DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0134
124 THE GREAT PYRAMID.
acceptable to pyramidalists, who prefer to believe
that the labours of the pyramid builders were
readily be enlarged in a vertical direction, the. floor remaining un-
altered. Since it is not enlarged until the great gallery is reached
(at a distance of nearly 127 feet from the place where the ascent
begins), it follows, or is at least rendered highly probable, that
some bright star was in view through that ascending passage.
Now, taking the date 2170 b.c., which Professor Smyth assigns to
the beginning of the Great Pyramid, or even taking any date (as we
fairly may), within a century or so on either side of that date, we
find no bright star which would have been visible when due south,
through the ascending passage. I have calculated the position of
that circle among the stars along which lay all the points passing
26o 18' above the horizon when due south, in the latitude of Ghizeh,
2170 years before the Christian era; and it does not pass near a
single conspicuous star. There is only one fourth magnitude star
which it actually approaches—namely, Epsilon Ceti ; and one fifth
magnitud, star, Beta of the Southern Crown. When we remember
that Egyptologists almost without exception assert that the date of
the building of the pyramid must have been more than a thousand
years earlier than 2170 B.C., and that Bunsen has assigned to Menés
the date 3620 B.c., while the date 3300 B.c. has been assigned to
Cheops or Suphis on apparently good authority, we are led to
inquire whether the other epoch when Alpha Draconis was at
about the right distance from the pole of the heavens may not have
been the true era of the commencement of the Great Pyramid. Now,
the year 3300 B.c., though a little late, would accord fairly well
with the time when Alpha Draconis was at the proper distance 3§°
from the pole of the heavens. If the inclination of the entrance
passage is 26o 27', as Professor Smyth made it, the exact date for
this would be 3390 B.C. ; if 26° 40', as others made it before his
measurements, the date would be about 3320 B.c., which would suit
well with the date 3300 B.c., since a century either way would only
carry the star about a third of 0 degree towards or from the pole.
Now, when we inquire whether in the year 3300 B.C. any bright
star would have been visible, at southing, through the ascending
passage, we find that a very bright star indeed, an orb otherwise
acceptable to pyramidalists, who prefer to believe
that the labours of the pyramid builders were
readily be enlarged in a vertical direction, the. floor remaining un-
altered. Since it is not enlarged until the great gallery is reached
(at a distance of nearly 127 feet from the place where the ascent
begins), it follows, or is at least rendered highly probable, that
some bright star was in view through that ascending passage.
Now, taking the date 2170 b.c., which Professor Smyth assigns to
the beginning of the Great Pyramid, or even taking any date (as we
fairly may), within a century or so on either side of that date, we
find no bright star which would have been visible when due south,
through the ascending passage. I have calculated the position of
that circle among the stars along which lay all the points passing
26o 18' above the horizon when due south, in the latitude of Ghizeh,
2170 years before the Christian era; and it does not pass near a
single conspicuous star. There is only one fourth magnitude star
which it actually approaches—namely, Epsilon Ceti ; and one fifth
magnitud, star, Beta of the Southern Crown. When we remember
that Egyptologists almost without exception assert that the date of
the building of the pyramid must have been more than a thousand
years earlier than 2170 B.C., and that Bunsen has assigned to Menés
the date 3620 B.c., while the date 3300 B.c. has been assigned to
Cheops or Suphis on apparently good authority, we are led to
inquire whether the other epoch when Alpha Draconis was at
about the right distance from the pole of the heavens may not have
been the true era of the commencement of the Great Pyramid. Now,
the year 3300 B.c., though a little late, would accord fairly well
with the time when Alpha Draconis was at the proper distance 3§°
from the pole of the heavens. If the inclination of the entrance
passage is 26o 27', as Professor Smyth made it, the exact date for
this would be 3390 B.C. ; if 26° 40', as others made it before his
measurements, the date would be about 3320 B.c., which would suit
well with the date 3300 B.c., since a century either way would only
carry the star about a third of 0 degree towards or from the pole.
Now, when we inquire whether in the year 3300 B.C. any bright
star would have been visible, at southing, through the ascending
passage, we find that a very bright star indeed, an orb otherwise