Every day in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, thousands of Muslims gather and walk westward circles around a tall black stone cube called the Kaaba. This Kaaba stone lies at the very center of Islam's most important Mosque, the Great Mosque of Mecca, and is the most sacred site in Islam, said to be the "Bayt Allah" (House of God), where all Muslims must turn to face before daily prayers. The most common epithet often used for Kaaba translates to "the center of the Earth," and in the 9th century, Islamic scholar al-Kisa'i argued that the true Kaaba was actually located directly beneath the North Pole Star. This would mean the true Kaaba is actually Mount Meru, and not the large black stone worshipped in Saudi Arabia. This would mean that every day thousands of Muslims walk westward circles around Kaaba, just like every night thousands of stars rotate westward circles around Mount Meru. This would mean that just like the ancient Chinese and Greeks would face North before commencing prayer, that Muslims too are meant to be facing the North Pole, rather than Saudi Arabia. Many legends of Mount Meru claim it to be a mountain composed of black magnetite stone (Mercator's "Rupes Nigra") surrounded by four directional rivers and islands, and this is again echoed symbolically by the black stone (4-sided) cube at Mecca. Why does this black cube in Mecca so perfectly mirror the ancient myths of Mount Meru? Could this manmade construction in Saudi Arabia be usurping the placement of the true "House of God" at the North Pole?
"Many sacred centers are aligned to the four cardinal directions: the Purple Forbidden City has four gates opening out to the four cardinal directions; the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of King Mindon, a perfect square oriented to the cardinal directions, was in the middle of Mandalay, which is thought to be the center of Burma, and hence of creation; above the throne room rose a gold-plated, seven-story, 256 ft tower or pyathat, which was thought to funnel the wisdom of the universe to the king in its center. The Great Temple Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) was at the center of the island, the first spot colonized, and the spot where the eagle eating the serpent on the cactus was seen, and the sacred precinct had gates in the four directions. And many other examples of sacred centers oriented to the cardinal directions come to mind - not least the Garden of Eden with its four streams. The city of Beijing is known as the 'Pivot of the Four Quarters,' and the sacred center of the city, the Forbidden City, is more precisely known as the 'Purple Forbidden City', purple being the symbolic color of the North Star, and the designation 'Purple Forbidden City' thus signifying that the emperor's residence is the center of the world. Where is the center of the world? Is it the omphalos in the adytumof Apollo's temple at Delphi? The 'Navel of the World' pillar in the catholicon of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem? The temple of Madhyameshrava, 'The Lord of the Center,' in the holy city of Benares, India? Easter Island in the South Pacific, whose ancient name, 'To Pito o Te Henua,' means 'The Navel of the World'? The stone marking Kilomètre Zéro on the Ile de la Cité, Paris, just in front of Notre Dame? The Kanro-dai pillar at the Tenrikyo Main Sanctuary in Tenri, Japan? The monument at El Mitad del Mundo, 22 km north of Quito, Ecuador? Lake Poso in the center of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the pivot of the earth and heavens, and the spot where a rope once joined the two?" -Chet Van Duzer, "The Mythic Geography of the Northern Polar Regions"
It is of course impossible for these pillars, temples and churches to all be "the centers of the world," which only further proves the point that none of them are authentic, and they are each merely symbolic representations. The one and only true centerpoint of all creation, the navel of both the heavens and Earth, is undeniably the North Pole, but by giving us all these symbolic facsimiles and by turning Earth into a gigantic tilting sphere spun around the Sun, the North Pole has effectively been nullified in the minds of the masses as being the true natural sacred center of the universe.
Ritual, reverential circumambulation, like that of the Muslims around Kaaba, is a practice found in many cultures throughout history. Hindus in India plant sacred Tulasi shrubs in their courtyards with ample space around for reverential circumambulation, known as domestic pradakshina. They repeat this perambulation 108 times while reciting the 108 names of Vishnu keeping their right shoulder turned towards the plant, mimicking the revolution of the celestial bodies around Polaris. Similarly at Vishnu temples, devotees walk circles around the outside either 7 or 108 times always keeping their right shoulder towards it. Buddhists in Sri Lanka circumambulate their dagoba shrines the same way. The sacred Adi Granth, the Sikh bible, is kept at the Golden Temple of Amritsar where devotees perform ritual reverential circumambulation around the sanctuary that houses the book, 3, 5 or 7 times. Christian bishops when consecrating a church make 3 circuits around the building sprinkling holy water and priests perambulate the altar incensing it while reciting a prayer which includes mention of this circular worship: circumdato altare tuum, Domine. Several initiation rituals of the Freemasons include circumambulation around central-placed shrines. The stringing of lights around a Christmas tree topped with a star is another example of this tradition mimicking the luminaries revolution around Polaris, and the reason a god-like figure "Santa Claus" resides at the North Pole.
"Then there is the old Highlanders' ceremony of going deisiil, 'sunwise,' round chapels, houses, people, and cattle; now done for luck, but preserving for us a lingering trace of the worship practised by their ancestors. It is also done round graves, and it was a common custom to turn oneself round to the right at the beginning and end of journeys for luck, as well as at weddings, and on other occasions. The 'turn round three times and catch who you may' of children's games will here occur to any one; and the catching may hang on to the practice of securing a victim for human sacrifice pointed to in the Welsh stampede, after the quenching of the Halloween bonefires, to the cry of 'The cutty black sow catch the hindmost!'; just our own 'devil take the hindmost!' To turn the reverse way, to the left, still well-known in Scotland by the expressive term 'wither shins,' is evil and unlucky. Witches dance that way, and it is like the Bible upside down." -John O’Neill, “Night of the Gods vol ii” (700)
The Lapp or Sami people of Scandanavia tell a folktale about a man who disappeared in the winter-time. His wife tracked him in the snow finding that he had walked repeatedly in circles around a bush, and that after several circuits around the bush, his human footsteps suddenly turned into bear-tracks. She then repeatedly circumambulated the bush herself and magically transformed into a bear as well. When she finally found her husband in a nearby cave, he was sorrowful and lamented that now he was prophecized to be murdered by his own son, but warned her that if she jumped into his empty skin as soon as he was flayed, she would and did magically recover her human form. This folktale preserves the tradition of polar/stellar (Ursa Major) "Great Bear" worship and the perambulation of a sacred tree in the far North.
"The 'dance of the stars' was an ancient classic idea in Greece and Rome. Plato spoke of the turnings and dances of the stars. Manilius too used the words signorumque choros, which are to be understood as the dance of the signs or constellations, and which is like the Zoroastrians calling the Great Bear the leader of the stars in the North. The word 'chorus' seems originally to have meant a round dance. According to Aratos, the two other stars next to Polaris in the Little Bear's tail were called 'the dancers.'" -John O’Neill, “Night of the Gods vol ii” (723)
The idea of "the dance of the stars" has survived in modern popular culture with the long-running hit television show "Dancing with the Stars," but the concept was far more prevalent in ancient times. The traditional European "Maypole Dance," for example, features a central tree or pillar topped with a cross and two equal-sized circles on either side representing the Sun and Moon. Dancers circle around the Maypole holding long colorful streamers which wrap and weave around the central pillar causing the dancers to narrow their circles. The pillar is Polaris at the Pole, the dancers represent the fixed and wandering stars, while the spiraling streamers show the paths of the Sun and Moon over and around the Earth. During this summer celebration, like the ever-narrowing spiraling streamers, the Sun has actually just narrowed its spiral path from its greatest southern extent at the Tropic of Capricorn during December winter solstice and fast approaches its arrival at the northern Tropic of Cancer during the upcoming summer solstice. In fact, originally, and still today in many countries, the "May"pole dance is not performed in May at all, but rather on June 21st, the very day the Sun reaches its northern-most peak.
The Sufi Muslim sect known as the Mevlevi Order, or the "whirling dervishes," have also preserved a form of polar worship with their circular dance which is said to represent "the harmonious movement of the universe." The dervishes wear a conical cap directed to the zenith, point their right hand to heaven and their left to Earth, then spin circles in place causing their robes to flair out making another conical circle around them, all while internally incessently intoning the name of God (Allah). The founder of the Mevlevi himself wrote that "He who is above all combination, all distinction, is a Tree without branches, or trunk, or roots to which the mind can be attached." This references a concept found all over the ancient world, regarding a macrocosmic and microcosmic World Tree - what the Norse called "Yggdrasil," the Germans called "Irmensul," the Hindu "Jambudvipa," the Taoist paradisical Tung tree, the Buddhist Bodhi Tree of Wisdom, the giant tree of the Finnish Kalevala, the Celtic Golden Apple Tree of Avalon, the Egyptian Tree of Life, and the tree at the center of the biblical Garden of Eden.
