Joanne,

What is the evidence that it was aligned intentionally to the cardinal points?

AFIK, there is no extant direct evidence that the builders of the GP aligned that structure to the cardinal points.

To be sure, I have recently come across a discussion elsewhere that offers an example of why it can be a mistake to assume that existence equals intent.

However, given the accuracy of the alignment of the GP, I would suggest that it would not be egeregious to infer that it was the intention of the AE to align the monument to the cardinal points. Others, more learned than I, have reached a similar conclusion.

Indeed, debates in history often seem to involve inferring human intentions in the absence of direct evidence. As a trivial example, there is, of course, no direct evidence that U.S. government had advance knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the government did, in November 1941, order all aircraft carriers (inlcuding the Enterprise and Lexington) out of Pearl Harbor. Do these orders mean that the U.S. government was intentionally trying to move these strategic assets out of harm's way?

Barry