Hello Clive,

You write:
>>Could it be coincidental or by design that the angular distance between the two most important northern stars: Thuban and Polaris measured 26.37 degrees when the pyramids were being constructed...the same angle as the passages indicate?<<

First of all we have a considerable error of 0.16 degrees. Secondly the angular distance between Thuban and Polaris - 26.37 degrees is constant since the stars don’t move significantly in the sky as seen from Earth so this wasn’t something special occurring only when the pyramids were being constructed. Third I don’t think Polaris was as significant a star as you state for the AEs during IV dynasty since it was not the pole star at the time. Fourth and most importantly the angular separation is a combination of altitude and azimuth. In pyramid design we first have to look at the obvious. They probably would have wanted things
to be simple. This said , the vertical angle of the descending passageway is screaming out altitude of celestial body. On the other hand a horizontal offset which creates an angle in regards to a reference point – like the point intersecting the center pyramid base(height axis) and the horizontal plane running through the entrance - screams out azimuth of celestial body. Since the entrance is in the North – this celestial body has to be in the North. Due to the fact that there are no planets in the North – this has to be star. So what we have to go with is that we are looking for a star in the North with a altitude of 26.531 and an azimuth of 4.093 degrees. There is no stars which at one given time have these coordinates. Thus what we should look for is a star at different times when it has this altitude and this azimuth as seen from Giza when the pyramids were built. It’s only natural to start out with the star with the greatest magnitude(shiniest). This is Alioth. Also when Alioth is at this altitude, the two bright stars Alkaid and Mizar which form the tail of the Big Dipper as more or less vertical to the horizon(similar azimuth).

Best regards...

Ogygos




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2008 06:36AM by Ogygos.