Proctor, Richard A.: The Great Pyramid: observatory, tomb, and temple (New York, 1883)

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 37

globe, not compressed at the poles. It is not,
indeed, at all certain that the sacred cubit bore any
reference to the earth's dimensions ; but this seems
tolerably well made out—that the sacred cubit was
about twenty-five inches in length, and that the
circuit of the pyramid's base contained a hundred
inches for every day of the year. Relations such
as these are precisely what we might expect to
find in buildings having an astrological signifi-
cance. Similarly, it would correspond well with
the mysticism of astrology that the pyramid
should be so proportioned as to make the height
be the radius of a circle whose circumference would
equal the circuit of the pyramid's base. Again,
that long slant tunnel, leading downwards from
the pyramid's northern face, would at once find
a meaning in this astrological theory. The slant
tunnel pointed to the pole-star of Cheops's time
when due north below the true pole of the heavens.
This circumstance had no observational utility. It
could afford no indication of time, because a pole-
star moves very slowly, and the pole-star of
Cheops's day must have been in view through that,
tunnel for more than an hour at a time. But,
apart from the mystical significance which an
astrologer would attribute to such a relation, it
may be shown that this slant tunnel is precisely