"In the centre of the Garden of Eden, according to Genesis 3, there was a tree exceptional in position, in character, and in its relations to men. Its fruit was 'good for food,' it was 'pleasant to the eyes,' and 'a tree to be desired.' At first sight it would not perhaps appear how a study of this tree in the different mythologies of the ancient world could assist us in locating primitive Paradise. In the discussions of such sites as have usually been proposed it could not; but if the Garden of Eden was precisely at the North Pole, it is plain that a goodly tree standing in the centre of that Garden would have had a visible and obvious cosmical significance which could by no possibility belong to any other. Its fair stem shooting up as arrow-straight as the body of one of the 'giant trees of California,' far overtopping, it may be, even such gigantic growths as these, would to any one beneath have seemed the living pillar of the very heavens. Around it would have turned the 'stars of God,' as if in homage; through its topmost branches the human worshiper would have looked up to that unmoving centre-point where stood the changeless throne of the Creator. How conceivable that that Creator should have reserved for sacred uses this one natural altar-height of the Earth, and that by special command He should have guarded its one particular adornment from desecration! If anywhere in the temple of nature there was to be an altar, it could only be here. That it was here finds a fresh and unexpected confirmation in the singular agreement of many ancient religions and mythologies in associating their Paradise-Tree with the axis of the world, or otherwise, with equal unmistakableness, locating it at the Arctic Pole of the Earth." -Dr. William Warren, “Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole” (262-3)
The Norse Yggdrasil tree exists at the very center of their world and cosmology, with its roots descending into hell, its midbranches overarching the Earth, and its top reaching to heaven. Likewise the medieval legend of Seth's visit to the Garden of Eden sees a central Tree of Life with its crown in heaven and roots in hell, distilling a life-saving "Oil of Mercy" obtained for his dying father. The Hindu world tree also provided their gods with an immortality drink called "Soma," and existed at the North Pole with its roots reaching to the underworld of Yama god of death, its top extending to the heavenly realm of benevolent gods, and its body the central sustaining axis of the universe. The Mayan world tree similarly was called "yaax-chel-cab" which means "the first tree of the world," and was a gigantic central cosmic ceiba tree with its trunk planted on Earth reaching straight upwards through circular holes made in seven heavenly celestial planes that souls of the dead ascend according to merit. The Lenni Lenape Native Americans even perform religious rituals in large tree houses using living trunks as the central post to physically embody this symbolism. To this day, many Mayan village centers have a single sacred Ceiba tree growing due to these surviving ancient beliefs. They always plant them within sight of the town hall, offer incense to them, elect their mayors beneath them, and have done so for countless centuries.
"The cosmic image of the ancient Nahua tribes of Texcoco, Chalco, and Tlaxcala distinguished nine underworlds and as many heavens, while the Aztec sometimes spoke of thirteen heavens. According to the original concept, these heavens were the steps by which the sun ascended from east to west during the morning, and by which he descended in the afternoon in order to effect a parallel journey at night when passing through the kingdom of the dead. In this way, the highest heaven and the lowest underworld were not to be found at the end but in the center of the two series of steps. The thirteen gods of the diurnal hours and the nine gods of the nocturnal ones correspond to the steps or levels of the heavens and of the underworld. The sun god reigns over the central (seventh) hour of the day, and the god of death rules over the central (fifth) hour of the night. Once again, spatial and temporal concepts have been coordinated." -Walter Krickeberg
Anthropologist William R. Holland wrote of the Maya, that they: "consider the heavens the home of benevolent deities, creators and makers of all human, animal, and vegetable life. Conversely, the lower world is the residence of evil gods who eternally fight to undo the work of the heavenly gods and try to win over new occupants for the world of the dead. Life is a constant struggle between the forces of good and evil." In 1982 anthropologist Peter Roe completed an exhaustive study of 105 Amazonian tribes and found their cosmologies strikingly similar. He sumarized their worldviews as follows: “There is a disk-shaped earth surrounded by ocean. This disk is sandwiched between upper and lower worlds which are often subdivided into several levels. There is also a world tree with its roots in the underworld and its crown in the heavens.”
Yet another example of this nearly ubiquitous concept is the Buddhist sacred Bodhi Tree of Wisdom under which the Buddha was enlightened. Nowadays associated with a local tree in India, the original legend of the Bodhi Tree of Wisdom placed it at the center of the Earth, where it helped Gautama Buddha pass over the celestial water to reach Nirvana. When Buddha was unable to cross from one bank to the other, the spirit of the Bodhi tree stretched its arms to aid him across, and then sitting underneath the tree he gained enlightenment. In Buddhist art and sculpture the Bodhi tree is often pictured with the "Chattra" umbrella symbol above it. According to scholars Dr. William Warren and Gerald Massey, this ornate parasol symbolizes the dome of the heavens and the north polar home of the gods.
"The Paradise-tree of the Chinese Tauists is also a World-tree. It is found in the centre of the enchanting Garden of the Gods on the summit of the polar Kwen-lun. Its name is Tong, and its location is further denned by the expression that it grows 'hard by the closed Gate of Heaven.' As in many of the ancient religions, the mount on which, after the Flood, the ark rested was considered the same as that from which in the beginning the first man came forth, it is not strange to find the tree on the top of the mountain of Paradise remembered in some of the legends of the Deluge. In the Tauist legend it seems to take the place of the ark. Thus we are told that 'one extraordinary antediluvian saved his life by climbing up a mountain, and there and then, in the manner of birds plaiting a nest, he passed his days on a tree, whilst all the country below him was one sheet of water. He afterwards lived to a very old age, and could testify to his late posterity that a whole race of human beings had been swept from the face of the earth. It is at least suggestive to find this same idea of salvation from a universal deluge by means of a miraculous tree growing on the top of the divine Mountain of the North among the Navajo Indians of our own country. Speaking of the men of the world before our own, and of the warning they had received of the approaching flood, their legends go on: Then they took soil from all the four corner mountains of the world, and placed it on top of the mountain that stood in the North; and thither they all went, including the people of the mountains, the salt-woman, and such animals as then lived in the third world. When the soil was laid on the mountain, the latter began to grow higher and higher, but the waters continued to rise, and the people climbed upwards to escape the flood." -Dr. William Warren, “Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole” (274-5)
The ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Syrians and Assyrians all had their own versions of a world tree as well. The Greek Winged Oak of Pherecydes and the Holy Palm of Apollo in the Hyperborean Garden of Hesperides were two stories of this sacred tree. The Egyptian Tree of Life was located at the axis of Earth and was home to Bennu, the sun-bird, who sat upon its branches. The Northwind from his polar perch yielded a life-sustaining celestial rain upon the Earth and down to Duat, the underworld. The Persian Zoroastrian tree grew atop the summit of "Hara-berezaiti," the world's tallest mountain at the geographic center-point of the universe, around which the stars revolved, and behind which the Sun hid at night. It was home to "Ardvi-Sura," the polar head-spring source of all waters, falling from heavenly rivers to Earth before descending to the underworld.
"In our interpretation the original river is from the sky; the division takes place on the heights at the Pole, and the four resulting rivers are the chief streams of the circumpolar continent as they descend in different directions to the surrounding sea. Does such a view find any support in the traditions of the ancient world? That it does will be clear to anyone who has carefully read thus far. Let us take the rivers of the Persian cradle of the race. Where do they rise? If the investigator of this question have made no previous studies in Comparative Sacred Hydrography, he will be surprised to find that in Persian thought, not only the Paradise rivers, but also all the rivers of the whole earth, have but one headspring and but one place of discharge. This head-spring is the Ardvi-Sura, situated in heaven, the heaven of the Pole. 'This heavenly fountain,' says Haug, summarizing the contents of the Aban Yasht, 'has a thousand springs and a thousand canals, each of them forty days journey long. Thence a channel goes through all the seven keshvares, or regions of the earth, conveying everywhere pure celestial waters.'" -Dr. William Warren, “Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole” (250-1)
These concepts of celestial rainfall and heavenly rivers are found concurrent with most World Tree myths. In the Mexican version, Tlaloc, the god of water, lives atop the world's tallest mountain whence come all the Earth's rains and streams. In the Indian version, the heaven-spring Ganga falls upon Mount Meru, first watering the land of gods at the pole, then flowing outward towards the cardinal points from four main rivers into the Arctic ocean. The Hindu epic Mahabharata says the head-spring exists in the highest heaven of Vishnu, high above the highest star Druva (Polaris). During their descent the waters first wash Druva, then the Seven Rishis (Big Dipper), and then fall atop Mount Meru, where the heavenly Ganga river "divides into four mighty rivers, flowing in opposite directions," and feeds the world's oceans.
