“Art thou not aware, O Asclepios, that Egypt is the image of heaven,
or rather, that it is the projection below of the order of things above?”
— Hermes Trismegistus

 

THE ANCHOR OF THE WORLD
Did the Pyramid Builders of the Old Kingdom use the Pole of the Ecliptic?

By Robert G. Bauval

A new study suggests that the Giza Pyramids might have been deliberately 'anchored' to the pole of the ecliptic at two distinct epochs by making use of certain stars, of religious importance to the Pyramid Builders, found in the circumpolar and non-circumpolar constellations. Such a hypothesis fortifies the possibility that the Pyramid Builders of Egypt were aware of the Precession of the Equinoxes.

AWARENESS OF PRECESSION?

There has been an ongoing heated debate between researchers in archaeoastronomy and Egyptologists as to whether the ancient pyramid builders of Egypt were aware of the phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. In simple and brief terms, the precession of the equinoxes is the result of a very slow wobble-like gyration of the earth that takes around 26,000 years. The 'discovery' of the precession of the equinoxes is attributed to the Alexandrian-Greek astronomer Hipparchus in around 130 BC, and Egyptologists and historians in general totally reject the idea that the Egyptians might have known of the phenomenon thousands of years before. This view was recently voiced again in the international press based on the content of an article in the journal Nature by Dr. Kate Spence, an Egyptologist from Cambridge University [1].

Contrary to popular opinion, the apparent effect of precession is quite noticeable in the sky across a few centuries, as there is considerable change in the position of stars that can be easily picked up by naked-eye observations. Indeed, Philip Morrison of MIT noted that to discover precession requires only a tree (solar gnomon) and faith in the veracity of one's grandfather (an oral record). Thus over the 700 years or so that led from the formation of the ancient Egyptian civilisation in c. 3200 BC to the start of the 4^th Dynasty in c. 2500 BC, the rising place (known in astronomy as the azimuth) of stars such as, say, those in Orion's belt, would have changed by as much as 3° on the horizon, and as much as 2.5° at culmination on the meridian. This alone has led many modern researchers to remark that it would have been unlikely for a people like the ancient Egyptians, who were very keen and avid observers of the sky and stars, not to be aware of the precessional shift, even though they might not have understood its underlying cause or have been able to compute it mathematically [2]. In 1894 the British astronomer, Sir Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), the 'father of archaeoastronomy', brought further evidence in support of this view, in his book The Dawn of Astronomy (1894), when he demonstrated that the ancient Egyptians' aligned their temples to stars rising in the east and often changed the alignment of the temple in order to take into account the drift caused by precession. Athough Lockyer was largely ignored by the Egyptologists, a century later the same findings were reported by the American astronomer R.A. Wells for temples such as the Satet temple of Isis on Elephantine Island in Upper Egypt [3]. It was not until 1964 that Lockyer's findings prompt the well-known MIT professor Giorgio de Santillana to conclude that:

"When a stellar temple is oriented so accurately that it requires several reconstructions at intervals of a few centuries, which involved each time the rebuilding of its narrow alignment on a star, and the wrecking of the main symmetry that goes with it; when Zodiacs, like that of Denderah, are deliberately depicted in the appearance they would have had centuries before, as if to date the changes, then it is not reasonable to suppose the Egyptians were unaware of the precession of the equinoxes, even if their mathematics was unable to predict it numerically. Lockyer let the facts speak for themselves, but it is he who has given the proof. Actually, the Egyptians do describe the Precession, but in a language usually written off as mythological or religious." [4]

There are several astronomers who are open to the idea that the ancient Egyptians knew of precession [5], but as far as I can tell, the only Egyptologist who openly supports Santillana's view is the American scholar Jane B. Sellers [6]. The rest either choose to ignore it or attempt to disprove and discredit this idea at every opportunity [7]. It is well-known that my colleague Graham Hancock and I fully endorse Santillana's views, and that we have also argued that the pyramid builders of Giza not only were aware of Precession but also incorporated its principles in their architecture for religious and ritual purposes [8]. In this present article I will review another aspect of the Old Kingdom pyramids which also demonstrates this fact, but from a totally different and new viewpoint.

