The azimuth changes of the axes of the temples implies an awareness of the precessional shift. Skeptics have argued that successive ancient surveyors were not aware that the older axis was no longer directed to Sirius, and they simply oriented a new temple’s axis without being conscious of the change. This may perhaps be an explanation, however, if only one change had taken place; but the original axis was changed at least four times. The ancient surveyors surely must have known that the temple was dedicated to Satis, goddess of the flood linked to the heliacal rising of Sirius, and it seems inconceivable that they did not notice the change in azimuth of the axes of the various temples that were aligned to this star.
More recently, in 2004, the Spanish astronomer Juan Belmonte, along with the Egyptian astronomer Mossalam Shaltout, undertook a new study of the orientations of the superimposed Satis temples and confirmed Wells’s measurements as well as the orientation of the lowest, and thus oldest, shrine: “The archaic sacred precinct of Satet [Satis] at Elephantine: this area was enclosed on three sides by three large boulders of granite and opened roughly towards the south-eastern area of the horizon, where the sun rises at the winter solstice and where Sirius rose heliacally in 3200 B.C. The shrine is preserved in a cellar below the concrete terrace where the temple of Satet, erected by Hatshepsut, has been reconstructed.”20
Interestingly, Wells also determined that the topmost Satis temple had been aligned to other star systems. One set of alignments was toward Orion’s belt and another set was toward the Big Dipper. These were the very same constellations and stars to which the various alignments of the ceremonial complex at Nabta Playa had been directed thousands of years before. This was too much of an actual coincidence to be merely accidental. We can recall that it was, indeed, from this location that the ancient Egyptian governor of Aswan and Elephantine, the explorer Harkhuf, launched his epic journeys to the kingdom of Yam. Harkhuf ’s tomb, where are inscribed the stories of his journeys, is located on the west bank of the Nile in the hills almost directly opposite Elephantine Island. It is very tempting to suppose that Harkhuf knew the location of Yam before he set off on his first expedition, because he knew that his ancestors had come from there. The earliest date for the Satis temple is about 3200 BCE, a date that uncannily coincides with the departure of the cattle people from Nabta Playa. Had the latter come here and brought along with them the astronomical ideas that were incorporated into the multileveled temples of Satis?
At Elephantine, in about 3200 BCE, it was not the monsoon rains that brought renewal and regeneration of the land but the Nile’s flood, which was the direct result of the monsoon rains that no longer occur in this part of Egypt, but instead occur much farther south, in central Africa. In other words, the same system of astronomical knowledge that was developed in the Sahara in prehistoric times could have been used in the Nile Valley, because the time of arrival of the monsoon rains exactly matched the time of arrival of the flood, with both occurring at the summer solstice. To be more specific, the flooding of the Nile is caused by the same monsoon rains that flooded Nabta Playa every year, except that the monsoon wind pattern has moved south and is now inundating the great lakes at the source of the Nile, which sends the flood north to the lower Nile. In light of this new evidence, we can therefore see why it was at about 3200 BCE that Elephantine began to acquire great religious importance as the source of the flood.21
In 1890, on the small island of Sahal a few kilometers upstream from Elephantine, the American traveler Charles Wilbour discovered hieroglyphic inscriptions on a large boulder protruding from the Nile. Today the boulder is known as the Famine Stele, and the boulder’s inscriptions speak of a terrible drought that struck Egypt for seven years due to a series of bad floods in the reign of the pharaoh Djoser, first ruler of the third dynasty (ca. 2650 BCE). In the text of the Famine Stele, King Djoser asks the high official of the region, Mater, from where rose the water of the Nile. Mater replied,
. . . the Nile flood came forth from the Island of Elephantine whereon stood the first city that ever existed; out of it rose the Sun when he went forth to bestow life upon man, and therefore it is also called Doubly Sweet Life, and that the very spot on the island out of which the flood waters rose from was the double cavern called Querti, which was likened to two breasts from which all nourishment poured forth; here the Nile God lay on a “couch” and waited for the coming of Akhet [the season of inundation], after which he rushed out of the cavern like a vigorous youth and filled the whole country.22