"And all this lays bare for us the origin of the Iranian and Hindu holiness of water; 'river-water is everywhere throughout India held to be instinct with divinity,' says Sir Monier Williams. Among primaeval peoples, who observed the connection between the rains and the springs and watercourses which were manifestly swelled by them, all waters became of supernal origin, the gift of the heavens-god. And thus the heavens-river, clearly discerned by the eye of faith in the heavens as the Milky Way became the generation and sanctifier of all earthly rivers. According to Josephus, the Ganges, Tigris, Euphrates and Nile were but members of the one great ocean-River of the Greeks, which ran about the whole earth; which Aristotle described as having its origin in the upper heavens, descending in rain upon the earth, feeding, as Hesiod, Homer, and Euripides said, all fountains and rivers, and every sea; then branching out into the Rivers of the underworld, to be returned fire-purged and sublimated to the upper heavens, there to recommence its round." -John O’Neill, “Night of the Gods vol ii” (866)
The ancient Greek poets also often alluded to this concept with "Okeanos," the great Earth encircling river. Homer wrote that Okeanos was where "all rivers and every sea and all fountains flow." Hesiod in his Theogony similarly wrote that "all rivers, as sons, and all fountains and brooks, as daughters, are traced back to Okeanos." The Greek poets personified Okeanos as a god, "the great sea-god who girdles the entire world," or as Aeschylus wrote, "He who with his sleepless current encircles the whole earth." Plato also wrote of Okeanos directly connecting it with the four polar rivers in his Phaedo, stating, "among the many are four streams, the greatest and outermost of which is that called Okeanos, which flows round in a circle." And if any doubt remains, Orphic Hymn 83 explicitly mentions the fountain at the Pole: "Okeanos whose nature ever flows, from whom at first both gods and men arose; sire incorruptible, whose waves surround, and earth's all-terminating circle bound: hence every river, hence the spreading sea, and earth's pure bubbling fountains spring from thee. Hear, mighty sire, for boundless bliss is thine, greatest cathartic of the powers divine: earth's friendly limit, fountain of the pole, whose waves wide spreading and circumfluent roll. Approach benevolent, with placid mind, and be forever to thy mystics kind."
The Chinese story of Mount Kunlun and the Tong tree also features "T'ien Ho," the many channeled river, or river of eight, which falls and separates at the pole. The head-spring of these celestial waters and source of this mythology is none other than that area of the heavens known to the ancients as the Dark Rift, and better known to us as the Milky Way. In the Chinese version, celestial rainfall from the Milky Way descends on the North Pole separating into many channels including their sacred Yellow River, which they see as a continuation of the T'ien Ho heavenly stream. Then from there the many channels flow into the oceans transporting pure heavenly waters across the entire world.
"However named, all waters are simply portions of the same heaven-descending stream. The other innumerable waters and rivers, springs and channels, are one in origin with those, so in various districts and various places they call them by various names. Even plant-sap, and blood, and milk, are parts of the one cosmic current. All these, through growth, or the body which is formed, mingle again with the rivers, for the body which is formed and the growth are both one. Everything of a liquid nature, therefore, in the whole world is conceived of as proceeding from one source high in the north-polar sky. Into such a marvelously complete cosmical circulatory water system did the Iranic imagination develop the primitive head-stream of Eden. But never, even in the most extravagant mythological adornments of the idea, was it for a moment forgotten that the original undivided stream originates in the north polar sky; and that its division into earthly streams and rivers is on the holy mount which stands in the centre." -Dr. William Warren, “Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole” (254)
This concept of "holy water" exists in nearly all of the world's religions from Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. The Christian cross itself is the same shape as the 4 rivers at the North Pole and before entering church the parishoner dips their fingers in holy water and touches 4 points on their bodies. To bless the water, the priest first makes the sign of the cross over the basin, touches the surface with the palm of his hand, and says "I bless thee, creature of water, by the God that made thee issue from the earthly Paradise in four rivers." Christian baptism also takes place "ex aqua et spiritu sancto," or "of water and of the holy spirit" where the holy spirit is transported into the "born again" Christian through the medium of water. In Buddhism monks similarly bless vessels of holy water then use special wooden fans to sprinkle the water over temple-goers. In Islam, followers drink or wash in water from their sacred "Zamzam" Well in Mecca.
How could these detailed parallel mythologies and concepts all rise and flourish independently of one another thousands of years ago? What could be the origin and impetus of these ideas of world trees, celestial rivers, and polar mountains if not their literal existence? The next section will explore the metaphorical meanings of these ancient allegories, how modern man can make sense of them, and why this important information is so suppressed.
The North Pole is the inherent geographical focal point of all creation. It is the perfect center of the bullseye, the magnetic attractor of all the world's compasses, the originator of all the world's tides, and home to the only motionless star in the heavens, around which all the other stars, the Sun, and the Moon revolve. In ancient times it was also claimed to be home to the tallest mountain and the tallest people on Earth. As recently as the 19th century, explorers like Olaf Jansen have continued telling so-called "tall tales" of meetings with races of giant human beings who live at the Pole.
In his book "The Smoky God," Olaf Jansen claimed to have journeyed to the North Pole with his father in 1829 where they met and mingled 2 years with a race of 12 foot tall giants who lived up to 800 years, spoke a language similar to Sanskrit, and inhabited a paradisical capital city named "Eden." This particular story is most likely a piece of fiction, but echoes a long-standing tradition of similar claims that the North Pole is or was once home to a paradisical Edenic abode inhabited by races of gigantic and/or miniature human beings.
In Heylin's 1659 book "Cosmographie," he states that on the North of Lappia and Biarmia, near the Pole, lives a race of Pygmies, the tallest of which are not above four feet high. Gerardus Mercator's 1595 polar map includes this island of Pygmies with a caption mentioning their tiny four-foot stature. Johannes Ruysch's 1508 world map also shows the many surrounding polar islands claiming 2 of them inhabited, but without mentioning the alleged inhabitant's size or stature. In the book "Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum," Archbishop Adalbert's team of Frisian explorers told of encountering giant human beings living in caves and underground hollows during their 1035 Polar expedition.
In ancient Greek and Roman texts from Pindar, Herodotus, Hesoid and Homer, to Virgil and Cicero, it was universally claimed that the North Pole was home to a race of giants called the "Hyperboreans" who lived for over a thousand years and enjoyed lives of perfect happiness. Hyperborea was allegedly bathed in 24 hour sunlight with the Sun only ever rising or setting once every year! Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History book IV that, "The farthest of all, which are known and spoke of, is Thule; in which there be no nights at all, as we have declared, about mid-summer, namely when the Sun passes through the sign Cancer; and contrariwise no days in mid-winter: and each of these times they suppose, do last six months, all day, or all night."
For observers standing at the Pole, the heavens would appear to have been created just for them. Their unique perspective places Polaris, the only motionless star in the sky, perfectly situated directly above them, with all the other visible stars rotating horizontal left to right paths 360 degrees around, all at an apparently equal distance away. The Sun and Moon also rotate horizonally around the polar observer, with the Sun rising and setting only once per year, creating 6 month days and 6 month nights!
"If an observer is stationed at the North Pole, the first thing that will strike him is the motion of the celestial sphere above his head. Living in the temperate and tropical zones we see all heavenly objects rise in the east and set in the west, some passing over our head, others traveling obliquely. But to the man at the Pole, the heavenly dome above will seem to revolve round him, from left to right, somewhat like the motion of a hat or umbrella turned over one’s head. The stars will not rise and set, but will move round and round, in horizontal planes, turning like a potter’s wheel, and starting on a second round when the first is finished, and so on, during the long night of six months. The sun, when he is above the horizon for 6 months, would also appear to revolve in the same way. The centre of the celestial dome over the head of the observer will be the celestial North Pole, and naturally enough his north will be over-head, while the invisible regions below the horizon would be in the south." -Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” (42)
For polar observers the Sun rises in the South, not the East, and circles horizontally around rising ever so slightly in the sky, about a quarter degree per day. This creates an extended morning twilight with its brilliant colors which instead of lasting for the usual 45 minutes, lasts around 45 days! Every year at the spring equinox, after a long winter night, dawn begins to break and the first traces of the Sun creep above the horizon. By summer solstice the Sun reaches its highest point in the polar sky, around 23.5 degrees, and begins its slow, almost imperceptible descent. At the autumnal equinox, the last traces of the Sun disppear beyond the horizon, and an extended evening twilight persists for a month and half, after which the polar observer will not see sunlight again until spring. Thanks to abundant starlight, regular aurora borealis activity, and two weeks of moonlight per month, the long polar nights are not pitch black, but actually quite well lit and beautiful.
