The earliest recorded writings found in known history include the Sumerian Kesh Temple hymn, dated back to 2600 BC,
Egyptian Pyramid texts, dated back to 2400 BC, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, dated to 2100 BC,
and the Indian Rig Veda, first written down in 1500 BC, but orally passed down for generations prior.
All four of these most ancient scriptures feature passages describing their views on cosmology,
and all of them are strikingly similar, detailing a geocentric, motionless, flat earth encircled by a
great ocean covered and enclosed by a heavenly firmament containing the sun, moon, and stars
which all revolve over and around the earth. In the Kesh Temple hymn there's a three-tiered
cosmology with earth at the center, the heavens above, and primordial waters below, known as the Abzu.
Earth is said to be fixed upon the Abzu, with a mythical central temple axis,
quote, reaching up to the great true house in the heavens.
Ancient Egyptian Pyramid texts describe a personified flat earth named Geb separated by the
starry sky goddess, Nut. Their three-tiered cosmology also featured earth at the center,
with heavens above and an underworld below. The sun god Ra travels over the earth with
pyramid text utterance 262 stating, Ra rises in the eastern horizon and sets in the western horizon.
The earth is always depicted as flat, with the sky shown as a curved arch covering and
enclosing the land beneath. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, earth is once again a fixed,
flat, disc-shaped earth surrounded by cosmic waters covered by a solid sky, with the sun,
moon, and stars moving over and above. Tablet One states that Gilgamesh wandered far and wide
to the edge of the world. Tablet Nine speaks of the rising setting and motions of the sun
over the earth. Nowhere in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Egyptian pyramid texts, or Keshe temple hymn,
is there any mention of a heliocentric spinning globe earth floating in an infinite vacuum of space.
The Indian Rig Veda describes earth as a vast and spread out land with four corners,
while another Vedic text claimed to originally be orally transmitted since before 3000 BC,
the Srimad Bhagavatam provides much more detail. This Vedic scripture calls our earth Jumbodweep,
a central island floating on and surrounded by a vast salt ocean. The earth is described as being
round like the leaf of a lotus flower, with our earth island being only one of many other much
larger islands beyond the Antarctic. The larger world is called Bhumandala,
and is compared to the whirl of a lotus flower, which is also flat and circular.
The word mandala itself also means circle, wheel, or disc. Much like Atlantis,
which was claimed to be composed of three concentric rings of land and water, Bhumandala
is said to be composed of seven concentric rings of land and water,
where each circle of land is surrounded by an ocean the same size as the island.
There has been much speculation about what may exist south of the South Pole,
and it's very intriguing that one of the most ancient scriptures known to mankind
suggests the answer may be many unexplored further lands.
The Srimad Bhagavatam describes the first two rings of land and the first ring of water
in a way that corresponds with early world maps.
Kantos 519 states that eight smaller islands surround Jambudweep, and when we look at older
world maps, from before the Antarctic was fully covered in snow and ice, such as the 1587 Urbano
Monte, we can see there are eight distinct lands that constitute the Antarctic Circle.
So when the lands of Antarctica are without ice, they are actually divided into eight
islands, which is just as claimed by the Vedas. At the center of Jambudweep stands Mount Meru,
or Sumeru, the primordial world mountain, which, interestingly enough, also appears in early
cartography from the same time period. Gerard Mercator's 1595 North Pole map,
published just eight years after Urbano Monte's world map, shows a central magnetic Black Rock
mountain it calls Rupus Nigra, which fits descriptions of Mount Meru. The Bhagavatam also
makes mention of Bughola, which means globe or sphere, and has been used by Hindu heliocentrists
to suggest the Vedas claims earth is globular. But Bughola refers to the entire universe,
the cosmic egg, inside which we reside on the central plane of Vumandala and Jambudweep,
not randomly stuck all around the outside of a globe. Additionally, the Vedas give detailed
descriptions of the Navagraha, the nine circulating celestial bodies including the Sun, Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu, claimed to compose the cosmos, and earth is
not among them. The supposed third rock from the Sun is not one of the Navagraha, and is
clearly seen as the foundation from which they are observed, the flat land under which they all revolve.
The Srimad Bhagavatam 521-3 states,
The most opulent sun, the king of all planets that emanate heat, while passing toward the north,
toward the south, or through the equator, in accordance with the order of the supreme
personality of Godhead, it is said to move slowly, swiftly, or moderately.
According to its movements in rising above, going beneath, or passing through the equator,
and correspondingly, coming in touch with the various signs of the zodiac,
headed by Makara, Capricorn, days and nights are short, long, or equal to one another.
This is a precise description of how the mechanics of the circling Sun operate over a stationary flat
earth. As the Sun moves in its annual journey from solstice to solstice, beginning at the
Tropic of Capricorn, steadily moving toward the equator at the equinox, then continuing to the
Tropic of Cancer, the Sun adjusts its speed accordingly to maintain a 24-hour cycle, regardless
of the current latitude. At winter solstice, the farthest south, it travels fastest. At the equinoxes
in the middle, it travels a moderate speed, and at summer solstice, the farthest north,
it travels slowest, just as the Bhagavatam states, while passing toward the north, toward
the south, or through the equator, it moves slowly, swiftly, or moderately.
Canto's 5, 21, 4, and 5 go into even more precise detail, stating,
when the Sun passes through Mesa, Aries, and Tula, Libra, the durations of day and night are equal.
When it passes through the five signs headed by Vrisaba, Taurus, the duration of the days
increases until Cancer, and then it gradually decreases by half an hour each month, until day
and night again become equal in Libra. When the Sun passes through the five signs,
beginning with Vrisrica, Scorpio, the duration of the days decreases until Capricorn,
and then gradually it increases month after month, until day and night become equal in Aries.
The Bhagavatam also makes some very interesting claims regarding eclipses and the moon's phases.
Vedic cosmology suggests there exists another celestial body tracing similar paths as the
Sun and Moon, which it calls Rahu, the Black Sun, or the Black Moon. Rahu is a translucent dark
body which revolves at a lower altitude than the Sun and Moon, allowing it, from certain
vantage points at certain times, to completely eclipse them. The new Moon every month, when the
Moon completely disappears from view for over 24 hours, along with the waxing and waning phases
where its light appears covered, could also be explained by occlusion of this third dark body.
If Rahu traces a similar path as the Moon, making one path to fully cover the Moon in
two weeks, then progressing further past the Moon for another two weeks, that motion
could create the waxing and waning phases. Likewise, the new Moon and full Moon phases
would be when Rahu completely covers and completely moves away from the Moon respectively.
The exact mechanics and workings of the celestial bodies, unfortunately,
remain beyond the bounds of the physical sciences, as we cannot travel to confirm or
deny our assumptions about them. Just as most cannot freely travel past the Antarctic
to confirm or deny speculations and hearsay about potential extra lands beyond.
But it is certainly interesting and intriguing to note what these most ancient scriptures
had to say about the shape and structure of the Earth and the universe. Ancient Sumeria, Mesopotamia,
Egypt, and India, along with literally every other ancient culture,
had a similar cosmology, featuring a geocentric, motionless Earth plane.