Zep Tepi — The First Time

Ancient Egyptian texts repeatedly reference "Zep Tepi" (literally "The First Time" or "The First Occasion") — a golden age when gods walked the Earth and established civilization. The Edfu Building Texts describe how the original temples were built by "the Seven Sages" who arrived from an island destroyed by flood. These sages brought the plans for sacred structures and established the foundations of Egyptian civilization. The texts describe these as historical events, not myths. Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval propose that Zep Tepi refers to a real prehistoric civilization (perhaps circa 10,500 BCE, when Orion was at its precessional minimum) whose survivors transmitted advanced knowledge to the dynastic Egyptians.