Byrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> > Hermione: “However, if Khufu died in 2483 BC
> > [www.maatforum.com] (a date about which there
> is
> > considerable dispute), what would be the
> > significance of the Al Nilam alignment date? If
> > it's some 70 or 90 years before his death,
> might
> > it have had some connection with his birth ...
> ??”

...

>
> This would be more likely if there was good
> evidence that the Egyptians of that time were
> using stellar alignments in other structures,
> because in order to record a position some 100
> years before his birth they would have had to be
> recording this information since a time prior to
> his birth and using it. No one could truly
> predict which prince would survive to become
> pharaoh or how long he would live. So in order
> for this to be right there has to be other solid
> evidence of use of astronomical alignments from
> that period.

Well: if there was some kind of tradition of continually recording the positions of important stars such as Al Nilam (and Sirius was certainly observed in the OK), and if Khufu and his advisors had wanted the relevant KC shaft to align with the position of that star at the time of Khufu's birth because it was ritually significant in some way, I imagine they would simply have referred to the relevant archival astronomical records, and lined the shaft up accordingly ...

However, despite Chris's suggestion that perhaps the shafts combined a ritual and practical function, the problem is that the shafts just don't look very convincing as channels aligned to the stars ... although perhaps I'm making the mistake of looking at them with 21st century eyes.

Hermione
Director/Moderator - The Hall of Ma'at

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