"We have stated that to an observer at the North Pole, there will be a night of 6 months, and one is likely to infer therefrom that there will be total darkness at the Pole for one half the portion of the year. Indeed one is likely to contemplate with horror, the perils and difficulties of a long night of six months, during which not only the light but the warmth of the sun has to be artificially supplied. As a matter of fact, such a supposition is found to be erroneous. First of all, there will be the electric discharges, known as Aurora Borealis, filling the polar night with their charming glories, and relieving its darkness to a great extent. Then we have the moon, which, in her monthly revolution, will be above the polar horizon for a continuous fortnight, displaying her changing phases, without intermission, to the polar observer. But the chief cause, which alleviates the darkness of the polar night, is the twilight before the rising and after the setting of the sun. The dawn in the tropical or the temperate zone is but brief and evanescent, and it recurs after every 24 hours. But still it has formed the subject of poetical descriptions in different countries. If so, how much more the spectacle of a splendid long dawn, after a darkness of two months, would delight the heart of a Polar observer, and how he will yearn for the first appearance of the light on the horizon." -Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” (44-46)
In all, a year at the Pole sees approximately six months of continuous daylight, followed by a month and a half of evening twilight, then three months of relative darkness, ending in a month and half long spring dawn. The exact number of days for each portion of the polar year is disputed among various authorities, however, which raises the question again as to whether or not modern man truly has attained the Pole. If we have research bases and encampments built all over at and around the North Pole as claimed, why is there not a single video online or anywhere else showing a year-long continuous time-lapse of this world wonder!? To see Polaris unmoving directly 90 degrees overhead while all the other stars rotate horizontally around uninterrupted by sunlight for months at a time, then to watch the first rays of the longest, most beautiful dawn lighting the horizon and revolving 360 degrees around without setting for many more months, would be an absolute spectacle to behold, worthy of an Imax documentary, and a true wonder of the world, but somehow no such video exists.
“First of all appears low in the horizon of the night-sky a scarcely visible flush of light. At first it only makes a few stars’ light seem a trifle fainter, but after a little it is seen to be increasing, and to be moving laterally along the yet dark horizon. Twenty-four hours later it has made a complete circuit around the observer, and is causing a larger number of stars to pale. Soon the widening light glows with the luster of ‘Orient pearl.’ Onward it moves in its stately rounds, until the pearly whiteness burns into ruddy rose-light, fringed with purple and gold. Day after day, as we measure days, this splendid panorama circles on, and, according as atmospheric conditions and, clouds present more or less favorable conditions of reflection, kindles and fades, kindles and fades, — fades only to kindle next time yet more brightly as the still hidden sun comes nearer and nearer his point of emergence. At length, when for two long months such prophetic displays have been filling the whole heavens with these increscent and revolving splendors, the sun begins to emerge from his long retirement, and to display himself once more to human vision. After one or two circuits, during which his dazzling upper limb grows to a full-orbed disk, he clears all hill-tops of the distant horizon, and for six full months circles around and around the world’s great axis in full view, suffering no night to fall upon his favored home-land at the Pole. Even when at last he sinks again from view he covers his retreat with a repetition of the deepening and fading splendors which filled his long dawning, as if in these pulses of more and more distant light he were signaling back to the forsaken world the promises and prophecies of an early return.” -Dr. William Warren
You would think such a sight would be worthy of recording, yet somehow, no one in history has ever bothered to do so. If we have truly attained the North Pole and have permanent and semi-permanent structures with people stationed at and around there year-round, why in the flat world has no one ever recorded an annual time-lapse of this incredible occurance?
The polar 6 month day and 6 month night has been written about by diverse cultures throughout history, many insisting that their ancestors or gods were the original inhabitants. In the ancient Indian Vedas, the "day of the gods," and "night of the gods," were each six months in duration, and their gods lived atop Mount Meru at the North Pole. The Surya Siddhanta XII, 67 states that "At Meru, Gods behold the sun after but a single rising during the half of his revolution beginning with Aries," and the Institutes of Vishnu says, "The southern progress of the sun is (with them) a night and a year is (with them) a day and a night." In Norse mythology, it is claimed that before the present established order of the world, their Sun rose in the South, which is what would have been experienced by their polar ancestors. In ancient Iranian mythology, Yima, the first man and King of the Golden Age lived in an Edenic abode called Vara, where the Sun only rose and set once per year.
"A phenomenon like this cannot fail to be permanently impressed on the memory of a Polar observer, and it will be found later on that the oldest traditions of the Aryan race have preserved the recollection of a period, when its ancestors witnessed such wonderful phenomenon, — a long and continuous dawn of several days, with its lights laterally revolving on the horizon, in their original home." -Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” (46-7)
The heavenly dome rotating perfectly horizontally overhead for polar observers is another unique peculiarity of polar astronomy found in ancient mythology. In Greek mythology, the gods rule from Mount Olympus and as the Iliad states, "from the upper sky, the celestial dome in which sun, moon and stars wheel silently around the Pole." In the Vedas, Indra "supports the heavens as on a pole," and "upholds heaven and earth, and turns the widest expanse, as the wheels of a chariot are held by the axle." An imaginary line from the North Pole to Polaris, would appear perfectly vertical and like a handle supporting the twirling umbrella of the heavens, or an axis supporting the wheel of a chariot.
"If we combine the two statements, that the heavens are supported as on a pole and that they move like a wheel, we may safely infer that the motion referred to is such a motion of the celestial hemisphere as can be witnessed only by an observer at the North Pole. In the Rig-Vedas I, 24, 10 the constellation of Ursa Major (Rikshah) is described as being placed “high” (uchhâh), and, as this can refer only to the altitude of the constellation, it follows that it must then have been over the head of the observer, which is possible only in the Circum-Polar regions." -Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” (60-1)
In the Mahabharata, during Arjuna's visit to Mount Meru, chapters 163 and 164 of the Vanaparvan state that, "At Meru, the sun and the moon go round from left to right every day, and so do all the stars. The day and the night are together equal to a year to the residents of that place." The ancient Laws of Manu I, 67 state, "A human year is a day and a night of the Gods; thus are the two divided, the northern passage of the sun is the day and the southern the night." And the Taittiriya Brahmana says, "That which is a year is but a single day of the Gods."
In the collection of ancient Zoroastrian texts known as the "Avesta," the Aryan Paradise, known as "Airyana Vaêjo" is described as a blissful place where the Sun rose only once per year and was destroyed by relentless snow and ice forcing the inhabitants, Earth's original progenitors, to migrate southwards. This same idea that the first humans devolved from God or gods at the North Pole is replete within ancient scriptures, and starkly contrasts modern mainstream claims that the first humans evolved from primates in Africa.
Two excellent books were written on this subject, one by Boston University president and professor Dr. William Warren entitled, "Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole," and another by the renouned Indian teacher and activist Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak entitled, "The Arctic Home in the Vedas." In both well-researched publications Warren and Tilak present convincing arguments with abundant supporting evidence suggesting that our most ancient ancestors lived at the North Pole and spread outwards southwards from there likely due to climate changes.
"Our hypothesis calls for an antediluvian continent at the Arctic Pole. It is interesting to find that a writer upon the Deluge writing more than forty years ago advanced the same postulate. Is the supposition that there existed such a continent scientifically admissible? Until very recently too little was known of the geology of the high latitudes to warrant or even to occasion the discussion of such a question. Even now, with all the contemporary interest in Arctic exploration, it is difficult to find any author who has distinctly propounded to himself and discussed the question as to the geologic age of the Arctic Ocean. It will not be strange, therefore, if we have here to content ourselves with showing, first, that geologists and paleontologists do not think the present distribution of Arctic sea and land to be the primeval one ; and secondly, that in their opinion, incidentally expressed, a 'continent' once existed within the Arctic Circle of which at present only vestiges remain. Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace incidentally shows that the facts of Arctic paleontology call for the supposition of a primitive Eocene continent in the highest latitudes, a continent which no longer exists. His language is, 'The rich and varied fauna which inhabited Europe at the dawn of the Tertiary period as shown by the abundant remains of mammalia wherever suitable deposits of Eocene age have been discovered proves that an extensive Palearctic continent then existed.' Another most eminent authority in Arctic paleontology, the late Professor Heer, of Zurich, fully fifteen years ago arrived at and published the conclusion that the facts presented in the Arctic fossils plainly point to the existence in Miocene time of a no longer existing polar continent. On another and more lithological line of evidence Baron Nordenskjold, the eminent Arctic explorer, has arrived at the same conclusion. Speaking of certain rock strata north of the 68th degree of north latitude, he says, 'An extensive continent occupied this portion of the globe when these strata were deposited.' Elsewhere he speaks of this 'ancient polar continent' as something already accepted and universally understood among scientific men." -William Warren, “Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole” (73)
"It has been already stated that the beginnings of Aryan civilization must be supposed to date back several thousand years before the oldest Vedic period; and when the commencement of the post-Glacial epoch is brought down to 8000 B.C., it is not at all surprising if the date of primitive Aryan life is found to go back to it from 4500 B.C., the age of the oldest Vedic period. There are many passages in the Rig-Veda, which, though hitherto looked upon as obscure and unintelligible, do, when interpreted in the light of recent scientific researches, plainly disclose the Polar attributes of the Vedic deities, or the traces of an ancient Arctic calendar; while the Avesta expressly tells us that the happy land of Airyana Vaêjo, or the Aryan Paradise, was located in a region where the sun shone but once a year, and that it was destroyed by the invasion of snow and ice, which rendered its climate inclement and necessitated a migration southward. These are plain and simple statements, and when we put them side by side with what we know of the Glacial and the post-Glacial epoch from the latest geological researches, we cannot avoid the conclusion that the primitive Aryan home was both Arctic and inter Glacial. The discovery of the intimate relationship between Sanskrit and Zend on the one hand and the languages of the principal races of Europe on the other, a complete revolution took place in the views commonly entertained of the ancient history of the world. It was perceived that the languages of the principal European nations — ancient and modern — bore a close resemblance to the languages spoken by the Brahmans of India and the followers of Zoroaster; and from this affinity of the Indo-Germanic languages it followed inevitably that all these languages must be the off-shoots or dialects of a single primitive tongue, and the assumption of such a primitive language further implied the existence of a primitive Aryan people." -Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” (1-2)
In 1786 Sir William Jones, a Supreme Court judge who could speak 30 languages, gave his Third Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society where he declared that the similarities between Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, German, Celtic and Persian languages could only be explained on the hypothesis that they all shared a common parentage. His contemporary, the German philosopher Hegel, compared the consequences of Jones' revelation to the discovery of a whole new world and his ground-breaking work on this subject established him as the founder of comparative linguistics. Jones wrote that, "The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family."
