Horus replica perplexes town officials

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

Many thanks to Noreen Doyle for this story:

Mystery surrounds an Egyptian statue nestled amid a garden of Scotch broom on the lower slopes of Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais. The 45-inch cast cement likeness of ancient Egypt’s sky-god Horus faces due west and gazes directly at the 2,471-foot mountain’s peak. Accidentally discovered by a crew from the Mill Valley Fire Department during a routine brush-clearing project on the protected public property, city officials are mystified as to the statue’s origin, who placed it in the remote location inaccessible by automobile, how the estimated 1,200 pound object was transported, and—most importantly—why.

The Mill Valley Police Department contacted Phil Pasquini [this reporter’s husband] for assistance in solving the conundrum after reading an article on the Internet about his technique of creating reproductions of Egyptian artifacts (see Jan./Feb. 2003 Washington Report, p. 59).

After bushwhacking our way through an overabundance of coastal scrub, chaparral, poison oak, bush monkey flower, and various species of grasses and forbs, we examined and photographed the mystic sculpture.

Concerned that the statue might have been stolen from a local collection, Pasquini contacted Bay Area museums, including San Jose’s Rosicrucian, about possible missing pieces, but was told all of their exhibits were intact.

Unless and until further clues develop, the falcon deity remains another ancient Egyptian enigma and adds to the folklore surrounding Marin’s famous mountain.