This paper presents the results of a week-long Total Station survey undertaken by the authors during December 2006 whose principal aim was to clarify the basic data concerning the orientation of each side of the three large Giza pyramids and to determine, as accurately as possible, the orientations of as many as possible of the associated structures. The survey focused upon measurements of sequences of points along multiple straight and relatively well-preserved structural segments, with best-fit techniques being used to provide the best estimate of their orientation, as opposed to simple triangulation between directly identified or extrapolated corners.
On alignments between structures see Mark Lehner, “Some observations on the layout of the Khufu and Khafre pyramids”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, xx (1983), 7–25; HoudinJean-Pierre, Khufu: The secrets behind the building of the Great Pyramid (Cairo, 2006); MagliGiulio, “Geometrical and astronomical references in the project of the two main pyramids’ complexes of Giza, Egypt”, Aplimat — Journal of applied mathematics, i/2 (2008), 121–8; idem, “Akhet Khufu: Archaeo-astronomical hints at a common project of the two main pyramids of Giza, Egypt”, Nexus network journal: Architecture and mathematics, xi (2009), 35–50; idem, Mysteries and discoveries of archaeoastronomy: From Giza to Easter Island (New York, 2009); DashGlen, “Solar alignments of Giza”, AERAgram, xii/2 (2011), 3–8.
2.
LehnerMark, The complete pyramids: Solving the ancient mysteries (London, 1997), 108–9.
3.
ReisnerGeorge A., A history of the Giza necropolis, i (Cambridge, MA, 1942); Lehner, Complete pyramids (ref. 2), 120–1.
4.
The recent work of Belmonte and his collaborators (MosalamShaltoutBelmonteJuan A., “On the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples: (1) Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxvi (2005), 273–98; BelmonteJuan A.ShaltoutMosalam, “On the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples: (2) New experiments at the oases of the Western Desert”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxvii (2006), 173–92; ShaltoutMosalamBelmonteJuan A.FekriMagdi, “On the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples: (3) Key points in Lower Egypt and Siwa Oasis” (in two parts), Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxviii (2007), 161–74 and 413–42; BelmonteJuan A.ShaltoutMosalamFekriMagdi, “On the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples: (4) Epilogue in Serabit el Khadim and overview”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxix (2008), 181–211; “Astronomy, landscape and symbolism: A study of the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples”, in BelmonteJuan A.ShaltoutMosalam (eds), In search of cosmic order: Selected essays on Egyptian archaeoastronomy (Cairo, 2009), 215–83) has revealed a much more elaborate picture in which the temples of the Nile valley and delta were oriented both topographically and astronomically, the astronomical alignments being of three types: cardinal or inter-cardinal (by sighting on northern stars and then rotating if necessary); solar/calendrical; and upon the two brightest stars, Sirius and Canopus.
5.
PetrieW. M. Flinders, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (London, 1883); DornerJosef, “Die Absteckung und astronomische Orientierung ägyptischer Pyramiden”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Innsbruck, 1981; HaackS. C., “The astronomical orientation of the Egyptian pyramids”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 7 (supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy, xv) (1984), S119–25.
6.
RomerJohn, The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt revisited (Cambridge, 2007), 318.
7.
IslerMartin, Sticks, stones and shadows: Building the Egyptian pyramids (Norman, 2001), 173.
8.
GalloCarlo, L’astronomia egizia (Padua, 1998), 82; BelmonteJuan A., “On the orientation of Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 26 (supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxii) (2001), S1–20, p. S7.
9.
ArnoldDieter, Building in Egypt: Pharaonic stone masonry (Oxford, 1991), 252–3; Belmonte, “On the orientation of Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids” (ref. 8), S6–10.
10.
Belmonte, ibid., S7, S9.
11.
ŽábaZbyněk, L’orientation astronomique dans l’ancienne Égypte, et la précession de l’axe du monde (Prague, 1953), 16f.
12.
CotterellB.DicksonF. P.KammingaJ., “Ancient Egyptian water-clocks: A reappraisal”, Journal of archaeological science, xiii (1986), 31–50; IslerMartin, “The gnomon in Egyptian antiquity”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, xxviii (1991), 155–85, p. 156.
13.
Isler, ibid., 157–8.
14.
WellsRonald A., “Astronomy in Egypt”, in WalkerChristopher (ed.), Astronomy before the telescope (London, 1996), 28–41, p. 37.
15.
Ibid., 37.
16.
Isler, Sticks, stones and shadows (ref. 7), 172. These particular instruments belonging to Hor are in the Egyptian Museum, Charlottenburg, Berlin, 14084/14085.
