We find that the same idea is discussed by the Egyptologist Selim Hassan, who wrote that. . . as the sun rises and purifies himself in the Horizon, the stars Orion and Sothis (Sirius), with whom the King is identified, are enveloped by the Duat. This is a true observation of nature, and it really appears as though the stars are swallowed up each morning in the increasing glow of the dawn. Perhaps the determinative of the word Duat, the star within a circle, illustrates the idea of this enveloping of the star. When on his way to join the stars, the dead king must first pass by (or through) the Duat which will serve to guide him in the right direction. Thus we see in Utterance 610 [of the Pyramid Texts]: ‘The Duat guides your feet to the Dwelling-place of Orion . . . The Duat guides your hand to the Dwelling-place of Orion.’73
As we have already seen in Chapter Two, we also have the statement from the Carlsberg Papyrus I (c. 1300-1150 BC) which proclaims that,Orion and Sirius, who are the first of the gods, that is to say they customarily spend 70 days in the Duat [and they rise] again . . . it is in the east that they celebrate their first feast . . . Their burial takes place like those of men . . . that is to say, they are the likeness of the burial-days which are for men today . . . 70 days which they pass in the embalming-house . . . its duration in the Duat indeed takes place. It is the taking place of its duration in the Duat . . . every one of the stars, that is to say 70 days . . . this is what is done by dying. This one which sets is the one which does this . . .’74
Notwithstanding the staunch opposition to the Orion Correlation Theory by Egyptologists, to open-minded readers the question is obvious: could all this textual and architectural evidence mean that the vast region that contained the pyramids and temples of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties be a model, as it were, of the starry Duat?
As Above, So Below
The idea of developing a huge sacred landscape into an earthly model of the starry Duat is certainly mind-boggling, but it is precisely the kind of idea with which the ancient pyramid-builders of Egypt would have challenged themselves. Could the persistent Hermetic claim that ‘Egypt was made in the image of heaven’ be true after all?
The pyramid-builders were not just interested in Orion per se, but more particularly the 70 days that it spent in the underworld Duat, i.e. from its last setting in the west at dusk (heliacal setting) to its first rising in the east at dawn (heliacal rising). With modern astronomical computers it is a relatively easy matter to demonstrate that in the Pyramid Age those 70 days were bracketed between 21 March and 1 June (Gregorian). During this period Orion was ‘invisible’ in the Duat, but the sun was not. For the latter was seen travelling through this mysterious region in daytime from a point just below the Pleiades (Right Ascension 24h 00′) to a point in front of Leo (Right Ascension 4h 30′). A further three weeks saw the heliacal rising of the star Sirius as it, too, now emerged from the tenebrous region of the underworld Duat. This takes us to 21 June, the summer solstice. The sun had now travelled to a point between the paws of Leo (Right Ascension 6h 00′). The entrance to the Duat can thus be said to be just under the Pleiades, and its exit in the paws of Leo. Let us for the moment accept that the sun temple of Ra-Horakhti at Heliopolis represents the constellation of Leo, the ‘house’ of the sun at the summer solstice. Let us also hold the thought that the three Giza pyramids may, indeed, be a representation of the three stars of Orion’s belt on the ground. Comparing sky and ground maps, we can easily see on the sky map that the sun’s position as it enters the region of the Duat is at a point just below the small cluster of stars called the Pleiades, and projecting this on to the ground map shows that it roughly corresponds to the position of the sun temples of Abu Ghorab, just ‘below’ the small cluster of Fifth Dynasty pyramids at Abusir.75 If this is correct, then the line of sight between the sun temples of Abu Ghorab and the sun temple of Heliopolis must, by necessity, represent the ecliptic path along which the sun disc has to travel in the Duat from entrance to exit, i.e. from 21 March to 21 June, during that period when both Orion and Sirius reside in the underworld Duat - and in Pyramid Texts parlance, when Isis performs the magical rituals on Osiris (the dead king) to bring him back to life.
Let us now test this hypothesis with facts and figures.
