DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0129
THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS, rig
were adding to the pyramid. When, as their work
continued, this passage opened out in the part of
the sloping side already completed, they could still
determine the meridian plane if they carried up a
passage through the masonry in such a direction as
to contain the rays from the pole-star after reflec-
tion at a horizontal surface, such as that of still
water. For a perpendicular to the surface of still
water is directed to the zenith, and the direct and
reflected rays from the star (due north) lie, there-
fore, in the meridian plane which passes through
the north and south points and through the zenith.
Now this is precisely what the pyramid builders
seem to have done, as is shown in fig. 5, the dimen-
sions of which are taken from Smyth's book, ' Our
Inheritance in the Great Pyramid.' A E is the long
slant passage, which for convenience we may call
the descending passage, Β c is an ascending pas-
sage of exactly the same character, which, therefore,
we might have presumed was intended for a simi-
lar purpose, even if the consideration of the natural
course which intelligent builders would have pur-
sued had not led us to expect to find precisely such
an ascending passage here. But it may be asked
how the reflected rays from the star were obtained ?
Nothing could have been simpler. The very same
process which had been applied in levelling would
were adding to the pyramid. When, as their work
continued, this passage opened out in the part of
the sloping side already completed, they could still
determine the meridian plane if they carried up a
passage through the masonry in such a direction as
to contain the rays from the pole-star after reflec-
tion at a horizontal surface, such as that of still
water. For a perpendicular to the surface of still
water is directed to the zenith, and the direct and
reflected rays from the star (due north) lie, there-
fore, in the meridian plane which passes through
the north and south points and through the zenith.
Now this is precisely what the pyramid builders
seem to have done, as is shown in fig. 5, the dimen-
sions of which are taken from Smyth's book, ' Our
Inheritance in the Great Pyramid.' A E is the long
slant passage, which for convenience we may call
the descending passage, Β c is an ascending pas-
sage of exactly the same character, which, therefore,
we might have presumed was intended for a simi-
lar purpose, even if the consideration of the natural
course which intelligent builders would have pur-
sued had not led us to expect to find precisely such
an ascending passage here. But it may be asked
how the reflected rays from the star were obtained ?
Nothing could have been simpler. The very same
process which had been applied in levelling would