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Mid-Winter Solstice Celebration Holiday 2024 A fabulous holiday in Luxor visiting many ancient sites culminating in celebrating the mid-winter solstice at the magnificent temple of Queen Hatshepsut. 8th - 23rd December 2024: |
Egyptian TempleOrientationAstronomical Alignment in the Temples of Egyptby David Furlong Part 4C Karnak: (This article runs over six pages. To download the whole article in pdf format please click here) Stellar Alignments This part looks at the temples of Hathor at Denderah and Horus at Edfu Hathor Temple at Denderah (Plan 10) However there are two other possibilities. Firstly, as already mentioned, the extant temple was but the latest incarnation of other temples that have stood on this site. If we project back in time to the Middle Kingdom then other possibilities with orientations to the ‘Meskhetu’ become possible. Around 1400 bc a similar alignment to that suggested for the Mut temple would certainly have worked. Secondly, at the rear of the Hathor temple and orientated at 90 degrees to it lies the temple of Isis. The azimuth of this temple is 108º- 29’ and at 54 bc the star Sirius, so important to the Ancient Egyptians, would have been seen rising on the eastern horizon on the same azimuth. We therefore have three possible contenders for astronomical orientation for this temple. The most likely, particularly because it is backed up by textual evidence is that put forward in the SB study, namely the orientation to the re-emergence of Alkaid after its descent below the horizon. This is still, at best, an educated guess.
Horus Temple at Edfu (Plan 11) The problem with such an orientation is that there is no obvious astronomical fit. The ‘stretching of the cord’ ceremony, depicted on the temple walls, suggests an orientation towards Meskhetu or Ursa Major. Unlike the Denderah temple, where the reappearance of Alkaid could have set the alignment, nothing of a similar nature occurs on Edfu temple’s azimuth, for in this location Alkaid rises on an azimuth close to 17°. It is just possible that the bucket stars of Merak or Phad could have set the orientation, for, at this latitude, these stars also disappear or come very close to it, through atmospheric extinction. Of the two Merak is the most likely contender but this would be very difficult to demonstrate, with any certainty today. It is possible that the temple is orientated on some other basis that is now lost to us, or perhaps we need to look in a different direction for the orientation, possibly at right angles to the present main axis. Even here would require a jump back in time to make sense of a stellar alignment. Around 770 bc Betelgeuse, one of the main stars of Orion could be found descending on the western horizon on an azimuth of 272°. Going further back in time to the 2nd Intermediate period around 1700 bc this same star could be found rising towards the east on an azimuth of 93°. Neither of these alignments is very convincing. Topographically the Edfu temple is situated in level terrain, and runs very approximately parallel to a bend in the Nile some one kilometre away. The surrounding countryside is flat, so there are no obvious hills on which the temple is sighted. Its north/south axis is close to its twin temple of Hathor at Denderah but not sufficiently close to be an obvious match. These two temples were linked through ritual festivals that performed twice a year when the cults statues of the two deities were ferried to each others temple in form of sacred union.The entrance to the Horus temple faces towards the south, while the Hathor temple points to the north, the difference between the two entrances being about 164 degrees. We might surmise that the Horus association with the Sun logically determines the facing direction of the Edfu temple, whilst the sky goddess Hathor linked with Nut and the night sky is best placed facing north. This may be why there are so many astrological scenes within the Denderah temple, Whether there is some other long lost esoteric significance in the difference in the two azimuths we are unlikely to ever know. Frustratingly the Edfu temple does not appear to have any obvious clear alignments, excepting as stated and in this sense it is reminiscent of the Luxor temple. Yet because of the distance from the Nile it is difficult to see how the river could have been instrumental in the setting out of the temple. With the incredible skill and attention to detail shown in the Edfu temple it is hard to credit that the alignment was arbitrary. The most likely explanation is that the alignment was set from some subtle combination of the Meskhetu stars. Without further information this has to remain entirely speculative.
Other Stellar Orientated Sites: To return back to the begining of the article click back button Summary The temples studied here only scratch the surface in relation to the many extant temples in Egypt. Further work is required in this area, which fortunately now can be extensively done with the aid of computers. Computer Programmes Mapping Azimuth Calculator Plans
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All material copyright David Furlong 2013 |