 

THE POLE OF THE ECLIPTIC

The Earth tilts some 23° 26' from the plane of the ecliptic. This angle, however, changes fractionally in cycles of 40,000 years from a minimum of about 22° 6' to a maximum of about 24° 30' due to a phenomenon known as the obliquity of the ecliptic. Calculations show that the angle of tilt has been steadily decreasing since the beginning of recorded history, c.3500 BC, at the average rate of about 40" per century. Using the accepted rigid formula [9], it can be shown that in c. 2500 BC, when the construction of the Giza pyramids began, the tilt of the earth's axis was 23° 58'. The Giza pyramid site is at latitude of 29° 59', which means that the north celestial pole of the sky was at an altitude of 29° 59'.

We always think in terms of the north celestial pole as being the focal point of the sky, an immovable imaginary point around which all the fixed stars seems to revolve in concentric circles. So entrenched is this idea that we ignore or are unaware that this imaginary point is not the true focal point of the sky at all. And even though the idea that the north celestial pole is a fixed point holds true for a short a very period of time, the statement becomes invalid over long periods of time because of precession. The fact is that the north celestial pole drifts away from the fixed field of stars at the rate of about 20" arcseconds a year due to the perpetual wobble-like cycle of our planet. Furthermore the north celestial pole will keep on drifting from the fixed star field up to a full 47° (about one quarter of the visible sky field) over its 26,000 years cycle. This is hardly a fixed point in terms of cosmic time. There is, however, another point in the sky which drifts away from the fixed star field at the very much slower rate of 0.4 arcseconds per year, that is 50 times slower than the drift of the north celestial pole and thus, by true definition, making it the real focal point of the sky. This point is known as pole of the ecliptic. Furthermore the pole of the ecliptic will only displace itself a mere 2.5° over its 40,000 years cycle.

The pole of the ecliptic is located in the heart of the constellation of Draco, approximately between the stars Zeta Draco and Al Tais. Assuming that the ancient astronomer-priests of Egypt began observing and recording the position of stars some 200 years before the dynastic period, say c. 3500 BC, up to the start of the 4^th Dynasty in c.2500 BC, a simple calculations show that the position of the pole of the ecliptic would have displaced itself by only 6 minutes of arc (0.1°), over this whole 1000 year period. On the other hand the north celestial pole would have been displaced by 333 minutes of arc (5.55°). Imagine a dartboard where one dart (the pole of the ecliptic) is 1 cm away from the bull's eye and another (north celestial pole) is 50 cm away, and you will get the picture. The pole of the ecliptic will cross the meridian twice each day i.e. upper and lower culmination. Calculations show that during the Pyramid Age, and as seen from the latitude of Giza (29° 59'), the pole of the ecliptic would have had its upper culmination at the meridian at an altitude of 53° 57' (29° 59' + 23° 58') . The table below shows the altitude of the pole of the ecliptic at upper culmination at the meridian at different latitudes/locations in Lower and Middle Egypt, roughly encompassing the region of pyramid building during the Old Kingdom:

Location	Latitude	Upper culmination of Pole of the Ecliptic
Abu Ruwash	30° 02'	54° 00'
Giza	29° 59'	53° 57'
Dashur	29° 45'	53° 43'
Hawara	29°15'	53° 13'
Wadi Sannur	29° 00'	52° 58'
Beni Hassan	28° 00'	51° 58'
El Amarna	27° 30'	51° 28'

THE POLE-SPEAR OF THE HAWK-HEADED HORUS

The pole of the ecliptic seems to have been known by some ancient cultures. For example, the French astronomer A. Bouche-Leclerq noted that "it is well-known that the pole par excellence for the Chaldeans was the pole of the ecliptic, which is in the constellation of the Dragon (Draco)" [10]. Also the MIT scholar Giorgio de Santillana believed that the ancients perceived the pole of the ecliptic as the centre of a 'whirlpool' in the sky [11]. In keeping with this hypothesis, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz demonstrates that the astronomical arrangements of the circumpolar and zodiacal constellations at the centre of the circular Denderah Zodiac show both the pole of the ecliptic as well as the north celestial pole. As the author and pyramid researcher Peter Tompkins explained:

"The zodiac (of Denderah) is a circle at the centre of which is our north pole... our north pole is correctly located in the constellation of the jackal, or Little Bear (Ursa Minor), as it was at the time the zodiac was carved, sometime about the first century BC. But the zodiac also shows the pole of the ecliptic, located in the breast of the hippopotamus, or constellation of Draco. To Schwaller this explains the spiral formation of the constellations. The mythological figures are entwined in two circles --one around the north pole and one around the pole of the ecliptic. Where these two circles intersect marks the point of the equinox, or due east. The zodiac thus becomes a calendar going back to remote antiquity." [12]

FIGURE 1

The dark-lined circle has its centre at the north celestial pole, marked today by the star Polaris in the Small Bear (Ursa Major). The faint-lined circle has its centre at the pole of the ecliptic at a spot within the constellation of Draco. Where the circles intersect are found the equinoxes. The north celestial pole and the vernal equinox will drift with time, denoted by the other small circles, but the pole of the ecliptic will remain relatively fixed.

