On the Orientation of Ancient Egyptian Temples: (3) Key Points at Lower Egypt and Siwa Oasis,Part II

Actually a replica. The original is at the entrance hall of the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo.

For the Pyramid Texts (PT), see Faulkner , op. cit. (ref. 11). These Ihemu-seku had been normally identified with the circumpolar stars. However, in recent years, Krauss, op. cit. (ref. 11) and several private communications, has defended the idea that the Imperishable Stars would be all those stars north of the ecliptic (for him, the “winding waterway” or Kha-canal of PT) that can be seen every single night, even though they may either rise or set during the night. For example, according to this hypothesis, the bright star Arcturus, not a circumpolar star but still a celestial body with a declination of ∼45° in the pyramid age, would be a most conspicuous Imperishable Star.

These are clearly emphasized several times in Wallin P. , Celestial cycles: Astronomical concepts of regeneration in the ancient Egyptian coffin texts (Uppsala, 2002). See also Krupp E. C. , Echoes of the ancient skies (New York, 1983), 211–13. Actually, the oldest references, specially the PTs, might refer to two blades that would have been attached to the head of the adzes. These blades were called sometimes sebawy (the two stars) in contemporary sources, a fact seemingly connecting with the hypothesis we will be defending here. See Roth A. M. , “Fingers, stars and the opening of the mouth: The nature and function of the t̲-blades”, Journal of Egyptian archaeology, lxxix (1993), 1993–79.

Wallin , op. cit. (ref. 41), 95.

Wallin , op. cit. (ref. 41), 110. Interestingly, Wainwright G. A. , “Iron in Egypt”, Journal of Egyptian archaeology, xviii (1932), 3–15, also observed that the foreleg of an ox was used in the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth. This may imply that Meskhetyu was represented twice in these scenes.

For example, Lull, op. cit. (ref. 19), 285–6; and Bauval R. (2004), private communication to Magli G. , cited in his Misteri e scoperte dell'archeoastronomia (Rome, 2005), 366. This hypothesis is reflected in the same way in his most recent work, Bauval R. , The Egypt code (London, 2006), 5–31. However, Bauval wrongly considers the angular height of the devices to be equal to that of the inclination of the serdab, i.e. ∼16°.

As reflected in Lehner M. , The complete pyramids (London, 1997), 90.

See ref. 13.

Anybody who has suffered the oppressive atmosphere at the uppermost chamber in the interior of the Red pyramid of Sneferu in Dahshur will understand why the next pyramid to be built with inner chambers, in fact Khufu's, would need such devices. This sort of chamber, not directly connected with the exterior atmosphere, was never built again after the reign of Khufu, making ventilation channels unnecessary in the long term.

Krauss R. , “Sobre los canales de ventilación de la Gran Pirámide”, Lecture and Seminar offered at the Ph.D. course on History of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy at the University of La Laguna in 2002.

Quirke S. , Ra, el dios del sol (Madrid, 2003), 144.

Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 10), and references therein.

We also had the intention of testing the lighting phenomena on the concave south and north faces of the Great Pyramid. However, we now believe that this phenomenon is actually quite difficult to observe at the precise moment of sunrise, because the light of the sun is too dim to produce the intense shadows needed to check the phenomenon. This might not have been the case in Antiquity when the limestone casing was on site.

For a recent discussion on the ‘equinoctial’ layout of the complex of Khafre, see Lull , op. cit. (ref. 19), 312–22. Despite its being probable that the ancient Egyptians recognized a lion (their constellation Mia) in the stars of Leo, see Lull Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 12), we do not support the idea that the Sphinx would have been orientated to the ‘equinoctial’ Lion in a remote past as defended in Bauval R. Hancock G. , Guardian del génesis (Barcelona, 1997), 242–53. Indeed, it is worth mentioning that other authors, notably E. Krupp, Dancing with lions http://www.thehallofmaat.com, challenge the idea that the lion of the celestial diagrams is Leo.

