98 THE EARLY TEMPLE AND PYRAMID BUILDERS. 



valleys were subject to anumil iiiuiidatioiis, and their fertility depended, 

 as iu Egypt, upon the manner in which the irrigation was looked 

 after. But unlike the Nile, the comiueuceinent of the inundation of these 

 rivers took place near the vernal equinox; hence the year, we may 

 as!?linie, began then, and, reasoning by analogy, the worship iu all i)rob- 

 ability was equinoctial. 



A people entering Eg:ypt from this region, then, would satisfy one 

 condition of the problem, but is there any evidence that this peoi)le 

 built their solar temples and temple walls east and west, and that they 

 also built pyramids'? 



There is ample evidence, although, alas, the structures in Chaldica, 

 being generally built in brick and not in stone, no longer remain, as do 

 those erected iu Egypt. Still, iu spite of the absence of the possibility 

 of a comparative study, research has shown that in the whole region 

 to the northeast of Egypt the temenos walls of temples and the walls 

 of towns run east and west; and, though at present actual dates can 

 not be given, a high antiquity is suggested in the case of some of them. 

 Further, the temples which remain in that region where stone was pro- 

 curable, as at Palmyra, Baalbec, Jerusalem, all lie east aud west. But 

 more than this, it is well known that from the very earliest times pyram- 

 idal structures, called ziggurats, some 150 feet high, were erected in 

 each imi)ortant city. These were really observatories; they were pyra- 

 mids built in steps, as clearly shown from pictures found on contem- 

 porary tablets; and one with seven steps and of great antiquity, it is 

 known, was restored by Nebuchadnezzar, about <iOO n. c, at Babylon. 



A second condition of the hypothesis is therefore satisfied. 



l>ut did this equinox worshiping, pyramid-building race live at any- 

 thing like the time required? Prof. Sayce showed in the Hibbert 

 lectures, which were delivered in the year 1887, that recent finds have 

 established the existence of a King Sargon I, at Agade in Chaldea, 

 3800 B. 0. Hence it seems that a third condition of the hypothesis is 

 satisfied by this recent discovery. There Avas undoubtedly an equinox- 

 worshiping pyramid-building race existing iu Chaldea at the time the 

 Egyptian pyramids are supposed to have been built. 



Hommel, in a recent paper on the Babylonian origin of Egyptian 

 culture, shows that the names of the gods corresponded in many cases 

 with the names of deities mentioned iu the oldest Egyptian pyramid 

 texts. - - The names were represented by exactly the same signs 

 in both Babylonian and Egyptian hieroglyphics, - - - the name 

 and signs of Osiris the Babylonian Asari are represented in both coun- 

 tries by an eye. He contends that there had been a direct communi- 

 cation between the two civilizations, and that the Babylonian was the 

 older of the two. 



Next let us return to Egypt. We find at Memphis, Sais, Bubastis, 

 and Tanis east and w(>st walls, which at once stamp those cities as 

 differing in origin from On, Abydos, aud Thebes, where, as I have 



