56 



NATURE 



[May i8, 189; 



Tigris and the Euphrates were to the early Chaldasan 

 ■empire. Like the Nile, these valleys were subject to 

 annual inundations, and their fertility depended, as in 

 Egypt, upon the manner in which the irrigation was 

 looked after. 



But unlike the Nile, the commencement of the inunda- 

 tion of these rivers took place near the vernal equinox ; 

 'hence the year, we may assume, began then, and, 

 reasoning by analogy, the worship in all probability was 

 equinoctial. 



A people entering Egypt from this region, then, would 

 satisfy one condition of the problem, but is there any evi- 

 dence that this people 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 Chaldaea, being generally built in brick and not in 

 •stone, no longer remain, as do those erected in Egypt. 

 Still, in spite of the absence of the possibility of a com- 

 parative study, research has shown that in the whole region 

 to the north-east of Egypt the temenos walls of temples 

 and the walls of towns run east and west ; and though at 

 present actual dates cannot 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 

 procurable, as at Palmyra, Baalbec, Jerusalem, all lie 

 east and west. But more than this, it is well known that 

 from the very earliest times pyramidal structures, called 

 ziggurats, some 150 feet high, were erected in each im- 

 portant city. These were really observatories ; they were 

 pyramids built in steps, as clearly shown from pictures 

 •found on contemporary tablets ; and one with seven steps 

 and of great antiquity, it is known, was restored by 

 Nebuchadnezzar about 600 B.C. at Babylon. 



A second condition of the hypothesis is therefore satis- 

 fied. 



But did this equinox-worshipping, pyramid-building 

 race live at anything like the time required ? Prof. Sayce 

 showed in the H ibbert lectures which were delivered in the 

 year 1887 that recent finds have established the existence 

 •of a King Sargon I. at Agade in Chaldasa 3800 B.C. 

 Hence it seems that a third condition of the hypothesis is 

 satisfied by this recent discovery. There was undoubtedly 

 an equinox-worshipping, pyramid-building race existing in 

 ■Chaldasa 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 in 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 re- 

 presented in both countries by an eye. He contends 

 that there had been a direct communication 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 west walls which at once stamp those cities as 



• differing in origin from On, Abydos, and Thebes, where, 



as I have shown, the walls trend either north-west — 



south-east or north-east — south-west. 



For Memphis, Sais, and Tanis, the evidence is afforded 

 by the maps of Lepsius. For Bubastis it depends upon 

 the statement of Naville, that the walls run " nearly from 

 east to west," and with the looseness too often associated 

 with such statements, it is not said whether true or 

 magnetic bearings are indicated. 



Associated with these east and west walls there is 

 farther evidence of great antiquity. Bubastis, ac- 

 cording to Naville,' has afforded traces of the date of 

 Cheops and Chephren, and it is stated by Manetho to 

 have existed as early as the second dynasty. 



^ " Bubastis," preface, p. iv. 



NO. 1229, VOL. 48] 



It is also generally known that the pyramids in Egypt 

 are oriented east and west. Nor is this all. 



One of the oldest, if not the oldest, pyramid known, is a 

 step pyramid modelled on the zuggurat pattern : the so- 

 called " step pyramid of Sakkarah." The steps are six 

 in number, and vary in height from thirty-eight to twenty- 

 nine feet, their width being about six feet. The dimen- 

 sions are (352 north and south) x (396 east and west) x 

 197 feet. Some authorities think this pyramid was 

 erected in the first dynasty by the fourth king (Nenephes 

 of Manetho, Ata of the tablet of Abydos.) The arrange- 

 ment of chambers in this pyramid is quite special. 



The claim to the highest antiquity of the step pyramid 

 is disputed by some in favour of the " false pyramid " of 

 Mediam. It also is really a step pyramid 1 15 feet high ; 

 its outline, which conceals some of the steps, shows three 

 stages, seventy, twenty, and twenty-five feet high ; but 

 in its internal structure it is really a step pyramid of six 

 stages. 



This pyramid must, according to Petrie, be attri- 

 buted to Seneferu ; but De Rouge has given evidence 

 to the contrary.' Seneferu was a king of the fourth 

 dynasty. 



We have at Dashour the only remaining abnormal 

 pyramid called the blunted pyramid, for the reason that the 

 inclination changes at about one-third of the height. This 

 pyramid forms one of a group of four, two of stone, and, 

 be it carefully borne in mind, two of brick ; their dimen- 

 sions are 700 X 700 X 326 feet ; 620 X 620 X 321 feet ; 

 350 X 350 X 90 feet ; and 343 X 343 X 156 feet. 



One of these pyramids was formerly supposed to have 

 been built by Seneferu ; if any of them had been erected 

 by King Ousertsen III. of the twelfth dynasty, as was 

 formerly thought, the hypothesis we are considering would 

 have been invalid. 



Only after Seneferu, then do we come to the normal 

 Egyptian pyramid, the two largest at Gizeh built by 

 Cheops and Chephren (fourth dynasty) being, so far as 

 is accurately known, the oldest of the series. (According 

 to Mariette the date of Mini is 5004 B.C., and the fourth 

 dynasty commenced in 4235.) 



Associated with the cities with east and west walls are 

 temples facing due east, fit, therefore, to receive the rays 

 of the morning sun rising at an equinox. 



Associated with these pyramids carefully oriented east 

 and west, we find on their eastern sides some distance 

 away, and on a line passing through their centres at 

 right angles to a meridian line, temples facing due west, 

 the clearest possible indication of equinoctial worship. 

 At sunset at the equinox the sepulchral chamber and the 

 sun were in line from the adytum. The priest faced a 

 double Osiris. 



In the case of the pyramid of Chephren, not only have 

 we, as I hold, such a temple of Osiris, but the Sphinx 

 granite temple was most probably the crypt of a temple 

 of Isis, its relation to the south face of the pyramid being 

 borne in mind. If this were so Osiris was a name both 

 for the solstitial and equinoctial sun. 



Other pyramids were built at Sakkarah during the 

 sixth dynasty, but it is remarkable that such a king as 

 Pepi-Meri-Rfi should not have imitated the majestic 

 structures of the fourth dynasty. He is said to have 

 built a pyramid at Sakkareh, but its obscurity is evidence 

 that the pyramid idea was giving way, and it looks as if 

 this dynasty were really on the side of On,- for the 

 authority of Memphis declined, and Abydos was preferred, 

 while abroad Sinai was reconquered, and Ethiopia was 

 kept in order.^ 



The sphinx (oriented true east) must also be ascribed 

 to the earliest pyramid builders ; it could not have been 

 built before their intrusion. The Colossi of the plain at 



J Maspero, op. cit. p. 59. - Maspero, op. cit. p. 80. 



3 Further, it is known that there was some connectioa between Pepi-Meri- 

 > Ra and the eleventh dynasty of Thebes. Maspero, op. cit. p. 91. 