Most Egyptologists agree on the identification of the head of the Sphinx as a portrait of Khafre. See, for example, Lehner, op. cit. (ref. 45), 130–1. However, there is a discrepant group, led by Stadelmann R. , Die Ägyptischen Pyramiden (Mainz, 1985), who believe that the Sphinx represented Khufu, regardless of whether it was sculpted during his reign or during that of one of his two sons, Djedefre and Khafre. The controversy is fully alive today as one can see by reading the chapters by Stadelmann R. , “Las pirámides de la IV dinastía”, and by Lehner M. , “La Esfinge”, in the magnificent work edited by Hawass Z. , Tesoros de las pirámides (Barcelona, 2003), 112–37 and 173–89, respectively. In this respect, Krauss (private communication) is of the opinion that “the attribution of the Sphinx is an archaeological question and cannot be solved by intuition”. In this sense, “he would be surprised if the Sphinx could be ascribed to Khufu on an archaeological basis”. However Reader C. , “Giza before the Fourth Dynasty”, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum, ix (2002), 2002–21, has argued that part of the works in Khafre's causeway and other areas near the Sphinx were established some time before Khufu's work on site. The debate is clearly open.

Wilkinson , op. cit. (ref. 27), Fig. 120. The connection with summer solstice sunset had been already outlined by Lehner M. , “Giza: A contextual approach to the pyramids”, Archiv für Orientforschung, xxxii (1985), 139–59. Indeed, Lehner went even further, suggesting a connection between the astronomical phenomenon and the name of the Great Pyramid, Akhet Khufu, but not involving the Sphinx in it.

The proposal is also discussed in Magli, op. cit. (ref. 44), 377–86, where the simultaneous transit theory for the orientation of monuments during the Old Kingdom is defended. Curiously, according to C14 data, the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra should be contemporaneous, while that of Menkaure would be between four and five decades younger. These are the most representative, by the number of measurements of the sample, of the otherwise controversial data from Bonani G. Haas H. Hawass Z. Lehner M. Nakhla S. Nolan J. Wenke R. Wölfli W. , “Radiocarbon dates of Old and Middle Kingdom monuments in Egypt”, Radiocarbon, xliii/3 (2001), 1297–320.

This idea could be further supported by the recent proposal of F. L. Borrego Gallardo, Estatuas con halcones a la espalda de rey durante el Reino Antiguo: Estudio semiológico e histórico (Memoria de Investigación, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Madrid, 2004), that the akhet would be the glare of the sun-disc just before sunrise or after sunset. This would not be the only relation of the complex at Giza (and likewise for the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur) to the summer solstice, as shown in Belmonte and Zedda, op. cit. (ref. 26), where an interesting light and shadow effect at the pyramids is described.

We also suggest that at the precise location where the astronomical phenomenology was observed there would have been some kind of sacred precinct where the appropriate rituals would have been performed. If they ever existed, the ruins or the foundations of such an enclosure should lie below the floor of the restaurant area of the “Light and Sound Spectacle” building at Giza.

See Verner M. , Abusir, realm of Osiris (Cairo, 2002), 62.

The question of the names of the pyramids is a matter of debate. Some scholars read the name of this pyramid as “The Pyramid of Khaefre is Great”. However, Krauss (private communication) suggests that the adjective wr of the name would make reference to a star in the northern sky, according to certain utterances of the PT. This would connect with an alternative name of the Great Pyramid as Khufu Akhty, i.e. “Khufu belongs to the akhet“, as proposed by Westendorf W. , Lexikon der Ägyptologie , v (1984), 5. Our hypothesis would lose much of its weight if this alternative reading is correct. For a very interesting discussion on the different possibilities of reading the names of the pyramids, see Fisher H. G. , “On the interpretation of names of the pyramids”, Egyptian studies, iii: Varia nova (New York, 1996), 73–77.

As defended by Quirke, op. cit. (ref. 49).

Besides converting his earlier step pyramid at Meidum into a true pyramid of flat faces.

See, for example, Spence , op. cit. (ref. 10), who defends the use of Mizar and Kochab, or Belmonte, op. cit. (ref. 10), who defends the simultaneous transit of two stars of Meskhetyu, Phecda and Megrez. Here we propose that the two pyramids forming Akhet Khufu might have been orientated to the lower simultaneous transit of Phecda and Megrez in the interval 2560–2552 b.c. and 2548–2540 b.c. for the northern and southern pyramid of the pair, respectively. Indeed, under this new hypothesis, this would have occurred during the reign of Queops.

Or, “The Pyramid of Djedefre is a star of Sehedu”.

Mathieu B. (ed.), “Détermination de l'orientation de la pyramide de Redjédef”, in Bulletin de L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale , ci (2001), 457–9. The French team, formed by É. Aubourg and Ch. Higy, has estimated an error of deviation of ∼10 cm in their measurement of the orientation of the nearly 100 metres-long walls of the pyramid. We consider this number extremely optimistic. A more realistic value would be closer to 40 cm, giving an error of ∼¼°.

