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

TOMB OR OBSERVATORY ?

passage leading to an underground chamber) of later builders copying the Great Pyramid just so far as they knew it, but without being acquainted—except, perhaps, in the case of the Second and Third Pyramids of Gizeh—as to the real reason for this precise position. The Second Pyramid alone compares with the Great Pyramid for accuracy of orientation, probably due to the fact that being commenced almost immediately after the former was finished the necessary skilled labour was still available. Yet even so, its accuracy is to some degree inferior, while the pyramid of Menkaura is far inferior, and the further we get away from the Great Pyramid the more pronounced is this inferiority, not only in setting out but in actual construction.

This brings us to a consideration of the astronomical observatory theory of the Great Pyramid, the chief exponent of which was an astronomer, the late Richard A. Proctor, at one time editor of Knowledge, and who propounded his views in various magazines, afterwards collected in a volume published in 1888, and entitled The Great Pyramid: Observatory, Tomb, and Temple (Longmans).

This writer, noting some of the objections referred to above to the exclusive tombic theory of the Great Pyramid, including the constant change in size and direction of its internal passages and chambers, and other peculiarities compared to other pyramids, advanced the thesis that “while certainly meant to be a tomb, it was obviously intended to serve as an observatory, though during the lifetime only of its builder, and was associated with religious observances.”

According to Mr. Proctor, the Great Pyramid was a huge astrological edifice, a gigantic horoscope for Khufu, and him only, which, after his death, was closed in and

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