The Gates of the Duat
The site of Abu Ghorab is in the desert fringing the west side of the Nile Valley and some ten kilometres south-east of Giza. You can drive to a spot adjacent to it on a road that runs along an old canal, then carry on on foot through a farm that leads into the desert. Alternatively you can walk to it from the nearby pyramids of Abusir. The site has been closed due to restoration, but since there are no fences it is not too difficult to visit the sun temples off the record, so to speak. Of the two temples that remain, only one, that of Niussera, is really worth seeing. The other is in a pitiful state of ruin, looking more like a builder’s dump than a temple. The sun temple of Niussera is basically a large, squat rectangular structure on which once stood a massive obelisk or tower estimated to have been 36 metres high and probably crowned with a polished metal disc to reflect the sunlight. From this slightly elevated vantage point, when there was none of the pollution that plagues the horizon these days, visibility must have been possible to the northern tip of the Muqattam Hills and all the way to Heliopolis beyond. On the eastern side of the rectangular base is a massive alabaster altar whose four sides face the cardinal directions and whose main axis runs east-west. Strewn all around are weird large stone tubs which were probably used to collect the blood of sacrificed animals.76
These mysterious sun temples have long intrigued Egyptologists, and according to Miroslav Verner, who excavated there for many years, their significance ‘remains disputed . . . (but) they composed an important part of the worship of the dead king and were economically and religiously connected with the pyramid complex’.77 Each temple had a causeway leading towards the edge of the Nile Valley that linked up to a valley temple complete with a harbour. Since the Nile is several kilometres away, these harbours probably only had a symbolic function. Most interestingly, on the causeway of Niussera’s sun temple was found a relief showing the ‘stretching of the cord’ ceremony, which is indirect evidence that some sort of stellar ritual was probably performed to orientate the causeway and valley temple. Indeed, according to the American astronomer Ronald Wells, both solar and stellar observations were carried out at the sun temples in order to time sacrificial ceremonies at dawn.78 And although the sun temple’s main axis is typically orientated east-west, the causeway deviates sharply towards the north by 46°, which, oddly, is the general direction of Heliopolis. This curious alignment was noted by Richard Wilkinson79 and also by Mark Lehner.80 To make things even more mysterious, at the south side of Niussera’s sun temple was found a 30-metre-long boat made of mud bricks whose function Lehner describes thus: ‘This colossal simulacrum of a ship perhaps signifies the mythical boat in which the sun-god sailed across the ocean of the sky. It also hints that the sun temple, like the pyramid complexes, was seen as a symbolic port to the world of the gods.’81
Now, the ‘mythical boat in which the sun-god sailed across the ocean of the sky’ must, by necessity, have been imagined to sail along the ecliptic path and through the 12 zodiacal constellations in its yearly course. We have seen how, in the Pyramid Age, the sun travelled from the end of March to late June through the starry Duat from a point below the Pleiades all the way to the paws of Leo. If my hypothesis is correct, then this distance in the sky must correspond to the distance on the ground between Abu Ghorab and Heliopolis.
But how can we check this empirically?
A Journey into the Duat
Astronomers measure the apparent distances between stars in degrees known as the ‘angular distance’. Using the astronomy programme StarryNight Pro. V.4, it can be determined that the angular distance between the Pleiades and Leo is 90°, which corresponds to the distance that the sun travelled in c. 2781 BC (when the Egyptian civil calendar was established and when the master plan wa
s probably conceived) from 21 March to 21 June, being a quarter of the full 360° yearly circuit. Now, using an official map of the region, it can be determined that the distance from Abu Ghorab to Heliopolis is 27,000 metres. In this correlative scheme, this means that 1° angular distance in the sky equals 333 metres on the ground.
Let us now test this.
