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The Kariong Hieroglyphs

         

In the bush above Woy Woy lies a mysterious set of Egyptian carvings , no one knows who did them or for what purpose or even when they were done. The carvings are rumored to have existed since the early 1920's and first documented in 1975.
Because sandstone is impossible to carbon date ( although recent test were done and they were estimated to be less than 100 years old ) all we can go by is stories from various sources.
The authors of this work are thought to be two old diggers returned from World War 1 and remembering what they saw in Egypt and copying from text they brought back.
 In the 80's when much attention was made about the site , several authorities and University type people studied the area and declared the carvings as very good fakes.
Also some time in the 80's and old possibly Yugoslavian man was found adding ( finishing ? ) to the carvings by a NPWS officer , stories range from his tools being confiscated to being allowed to finish the work.
Some say that the Egyptians themselves carved these and several websites continue to perpetuate the myth as well as saying several other races and space visitors also had a bit of a carve as well ....
The carvings were deciphered by various institutions and technically were proven forgeries , though on some of these sites they say they were good enough to form complete translations.
Here's one I got from the Pyramids.Co.NZ site which is now closed.

Cry out, invoke the gods, as his boat [of Ra] carries the miraculous one downstream.  He is gone, come into being as the transformed god, the Eagle of the Sun.
Re-u-nef-u [cartouche]
Place in the side door of the tomb the sarcophagus watched over by Ra, the sacred dead official if this mountainous land, to live tens of thousands of years.
Along the road that crosses the land the body travels.  Weep and make offerings and libations at the alter.
For the open mouth, cakes and drink of the best.  For the roadside temple, offerings of linen. 
For the body, one hundred cakes, offerings of love.  At the front of the boundary, at the storehouse of the boundary island.
Journey by water to the entrance by day.  See with left eye, and unfetter the locked wall.
Place cake and wine at each of the stone shrines.  Enter by the side gate the mountain.  On foot enter the holy house of Ra.  The door of Ra of the North Land.  Behold his alter.
The papyrus scroll of Truth. Cut the cord that binds.
Ra weeps for the Red Crown of the North.  In the second month of winter the sacred youth, as written in the scrolls, travelled the heavenly road to the pleasant life.
His Ka travels forth in Truth from the tomb.
Come forth, see, take drink and leave the house of the dead, the door of renewed youth.
Bound to great Ra, from whom none can hide from his left eye.’
 


The thought of Egyptian sailors coming into Brisbane Waters is a fanciful one indeed , look at the location of the carvings in relation to a seaward approach. Our Egyptian friends would have had to sail through the tricky Box Head and negotiate various sand bars to end up in Woy Woy Bay or Koolewong , also they would have sailed past obvious fresh water supplies at Umina , Ettalong and Blackwall , all of these places are much easier accessed from the sea and provide a safe beach landing , as for the location of the carvings , there are much larger habitable caves in the area with better vertical walls for carving , the location simply does not make sense in relation to a shipwrecked crew scenario.
Possibly the carvings were also influenced by a similar themed carving that made the headlines in the 1920's , a miniature sphinx carving done by a returned digger in the Ku Ring Gai National Park in honour of his fallen mates who he served with in Egypt , this caused a minor stir as it was an unofficial tribute and was kind of seen as vandalism by some and an act of mateship by many.
One only has to visit the site the see the extent of the land clearing over 100 years ago and the site is virtually under the Lyre Trig point , a very well trodden and populated area long ago...
I have also heard  reports of carvings in Patonga , Somersby and as far north has Wollombi , Egyptmania was a big in these years and inspired much artwork.

                                 

After a bit of research and a lengthy debate with some dubious characters at the Ancient Lost Treasure Forum who are totally convinced the Egyptians and space martians did the carvings I found a rather easily accessed bit of information that may put and end to this story ( see map above )
A local Parish map from 1910 shows the area where the carvings are located ( in the red area ) as you can see the area was subdivided and extensively surveyed , also Aboriginal carving locations were found and noted on the map in 2 places.
A recent trip to the area also uncovered some more clues , this time I checked out the old farmhouse site near the carvings and noted some things like a well made sandstone wall and noted a set of initials carved into a rock roughly on the boundary of the old lot.
The initials are DG and while checking the old 1910 parish maps I noticed the first land owners surname was Gilford so possibly this was one of the original owners who carved this into the stone to mark the boundary of the property.
This puts a scenario of someone local with the tools in the right timeline doing the work as very feasible indeed , the presence of the sandstone wall also suggest to me that someone with plenty of spare time and who was good with stone also lived on this property.
A modern day legacy is a couple of streets in Kariong named after the original land owners: Follan St and Gilford St , maybe Davey Gilford left us with one more ...........
 

                            


Read more on the subject here:
Ancient Lost Treasures - Gosford Glyphs
Dons Maps - The Gosford Glyphs
The Lost Worlds of Ku Ring Gai - The Sphinx

Download a map to the Site - Here
Woy-Woy.com's Photos - Here
Discuss this in our Forum - Here
 

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