The Gosford Glyphs
During a road trip along the East coast of Australia with my wife a few years ago, we decided to go see the Egyptian Hieroglyphs in Gosford NSW, about an hour drive north of Sydney. I had read a little about it online before we left from Melbourne and I had to stop there to see it for myself.
Rolling into Gosford, we stopped at the tourist information to ask where to find the glyphs, but we were basically laughed at. The best I could do at the time was to find vague directions on google using my phone and to hope for the best.
The only directions we had, said something like, 'drive down road for 20 km and find walking track, walk down the path for 15 mins, turn left, after 5 mins come to opening on the path, walk towards the large rocks on the left and look for the entrance.' After driving up and down the same road a few times, we finally found the right path to walk down. The only signs around said 'Danger falling rocks' and 'keep out'. I felt like Indiana Jones.
Searching for the small entrance we had to climb under took us a while, all the rock faces looked the same to me. We had almost given up and began to walk off, but turned back to check one last area I thought I missed, and there it was. Climbing through the small hole in the rock face opens into a small passage that leads to another bigger entrance.
The Gosford glyphs are a group of approximately 300 alleged Egyptian hieroglyphs in an area known for its Aboriginal petroglyphs. They are carved into two parallel sandstone walls about 15 m (49 ft) long.
Most of the information on wikipedia says the story is debunked, but there are also people debunking the debunkers. Who knows how much of any of the information out there is true or fabricated to fit their own ideas.
Several rock walls chronicle the tragic saga of ancient explorers shipwrecked in a strange and hostile land, and the untimely death of their royal leader, "Lord Djes-eb". A group of three cartouches (framed clusters of glyphs) record the name of "RA-JEDEF" as reigning King of the Upper and Lower Nile, and son of 'Khufu' who, in turn, is son of the King 'Sneferu'. This dates the expedition just after the reign of King Khufu - known in the Greek as "Cheops" alleged builder of the Great Pyramid. Lord Djes-eb may have actually been one of the sons of the Pharaoh Ra Djedef, who reigned after Khufu. The hieroglyphic text was apparently written under the instruction of a ship's captain or similar, with the corner glyph on the wall displaying the title of a high official or chief priest. The scribe is speaking for his Highness, the Prince, from this wretched place where we were carried by ship. The expedition's leader, is described in the inscriptions as the King's son, 'Lord Djes-eb', who came to grief a long way from home.
The origin and authenticity of the hieroglyphs is debated, but my own observations have me leaning towards this story being true, or at least plausible, and I think Egyptians did visit Australia in our ancient past.
For me, even if the glyphs are fake, the treasure hunt style mission to find them made it one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip.
These glyphs don't have the finesse and craftsmanship of the hieroglyphs in Egyptian temples, however being stranded in a foreign land would have make it difficult for the remaining crew.
A few things that surprised me while I was there was how straight the rock walls are. Apparently it is aligned to the sunrise too, which would make finding a natural site like this a miracle. The depth of the carvings was also impressive, as well as how high on the walls some of the glyphs are. It would have been a challenge for anyone to do all this.
The official reports say that it is a hoax, however there is too much contradicting information on both sides of the story. Evidence from Egypt says they were at least aware of the Great South land, and boomerangs have even been found in Egyptian temples.
In 1931 in the N.W. Kimberley's, Prof. A. P. Elkin, Professor of Anthropology at Sydney University came upon a tribe of Aborigines who had not met a white man before. The professor was astounded when tribal elders greeted him with Ancient Secret masonic hand signs. He was struck by the startling sematic features present in the natives. He discovered the Aborigines worshipped the sun. They also had an earth mother and Rainbow Serpent Cult. Later he discovered many of the words spoken were of Egyptian origin. This is the area of the famous Wandjina Cave Art. According to legend the Wanjina came from across the Indian Ocean in great vessels
The Aboriginal tribes in the areas around Sydney are also among the few in Australia that did rock carvings. Did they learn their craft from the visiting Egyptians?
To dismiss all these links would be foolish, and it would be good to see more coordinated efforts into the research of the ancient mysteries around the world.
If you would like more information about the Gosford hieroglyphs, and to see a translation of the text, I recommend visiting ancient-code.