Scholar and renowned linguist Charles Berlitz of Berlitz language schools spoke an amazing 32 languages and just like Sir William Jones, his life's research in comparative linguistics led him to the inescapable conclusion that all the world's languages must trace back to a single, lost, ancient dialect. Berlitz actually wrote several books about Atlantis and believed the primary language of the human race originated there. In my previous book, "The Atlantean Conspiracy," I also included a large section on Atlantean Etymology, showing how an inordinate number of words and prefixes from languages worldwide share the exact same or incredibly similar meanings and pronunciations, strongly suggesting a common ancient eytmological ancestor.
Researcher and Author John G. Bennett also wrote a paper entitled "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" in which he argues that ancient languages were more advanced, have devolved into our current languages, and likely originally trace back to a lost polar civiliazation. This idea has also been promoted by esotericists like Helena Blavatsky, Rene Guenon, and Julius Evola who all shared a belief in the Hyperborean, polar origins of mankind. According to them, during a golden age humanity solidified into this material realm and has since undergone devolution. Rather than evolving from apes, they insist humanity has progressively devolved into an apelike condition.
"It is admitted that many of the present explanations of these traditions and legends are unsatisfactory, and as our knowledge of the ancient man is increased, or becomes more definite, by new discoveries in archaeology, geology or anthropology, these explanations will have to be revised from time to time and any defects in them, due to our imperfect understanding of the sentiments, the habits and even the surroundings of the ancient man, corrected. That human races have preserved their ancient traditions is undoubted, though some or many of them may have become distorted in course of time, and it is for us to see if they do or do not accord with what we know of the ancient man from latest scientific researches. In the case of the Vedic traditions, myths and beliefs, we have the further advantage that they were collected thousands of years ago, and handed down unchanged from that remote time. It is, therefore, not unlikely that we may find traces of the primeval Polar home in these oldest books. If the Aryan man did live within the Arctic circle in early times, especially as a portion of the Rig-Veda is still admittedly unintelligible on any of the existing methods of interpretation, although the words and expressions are plain and simple in many places. Dr. Warren has quoted some Vedic traditions along with those of other nations, in support of his theory that the Arctic regions were the birth-place of the human race." -Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” (39-40)
At the turn of the 17th century, shortly after Queen Elizabeth's advisor John Dee was corresponding with Gerardus Mercator regarding the Polar magnetic mountain, Queen Elizabeth's personal physician and knighted President of the College of Physicians, "Sir" William Gilbert, wrote his Opus "De Magnete," in which he argued against the prevailing belief of a polar magnetic mountain, claiming instead the Earth itself to be a great magnet. Coming in the wake of the Copernican revolution, Gilbert's new model in stark contrast to the long-held, now deemed "unscientific" notion that compass needles were attracted to a loadstone mountain at the Pole, proposed that the Copernican ball-Earth actually generated magnetism from a hypothetical molten metal core, which caused a constantly moving di-polar magnetic field over the globe.
To this day Gilbert's hypothesis remains pure speculation since no one in history has ever come close to penetrating or perceiving the supposed 3950 miles to the ball-Earth's core. In reality the deepest drilling operation in history, the Russian Kola Ultradeep, after decades of work and dozens of broken drills managed to penetrate only 8 miles down, so the entire ball-Earth model taught in schools showing detailed descriptions of a crust, outer-mantle, inner-mantle, outer-core and inner-core layers are all purely speculative as we have never even broken through beyond the crust. Furthermore, there is nowhere in nature that molten metal retains any significant magnetic properties once heated past the "Curie Point," let alone create some convoluted constantly moving di-polar field as Gilbert claimed then and proponents of the globe still maintain today.
Several decades after Gilbert's De Magnete made its impression on the world, another knighted president of the Royal Society, "Sir" Isaac Newton, would write the influential "Principia Mathematica," where he proposed the concept of "gravity" to account (among other things) for how people could exist without falling off the under-side of Copernicus' ball-Earth. Coincidentally (or perhaps conspiratorially) a couple centuries later, it would be yet another royally knighted man, "Sir" Ernest Shackleton of the Royal Navy, who would allegedly complete that upside-down journey under the globe becoming the first person to reach the so-called "Southern Magnetic Pole."
Back when the Earth was perceived as a level plane, there was only one Pole, the North Pole, directly below Polaris, which was both geographically and magnetically the center-point of Earth. Due to the hypothetical globe's hypothetical di-polar magnetic core, however, there suddenly became new frontiers to discover. Not only did Earth have a geographic North Pole in the Arctic, but now its geographic antipode, the South Pole in the Antarctic. Since Gilbert's magnetic poles were caused by perpetually shifting molten metal, there now also came into existence, constantly moving Northern and Southern Magnetic Poles as well. And lastly, Earth's magnetic field was claimed asymmetrical, so that the constantly moving North/South magnetic poles were not even antipodal, meaning a straight line drawn from one to the other failed to pass through the geometric center of their globe. To account for this, two more theoretical poles known as the Geomagnetic North and Geomagnetic South Poles were also added into the convoluted mix.
With this, after centuries of failed expeditions to the Pole, the first decade of the 20th century would suddenly claim the discoveries of the Northern Magnetic Pole, the Southern Magnetic Pole, and shortly thereafter, both the Geographic and Geomagnetic North/South poles as well. This turn of the century rush to the Poles was not without its problems, however, and many explorer's supposed polar achievements during this era are now regarded even by mainstream historians as being riddled with fraud and falsehoods.
Before the alleged 20th century successes, many attempts were made to reach the North Pole during the 19th century all of which failed. In 1827 knighted British Royal Navy Rear-Admiral "Sir" William Parry reached a record 82°45′N latitude before being forced to turn back due to impassable thick ice. In 1845 another knighted British Royal Navy Officer "Sir" John Franklin and his ill-fated two-ship, 129-man crew all died during their attempt at the Pole, after becoming stuck in the ice and everyone subsequently succumbing to starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning, zinc deficiency, and/or scurvy. In 1875 yet another knighted British Royal Navy Officer, in fact, the Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Bath, Admiral "Sir" Albert Markham made an attempt at the Pole, reaching a new record 83°20′N latitude before turning back due to rampant scurvy and lack of equipment. In 1895 Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen made a record breaking 86°14′N attempt before turning back because of lack of food and supplies. Then in 1899 Duke of the Abruzzi, member of the Royal House of Savoy, and Italian Navy Admiral Prince Luigi Amedeo set another record just barely beating out the Norwegians reaching 86°34′N latitude before becoming stuck in the ice and losing two fingers to frostbite.
Finally on September 1st, 1909, Arctic explorer Frederick Cook became the first person in modern times to claim attainment of the North Pole when he cabled from the Shetland Islands after a 15-month trek back, alleging to have reached the Pole on April 21st, 1908. That day the Evening Mail headlined: "Dr. Cook Reaches North Pole," and the next day The New York Herald headlined "The North Pole is Discovered by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, Who Cables to the Herald an Exclusive Account of How He Set the American Flag on the World's Top." The news sent America and the rest of the world into a frenzy of media-fueled excitement hailing Cook as a hero.
