The End of Days

The End of Days, Zecharia Sitchin, William Morrow, 2007

Last in a seven-book series, this gives a very different, and very challenging, view of mankind.

Eons ago, alien beings called the Anunnaki came to Earth to plant man's genetic seed. They came from a planet called Nibiru, which is part of our solar system, but takes 3,000 years to complete one trip around the sun. As a spacefaring race, they built a spaceport and a mission control, in the Tigris/Euphrates river valley, in present-day Iraq. It was destroyed in The Deluge (from the Bible).

The spaceport was rebuilt in the Sinai Desert, with Mission Control in Jerusalem, and the pyramids at Giza used as landing beacons. Remember the Tower of Babel? It was the first major structure built after The Deluge, back in the Tigris/Euphrates valley, and was intended as an alternate launch platform.

There were many disputes and power struggles among the Anunnaki, leading to an attack on the "sinning states" of the West by the East. In approximately 2020 BC, five cities built just south of the Dead Sea, including Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the Sinai spaceport, were destroyed by nuclear weapons. There are a number of ancient Sumerian texts that talk of an "evil wind" that sickened everyone, and that no door or wall could keep out (sounds a lot like nuclear fallout). In historical terms, the Sumerian civilization disappeared overnight; invaders are the usual reason. Here is another explanation.

It would be easy to snicker to at this book if it were just some New Age speculation, and not based on years of archaeological study and actually reading the ancient texts. As a history buff (and a science fiction reader) I loved this book. It is my first exposure to Mr. Sitchin, but it won't be my last.