FIGURE 2

The Denderah Zodiac by Schwaller de Lubicz. Schwaller has the pole Of the ecliptic on the breast of the Hippopotamus (Draco) constellation, and The north celestial pole at the front feet of the Upuaut/Fox constellation (Ursa Minor).

In the 1970s the professor of the History of Science, Livio C. Stecchini, examined ancient Egyptian charts of the circumpolar constellations, showing the Hippopotamus (Draco) and the Thigh (Ursa Major or Great Bear) as well as a hawk-headed man, probably Horus, seen pointing a pole or spear at the head of the Bull [13].

FIGURE 3

According to the Czechoslovakian Egyptologist Zybnek Zaba, the pole or spear held by the hawk-headed man indicated the meridian line passing through the north celestial pole. But Stecchini did not agree. He maintained that Zaba did not notice that the spear's head divided the seven stars of the Thigh (Big Bear) constellation into groups of three and four stars. This line defined by the spear, argued Stecchini, does not indicate the meridian passing through the north celestial pole at all but the meridian passing through the pole of the ecliptic. According to Stecchini, the ancient Egyptians not only understood the precession of the equinoxes but also knew that the true meridian is the one passing through the pole of the ecliptic. Another point that seems to have escaped both Zaba and Stecchini, however, is the peculiar way the standing Hippopotamus holds a rope with its right hand that is attached to the lower end of the Thigh constellation. In my opinion the position of the 'right hand' seems very much to denote the actual position of the pole of the ecliptic onto which the Thigh (Great Bear) constellation seems to be 'moored' to or 'anchored' with a rope.

 

THE GREAT MOORING-POST OF THE SKY

There are many references to a mysterious object called the 'Great Mooring-post' in the Pyramid Texts, often found alongside passages that are clearly astronomical in character [14].

"The Great Mooring post calls to you... you ascend here as a star, the Morning Star. He comes to you his father, he comes to you, O Geb; take his hand and let him sit on the great throne that he may join the two 'Hrmt' [?] of the sky. " PT 2014

"The doors of the sky are open for you, the mourning-woman summons you as Isis, the Great Mooring-post calls to you as Nephtys, you have appeared upon the causeway..." PT 2232

It is clear that the 'Great Mooring-post' is somehow to be regarded as being associated to the sky ascent of Osiris, the form of the defunct king who is assisted by his sisters, Isis and Nephtys. Now it is well-known that Osiris in his stellar form is the constellation of Orion. Not surprisingly, therefore, there are other references in the Pyramid Texts to the Great Mooring-post which appear in passages where Orion is specifically mentioned. For example:

"O King, you are this great star, the companion of Orion, who traverses the sky with Orion, who navigates the Netherworld with Osiris... the Great Mooring-post cries out to you as to Osiris in his suffering." PT 882-4

The Great Mooring-post calls out, because you are he who stands and will never tire in the midst of Abydos [Osiris?]... Betake yourself to the waterway, fare upstream to the Thinite Nome, travel about Abydos, in this spirit form of yours which the gods commanded belongs to you, may a stairway to the netherworld be set up for you to the place where Orion is..." PT 1711-7

Orion, however, is not a circumpolar or even a northern constellation but very much a southern constellation. Oddly, there are other passages which associate the Great Mooring-post to the 'imperishable stars', the northern circumpolar stars that never 'die' i.e. never set [15]:

"The doors of the sky are opened for you, the doors of the firmament are thrown open for you... the Mooring-post cries to you, the sun-folk call you, the Imperishable Stars wait on you..." PT 876

"The Great Mooring-post calls to you... may you remove yourself upon your iron throne, may you cross the lake, may your face be [cleansed?] in the north of the sky..." PT 1012-6

It has long been accepted by Egyptologists that the imagined skyward ascent of the king's soul was either in the north of the sky among the 'Imperishable Stars' or in the south of the sky amongst the stars of Orion [16]. This specific belief is materialised in the Great Pyramid of Giza by the so-called star-shafts emanating from the King's Chamber, where one was targeted north to the circumpolar stars and the other targeted south to Orion [17]. In consideration of this, it is justified to wonder if the pyramids were not, in some symbolic way, 'moored' or 'anchored' not just to the circumpolar region of the sky in general but, more specifically, to the pole of the ecliptic, the true 'pole' of the sky ?

