The Abydos-Hieroglyph does NOT depict a Helicopter

The picture of the 'helicopter' hieroglyphs has been circulating on the internet for quiet some time. It also appeared in the British UFO Magazine 'Alien Encounters'. But fact is, the picture of the cartouche you see above is manipulated and altered! The original cartouche, found in the ancient temple of Abydos, Egypt, shows some small differences with the picture dispalyed above.

First, the cartouche in the Abydos-temple is carved into the typical sandstones, that were used to build temples all over ancient Egypt, but on the picture shown in the Alien Encounters-Magazine and on many UFO-minded websites almost looks like it's bronze or copper.

Then, on the Abydos-cartouche there is a big, visible hieroglyph just next to the 'helicopters nose'. On the picture above this is strangely absent. What does it tell us, once we look at the original carvings in Abydos? Unfortunately, the explanation is not as fantastic as many might've thought. Actually it's caused by a quite normal procedure that the ancient text-writers handled.

In the days of the pharaos, some hieroglyphics were recarved as time went by. This, re- or over-carving sometimes kept 'left-overs' of the old text still visible. Egyptologists know that this was done many times. Well, and that's exactly what did happen with the carving in the temple of Abydos. No UFO, no helicopter just what you could call an ancient "typo" :-)

On the pictures below you can see the original pictures of the carvings at Abydos. Note the colour difference, and the clearly visible hieroglyph in front of the 'heli'. On the drawing you can get a clearer view of how the process of recarving influenced the carvings found on the Abydos cartouche...