The prisoner in the pyramid

3450 BC

Marduk was imprisoned alive in the 'Mountain Tomb' which was without doubt the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Having been evicted from Babylon and Mesopotamia, Marduk returned to Egypt. He established himself in Heliopolis, enhancing its role as his 'Cult Centre' by assembling all of his celestial memorabilia in a special shrine where the Egyptians made pilgrimages to for many years thereafter.

Marduk found things had changed since his attempt at a coup d'etat in Mesopotamia; a new rival arrived in his absence in the struggle for supremacy. Dumuzi, the youngest son of Enki, his domain bordering upper Egypt, was a pretender to the throne of Egypt. Behind his ambitions was his bride Inanna - a reason to which arose Marduk's suspicions and dislike.

The union between Dumuzi and Inanna was not a happy one. It did not produce an heir, which was an essential requirement in order to carry out 'divine requirements'. So it came to pass, that in an attempt to gain a male heir, Dumuzi resorted to a tactic adopted by his own father - he tried to seduce and have intercourse with his own sister. But whereas Ninharsag agreed with Enki's advances, Geshtinanna (Dumuzi's sister) refused.

Thus, in desperation, Dumuzi violated a sexual taboo, and raped his sister. Rape, under the moral codes of the Anunnaki was a series sexual transgression. Aware that he'd done a horrible deed, Dumuzi was seized not long after with a premonition he would pay for the deed with is life. Waking up from the dream he asked his sister to tell him the meaning of the dream, 'my brother,' she said, 'your dream is not favourable, it is very clear to me.'

His dream foretold 'bandits rising against you from ambush ... your hands will be bound in handcuffs; your arms will be bound in fetters.' No sooner than Geshtinanna had finished talking than his captors arrived and caught Dumuzi.

After making his escape and being recaptured, he is able to make his escape once more. Finding himself hiding in sheep folds. Seven deputies of Kur entered the sheep fold when Dumuzi was sleeping and announce that a higher authority has sent them and instructed them to strip him of his 'divine attributes'. He is able to escape once more and reaches a river. But the swirling waters did not permit Dumuzi to reach the safety of the opposite river bank.

The higher authority which was responsible for his arrest was not that of the full assembly of the Anunnaki gods, especially as Utu and Inanna were trying to help him escape. The sentence was therefore once sided, passed only by the authority of the master of the arresting deputies. It was therefore made by none other than Marduk - the elder brother of both Dumuzi and Geshtinanna.

Marduk disapproved of the Dumuzi-Inanna love match and used the raping of Geshtinanna to block the political designs Inanna had on Egypt. But did Marduk intend the death of Dumuzi? It was unlikely as solitary exile was the usual punishment for rape. The death of Dumuzi was probably accidental.

It mattered not to Inanna. Marduk was responsible for her husband's death and she sought revenge.

Fragmented texts tell of Inanna struggling against an 'evil god' hiding inside 'the mountain'. It appears Inanna herself was armed with an array of weapons to attack the god hiding in his hiding place. Thought the other gods tried to dissuade her, she confidently approached the mountain, 'E.BIH (Abode of sorrowful calling'.

The Mountain being the Great Pyramid at Giza is evident in Sumerian texts plus a depiction on a Sumerian cylinder seal where Inanna herself in her familiar 'enticing, half-naked pose' is seen confronting a god based upon three pyramids. The pyramids are depicted exactly as they appear at Giza; the Egyptian Ankh, the priest in Egyptian headdress and the entwined snake ... all point to Egypt as the location of the confrontation.

The God Anu himself intervened, finally, after Inanna threatened to unleash an awesome weapon. Anu advised her to seek justice by putting the hiding god on trial.

The Sumerian texts identify the hiding god. He is A.ZAG - the Great Serpent - and name and a derogatory Enlitite epithet for Marduk. His hiding place was clearly identified as the E.KUR, whose walls awesomely reach the skies - The Great Pyramid.

Marduk agreed to come out of the mountain and stand trial. The trial itself was held within sight of the pyramids, in a temple close by to the riverbank. In sentencing Marduk, the mystery surrounding the death of Dumuzi posed a real problem. That Marduk was responsible for his death there was no doubt, but was it premeditated or accidental? Marduk deserved the death penalty if it was planned, but what if his crime was not deliberate?

Inanna provided the means to overcome the problem. She suggested a way to sentence Marduk to death without actually executing him. Let him be buried alive within the Great Pyramid:

'In a great envelope that is sealed,
with no one to offer him nourishment,
alone to suffer,
the potable watercourse to be cut off.'

The judging gods accepted her suggestions. The Ekur - The Great Pyramid - had become a prison. It was then that the sealing of the Great Pyramid was completed, leaving Marduk alone in the King's Chamber. The arresting gods releasing behind them the granite plugs of the Ascending Passage, blocking tight all access to the upper chambers and passages.

Through the channels leading from the King's Chamber to the north and south faces of the pyramid, Marduk had air to breathe but he had no food or water. Buried alive, he was doomed to die in agony.

However, Marduk did not die. The 'supreme god' reviewed his case and found him not guilty. The identity of the true murderer of Dumuzi is not revealed, but it is known that the real perpetrator is captured and 'carried away in a coffin'. The murderer of Dumuzi therefore paying with his life. But was the sin of Marduk atoned?

Again appeals were directed to the supreme god. The appeals succeed, and as a gesture of goodwill new garments are to be sent to Marduk. But, the concern is that Marduk cannot be freed if he has been imprisoned in a tomb which cannot be unsealed.

Nusku, the divine messenger, then explained that it was planned to get Marduk out of the mountain by way of the 'SA.BAD' (the chiselled upper opening):

A doorway shaft which the gods will bore
its vortex they will lift off
his abode they shall reenter
the door which was barred before him
at the vortex of the hollowing, into the insides
a doorway they shall twistingly bore
getting near, in its midst they will break through .......

And what then ... of the rescued prisoner of the pyramid? Mesopotamian texts relate that he went into exile ... acquiring the title of the 'hidden one' ... he reappeared later to claim again supremacy ...