WEBVTT 00:00.850 --> 00:09.130 The earliest recorded writings found in known history include the Sumerian Kesh Temple hymn, dated back to 2600 BC, 00:09.930 --> 00:18.670 Egyptian Pyramid texts, dated back to 2400 BC, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, dated to 2100 BC, 00:19.330 --> 00:26.990 and the Indian Rig Veda, first written down in 1500 BC, but orally passed down for generations prior. 00:27.730 --> 00:33.410 All four of these most ancient scriptures feature passages describing their views on cosmology, 00:33.990 --> 00:41.290 and all of them are strikingly similar, detailing a geocentric, motionless, flat earth encircled by a 00:41.290 --> 00:47.250 great ocean covered and enclosed by a heavenly firmament containing the sun, moon, and stars 00:47.250 --> 00:53.670 which all revolve over and around the earth. In the Kesh Temple hymn there's a three-tiered 00:53.670 --> 01:00.650 cosmology with earth at the center, the heavens above, and primordial waters below, known as the Abzu. 01:01.490 --> 01:06.170 Earth is said to be fixed upon the Abzu, with a mythical central temple axis, 01:06.490 --> 01:09.570 quote, reaching up to the great true house in the heavens. 01:10.590 --> 01:20.850 Ancient Egyptian Pyramid texts describe a personified flat earth named Geb separated by the 01:20.850 --> 01:27.110 starry sky goddess, Nut. Their three-tiered cosmology also featured earth at the center, 01:27.610 --> 01:34.030 with heavens above and an underworld below. The sun god Ra travels over the earth with 01:34.030 --> 01:41.130 pyramid text utterance 262 stating, Ra rises in the eastern horizon and sets in the western horizon. 01:42.010 --> 01:47.530 The earth is always depicted as flat, with the sky shown as a curved arch covering and 01:47.530 --> 01:53.330 enclosing the land beneath. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, earth is once again a fixed, 01:53.650 --> 02:00.610 flat, disc-shaped earth surrounded by cosmic waters covered by a solid sky, with the sun, 02:00.730 --> 02:07.790 moon, and stars moving over and above. Tablet One states that Gilgamesh wandered far and wide 02:07.790 --> 02:13.710 to the edge of the world. Tablet Nine speaks of the rising setting and motions of the sun 02:13.710 --> 02:20.710 over the earth. Nowhere in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Egyptian pyramid texts, or Keshe temple hymn, 02:21.110 --> 02:27.570 is there any mention of a heliocentric spinning globe earth floating in an infinite vacuum of space. 02:28.690 --> 02:34.050 The Indian Rig Veda describes earth as a vast and spread out land with four corners, 02:34.570 --> 02:40.830 while another Vedic text claimed to originally be orally transmitted since before 3000 BC, 02:40.830 --> 02:48.970 the Srimad Bhagavatam provides much more detail. This Vedic scripture calls our earth Jumbodweep, 02:49.290 --> 02:56.050 a central island floating on and surrounded by a vast salt ocean. The earth is described as being 02:56.050 --> 03:02.410 round like the leaf of a lotus flower, with our earth island being only one of many other much 03:02.410 --> 03:07.890 larger islands beyond the Antarctic. The larger world is called Bhumandala, 03:07.890 --> 03:12.690 and is compared to the whirl of a lotus flower, which is also flat and circular. 03:13.670 --> 03:20.310 The word mandala itself also means circle, wheel, or disc. Much like Atlantis, 03:20.750 --> 03:25.790 which was claimed to be composed of three concentric rings of land and water, Bhumandala 03:25.790 --> 03:29.990 is said to be composed of seven concentric rings of land and water, 03:30.390 --> 03:35.150 where each circle of land is surrounded by an ocean the same size as the island. 03:35.970 --> 03:40.250 There has been much speculation about what may exist south of the South Pole, 03:40.750 --> 03:44.870 and it's very intriguing that one of the most ancient scriptures known to mankind 03:45.390 --> 03:49.450 suggests the answer may be many unexplored further lands. 03:50.490 --> 03:55.830 The Srimad Bhagavatam describes the first two rings of land and the first ring of water 03:55.830 --> 03:59.050 in a way that corresponds with early world maps. 04:00.170 --> 04:06.770 Kantos 519 states that eight smaller islands surround Jambudweep, and when we look at older 04:06.770 --> 04:13.610 world maps, from before the Antarctic was fully covered in snow and ice, such as the 1587 Urbano 04:13.610 --> 04:19.350 Monte, we can see there are eight distinct lands that constitute the Antarctic Circle. 04:20.110 --> 04:25.070 So when the lands of Antarctica are without ice, they are actually divided into eight 04:25.070 --> 04:32.010 islands, which is just as claimed by the Vedas. At the center of Jambudweep stands Mount Meru, 04:32.230 --> 04:38.410 or Sumeru, the primordial world mountain, which, interestingly enough, also appears in early 04:38.410 --> 04:44.870 cartography from the same time period. Gerard Mercator's 1595 North Pole map, 04:45.330 --> 04:51.230 published just eight years after Urbano Monte's world map, shows a central magnetic Black Rock 04:51.230 --> 04:58.150 mountain it calls Rupus Nigra, which fits descriptions of Mount Meru. The Bhagavatam also 04:58.150 --> 05:05.050 makes mention of Bughola, which means globe or sphere, and has been used by Hindu heliocentrists 05:05.050 --> 05:11.910 to suggest the Vedas claims earth is globular. But Bughola refers to the entire universe, 05:12.490 --> 05:18.930 the cosmic egg, inside which we reside on the central plane of Vumandala and Jambudweep, 05:18.930 --> 05:25.670 not randomly stuck all around the outside of a globe. Additionally, the Vedas give detailed 05:25.670 --> 05:33.030 descriptions of the Navagraha, the nine circulating celestial bodies including the Sun, Moon, Mercury, 05:33.470 --> 05:41.190 Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu, claimed to compose the cosmos, and earth is 05:41.190 --> 05:47.750 not among them. The supposed third rock from the Sun is not one of the Navagraha, and is 05:47.750 --> 05:54.150 clearly seen as the foundation from which they are observed, the flat land under which they all revolve. 05:55.090 --> 05:58.610 The Srimad Bhagavatam 521-3 states, 05:58.610 --> 06:04.850 The most opulent sun, the king of all planets that emanate heat, while passing toward the north, 06:05.290 --> 06:09.550 toward the south, or through the equator, in accordance with the order of the supreme 06:09.550 --> 06:14.430 personality of Godhead, it is said to move slowly, swiftly, or moderately. 06:15.170 --> 06:20.170 According to its movements in rising above, going beneath, or passing through the equator, 06:20.690 --> 06:24.410 and correspondingly, coming in touch with the various signs of the zodiac, 06:24.410 --> 06:31.010 headed by Makara, Capricorn, days and nights are short, long, or equal to one another. 06:32.050 --> 06:38.350 This is a precise description of how the mechanics of the circling Sun operate over a stationary flat 06:38.350 --> 06:44.190 earth. As the Sun moves in its annual journey from solstice to solstice, beginning at the 06:44.190 --> 06:49.850 Tropic of Capricorn, steadily moving toward the equator at the equinox, then continuing to the 06:49.850 --> 06:56.490 Tropic of Cancer, the Sun adjusts its speed accordingly to maintain a 24-hour cycle, regardless 06:56.490 --> 07:03.790 of the current latitude. At winter solstice, the farthest south, it travels fastest. At the equinoxes 07:03.790 --> 07:08.910 in the middle, it travels a moderate speed, and at summer solstice, the farthest north, 07:09.390 --> 07:14.790 it travels slowest, just as the Bhagavatam states, while passing toward the north, toward 07:14.790 --> 07:19.830 the south, or through the equator, it moves slowly, swiftly, or moderately. 07:20.730 --> 07:25.970 Canto's 5, 21, 4, and 5 go into even more precise detail, stating, 07:26.690 --> 07:32.850 when the Sun passes through Mesa, Aries, and Tula, Libra, the durations of day and night are equal. 07:33.650 --> 07:39.230 When it passes through the five signs headed by Vrisaba, Taurus, the duration of the days 07:39.230 --> 07:45.810 increases until Cancer, and then it gradually decreases by half an hour each month, until day 07:45.810 --> 07:51.010 and night again become equal in Libra. When the Sun passes through the five signs, 07:51.430 --> 07:57.590 beginning with Vrisrica, Scorpio, the duration of the days decreases until Capricorn, 07:58.230 --> 08:03.670 and then gradually it increases month after month, until day and night become equal in Aries. 08:04.490 --> 08:10.090 The Bhagavatam also makes some very interesting claims regarding eclipses and the moon's phases. 08:10.970 --> 08:17.330 Vedic cosmology suggests there exists another celestial body tracing similar paths as the 08:17.330 --> 08:24.270 Sun and Moon, which it calls Rahu, the Black Sun, or the Black Moon. Rahu is a translucent dark 08:24.270 --> 08:29.690 body which revolves at a lower altitude than the Sun and Moon, allowing it, from certain 08:29.690 --> 08:35.850 vantage points at certain times, to completely eclipse them. The new Moon every month, when the 08:35.850 --> 08:41.530 Moon completely disappears from view for over 24 hours, along with the waxing and waning phases 08:41.530 --> 08:47.670 where its light appears covered, could also be explained by occlusion of this third dark body. 08:48.770 --> 08:53.810 If Rahu traces a similar path as the Moon, making one path to fully cover the Moon in 08:53.810 --> 08:58.690 two weeks, then progressing further past the Moon for another two weeks, that motion 08:58.690 --> 09:04.770 could create the waxing and waning phases. Likewise, the new Moon and full Moon phases 09:04.770 --> 09:09.850 would be when Rahu completely covers and completely moves away from the Moon respectively. 09:11.030 --> 09:14.810 The exact mechanics and workings of the celestial bodies, unfortunately, 09:15.130 --> 09:19.870 remain beyond the bounds of the physical sciences, as we cannot travel to confirm or 09:19.870 --> 09:24.890 deny our assumptions about them. Just as most cannot freely travel past the Antarctic 09:24.890 --> 09:30.350 to confirm or deny speculations and hearsay about potential extra lands beyond. 09:31.290 --> 09:35.830 But it is certainly interesting and intriguing to note what these most ancient scriptures 09:35.830 --> 09:42.410 had to say about the shape and structure of the Earth and the universe. Ancient Sumeria, Mesopotamia, 09:42.730 --> 09:46.850 Egypt, and India, along with literally every other ancient culture, 09:47.250 --> 09:52.350 had a similar cosmology, featuring a geocentric, motionless Earth plane.