UFOs in ancient Egypt? The Mystery of the Tulli Papyrus

The translations of hieroglyphic records from the Tulli Papyrus reveal that one winter morning around the year 1482 B.C., Thutmose III, who reigned Egypt at that time first saw a fiery disks or UFO. They were probably spacecraft from a mother ship. According to Zecharia Sitchin, author of the book The Stairway to Heaven, “Thutmose III was also taken aboard one of the alien spacecraft”, said UFO expert and biblical scholar.

The Tulli Papyrus was found by Alberto Tulli, a director of the Egyptian section of the Vatican museum, during a visit to Cairo in 1933. He found it in an antique shop. However, the price was too high, and a copy was made of the text, which was then recopied, replacing the original hieratic script with hieroglyphic. This is copy of a copy, that has been translated and widely reproduced.

Later in 1950’s an Italian nobleman, Prince Boris de Rachewiltz, claimed to have found the original papyrus, “untranslated and unpublished,” among the papers which had been left by the deceased Tulli. In introducing his find to Doubt magazine in 1953, he described the original fragment as written in hieratic, that the script was faded, and that it had several gaps in the text.

Though the papyrus was damaged and contained several gaps, Prince Boris de Rachewiltz managed to translate it and declared that the papyrus “was part of the Annals of Thutmose III.” Following is a translation of the papyrus:

“In the year 22, of the third month of the winter, sixth hour of the day […], the scribes of the House of Life found that there was a circle of fire coming from the sky. It had no head. From its mouth came a foul odour. Its body was one rod long and one rod wide and it was noiseless.

“And their hearts became terrified and confused, and they fell upon their bellies. They reported to the Pharaoh. His Majesty [ordered that] the scrolls [located] in the House of Life be consulted. His Majesty meditated on all these events which were now going on.

“After few days had gone by, these things became more numerous in the sky than ever. They shined in the sky more than the brightness of the sun, and extended to the four supports of the heaven. Dominated in the sky was the station of these five circles.

The army of the Pharaoh looked on with him in their midst. It was after the evening meal when these five circles ascended higher in the sky towards the south. Fishes and birds fell down from the sky.

“A marvel never before known since the foundation of this land. And Pharaoh caused incense to be brought to make peace with Earth […] and what happened was ordered to be written in the Annals of the House of Life so that it be remembered for ever.”

Questioning the authenticity of the papyrus, Samuel Rosenberg, the researcher of Tulli Papyrus writes a letter to the “Egyptian section of the Vatican Museum seeking more information about both the ‘papyrus’ and the ‘de Rachewiltz translation.’”

The Inspector to Egyptian Vatican Museum, Gianfranco Nolli, sent the following reply:

“Papyrus Tulli not propriety [sic] of Vatican Museum. Now it is dispersed and no more traceable.”

Another inquiry was sent to Dr. Walter Ramberg, Scientific Attaché at the US embassy in Rome, who replied:

“… the current Director of the Egyptian Section of the Vatican Museum, Dr. Nolli, said that Prof. Tulli had left all his belongings to a brother of his who was a priest in the Lateran Palace. Presumably, the famous papyrus went to this priest. Unfortunately, the priest died also in the meantime and his belongings were dispersed among heirs, who may have disposed of the papyrus as something of little value.”

Author Erich von Daniken included the Tulli Papyrus in his speculations of ancient visitations by extraterrestrials. In the 1968 Condon Report, Samuel Rosenberg reported that it was likely that “Tulli was taken in and that the papyrus is probably a forgery, made up by a kind of collage of fragments taken from nine different papyruses.”

Rosenberg cited the Tulli Papyrus as an example of stories circulated among UFO book authors “taken from secondary and tertiary sources without any attempt to verify original sources” and concluded that “all accounts of “UFO-like sightings handed down through the ages” are doubtful – until verified”

But how was it really? The papyrus is lost and one can only guess.