The Secret Substance, The Mfkzt at Sinai

We are told that the....loading of the ships very heavily with marvels of the country of Punt;

"all goodly fragrant woods of God's-Land, heaps of myrrh resin, with fresh Myrrh trees, with ebony and pure ivory, with green gold of Amu, with cinnamon wood, khesyt wood, with two kinds of incense, eye-cosmetics, with apes, monkeys, dogs, and with skins of the southern panther. Never was brought the like of this for any king who has been since the beginning�

The identity of the Plants, Animals and products of the Land Of Punt has always remained a mystery but during the coarse of the past few years and during the analysis of the various inscriptions and mostly the walls mural of Hatshapsut and by studying the plants and animals and the gifted produces in more accurately than what the earl ear Archeologist's had.

According to Sayyid al-Qimni, Egyptian historian and thinker in his massive four Volume Arabic books intuited "Prophet Moses & The last days of Tell Al Amarneh" from page 239 - 363 suggests the Arbian Pennsula and particularly the region of south Jordan.

Also according to Dimitri Meeks in a well researched paper called "Locating Punt" explain in 2011how the hypothesis of an African location for the land of punt is based on extremely fragile grounds. He suggests Arabia for Punt location.

He explain:�The territory of Punt began quite close to that of Egypt, once Sinai had been crossed, in Arabia Petraea or the Negev. It inc operate, probably in a rather imprecise manner, the whole coastal zone of the Red Sea dowel as far as present day Yemen and the actual heart of Punt probably correspond more or less to Yemeni Tihama."

Evidence from the ancients

The first clear mention of Punt comes from the Old Kingdom. As the so-called Palermo Stone tells us, about 2500 B.C. during the reign of King Sahure, an expedition to Punt returned with 80,000 measures of 'ntyw, which scholars believe to be myrrh. Derived from a tree of the same name, myrrh is a resin used to make incense, which the Egyptians coveted for temple rituals; myrrh was the most prized commodity from Punt. Sahure's expedition also brought back 23,030 staves�wood being precious to a desert country like Egypt�and 6,000 measures of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, among other items.

In the time of Pepi II, a certain pepynakht was entrusted with a delicate mission:

"so, His Majesty, my master sent me to the land of the Asiatics, so that i might bring him back the Unique Companion, the Captain (?), the overseer of interpreters Anankhta, who was assembling (sp) a kbnt-ship there in order to travel to Punt, when the Asiatic-dwellers-on-the-Sands killed him together with the armed detachment which was accompanying him." (Sethe 1903:134,13-14)

The scene of this tragedy can be seen at the coast of the Red Sea near the Asiatic dwellers on the sand where this person was killed while the assembling of the ship that was destined to sail to Punt. A location at the end of the gulf of suez would seem to fit best with the text. This clearly show that the scene of the tragedy must have been near Egypt and in a region Asiatic Bedouins.

By the Middle Kingdom, expeditions to Punt had become pyramidal in scope. One inscription from about 1985 B.C. mentions an expedition of 3,000 men; another a half century later boasted 3,700 men. Again, Punt's location is not given. Where did the ships go on the Red Sea after they set sail from Saww? No one knows.

Today, scholars have convincingly shown that Middle and New Kingdom pharaohs bent on Punt constructed their ships on the Nile, then disassembled them and carried them 100 miles across the desert from Koptos, the place where the Nile comes closest to the Red Sea. They then reassembled them at the ancient Red Sea harbor of Saww (today Mersa Gawasis) and sailed to Punt. On the return, they unloaded the ships at Saww and transported the goods by donkey caravan back to the Nile, where they loaded them onto other ships for the journey south to the capital at Thebes.

Actually the site of Mersa Gawasis �port� was very important port in the Middle Kingdom. Several stealer have been found there dating to the first half of the 12th dynasty contain references of Punt. From the quantity and coherence of these written sources, the amount of enigmatic objects/products and the aired and isolated nature of Mersa gawasis location indicate that this site was on one of the routes to and from Punt by boat.

The inscription also inform us that the voyages which were connected with �the mine of Punt� (pB n pwnt) rather than punt. (according to Gardiner 1952) and it seems that the location of this mine could have been at any point in the red sea coast. Many objects where found in this site including unfinished anchor, pegs, pieces of rope, along with fragments of copper alloy chisels.

