260 replies to this topic

[the L]

Hello UMers,

Maybe it was discussed before in dozens thread about pyramids but I failed to found it.
Anyway,as I understood pyramids in Giza are align to true north.
Why?
I didnt found any logical idea.

Question hit me when I was reading this article
http://www.newscient...-precision.html

The tombs are aligned north-south with an accuracy of up to 0.05 degrees. How the Egyptians did this has been unclear. Today, you could align a building north-south by pointing the sides towards the pole star, which sits roughly at true north. However, a wobble in the Earth's axis of rotation (called precession), means that the positions of the stars changes gradually over time.In the third millennium BC, no star sat at the north pole.

Thanks.

Edited by Melo, 29 April 2012 - 07:18 PM.

[Conrad Clough]

perhaps they aligned them with the bank of the Nile, the Nile flows North, and perhaps it was just a coincidence that the angle was nearly true north at that point.

[kmt_sesh]

I wouldn't look at north as the important aspect, necessarily. More important in the Egyptian mind was east-west. East represented life and resurrection, and west death and the afterlife. The most important features of the Great Pyramid complex, for example, are the cultic temples arranged to the east, in which the soul of the deceased king was tended. The west end of the mortuary temple, which abuts the pyramid, featured the offering chapel and false door through which the king's soul could emerge to receive offerings.

As far as that goes, thinking in terms of north as predominant is a bit of cultural bias on the part of most of us Westerners. In the ancient Egyptian mind, south was more important than north. It was the direction from which the life-giving Nile flowed.

[Time Spy]

kmt_sesh, on 29 April 2012 - 10:45 PM, said:

I wouldn't look at north as the important aspect, necessarily. More important in the Egyptian mind was east-west. East represented life and resurrection, and west death and the afterlife. The most important features of the Great Pyramid complex, for example, are the cultic temples arranged to the east, in which the soul of the deceased king was tended. The west end of the mortuary temple, which abuts the pyramid, featured the offering chapel and false door through which the king's soul could emerge to receive offerings.

As far as that goes, thinking in terms of north as predominant is a bit of cultural bias on the part of most of us Westerners. In the ancient Egyptian mind, south was more important than north. It was the direction from which the life-giving Nile flowed.

Very good point Kmt.  The Nile was the life giving flood of the land.  It did indeed lapped at the paws of the Sphinx in those days, and it built a great nation.  Nevertheless, Ra crossed the sky each  night in order to keep peace throughout the land while in route to the west.  However Ra knew from experience there was life in the East or the West, however you decern the global displacement.  That life was a threat to them, while in those ancient days, far acoss the great seas, not evident or realized until many centuries later (although still misunderstood) Nevertheless, there were those who kept that peace and understanding, whether anyone can decipher the cartouches to resignated the fact, or just accept the seemingly obvious, though wrong in perspecive to historical reality.

Edited by Time Spy, 30 April 2012 - 01:16 AM.

[Conrad Clough]

kmt_sesh, on 29 April 2012 - 10:45 PM, said:

I wouldn't look at north as the important aspect, necessarily. More important in the Egyptian mind was east-west. East represented life and resurrection, and west death and the afterlife. The most important features of the Great Pyramid complex, for example, are the cultic temples arranged to the east, in which the soul of the deceased king was tended. The west end of the mortuary temple, which abuts the pyramid, featured the offering chapel and false door through which the king's soul could emerge to receive offerings.

As far as that goes, thinking in terms of north as predominant is a bit of cultural bias on the part of most of us Westerners. In the ancient Egyptian mind, south was more important than north. It was the direction from which the life-giving Nile flowed.

That makes a lot of sense actually... if you are orienting a square structure precisly east-west then by extension the other orientation of the building will be precisly north-south.

[Time Spy]

Yeah right, just north and south, simple as that.  Just because two and half million stones were layed precisely on top themselves with chambers and sharts for access into them were cut in presicion along the way, there is no reason to expect any other relative comparison, simple as that.  Right give me a break, when will we at least look to learn and then listen from history.  The construction of the alignement was PRECISELY, do yoiu hear me, PRECISELY to the arrangement of the constellation Orion.  Yes there was a reason, and yes they were ancient power absorbing rescipricators.  They were 'looking for the truth'. The History Channel is real good at 'weezing another's Gig', even if there synopisis is way of base.  I tried to them so, anyway...

The Pyramids produced electricty for a reason.  The power was accessed to reflect and harness the energy the Earth consumed and resolved as a reminder in respect to time, simple as that.   Nothing can be hidden from the eye of time, and it can be replayed in an entirety.  What you do today not only reflects that which will happen tomorrow, but more importantly the direction you will be taking next.  Life is a reflection of the present and it is what you make of it, so make it, and be careful what you wish for.  You just might get it.

There are those who have lived a thousand lives on sands of distant shores. while in other times and realms... tww

[ShadowSot]

Quote

. Just because two and half million stones

not quite.

Quote

layed precisely on top themselves

Nope.