FIGURE 4

The shafts in the Great Pyramid: the southern shafts were directed to Orion's belt and Sirius; the northern shafts to the circumpolar constellations of Ursa Minor and Draco. The mythological counterparts are Orion-Osiris; Sirius-Isis; Ursa Minor-Upuaut/Horus; Draco-Hippopotamus Goddess.

Notes:

14. See PT 794; 863; 872;884;1012; 1366; 1711; 2013; 2232; 2239].
15. R.O. Faulkner, The King and the Star-Religion in the Pyramid Texts, J.N.E.S. xxv, 1966, pp.153-161.
16. I.E.S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, Penguin, London 1993, p. 285.
17. E.C. Krupp, Echoes of the Ancient Skies, Oxford Univ. Press, 1983, p.102.

 

A STAR RELIGION

There are many studies that show that the pyramid builders linked their religion, and consequently their pyramids, to the stars [18]. It is also known that the ancient pyramid builders observed the stars as they culminated at the meridian north and south. Special attention, too, was given to the rising of the stars in the east, especially at dawn. The dominant group of stars that have been identified from ancient Egyptian sources with certainty are Orion, Sirius and the circumpolar constellations of Draco, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. These circumpolar stars were perceived as being 'immortal' and 'indestructible' because they never rise or set but perpetually revolve in concentric circles around the north celestial pole. This led many Egyptologists to assert that the ancient Egyptians gave special attention to this region of the sky. At the very least, this all shows that the pyramid builders were avid observers of the rising and culmination of the stars, and most probably recorded their positions over long periods of time. It is also reasonable to assume that observations of the circumpolar stars might have been made while also observing simultaneously other stars rising in the east and still others simultaneously culminating in the south. The opinion is unanimous among Egyptologists and astronomers that the square bases of the Old Kingdom pyramids were deliberately made to face the four cardinal directions, in some cases with remarkably high precision. This, when coupled with the ancient builders' keen interest in the sky, would mean that the dominant alignments were an axis running east-west and another axis running north-south, forming an imaginary cross through the pyramid. The implications are, therefore, that the east-west axis served for the observation of the rising of celestial bodies in the east whereas the north-south axis served for the observation of the culmination of celestial bodies north and south at the meridian. Now, due-east defines the rising place of the equinoxes i.e. the positions occupied by the sun at the spring or autumn equinox. When an equinox is rising due-east on the horizon, the prime meridian or 'great circle' will loop directly above, passing through the north celestial pole and also through the pole of the ecliptic. Thus, by definition, the pole of the ecliptic is always on the prime meridian line when an equinox point is rising in the eastern horizon. However, the pole of the ecliptic will be at upper culmination at the meridian (about 53.5° altitude) only when the vernal point (spring equinox) is rising due-east. When this happens, all the main 'stations' (or 'collures') of the sky --the two equinoxes and the two solstices-- will be found in the four cardinal directions of the celestial landscape.

FIGURE 5

An observer at Giza at epoch c. 10,500 BC. When the vernal point (VP) is on the rise due east, the prime meridian loops directly overhead and passes through the north celestial pole, the pole of the ecliptic and the star Zeta Orionis in Orion's belt.

Thus if the ancient pyramid builders had wished to design a symbolic representation of this very special moment in time when the sky can be truly said to be in perfect order around the pole of the ecliptic, they would have selected a time when Orion was sitting due-south at the same time as the pole of the ecliptic was sitting due-north and the vernal point was sitting due-east.

When was that time?

DEFINING THE 'BEGINNING' AND COSMIC ORDER OF THE WORLD

By using astronomical software to scan the epochs, we find, interestingly, that the only one time in human history when this arrangement could have happened was c. 10,500 BC. Even more interestingly is the fact that the architectural simulacra defined by the Giza necropolis appears to 'freeze' that moment in immutable stone monuments:

1. The central pyramid, with its slope of 53 07' 48' is less than 1 degree away from the upper culmination of the pole of the ecliptic.
2. The three pyramids are set along the north-south 'collure' i.e. along the prime meridian of the sky.
3. The general pattern of the three pyramids correlates with the general pattern of the three central stars of Orion i.e. Orion's belt.
4. The vernal point is in alignment with the Great Sphinx as well as the constellation of Leo.

