Thompson, Joseph P.: Photographic views of Egypt, past and present (Boston, 1854)

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egypt, past and present.

neousness of certain kings, and in the order of succession
he gives to the early Pharaohs."

The value of the tropical cycle is in fixing with accu-
racy the date of an early Pharaoh. This is a lunisolar
cycle of fifteen hundred years. The hieroglyphical signs of
the conjunction of the vernal equinox with the new moon,
occur twice upon the Egyptian monuments. The first
instance is, in the reign of Amenemha II. ■—■ the second
king of Manetho's twelfth dynasty — which, from the monu-
ments, can only be approximated to the year 2000, e. c.
The second is in the reign of Amasis, the last monarch of
the twenty-sixth dynasty, or " when Egypt was a province
of the Persian empire under Darius Hystaspes, b. c. 507."

This second epoch is well known, being but half a cen-
tury prior to the visit of Herodotus to Egypt, and less than
two hundred years before Manetho. Now Mr. Airy, the
astronomer royal at Greenwich, by strictly astronomical
calculations has ascertained that " the new moon of March,
b. c. 506, fell on the 28th day of that month, and the true
vernal equinox on the preceding day; and that the new
moon of April, b. c. 2005, fell on the 8th day of that
month, and the true vernal equinox fell on the preceding
day." Here, then, the sun and moon, set for . signs and for
seasons, and for days and years, answer as faithful wit-
nesses to the sculptured stone, and fix the date of Ame-
nemha II., the beginning of the first lunisolar cycle of
Egyptian chronology, in the year b. c. 2005.

In like manner, by a careful calculation, Mr. Poole veri-
fies the Calendar of Panegyries, and fixes the date of
Menes, — the beginning of the Egyptian monarchy, —
when this cycle of festivals had its origin, in the year
b. c. 2717.