Sometimes it is the smallest thing that can trigger a lifelong interest in exotic and unusual matters.

For Ralph Ellis, the author of this book, it was his father’s 1942 photo album containing snapshots taken of the Pyramid of Giza.

Approaching the mystery with the sensibility of the computer programmer that he is, Ellis reasoned there had to be a motivation for every measurement, every structural design, every placement in the pyramid, and it was necessary to put yourself in the place of the architect in order to understand it.

Why, he wondered, do none of the pyramids have any internal decoration or hieroglyphs whatsoever, when the traditional burial place of the Valley of the Kings is full of them?

If it was not a tomb, might it then be a sort of cathedral? A place of worship and initiation?

To anyone familiar with the writings of Edgar Cayce, the late American psychic, the idea of a hidden Hall of Records in Egypt may seem like one of his trance-like dreams.

Apparently it does have some basis in reality. A key figure in Egyptian theology was the god Thoth (who inspired the title of this work).

It was Thoth that flew from the primeval mound at Hermopolis, carrying the cosmic egg from which the Sun was born.

He was revered by the Egyptians as the inventor of mathematics, astronomy and engineering. He was said to have inscribed all he knew in sacred books which were hidden here on Earth for future generations.

They would be found only by the worthy, suggesting it might be necessary to have some mathematical knowledge in order to locate the hiding place.

The Pi ratio of the Great Pyramid is not only incorporated in that structure, but stunningly, also appears in the structure of Stonehenge, suggesting it comes from the same ultimate source.

The author says the concept of sacred measurements persisted for centuries and still finds expression in the Imperial system, still in use today.

He says that because he is of British origin, it enabled him to make connections that would have been overlooked by those wedded to the metric system.

He briefly takes the amusing hypothesis that the sport of cricket could be part of clues to the mystery of ancient Egypt, as the measurements in the sport are also of Imperial origin.

But how did Thoth’s measurements arrive in primitive Britain? Perhaps from Joseph of Arimathea, who is identified with the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail. He could have brought them directly from the Holy Land during the Roman era.

A startling link is made between the earthworks of Avebury and a map of the Earth. This interpretation points to two sites, one in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern at latitudes 52 and 58 degrees.

The northern site is out in the Atlantic, beyond the pillars of Hercules, or Gibraltar, as it is now known. This area is supposedly the location of the lost continent of Atlantis.

Some think the Canary Islands are a surviving remnant of some chain of islands long since submerged. The south location is occupied by the South Sandwich Islands. One or the other could be a perfect place to hide something important.

There is some evidence to suggest Thoth was also in Mexico and is responsible for the myth of the god known as Quetzacoatl, designing another pyramid complex at Teotihuacan.

The interconnections he draws, and the remarkable scope of information provided by Ellis, make this book an important part of any library devoted to the study of ancient monuments and the mysterious civilisations of our distant past.

– Reviewed by W. Ritchie Benedict in New Dawn No. 87