The Cheops Great Pyramid and Solar Eclipses

(see lexi18.htm for an update
and see lexi760.htm for an absolute chronology - speculative)

CHEOPS PYRAMID

(speculative thoughts about the use of the Great Pyramid and other pyramids for astronomical and land survey purposes)

Were the pyramids used to measure the sky and the Earth in the best hermetic tradition, i.e. "as above, so below"?

WERE PYRAMID FORMS
USED FOR GEODETIC SURVEY?

One can imagine how the ancients could have used the form of the pyramid for surveying. The pyramid can be viewed as a "mathematical form" derived out of land triangulation.

Bisecting angle lines to form opposite 90 degree angles as well as the creation of trapezoidal quadrants would also have permitted an easier handling of the measurements.

A few selected levels of the otherwise white limestone covering of the pyramids were apparently painted red and were also of a markedly different height than other levels, suggesting intentional geometric divisions.

WERE PYRAMID LEVELS
COLORED RED and WHITE?

Egyptologists allege the entire cover of the pyramids was white - which is not true - as Michael Haase, publisher of the magazine G.R.A.L. and author of many articles on the building of the pyramids, clearly shows in his book, Das Rätsel des Cheops, where he points to pyramid hieroglyphs from the tomb of Ptahhotep in Sakkara, having two horizontal lines drawn on them, one toward the top and one toward the bottom of the pyramid hieroglyph.

LINES and the PYRAMIDION

Lepsius also has Pepi I using a pyramid
with a line at the top
(perhaps to mark the pyramidion - the top triangular block).

Pepi was in the 5th dynasty, just at the start of pyramid-building.

Equally important, as Haase reports,
is that Ali Hassan,
chief inspector of the Giza Plateau from 1966 to 1968, reported then that he had found
the remains of some blocks from the outer shell
of the Great Pyramid
which clearly had red paint on them.

ASTROGEODETIC SURVEY OF THE EARTH

In our opinion, the painted pyramid levels marked "astrogeodetic surveying levels"
used in connection
with the first survey of the Earth by astronomy,
a survey which was recorded in the Great Pyramid,
as numerous authors have alleged.

PYRAMIDS and ZIGGURATS

The best book in this regard is Peter Tompkins,
Secrets of the Great Pyramid.
According to Tompkins,
we know from a "cuneiform description of the ziggurat, known as the Smith tablet ...
that each level of the ziggurat
has an area corresponding
to the standard units of land surface ..."

GREAT PYRAMID AS A MAP PROJECTION

Tompkins writes further: "In the Great Pyramid the Egyptians produced a system of map projection even more sophisticated than the one incorporated in the ziggurats. The apex of the Pyramid corresponds to the pole, the perimeter to the equator, both in proper scale... Each flat face of the Pyramid was designed to represent one curved quarter of the northern hemisphere, or spherical quadrant of 90°."

What about levels of the Great Pyramid and earth latitudes? Tompkins estimates that a degree of latitude was 212,000 royal Egyptian cubits. 90 degrees x 212,000 royal cubits equals 19,080,000 royal cubits. One level of the Great Pyramid's 210 levels would then ostensibly equal 1000 royal cubits on the arc of the meridian of the earth (this is the distance from equator to the pole).

SOLAR ECLIPSES and the PYRAMIDS

It appears possible that the Pharaohs put their memorial temples on the paths of solar eclipses, as e.g. Amenophis I, who was the first to be buried in the Valley of Kings, over which an eclipse passed during his reign.

The causeways to the pyramids
- e.g. at the Giza pyrmaids -
mark the path of these eclipses
and the "shadow" of the eclipse
was seen as the "ladder" to heaven,
i.e. the connector between Earth and Heaven,
this gate seen primarily between Auriga and Perseus.

NILE PYRAMIDS

Solar Eclipses
would appear to give us
ABSOLUTE DATES
of the
REIGNS OF THE PHARAOHS

SOLAR ECLIPSES IN EGYPT
at PYRAMID SITES

The Pharaohs may have put some of their memorial temples on the paths of solar eclipses, and eclipses surely played a role in chronology. Please note that "absolute" means "in terms of eclipses". The dates of the eclipses are clear. Still, the assignment of events to them is in the pioneer stage of development and will surely need substantial correction and revision in the future.

