The Kaaba's ~ 666 Nautical Miles Distance From Jerusalem
Jul 24, 2019 17:59:56 GMT
Post by Admin on Jul 24, 2019 17:59:56 GMT
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Foreword
This is another one of those topics that has supposedly either been " debunked " by a number of people as a meaningless coincidence, or explained in a negative light in a poor attempt to slander the Islamic, Jewish and/or Christian religions. I first stumbled across it randomly mentioned in an online forum years ago, and was dissatisfied by the discussion I followed there, so I began to dig for myself
The claim is such : The sites of the Kaaba in Mecca and the Temple wall in Jerusalem are separated by approximately 666 nautical miles
Now,.... before you get all huffy and puffy, read what I've managed to compile in this thread, and I think you'll find this topic has not been sufficiently vetted using a more academically styled approach
Let me explain why
I would pop into random forums, comment sections and chats online and mention this distance between the two sites, an effort born from my curiosity of how people would react or approach the topic, and I personally was not impressed with the casual handwaving and ease with which this topic was dismissed
To start, I've seen it stated over and over by people " debunking " this, that units of measurement like nautical miles, miles, inches, feet, seconds, meters, etc weren't known in the antiquities, and that there were " no standard measurements back then ", but the only sources they ever have to back up this claim were Wikipedia, never any specific literature in the academic field of metrology, just a " bro, it says right here the meter is..." and a Wikipedia link
But....does that type of response really stand up to scrutiny ?
It's patently false, for example, that there were no standards of measurement " back then " ( as it's often casually referred to as ), the Akkadian king Naram-Sin's standardization of measurements, instituted in 2150 BC, used a length for a pendulum known as a " double-cubit ", which is equivalent to the modern unit of the meter and was the standard in the ancient world for quite some time, 1,500+ years ( We actually still use units of measurement from his 2150 BC standardization of measurements in the modern world, ~ 4,000 years later ). This is not only well-known, but also discussed at great length in numerous articles on my forum here
Worse even, the typical Wikipedia linkslinger misses where it says right at the top of the page, that the meter is " defined as ..." , meaning that the person conflates definition with derivation, which are two entirely different things in mathematics
1. A derivation is a sequence of steps, logical or computational, from one result to another
2. A definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what a mathematical term is and is not
When you're discussing the history of a unit of measurement that anyone with a weight on a string can discover ( A natural unit like the meter ), you have to really at least be familiar enough with terminologies, but even more specific, you have to know enough about scribal disciplines circa 2000 BC so you understand math and metrology were treated as 1 subject ( Unlike today where they are taught as 2 separate subjects )
Even more of a wonky claim is that " modern " units of measurement were not known in the antiquities
They weren't just known, they, along with mathematical constants, were literally considered sacred
They were, after all, natural units of measurement ( Yes, the meter is a natural unit ) that were intimately intertwined with not just the gods they worshipped, ( The Sun and Moon as examples ), by way of building temples for the gods, and laying out cities like Babylon, but the roles, duties and identities of priests, priest-kings and pharaohs
For example, the building of the Egyptian Karnak temple complex required the use of a hemispherical local horizontal coordinate system in order to align the temple such that the sun would shine directly down a corridor into the inner sanctuary on the sunrise of winter solstice, and this in turn also requires the use of ephemerides ( Tables of data from astronomical observations ), and it is this kind of knowledge that remained primarily guarded as priestly literature
Being that the metrological and mathematical knowledge was considered sacred, it was obscured in libraries only accessible to certain priests and priest-kings, this is also rather well-known in academia
Plainly stated for the reader - Mathematical astronomy, mathematics, and measurement ( Metrology ) were considered sacred and thus guarded ( Not just physically, but with peculiarities of writing, which we see manifested as modern encryption )
That's not saying that the disciplines of math and metrology were off-limits " to the commoners ", but it is saying that the average student couldn't just walk into a building and read from a corpus maintained by the descendants of Sîn-lēqi-unninni, and start digging through lunar ephemerides to try and figure out the date of an eclipse
These were things done solely by priests and priest-kings / pharaohs
The point is, is that not once in any forum or chat online did I find any real discussion on this distance between the two religious sites, using the mathematical and metrological conventions of the time period, just mainly smartass remarks, but nobody citing any academics that study math and science history, or attempting anything more than a dilettante flail in the general direction of the subjects