From the Famine Stele at Aswan
Year 18 of Horns: Neterkhet; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Neterkhet; Two Ladies: Neterkhet; Gold-Horus: Djoser, under the Count, Prince, Governor of the domains of the South, Chief of the Nubians in Yebu, Mesir. There was brought to him this royal decree. To let you know: There is a town in the midst of the deep, Surrounded by Hapy [the Nile; the Nile God], Yebu by name [Elephantine]; It is first of the first, First nome to Wawat, Earthly elevation, celestial hill, Seat of Re when he prepares To give life to every face. Its temple’s name is “Joy-of-life,” “Twin Caverns” is the water’s name, They are the breasts that nourish all. It is the house of sleep of Hapy. He grows young in it in [his time], [lt is the place whence] he brings the flood: Bounding up he copulates, As man copulates with woman, Renewing his manhood with joy; Coursing twenty-eight cubits high, He passes Sema-behdet at seven. Khnum is the god [who rules] there, He is enthroned above the deep . . . His sandals resting on the flood; He holds the door bolt in his hand, Opens the gate as he wishes. He is eternal there as Shu, Bounty-giver, Lord-of-fields, So his name is called. He has reckoned the land of the South and the North, to give parts to every god. It is he who governs barley, [emmer], Fowl and fish and all one lives on. Cord and scribal board are there, The pole is there with its beam. . . . His temple opens southeastward, Re rises in its face every day; Its water rages on its south for an iter, A wall against the Nubians each day. There is a mountain massif in its eastern region, With precious stones and quarry stones of all kinds, All the things sought for building temples In Egypt, South and North, And stalls for sacred animals, And palaces for kings, All statues too that stand in temples and in shrines.23
This tradition that the island of Elephantine was the source of the Nile and also the source of the annual flood was still current when Herodotus visited Egypt in the fifth century BCE. This is what the Father of History writes about Elephantine:
. . . [A]s to the sources of the Nile, no one that conversed with me, Egyptian, Libyan or Greek professed to know them, except the recorder of the sacred treasures of Athena [Satis] in the Egyptian city of Saïs. I thought he was joking when he said that he had exact knowledge, but this was his story. Between the city of Syene [Aswan] in the Thebaid and Elephantine there are two hills with sharp peaks, one called Crophi and the other Mophi.*50 The springs of the Nile which are bottomless, rise between these hills . . .24
In the first century, some half-century after Caesar occupied Egypt and turned it in to a Roman province, the chronicler Pliny the Elder reports:
Timaeus the mathematician has alleged a reason of an occult nature: he says that the source of the river [Nile] is known by the name of Phiala [Philae, the island of Isis near Elephantine], and that the stream buries itself in channels underground, where it sends forth vapors generated by the heat among the steaming rocks amid which it conceals itself; but that, during the days of the inundation, in consequence of the sun approaching nearer to the earth, the waters are drawn forth by the influence of his heat, and on being thus exposed to the air, overflow; after which, in order that it may not be utterly dried up, the stream hides itself once more. He says that this takes place at the rising of Sirius, when the sun enters the sign of Leo, and stands in a vertical position over the source of the river, at which time at that spot there is no shadow thrown.25
On the latitude that passes near Elephantine, Aswan, and Philae, the sun at summer solstice is positioned nearly vertical at noon, and hence n
o shadows are cast. This latitude is, of course, the Tropic of Cancer, at 23 degrees 27 minutes north. The famous Alexandrian scholar Eratosthenes knew this and also knew that on that very same day and time in his hometown of Alexandria (which is 900 kilometers, or 559 miles, north of Aswan) the sun would cast a pronounced shadow. He determined that the angle of the shadow at Alexandria was 1/50 of a full circle (that is, 7 degrees 12 minutes) from the zenith, and he thus reasoned that the distance from Alexandria to Aswan must be 1/50 of the total circumference of Earth. Because that distance from Alexandria to Aswan, was known to him as 5,000 stadia (some 500 geographical miles), he reckoned that the full circumference of Earth was 252,000 stadia, which is 16 percent more than the true value, but a solid result nonetheless, given the crude method he used. Eratosthenes went down in history as the first to have calculated Earth’s size. The irony, however, is that it was the Egyptian priests who had informed Eratosthenes of this phenomenon, which, almost certainly, they had been aware of since time immemorial. Indeed, it may well be for that very reason that the location of Elephantine was regarded by the Egyptians as the first city that ever existed. It may also be the reason why the people of Nabta Playa, who were guided by the summer solstice, came to settle in Elephantine around 3200 BCE.*51