November 19, 2837 BC - Solar Eclipse over Egypt at the cross of the ecliptic and the celestial equator at the star Antares viz. Dschubba. This marks the reign of the Pharaoh HETEP-SEKHEMWY = Manetho's Boethos (Boötes) = the star Dschubba, Arabic - Jabbah, Vedic ANUradha. The hieroglyph at Sakkara reads Anu-tris (Baltic Andris) = Antares rather than Dschubba. That is why the three main sources differ.

April 1, 2471 BC - Solar Eclipse over Egypt at the cross of the ecliptic and the celestial equator at the Pleiades / Aldebaran. Kate Spence, Egyptologist at Cambridge, recently put the building of the Great Pyramid to 2467 BC plus or minus 5 years based on her positioning of the star Mizar at that time, but that is wrong. The April 1, 2471 BC eclipse applied to the Red Pyramid (for the red star Aldebaran) and the more northerly of the two pyramids of Snofru.

September 2, 2469 BC - Solar Eclipse at Spica in Virgo. This eclipse led to the building of the second of the two pyramids of Snofru. It is now easy to determine which of the two Snofru pyramids was built first - about which the scholars have long disputed - the center of the 2469 eclipse was further south, and this is the Bent Pyramid.

July 25, 2430 BC - Solar Eclipse over Egypt at Zosma (Duhr) and Chort at the point of the Summer Solstice.
This eclipse applies to the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

March 23, 2340 BC - Solar Eclipse over Egypt at the crossing of the ecliptic and celestial equator at the Pleiades under the gate of heaven between Auriga and Perseus.This would be the Pyramid of RAthosis = Khaf-RA, Chephren.

December 20, 2289 BC - Solar Eclipse over Egypt in the "boat of Capricorn" under Aquila. According to the Kings after Khasekhemwy on the Turin Canon, this can only be Unas whose cartouche might read WA-N-AGS "eagle", i.e. "Aquila".

June 29, 2159 BC - Antef I - Solar Eclipse over Egypt exactly at the cross viz. middle of the constellation of Cancer

September 11, 2079 BC - Antef II - Solar Eclipse over Egypt exactly at Spica in Virgo - we know this is Antef II rather than Antef III because the "Horus" serech shows a "bushy" hieroglyph - Spica / Virgo.

April 20, 2044 BC - 39th year of the reign of Mentuhotep - Solar Eclipse over Egypt at the crossing of the ecliptic and celestial equator at the Pleiades under the gate of heaven between Auriga and Perseus.

September 15, 1884 BC - Amenemhet II (with sons Senwosret II and III) Solar Eclipse over Egypt at Spica in Virgo. This was most likely the expedition to the center of the eclipse taken in the 24th year of Amenemhet's reign and the 4th year of Senwosret's concurrent reign. Egyptologists call this an expedition to punish the desert dwellers, but for that it is unlikely that he would take a young son along. This would place the beginning of Amenemhet II's reign at 1908 BC.

December 21, 1741 BC - Chendjer - Solar Eclipse in the Boat of Capricorn, most clearly marked with the eclipse of Chendjer as a darkened circle next to a container-like symbol.

April 16, 1699 BC - Sobekhotep IV Chaneferre - Solar Eclipse at the Pleiades and the crossing of the ecliptic and the celestial equator underneath the gate to Heaven between Auriga and Perseus. The heiroglyphs mark this as a partial sun followed by the swallowing windpipe symbol. According to Artapanus (writing about 300 BC), Chaneferre - i.e. the Pharaoh just noted above - was the Pharaoh during whose reign Moses was born. No contrary evidence gives us cause to doubt this historical record. Since Chaneferre apparently ruled only about 10 years, this puts the birth of Moses between maximally 10 years either side of 1699 BC, and we put it at 1707 BC due to the 80-year correlation to Exodus which we place as congruent with the explosion of Santorin ca. August 4, 1627 BC, based on astronomical considerations. Moses is later the first king of the 17th Dynasty of Thebes as Sobek-EMSAf II a name actually written in the hieroglpyhs as "MO-SHE" (also known as Sobekhotep VIII or Sechem-re Schedtaui). Since we know that Moses flew from Thebes when he was around 40, this puts him in the Eastern Delta Region of Egypt ca. 1667 BC, where Moses's Biblical Midianites are none other than the Hyksos, i.e. the Palestinians (nomadic desert dwellers), of whose king Moses takes one daughter as a wife. The 16th Dynasty King known as Anather is then Gideon (so also clearly readable according to the hieroglyphs as Hand-D-N i.e. GI-DI-N).

