472 Miscellaneous, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



ON THE AGE OF THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 



Mahmoud Bey, astronomer to the Vice-roy of Egypt, has just 

 published the results of his investigations of the pyramids, under- 

 taken at the request of the Vice-roy. The measures of the great 

 pyramid he finds to be 231 meters for the sides of the square 

 base, and 146.5 meters for the height; so that the faces form an 

 angle of 54° 45' with the horizon. This agrees with the known 

 inclinations of the six other pyramids of Memphis ; which vary be- 

 tween 51° and 53°, and average 52° 30'. This common inclina- 

 tion ; and the fact that the pyramids, and the other funereal monu- 

 ments which surround them, are, as Mahmoud has satisfied him- 

 self, always placed exactly facing the four cardinal points, suggests 

 that these pyramids had some relation to a celestial phenomenon, 

 and to the divinity which presided over that in the Egyptian my- 

 thology. Now he has found that Sirius, when it passes the me- 

 ridian of Gizeh, shines vertically upon the southern face of the 

 pyramids ; and in calculating the change in the position of this 

 star for a series of centuries, shows that 3,300 years before the 

 Christian era, the rays of this star, at its culmination, must have 

 been directly perpendicular to the southern face of the pyramids, 

 inclined at an angle of 52° 45' with the northern horizon. Ac- 

 cording to the principles of astrology the influences of a star are 

 greatest when its rays fall perpendicularly upon an object. If 

 now we suppose that these pyramids were constructed a little 

 more than 5,000 years ago, it would appear evident that their 

 faces received the angle of 52 degrees, in order to be perpendicu- 

 lar to the rays of Sirius, the brightest star of our northern heaven ; 

 which was consecrated to the god Sothis, the celestial dog, and 

 the judge of the dead, and was also said to be the soul of this deity. 



This opinion is confirmed in an unexpected manner by the fol- 

 lowing considerations. The pyramids, being tombs or funereal 

 monuments, would naturally be under the patronage of that divin- 

 ity who presides more particularly over the" dead, that is to say 

 with Sothis, who is no other than the thrice-great Hermes, Cyno- 

 cephalus, Thoth or Anubis. Now the hieroglyphic designation of 

 Sothis is a pyramid by the side of a star and a crescent. Nothing 

 is therefore more natural than this relation thus discovered by 

 Mahmoud Bey between Sirius and the pyramids. The date of 



