DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0159
THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS. 147
3300 B.C., when Alpha Centauri shone down the
smaller ascending passage in southing, the Pleiades
were about 58° only above the horizon when
southing, and therefore even more favourably ob-
servable from the great meridional gallery.
In passing I may note that at this time, about
3300 years before our era, the equinoctial point
(that is, the point where the sun passes north of
the equator, and the year begins according to the
old manner of reckoning) was midway between
the horns of the Bull. So that then, and then
alone, a poet might truly speak of spring as the
time—
Candidus auratis aperit quum cornibus annum
Taurus,
as Virgil incorrectly did (repeating doubtless some
old tradition) at a later time. Even Professor
Smyth notices the necessity that the Pyramid
Gallery should correspond in some degree with
such a date. ' For,' says he, ' there have been tra-
ditions for long, whence arising I know not, that
the seven overlappings of the Grand Gallery, so
impressively described by Professor Greaves, had
something to do with the Pleiades, those pro-
verbially seven stars of the primeval world,' only
that he considers the pyramid related to memorial,
L2
3300 B.C., when Alpha Centauri shone down the
smaller ascending passage in southing, the Pleiades
were about 58° only above the horizon when
southing, and therefore even more favourably ob-
servable from the great meridional gallery.
In passing I may note that at this time, about
3300 years before our era, the equinoctial point
(that is, the point where the sun passes north of
the equator, and the year begins according to the
old manner of reckoning) was midway between
the horns of the Bull. So that then, and then
alone, a poet might truly speak of spring as the
time—
Candidus auratis aperit quum cornibus annum
Taurus,
as Virgil incorrectly did (repeating doubtless some
old tradition) at a later time. Even Professor
Smyth notices the necessity that the Pyramid
Gallery should correspond in some degree with
such a date. ' For,' says he, ' there have been tra-
ditions for long, whence arising I know not, that
the seven overlappings of the Grand Gallery, so
impressively described by Professor Greaves, had
something to do with the Pleiades, those pro-
verbially seven stars of the primeval world,' only
that he considers the pyramid related to memorial,
L2