And when it comes down to it, for one person's Wikipedia link that gets shoved in my face telling me the meter originates in modern times, I can shove a different Wikipedia page right back that states something completely different
So not only does this speak of Wikipedia's inconsistencies, but it should draw the curious to dig deeper and into some more rigorous academic sources away from the biases of Wikipedia, and also from this embarrassingly shallow style of edumacations and thinkafying
Personally, I feel we all deserve real answers and not the stumbling block of feeble-minded incredulity typically encountered online these days
I've included them in this thread to provide examples of the type of " debunking " a person wants to actually avoid, but also to show you that the common responses are usually what we call a " Response from incredulity ", ( Considered a fallacy in informal logic )
It asserts that a proposition must be false because it contradicts one's personal expectations or beliefs, or is difficult to imagine
Arguments from incredulity can take the form:
1. I cannot imagine how F could be true; therefore F must be false
2. I cannot imagine how F could be false; therefore F must be true
This type of specious argument is actually used equally by both the " believers " and the " non-believers "
The claim is such : The sites of the Kaaba in Mecca and the Temple wall in Jerusalem are separated by approximately 666 nautical miles
Now,.... before you get all huffy and puffy, read what I've managed to compile in this thread, and I think you'll find this topic has not been sufficiently vetted using a more academically styled approach
Let me explain why
I would pop into random forums, comment sections and chats online and mention this distance between the two sites, an effort born from my curiosity of how people would react or approach the topic, and I personally was not impressed with the casual handwaving and ease with which this topic was dismissed
To start, I've seen it stated over and over by people " debunking " this, that units of measurement like nautical miles, miles, inches, feet, seconds, meters, etc weren't known in the antiquities, and that there were " no standard measurements back then ", but the only sources they ever have to back up this claim were Wikipedia, never any specific literature in the academic field of metrology, just a " bro, it says right here the meter is..." and a Wikipedia link
But....does that type of response really stand up to scrutiny ?
It's patently false, for example, that there were no standards of measurement " back then " ( as it's often casually referred to as ), the Akkadian king Naram-Sin's standardization of measurements, instituted in 2150 BC, used a length for a pendulum known as a " double-cubit ", which is equivalent to the modern unit of the meter and was the standard in the ancient world for quite some time, 1,500+ years ( We actually still use units of measurement from his 2150 BC standardization of measurements in the modern world, ~ 4,000 years later ). This is not only well-known, but also discussed at great length in numerous articles on my forum here
Worse even, the typical Wikipedia linkslinger misses where it says right at the top of the page, that the meter is " defined as ..." , meaning that the person conflates definition with derivation, which are two entirely different things in mathematics
1. A derivation is a sequence of steps, logical or computational, from one result to another
2. A definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what a mathematical term is and is not
When you're discussing the history of a unit of measurement that anyone with a weight on a string can discover ( A natural unit like the meter ), you have to really at least be familiar enough with terminologies, but even more specific, you have to know enough about scribal disciplines circa 2000 BC so you understand math and metrology were treated as 1 subject ( Unlike today where they are taught as 2 separate subjects )
Even more of a wonky claim is that " modern " units of measurement were not known in the antiquities
They weren't just known, they, along with mathematical constants, were literally considered sacred
They were, after all, natural units of measurement ( Yes, the meter is a natural unit ) that were intimately intertwined with not just the gods they worshipped, ( The Sun and Moon as examples ), by way of building temples for the gods, and laying out cities like Babylon, but the roles, duties and identities of priests, priest-kings and pharaohs
For example, the building of the Egyptian Karnak temple complex required the use of a hemispherical local horizontal coordinate system in order to align the temple such that the sun would shine directly down a corridor into the inner sanctuary on the sunrise of winter solstice, and this in turn also requires the use of ephemerides ( Tables of data from astronomical observations ), and it is this kind of knowledge that remained primarily guarded as priestly literature
Being that the metrological and mathematical knowledge was considered sacred, it was obscured in libraries only accessible to certain priests and priest-kings, this is also rather well-known in academia
Plainly stated for the reader - Mathematical astronomy, mathematics, and measurement ( Metrology ) were considered sacred and thus guarded ( Not just physically, but with peculiarities of writing, which we see manifested as modern encryption )
That's not saying that the disciplines of math and metrology were off-limits " to the commoners ", but it is saying that the average student couldn't just walk into a building and read from a corpus maintained by the descendants of Sîn-lēqi-unninni, and start digging through lunar ephemerides to try and figure out the date of an eclipse
