50 
MR. F. C. PENROSE ON THE ORIENTATION OF CERTAIN 
Near Argos .—Latitude 37° 41' 10". 
Name of temple. 
Orientation 
angle. 
Stellar 
elements. 
Solar 
elements. 
Name of 
star. 
1 
The ancient 
Herceum 
287° .50' 
A 
B 
C 
I) 
E 
F 
G 
Amplitude of star 
or sun 
Corresponding alti¬ 
tude 
Declination 
Hour angles . 
Depression of sun 
when star heliacal 
R. A. 
Ap23roximate date . 
- 15° 33'E. 
3- 
- 10° 22' 
5 h 12“ 
1211 50.11 
1830 r.c., 
- 17° 50’ E. 
2° 49' 
- 12° 14' 
0 li 13m 
10 ° 
13'“ 57“ 
Oct. 24 
Antares, 
rising 
r Star’s altitude 3°, sun’s 
depression 11°, 
date 1900 
Variation s< 
4° 
10 °, 
„ 1900 
i 
4° 
?» J ? ^ ’ >1 
11 °, 
,, 1980 
The foundations of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi have now been fully explored 
by the French archaeologists, and there is evidence, both historical and structural, of 
the temple having been rebuilt—and, as it appears, rebuilt nearly, but not exactly, 
on the same site as before. Many fragments of an older structure have been used in 
the existing basement, but they are built on a line diftering by about 3° from what 
seems to have been the original orientation, which was presumabl}^ parallel to the 
terrace wall—namely, the well-known wall of polygonal masonry covered with 
inscriptions. The orientation angle of this wall is 231° 17', and that of the present 
temple 227° 53'. 
The peculiar situation, a narrow ledge of moderately sloping ground on a mountain 
side, in a nook formed by two spurs of Parnassus, evidently determined the orientation 
of the temple; but this is so completely extra-solstitial, that at no period of the year 
could the rising sun shine along the axis. Moreover, one of the two poetic summits 
of the mountain, together with an eminence on the left bank of the Pleistus, preclude 
any sunrise illumination upon the temple for considerably more than half the year, 
and a favourable ffap does not occur till about 12° of south amplitude, where the 
rislno’ sun can surmount the hills at an altitude of 3°. The western view is less 
O 
impeded : a sloping line of ground opposes itself to the axis of the present temple, at 
an altitude of about 3°, or, if looking parallel to the inscribed wall, about 3° 30'. It 
is evident, therefore, that for any solar or stellar theoiy on the orientation of this 
temple the conditions are unusually complicated. At Bassoe (vide p. 815 of the 
former paper on this subject) the temple lies very nearly north and south, but there 
was an eastern door to the sanctuai’y to admit the sunrise at right angles to the axis. 
In a few instances in Greece (more frequently in Egypt), when the orientation is 