Relevant to this could be the presumed connection between the layout of the three large pyramids of Giza and the three stars of the Belt of Orion, probably the head of the Egyptian constellation Sah, see Lull Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 12), and references therein. However, this hypothesis, known as the Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) and widely known as a result of the best-seller of Bauval R. Gilbert A. , El misterio de Orión (Barcelona, 1995), plates 6 and 7, is far from being accepted by the scientific community. Northern, solstitial and ‘equinoctial’ orientations are facts; attempts to explain them are hypotheses that might be falsified with more experiments. A new attempt has most recently been made by Bauval R. , op. cit. (ref. 44), but the hypotheses defended in this new book overtly contradict earlier proposals of the same author. More interesting, however, is the case presented by Christian Tedder in the same book. See Tedder C. , “An overview of the Orion Correlation Theory”, in Bauval, op. cit. (ref. 44), Appendix III, 232–49.

Goyon G. , “Nouvelle observations relatives à l'orientation de la pyramide de Khéops”, Revue d'Égyptologie, xxii (1970), 85–98, plate 7. See also Lull, op. cit. (ref. 19), note 77.

Jeffreys D. , “The topography of Heliopolis and Memphis: Some cognitive aspects”, in Stationen: Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte Ägyptens, Rainer Stadelmann gewidmet (Mainz, 1998), 63–71.

Bauval , op. cit. (ref. 44), has likewise pointed out a possible solstitial connection between Heliopolis and the pyramid of Djedefre.

The best reference to our knowledge is Raffaele F. , “The Abu Roash Lepsius I mudbrick pyramid”, in Huni ≪http://xoomer.alice.it/frencescoraf/hesyra/dyn3-Huni.html≫, and references therein.

Aufrère S. Golvin J. C. , L'Égypte restituée, iii: Sites, temples et pyramides de Moyenne à basse Égypte (Paris, 1997), 59.

Belmonte Zedda , op. cit. (ref. 26).

This might support the widespread idea, found even in classical sources, that the civil calendar, probably a schematic ‘solar’ calendar, was created by the priests of Heliopolis. See Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 11), 18–26, and references therein. It is also important to notice that August Mariette reported an ethnographical use of the pyramids as reference landmarks to establish the date of the equinoxes by local people during the mid-nineteenth century ( Isler M. , Sticks, stones and shadows: Building the Egyptian pyramids (Norman, 2001), 133).

This pyramid has been attributed to various candidates to kingship of the royal family of the 4th Dynasty. A most recent hypothesis makes it the unfinished burial place of Setka(re), a son of Djedefre, who would have reigned briefly after his father or his uncle Khaefre. See Dodson Hilton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 50–61.

Lull Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 12). Incidently, the hieroglyphic name of Heliopolis includes the glyph of a pole or pillar.

Actually, Shepseskaf selected a virgin area to the south, halfway between the monuments of his ancestors Djoser and Sneferu, while Userkaf built his complex close to what were then 200-year-old monuments of Djoser. Both sacred precincts, and the associated temples (see Table 1), are quite well orientated to the cardinal directions.

Sahure Neferirkare Shepseskare Neferefre Niuserre . The first two, together with Userkaf, are identified in the Westcar papyrus as the children of the sun-god Re. For a detailed history of the 5th Dynasty see Verner , op. cit. (ref. 58).

Jeffreys , op. cit. (ref. 67). Verner, op. cit. (ref. 58), 59, has also suggested that the pyramids of Abusir were aligned in such a way that they were pointing to Heliopolis, in a similar way as did the pyramids of Giza. However, the alignment at Abusir is difficult to determine and, besides, Heliopolis was not visible from there, probably obscured by the hill where Salah ad-Din was to build his fortress 3500 years later (see Fig. 14).

The statistics show an average azimuth of 90¼° with a standard deviation (σ) of 4°. See supra, ref. 20.

The idea of monuments orientated to Wepet Renpet was first tested at the oases of the Western Desert. See Paper 2, Table 2.

See ref. 13. Surprisingly, Rolf Krauss (private communication) has recently informed us that his lunar chronology, in “Ein Versuch zur Chronologie des späten Alten Reiches im Anschluss an die Monddaten in Neferirkare-Archiv” (in press), gives a date for Teti's ascent to the throne c. 2305 ± 5 b.c. See also, Hartung ., op. cit. (ref. 4).