FIGURE 6

The sky in 10,500 BC of the Giza necropolis with mythological figures superimposed on the constellation of Leo and Orion.

This astronomical conjunction, which only occurs in c. 10,500 BC, does not, of course, mean that the monuments themselves were constructed in that remote epoch. What it does is suggest that the ancient pyramid builders of Giza wanted to define the 'beginning' and the cosmic order of the world in a grandiose architectural symbolic plan. It also adds more cogency to the argument that the ancient Egyptians not only observed and recorded the stars over vast periods of time, but that they were well-aware of the effects of Precession.

http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/BauvalR2-p1.htm

 

Draco the Dragon

Draco is a circumpolar constellation visible all night from northern latitudes. The constellation winds around the little dipper. Its' stars are not very bright, containing only three stars above magnitude 3.0. At one time Draco was quite a bit larger when the ancient Mesopotamians gave the dragon large wings which wound around Ursa Major. The Greek philosopher Thales lopped off the wings in the sixth century BC.

Thuban and the Great Pyramid of Khufu

The Pharaoh Khufu ruled ancient Egypt around 2550 BC and was buried in the largest of the Giza pyramids when he died. During his time, Thuban was the pole star, (because of Earth's precession) around which all other stars revolved. Khufu's burial chamber was fashioned deep inside the Great Pyramid. Two skinny shafts bore outward from the chamber.

For decades, scholars thought they were airshafts. But in the 1960s, astronomers found that they have an astronomical purpose. It was found that one of the shafts pointed directly towards Thuban. The other was aimed at the belt of Orion, which symbolized Osirus.

The stars close to the pole never set. The Egyptians described these stars as "imperishable" or "undying." Khufu expected that when he died, he would join not only with the Sun, but with Thuban as well, maintaining order in the celestial realm, just as he had on Earth.

Mythology

During the time that Draco's star Thuban was the pole star, it would have appeared to ancient sky watchers that the Earth revolved around Draco. Dragons and other similar creatures often played a role in creation myths. In these stories the gods would often battle such creatures for control of the Earth. When defeated, the dragons were flung up into the skies.

Roman myth calls this dragon Ladon and he guarded the golden apples on a tree in a garden tended by the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas. Hercules was sent to obtain the apples while under pledge to Eurystheus. He learned from Nereus that he could not pluck the apples himself, but must get help from Atlas. Hercules shot and killed Ladon with an arrow, making way for Atlas to enter and pluck the golden apples. The goddess Hera was greatly distressed by the death of Ladon and placed the dragon in the heavens.

A Greek legend tells the story of Draco as a horrible dragon that guarded a sacred spring and slew the soldiers of Cadmus (first king of Thebes) who had been sent to gather water. Cadmus then fought the dragon and won,. After the dragon died, Athena appeared and told Cadmus to sow the ground with the creature's teeth. The teeth immediately sprang up as a group of armed soldiers who helped Cadmus found Thebes.

A Babylonian creation story tells of Tiamat, who turned herself into a dragon but was later defeated and split into two parts. One part became the heavens and the other, the Earth.

A Chinese tale sees the stars as the dragon who eats the Sun or Moon (possible represented by the north star Polaris) in an eclipse. During a real eclipse, ancient Chinese would make as much noise as possible, banging on pots and pans to try and scare away the dragon which was eating the Sun or Moon.

A Norse creation myth tells of a dragon who gnaws at the roots of Ygdrasil, the tree that covers the world.

Because Thuban was the pole star 5000 years ago the ancient Egyptians keenly observed it. Some of Draco's stars were part of their constellation of Hippopotamus and some were of the Crocodile. They appear on the planisphere of Denderah and the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes. The hieroglyph for the Hippopotamus was used for the heavens in general while the constellation is supposed to have been a symbol of Isis Rathor, Athor, or Athyr, the Egyptian Venus. Draco's stars were also said to represent the falcon headed god Horus.

Around 800 BC, the prehistoric Adena people who lived in the Ohio area of the United States created Serpent Mound which is believed to mirror the constellation Draco. This huge mound is nearly a quarter mile long.

