A RIDICULOUS CLAIM - THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS ARE ORIENTED TO THE STARS IN ORION'S BELT:

A supposed alignment of

the stars in the belt of the

constellation Orion with the

peaks of the Giza pyramids

in Egypt.

This is not strictly speaking about rock art, but it is such an egregious example of New Age fringie thinking that I felt I had to say something about it.

I recently ran across an article with this reference (Shreya below) about the pyramids of Giza Plateau in Egypt being aligned with the stars of the belt of the constellation Orion. Now, while we all know that ancient peoples would have seen the sky and probably picked out patterns in it just as we do, some of the supposed "ancient knowledge" about this is pretty weak. We have a whole cabal of New Agers and spiritualists who pretty much make up "ancient knowledge" out of the whole cloth. I decided to look a little deeper into this knowing that in ancient Egypt there actually was a body of sky knowledge.

A modern star chart of

the constellation Orion.

"In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah. Because Orion rises before Sirius, the star whose heliacal rising was the basis for the Solar Egyptian calendar, Sah was closely linked with Sopdet, the goddess who personified Sirius. The god Sopdu, was said to be the son of Sah and Sopdet. Sah was syncretized with Osiris, while Sopdet was skyncretized with Osiris mythological wife, Isis. In the Pyramid Texts, from the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, Sah was one of many gods whose form the dead pharaoh was said to take in the afterlife." (Wikipedia)

"The pyramids named Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure are aligned with the stars (Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka) of the Orion belt (a constellation in the night sky). No one knows, till date(?), how the Egyptians could have achieved this feat of aligning the pyramids with the celestial bodies. Orion was not even named till 2,000 years after the pyramids were made but it is believed that the constellation was linked with Osiris God of Rebirth, by the Egyptians." (Shreya 2018)

This is such a wonderful example of  New Age fringie thinking that I had to pass it along to you. Let's begin with the phony photograph illustrating it - Oh, the wonders of PhotoShop! This picture is phony. I am not versed in astronomical mathematics, but even I can do a few simple calculations that prove this. 

First, by my simplistic measurements off of a star chart the belt of Orion subtends approximately 3˚  (degrees) of arc, and measuring off of a map of the Giza Plateau from peak to peak the distance between the outer two pyramids is 900m. So for this photo with the stars of Orion's belt so perfectly aligned to the peaks of the pyramids to work, the peaks of the two outer pyramids have to be 3˚ apart too. If each 3˚ of the arc is 900m then the circumference of the full circle is 108,000m. This give us a diameter of the circle at 34,394.90m (d=C/n), and half of that is the radius, the viewing point at which the pyramids would appear to subtend 3˚ of arc is the center. This radius comes to 17,197.45m (56,422 feet), or 10.7 miles. Do you really believe that the pyramids of Giza look that large and impressive from almost eleven miles away? 

Well, you say, the picture could have been taken with a telephoto lens from that far away and the peaks of the two outer pyramids would be 3˚ of arc apart just like Orion's belt. Then I have to ask you what brand of telephoto lens the ancient Egyptians used, and if you actually think you have an answer for that then we have nothing more to discuss.

Diagram showing that

there is no alignment.

Then we have the question of their supposedly perfect alignment. I went back to my star chart and map of the Giza plateau and drew lines from the stars through the peaks of the pyramids and to a viewing point, and they don't line up properly. You can change the size of the spread of the stars or its angle (remember Orion moves through the sky and its angle changes), but you cannot change the relative distances between the stars, or the pyramid peaks, and no matter how you try to adjust it, they will never line up.

Hancock, Graham, Magicians of

the Gods, 2015, page 504.

For some reason, Graham Hancock, in his 2015 book Magicians of the Gods, decided to throw in with this nonsense as well. He sees it as supporting his premise of ancient knowledge lost to our modern age. I find his explanation (Hancock 2015:504) no more convincing than the others, indeed, the fact that he sees it as more proof of his claims of ancient lost knowledge argues very effectively against this theory in my opinion. (I will not quote him here but will refer you to his book if you are interested in pursuing this theory).

So, this story is just more of the New Age fringie fiction which is so unfortunately common in our anti-scientific society. And admittedly, my crude analysis above is based upon my own gonzo astrophysical calculations, and I would welcome a more scientific and accurate analysis, but until that occurs I will stand by my conclusions.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

The hieroglyphics were provided by http://quizland.com/hiero.mv as a translation for "bullshit". As always, one-on-one translations will be incorrect because their word would not have necessarily a direct equivalent for our word.

I will welcome the help of any mathematician or astrophysicist who would like to refine my crude calculations and examples. Send them to me and I will be happy to post them here on https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

REFERENCES:

Hancock, Graham
2015 Magicians of the Gods, St. Martin's Press, New York.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)

Shreya,

2018 Pyramids Were Constructed 1000s of Years Ago but Some Facts About Them are Still Astonishing, August 14, 2018, https://newsd.co/pyramids-constructed-1000s-years-ago-facts-still-astonishing/9/?k=y3452&adb2=1&sp=2

http://quizland.com/hiero.mv