Research notes:
Phoenix Mythology (Fenghuang and Bennu)-
Legend of the mythical king of bird’s, the Fenghuang, traces back to over 8,000 years in China. Pictured in Jade and pottery, it represents virtue and grace and is was often shown in male and female pairs.
In Egypt the Bennu was said to have been involved with the creation of the world. It was pictured as a heron, and the first mention of it occurred just before the common era. It was said that it lived for five hundred years, lit itself on fire, and its offspring was reborn in the ashes. It would fly to Heliopolis (Egypt), and deposit the ashes on the temple altar.
Many cultures through the world share similar stories of a magical bird, which associates with rebirth and the sun.
Baalbek & Heliopolis (City of the Sun)-
An archeological site in Lebanon, named Baalbek, was once known as Heliopolis during its Roman occupancy. Nestled in the foothills east of the Mediterranean sea, the location shows signs of habitation that traces back eight thousand years. It has held religious and historical importance for many cultures.
Massive hewn stones lay as a foundation on a holy hill in Baalbek. Still in the nearby quarry, the largest of the monoliths weighs 1,300 lbs, is seventy feet long, and is the largest of its kind on Earth. The foundational stones fit together perfectly on the mound. Modern science cannot explain why or how they were engineered and placed, as well as decide who was responsible for the impressive build which predates all other cultural finds in the location.
In three hundred BC, the territory fell into Roman hands. There they found the centuries old Temple of Baal, which had been constructed overtop the mysterious stones left behind from its original builders. It underwent reconstruction in the mid first century of the common era to worship a Greek god and was renamed the Temple of Jupiter.
Lebanon Cedar-
This rare tree grows in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. They can reach eighty feet and an age of a thousand years. It’s reddish flowers bloom after the tree matures to at least twenty-five. This species has been in decline since it was stripped for building fortresses, walls and ships by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans and Mesopotamians.
Desert Glass-
Desert glass can be formed by silica in the sand and lightning strikes or meteor impacts. This pretty naturally occurring glass, can be found in Egypt or Libya (among a few other places on Earth).
Libyan desert glass has been found in abundance along the Libyan and Egyptian border. Scientists have dated the glass to be 29 million years old. It is debated about how it was formed. Prehistoric Libyan desert glass tools have been dated to ten thousand BC, and a piece was even used in one of Tutankhamen’s pendants.