DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0110
loo THE GREAT PYRAMID.
for my own part I cannot see why we should do so
(most certainly we have no à priori reason for so
doing), we should have 26o 18' as about the required
angle of inclination, whence we should get about
3° 42' for the distance of the Pole-star of the pyra-
mid's time from the true pole of the heavens. The
difference may seem of very slight importance, and
I note that Professor Smyth passes it over as if it
really were unimportant ; but in reality it corre-
sponds to somewhat large time-differences.
In the year 2170 B.C., and again (last before
that) in the year 3350 B.c., and also for several
years on either side of those dates, a certain bright
star did look down that boring, or, more precisely,
could be seen by any one who looked up that bor-
ing, when the star was just below the pole in its cir-
cuit round that point. The star was a very impor-
tant one among the old constellations, though it has
since considerably faded in lustre, being no other
than the star Alpha of the constellation the Dragon,
which formerly was the polar constellation. For
hundreds of years before and after the dates 3350
and 2170 B.C., and during the entire interval between
those dates, no other star would at all have suited
the purposes of the builders of the pyramid ; so that
we may be tolerably sure this was the star they
employed. Therefore the boring, when first made,
for my own part I cannot see why we should do so
(most certainly we have no à priori reason for so
doing), we should have 26o 18' as about the required
angle of inclination, whence we should get about
3° 42' for the distance of the Pole-star of the pyra-
mid's time from the true pole of the heavens. The
difference may seem of very slight importance, and
I note that Professor Smyth passes it over as if it
really were unimportant ; but in reality it corre-
sponds to somewhat large time-differences.
In the year 2170 B.C., and again (last before
that) in the year 3350 B.c., and also for several
years on either side of those dates, a certain bright
star did look down that boring, or, more precisely,
could be seen by any one who looked up that bor-
ing, when the star was just below the pole in its cir-
cuit round that point. The star was a very impor-
tant one among the old constellations, though it has
since considerably faded in lustre, being no other
than the star Alpha of the constellation the Dragon,
which formerly was the polar constellation. For
hundreds of years before and after the dates 3350
and 2170 B.C., and during the entire interval between
those dates, no other star would at all have suited
the purposes of the builders of the pyramid ; so that
we may be tolerably sure this was the star they
employed. Therefore the boring, when first made,