346 Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge. On the Orientation 



pyramids of Gebel Barkal and Nuri, few remains exist, but this is not 

 the case with the pyramids of Meroe, where we have the greater por- 

 tion of many of their shrines still standing in situ. These remains 

 show that the shrines consisted of two, and sometimes three, cbajnbers 

 with narrow doorways which served, like the various sights and sections 

 of a telescope, to direct the rays of light from the celestial body to a 

 given spot, that spot in the case of a pyramid being the centre of the 

 shrine where a figure of the deceased was placed. On the walls of the 

 shrines are cut in outline figures of kings, armed with bows and 

 arrows, and swinging clubs over the heads of a mass of people who 

 belong to captive races, and in some few cases we have been fortunate 

 enough to find preserved the names of the kings who built them. Now 

 these names help us to assign a date to the pyramids on which they 

 are found, and it is thus possible to compare the results derived from 

 astronomical calculations based upon angles of orientation, and tkose 

 which are derived from arch geological experience. 



For purposes of convenience the sb-called kings of Ethiopia have 

 been divided into four groups : — 



1. The dynasty of Piankhi which ruled in the eighth century B.C. 



2. The dynasty of Tirhakah which ruled about a century later. 



3. The earlier kings of Meroe who ruled from about B.C. 500 to the 



end of the Ptolemaic period. 



4. The later kings of Meroe who ruled from the beginning to the 



middle of the Eoman domination over Egypt. 



Of each of these groups of kings monuments, i.e., temples and 

 pyramids, have been found, and there can be no doubt whatever about 

 this, for a number of royal names belonging to each of these four 

 groups have been found inscribed upon them. We have already seen 

 that some of the temples and pyramids of Gebel Barkal belong to the 

 period which lies between B.C. 800 and B.C. 600, and it is now clear 

 that some of the pyramids of Meroe belong to the period which lies 

 between B.C. 500 and a.d. 200. Here, again, the orientation theory 

 shows that any shrine built about that time would have been directed 

 to the important south star Fomalhaut. Now we may see from Dr. O. 

 Danckwortt's important inquiries concerning the precessional change 

 of place of forty-six fundamental stars from B.C. 2000 to A.D. 800,* 

 that at zero time the declination of Fomalhaut was 39° south, and that 

 it was slowly changing. So that a difference of 1° to 40° south would 

 give us B.C. 300, and to 38° would give us A.D. 200. After what I 

 have said as to the difficulties, almost impossibilities, of determining 

 exact azimuths, in my mind there now remains no doubt as to the 

 time when these shrines were built. We have now to consider the 



* See ' Vierteljahrsschrift der astronomischen Gesellschaffc,' Leipzig, 1881, p. 76. 