The Persians have regarded Draco as a man-eating serpent called Azhdeha.

In early Hindu worship, Draco is given the form of an alligator known as Shi-shu-mara.

For the Observer

Sky Chart of North Circumpolar Stars

α Alpha Draconis, Thuban (14h03m +64° 37'0 has a magnitude of 3.64 and is a class A0 star about 215 light years distant. Thuban is a spectroscopic binary. The star is also along the Earth's precessional path and was the pole star 4800 years ago.

β Beta Draconis, Rastaban (17h29m.3 +52° 20') means the "head of the snake." Arabian lore calls Rastaban and Eltanin the Dragon's eyes. Rastaban has a magnitude of 2.78 and is a class G2 white giant, about 400 light years distant. Rastaban is a binary system with the companion being 11.5 magnitude.

γ Gamma Draconis, Eltanin (17h55m.4 +51° 30') is a 2.2 magnitude yellow giant class K5 star about 110 light years away. The surface temperature is 3,800 degrees K and the luminosity is 145 times that of our Sun.

η Eta Draconis (16h24m +61° 31') and its neighbor Zeta were sometimes known by the Arabs as the Two Wolves or Ravens. The star has a magnitude of 2.7and is a yellow giant class G8 star about 65 light years distant. The star has a very faint companion difficult in anything but large telescopes.

ν Nu Draconis (17h32m +55° 10') is a dim but attractive double star. It is found in the head of the dragon, about 5 degrees from Eltanin and 3 degrees from Rastaban. The pair have a separation of 62.3 arcseconds. Both stars are blue-white main sequence stars of magnitudes 4.88 and 4.87. The pair is 93 light years distant.

NORTH POLE STARS - Point of Creation

The Greek astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes (190-120 B.C.) discovered that, due to the "wobble" of the Earth's axis as it spins like a top, the North-South axis line pivots around a point known as the North Ecliptic Pole. One revolution around this point takes a period of approximately 25,770 years (Beatty et al. 1990) commonly quoted as the "26,000 year precession of the equinoxes".

The circumpolar constellation Cygnus, The Swan became an image of the soul in Paleolithic-Neolithic times. 15,000 BC - 10,000 years ago, Deneb in Cynus was the pole star and gave rise to the worship of the Goddess of the Swan or Swan Maidens, followed by that of Draco, the winged serpent.

Thuban (in southern Draco) was the "pole star" around 3000 BC. The next naked-eye star that served as the Earth's pole star was Kochab in the bowl of the Little Dipper from about 1900 BC to 1100 BC. Due to precession, the current holder of the title "pole star" is Polaris which, at present, is slightly under 1° away from the pole of rotation. Polaris is due to become an even more accurate pole star in the near future - the distance between Polaris and the pole will reach a minimum of just under 1/2° in the year 2100. After that, Alderamin in Cepheus will be the Pole Star around 7500 AD, Deneb in Cygnus will be the Pole Star around 10,000 AD and Vega will become the North Star in about AD 14,000.

 

 

 

 

Hawara is an archaeological site of Ancient Egypt, south of the site of Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe) at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis. The first excavations at the site were made by Karl Lepsius, in 1843. William Flinders Petrie excavated at Hawara, in 1888, finding papyri of the first and second centuries, and, north of the pyramid, a vast necropolis where he found 146 portraits on coffins dating to the Roman period, famous as being among the very few surviving examples of painted portraits from Classical Antiquity, the "Fayoum portraits" illustrated in Roman history textbooks.

Amenemhet III was the last powerful ruler of the 12th Dynasty, and the pyramid he built at Hawara (illustration, right) is believed to post-date the so-called "Black Pyramid" built by the same ruler at Dahshur. It is this that is believed to have been Amenemhet's final resting place. At Hawara there was also the intact (pyramid) tomb of Neferu-Ptah, daughter of Amenemhet III. This tomb was found about 2km South of the king's pyramid.

In common with the Middle Kingdom pyramids constructed after Amenemhet II, it was built of mudbrick round a core of limestone passages and burial chambers, and faced with limestone. Most of the facing stone was later pillaged for use in other buildings— a fate common to almost all of Egypt's pyramids— and today the pyramid is little more than an eroded, vaguely pyramidal mountain of mud brick, and of the once magnificent mortuary temple precinct formerly enclosed by a wall there is little left beyond the foundation bed of compacted sand and chips and shards of limestone.

