January 28, 1892] 



NATURE 



297 



the document describing the building of the temple of 

 On (Heliopolis). We read :— " Arose the king, attired m 

 his necklace and the feather crown ; all the world fol- 

 lowed him, and the majesty of Amenemha [first king of 

 the Xllth dynasty]. The Kolchyt read the sacred text 

 during the stretchmg of the measuring-cord and the 

 laying of the foundation stone on the piece of ground 

 selected for this temple. Then withdrew His Majesty 

 Amenemha ; and King Usertesen [son and co-regent] 

 wrote it down before the people," 



Nissen, from whom [Joe. cit.) I quote the above, adds :— 

 " On account of the stretching of the measuring cord, 

 the Fgypuan engineers were called by the Greeks 

 apTreSovoTTT-ai, whose art Democritus boasts of having 

 acquired." 



We next turn to Abydos, possibly one of the oldest 

 temple-fields in Egypt. There is an inscription relating 

 to the rebuilding of one of them in the time of Seti 1. 

 (about 1445 B.C.). In this the goddess Sesheta addresses 

 the king as follows :—" The hammer in my hand was 

 of gold, as I struck the peg with it, and thou wast with 



the constellation of the Thigh — the old name of the con- 

 stellation which we now recognize as the Great Bear, and 

 on this line was built the new temple, " as had been 

 done there before." 



The actual inscription has been translated as follows : 

 — " The living God, the magnificent son of Asti [a 

 name of ThoihJ, nourished by the sublime goddess in the 

 temple, the sovereign of the country, stretches the rope 

 in joy. With his glance towards the ak [the middle?] 

 of the Bull's Thigh constellation, he establishes the temple- 

 house of the mistress of Denderah, as took place there 

 before." At another place the king says : " Looking to 

 the sky at the course of the rising stars, [and] recognizing 

 the ak of the Bull's Thigh constellation, I estabhsh the 

 corners of the temple of Her Majesty." 



Here, then, we have more than evidence of the stretch- 

 ing of a cord towards a star ; an actual constellation is 

 named, and it may be easily imagined in connection with 

 this that many interesting questions arise of the utmost 

 importance to the subject we are considering. 



Diimichen, in his references to this passage, discuss 



Fig I. — The king .-ind the goddess Sesheta stretching the cord at the 

 foundation of the Temple of Denderah. (From Diimichtn.) 



me in thy capacity of Harpedonapt. Thy hand held the 

 spade during the fixing of its [the temple's] four corners 

 with accuracy by the four supports of heaven." On the 

 pictures the icing appears with the Osiris crown opposite 

 the goddess. Both hold in their right hand a club, and 

 with it they each hammer a long peg into the ground. 

 Round the two pegs runs a rope, tied together at the 

 ends, which is stretched tight. 



In two cases the star used for the alignment is actually 

 named. Of these I will take, first, the record of the cere- 

 mony used in the building of the temple of Hathor at 

 Denderah. 



3. The Alignment of the Temples of Denderah and 

 Edfu. 

 Denderah.— Tht inscriptions state that the king while 

 stretching the cord had his glance directed to the ak of 



NO. I 161, VOL. 45] 



Fig. 2. — The conste'l.itions of the Hippopotamus and Thigli, from the rentre 

 of the Zodiac of Denddrah,-- 



the meaning of the word ak in relation to some Theban 

 grave inscriptions, in which it is suggested that ak is used 

 to represent the middle course of a star, or, astronomically 

 speaking, its culminating point as it passes the meridian. 

 But such a meaning as this will never do in this connec- 

 tion ; for if a cord was stretched towards a star on the 

 meridian it would lie north and south, and therefore the 

 temple would be built north and south. But this is by 

 no means the orientation of the temple — a point to which 

 I shall return presently. 



But it may be suggested that the word ak, used in rela- 

 tion to the king's observation, more probably referred to 

 the "middle point" of the constellation which would be 

 about represented by the star a, which lies nearly in the 

 centre of the modern constellation of the Great Bear, 

 supposing, indeed, that the same stars were included in 

 the old constellation ; but on this point we certainly have 



