Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Guided by the stars
Few monuments of the ancient world emanate as much mystery, wonder and romance as the pyramids of Egypt. Millennia after those great builders of Egypt have gone to rest, travellers, scientists, poets and kings have spoken in awe of the silent mounds of stone that dot the western shore of the Nile. Prior to the decipherment of hieroglyphics, very little authentic information could be had about the pyramids. Much of what the world knew came from sources like the Greek historian Herodotus (5th Century BC), who described the pyramids of Giza as the tombs of the Pharaohs Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus.

However, Herodotus got many of the details wrong. He said, that the pyramids were built using wooden cranes, that a subterranean canal conducted water from the Nile to the Great Pyramid, creating an underground island on which Cheops was buried, etc. These tales were likely made up to impress travellers by local guides.

Today we know a great deal about the pyramids; who built them, and how. Understandably, some details remain murky after 4,700 years, but the religious, cultural, and engineering development of the Egyptian pyramid is well appreciated even though not fully understood after two centuries of scientific study.

By 2700 BC, Egypt was sufficiently advanced and prosperous to support large building projects. King Zoser, first monarch of the 3rd Dynasty, decided to show off his wealth and success by constructing for himself the most imposing mastaba, nine burial chambers built in the valley of the Nile. He was fortunate to have as his architect Imhotep, one of the first identifiable geniuses of history. Imhotep designed an impressive mastaba for Zoser, but it wasn’t grand enough for his royal master. While it was being enlarged, Imhotep had a design breakthrough: he decided to pile other, slightly smaller mastabas atop the original one. Moreover, Zoser’s tomb would be wrought in stone, not mud brick. Zoser must have been delighted, for study of his tomb shows it was recast once more with six ascending levels instead of four. The result was the first pyramid in Egypt, known as the Step Pyramid.

Is the pyramid shape significant? Whatever their advances, the Egyptians were limited in what they could build, both by the materials and the technology they possessed. They did not know how to build domes or arches, as the Greeks and Romans used later in their monuments. The pyramid is a simple geometric solid, the only shape other than rectangles the Egyptians could build with the materials and methods they knew.

On the other hand, the pyramid did have religious significance. The royal cult was closely linked to worship of the sun god Ra. A hieroglyph developed at the dawn of Egyptian history depicts the sun as a phoenix perched atop a pyramid-shaped object called a benben. This benben has been taken to represent the sun’s rays spreading to the earth, so a symbolic link can be found between the solar cult and the tombs of the pharaohs, the sun god’s sons on earth.

There has been considerable speculation about how the Egyptians built their pyramids, from Herodotus’ tales of cranes to modern claims of extraterrestrial aid or occult levitation. Even though these paranormal theories are unnecessary to explain the pyramids’ construction, the pyramids are a source of mystery and awe for many reasons. The Egyptians have left enough evidence on how the pyramids were built, but why the particular shape? It is interesting to note that the three great pyramids as they are known, are aligned with the stars found in the constellation ‘Orion’; namely the three stars forming the hunter’s belt.

The fact that their direction, and spacing with the stars display extreme precision is amazing enough, but even their sizes change very precisely according to the magnitudes of the relevant stars. How did the ancient Egyptians acquire the technology to measure the magnitude of a star (this is very difficult even with the modern telescopes we have today)? If the pyramids were simply meant to be tombs and nothing more, why did they take the trouble anyway? Is it possible that the great builders of ancient Egypt were inspired by extra-terrestrial beings? Who’s to know?

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