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

MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

To show in detail how this purpose was fulfilled by the Great Pyramid is outside the province of this volume (it is fully described and illustrated in Davidson’s Great Pyramid, pp. 7-20), but we will give one instance since it explains and corroborates a characteristic to which attention has already been drawn.

We have pointed out that the Great Pyramid stands exactly at the centre of the arc which embraces the coastline of the Delta and within the limiting radii of which the Delta area lies. Now the north-east and north-west noon reflexions from the Great Pyramid fell precisely along these radii on 1st November, which marked the commencement of the sowing season, and at one time was regarded as the beginning of a new year. It was this function of the Pyramid as a huge sundial of the seasons, with its surface transformed into vast reflecting surfaces by the highly polished limestone which originally encased it, that gave it the name of the “ Lights ” amongst the ancient Egyptians, and we have also shown how this term likewise applies in its symbolic and allegorical aspect.

Again, in connection with its purpose as a sundial, we have corroboration in the Ritual, for we find therein a symbolic reason for its truncated summit whereby the sun was permitted to ‘‘ rest upon it with all its rays so that the building ‘‘ devoured its own shadow ”, that is to say, its noon shadow was “ swallowed” by the Pyramid masonry, or, in other words, the height of the sun at noon was such that, in conjunction with the slope of the north face, no shadow was cast by it. This condition lasted from 27th-28th February to 14th-15th October, and denoted the approach of the vernal equinox and the summer half of the year.

The Great Pyramid was thus similar to the gnomon of a sundial, and Pliny, it is interesting to note, refers to

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