Nobody knows how many years Horus the Falcon God kept watch over Mount Tamalpais. Mystery surrounds almost every detail about the statue's existence. Only one thing is certain now: the four-foot tall statue has moved on to the afterlife.

Fire crews discovered the concrete falcon on Blithedale Ridge in 2008 while clearing brush. It had been placed in a clearing off the main fire road and fixed its stony stare west into the setting sun. A plaque at the base of the statue named it "Horus, Falcon God," and indicated it was modeled after an original found at the Edfu Temple in Egypt dating back to 237-57 B.C.

In an effort to find out more about the statue, Mill Valley police called upon Novato resident Phil Pasquini, who taught sculpture for 39 years and is currently a photojournalist for the Washington Report for Middle East Affairs.

"Whoever made it did a very fine job. It was just the perfect setting for it," said Pasquini, who estimates the cast stone statue weighed about 1,200 pounds. "It would take a group of people to get it in there."

Pasquini's efforts to uncover Horus' mystery bore little fruit, but a post about it on his website did garner interest from countries and Egyptophiles from around the world.

Eventually, the Marin County Open Space District got wind of Horus' existence.

"The last time I visited Horus, he had been cited for trespassing on MCOSD lands," said Tim Walsh, superintendent of the Marin County Tamalpais Fire Crew, which found the statue. "The violation notice gave him 30 days to fly away or the MCOSD was going to remove him."

And remove him they did.

After holding Horus an additional 90 days to see if anyone would claim him, he was brought to the district's refuse center in late 2008 and "recycled."

"I was quite surprised that they destroyed it," said Pasquini. "It was a really good piece. It certainly deserved, if nothing else, to be kept in their office."

Open space district officials, however, defend the policy that resulted in Horus' demise.

"People dump all kinds of things there," said Ron Paolini, deputy director for the district. "We try to keep the open space as natural as possible. We don't discriminate."

While Horus' statue is now mere dust in the sky, his legend lives on.

"(Horus) was a solar deity. He was basically the god of kingship," said Juanita Ortiz, supervisor of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. "Whoever was the pharaoh at that time in Egypt was called the living Horus."

Like most ancient deities, Horus' story was steeped in violence and lore.

He was conceived after Isis, his mother, collected the dismembered bits of Osiris, his father, and resurrected him. Osiris had been killed by his brother Set, and Horus pledged vengeance, an effort that last 80 years. In his pursuit of Set, Horus lost an eye, but it was later returned.

"The eye of Horus was the symbol of protection," said Ortiz. "It was a very common amulet found on the mummies in ancient Egypt."

Perhaps whoever placed a statue of Horus on Mount Tamalpais wanted to secure this protection for those who surrounded it. Perhaps that's why they went through such an effort to establish the statue there.

"It's a great mystery," said Pasquini. "I really don't want to know the answer."