AN Egypt-themed temple sitting in the heart of New York City is said to hold the eerie mysteries of an alleged “UFO cult”.
The odd yellow building, located in Brooklyn, is fully adorned with hieroglyph-like illustrations from floor to ceiling.
The striking temple with an attached bookshop serves as the community centre, meeting place, and house of worship to the Nuwaubian Nation, also known as Sabaeans.
But the colourful exteriors allegedly hide a dark history as the home to a UFO-believing cult whose leader claims to be an alien god.
The Sabaeans were dubbed a “hate group” by Alabama’s Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) that blends “black supremacist ideas with worship of the Egyptians and their pyramids, a belief in UFOs and various conspiracies related to the Illuminati and the Bilderbergers.”
Malachi Z. York, formerly Dwight York, led the Nuwaubian Nation about 1970, allegedly forcing members to give up everything they owned and work for free – and those who did not reach their quotas were beaten, according to the SPLC.
York was also accused of selecting his followers’ marriages, allegedly “mating” them as he wished.
A building manager at the temple, Senab York, 37, says he is the son of Dwight York.
Speaking of his father’s teachings, he told The New York Post: “It’s about everything, from extraterrestrials to ancient civilisations to DNA to dark matter — it’s a little bit of everything… it’s a lot to unpack.”
The alleged cult leader eventually moved to Putnam County, Georgia, along with a large number of his followers, the US paper reported.
There, for some £742,000 ($975,000), he built a massive compound called Tama-Re, which included two pyramids, in preparation for a UFO that was supposed to “visit Earth in 2003 and to take with it 144,000 chosen people,” local media reported, according to The Post.
But when the supposed time came, the senior York was behind bars.
Following a raid on the Georgia property by federal officials in 2002, York was found guilty of many counts of racketeering and child molestation and was later sentenced to almost 130 years in federal prison.
He is currently serving his time at the ADX Florence supermax prison, which is also home to other notorious prisoners including El Chapo, a former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and Mexican drug lord.
Now, the group’s golden compound in New York could now serve another purpose as it hit the market for an eye-watering price.
Newly-planted “For Sale By Owner” signs now sit on the property’s front lawn, The Post reports.
A man known as Thomas Smith claimed to be serving as an intermediary between the Nuwaubian Nation, who have lived in the enigmatic structure for more than 40 years, and prospective purchasers.
He told The Post: “We got an offer for $6 million for one of the buildings.
“But we’re selling [the properties] as a bundle, we’re asking $5 to 6 million for both.”
Property records show that the 5,000-square-foot golden temple is located next to a three-story apartment building and the “All Eyes on Egipt” bookshop, which is also owned by the mystics under the LLC Holy Trinity Seed Ministries.
The Nuwaubian Nation would begin a new chapter with the sale of the unofficial neighbourhood landmark, according to The Post.
Neighbours told The Post the group hasn’t tried to recruit them into their religion, and they described community events for their members on the block and in the sanctuary, such as barbecues, giving away on Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July fireworks.
“I’ve never once been bothered by them in the year we’ve been here,” said KK, 22, an after-school instructor who has lived on Judge Street for under a year.
He said he was worried the buildings would be taken down and turned into a high-rise.
“They built one [high rise] up the street over there a few months ago, and it totally killed a bunch of other stuff around here now.”
According to the SPLC, the group possessed dozens of properties on nearby streets in Bushwick, Brooklyn at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s.
These holdings included 20 apartment complexes that could accommodate 500 people, as well as bookshops, a clothes store and a grocery.
And the yellow compound located between 717 and 719 Bushwick Ave. represents the last remaining vestige of the movement, property records reveal.
Since then, the one-story temple has served as a meeting and event space.
But according to multiple complaints filed with the city’s Department of Buildings since 2013, the owners did not have the necessary occupancy permit to do so.
Senab said it was “sad” to think the property could be sold, demolished and turned into upscale flats like others on Bushwick Avenue.
He said: “A lot of people, they love taking pictures of this building.
“They love it. People love Egypt… To see it in Bushwick, like, ‘this came out of nowhere.’”