From the entrance a sloping passage way with steps runs down to a small room and a further short horizontal passage. In the roof of this horizontal passage there was a concealed sliding trapdoor weighing 20 tons. If this was found and opened a robber would find himself confronted by an empty passage at a right angle to the passage below, closed by wooden doors, or by a passage parallel to the passage below, carefully filled with mud and stone blocking. He would assume that the blocking concealed the entrance and waste time removing it (thereby increasing the likelihood of detection by the pyramid guardians).

In fact there was a second 20-ton trapdoor in the roof of the empty passage, giving onto a second empty passage, also at a right angle to the first. This too had a 20-ton trapdoor giving onto a passage at a right angle to its predecessor (thus the interior of the pyramid was circled by these passages). However this passage ended in a large area of mud and stone blocking that presumably concealed the burial chamber.

This, however, was a blind and merely filled a wide but shallow alcove. Two blind shafts in the floor, carefully filled with cut stone blocks, further wasted the robbers' time, for the real entrance to the burial chamber was even more carefully concealed and lay between the blind shafts and opposite the alcove.

Despite these elaborate protective measures, Petrie found that none of the trapdoors had been slid into place and the wooden doors were open. Whether this indicated negligence on the part of the burial party, an intention to return and place further burials in the pyramid (when found there were two sarcophagii in the quartzite monolith described below and room for at least two more), or a deliberate action to facilitate robbery of the tomb, we cannot know.

The burial chamber was made out of a single quartzite monolith which was lowered into a larger chamber lined with limestone. This monolithic slab weighed an estimated 110 tons according to Petrie. A course of brick was placed on the chamber to raise the ceiling then the chamber was covered with 3 quartzite slabs (estimated weight 45 tons each). Above the burial chamber were 2 relieving chambers. This was topped with 50 ton limestone slabs forming a pointed roof. Then an enormous arch of brick 3 feet thick was built over the pointed roof to support the core of the pyramid. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

The entrance to the pyramid is today flooded to a depth of 6 metres as a result of the waters from the Bahr el-Yusuf (Joseph's Canal) canal, which flows around two sides of the site and passes within 30m of the pyramid.

The huge mortuary temple that originally stood adjacent to this pyramid is believed to have formed the basis of the complex of buildings with galleries and courtyards called a "labyrinth" by Herodotus (see quote at Labyrinth), and mentioned by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. (There is no historicity to the assertion of Diodorus Siculus that this was the model for the labyrinth of Crete that Greeks imagined housed the Minotaur,) The demolition of the "labyrinth" may date in part to the reign of Ptolemy II, under whom the Pharaonic city of Shedyt (Greek Crocodilopolis, the modern Medinet el-Fayum) was renamed to honour his sister-wife Arsinoë; a massive Ptolemaic building program at Arsinoe has been suggested as the ultimate destination of Middle Kingdom limestone columns and blocks removed from Hawara, and now lost.

Queen Sobekneferu of the Twelfth dynasty also built at the complex. Her name meant "most beautiful of Sobek", the sacred crocodile.

 

Andrew Collins - Beneath the Pyramids

http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/gabriel1.htm

 El-kahf el-hanash (The Cave of the Snake)

"Richard speculates that the caves were, and indeed are, the realms of Agathodaimon, the Gnostic and later Sabaean demiurge, that created the physical world. This name means the "good spirit", and there is some evidence that he was worshipped in the form of a giant snake in Egypt during Graeco-Roman times (he is shown in relief as a snake guardian at the entrance to the Kom El Shouqafa catacombs in Alexandria}. There are legends that Agathodaimon and his son Hermes lie buried in or beneath a pyramid at Giza. My own research has indicated that Agathodaimon was associated with the Great Pyramid and the tomb of cave-Hermes with the Second Pyramid.

The connection between Agathodaimon and the Giza plateau is explored in my book Beneath the Pyramids, following our discovery that in local folk tradition, the caves entered via the Tomb of the Birds are thought to be the domain of el-Hanash, a great snake that guards their secrets. I argue in the book that the ancient Egyptians associated snakes with a cave underworld seen in terms of the duat, or netherworld, through which the deceased had to pass on his or her way to an afterlife among the stars.

As I have stated in recent posts, I am positive that the Giza caves have always been seen as the domain of some kind of serpentine deity or spirit, one that was thought to guard this hidden domain. It is even possible that this is confirmed by the existence of snake simulacra of the sort photographed by Richard inside the caves.