These were things done solely by priests and priest-kings / pharaohs
The point is, is that not once in any forum or chat online did I find any real discussion on this distance between the two religious sites, using the mathematical and metrological conventions of the time period, just mainly smartass remarks, but nobody citing any academics that study math and science history, or attempting anything more than a dilettante flail in the general direction of the subjects
And when it comes down to it, for one person's Wikipedia link that gets shoved in my face telling me the meter originates in modern times, I can shove a different Wikipedia page right back that states something completely different
So not only does this speak of Wikipedia's inconsistencies, but it should draw the curious to dig deeper and into some more rigorous academic sources away from the biases of Wikipedia, and also from this embarrassingly shallow style of edumacations and thinkafying
Personally, I feel we all deserve real answers and not the stumbling block of feeble-minded incredulity typically encountered online these days
After I spent a great deal of time scouring the internet for discussions on this exact topic, and seeing that they pretty much all invariably end up at the same point:
" This is bullshit, you're an idiot ", this is usually accompanied by a few silly remarks about " numerology " and " neighbor of the beast 667 " and so on, and then the thread discussion slips into obscurity. At the bottom of this post in the section " Notes ", I've included a few random links you can read to see how people have approached and reacted / discussed this topic on the internet. You'll clearly see what are the usual tired and stale remarks offered by many online, yet among those taking part in the conversations about it, or those reading them, there are always those like myself who walked away from it feeling unsated, feeling there is a logical answer to be had
" This is bullshit, you're an idiot ", this is usually accompanied by a few silly remarks about " numerology " and " neighbor of the beast 667 " and so on, and then the thread discussion slips into obscurity. At the bottom of this post in the section " Notes ", I've included a few random links you can read to see how people have approached and reacted / discussed this topic on the internet. You'll clearly see what are the usual tired and stale remarks offered by many online, yet among those taking part in the conversations about it, or those reading them, there are always those like myself who walked away from it feeling unsated, feeling there is a logical answer to be had
I've included them in this thread to provide examples of the type of " debunking " a person wants to actually avoid, but also to show you that the common responses are usually what we call a " Response from incredulity ", ( Considered a fallacy in informal logic )
It asserts that a proposition must be false because it contradicts one's personal expectations or beliefs, or is difficult to imagine
Arguments from incredulity can take the form:
1. I cannot imagine how F could be true; therefore F must be false
2. I cannot imagine how F could be false; therefore F must be true
This type of specious argument is actually used equally by both the " believers " and the " non-believers "
However, the more time I spent studying math and metrology ( The science of measurement ) in the antiquities, the more I saw the completely dilettante nature of this common style of " debunking " that people do, so this thread will attempt to settle the issue once and for all, using math and an examination of the locations of three well known religious sites- The Kaaba, the Great Pyramid, and Jerusalem, all of which can be shown to be placed in relation to each other using complex math, geodesy and metrology
In other words, the locations of religious sites were determined by the use of math and geometry, specifically the math and geometry used in building and aligning structures like Temples and pyramids, to the movement of the objects in the heavens
Hubal (Arabic: هُبَل) was a god worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia, notably by the Quraysh at the Kaaba in Mecca. The god's idol was a human figure believed to control acts of divination, which was performed by tossing arrows before the statue. The direction in which the arrows pointed answered questions asked of the idol. The specific powers and identity attributed to Hubal are equally unclear
cf arrows in phrasing
Access to the idol was controlled by the Quraysh tribe. The god's devotees fought against followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad during the Battle of Badr in 624 AD. After Muhammad entered Mecca in 630, he destroyed the statue of Hubal from the Kaaba along with the idols of all the other pagan gods.
---------
Conclusion:
If the original single deciding factor in the placement of these two religious sites in relation to each other has an origin in the complex metrology used by Egyptian and Mesopotamians, then it should be able to be conclusively shown simply by dissecting those known systems of measurement and mathematics from the antiquities
=====================
Notes
Quora - Question for Muslims, why is the Kaaba 666 Nautical miles from the temple mount? How to refute Christian claims that it is linked to revelation 13
Elite Trader - Kaaba Stone 666 Nautical Miles from Temple Mount ?
Islam Stack Exchange - What would be the reason for kaaba being 666 nautical miles from al aqsa masjid ?