Quote

chambers and sharts for access into them were cut in presicion along the way

I don't know how sharts work into it, but chambers usually are pretty well cut. And usually done fairly precisely when they are expected to be used.

Quote

there is no reason to expect any other relative comparison, simple as that

Except their mythology concerning their god king and the East and West side of the Nile.

Quote

The construction of the alignement was PRECISELY, do yoiu hear me, PRECISELY to the arrangement of the constellation Orion.

Except inverted and spaced out terribly. Oh, and onlyif youignore the satillite pyramids and the pyramid of that one pharoah which was later dissaembled and Kmt_Sesh willlashme for forgetting.

Quote

Yes there was a reason, and yes they were ancient power absorbing rescipricators.

Ah right. Limestone rock is good for that.

Quote

The power was accessed to reflect and harness the energy the Earth consumed and resolved as a reminder in respect to time, simple as that.

Ok, now you are blagerantly ripping off Terry Pratchett here, and not being good about it.
And seriously? History Channel? Owned by the same company that brought you Hannah Montana and Garage Wars?

Quote

New age koan.

  Nice koan there.

[Flibbertigibbet]

It's not difficult to determine due east. It's the direction the sun rises at the equinox.

[lightly]

Not to be disagreeable, as i'm just trying to understand .  So, while it's  true that the sun rises directly on the Equator, due east, at both Equinox..    wouldn't standing anywhere other than on the Equator, at equinox, make sunrise appear at an angle from due East?  

Whereas,  anywhere on earth, at Equinox, at precisely mid day, when that can be determined,  shadows point precisely North....  or South, depending on which hemisphere your in?

*

Edited by lightly, 30 April 2012 - 11:35 AM.

[Flibbertigibbet]

lightly, on 30 April 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:

Not to be disagreeable, as i'm just trying to understand .  So, while it's  true that the sun rises directly on the Equator, due east, at both Equinox.. wouldn't standing anywhere other than on the Equator, at equinox, make sunrise appear at an angle from due East?  

Whereas,  anywhere on earth, at Equinox, at precisely mid day, when that can be determined,  shadows point precisely North....  or South, depending on which hemisphere your in?

*

Just found something about it here. The sun rises due east at the equinoxes wherever on the earth you are.

http://earthsky.org/...-at-the-equinox

[lightly]

Flibbertigibbet, on 30 April 2012 - 11:57 AM, said:

Just found something about it here. The sun rises due east at the equinoxes wherever on the earth you are.

http://earthsky.org/...-at-the-equinox

Yes, it does.   ..But, as i said earlier "So, while it's true that the sun rises directly on the Equator, due east, at both Equinox.. wouldn't standing anywhere other than on the Equator, at equinox, make sunrise appear at an angle from due East?   

For instance, if we were standing at the north pole... would the sun rise due east of us?  
  The angle of it's rising , from our perspective , increases or decreases in relation to our Longitude?

Add the wobble of our earth on it's axis and all four directions, in relation to the sun, are ever changing and cyclical?    North and south circle about and east and west rise and fall?
  Which completely confounds me when considering the constancy of pyramid shadows and new grange winter solstice illuminations of it's interior.

[Flibbertigibbet]

lightly, on 30 April 2012 - 12:51 PM, said:

Yes, it does.   ..But, as i said earlier "So, while it's true that the sun rises directly on the Equator, due east, at both Equinox.. wouldn't standing anywhere other than on the Equator, at equinox, make sunrise appear at an angle from due East?   

For instance, if we were standing at the north pole... would the sun rise due east of us?  
  The angle of it's rising , from our perspective , increases or decreases in relation to our Longitude?

Add the wobble of our earth on it's axis and all four directions, in relation to the sun, are ever changing and cyclical? North and south circle about and east and west rise and fall?
  Which completely confounds me when considering the constancy of pyramid shadows and new grange winter solstice illuminations of it's interior.

No, it always appears due east at the point of sunrise, wherever you are. The angle you're thinking of means that it doesn't go up in a straight line, so it quickly moves away from due east, but at the moment of sunrise, it's due east of you, wherever you are. This is why ancient monuments like stone circles took great pains to pinpoint exactly which day the equinox was (which is easy enough over the space of a few years if you have permanent markers). The north pole is an exception only because the sun doesn't rise there at all at the equinox.

[Conrad Clough]

Quote

The north pole is an exception only because the sun doesn't rise there at all at the equinox.

Well that plus the fact that when you are literally standing at the north (or south) pole there is no 'East' all directions are South (or North).

[Karlis]

This website was the first one I came across in Google, explaining the alignments, etc.
Source: <http://www.cheops-pyramide.ch/khufu-pyramid/pyramid-alignment.html>

Thoughts about the information available there, and at its various links?

[Flibbertigibbet]

Conrad Clough, on 30 April 2012 - 01:33 PM, said:

Well that plus the fact that when you are literally standing at the north (or south) pole there is no 'East' all directions are South (or North).

Well yes, which is saying the same thing, in a different way. The sun rises in the east at the equinox. At the north pole there is no east, and therefore no sunrise at the equinox.