The Book of the Cave of Treasures

translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge

And in the days of Nimrod, the mighty man (or giant), a fire appeared which ascended from the earth, and Nimrod went down, and looked at it, and worshipped it, and he established priests to minister there, and to cast incense from it. From that day the Persians began to worship fire... -from "The Fourth Thousand Years"

One of the most prolific and respected Egyptologists of the Victorian era, Budge here offers his translation of the 4th-century A.D. Syrian text commonly known as "the Cave of Treasures," a history of the world from the Creation to the crucifixion of Christ and considered by some to be an apocryphal book of the Bible.

Budge's extensive notes, linking the work to other ancient writings, as well as the numerous illustrations, make this unusual work, first published in 1927, an excellent resource for students of ancient civilizations and comparative mythology.