At any rate, further inscriptions on the Famine Stele state that Hapy’s temple “opens southeastward, and Re [the sun] rises in its face every day,”26 which implies an alignment toward Sirius, a star that also rises southeast. This conclusion seems correct, and Ron Wells estimated that the entrance to the archaic temple of Satis was directed at azimuth 120.60 degrees, which matched the azimuth of Sirius in around 3200 BCE.27 †52
This date also corresponds to the date of the archaic temple given by Belmonte and Shaltout. Bearing this in mind, in 1981 the German Egyptologist and chronologist Rolf Krauss argued that the Island of Elephantine had been the principal site in all Egypt for observing the heliacal rising of Sirius since at least the time of the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2000 BCE), 28 a deduction with which many researchers agree.29 All in all, there is much to suggest that the observation of Sirius at Elephantine harks back to the archaic period of 3200 BCE—a date which dovetails with the time when the star people of Nabta Playa abandoned the Sahara.
At Elephantine is one of the oldest nilometers in Egypt. A nilometer is a simple but very effective device used to measure the rising and ebbing water level of the Nile. It basically consists of a stone well with steps that lead down into the river. The wall of this well has graduated marks to measure the level of the river. When the Romans first came to Elephantine in the 25 BCE, along with them came the geographer Strabo, the author of the famous Geography, who recognized correctly the function of the nilometer. He describes his visit to Elephantine and the nilometer:
Elephantine is an island in the Nile, at the distance of half a stadium in front of Syene [Aswan]; in this island is a city with a temple of Cnuphis [Khnum], and a nilometer like that at Memphis. The nilometer is a well upon the banks of the Nile, constructed of close-fitting stones, on which are marked the greatest, least, and mean risings of the Nile; for the water in the well and in the river rises and subsides simultaneously. Upon the wall of the well are lines, which indicate the complete rise of the river, and other degrees of its rising. Those who examine these marks communicate the result to the public for their information. For it is known long before, by these marks, and by the time elapsed from the commencement, what the future rise of the river will be, and notice is given of it. . . .30
Although restored in Roman times, the nilometer of Elephantine is probably much older. According to the Famine Stele inscriptions, King Djoser (2650 BCE) is informed that “there is a town in the midst of the deep surrounded by Hapy [the Nile], Yebu by name [Elephantine]; It is first [town] of the first nome to Wawat [Nubia], [it is known as] ‘Earthly Elevation,’ ‘Celestial Hill,’ and ‘Seat of Re’ when he prepares to give life to every face. Its temple’s name is ‘Joy-of-life.’ ‘Twin Caverns’ is the water’s name, they are the breasts that nourish all. It is the house of sleep of Hapy. He grows young in it in [his time]. [It is the place whence] he brings the flood . . .”31
The author of the texts was the high official of the region, Mater. He duly informs King Djoser that the ideal flood is when the water level reaches “twenty-eight cubits high at Elephantine [and that] he [the Nile] passes [the town of] Sema-behdet at seven [cubits].”32 The name Semabehdet is that of the Seventeenth Nome of Lower Egypt, which borders the coastline of the Mediterranean, some 920 kilometers (572 miles) downstream from Elephantine as the crow flies. Today it is called Tell Balamun. The difference in the level of the Nile between Elephantine and Tell Balamun is about 85 meters (279 feet). This provides the natural fall from south to north, allowing the river to flow northward at about 16 knots.33 A sudden rise of 28 cubits, nearly 14 meters (46 feet), at Elephantine would bring about a rush of water, causing the banks to overflow and the water to flood the adjacent land. Even so, the flooding of the land could be somewhat controlled—but any higher water levels would cause overflooding and untold structural damage to the land and crops. Any flooding lower than necessary would cause a drought that could lead to food shortage and, eventually, famine. It was thus crucial that some sort of early warning system be installed, hence the nilometer.