The other typical responses to this topic usually come from religious extremists and center around claims of " Islam is evil because 666 ", which, if you've managed to read my articles, is a purely nonsensical claim, especially when we consider that not only has the site of the Kaaba has shown to have been used by earlier religions prior to Islam, but also that the use of figurate numbers like 666 predates the advent of Islam by almost 6,000 years, likely dating back to the Sumerian city of Eridu
There's nothing to suggest the distance between these three sites has nothing to do with anything or anybody being " evil " in any way, especially when we consider 666 is written as a nomen sacrum ( Sacred name ) in New Testament manuscripts like P-47, this is well covered and explained in my threads indexed HERE
Prior to Islam throughout the Arabian Peninsula, the Kaaba was a holy site for the various Bedouin tribes of the area. Once every lunar year, the Bedouin tribes would make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Setting aside any tribal feuds, they would worship their gods in the Kaaba and trade with each other in the city. Various sculptures and paintings were held inside the Kaaba. A statue of Hubal (the principal idol of Mecca) and statues of other pagan deities are known to have been placed in or around the Kaaba
Hubal (Arabic: هُبَل) was a god worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia, notably by the Quraysh at the Kaaba in Mecca. The god's idol was a human figure believed to control acts of divination, which was performed by tossing arrows before the statue. The direction in which the arrows pointed answered questions asked of the idol. The specific powers and identity attributed to Hubal are equally unclear
cf arrows in phrasing
Access to the idol was controlled by the Quraysh tribe. The god's devotees fought against followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad during the Battle of Badr in 624 AD. After Muhammad entered Mecca in 630, he destroyed the statue of Hubal from the Kaaba along with the idols of all the other pagan gods.
Ibn Kathir, in his famous exegesis (tafsir) of the Quran, mentions two interpretations among the Muslims on the origin of the Kaaba. One is that the shrine was a place of worship for angels (mala'ikah) before the creation of man. Later, a house of worship was built on the location and was lost during the flood in Noah's time and was finally rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael as mentioned later in the Quran. Ibn Kathir regarded this tradition as weak and preferred instead the narration by Ali ibn Abi Talib that although several other temples might have preceded the Kaaba, it was the first Bayt Allah ("House of God"), dedicated solely to Him, built by His instruction, and sanctified and blessed by Him, as stated in Quran 22:26–29. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the Kaaba was the first masjid on Earth, and the second was the Temple in Jerusalem
There is no generally accepted evidence that the Biblical Abraham ever existed, but what we can say for certain, is that whoever chose the site originally, and whoever built and oriented the original Kaaba to solstice and equinox, was educated in the same exact mathematical astronomy / astrometry / geodesy that would have been central to beliefs in Ur, Babylon during Chaldean rule ( Neo-Babylonian ) and that is precisely when Abraham was said to have been called out of Ur ( According to the Bible )
In turn, the Kaaba's orientation relies on the same body of mathematical knowledge that Egyptians relied on to orientate Karnak Temple to winter solstice sunrise
Orientation to Solstice and Equinox
The major (long) axis of the Kaaba has been observed to align with the rising of the star Canopus toward which its southern wall is directed, while its minor axis (its east–west facades) roughly align with the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of winter solstice
So, instead of a " coincidence ", what we have is an orientation and distance that could not have been decided unless someone was a skilled cartographer ( Mapmaker ) who also was familiar with mathematical astronomy and coordinate systems, which is precisely the things an ancient priest was schooled in
People have overlooked this because they're too busy " debunking " the distance as numerological pareidolia
Now, how far is the exact distance ?
Measuring from the dead center of the Kaaba's stone to the dead center of the dome of the rock is 665.95 Nautical miles, but many people say that might not be where Solomon's temple actually stood (which was considered Gods house here on earth). If you go just a little bit west(264 feet) still in the temple mount area(as the mount is 500 x 450 feet or so) you get 666 nautical miles exactly
After Israel captured the site in 1967, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel announced that entering the Temple Mount was forbidden to Jews, in accordance with a halakhic prohibition against temei ha'met (Impurity by contacting the dead, cemeteries etc.)
Measuring from the dead center of the Kaaba's stone to the dead center of the dome of the rock is 665.95 Nautical miles, but many people say that might not be where Solomon's temple actually stood (which was considered Gods house here on earth). If you go just a little bit west(264 feet) still in the temple mount area(as the mount is 500 x 450 feet or so) you get 666 nautical miles exactly
After Israel captured the site in 1967, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel announced that entering the Temple Mount was forbidden to Jews, in accordance with a halakhic prohibition against temei ha'met (Impurity by contacting the dead, cemeteries etc.)
---------
Conclusion:
If the original single deciding factor in the placement of these two religious sites in relation to each other has an origin in the complex metrology used by Egyptian and Mesopotamians, then it should be able to be conclusively shown simply by dissecting those known systems of measurement and mathematics from the antiquities
=====================
Notes
Quora - Question for Muslims, why is the Kaaba 666 Nautical miles from the temple mount? How to refute Christian claims that it is linked to revelation 13
Elite Trader - Kaaba Stone 666 Nautical Miles from Temple Mount ?
Islam Stack Exchange - What would be the reason for kaaba being 666 nautical miles from al aqsa masjid ?
