Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) closed the Great Pyramids on Friday after protesters said various groups, among them Jews, planned to attend a numerologist ceremony on the Giza Plateau.
Egyptian media reported that some Egyptians feared that the event would be used by Jewish Masons to reclaim the Pyramids as ancient Hebrew structures, denying Egyptians their claim to the pharaonic monuments.
RELATED:57 ancient tombs with mummies unearthed in Egypt One SCA employee claimed that a crew of 1,200 Jews were planning to attend the event, crowning the mightiest of the three structures with a Star of David in order to assert the claim that Jewish slaves built the pyramids, and not the ancient Egyptians, Egyptian daily
Al Ahram reported.
Egyptologists have never proven whether or not Jewish slaves took part in the construction of the monuments, or even settled in Egypt in the time when Old Kingdom pharaohs commissioned their massive mausoleums.
Former SCA Secretary General Abdel Halim Noureddin told
Al Ahram Jewish Masons have been trying to cap the Great Pyramid since 1931 with the Jewish emblem, so this instance should not be surprising.
According to a report from British daily the
Telegraph, a Polish numerologist group had, in fact, received permission from the Egyptian government to hold a ceremony at the pyramids in order to protect the world from "cosmic forces" aimed at destroying Earth next year.
The resulting commotion surrounding the event, including the attendance of Jewish Masons, pushed the SCA to cancel the event, called the "Ceremony of Love."
Andrzej Wojcikiewicz, director of the Warsaw-based group Dar Swiatowida,
described the ceremony, saying two pyramidal crystals would be placed
inside the Great Pyramids at Giza in order to bolster their protective
powers. The day chosen, 11-11-11, or November 11, 2011, was important
because of its numerological significance.
It also happens that next year, on December 12, 2012 (12-12-12) some
eschatologists believe the world will come to an epic end, citing a
5,125-year cycle in the ancient Mayan calendar (the Mayans also built pyramids).
Dar Swiatowida's events website, called Projekt [sic] Cheops, had this statement vis-a-vis the 11-11-11 event:
"The Ceremony planed for November 11, 2011 at Gizah [sic] Plateau is
canceled due to security concerns. All three Pyramids will be closed
during that day in spite of the fact that about 2000 tourists from all
over the world wanted to participate at the evening event."