I proposed also that the existence of the caves influenced the development of ancient Egyptian thought on the nature of the duat, in particular the section associated with Memphis and Giza, ancient Rostau, in the Am-duat text, which was the domain of the falcon-headed god Sokar. He is shown in depictions of this realm standing upon a great serpent with multiple heads. Yet I say also in Beneath the Pyramids that chthonic snakes were totems of the earth-god Geb, who was himself occasionally shown with the head and neck of a snake. This said, both the goddess Nut, Geb's sister-wife, and Hathor, a female patron of the Giza plateau, were also associated with snakes. Indeed, Hathor, whose cult was intrinsically linked with that of Nut, is connected with snake rock simulacra in at least two places outside of Giza.

It was the local tomb guardian's reference to the caves beyond the Tomb of the Birds as el-kahf, meaning "the cave", and his insistence that they were the abode of el-Hanash, a mythical snake, that led me to name the caves el-kahf el-Hanash, the Cave of the Snake. This then honours local folk tradition regarding the caves, as well as the fact that the tomb guardian who provided this information offered it immediately after our emergence from the caves following their rediscovery in March 2008. This title I would love to be honoured beyond my own writings, even though Dr Hawass himself began calling them "Collins's cave", something that has stuck, at least among certain Egyptological circles.

The Crocodile God

Richard says that in addition to the influence of Agathodaimon at Giza, the caves are the realm of the crocodile god Sobek, following his identification of rock simulacrum, or rock carving, in the form of a crocodile inside the lower galleries beneath the Tomb of the Birds (see page 2 of his article). Once more, I am unable to make the same connection between the rocky features displayed in Richard's flash photo and the presumed shape of the crocodile's head and neck.

Sobek was a crocodile god whose cult rose in prominence around the end of Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty, c. 1799-1796 BC. It was at this time that the female pharaoh Sobek-nofru, whose name honours the god, is supposed to have completed the fabled Labyrinth, begun by her father Amenenhet III, in the el-Fayium Oasis, some 50 miles (80 km) south of Giza. According to classical sources, this enormous complex of temples and palaces is said to have contained pools of crocodiles, indicating a connection with the cult of Sobek. Several kings from the Thirteenth Dynasty also bore names implying a devotion to Sobek, before the cult would seem to have gone underground until the reign of king Horemheb at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, c. 1320 BC.

Draco, the Dragon

As many of my readers will know, I have written extensively about Sobek-nofru and the cult of Sobek in other works. However, I have found nothing that might convince me that Sobek was worshipped at Giza. Never have the remains of mummified crocodiles ever turned up at Giza, according to the findings of Professor Salima Ikram, the world's foremost expert on animal cults in ancient Egypt.

If there is a crocodile link with the Giza caves, and this has yet to be evidenced, then I would suspect that it relates to the animal seen perched on the back of a hippo in astronomical scenes, mostly from the New Kingdom, and representing the constellation of Draco. In Graeco-Roman times this asterism was most likely associated with the "good spirit" Agathodaimon, the world demiurge believed by the Sabaeans of Harran to repose beneath the plateau.

A connection with Draco, the dragon, is definitely something that Richard and his colleagues Bill and Lucyna Brown, believe is associated with what they call the Giza "geomatrix". They propose that the stars of Draco can be overlaid on the plateau to mark the positions of important underground structures, which Bill and Lucyna have managed to use GPR to try and verify the presence of beneath the plateau. One of these underground sites, somewhere between the Second Pyramid and the large rock-cut tomb of Khentkawes in Giza's central field, Richard alludes to on a separate map as the "Heart Center Temple Complex of the Dragon", indicating its perceived link with Draco.

Despite my own interests in how the constellation of Cygnus, the Northern Cross, might have influenced the evolution of the Giza pyramid field, I also suspect that the influence of the Draco constellation might have played some role in the earliest sky-religion at Giza. Among my lines of enquiry in this respect has been to try and overlay the stars of Draco with key monuments on the plateau. Working, as usual, with technical engineer Rodney Hale, I was unable to find any kind of realistic ground-sky correlation. Perhaps the connection is more subtler, the interest stemming from northerly alignments to the stars of Draco, in particular Alpha Draconis, Thuban (meaning "snake" in Arabic), which acted as Pole Star in the epoch immediately prior to the Pyramid age."