Meanwhile, another Arctic explorer, U.S Navy Admiral Robert Peary happened to be at that very moment traveling home from his own polar expedition. Just five days after Cook's cable, on September 6th, 1909, Peary cabled from Labrador that he too had recently "Nailed the American Flag to the Pole," on April 6th, 1909, a year after Cook's claim. When informed of Cook's news, Peary cabled that Cook's claim "should not be taken seriously," as he just stood atop the Pole and found no trace of Cook or anyone else having been there. On September 7th, The New York Herald headlined, "Robert E. Peary, After 23 Year Siege, Reaches North Pole," but to Peary's utter disappointment his claim to be first to the Pole was not widely accepted. Peary immediately sprang into action obtaining and cabling confessions from Cook's Eskimo guides making the Evening Telegram headline for September 8th, 1909, "Peary Quotes Eskimos as Saying Cook was Not Out of Sight of Land," and with this began a heated rivalry between two former friends and Arctic travel companions that would eventually end with both men and their polar attainment claims being completely discredited.
“The claimed attainment of the North Pole generated enormous controversy and acrimony. Both Cook and Peary boasted that they were the first to reach the pole. Cook’s North Polar Expedition, which dates from July 3, 1907 to September 21, 1909 began from Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was sponsored by John Bradley. Cook visited Etah in northwest Greenland and then proceeded north to Anoritoq. Here he became convinced that he could reach the North Pole. Subsequently he returned to Etah in order to prepare for the journey, and solicited assistance from Inuit. They advanced again to Anoritoq, and on February 19, 1908 set out for the North Pole. Cook’s route took him and his men via Smith Sound to Cape Sabine, to Flagler Bay, and then across Ellesmere Island to Bay Fiord. From there they proceeded to Eureka Sound, and established a camp at Cape Stallworthy, located at the northern extremity of Axel Heiberg Island where most of his party remained. Cook himself set out for the Pole with two Inuit, Ahwelah and Etukishook, two sledges and twenty-six dogs. He insisted that he reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. Peary’s polar venture occurred between July 6, 1908 and September 21, 1909. It was sponsored by the Peary Arctic Club, and the party strived to reach the North Pole from Ellesmere Island. Peary’s ships, the Roosevelt and Erik, collected 22 Inuit men and 17 Inuit women in addition to 246 dogs in northwest Greenland. Winter quarters were at Cape Sheridan in northeast Ellesmere Island. After arriving there on September 5, 1908, Peary transferred stores to Cape Columbia, located on the north of the island, and the selected place from which the assault on the Pole was to be made. Peary’s polar advance commenced in February, 1909. Support parties led by Bartlett, Borup, Marvin, Macmillan and Godsell had the task of carrying provisions, establishing a trail, and providing igloos for Peary and Henson who were to lead the assault on the Pole. The support parties turned back. The last to do so was led by Bartlett who retreated on April 1, 1909 from latitude 87.47N. Peary, Henson and four Inuit continued their approach to the Pole, which they claimed to reach on April 6, 1909. A Cook/Peary controversy resulted. On September 2, 1909 Cook published his claim to have reached the Pole. Peary’s rival claim was submitted four days subsequently.” -Paul Simpson-Housley, “The Arctic, Enigmas and Myths” (120-1)
So after centuries of unsuccessful ill-fated attempts at the Pole, within the space of just 4 days, two American explorers claimed to be the first successes. Cook's journal description of his heroic arrival at the Pole reads more like a piece of poetic fiction than an actual experience, however, which has raised questions from skeptics. He wrote, “Constantly and carefully I watched my instruments in recording this final reach. Nearer and nearer they recorded our approach. Step by step my heart filled with a strange rapture of conquest. At last we step over colored fields of sparkle, climbing walls of purple and gold - finally, under skies of crystal blue, with flaming clouds, we touch the mark. The soul awakens to a definite triumph; there is sunrise within us, and all the world of night-darkened trouble fades. We are at the top of the world. The flag is flung to the frigid breezes of the North Pole. The first realization of actual victory, of reaching my lifetime’s goal, set my heart throbbing violently and my brain aglow. I felt the glory which the prophet feels in his vision, with which the poet thrills in his dream. I saw silver and crystal palaces, such as were never built by man, with turrets flaunting ‘pinions glorious, golden.’ The shifting mirages seemed like the ghosts of dead armies, magnified and transfigured, huge and spectral, moving along the horizon and bearing the wind-tossed phantoms of golden blood-stained banners. I was at a spot which was as near as possible, by usual methods of determination, five hundred and twenty miles from Svartevoeg, a spot toward which men hand striven for more than three centuries - a spot known as the North Pole, and where I stood first of white men.”
Peary's journal description of his arrival at the pole sounded more down to Earth and believable, but doubt would soon be cast on his claims as well. He wrote, “The Pole at last. The prize of three centuries. My dream and goal for twenty years. Mine at last. I cannot bring myself to realize it. It seems all so simple and commonplace. While we travelled, the sky cleared, and at the end of the journey, I was able to get a satisfactory series of observations at Columbia meridian midnight. These observations indicated that our position was then beyond the Pole … in a march of only a few hours, I had passed from the Western to the Eastern Hemisphere and had verified my position at the summit of the world. It was hard to realize that, on the first miles of this brief march, we had been travelling due North, while, on the last few miles of the same march, we had been travelling South, although we had all the time been travelling precisely in the same direction. In travelling the ice in these various directions, as I had done, I had allowed approximately ten miles for possible errors in my observations, and at some moment during these marches and countermarches, I had passed over or very near the point where the North and South and East and West blend into one.”
Thus, starting in September 1909 a huge public debate fueled by the newspapers raged over who was truly first to the North Pole with The New York Times showing unwavering support for Peary and The New York Herald doing the same for Cook. The demand of proof in the form of navigational records was issued and subsequently avoided by both sides. Cook never produced any detailed original navigation records to substantiate his polar claim, and on December 21, 1909, after examining what little evidence Cook did submit, a commission at the University of Copenhagen ruled there was no proof he had reached the Pole. Cook's Inuit guides would also testify in hand-written documents that during their final push for the Pole, they actually traveled South, not North, and never once did they travel out of sight of land! Meanwhile Peary outright refused to submit his records for the Copenhagen commission forcing them to also conclude a lack of proof for his claim.
Cook later alleged to have kept copies of his sextant navigation data and in 1911 published some, only to be exposed as having an incorrect solar diameter during his calculations. The National Geographic Society held Peary's papers for decades, refusing researchers any access to them, and when finally independently examined, were also shown to be lacking. The released documentation listed only three solar observations without giving the date, no mention of which limb of the Sun Peary observed, and claimed the star Betelgeux present when it could not have been detected by a sextant during that time of year. Peary never produced records of compass readings, observed data for steering, for his longitudinal position at any time, and for the final stage in his expedition never took latitudinal or transversal readings, and had no accompanying colleagues trained in navigation who could confirm or deny his work.
Even though Cook's own navigational data was found to be flawed, he would still publicly criticize Peary's alleged sextant readings stating, “Mr. Peary’s polar claim rests upon the impossible observations of a sun at an altitude of less than 7 degrees above the horizon. The three armchair geographers, seldom out of reach of dusty book-shelves, passed upon these worthless observations. Not one out of one hundred thousand honest sextant experts would credit such an observation as that upon which Mr. Peary’s case rests - not even in home regions, where for centuries tables for corrections had been gathered.”
Not only were Cook and Peary's testimonies dubious and navigational records unsatisfactory, but the speeds claimed on their final pushes to the Pole were also incredulous. Cook recorded on the fourth and fifth days before his support party left, that even with full sledge loads, he was able to traverse 29 and 22 miles respectively those days, around double their usual distance covered, yet his Inuit guide Etukishook claimed that they remained in the same place for two nights. Polar researcher and author Randall Osczevski in his book "Frederick Cook and the Forgotten Pole," wrote that, "Cook had needed to invent additional mileage to make up the distance he said he had covered in reaching the Pole, and to bring him back to land on a reasonable date. Some of this padding is found in distances claimed for days when they did not travel, but some could have been created by simply changing the units. Since his mileage figures came from a pedometer, it is likely that he originally recorded these figures as statute miles. Pretending that they had really been nautical miles would add 15% to the distance."