Unless we take into consideration that Kochab had a declination ∼81° for 2300 b.c. and at its maximum western polar distance could have given an azimuth of 351° (81° for its perpendicular) for the pyramid complex. However, this would be the only pyramid orientated in such a way.

“The Place of Re”, the proper name of this temple. There are documentary evidences of another four but, of these, only Shasepibre, “The One which is the destiny of the heart of Re”, built by Niuserre, has been discovered so far. Quirke , op. cit. (ref. 49), 159.

The temple of Niuserre was first measured by Krupp E. , “Light in the temples”, in Records in stone: Papers in memory of Alexander Thom , ed. by Ruggles C. L. N. (Cambridge, 1988), 473–99. Krupp found a value for the southern face of the huge obelisk of 91°.2, compatible with ours. However, his datum for the altar southern edge was 92°.5, far from our 90¾°. The discrepancy could be explained by the particular design of the altar since our own measurement comes from the central E—W axis of the huge stone.

See supra, ref. 62.

Curiously, the pyramid temples of the 5th Dynasty at Abusir, orientated close to due east, could have been aligned to the same topographic feature as the one of Teti. This would have formed the sign akhet with the rising ‘equinoctial’ sun or with the sunrise of Wepet Renpet. This latter would have happened, at least for a few years, close to the beginning of the reign of Sahure (c. 2400 b.c.), when Abusir was selected as burial ground of the dynasty. Unfortunately, we have been unable to explore this possibility because of the high pollution of the area that makes the observation of sunrise at the exact horizon very difficult (see, for example, Fig. 16).

Bedier S. , “Ein Stiftungsdekret Thutmosis' III aus Buto”, in Aspekte Spätägyptischer Kultur: Festschrift für Erich Winter zum 65, ed. by Minas M. Seidler J. (Mayence, 1994), 35–50.

Altenmüller H. , Die Apotropaïa und die Götter Mittlelägyptens (Munich, 1965), 127, proposed that a small ivory plaque, dated to the reign of the 1st Dynasty King Djer (c. 3000 b.c.), contained the first reference to the heliacal rising of Sopdet in Egyptian history, in agreement with the flooding and observation from the city of De(p). However, this opinion has been challenged by Spalinger A. , Three studies on Egyptian feasts and their chronological implications (Baltimore, 1992), 46, and by Clagett M. , Ancient Egyptian science, ii: Calendars, clocks and astronomy (Philadelphia, 1995), 10–11. Clagett, in his Fig. III.3.a, recognizes the goddess Sekhet-hor, instead of Sopdet, in the stylized image of a recumbent cow. Actually, there are no obvious references to Peret Sopdet before the Middle Kingdom. Consequently, Belmonte, op. cit. (ref. 11), has proposed that perhaps this celestial event was not widely taken into account in earlier epochs.

The relevant works are: von Bomhard A-S. , The Egyptian calendar: A work for eternity (London, 1999), 45; and Spalinger A. , “The festival structure of Thutmose III's Buto Stele”, Journal of the Archaeological Research Centre of Egypt, xxxiii (1996), 1996–76.

Krauss R. (2003), private communication.

The dates in the civil calendar are normally expressed by the ordinal number of the month within a certain season (written in Roman numbers from I to IV), the corresponding calendar season (Akhet (Inundation), Peret (Going Forth), or Shemu (Drought)), followed by the day of the month. For example, II Peret 24 is to be read as the 24th day of the 2nd month of the season Peret.

These controversial dates and the related festival calendars have been discussed in Spalinger A. , op. cit. (ref. 87), chap. 1. Spalinger dates the corresponding blocks to the reign of Amenhotep I (c. 1520 b.c.) because they were found within the filling material of one of the pylons, together with other blocks bearing the name of this king, but also with material of the early Middle Kingdom. See also Belmonte, op. cit. (ref. 11), 50. The authors of the present paper have recent photographs of some of these blocks at their disposal, obtained at the Open Air Museum in Karnak during one of our field campaigns.

Bomhard Von , op. cit. (ref. 88), 48–49, and references therein.

The earliest documents are the “Cosmology of Nut” at some monuments of the 19th and 20th Dynasties. See Neugebauer O. Parker R. A. , Egyptian astronomical texts , i (Providence, 1960). However, Ch. Leitz, Studien zur Ägyptischen Astronomie (Ägyptologische Abhandlungen, xlix; Wiesbaden, 1991), 67, has proposed that the diagonal clocks of the Middle Kingdom and before were not a star-rising device but rather an idealized system to observe star settings, where the heliacal rising of Sirius would always occur in I Akhet 1, or Wepet Renpet.

