Astronomy and landscape in Ancient Egypt: Challenging the enigma of the minor step pyramids

Belmonte, Juan Antonio; Shaltout, Mosalam; Fekri, Magdi

doi:10.25145/j.tde.2005.04.01

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…(fig. 9)The orientation of the pyramid of Naqada, after Belmonte, shaltout and Fekri, 2005. fig 9The orientation of the Nubt pyramid after Swelim, CASAEII, 2005 In 2017, Manu Seyfzadeh, collected an important information, aimed to solve the mysterious of this pyramid, he proved that, the faces' alignments of the pyramid do not imitate the direction of the flow of the Nile around the island and this pyramid is not oriented to cardinal points, it is away from cardinal direction 17˚ towards the west, the eastern face indicate to 73˚azimuth, the southeast edge incline to 118˚2.…”

Section: Iii-3-the Pyramid Of Nbut (Ombos)mentioning

confidence: 99%

الإتجاه الفلکی للأهرامات السبعة الصغری

علي¹,

فکري²,

المهدي³

2021

مجلة کلیة السیاحة والفنادق - جامعة مدینة السادات

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The seven minor step pyramids are a group of small step pyramids, similar to the pyramids of the third dynasty, which are consisted of accretion layers, they were appeared as a several Mastabas above each other, all of them are smaller than the great giant pyramid of Djoser, but they are took the form of the step pyramids, but without funerary complex or surrounded walls suggested that these pyramids dates back to the 3rd dynasty, but without strong evidence confirming that. This research is clearing the orientation of the seven minor step pyramids to the four main cardinal points, also their alignment with the river Nile, their related to natural phenomenon and the relation with constellations as attempt to solve the enigma of this group.

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Section: Iii-3-the Pyramid Of Nbut (Ombos)mentioning

confidence: 99%

الإتجاه الفلکی للأهرامات السبعة الصغری

علي¹,

فکري²,

المهدي³

2021

مجلة کلیة السیاحة والفنادق - جامعة مدینة السادات

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“…31 Moreover, by embodying such an alignment, the temple was also perpendicular to the local course of the Nile. 32 The texts have shown that the Feast of Amun of Gematen was celebrated in Kawa on I Ahket 1, commemorating the inauguration of the temple in Wepet Renpet c. 680 B.C. 33 At that epoch, the declination of the sun was of the order of -16¾º.…”

Section: Orienting the Amun Templesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Orientation of Ancient Egyptian Temples: (5) Testing the Theory in Middle Egypt and Sudan

Belmonte

Fekri²,

Abdel-Hadi

et al. 2010

Journal for the History of Astronomy

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In a series of papers published in this journal in recent years, some of the authors, members of the Egyptian-Spanish Mission for the Archaeoastronomy of Ancient Egypt, have made a number of interesting discoveries relating to the way in which the ancient Egyptians might have orientated their sacred buildings.1 In Paper 4, the last of the papers and an overview, a simple theory was postulated, 2 according to which a series of facts were established that clearly connect temple orientation to the local landscape, landscape being understood to include both the earth and the sky. Hence simple astronomical patterns or families were basically defined in relation to the stations of the sun (solstitial, equinoctial or seasonal, notably New Year's Eve or Wepet Renpet), 3 the brightest stars of the Egyptian skies (notably Sirius, ancient Egyptian Sopdet) and the cardinal directions. On several occasions, these patterns were in agreement with local topographic landmarks such as the course of the Nile. We considered our sample of 330 alignments to be statistically representative beyond doubt, and we were convinced that new data would serve only to reinforce (or slightly modify) our results. The moment has now arrived to attempt to falsify this statement.Two experiments have been selected with this purpose. On the one hand, a new campaign, the sixth, was conducted in Egypt in December 2008 at the few temples of Middle Egypt and the Oasis of Fayum (see Figure 1) that for various reasons could not be measured in previous campaigns. 4 The idea was to complete the sample of Egyptian temples almost to exhaustion. On the other hand, a completely new experiment was designed using temples in Sudan. Data were obtained from high-resolution images of Google Earth, covering a vast area of the country (but not all of it), and, in those sectors where high-resolution images were not available, from good quality maps derived from the specialist literature. The idea in this case was to carry out a significant test of our theories with a completely independent set of temples -independent not only from the geographical point of view, but also because most of them belong to an independent culture, the Kingdom of Kush, although this was admittedly heavily influenced by Egyptian schemes and traditions. 5As in previous reports, we wish to stress clearly that we are not seeking alignments of extreme precision, but we aim rather to obtain a statistically significant sample of monuments where we can perform our archaeoastronomical analysis. Bearing this is mind, we made our own fieldwork measurements using a high precision compass JHA, xli (2010)

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Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient Egypt

Magli

2013

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This book examines the interplay between astronomy and dynastic power in the course of ancient Egyptian history, focusing on the fundamental role of astronomy in the creation of the pyramids and the monumental temple and burial complexes. Bringing to bear the analytical tools of archaeoastronomy, a set of techniques and methods that enable modern scholars to better understand the thought, religion and science of early civilizations, Giulio Magli provides in-depth analyses of the pyramid complexes at Giza, Abusir, Saqqara and Dahshur, as well as of the Early Dynastic necropolis at Abydos and the magnificent new Kingdom Theban temples. Using a variety of data retrieved from study of the sky and measurements of the buildings, he reconstructs the visual, symbolic and spiritual world of the ancient Egyptians and thereby establishes an intimate relationship among celestial cycles, topography and architecture. He also shows how they were deployed in the ideology of the pharaoh's power in the course of Egyptian history.

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Astronomy and landscape in Ancient Egypt: Challenging the enigma of the minor step pyramids

Cited by 6 publications

References 4 publications

الإتجاه الفلکی للأهرامات السبعة الصغری

الإتجاه الفلکی للأهرامات السبعة الصغری

On the Orientation of Ancient Egyptian Temples: (5) Testing the Theory in Middle Egypt and Sudan

Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient Egypt

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