Although the nilometer at Elephantine was far from being the refined hydraulic instrument that we would use today, it gave a good indication of what type of flood to expect. Part of the early warning system came from the stars. Around early June, as the sun approached its most northerly rising at the summer solstice, the constellation of Orion appeared again at dawn in the east, followed by Sirius. At this time of year, the nilometer was watched with great care. No wonder, then, that the temple of Satis, divine protector of the Nile and the flood, from where officials monitored the rising of Orion and Sirius, was located only a short distance away from the nilometer of Elephantine. Intriguingly, Ron Wells showed that the ancient designers of the temple seemed to have demarcated the two extreme variations of the Big Dipper constellation as it revolved around the north celestial pole. We can recall how the stars of this particular constellation, as well as those of Orion and Sirius, were specifically used by the star people of Nabta Playa. Yet can such astronomical similarities be regarded as evidence of a progressive cultural link between Elephantine and Nabta Playa?
A new trend in archaeology and cultural anthropology is open to what has been loosely termed nontangible evidence, which, as its name implies, cannot be physically evaluated—it does not, for instance, include artifacts. Nonetheless, conclusions are valid because they can be reasoned to be so—there is a sort of silent eyewitness account from the past. Astronomical evidence is nontangible regarding understanding ancient cultures, especially in the case of ancient Egypt. It has been known for some time that the ancient Egyptians performed a very important ritual for aligning their religious monuments toward the sun and stars. From earliest times, they performed a ceremony called stretching the cord to align royal pyramids and temples. This ceremony, which we have seen in chapter 4, required the participation of the pharaoh and a priestess, who assumed the role of a deity called Seshat.
The goddess Seshat was unique among all the other goddesses of ancient Egypt in that she was said to be supremely proficient in the sacred sciences, particular astronomy and sacred architecture. Depicted as a slender woman, Seshat was especially venerated by scribes, for she was also the patroness of the sacred hieroglyph writing and keeper of the royal annals.34 Her companion-husband was Thoth, the god of wisdom and astronomy, and she often appears next to him on temple reliefs. Such a prestigious union gave Seshat enormous status and respect. Nonetheless, her most important role was participating with the kings in the stretching the cord ceremony to establish the four corners of temples and pyramids and to align them toward specific stars, usually the Big Dipper. In this capacity, Seshat is always shown in a leopard-skin dress with spots that are sometimes s
hown as stars, which is apparently symbolic of her ability to see in the dark, like the leopard.35 On her head, Seshat is depicted wearing a golden tiara with a seven-pointed star or rosette. Her many epithets included Foremost in the Library, Mistress of Writing in the House of Life, Keeper of the Royal Annals, and Lady of the Stars.36 The French scholar Anne-Sophie Bomhard, an expert on the ancient Egyptian calendar, writes, “The recognition of the annual cycle and its definition, the linking of celestial phenomena to terrestrial happenings, are essential preliminaries to establishing any kind of calendar. This enterprise requires long prior observations of the sky and the stars, as well as the recording, in writing, of these observations, in order to verify them over long periods of time. It is quite natural, therefore, that the divine tutors of Time and Calendar should be Thoth, God of Science, and Seshat, Goddess of Writings and Annals.”37
Egyptologists have established that the stretching the cord ceremony was known since at least 2900 BCE, and it was a “crucial part of a temple foundation ritual.”38 Textual knowledge of this ceremony comes mostly from inscriptions on the temples at Edfu and Dendera, although much earlier evidence is found in drawings and reliefs depicting the ceremony. Sir I. E. S. Edwards, the foremost expert on Egyptian pyramids, writes that
[i]n spite of the relative late date of the inscriptions referring to the episodes of the foundation ceremonies, there is no reason to doubt that they preserved an ancient tradition. Some indication that similar ceremonies were already current in the Pyramid Age is provided by a fragmentary relief found in the Vth Dynasty sun-temple of Niuserre, which shows the king and a priestess impersonating Seshat, each holding a mallet and a stake to which a measuring cord is attached. The scene is in complete agreement with the text in the temple at Edfu, which represent the king saying: “I take the stake and I hold the handle of the mallet. I hold the cord with Seshat.”39
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