This sign is damaged in the actual inscription, but this is the most logical reconstruction considering the total layout of the text.

Traditionally, Sopdet, like the other decanal stars, ought to be in the Duat for 70 days, from its heliacal setting to its heliacal rising. However, the actual length of this period is heavily dependent on the latitude and the epoch. Curiously, for the latitude of Buto, this happened at the beginning of the New Kingdom. The predictive character of Egyptian astronomy can be inferred from the Peret Sopdet references of the Illahun Archive; see Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 11), 51, and references therein.

There are problems with the reading of the adjective of the Burning, Rekeh, festival. It should be “small” but it apparently reads “big”.

See, for example, Gaebolde L. , “La date de fondation du temple de Sésotris Ier et l'orientation de l'axe”, in Le Grand Château d'Amon de Sésostris Ier à Karnak (Paris, 1998). In Belmonte, op. cit. (ref. 4), the archaeoastronomical proposals of this paper are challenged.

Spalinger , op. cit. (ref. 87). See also supra, ref. 91.

Yoyotte J. , “L'Égypte du Delta: Les capitals du nord”, Dossiers d'archéologie, no. 213 (1996), 31.

For an accurate description of the archaeological remains of Tanis, see Aufrère Golvin , op. cit. (ref. 70), 309–19.

For the religious importance of Tanis, see Quirke , op. cit. (ref. 49), 172–4. For the ‘solar’ character of the city, see Quirke , op. cit. (ref. 49), 79–80.

The declination of Sirius at the beginning of the 21st Dynasty (c. 1070 b.c.), when the temple would have been aligned for the first time, was ∼–17½°. However, it is possible that a new axis was established in the successive reconstructions by Shoshenq III (c. 830 b.c.) or Nectanebo II (c. 360 b.c.), when its declination was ∼–17° and, respectively.

Actually, Smendes is not archaeologically attested at Tanis. However, he is mentioned as living at this city in the famous story of Wenamun. Indeed, another possibility is offered by an alternative chronology which dates Psusennes I's ascent to the throne to 1052 b.c. See Hartung , op. cit. (ref. 4).

For the coincidence between winter solstice and Wepet Renpet, see Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 11).

If a complete solar diameter (36′) is considered, then we can go further (after 54 years) until c. 1950 b.c., a year included in the reign of Senuseret I for the majority of chronologies; see ref. 13. However, Krauss (private communication) locates year 1 of Senuseret I in 1920 b.c. In this case, the alignment of Amon temple at Karnak in year 10 of this king would not fit the date of Wepet Renpet. However, the alignment would still work for earlier ‘solstitial’ temples such as Mentuhotep II at Deir el Bahari or Mentuhotep III. See Paper I.

Belmonte J. A. Shaltout M. , “Estableciendo la Maat en el antiguo Egipto: La orientación de los templos”, in Proceedings of the “III Congreso Ibérico de Egiptología”, Trabajos de Egiptología (Papers in ancient Egypt), special vol. (2007), in press.

A classic work for the history, archaeology and ethnography of Siwa is Fakhry A. , Siwa Oasis , 5th edn (Cairo, 2004). Most recent, and including the latest discoveries and a challenging discussion about the alleged tomb of Alexander the Great at the temple of Bilad ar-Rum (Iskander's temple), is Aldumairy, op. cit. (ref. 8).

For the cases of Karnak and Abu Simbel, see also Paper 1.

Lockyer J. N. , The dawn of astronomy , new edn (New York, 1993). The first compilation of relevant astronomical documents is also more than a century old. See Brugsch Heinrich , Thesaurus inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum, i: Astronomische und astrologische Inschriften altaegyptischer Denkmäler (Leipzig, 1883).

The Egyptian temple ought to be a terrestrial ‘reflection’ of the cosmos. See Polo M. A. Molinero , “Templo y cosmos”, in Arte y sociedad del antiguo Egipto , ed. by Molinero M. A. Sola D. (Madrid, 2000), 69–94; Wilkinson R. H. , The complete temples of ancient Egypt (London, 2000); Krupp , Echoes of the ancient skies (ref. 41); and idem, Beyond the blue horizon (Oxford, 1991).