In the Far East, many pagodas and temples blend the square base (the Earth) and the round (often conical) top above (the Skies). Two other instances from the Far East are the holy mantle of the Chinese emperor and the ritual basket of the Polynesians. The royal mantle of the Chinese emperor had a squared rim, which tapered to a circle at the waist. The ritual basket of the Polynesians had, likewise, a square wooden base to which the round upper portion of wickerwork was attached.

In the Great Pyramid indeed a temple of Osiris (his Holy Mountain) and not at all a fancy tomb of vainglorious pharaohs the circle is squared in a most ingenious way. The height of the Great Pyramid is worth precisely the radius of a circle having a circumference equal to the perimeter of the pyramid's base.

That this symbolism is not originally Jewish, nor Egyptian but far older and far more universal, is proved by the fact that it is found just about everywhere. It is found in the Far East, in the pyramidal complexes of Angkor, Burma and Java. Borobudur, for instance, also masterfully marries the round shape of the Celestial stupa at its top with the square, stepped pyramid at the base.

This same idea of "squaring the circle" is also found in certain American pyramids, for instance, in the well-known "Whirling Mountain" sandpainted mandalas of the Navajo Indians of North America. Likewise, the pediment of Greek temples such as that of the Acropolis also had a height equivalent to the radius of a circle having a perimeter equal to the width of its base. We could quote a further dozen of instances where the "squaring of the circle" is ingeniously embodied in the geometry of the temple. But the above examples will have to do for now.

The above analysis discloses a fact of fundamental importance. The Great Pyramid is, itself, a replica of Mt. Meru as a representation of the Holy Mountain of Paradise. This Holy Mountain is located at the center of the world, right at the spot where Atlas or, more exactly, the Serpent Shesha, his Hindu archetype supports up the skies, as a sort of tent above the earth. Hence, the Holy Mountain is indeed Mt. Atlas. More correctly, this mountain is identical with Mt. Meru, the Holy Mountain of Paradise of the Hindus from which all such replicas were originally copied.

The pyramids and, particularly, the Great Pyramid, was called M'R in Egyptian. As the Egyptians never wrote the vowels of the words, very likely the word M'R was indeed pronounced MeRu, precisely the name of the Holy Mountain that was its archetype. Likewise the temples and even the Christian churches and cathedrals built right on top the stake driven into the head of the Naga that represents Shesha also represent the Holy Mountain, that is, Mt. Atlas or Meru. Since this serpent is no other than Atlas, the temple built above the Standing Serpent represents the Holy Mountain of Paradise which, in turn, symbolizes the world being supported by the Titan Atlas. Anyone who takes the trouble to study a little bit closer the Hindu symbolism of the Holy Mountain Meru and that of the world-supporting naga, the Serpent Shesha, will immediately recognize its fundamental identity with the ones pointed out here.

The Great Pyramid had its four faces indented at the middle, so as to form a Cross or a four-sided star as seen from above. These indentations formed a sort of giant troughs theoretically intended to concentrate and drain the rain waters that fell over the Great Pyramid. As it seldom (or never) rains in the region of Egypt (a desert), the real function of these troughs is purely symbolic, and is obviously quite another.

In reality, pyramids represent the shape of Mt. Meru, itself pyramidal and indented at the center of its four faces like the Great Pyramid. These troughs and their waters correspond to the Four Rivers of Hindu Paradise which flow from the top of the Holy Mountain along the four Cardinal Directions. This shape is also the classical one of Eden, as described in the Bible and in works such as these of Flavius Josephus.

The Judeo-Christian Paradise was visibly copied from Indian traditions, which are identical, but are far older than Judaea itself. The same symbolism is found even more explicitly in ancient Mesopotamia, where the so-called "Seal of Shamash" represents the Holy Mountain of Paradise as an indented pyramid seen from above, with the wavy lines of the four rivers descending along troughs indented on the middles of the four faces, as shown in Fig. 1. This figure reproduces a very ancient Sumerian seal, and the motif originally dates from about 3,000 BC or possibly even earlier. The indentations in question transform the pyramids into stars, and indeed allude to the Pole Star rather than the Sun. They are a feature not only of the Egyptian pyramids or their Babylonian counterparts just discussed, but also figure, say, in the Chinese pyramids which we discuss elsewhere.

The Temple of King Solomon is purely legendary. But its idealized architecture is obviously derived from the Phoenician one, as it was built by Hiram, a Phoenician. It can be reconstructed from the fairly accurate biblical descriptions, as well as from archaeological remains of temples such as the ones of Herod, the Great, and the Phoenician temple of Tall Tainat (Syria), dated at about 1,000 BC, the epoch of King Solomon.