17.
SinghPrahlad, Stone observatories in India, erected by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, 1686–1743 A.D., at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi, Mathura (Varanasi, 1978), 90–1; IslerMartin, “An ancient method of finding and extending direction”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, xxvi (1989), 191–206, p. 198.
18.
Žába, L’orientation astronomique dans l’ancienne Égypte (ref. 11), 16f.
19.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 6.
20.
“If a pile of masonry some 50 feet high was built up with a vertical side from North to South, a plumb-line could be hung from its top, and observations could be made, to find the places on the ground from which the pole-star was seen to transit behind the line at the elongations, twelve hours apart. The mean of these positions would be due South of the plumb-line, and about 100 feet distant from it; on this scale 15″ of angle would be about 1/10 inch, and therefore quite perceptible” (Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 211–12). Petrie’s astronomical arguments are confused, and he takes no account of precession (ibid., 126–7) but his method would apply to a star close to the celestial pole at the time.
21.
EdwardsI. E. S., The pyramids of Egypt (West Drayton, 1947), 209–11.
22.
SpenceKate, “Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids”, Nature, cdviii (2000), 320–4.
23.
Belmonte, “On the orientation of Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids” (ref. 8).
24.
MirandaNoemiBelmonteJuan A.MolineroMiguel A., “Uncovering Seshat: New insights into the stretching of the cord ceremony”, in VaiškūnasJonas (ed.), Astronomy and cosmology in folk traditions and cultural heritage (Archaeologia Baltica, 10) (Klaipėda, 2009), 57–61.
25.
BelmonteJuan A., Pirámides, templos y estrellas: Astronomía y arqueología en el Egipto antiguo (Barcelona, 2012), 138.
26.
NeugebauerOtto, “On the orientation of pyramids”, Centaurus, xxiv (1980), 1–3; Isler, Sticks, stones and shadows (ref. 7), 163.
27.
Cf.RugglesClive, “Whose equinox?”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 22 (supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy, xxviii) (1997), S45–50.
28.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5).
29.
ColeJ. H., Determination of the exact size and orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza (Cairo, 1925).
30.
Dorner, Die Absteckung und astronomische Orientierung ägyptischer Pyramiden (ref. 5).
31.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 10–21, 24; Cole, Determination (ref. 29), 1–2. Cole recounts that “Eight brass bolts were cemented into the rock round the base, one near each of the four corners, and, as these were not intervisible, four more were placed, one at about the middle of each side, in such a position that each point was visible from the adjacent points on each side of it.… The positions of these points were determined by means of precise traverse observations”.
32.
DornerJosef, “Das Basisviereck der Cheopspyramide”, in JánosiPeter (ed.), Structure and significance: Thoughts on ancient Egyptian architecture (Vienna, 2005), 275–82.
33.
LehnerMarkGoodmanDavid, Giza Plateau survey manual (Unpublished report, 1984); LehnerMark, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85”, The American Research Center in Egypt newsletter, cxxxi (1985), 23–56.
34.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 37.
35.
These data, and also those relating to the Khafre workmen’s village and the complex of Khentkawes (see below), have been supplied by GIS specialist Farrah Brown LaPan of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project.
36.
RugglesClive, Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland (New Haven and London, 1999), 168–9.
37.
GoodmanDavidLehnerMark, “The survey: The beginning”, in LehnerMarkWetterstromWilma (eds), Giza reports: The Giza Plateau Mapping Project, i: Project history, survey, ceramics, and Main Street and Gallery III.4 operations (Boston, 2007), 53–94; GoodmanDavid, “The GPMP surveying and mapping control-datums”, in LehnerWetterstrom (eds), op. cit., 95–101.
38.
GoodmanLehner, “The survey: The beginning” (ref. 37), 56; Goodman, “The GPMP surveying and mapping control-datums” (ref. 37), 98.
We follow Ruggles, Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland (ref. 36), p. ix.
41.
Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), 9–13.
42.
The WC/WMF was excavated in the early twentieth century by Hermann Junker, George Reisner, Clarence Stanley Fisher, and Ernesto Schiaparelli. See Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), 9–13; for a plan see ibid., map 2 and also the Giza Archives website of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (http://www.gizapyramids.org/).
43.
