FURTHER INQUIRIES WITH REGARD TO THE STELLAR TEMPLES.
In the preceding chapter I discussed the suggestion, quite
independently of any records the Egyptians may have left on the
subject, that certain of the temples were oriented to stars; and I
applied one test, that, namely, of the change of direction which was
imperative if stars were observed for any lengthened period. In such an
inquiry we must proceed with great caution.
We cannot make a statement regarding every particular temple with
absolute certainty, for the reason that in the case of most of the
temples the best Egyptologists cannot give us the most precious
piece of information which we require from the astronomical point of
view--that is, the date of the _foundation_ of the temple. If in the
case of these temples it were absolutely certain that each temple was
built at a certain time with a certain orientation, we could tell at
once whether or not that temple was pointed to any particular star.
In the absence of this precise information a general attack on the
question has been necessary. The method adopted in the search has been
as follows:--
(1) To tabulate the orientations of some of the chief temples described
by the French Commission, by Lepsius and others.
Several interesting facts were soon revealed by this tabulation.
The first point that I have to note is that, in the case of some of
these temples, we get the same, or nearly the same, amplitudes in
different localities. To show this clearly it will be convenient to
compare together the chief temples near Karnak and those having the
same amplitudes elsewhere. We can do this by laying down along a circle
the different amplitudes to which these various temples point. To begin
with and to make the story complete, I draw attention to the temples
which we have already discussed with an amplitude of 27°, or 26°, at
Thebes, Karnak, and elsewhere. These, of course, are solar temples.
Next we have non-solar amplitudes at Karnak and Thebes, associated with
temples having the same amplitude at Denderah, Annu, and other places.
Another point is that we have the majority of the non-solar temples
removed just as far as they can be in amplitude from the solar ones,
for the reason that they are as nearly as possible _at right angles_ to
them, so that if the sun were observed in one temple and a star in the
other, there would be a difference of 90° between the position of the
sun and the position of the star at that moment. This would, of course,
apply also to two stars. Sometimes this rectangular arrangement is in
the same temple, as at Karnak, sometimes in an adjacent one, as at
Denderah.
If we study Denderah we find that we have there a large temple enclosed
in a square _temenos_ wall, the sides of which are parallel to the
sides of the temple; and also a little temple at right angles to the
principal one.
It is hardly fair to say that a rectangular arrangement, repeated in
different localities, is accidental; it is one which is used to some
extent in our modern observatories.
The perpetual recurrence of these rectangular temples shows, I think,
that there was some definite view in the minds of those who built all
the pairs of temples which are thus related to each other; what that
view was I shall endeavour to discuss in the sequel.
A third circumstance is that, when we get some temples pointing a
certain number of degrees south of east, we get other temples pointing
the same number of degrees south of west, so that some temples may
have been used to observe risings and others settings of stars in
the same declination. It is then natural, of course, to suggest that
these temples were arranged to observe the rising and setting of the
same stars; but further inquiry has shown that there are mythological
objections to this explanation.
Finally, we have temples with the same amplitudes high north and
high south, in different places--temples which could not have been
built with reference to the sun; just as we have at different places
temples with the same amplitudes which _could_ have been used for solar
purposes.
* * * * *
(2) To extend and check some of these observations with special
reference to my new point of view in Egypt itself.
In connection with the possible astronomical uses of these temples,
I find that when one of the temples has been built, the horizon
has always been very carefully left open; there has always been a
possibility of vision along the collimating axis prolonged. Lines of
sphinxes have been broken to ensure this;[44] at Medînet-Habû, on the
opposite side of the river to Karnak, we have outside this great temple
a model of a Syrian fort. If we prolong the line of the temple from
the middle of the Naos through the systems of pylons, we find that in
the model of the fort an opening was left, so that the vision from the
sanctuary of the temple was left absolutely free to command the horizon.
It may be said that that cannot be true of Karnak, because we see on
the general plan that one of the temples, with an azimuth of 72½°N.,
had its collimating axis blocked by numerous buildings. That is true;
but when one comes to examine into the date of these buildings, as I
propose to do in a subsequent chapter, it is found that they are all
very late; whereas there is evidence that the temple in question was
one of the first, if not the very first, of the temples built at Thebes.
* * * * *
(3) To determine the declinations to which the various amplitudes
correspond. In this direction I have made use of the German Catalogue
of star places from 1800 A.D. to 2000 B.C., the places for dates beyond
this, and for southern stars, having been calculated chiefly by my son,
Mr. W. J. S. Lockyer, B.A.
Some places for Sirius and Canopus have been obligingly placed at my
disposal by Mr. Hind, and approximate values obtained by the use of a
precessional globe constructed for me by Mr. Newton. This globe differs
considerably from that previously contrived by M. Biot, about which
I was ignorant when I began the work, and enables right ascensions
and declinations, but especially the latter, to be determined with a
fair amount of accuracy for forty-eight equidistant points occupied by
the pole of the equator round the pole of the ecliptic (assumed to be
fixed) in the precessional revolution.
Some simple astronomical considerations may here come to our help. If
the north polar distance of a star is increasing--that is, if a star
is increasing its distance from the north pole--its declination if
north or south will be decreased or increased respectively, and the
orientation of the temple would be gradually becoming more and more
parallel to an E. and W. line; if the declination north or south of the
star be increasing, then the orientation of the temple would have to be
likewise increased. The change in the orientation, therefore, gives us
information towards determining in which quarter of the heavens each
particular star might have been.
* * * * *
(4) In cases where the date of the foundation of a temple dedicated
to a particular divinity has been thoroughly known, there was no
difficulty in finding the star the declination of which at the time
would give the amplitude; and, in the case of series of temples
dedicated to the same divinity, an additional check was afforded if the
changes of amplitude from the latest to the newest temple agreed with
the changes of the declinations of the same star.
* * * * *
(5) Having the declinations of the stars thus determined for certain
epochs, I have next plotted them on curves, showing the amplitude for
any year up to 5000 B.C. at Thebes for a true horizon and when the
horizon is raised 1° or 2° by hills or mist; and, finally, a table has
been prepared showing the declination proper to the amplitude of each
of the chief temples when the needful information was available.
Although, however, these matters can be discussed in a way that will
indicate that the inquiry is raised, I do not wish for one moment to
speak of it as being settled, because the observations which have
been made already in Egypt with regard to the orientation of these
temples have not been made from such a very special point of view; and,
further, considerable alteration in the amplitude would be made by the
presence of even a low range of hills miles away in the case of stars
rising or setting not many degrees from the north or south. No one
would care to make the assertion with absolute definiteness until it
was known whether or not the horizon in each case was interfered with
by hills or any intervening objects--was or was not one, in fact, which
might be regarded as a sea horizon from the point of observation; if
there were impediments, the angular height of them must, of course, be
exactly known; but this information is almost entirely lacking.
Now, however, that the question has been raised by observations of the
temples themselves, it becomes interesting to ask of the inscriptions
if there are records that these temples were directed to stars?
It will be seen in the next chapter that the inscriptions give out no
uncertain sound on this point.