Peary's supposed speeds during his final push to the Pole were even less believable than Cook's, allegedly averaging up to an implausible 71 miles per day. His last five marches while accompanied by experienced navigator Captain Bob Bartlett averaged no more than 13 miles per day. Once his last supporting party turned back and Captain Bartlett was ordered southward, Peary's alleged speeds immediately doubled for the next five marches. Then Peary claimed during the final eight days that his speed quadrupled from a base camp to the Pole and back, covering 296 miles, 198 of them in just 4 days, giving an average of 49 miles a day. This figure, however, is before factoring many more miles of admitted detours due to navigation errors, drift, avoiding pressure ridges and open water leads, which critics claim bring the figure closer to 71. No other explorer before or since has ever claimed such ridiculous speeds. Polar researcher and author Paul Simpson-Housley wrote in his "The Arctic Enigmas and Myths," that, "those records fail to confirm that Peary reached his goal, and such observations could certainly have been faked. Peary fails to provide a detailed account in his diary. Moreover, he should have presented a well-kept log of his final approach that included checks on compass variation and on his latitude and longitude made by providing altitudes of the sun, planets and stars at various locations. Polar pack-ice is difficult terrain to traverse. The ice-drift deviates from wind direction to the right by 28 degrees to 30 degrees in the northern hemisphere at a speed of 1/50 of the wind forcing it. Peary provided no wind speeds in either his diary or published reports. It is highly likely that he would be propelled to the left of his 70 degree meridian. His desire to reach the Pole was certainly in excess of his intent to produce records. In addition, Peary’s chronometer displayed an error of ten minutes and this would have influenced his heading."
More doubt would eventually be cast on both Cook and Peary through public scrutiny. In 1906 Cook had previously claimed himself the first man to reach the summit of the tallest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley, only to be dethroned upon further investigation. It turned out the picture Cook provided as proof of his summit attainment was actually taken on a small outcrop on a ridge beside the Ruth Glacier, 19 miles away, and at only 5,338 feet high, nearly 15,000 feet lower than McKinley's true peak! Cook's sole companion during the 1906 climb, Ed Barrill, would also later sign an affidavit admitting that they had not reached the summit, including a map showing the location of what would become known as "Fake Peak," where Cook's picture was actually taken. Belmore Browne, an experienced mountaineer who assisted Cook in the weeks before his alleged summit achievement, claimed McKinley too expansive and treacherous to have allowed Cook such quick access in the time frame given. He would later call Cook untrustworthy, and state for the record that he, "knew that Dr. Cook had not climbed Mount McKinley the same way a New Yorker would know that no man could walk from the Brooklyn Bridge to Grant's tomb in ten minutes." Decades later Cook would also be indicted and eventually charged and found guilty of 14 counts of fraud for startup oil companies he promoted and was sentenced to 14 years, 9 months in prison.
As for Peary, his obsession with the Pole caused him in the first 23 years of his marriage to spend only 3 with his wife and family, missing the birth and tragic death of his son. While in the Arctic, Peary cheated on his wife with a 14 year-old Inuit girl named Aleqasina who would eventually bear him two children named Kaala and Karree. During Peary's 7 long Arctic expeditions made between 1886 and 1909, a black man named Matthew Henson was technically more responsible for their successes than Peary himself. Henson took care of the other men, dogs and supplies, spoke the Inuit language, pulled and fixed the sledges, and Henson even drag Peary himself around during their final expedition since Peary had lost 8 toes to frostbite on their previous journey and could barely walk. Even still, Peary had secretly planned to leave Henson and the Inuit guides behind for the final stint so that he could claim the Pole solely for himself. His plan never came to fruition, however, and upon realizing he would have to share the fame, Peary immediately stopped speaking to Henson, the man who had engineered his success, saved his life on a previous expedition, and remained unwaveringly loyal to him for over two decades. As Peary had once written in a letter to his mother, "I must be the peer or superior of those about me to be comfortable." Historian Fergus Fleming called Peary, "the most unpleasant man in the annals of polar exploration," and polar researcher and author Beau Riffenburgh wrote that, "He was perhaps the most self-serving, paranoid, arrogant, and mean-spirited of all nineteenth-century explorers. He was suspicious of and hateful to those he considered rivals either in actual geographical discovery or as heroic figures. He was condescending and insensitive to his subordinates, and he was ingratiating and servile to those he felt could help his quest for personal glory."
Another man preparing for a North Pole expedition in 1909 was accomplished Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Upon hearing word of Cook and Peary's alleged successes, however, Amundsen decided to turn his attention towards the Antarctic and the South Pole instead. Unsure his patrons and crew would accept this change in plans, for the next two years Amundsen lied to everyone about his true destination, telling even his entire crew that they were traveling North to the Arctic Pole right up until their ship "The Fram" was departing from their final port of call, Madeira, when he let everyone know they would actually be going to the Antarctic in search of the South Pole. After some initial insubordination ultimately everyone went ahead with his drastic change of plans. Upon reaching Antarctica, Amundsen brought 5 men and 52 dogs with him for the final push to the Pole, and instead of bringing enough food along for everyone, Amundsen had his team kill and eat over half of the dogs used to carry them there. On December 14th, 1911 they would allegedly reach the Geographic South Pole to be confirmed by Robert Falcon Scott of the British Royal Navy who just happened to be in the Antarctic about to launch his own polar expedition. Just one month after Amundsen's alleged attainment of the South Pole, Scott's team already en route would arrive and confirm Amundsen's claim.
The problem with Amundsen, Scott, and all subsequent South Polar claims, however, is the following: On the globe-Earth model, the Geographic South Pole is located at 90 degrees South latitude where all 360 degrees of longitude converge to one hypothetical point in the middle of an Antarctic continent. In reality though, the Antarctic is not a continent, but an encircling icy perimeter of unknown length, and on our planar Earth, lines of longitude only converge upon the North Pole center-point and project out straight southwards from there. One degree of latitude is approximately 68 miles and the Antarctic ice begins around 70 degrees South latitude (depending on access point), therefore no matter what meridian of longitude followed, after traveling South across the ice significantly far enough to the 90 degree mark (several hundred miles), the "Pole" has been achieved. In other words, the so-called "Geographic South Pole" is just an arbitrary point in the Antarctic, along any line of longitude, significantly far enough south, where all lines of longitude on the globe converge and become 0 degrees. For ease of transportation, supplies and navigation, all South Pole explorers just retrace their paths back to their boats, though if Earth was truly shaped like a ball, conceivably they should be able to simply continue a straight line path and come out the other side of Antarctica. No explorer on foot or by air has ever done such a South-North circumnavigation however because it is impossible, as the Earth is not a globe.
For posterity Roald Amundsen would be credited not only with being first to the Geographic South Pole, but also first to winter in the Antarctic, and then subsequent expeditions to the Arctic would claim for him titles of first through the Northwest Passage, first to cross and first to circumnavigate the Arctic Ocean, first to the Ice Pole (the Arctic Ocean point farthest from land-masses), and after widespread distrust and dispute of Cook/Peary's claims, a 1926 expedition would see Amundsen reclaim being first to the Geographic North Pole as well!
Reminiscent of the 1909 Cook/Peary controversy, however, a similar media-fueled heated debate raged in 1926 as U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd allegedly reached the Pole by plane just 3 days before Roald Amundsen did by dirigible! Both Byrd and Amundsen were aware of each other's concurrent expeditions, and due to recent advances in aviation technology, both decided to reach the Pole via air rather than land/sea as previous explorers attempted. Similar to Scott's follow-up confirmation of Amundsen's South Pole claim, the plan was for Admiral Byrd to fly over first and dump a load of hundreds of large American flags directly at the Pole, which Amundsen would then find and confirm a few days later during his own polar flight.
So on May 9th, 1926 Byrd and his co-pilot departed in their Fokker tri-motor airplane, "The Josephine Ford," from the Norwegian island Spitzbergen and attempted to fly over the Pole. Just 15 hours and 57 minutes later, including an alleged 13 minutes of circling the Pole, Byrd landed back at Spitzbergen claiming to have reached the Pole and traveled a distance of 1,535 miles. Upon return to the United States, Byrd became a national hero, promoted to the rank of Commander, and was awarded a Presidential Medal of Honor at the White House. Roald Amundsen's airship "the Norge," allegedly floated over the Pole 3 days later on May 12th, but was unable to confirm Byrd's attainment, because Byrd never ended up dropping his cargo of U.S. flags over the Pole, nor provide a public explanation of why.
At first Byrd's polar claim was widely accepted and Amundsen reduced to second-fiddle, but after new evidence came to light, and further investigations made clear, Byrd never dropped the flags because he never actually reached the Pole. The first public skepticism of Byrd began a year after his death in 1958 when Byrd's colleague, personal pilot during his South Pole flight, and helper in Spitzbergen for the North Pole flight, Bernt Balchen, published his book "Come North With Me," which questioned the feasibility of Byrd's 1926 polar claim.
Essentially, Byrd's sextant-locked 61 knot mean-speed for the first 6 1/4 hours of the flight, per his own records in a recorded 7:07 GCT sextant shot, required that to reach the Pole at the reported time he would need to have suddenly after taking the reading jumped his average speed over double from 61 to an implausible 148 knots in order to cover the final 284 miles in the alleged time allotted. In addition, once supposedly reaching the Pole and circling around it for 13 minutes, his written calculations contradictorily still claimed constant 85mph straight-line speed northward. Apologists and defenders of Byrd dismissed Balchen's objections insisting prevailing winds may have helped him along, until in 1960 Gosta Liljquist, Professor of Meteorology at University of Uppsala, examined the meteorological records and concluded there were absolutely no polar winds strong enough on May 9th, 1926 to propel Byrd so swiftly to his destination.