Here and elsewhere we quote dates from MalekJ., “The Old Kingdom”, in ShawIan (ed.), The Oxford history of ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000), 89–117 (see also the chronological table in pp. 479–83 of the same volume) for reference, while fully acknowledging that debate continues among Egyptologists concerning absolute chronologies. See BelmonteJuan A.ShaltoutMosalam (eds), In search of cosmic order: Selected essays on Egyptian archaeoastronomy (Cairo, 2009), 340 for a comparative table of various suggested chronologies. These dates are not critical to any of the arguments given in this paper.
44.
Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), 13.
45.
Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), 12–20.
46.
Lehner, “Some observations on the layout of the Khufu and Khafre pyramids” (ref. 1); “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33); LehnerMark, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1986”, The American Research Center in Egypt newsletter, cxxxv (1986), 29–54.
47.
Edwards, The pyramids of Egypt (ref. 21), 222; MaragioglioVitoRinaldiCeleste Ambrogio, L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte IV: La Grande Piramide di Cheope (Rome, 1965), 16, 104; IslerMartin, “Concerning the concave faces on the Great Pyramid”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, xx (1983), 27–32.
48.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 38.
49.
The brass survey plugs (along with the iron post on top of the Great Pyramid) were set in place by the astronomer David Gill during his return from Mauritius to observe the transit of Venus of 1874 (Romer, The Great Pyramid (ref. 6), 41; note that Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 27 states erroneously that they were set in place by Petrie). Petrie, who avoided using metal markers because they were likely to be stolen or damaged (The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 20), found one of Gill’s plugs missing, so he drilled a small hole closer to the pyramid and used that (Glen Dash, priv. comm., 2012). Cole (Determination of the exact size and orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza (ref. 29), 1–2) cemented brass bolts into the rock, “one near each of the four corners”, in positions determined independently. Maragioglio and Rinaldi (L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte IV (ref. 47), 14–15) confirm finding bronze nails fixed in the NE and NW corner-sockets, “while in the south-west corner-socket there remains only the hole in which the nail was fixed and in the south-east one nothing remains to show the place of the nail” (ibid., 14). When Lehner and Goodman cleared the SW socket they located a hole, 4 cm square, where the brass survey plug would have been located (Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 27), and replaced the plug in the SW corner (Wetterstrom, priv. comm., 2012).
50.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 37.
51.
Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), map 2.
52.
Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), map 3.
53.
JunkerHermann, Giza XII: Schlußband mit Zusammenfassungen und Gesamt-Verzeichnissen von Band I–XII (Vienna, 1955). See also The Giza Archives of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (http://www.gizapyramids.org/). These are Reisner’s GIS, GIIS, GIIIS, …, GIXS (A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), 17).
54.
MaragioglioVitoRinaldiCeleste Ambrogio, L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte V: Le piramidi di Zedefra e di Chefren (Rome, 1966).
55.
MaragioglioE.g.Rinaldi, L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte V (ref. 54), pl. 5, fig. 1 and pl. 14, fig. 1.
56.
MaragioglioVitoRinaldiCeleste Ambrogio, L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte VI: La grande fossa de Zauiet el-Aryan, la piramide di Micerino, il mastabat Faraun, la tomba di Khentkaus (Rome, 1967), 36.
57.
In their account of the Khufu pyramid, Maragioglio and Rinaldi (L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte IV (ref. 47), 104) state : “Another possible explanation for the concave disposition of the nuclear courses could be [that] the builders wanted to give a curved form, if not to the casing, at least to the nucleus in order to prevent the faces from sliding, especially in the middle.… The hypothesis that the casing faces might have been slightly concave, although in less measure than the nucleus, should not be rejected either. Besides obtaining the practical result mentioned above, there would also have been an aesthetic one: the optic aberration would have been corrected, the pyramid edges made sharper and more defined and the faces would have appeared to be flat, without considering that the eventual errors in dressing the faces would have been disguised better.”
58.
We emphasize that this conclusion is based on two best-fit straight lines fitted to each half of the side, and would need to be modified if the side were in fact curved.
59.
Reisner, A history of the Giza necropolis, i (ref. 3), 1–3.
60.
StadelmannRainer, “Snofru und die Pyramiden von Meidum aud Dahschur”, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, xxxvi (1980), 437–49; Malek, “The Old Kingdom” (ref. 43), 93.
61.
On the last ten pyramids see Lehner, Complete pyramids (ref. 2), 95–6.
62.
Spence, “Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids” (ref. 22).
63.
Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 27.
64.
LehnerGoodman, Giza Plateau survey manual (ref. 33).
65.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 38.
66.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 37, 40.
67.
Cole, Determination of the exact size and orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza (ref. 29), 5.
68.
Cf.Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 108–9.
69.