May 9, 1533 BC - Solar Eclipse right above the upraised hand of Orion (near Aldebaran) below the gate to heaven between Auriga and Perseus. This is the eclipse of Amenhotep I.

June 1, 1478 BC - Solar Eclipse in the "pot" of Gemini. This is in the reign of Hatshepsut and co-regent Thutmosis III (Thutmose III) .

May 14, 1338 BC - Solar Eclipse at the "upraised arm of Orion" below the gate to heaven between Auriga and Persus. This is the eclipse of Amenhotep III.

July 27, 1258 BC - Solar Eclipse at Regulus in Leo. This is Amenhotep IV, known as Echnaton (Akhenaten), and as the Biblical King Saul (Latvian SAULe`= "sun"), whose hieroglyph clearly shows an eclipsed object. We would expect the eclipse to have passed over Amarna. Echnaton must have seen the eclipse and resurrection of the Sun during his reign at the kingly star Regulus to be a particularly great omen and thereafter presented himself as the "Sun King SAULe".

August 19, 1157 BC - Solar Eclipse near Spica and Virgo. This is Ramses II, the Biblical King Solomon. The RA or SAULE name is the "sun name" of the king and shows the position of the sun. The AMUN name is the "moon name". In the case of Ramses II the hieroglyphs in his cartouche indicate that this was the confluence of both the sun and the moon at Virgo - an eclipse.

February 14, 1129 BC - Solar Eclipse below the back end of Pisces, under Pegasus, the Great Square, in the 29th year of reign of Ramses II and might be what is marked as an "earthquake" (?) at this time at Abu Simbel.

July 31, 1063 BC - Solar Eclipse at Zosma in Leo. This is Siptah, clearly marked with an eclipsed round object in the hieroglyph and perhaps the hieroglyph of Sethnacht also marked this event.

May 31, 957 BC - Solar Eclipse in the "pot" or "well" of Gemini. This is Herihor.

May 22, 948 BC - Solar Eclipse above Orion. This is Pinodjem.

January 27, 932 BC - Solar Eclipse at Markab. This is Masaharta.

August 15, 831 BC - Solar Eclipse at Denebola in Leo - the end tail star of Leo is shown as the tail in the hieroglyph of Psusennes II and III (same person)
(Psus-ennes, as AN-TEF is as ENAS = Latvian "eclipse, shade")

August 19, 636 BC - Solar Eclipse at Denebola in Leo. This is Tefnacht.

September 21, 582 BC - Solar Eclipse at Spica in Virgo. This is an unusual heavenly conjunction because it also involves an occultation also of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury, so that, with either the Sun or the Moon as the host, there were four visitors. These four "visitors" are glorified in the monument of Pianchi (Pije).

March 28, 517 BC - Solar Eclipse at Sheratan in Aries. This is Taharqa (Aries) going to Tanutamani (Taurus).

December 4, 502 BC - Solar Eclipse at Sagittarius. This is Psammetichus I.

November 24, 493 BC - Solar Eclipse at Sagittarius. This is Psammetichus II.

[Note: The idea of eclipses as being of such great importance came from a posting to LexiLine by ChasInca and from the internet page of Amir Bey (whose solar eclipse information is now found at http://thenewtimesholler.com/ARCHIVE/archiveDisplay.php?ID=24).
Bey used the following sources to determine eclipses over Egypt:
Solar Eclipses of the Ancient Near East, by M. Kudlek and E.H. Mickler.
The Canon of Solar Eclipses, by J. Meeus and H. Mucke
Solar Fire 4.07, a software program developed by Esoteric Technologies
Lunar Eclipses of the Ancient Near East by M. Kudlek and E. H. Mickler.]