DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0160
148 THE GREAT PYRAMID.
not observing astronomy ' of an earlier date than
Virgil.' The Pleiades also were not regarded as
belonging to Taurus, but as forming an inde-
pendent star group.
We have seen that the Great Pyramid is so
perfectly oriented as to show that astronomical
observations of great accuracy were made by its
architects. No astronomer can doubt this, for the
simple reason that every astronomer knows the
exceeding difficulty of the task which the archi-
tects solved so satisfactorily, and that nothing
short of the most careful observation would have
enabled the builders to secure anything like the
accuracy which, as a matter of fact, they did
secure. Many, not acquainted with the nature of
the problem, imagine that all the builders had to
do was to use some of those methods of taking
shadows, as, for instance, at solar noon (which has
to be first determined, be it noticed), or before and
after noon, noting when shadows are equal (which
is not an exact method, and requires considerable
care even to give what it can give—imperfect
orientation), and so forth. But to give the accu-
racy which the builders obtained, not only in the
orientation, but in getting the pyramid very close
to latitude 30o (which was evidently what "they
wanted), only very exact observations would serve.
not observing astronomy ' of an earlier date than
Virgil.' The Pleiades also were not regarded as
belonging to Taurus, but as forming an inde-
pendent star group.
We have seen that the Great Pyramid is so
perfectly oriented as to show that astronomical
observations of great accuracy were made by its
architects. No astronomer can doubt this, for the
simple reason that every astronomer knows the
exceeding difficulty of the task which the archi-
tects solved so satisfactorily, and that nothing
short of the most careful observation would have
enabled the builders to secure anything like the
accuracy which, as a matter of fact, they did
secure. Many, not acquainted with the nature of
the problem, imagine that all the builders had to
do was to use some of those methods of taking
shadows, as, for instance, at solar noon (which has
to be first determined, be it noticed), or before and
after noon, noting when shadows are equal (which
is not an exact method, and requires considerable
care even to give what it can give—imperfect
orientation), and so forth. But to give the accu-
racy which the builders obtained, not only in the
orientation, but in getting the pyramid very close
to latitude 30o (which was evidently what "they
wanted), only very exact observations would serve.