Petrie (The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 58) noted, furthermore, that the inner corridors of Khufu’s pyramid were also closely aligned to the cardinal directions, the mean axis of the main passage being −0° 03.7′ (whole length) or −0° 05.8′ (built part alone).
70.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 126.
71.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 121, 123.
72.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 30–1.
73.
Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 31.
74.
Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 37; “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1986” (ref. 46), 32.
75.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 111–12.
76.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 117.
77.
Dorner, Die Absteckung und astronomische Orientierung ägyptischer Pyramiden (ref. 5), 82.
78.
“It must be remembered that if any different base level should be supposed to have been intended, it will make no difference in the above azimuths, nor in the differences between the sides” (Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 212).
79.
LauerJean-Philippe, “Le temple funéraire de Khéops à la grande pyramide de Guizeh”, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, xlvi (1947), 245–59, p. 246; GoyonGeorges, “La chaussée monumentale et le temple de la vallée de la pyramide de Khéops”, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, lxvii (1969), 49–69; LehnerMark, “The development of the Giza necropolis: The Khufu project”, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, xli (1985), 109–43, pp. 118–19.
80.
Cf.Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 106.
81.
JeffreysDavid G. “The topography of Heliopolis and Memphis: Some cognitive aspects”, in GukschHeikePolzDaniel (eds), Stationen: Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte Ägyptens Rainer Stadelmann gewidmet (Mainz, 1998), 63–71; Magli, “Akhet Khufu” (ref. 1).
82.
Magli has suggested that the Giza plateau pyramids, as well as several pyramids at Saqqara, Abu Sir, Abu Ghurob, Zawiyet el-Aryan and Abu Roash, were all symbolically connected to Heliopolis, home of the sun cult, through the alignments of their corners. However, the view of Heliopolis from Abu Sir was obstructed: those standing at Abu Sir could not even see the “Sun City” (MagliGiulio, “The cosmic landscape in the Age of the Pyramids”, Journal of cosmology, ix (2010), 2232–44, p. 2235). Also, the putative alignment of pyramids at Saqqara involves different corners — the NW corners of Teti’s and Semerkhet’s pyramids, the SE corners of Userkaf’s and Djoser’s pyramids, and a complete diagonal of Unas’s (LehnerMark, “A contextual approach to the Giza Pyramids”, Archiv für Orientforschung, xxxi (1985), 136–58; MagliGiulio, “Archaeoastronomy and archaeo-topography as tools in search for a missing Egyptian pyramid”, PalArch’s Journal of archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, vii/5 (2010), 1–9, p. 3) — raising familiar problems of selection.
83.
See Romer, The Great Pyramid (ref. 6), 331.
84.
ClarkeSomersEngelbachReginald, Ancient Egyptian masonry: The building craft (London, 1930), 125f; Isler, Sticks, stones and shadows (ref. 7), chs. 11 and 12; Romer, The Great Pyramid (ref. 6), 333–4; LehnerMark, The pyramid tomb of Hetep-heres and the satellite pyramid of Khufu (Mainz, 1985), 51–2.
85.
They may also have been destroyed when rocks from quarries further to the south were delivered on the south side (Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), figs 2 and 3C; Romer, The Great Pyramid (ref. 6), 329).
86.
Petrie, The pyramids and temples of Gizeh (ref. 5), 50–1.
87.
Lehner, The pyramid tomb of Hetep-heres and the satellite pyramid of Khufu (ref. 84), 51–2, figs 9 and 12.
88.
Cf.Romer, The Great Pyramid (ref. 6), 346–9.
89.
Cf.Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 213.
90.
Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 32.
91.
Lehner, “The Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 1984–85” (ref. 33), 33.
92.
DavidA. Rosalie, Cult of the Sun: Myth and magic in ancient Egypt (London, 1981); QuirkeStephen, The cult of Ra: Sun-worship in ancient Egypt (London, 2001); KraussRolf, “Stellar and solar components in ancient Egyptian ideology and astronomy”, in RappenglückMichael (ed.), Astronomy and power: How worlds are structured (in press).
93.
WilkinsonRichard H., Reading Egyptian art: A hieroglyphic guide to ancient painting and sculpture (London, 1992), 193; ShawIanNicholsonPaul, The dictionary of ancient Egypt (London, 1995), 267.
94.
Wilkinson, Reading Egyptian art (ref. 93), 195.
95.
AnthesRudolf, “Was verenlasste Chefren zum bau des Temples vor der Sphinx?”, Beiträge zur ägyptischen Bauforschung und Altertumskunde, xii (1971), 47–58, pp. 52–7.