Another exposure of Byrd's hoax surfaced in 1971 with Richard Montague's book "Oceans, Poles, and Airmen," in which he interviewed Bernt Balchen, who claimed that Floyd Bennet, Byrd's North Pole co-pilot had confessed to him before his death that the Josephine Ford had actually developed an oil leak early in the flight, lost a motor several hundred miles from the Pole, and subsequently turned back circling out of sight of land without making an effort to reach the Pole.
The final nail in Byrd's coffin came with the 1996 release of his personal diary and papers recording the May 9th, 1926 flight. His official sextant reading typewritten in his June 22nd report to the National Geographic Society taken at 7:07:10 GCT claimed a solar altitude of 18°18'18". In his diary however, an erased but still legible recording shows his apparent observed solar altitude at 7:07:10 to have been 19°25'30". Not only this, but a scrap piece of paper found in Byrd's diary, also in his hand-writing, shows a third scribbled solar altitude for 7:07:10 as being 18°19'18". This intermediate scrap paper calculation between the diary recording and official typewritten report shows evidence of gradual doctoring of the raw data in an effort to fudge a believable figure. In addition, Byrd's official recorded sextant data was overly precise far beyond the capabilities of his or any other sextant available at the time. Dead-reckoning latitudes were recorded with 1000 times better precision than physically possible, again pointing towards an attempt to over-compensate the perceived accuracy of his inaccurate fudged data.
To summarize, Byrd's 1926 primary record includes several mysterious erasures, back and forth diary entries, confirmed fabrications and contradictions including two takeoff times, three Pole-arrival times and 7:07 sextant altitudes, and four different speeds! In documents including his diary from the time we see intermediary steps of his forging calculations for the most believable and accurate times, air speeds, distances, and solar altitudes. He never dropped the cargo of U.S. flags as intended and could not have attained the Pole at the speeds recorded.
"In brief: Byrd's diary and his typescript describe two quite different trips. Indeed, there are actually FOUR distinct trips, because the diary has three separate and contradictory sections: the sextant-observations are for a 70mph celestially-navigated trip; the radioed distances are for an 80mph dr trip; while the last-minute dr data are for an 85mph trip. But the later neat typescript claims that the mean northward speed was over 90mph. The typescript trip does not agree with ANY of the three disparate diary trips. If you are caught keeping two sets of fiscal books, you go to jail. Not even the wildest defense lawyer would try alibiing the accused by treating the differences between the two documents as exculpatory or mysterious when the whole point of the indictment IS the discrepancies. Question: did any other explorer in history leave us manuscript astronomical observations for position which grossly to his disadvantage invariably differed from his published observations?" -Dennis Rawlins, "Amundsen: Cheated and Uncheated"
Since Cook, Peary and Byrd's North Pole claims have all been found fraudulent, it is now generally accepted that Roald Amundsen's dirigible flight of May 12th, 1926 did cross the Pole, and he is credited with being the first explorer to both the South and North Poles. Even Wikipedia states that, "three prior expeditions led by Frederick Cook (1908, land), Robert Peary (1909, land) and Richard E. Byrd (1926, aerial) – were once also accepted as having reached the Pole. However, in each case later analysis of expedition data has cast doubt upon the accuracy of their claims." This is also Irish journalist Anthony Galvin's conclusion in his book, “The Great Polar Fraud: Cook, Peary and Byrd - How Three American Heroes Duped the World into Thinking They Had Reached the North Pole.”
Ever since Amundsen's dirigible "the Norge" allegedly successfully floated over the Pole, many more explorers have also continued the legacy. Norge designer and pilot Umberto Nobile along with several scientists and crew allegedly crossed the Pole a second time on May 24th, 1928 in the airship "Italia," which crashed before returning killing half the people onboard. In May 1937 the Soviet government established the world's first North Pole ice station allegedly just 13 miles from the Pole. Interestingly enough, this station was found by ice-breakers just 9 months later off the Eastern coast of Greenland, over 1700 miles away! This was explained as being caused by swift "ice drifts," which radically displaced them. In May 1945 David Cecil McKinley of the Royal Air Force claimed to flyover both the Geographic and North Magnetic Poles. The Soviet "Sever 2" expedition in May 1948 claimed to set foot on the Pole, and in May 1949 Soviets Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev claimed being first to parachute to the Pole. In May 1952 U.S. Air Force Lieutenants Joseph Fletcher and William Benedict claimed the first aerial landing at the Pole. The U.S. Navy submarine U.S.S. Nautilus allegedly crossed the Pole in August 1958, and in March 1959 the U.S.S. Skate claimed first to surface at the Pole, breaking through the ice above it. An April 1969 British Trans-Arctic expedition claimed first to reach the North Pole by foot, August 1977 the Soviet icebreaker Arktika claimed first surface ship to reach the Pole, and on the list of alleged polar firsts continue from first by dogsled to first by motorcycle! In 1985, for a particularly interesting media-hyped "first," Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to stand on the summit of Mount Everest, and Neil Armstrong, the alleged first man to stand on the Moon, claimed to land a small twin-engine ski plane and stand together at the North Pole.
As is abundantly clear to anyone who has objectively studied the NASA Apollo missions, Freemason Neil Armstrong most certainly did NOT land on the Moon, so it is fair and wise to be skeptical of whether he and his royally knighted colleague "Sir" Edmund Hillary actually stood foot on the Geographic Pole as well. As for the Magnetic Poles, the North was allegedly discovered by James Clark Ross in 1831 at the Boothia Peninsula, named after his father's patron "Sir" Felix Booth. This peninsula located at 70 degrees North latitude, however, strangely placed the Magnetic Pole well over a thousand miles from the Geographic Pole. Roald Amundsen during his 1903 Arctic expedition was also credited with discovering a new position of the Magnetic North Pole just 30 miles north from where Ross claimed. It was later in 1947 allegedly found again by Canadian government scientists Paul Serson and Jack Clark, of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, who claimed the Pole had moved near Prince of Wales Island at 72 degrees North latitude. Since then the North Magnetic Pole has continued to be "discovered" time and again at random places in the Arctic following no discernable pattern. Likewise the South Magnetic Pole was first allegedly discovered by "Sir" Ernest Shackleton during his 1909 expedition, and has ever since been found randomly moving all over the Antarctic.
The idea of constantly randomly moving Magnetic Poles divorced from their Geographic counter-parts makes it conveniently impossible to independently confirm or deny polar claims by compass. In other words, since the invention of the video camera, any claim to have found the North or South Magnetic Pole, can and should be easily proven. By holding a compass and walking in a circle around the North Pole, the compass should always point directly towards it, and by walking in a circle around the South Pole, the compass should always point 180 degrees away in the opposite direction. To this day, however, no such simple experiment has been performed to prove to the public that these are truly magnetic poles at all.
Similarly, there are no videos from the Geographic Poles that provide the public with any concrete evidence that they are anywhere but some indistinct undisclosed snowy tundra. North Pole documentaries always show some man with an icicle mustache and a Garmin counting up their GPS latitude until reaching 90 degrees. There are never stellar readings made showing Polaris exactly 90 degrees above. There is no footage of the 6 months of constant day and 6 months of constant night supposed to exist at the Pole. GPS, the "Global" Positioning System, is based on a non-existent "globe" and created by the U.S. Military, so why should we trust that a GPS 90 degree north reading is truly the North Pole?
Why are the annals of Polar exploration so abundant with frauds and hoaxes? Why should we accept all these more recent Polar claims as being legitimate when the original discoveries and discoverers continue being exposed as false and liars? Why is there such an inordinate number of royal knights and Freemasons involved in Polar exploration? Admiral Byrd himself was a high-ranking Freemason from Federal Lodge No. 1 in Washington D.C. and financed by none other than fellow 33rd degree Freemason and Illuminati bloodline elite John D. Rockefeller. Roald Amundsen even had Masonic lodge No. 6-48 in Sacramento, California named after him.
If these explorers truly reached the North Pole, then where is the magnetic mountain, encircling whirlpool, four directional rivers, and surrounding inhabited islands mentioned by Adam of Bremen, Paul the Deacon, Gerald of Wales, Guido Guinizelli, Nicholas de Lynn, Jacobus Cnoyen, Gerard Mercator, John Dee, the Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Shinto, Taoists, Jews, Christians, Muslims, the Norse, the Egyptians, the Persians and literally every single ancient culture on Earth? Are these all to be discounted as completely false stories with no factual impetus? And if the polar magnetic mountain truly is just fanciful mythology and non-sense, how do we account for this same ("false") concept originating and flourishing independently in nearly every ancient culture worldwide?
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