DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0046
36 THE GREAT PYRAMID.
side faced the Ascendant, the southern faced the
Mid-heaven, the western faced the Descendant,
and the northern faced the Imum Cceli. Again,
we can understand that the architects would have
made a circuit of the base correspond in length
with the number of days in the year—a relation
which, according to Prof. P. Smyth, is fulfilled in
this manner, that the four sides contain one hun-
dred times as many pyramid inches as there are
days in the year. The pyramid inch, again, is
itself mystically connected with astronomical rela-
tions, for its length is equal to the five hundred
millionth part of the earth's diameter, to a degree
of exactness corresponding well with what we
might expect Chaldaean astronomers to attain.
Prof. Smyth, indeed, believes that it was exactly
equal to that proportion of the earth's polar dia-
meter—a view which would correspond with his
theory that the architects of the Great Pyramid
were assisted by divine inspiration; but what is
certainly known about the sacred cubit, which con-
tained twenty-five of these inches, corresponds
better with the diameter which the Chaldaean
astronomers, if they worked very carefully, would
have deduced from observations made in their
own country, on the supposition which they would
naturally have made that the earth is a perfect
side faced the Ascendant, the southern faced the
Mid-heaven, the western faced the Descendant,
and the northern faced the Imum Cceli. Again,
we can understand that the architects would have
made a circuit of the base correspond in length
with the number of days in the year—a relation
which, according to Prof. P. Smyth, is fulfilled in
this manner, that the four sides contain one hun-
dred times as many pyramid inches as there are
days in the year. The pyramid inch, again, is
itself mystically connected with astronomical rela-
tions, for its length is equal to the five hundred
millionth part of the earth's diameter, to a degree
of exactness corresponding well with what we
might expect Chaldaean astronomers to attain.
Prof. Smyth, indeed, believes that it was exactly
equal to that proportion of the earth's polar dia-
meter—a view which would correspond with his
theory that the architects of the Great Pyramid
were assisted by divine inspiration; but what is
certainly known about the sacred cubit, which con-
tained twenty-five of these inches, corresponds
better with the diameter which the Chaldaean
astronomers, if they worked very carefully, would
have deduced from observations made in their
own country, on the supposition which they would
naturally have made that the earth is a perfect