The distance between the two outermost pyramids at Giza (Khufu and Menkaura), measured between the two extended north-west diagonals, is 928.33 metres. This represents the angular distance of the two outermost stars of Orion’s belt, Al Nitak and Mintaka, which is 2.75°. This gives 1° angular distance in the sky for 337 metres on the ground, which is within barely 2 per cent of the value established from the Abu Ghorab to Heliopolis sky-ground distances! With growing excitement I decided to test this further with the distance from the Giza pyramids to the pyramids of Abusir. This is 11,420 metres. Now the angular distance from Orion’s belt to the Pleiades is 35°. This gives 1° angular distance in the sky for 326 metres on the ground, a difference of barely 1 per cent of the value for the other sky-ground distances calculated above.82 In view of the very close consistency of the results, I was now convinced that coincidence should be ruled out. The ancient pyramid-builders were placing their monuments according to a sky map using a 1° = 333 metres scale.83
But what was so important about the distance that the sun travelled between the Pleiades and Leo in 2781 BC? The time taken would be about 90 days from 21 March to 21 June (Gregorian), thus from the spring equinox to the summer solstice. We are given a clue in the so-called Carlsberg Papyrus I, which tells us that the star ‘which goes to earth (sets) and enters the Duat. It stops in the house of Geb (i.e under the earth) for 70 days . . . It is in the Embalming House . . . it sheds its impurities to the earth. It is pure and it comes into existence (rises) in the (eastern) horizon like Sirius.’84
Again using StarryNight Pro. V.4, it can be seen that the days when both Orion’s belt and Sirius are ‘invisible’, i.e. in the Duat, is about 90 days collectively, which corresponds to the 90 days the sun travelled from spring equinox to summer solstice. The astronomer Ed Krupp commented on the Carlsberg Papyrus I that ‘this (rebirth) cycle is the essence of Egypt. It is paralleled by the myth. It is played out in the sky.’85
It would seem clear that the rebirth of Osiris was played out not in an imaginary sky but in the sacred Memphis-Heliopolis region, which was developed to resemble the Duat, with star pyramids dotted on the western shore of the Milky Way/Nile.
CHAPTER FOUR
As Above, So Below
The cosmos itself is what mattered to our ancestors. Their lives, their beliefs, their destinies - all were part of this bigger pageant. Just as the environment of their temples was made sacred by metaphors of cosmic order, entire cities and great ritual centres were also astronomically aligned and organised. Each sacred capital restated the theme of cosmic order in terms of its builders’ own perception of the universe. Principles which the society considered its own - which ordered its life and gave it its character - were borrowed from the sky and built into the plans of the cities.
E.C. Krupp, Echoes of the Ancient Skies
It is certainly possible that the religion of historic times in ancient Egypt had its roots this far back in time, and that its gods, as in historic times, were in the sky . . . it is (also) certainly possible that specific members of a group were given the function to observe and remember the positions and movements of the sun, moon, planets, and stars . . .
Jane B. Seller, The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt
Over a period of a thousand years ancient observers could discern . . . the
secular shifting of the Great Gyroscope . . . The symmetries of the
machine took shape in their minds. And truly it was the time machine, as
Plato understands it, the ‘moving image of eternity’ . . . the Precession
took on an overpowering significance. It became the vast impenetrable
pattern of fate itself . . .
Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill
Looking South
In Egypt you are always aware that the country is sliced in half by the Nile. In ancient Egypt you were said to be either in the east, in the land of the living, where the celestial bodies rise, or you were said to be in the west, in the land of the dead, where the celestial bodies set. East was life and west was death. To cross the Nile from east to west was to enter the world of the dead. To cross from west to east was to be born, or, in the parlance of ancient Egypt, to be ‘where the gods are born’.
In ancient times there were no bridges across the Nile. The only way to cross was by ferry. In the royal rebirth rituals of the Pyramid Texts, the dead king is said to ‘ferry across’ a ‘Winding Waterway’ when the ‘Fields of Rushes are flooded’. This is clearly an allusion to the crossing of the flood plains during the season of inundation in the region of Heliopolis. But in the context of the rebirth rites, the event takes place not on the land but in the starry world of the celestial Duat, which is visible in the east of the sky:The Fields of Rushes are flooded and I ferry across on the Winding Waterway; I am ferried over to the eastern side of the horizon, I am ferried over to the eastern side of the sky . . .1
The Winding Waterway is flooded that I may be ferried over thereon to the horizon, to Horakhti . . .2
The Winding Waterway is flooded, that I may be ferried over to the eastern side of the sky, to the place where the gods were born . . .3
The eastern horizon, then, was that place where ‘the gods were born’ which, in the context of the rebirth rituals, is where the celestial bodies rise, i.e. are reborn. But the apotheosis of royal rebirth was reached not on any day but at the moment of the heliacal rising of Sirius, which took place during the start of the flood season. This is when Osiris-Orion emerges from the underworld Duat (is reborn), and also when his son, the new Horus-king, succeeds him - an event marked by the rebirth of the star Sirius, rising heliacally after 70 days in the underworld Duat.
