The Stairway to Heaven (The First Book of The Earth Chronicles) [Mass Market Paperback]

Zecharia Sitchin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1983

Since earliest times, humanity has pondered the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe, life...and the afterlife. Was there somewhere on Earth where, after death, mortal man could join the immortal Gods? Where was this place? By whom was it established? And does it still exist today?

After years of painstaking research -- combining recent archaeological discoveries with ancient texts and artifacts -- noted scholar Zecharia Sitchin has identified the legendary Land of the Gods...and provided astounding new revelations about the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and other mysterious monuments whose true meanings and purposes have been lost for eons.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Brilliant and explosive.” (Erich von Daniken, author of CHARIOTS OF THE GODS )

“Impressive.” (UPI )

“An intriguing book--read it...Sitchin is to be congratulated...He makes his point, and makes it well.” (The British UFO Research Organization )

“A dazzling performance...Sitchin is a zealous investigator.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“Compelling.” (Booklist )

“Enthusiasts of ancient lore and pyramid studies will find this book fascinating food for thought.” (Charleston New Courier ) --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

ARCHAEOLOGY / HISTORY

Special large-format edition, lavishly illustrated with maps, diagrams, and photographs. Mythic memory has long held that somewhere on Earth there is a place where we can transcend death and join the gods. In The Stairway to Heaven, Zecharia Sitchin deepens his fascinating explorations into Earth history by looking at this longing for a return to the divine.

Combining the enigma of the Pyramids with legends of human attempts to ascend like gods to Heaven in search of immortality, he delves into the lives of the pharaohs of Egypt, who taught how to travel the Route of the Gods to the "eternal afterlife"; the Sumerian king Gilgamesh, who journeyed to distant lands in his quest to "scale heaven" and ward off his mortal fate; Alexander the Great, who believed he was actually the son of a god; and Ponce de Leon, who explored Florida in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Finally, he leads us along the gaze of the Sphinx, the "Sacred Guide," for remarkable insight into the archetypal search for eternal life.

“Well researched and persuasive ... Sitchin brings to this book' the logic and scholarship so often lacking. . . . He demonstrates the flaws in established theories about pyramid builders and exposes a few ancient hoaxes.”
--Library Journal

“Impressive.”
--United Press International

“Compelling.”
--Booklist --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 337 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (May 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380633396
• ISBN-13: 978-0380633395
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Controversial Knowledge
  • #9 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Unexplained Mysteries
  • #9 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Ancient > Early Civilization

More About the Author

Zecharia Sitchin is an internationally acclaimed author and researcher whose books offer evidence that we are not alone in our own solar system. One of a handful of scholars able to read the Sumerian cuneiform tablets, he has combined archaeology, ancient texts, and the Bible with the latest scientific discoveries to retell the history and prehistory of mankind and planet Earth. His trailblazing books have been translated into more than twenty languages; his first one, an oft-quoted classic, celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of its publication. A graduate of the University of London and a journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives and writes in New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Man's search for the immortality of the gods, April 13, 2002

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Stairway to Heaven (The First Book of The Earth Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this second entry in the Earth Chronicles series, Sitchin focuses on man's eternal and perpetual search for immortality and ties his findings in with his theories of ancient Sumer and the Annunaki who originally colonized earth. In particular, he discusses Alexander the Great's desperate search for a way to escape an early death as well as Gilgamesh's epic search for everlasting life; more importantly, he provides a map of their quests, identifying their most important destinations with the ancient Sumerian sites he wrote about in The 12th Planet. Basically, the ultimate destinations of the men of legend corresponded to the areas from which the Annunaki journeyed back and forth between earth, their orbiting spacecraft, and their home planet. Having described an intricate grid system accounting for the specific locations of the ancient cities both before and after the Deluge, he makes some fascinating arguments. I was most struck by his conclusion that the new, post-Deluge space port was actually Jerusalem. As always, Sitchin incorporates Biblical texts into his story, revealing compelling connections between the books of the Bible and the ancient records of the earliest Middle Eastern cultures.

I found myself plodding to some degree through the first half of the book, even laying the book aside for a few days, but the latter sections here are quite interesting because they focus on ancient Egypt. Sitchin's discussions of the ancient Egyptian monuments, particularly the Great Pyramids at Giza are enlightening and fascinating. He forcibly argues that the pyramids were never meant to serve as burial places of ancient Egyptians and that the Great Pyramids and the majestic Sphinx were built long before Khufu, Chefren, and other pharaohs of the 4th Dynasty came to power. Egyptologists dispute this conclusion, of course, but the evidence as presented by Sitchin and other scholars is quite strong on this point. Sitchin lays waste to the only real evidence we have that Khufu built the Great Pyramid. The masons' markings found in the chambers above the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid purportedly show that Khufu was the builder, but Sitchin puts forth a very convincing argument that those marks were forged (and rather unconvincingly in fact) by an unscrupulous pseudo-archaeologist.

I try to read these books with an open mind. I can't say if Sitchin is correct or not in his theories, but I can say that he breathes life into an ancient world I would otherwise know very little about, and he tells a fascinating story in a very engaging manner.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sitchin and the Past, July 15, 2000

By 

Lawrence E. Nuckolls (Memphis, TN.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Stairway to Heaven (The First Book of The Earth Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read all of Mr. Sitchin's books. They are an eye opening interpretation of Biblical events. I strongly recommend that you begin with The Twelth Planet and read them in sequence. It is much to easy to read one in the middle and get very confused. If they are read in order they are far easier to understand.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Genre is Born, August 25, 1999

By 

Pavel Stetsenko (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Stairway to Heaven (Book II) (Earth Chronicles) (Hardcover)

I have read the whole series of "The Earth Chronicles", which I think is marvelously written. It is neither fictional nor scientific, however, I would classify it as pseudo-scientific non-fiction. It is not really important whether Sitchin's writings are scientificly true, but it makes marvelous reading, nothing like I have ever read before. He masterfully creates an illusion of a scientific research, and in it he creates a new genre -- the Disneyland for science-oriented minds. For all that, even if one reads it with a sceptical smirk on one's face, there is always a thought frollicking somewhere in the backyard swimming pool of your mind, "What if some of this stuff is in fact true?" And that makes the whole series very attractive.