The site or port mersa gawasis seems to give the ancients the choice the outwards journey without problems. Because if the ship departed from a further north point from the Gulf of Suise hoping to reach the gulf of aqaba will not be able to make it. Because inexperienced Alius Gallus (Aelius Gallus was the 2nd prefect of Roman Egypt in the reign of Augustus during the years 26�24 BC.) attempted that rout and he lost his fleet ship and suffered serious damage to the rest of his fleet, from making the direct route round Ras Muhammad.

So all ships that left Egypt should land or sail towards the Arabian Peninsula somewhere between Aynunah and Jar in the south. From there ships could sail back up the Arabian coast in small stages, mostly rowing so as to reach the gulf of Aqaba in trance.

Whats interesting, one their return from the Gulf of Aqaba winds a currents would again carry the ships towards the Egyptian coast in the area of Mersa Gawasis.

The last expedition to Punt that we know of occurred under Rameses III, in the 12th century B.C. An ancient papyrus records that Rameses III "constructed great transport vessels ... loaded with limitless goods from Egypt. ... They reached the land of Punt, unaffected by (any) misfortune, safe and respected." And they returned safe and respected.

The details in Harris (Papyrus Harris collection in the British Museum) of an expedition sent by Ramsesses III to punt reinforce the impression that the northern end of this gulf of Suez, in all periods of the year, provide a favorable point of departure for long distance expedition.

Ramesses III (1186 to 1155 BC) writes regarding his expedition that he sent to Punt:�I built great ��.which were equipped with countless crewmen. Landen with products beyond number from Egypt��(and then) sent to the great Sea of Nuqed, they reached the mountains of Punt without any misfortune befalling them ��.�

Ramesses does tell us that they sailed on the �Great Sea of muqed� in order to reach Punt. Muqed is usually understood as two words, mw kd, meaning the revers water (the sea that flows backwards) which seems to mean the Sea that goes from south to North. Which allouds to the currents of the Gulf of Aqaba , which are the reserve current of the Nile.

Another important detail, Muqed appears in several series of toponym devoted to Syria-palestine, at Aksha, Amara and soleb. All these names were closely linked to Punt.

A Papyrus from the region of Ramsses IX confirms that this land was bordered by the sea, and it was inhabited by Shosu Bedouin. And this lead us to Sinai with the Gulf of Aqaba coasts.

So in conclusion we do know many of the routes taken to reach punt. It could certainly be reached by boat from the Red Sea. During the Old Kingdom this involved crossing the desert east of Memphis to the Gulf of Suez, or Mersa Gawasis or setting off from the Sinai and then thought the so called King's Highway. And it seems that during the Middle Kingdom and afterwards, when the kingdom capital moved south, the Red Sea journey to Punt originated from the port of Quseir.

Serabit el-Khadim (Arabic: سرابيط الخادم‎) is a locality in the southwest Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, where turquoise was mined extensively in antiquity, mainly by the ancient Egyptians. Archaeological excavation, initially by Sir Flinders Petrie, revealed ancient mining camps and a long-lived Temple of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess who was favoured as a protector in desert regions.

The mines were worked by people who presumably spoke a Northwest Semitic language.

The Serabit el-Khadim, The "Mfkzt" at Sinai

Why was there such an important Egyptian temple situated on top of a desolate mountain hundreds of miles away from the center of power in Sinai at At the Serabit el-Khadim? What made this site sacred and important to the Egyptians?

The cave of Hathor was cut into the rock. Inside the cave Petrie found an Ammarna statue-head of Akhenaton's mother, Queen Tiye, with her cartouche set in the crown. In the courts and halls of the outer temple were numerous stone-carved rectangular tanks and circular basins, along with a variety of curiously shaped bench-like altars with recessed fronts and split-level surfaces. The explorers found a metallurgist's space in which metals or other substances might have been melted or subjected to very high temperatures. They found a considerable amount of pure white powder concealed beneath carefully laid flagstones.

Egyptologists argue over why a melting space would have been necessary in a temple? They also debate the significance of a mysterious substance called MFKZT (pronounced mufkuzt), which was mentioned several times in the inscriptions at the site. Some believed that MFKZT might have been copper, or turquoise or malachite; however, the site contained no traces of any of these materials.

After further questioning, it was suggested that the white powder might have been a remnant of copper smelting. However, as experts in this field pointed out, smelting does not produce white powder, but leaves a dense black slag. Others guessed that the powder was ash from burning plants to produce alkali, but that was also not the case. It seems that the white powder was associated with certain sacrificial rite.

