Heavenly Roads in Ancient Mesopotamia (Episode 3)

10. 01. 2020
6th international conference of exopolitics, history and spirituality

Flying Temple of Cashew

The most colorful description of the flying temple, or even the flying city, is the glorious hymn to the Kesh temple, which was the seat of the goddess Ninchursanga also known as Nintu or Ninmach. This goddess of birth was in charge of the creation of all life and especially of humans. It was the Lady of the Mountains (as her name can be translated) that is in many myths. She often stands alongside Enki, the god of wisdom, according to whose plan she created the first humans, and with God Enlil, the ruler of the gods, begot the divine hero Ninurta, who has encountered the mighty monster Asaga threatening the order of the world and the gods themselves.

Goddess Ninchursanga - the creator of people

The earliest texts celebrating the Kesh Temple were discovered at the Abu Salabí site and date back to the mid-3rd millennium. It is thus one of the oldest literary monuments of ancient Sumer, together with texts such as the Shurupakk's Councils or short poems celebrating individual gods called experts of the Za-mi anthem. The whole composition was carefully copied up to the ancient Babylonian period, almost for a thousand years. The very location of the city in which the temple was located has never been accurately identified, although some experts associate it with Tell al-Wilayah. However, if the truth of what the ancient texts suggest, that it was a flying, spacecraft, is true, this fact is not at all surprising.

A good abode hovering in the heavens

The song begins with a prologue in which Enlil comes out of his abode and looks around for a landscape that pays him homage. Kesh "raised his head" and Enlil gave him the praise that is contained in this anthem. The temple itself was reportedly designed by the goddess Nisaba herself, whose competences included, among others, geometry, mathematics, writing, and astronomy. She was a leading scientist of the Sumerian pantheon, who, according to ancient texts, holds in her hand a plate of lapis lazuli showing the constellations. Then follows the list of traditional epithets attributed to temples, which emphasizes the importance of the elevated plateau. The temple itself is compared to a mountain that rises to heaven. The text is divided into individual parts called "houses" and already in the second part it is stated as follows:
"A good abode, built in a good place, a abode of Kesh built in a good place, hovering in the heavens like a prince barge, like a holy barge with… a gate, like a heavenly boat, a platform of all lands!"
The text emphasizes that Kesh is floating in the heavens and compares it to a heavenly boat (Sumerian Ma-anna) in which Inana and Enki In escaped Inana with all the divine principles (ME) endowed by the drunken Enki. Among other things, it is stated in this part of the anthem that the temple "roars like an ox, roars like a wild bull", suggesting that this building made an astonishing noise. Noise is also often associated with gods or divine manifestations ascending or descending from heaven, as evidenced by various descriptions in the Judeo-Christian Bible, but also in other traditions.

Unreal dimensions

The third part is very difficult to decipher because it contains numerous comparisons that may not be quite clear to the modern reader. It begins with the assessment of a temple that has “10 shars at its upper end, and 5 shars at its lower end; house, at its upper end 10 bur, at its lower end 5 bur! ”
If it wasn't just an exaggeration of the ancient scribes who wanted to exaggerate the impressiveness of this building, this worthy construction would have the shape of an inverted truncated pyramid of 360 m2 (less than 19 x 19 m) at the top end and 180 m2 at the bottom and at the same time unimaginable 648 m2 (apparently 900 x 720 m) at the upper end and 324 m2 on the bottom. On the other hand, other tables carrying this hymn show different dimensions, namely 1 sarge and 1 bur at the upper end and 5 sarges and 5 bur at the lower end. This would mean that the object had a more conventional, pyramidal shape with dimensions of 36 m2 at the upper end opposite 180 m2 on the lower and 64 800 m2 at the upper end compared to 324 m2 on the bottom. Experts are confused by these dimensions and layout and thus offer an explanation that the lower end means the plan view and the upper end means the overall surface of the building. However, it should be pointed out that Kesh is not just a single building, but is described as a whole city that consumes a wealth of cattle and sheep, in which a herd of deer runs. The rest of the third part contains a mysterious and difficult to understand comparison of the upper and lower ends of the temple to different animals, such as wild bulls or sheep. Some comparisons are perhaps more understandable - in particular, a comparison to a surface pelican suggests that this floating city was able to land and navigate. This would be confirmed by an excerpt from the praise of Enlil's praise, which states that the roots of the temple are in Abz, underwater depth, or a comparison of its lower part to the source in contrast to the upper part compared to the mountain. The upper and lower parts of the temple are also compared in the text to weapons, namely mace and ax.

Plaque from the Temple of Ninchursanga in Tell el-Obejdu

Home of Anunna

In the following, Kesh is called the home of Anunna, the heavenly beings of noble descent, and above all the home of Ninchursanga, the goddess of the creator responsible according to the myth of Enki and Ninmach (other name of Ninchursangy) for forming the first people according to Enki's design and instructions. The creative role of Ninchursanga and its abbey is confirmed by this hymn, in which the temple is labeled as "the house that gives birth to countless people" and "the house where kings are born". Furthermore, in the fifth part, Ninchursanga directly assists in the births taking place in this mansion, which may have been a huge zoo and a biological laboratory with equipment allowing artificial insemination, genetic manipulation and cloning of both humans and numerous animal species.
The penultimate part is devoted to priests serving in this temple and the rituals that take place in it accompanied by various musical instruments. It is indisputable that ancient Sumerians, like their gods, enjoyed high-quality music production and recorded a number of string and percussion instruments in their lyrics. The last part concludes the whole hymn with a challenge and at the same time warning that people come to the city of Kesh, but at the same time not approach too much without due respect and admiration. Of course, Kesh also appears on the temples in the Anthem, where he is described as follows:
"O mighty Cashew, out of heaven and earth, evoking terror like a great horned viper, the home of the Ninchursanga, built in a frightening place!"

Sealing roller with the motif of human creation

Space origin

The detailed description of the Kesh temple undoubtedly evokes the idea of ​​a vast aerial or even spacecraft, whose interior hides not only biological laboratories, but also vast premises with living animals and, of course, the chambers of its commander, creator of Ninchursanga in her tasks. It is quite possible that this hovering base served as the mother ship of Anunna, providing a link between the cosmic sphere and the earth. This is evidenced by the frequent occurrence of AN KI, which denotes heaven and earth, in this text. However, the term ANKI can also be understood as a term for the universe or the universe - the sum of the celestial and earthly and intangible and material spheres. By combining AN and KI, according to Sumerian cosmogonic texts, the universe itself was created, and by their separation by the god Enlil again, a separate AN and KI was created into a material world inhabited by plants, animals and then humans.

Heavenly paths in ancient Mesopotamia

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