96.
StadelmannRainer, Die ägyptischen Pyramiden: Vom Ziegelbau zum Weltwunder (Mainz, 1985), 124–6; “The Great Sphinx of Giza”, in HawassZahi (ed.), Egyptology at the dawn of the twenty-first century: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo, 2000 (Cairo, 2003), 464–9.
97.
Cf.Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 132.
98.
RickeHermann, “Der Harmachistemple des Chefren in Giseh”, Beiträge zur ägyptischen Bauforschung und Altertumskunde, x (1970), 1–43; but see Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 126.
99.
Ruggles, “Whose equinox?” (ref. 27).
100.
Ruggles, Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland (ref. 36), 54–5.
101.
ClaggettMarshall, Ancient Egyptian science, ii: Calendars, clocks and astronomy (Philadelphia, 1995), 52.
102.
ParkerRichard A., “Ancient Egyptian astronomy”, Philosophical transactions, A cclxxvi (1974), 51–65, pp. 53–5.
103.
WellsRonald A., “Origins of the hour and the Gates of the Duat”, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, xx (1993), 305–26; “Astronomy in Egypt” (ref. 14), 36–7.
104.
See Belmonte, “On the orientation of Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids” (ref. 8), S2.
105.
Belmonte, “On the orientation of Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids” (ref. 8), S1–3.
106.
Spence, “Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids” (ref. 22).
107.
Belmonte, “On the orientation of Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids” (ref. 8), S1.
108.
Spence, “Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids” (ref. 22).
109.
Belmonte, Pirámides, templos y estrellas (ref. 25), 184.
110.
Ruggles, Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland (ref. 36), 169. Both the original program and an updated interactive version are available at http://www.cliveruggles.net.
111.
Goodman, “The GPMP surveying and mapping control-datums” (ref. 37).
112.
The earliest reference to the relative elevations of the three main pyramids is on a plan given by VyseHoward (Operations carried on at the pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, ii (London, 1840), opp. p. 148). In all copies seen by the authors this information is illegible, but Maragioglio and Rinaldi (L’architettura delle piramidi Menfite, parte VI (ref. 56), 32–5) quote Vyse as saying that the difference in level between the bases of the pyramids of Cheops and Mycerinus is 12.68m and between Chephren and Mycerinus 2.57m. The values quoted in Table 12 are broadly consistent with this.
113.
Although no Old Kingdom texts have been discovered that refer to the Sphinx or its temple, we do know that in dynasty 18 the pharaoh Thutmose IV decided to uncover the Sphinx (most of it was buried in sand) and to reactivate the Sphinx cult (Shaw and Nicholson, The dictionary of ancient Egypt (ref. 93), 277). The name given to the Sphinx at this time was Hor-em-akhet (Horus at the Horizon). Could there have been an association with the sun on the horizon extending back to the time of construction? The fact that the summer solstice sun sets between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre as viewed from the Sphinx Temple, thus forming a natural version of the akhet (“horizon”) sign (Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 130; Dash, “Solar alignments of Giza” (ref. 1)), gives some support to this idea. However, Lehner’s contention (The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 129–30) that the equinoctial sun sets in alignment with the Sphinx temple, the south side of the Sphinx, and the south side of Khafre’s pyramid is not true from the same position, since the closer horizon obscures the bottom corner of the pyramid (Belmonte, priv. comm., 2012); in any case, as already mentioned, there is no historical evidence of any interest whatsoever in the equinox among the ancient Egyptians.
114.
Unfortunately, the available data do not permit any direct comparison between Khafre’s valley temple and Khufu’s, the latter being lost beneath a modern village.
115.
LehnerMark, “The pyramid age settlement of the southern mount at Giza”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, xxxix (2002), 27–74.
116.
Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 138.
117.
Spence, “Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids” (ref. 22), fig. 1.
118.
Žába, L’orientation astronomique dans l’ancienne Égypte (ref. 11), 60 as translated by Isler, Sticks, stones and shadows (ref. 7), 174.
119.
Žába, L’orientation astronomique dans l’ancienne Égypte (ref. 11), 16f.
120.
IslerMartin, “The merkhet”, Varia Aegyptiaca, vii/1 (1991), 53–67, pp. 53–4.
121.
Lehner, The complete pyramids (ref. 2), 130; Dash, “Solar alignments of Giza” (ref. 1).
122.
Wells, “Astronomy in Egypt” (ref. 14), pp. 30–2.
123.
Cf. Shaltout et al., “On the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples: (3)” (ref. 4), 425.
