The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

ASTRONOMICAL CONCEPTIONS

centre of the earth, and from both to the latitude of the Great Pyramid, an equilateral triangle will be formed, assuming, of course, that the earth is a perfect sphere.

This property is made clearer to the reader in the accompanying diagram, which represents the section of the earth between the North Pole (N) and the Equator (CE) in whichthe Great Pyramid lies (P). Then the arc NPE represents the meridian of the pyramid, and the angle ECP its latitude (30°), C being the centre of the earth. The angle PCN will therefore be 60°, and the triangle NPC equilateral; whence PN—distance of pyramid from the pole—will equal PC, its distance from the centre of the earth.

Stated in another way, this means that the pyramid was erected in that latitude where the true pole of the heavens is one-third of the distance from the horizon to the zenith (point overhead) ; and where the noon sun at spring and autumn equinoxes is two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith. The calculations involved, therefore, for an observing station in this particular latitude are considerably simplified. (Note that the above figure illustrating the geometry of the Pyramid’s position is merely our old friend, the first problem in Euclid.) (See Note V.)

The primary purpose, then, of the Great Pyramid, was astronomical, a time-recording device, and it was erected on a particular site, with its sides sloping at a particular, predetermined angle, in order to indicate, by the length and direction of the shadows and reflexions cast at noon, the annual recurrence of the principal astronomical and agricultural seasons. Such was the object of all early buildings, like Stonehenge and Avebury, and other circles ; what the latter did in a rough and ready fashion, the Great Pyramid did accurately and scientifically.

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