THEORY OF THE EARTH. 223 



two edifices, so similar in their style of architec- 

 ture, could have been erected at periods so remote 

 from each other. 



The feeling of this impossibility, joined al- 

 ways to the belief that this division of the zo- 

 diacs indicates a date, has given rise to another 

 conjecture, namely, that the intention had been 

 to mark the particular sacred year of the Egyp- 

 tians, in which the monument had been erected. 

 As these sacred years consisted only of 365 days, 

 if the sun, at the commencement of one occupied 

 the commencement of a constellation, he would 

 be nearly six hours later in returning to the 

 commencement of the following year, and, after 

 121 years, he would only be at the commence- 

 ment of the preceding sign. It seems natural 

 enough that the builders of a temple might wish 

 to indicate about what period of the great, or So- 

 thian year, it had been erected ; and the indica- 

 tions of the sign, by which the sacred year then 

 commenced, was a good enough means. It will 

 be perceived, that, calculating upon this assump- 

 tion, there will be an interval of from 120 to 

 150 years between the temple of Esne and that 

 of Dendera. But, in his mode of solving the 

 problem, there remained to be determined in 

 which of the great years these buildings had 

 been erected, whether in that which ended in the 