Plan of the ‘Birth of Isis’ temple at Dendera
During those crucial 70 days the Nile became swollen like a pregnant sow. And when its waters began to mysteriously turn red (due to the red laterite dust of Central Africa that had dissolved in the water and was carried by the flood all the way to Egypt), it was as if the goddess Isis herself was discharging her birth-waters and placenta when giving birth to Horus in the bulrushes of the Delta. An inscription in the temple known as the Birthplace of Isis at Dendera tells us that the goddess ‘loves the colour red’, which clearly alludes to the redness of the Nile during the rising of Sirius-aphenomenon that was witnessed by many in modern times, including the distinguished English traveller Lady Duff Gordon, who, in 1867, saw the coming flood and described its waters as ‘really red as blood’.4 Indeed, this phenomenon took place every year around the time of the summer solstice and was only disrupted in 1902 when the first modern dam was built at Aswan. It was finally ended in 1965 with the completion of the High Dam at Aswan. This changed for ever the cycle of the Nile that had kept Egypt in ecological balance. In the perception of an ancient Egyptian, it would have meant that the cosmic order was disrupted and calamity would befall the land. In a dramatic passage of the Hermetic Texts known as the Lament, the god Thoth paints a dark and grim picture of the pollution and chaos that would befall Egypt if its people ceased to respect the Nile and stopped revering the ancient gods and the cosmos. 5
The economic and social conditions of modern Egypt are perhaps evidence of this ancient prophecy. Today the contamination of the Nile and its canals by toxic and sewage waste constitutes Egypt’s worst self-inflicted plague, and the chaos caused by its exponentially growing population (20 million in Cairo today compared with one million 50 years ago) and unchecked fume emissions has made its capital, Cairo, one of the unhealthiest and most polluted cities in the world according to the latest UNESCO figures. No more do the people of Egypt witness the splendour
and enchantment that the flood season brought to their countryside. In this respect, the eye-witness account of a nineteenth-century traveller is worth quoting here, as it describes the joy that gripped the whole of Egypt when the flood came in midsummer:Perhaps there is not in Nature a more exhilarating sight or one more strongly exciting to confidence of God, than the rise of the Nile . . . its bounding waters . . . diffusing life and joy through another desert. There are few impressions I have received upon the remembrance of which I dwell with more pleasure than of seeing the first burst of the Nile . . . All Nature shouts for joy. The men, the children, the buffaloes, gambol in its refreshing waters, the broad waves sparkle with shoals of fish, and fowl of every wing flutter over them in clouds. Nor is this jubilee of Nature confined to the higher orders of creation. The moment the sand becomes moistened by the approach of fertilising waters, it is literally alive with insects innumerable. It is impossible to stand by the side of one of these noble streams, to see it every moment sweeping away some obstruction to its majestic course, and widening as it flows, without feeling in the heart to expand with love and joy and confidence in the great Author of this annual miracle of mercy . . . a scene of fertility and beauty such as will be scarcely found in another country at any season of the year. The vivid green of the springing corn, the groves of pomegranate-trees ablaze with the rich scarlet of their blossom, the fresh breeze laden with the perfume of gardens of roses and orange thickets, every tree and every shrub covered with sweet scented flowers . . . from Alexandria to Assouan . . . it is the same everywhere, only because it would be impossible to make any addition to the sweetness of the colours, the brilliance of the colours, or the exquisite beauty of the many forms of vegetable life . . . It is monotonous, but it is the monotony of Paradise.6
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