Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

16 The Pyramid of Light. [Oh.

division of light and darkness, we are standing
on the Equator, the equal divider of the earth
into the hemispheres of North and South, and
that we take up our position, say at the point
where it is cut by the meridian of Memphis,
close to the lake from whence flow the waters
of the life-giving river. At our feet is spread
the great plane, passing through the celestial
poles, and bounded by the Purple Arch which
encircles the floor of the starry dome. From
the midst of our Horizon on that day rises
the sun right upwards,* and at the summit of
his course, where day by day he equally divides
the heaven East and West, on that day alone
he equally divides also the Grand Arch, or
Grand Meridian, which rises transverse from
the same horizon, and stretches from pole
to pole of the azure depths. Then we shall

* The conception here described, though not explicitly
defined by our astronomers, is implicitly contained in the
terms Bight (or direct) Ascension, the mounting straight
upwards of the stars ; and Declination, or the falling off
on either side from the equinoctial plane.