According to the German Philologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who had discovered the word "MFKZT" in Egypt back in 1845, the word signifies some form of stone that was extremely valuable and unstable.

The Mystery of the Conical Bread at Serabit in Sinai

Innumerable inscriptions referring to “bread” were unearthed at the Serabit site. This further increased the wonderment of the scientists. Close to the entrance of Hathor’s cave, they found a rock tablet depicting King Tuthmosis IV in the presence of Hathor. Before the king were two offering stands topped with lotus flowers, and behind him stood a man bearing a conical object described as “white bread.” Another stela detailed the mason Ankhib offering two conical bread cakes to the king. Yet another representation was found in a depiction of Hathor and Amenotep III. In it, the goddess Hathor is offering the emblem of life and dominion to the Pharaoh. Behind her is the treasurer Sobekhotep, who holds a conical loaf of "white bread." It should be noted that the treasurer Sobekhotep is described in the inscriptions as the man who “brought the noble Precious Stone to His Majesty.” Elsewhere, Sobekhotep is said to be the "Great One over the secrets of the House of Gold."

Interestingly, the 18th dynasty's royal treasurer (of whom and where?) was depicted presenting conical objects described as "white bread." He was regarded as the prestigious guardian of the house of gold.

A New Perspective

The ancient tribes who inhabited the region of Petra in particular had a unique perspective about plants and their alkaloidal effect. They saw things first hand in rocks where plants flourish. They saw which plant grows well on which color of rock formation, or a vein in a rock formation or mineral band. They were natural botanists and alchemists by virtue of their land and its fascinating geology. They also understood the influence of these minerals on different plant species; they knew which plants were poisonous and which were medicinal.

From a scientific point of view, several veins and rocks contains minerals or elements that are in a Monoatomic state. The Monoatomic state is only possible with what the scientific community calls “the transition element group.” This group of elements is found in nature in a non-metallic state. To understand more about it- and how it relates to the alchemical mysteries in this book, we need to learn about the story behind the discovery of this material and its properties.

The story begins in Arizona, a land whose geology is similar to that of the Southern Jordan. It is the story of ingenuity and creativity of late David Hudson of Phoenix. David Hudson was a wealthy third-generation cotton farmer whose father had been Commissioner of Agriculture for the state. He owned and farmed a giant ranch.

A natural difficulty with farming in Arizona is that the soil suffers from high sodium content, thereby causing the surface to be crunchy, black, and impenetrable by water. To combat this, David broke down the soil to make it suitable for his crops. By accident he isolated a fine powdery material with unique properties, and he started experimenting with it.

Commenting on his experience after separating the white substance from the soil, Hudson said in his Portland lecture, July 28, 1995:

“I really became intrigued with this stuff. What would happen if we give this material to people? It’s not metal-metal bonding so it doesn’t have heavy metal properties. So first of all we got a golden retriever and gave the material to the golden retriever. This golden retriever had tick fever, valley fever and a large abscess here on his side. And none of the veterinarians could find any medicine that would get rid of it due to the combination of all three diseases. And they just gave up; they weren't going to cure him. We began giving him one cc injections of one milligram of the white powder. One shot in the tumor and one shot in the blood stream. After a week and a half the tick fever was gone, the valley fever was gone, the tumor has shrunk down and disappeared. So we stopped the injections. About a week later it starts coming back again. So we start giving the injections again and it shrunk back down again. This time we continued about a week longer and then when we stopped it never came back. I am not a doctor.”

“And what we have done is we have given it in the high amounts to some people who have had nothing wrong with them medically. We didn't know what to expect. So the very first man, he did a 42 day food fast, which is pretty severe food fast. He went for 9 days with only water, he had a high colonic, and on the 10th day we began to give him 500 mg a day of this material”

“After 5 or 6 days of taking this material, this fellow began to hear this very high frequency sound, and every day the sound gets louder and louder. By the time he finished his fast, he said it's like loudspeakers in my brain, literally roaring this sound.”

“Well this sound is roaring in this man's head, it's roaring day and night, it's roaring when he’s talking on the phone, it's roaring when he's working. And I said, "Doesn't this disturb you? Isn't this an irritating sound? " and he said, "Not at all. It's just like nectar, because it doesn't come through the ears.” He said, "It’s inside the brain."