DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0135
APPENDIX.
107
The base of the three Pyramids, south of the Third, are lower
than the base of the Third, 16 ft. 8 in.
The bases of the three Pyramids east of the Great Pyramid,
appear to be on a level with it.
The Second Pyramid is about 400 ft. to the south of the Great
Pyramid.
The Third Pyramid is about 750 ft. to the soutli of the Second.
Sir John Her solid's Observations on the Entrance Passages in the
Pyramids of Gizeh.
Four thousand years ago, the present polar star, a Ursae
Minoris, could by no possibility have been seen at any time in the
twenty-four hours through the gallery in the Great Pyramid, on
account of the precession of the equinoxes; which, at that time,
would have displaced every star in the heavens, from its then ap-
parent position on the sphere by no less a quantity than 55° 45'
of longitude, and would have changed all the relations of the con-
stellations to the diurnal sphere.
The supposed date of the pyramid, 2123 years B.C., added to
our present date, 1S39, form 3962 years (say 4000), and the effect
of the precession on the longitudes of the stars in that interval
having been to increase them all by the above-named quantity, it
will follow that the pole of the heavens at the erection of the
pyramid must have stood very near to the star a Draconis, that
is 2° 51' 15" from it to the westward, as we should now call it;
a Draconis was therefore at that time the polar star; and as it is
comparatively insignificant, and only of the third magnitude, if
so much,0 it can scarcely be supposed that it could have been seen
Jn the daytime even in the climate of Gizeh, or even from so
dark a recess as the inclined entrance of the Great Pyramid. A
latitude, however, of 30°, and a polar distance of the star in ques-
tion of 2° 51' 15* would bring it at its lower culmination to an
altitude of 27° 91', and therefore it would have been directly in
view of an observer stationed in the descending passage—the
opening of w hich, as seen from a point sixty-three feet within,
would, by calculation, subtend an angle of 7° 7 ; and even from
the bottom near the sepulchral chamber would still appear of at
least 2° in breadth. In short, speaking as in ordinary parlance, the
0 In the catalogue of (lie Astronomical Society, the magnitude of a Draconis is
stated as intermediate between the third and fourth. It is certainly inferior to the
third ; and it is to be observed, that there is not any larger star near it, which could
at that epoch have been preferred as a pole star.
107
The base of the three Pyramids, south of the Third, are lower
than the base of the Third, 16 ft. 8 in.
The bases of the three Pyramids east of the Great Pyramid,
appear to be on a level with it.
The Second Pyramid is about 400 ft. to the south of the Great
Pyramid.
The Third Pyramid is about 750 ft. to the soutli of the Second.
Sir John Her solid's Observations on the Entrance Passages in the
Pyramids of Gizeh.
Four thousand years ago, the present polar star, a Ursae
Minoris, could by no possibility have been seen at any time in the
twenty-four hours through the gallery in the Great Pyramid, on
account of the precession of the equinoxes; which, at that time,
would have displaced every star in the heavens, from its then ap-
parent position on the sphere by no less a quantity than 55° 45'
of longitude, and would have changed all the relations of the con-
stellations to the diurnal sphere.
The supposed date of the pyramid, 2123 years B.C., added to
our present date, 1S39, form 3962 years (say 4000), and the effect
of the precession on the longitudes of the stars in that interval
having been to increase them all by the above-named quantity, it
will follow that the pole of the heavens at the erection of the
pyramid must have stood very near to the star a Draconis, that
is 2° 51' 15" from it to the westward, as we should now call it;
a Draconis was therefore at that time the polar star; and as it is
comparatively insignificant, and only of the third magnitude, if
so much,0 it can scarcely be supposed that it could have been seen
Jn the daytime even in the climate of Gizeh, or even from so
dark a recess as the inclined entrance of the Great Pyramid. A
latitude, however, of 30°, and a polar distance of the star in ques-
tion of 2° 51' 15* would bring it at its lower culmination to an
altitude of 27° 91', and therefore it would have been directly in
view of an observer stationed in the descending passage—the
opening of w hich, as seen from a point sixty-three feet within,
would, by calculation, subtend an angle of 7° 7 ; and even from
the bottom near the sepulchral chamber would still appear of at
least 2° in breadth. In short, speaking as in ordinary parlance, the
0 In the catalogue of (lie Astronomical Society, the magnitude of a Draconis is
stated as intermediate between the third and fourth. It is certainly inferior to the
third ; and it is to be observed, that there is not any larger star near it, which could
at that epoch have been preferred as a pole star.