Astronomical Alignments of Ancient Structures

Astronomical
Alignments of
Ancient Structures




i have grasped the stake... I take the measuring cord in the company of Seshat. I consider the progressive movements of the stars. My eye is fixed upon the Bull's Thigh [Ursa Major]. I count off time ..... and establish the corners of the Temple'.

Inscription from the Temple of Horus at Edfu

Great is the recital, the history of the time when all the corners of the sky and earth were completed, and the quadrangulation, its measure, the four points, the measuring of the corners, the measuring of the lines, in heaven, in earth, at the four corners'

From the Mayan text of The Popul Vuh



The majority of ancient sites exhibit amazingly precise astronomical alignments.
In the following articles we present examples of such alignments, reveal reasons behind them, and suggest the most likely methods used by ancient builders to orient their pyramids and temples.

Introduction

Many ancient ruins demonstrate that the people who constructed them had not only a special regard for celestial bodies and mathematics, but also a spot-on accuracy. From Egypt to Mexico, there is no doubt that past civilizations were involved in incredibly complex space calculations, mathematics and architectural endeavors. Although many historians and archaeologists debate exactly what these civilizations did intentionally and what they did by mere chance, here are a few examples of how ancient architecture was created with mathematics and the cosmos in mind.

Read more >>

Contents

Surveyors of the Ancient World

Mysterious alignment of ancient sites of the world

Archaeoastronomy

Archaeoastronomy - Introduction

Mesoamerican Archaeoastronomy

Calendars: Using the summer solstice
to calibrate the secular calendar

Egyptian Archaeoastronomy

The astronomical ceiling from Senenmut's tomb

Dendera's Zodiac

Appendix 1: Angular Coordinates


Astronomically aligned ancient structures - Examples

Nabta in the Nubian Desert

Stonehenge, England

Egyptian Pyramids

Teotihuacán, Mexico

Edzná, Mexico

Chichen-Itza, Mexico

Zempoala, Mexico

Tikal, Guatemala


Methods of Finding Cardinal Points:

the stars

the sun (using obelisks)

magnetic compass

Northern Star


PRECESSION and other fluctuations in Earth's Orbit

Orienting Egyptian Pyramids

Solar and Stellar methods of finding Cardinal Points

Stretching the cord ceremony - Goddess Seshat

How the ancient Egyptians aligned their pyramids?


Obelisks

Links and Resources

Surveyors of the Ancient World




I have grasped the stake... I take the measuring cord in the company of Seshat. I consider the progressive movements of the stars. My eye is fixed upon the Bull's Thigh [Ursa Major]. I count off time ..... and establish the corners of the Temple.

The above text is an inscription from the Temple of Horus at Edfu accompanying the relief showing "Stretching the Cord" Ceremony.



The Pharaoh and the Goddess Seshat, planting stakes linked by
a looped rope, participate in the 'Stretching the Cord' ceremony.

A Great Circle drawn through the celestial poles divides the sky, marking out a point on the celestial equator from which measurement can begin. This is what is meant by 'Stretching the Cord', creating the first path across the trackless waste.
The Mayan celebration of the establishment of creation is a description of the process of surveying the world:

'Great is the recital, the history of the time when all the corners of the sky and earth were completed, and the quadrangulation, its measure, the four points, the measuring of the corners, the measuring of the lines, in heaven, in earth, at the four corners' (From the Mayan text of The Popul Vuh)

A more recent translation makes this even clearer; 'The fourfold siding, fourfold cornering, measuring, fourfold staking, halving the cord, stretching the cord in the sky, on the earth, / the four sides, the four corners as it is said '

The pillars which support the sky are to be regarded as benchmarks, boundary stones put down to enable an order to be imposed upon chaos, and a measure to be made of the earth. However, it should be apparent after all this discussion of the 'corners of the earth', that it is not the earth we walk about on that is of concern here. This particular 'earth' is not only square but flat. Exactly what this means will soon become clear. We should recall that it is the matter of Time that is being measured in this surveying process. This is the process that the prophet Enoch describes when, during his vision he asks his guide to explain the actions of the angels they see:

'Wherefore have they taken those long ropes and gone forth? He said 'They are gone forth to measure. These measures shall reveal all the secrets of the depths of the earth' (Book of Enoch ch. LX v. 2-6)
The process these Angels were going forth to conduct must have been similar to that ceremony which in Egypt was known as 'stretching the rope' and which accompanied the commencement of any building project, thus relating its construction to the original founding of the earth.
In the Old Testament Book of Job, God challenges Job to answer:

'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? ..Who decided the dimensions of it... or who stretched the measuring line across it? What supports its pillars at their bases? (Jerusalem Bible tr.)'
This process of surveying the foundations of creation reappears in the verses of the Rig Veda which tell how Varuna made fast the earth and heaven, and here we are told specifically that he did so by using the sun as a measure, and as a commentary on these verses points out, 'we must take this measure as a measuring line'.

As if to emphasise the importance of this role of surveying, the Chinese deities responsible for creation come equipped with compass and plumbline.
What all this means is that the 'bindings' which hold heaven and earth together are to be taken also as plumblines which stretch out the measures of creation across the circle of the stars. It is a particular state of order that is being held fast.
Representations of the cosmos constructed in this way appear again and again, often in unlikely places.

An elemental one is the rectilinear cross which appears on the English flag ( the Royal Orb is a more complete image, including as it does the spherical universe bounded by the cross). Another more detailed example from China comes in the form of a series of mirrors known as the TVL mirrors, because of their decorative patterns, described as follows:

'The four T's that stand around the square earth are the four cardinal points. These lie at the extremities of the two cosmic lines or ropes which cross the universe and hold it together; the T's comprise a vertical prop which supports a horizontal beam; the four V's mark the four corners of heaven. The four L's represent devices used by carpenters to set a straight line...thus they symbolize the ends of the two cosmic lines as if they had been drawn with the help of such an instrument.'
[Related link: http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/ATAM/archaeometallurgy/chimir.html ]



Bronze Mirror, 7th Century


For the Maya people today this kind of creation is still repeated as part of ceremonies to restore the correct balance of the world. David Freidel describes a ceremony he witnessed to bring to an end a prolonged drought. The officiant (referred to as h-men, 'a do-er') constructed an altar known as a 'sky-tree'. A table is overarched by four saplings bent to intersect above its centre. From this intersection is hung a circular platform referred to as the 'the sky-platform' .
'Sturdy vines of a kind called xtab ka'anil, 'the 'cords of the sky', completed the arches to form the 'sky tree'. In the Yukatek language, the words for 'sky' and the number 'four' are near homophones and frequently substitute for each other in the ancient writing system'.

Source: http://www.mythofcreation.co.uk/CreationText/Creation4_1text.htm

Related Links (this section):

Ancient ritual ceremony and Geometry
http://www.crystalinks.com/seshat.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/thoth.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/pyramidegypt2.html
http://www.seshat.ch/home/egypt1.htm
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/karnak5.htm
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/karnak10.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi70.htm
http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/ATAM/archaeometallurgy/chimir.html
http://www.recoveredscience.com/const201seshathempmath.htm
http://www.mythofcreation.co.uk/CreationText/Creation4_1text.htm
Ancient Surveyors
Alignment of
ancient sites

Archaeoastronomy Examples Finding
Cardinal Points
PRECESSION Orienting
Egyptian Pyramids Obelisks Links and Resources
Mysterious Alignment of Ancient Sites of the World







The sites: Giza, Siwa, Tassili n'Ajjer, Paratoari, Ollantaytambo, Machupicchu, Nazca, Easter Island, Aneityum Island, Preah Vihear, Sukhothai, Pyay, Khajuraho, Mohenjo Daro, Persepolis, Ur, Petra are shown clockwise from Giza on the equal azimuthal projection. below. The projection is centered on the axis point in southeastern Alaska. Distances to any location from the center of an equal azimuthal projection are equally scaled. Since all of the sites on the great circle alignment are equally distant from the axis point at one quarter of the circumference of the earth, the alignment forms a perfect circle halfway between the center and the outer edge of the projection.



The locations of world's ancient sites on a global scale is puzzling on its own. However, our discussion is focused on astronomical alignments of these sites and their monuments.