we approached the tube, Isis Unveiled, the author reprinted two complicated formulae from it shone brighter...the slaves were scared and ran away in earlier authors of a fuel that "when made and lighted, will burn the direction from which we had come! When I touched it, it with a perpetual flame and you may set this lamp in any place went out. We made every effort to get the tube to glow again, where you please". but it would no longer provide light. In Some believe the fabled perpetual lamps of some chambers the light tubes worked and temples to be cunning mechanical con- in others they did not. We broke open one trivances, and some quite humorous explana- of the tubes and it bled beads of silver- tions have been extended. coloured liquid that ran fastly around the In Egypt, rich underground deposits of floor until they disappeared between the asphalt and petroleum exist, and some would cracks [mercury?]. have it that priests connected asbestos wicks As time went on, the light tubes gradu - There were some by a secret duct to an oil deposit, which in turn ally began to fail and the priests removed well-documented connected to one or more lamps. Others them and stored them in an underground A A thought that the belief that lamps burned indef- vault they specially built southeast of the stories concerning initely in tombs was the result of the fact that plateau. It was their belief that the light the discovery of in some cases fumes resembling smoke poured tubes were created by their beloved . forth from the entrances of newly opened Imhotep, who would some day return to ever-burning lamps vaults. Parties going in later, and discovering make them work once again. not only in Egypt lamps scattered about the floor, assumed but also in that they were the source of the fumes. There were some well-documented sto- other parts of the world. It was common practice among early Egyptians to seal lighted lamps in the sepulchres of their dead as offerings to their god or for the deceased to find their way to the "other side". Among the tombs near Memphis (and in the Brahmin temples of India), lights were found oper- ating in sealed chambers and vessels, but sudden exposure to air extinguished them or caused their fuel to evaporate.* ries concerning the discovery of ever-burning lamps not only in Egypt but also in other parts of the world. De Montfaucon de Villars gave this fascinating account of the opening of the vault of Rosicrucian Christian Rosenkreuz. When the Brethren entered the tomb of their illustrious founder 120 years after his death, they found a perpet- Greeks and Romans later followed the ual lamp brightly shining in a suspended custom, and the tradition became general- manner from the ceiling. "There was a ly established—not only that of actual burning lamps, but minia- statue in armour [a robot] which destroyed the source of light ture reproductions made in terracotta were buried with the dead. when the chamber was opened."” That is strangely similar to the Some lamps were enclosed in circular vessels for protection, and accounts of Arab historians who claimed that automatons guarded instances are recorded where the original oil was found perfectly galleries under the Great Pyramid. preserved in them after more than 2,000 years. There is ample A 17th-century account recorded another story about a robot. proof from eyewitnesses that lamps were burning when the sepul- In central England, a curious tomb was found containing an chres were sealed, and it was declared by later bystanders that automaton that moved when an intruder stepped upon certain they were still burning when the vaults were opened hundreds of ___ stones in the floor of the vault. At that time, the Rosicrucian con- years later. troversy was at its height, so it was decided that the tomb was that The possibility of preparing a fuel that would renew itself as of a Rosicrucian initiate. A countryman discovered the tomb, rapidly as it was consumed was a source of considerable contro- entered and found the interior brilliantly lit by a lamp hanging versy among mediaeval authors, and numerous documents exist from the ceiling. As he walked toward the light, his weight outlining their arguments. After due consideration of evidence at depressed the floor stones and, at once, a seated figure in heavy hand, it seemed well within the range of possibility that ancient armour began to move. Mechanically it rose to its feet and struck Egyptian priest-chemists manufactured lamps that burned if not the lamp with an iron baton, destroying it and thus effectively pre- indefinitely then at least for considerable periods of time. venting the discovery of the secret substance that maintained the Numerous authorities have written on the subject of ever- flame. How long the lamp had burned was unknown, but the burning lamps, with W. Wynn Westcott estimating that the number _ report said that it had been for a considerable number of years. of writers who have given the subject consideration as more than oo stories concerning the discovery of ever-burning lamps not only in Egypt but also in world. 50 + NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2004 There were some well-documented other parts of the www.nexusmagazine.com