MONTHLY 
THE 
MAGAZINE. 
No. 93. 
NOVEMBER 1, 1802. 
[No. 4, of VoL. 14. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS ow the zODIAC at DEN- 
DERA* (anciently TENTYRA).—Accom- 
panied with a largé double Copper. plate. 
S the Report of Citizen Fourrier con- 
LX cerning this Zodiac and its high an- 
tiquity has made a confiderable impref- 
fion on the minds of many, and the argu- 
ment thence drawn has been confidered 
of great weight, in oppofition to the 
Mofaic records and Revealed Religion; 
I fend you the following obdfervations, 
with the hope, that, the Mifcellany, 
in which it is propofed to infert them, 
having a more extenfive circulation than 
any other, they may reach thofe who 
otherwife might not fee them, and have 
their effe&t upon a large clafs of readers, 
who may have too lightly acceded to 
FouRRiER’s conclufion. | 
Denon, fpeaking of this zodiac as 
clearly proving the deep knowledge of the 
ancient Egyptians in aftronomy, mentions 
the ruins which contain it, and are extant 
but twenty minutes ride from Dendera 
(the ancient Teufyra), known at prefent 
under the Arabic name of Berbe. Con- 
cerning the etymology of this term, va- 
rious opinions have been offered ; but that 
by the learned De Sacy is molt gene- 
rally admitted. He conjectured it to have 
been derived from mm and EP®E!, fignifying 
The Temple. 
Notwithftanding this conje&ture was 
affented to by Michaelis, Wabl, and Zoega, 
it has been oppofed by Hartmazn, who 
contends that Berba fignifies a pyramid or 
obelifg. Though fupported in this by 
Schultens, the interpretation refts in part 
on a conjecture of Reifke, who, for Barabi, 
fubftituted Baramz, which, however, in 
Arabic is plural; and on the perfuafion 
that in Edrifi the defcription of Berba 
was more fuitable to pyramids than tem- 
ples. Mi. de Sacy replies, with confide- 
rable force, that Schultens would have 
done more juftice to Michaelis, if, infead 
of indulging conjecture, he had opened 
fome Arabic defcription ef Egypt; for 
* Having promifed to prefent’ our readers 
with the ancient Zodiac lately difcovered by 
the French in Egypt, and copied and publifh- 
ed by Denon, we were defirous of accompany- 
ing it-by a fuitable differtation, when we 
‘were favoured with the prefent valuable com- 
munication from the Rev,S. HENLEY, 
. Montuiy Mae, No. 93. 
example, Macrizz’s, where he would have 
found inftances, that the term could not 
be applied to pyramids. Accordingly, a 
paflage is referred toin that author, which 
applies to the place. ‘‘ Of the number of 
Berba is that of Dendera, which is a won- 
derful edifice. It has 180 windows ; each 
day the fun enters by one of thefe win- 
dows, and next day by the following, till 
at length it reaches the laft, and then re- 
turns, in a contrary direction, to that in 
which it began.”? Vanfleb, in his Nou- 
welle Relation en Forme de Fournal d'un 
Voyage fait en Egypte (Paris, 1698), de- 
{cribes Dendera, as the fite of a wonderful 
temple of the ancient Egyptians, d'une 
grandeur et dune hauteur DEMESURE'E, 
and vifible at two leagues diftance. He 
_alfo, applying the account of Macrizi, 
and confidering the windows as double, 
makes them to be as many as there are, 
degrees in the zodiac, fo that the fun, 
rifing each day in a different degree, 
throws his rays through a different win- 
dow, till, by thus completing his courfe, 
he finifhes that of the year. For this. 
reafon, it is added, the. temple paffes 
in Egypt for wonderful. 
Taking thefe defcriptions with the other 
compartments on the cielings, given by. 
Denon, one inference, drawn by M. Four- 
rier, will be readily admitted, which is, 
that the ftate of the heavens exhibited. cor- 
refponds to the date of the building. It 
‘remains then to determine, from the zo- — 
diac in queftion, what this date was. Dz- 
zo2, on his fecond vifit, thus defcribes the 
temple :—‘* I went to the ruins, and this 
time took poffeffion of them in the pleni- 
tude of repofe. I was firft of all delight- 
ed to find, that my enthufiaftic admiration 
of the great temple was not an illufon 
produced by the novelty of its appearance, 
fince, after having feen all the other Egyp- 
tian monuments, this fill appeared the 
moft perfe&t in its execution, and con- 
firuéted at the happieft period of the aris 
and fciences; EVERY THING IN IT is 
laboured, 1s interefting, is important. ‘Ie 
would be neceffary to draw the whole in 
its moft minute detail, tg poflefs ourfelves 
of all that is worth carrying away.” 
The date of 15,000 years before’ 
the birth of Chrift feems but ill to 
agree with this account, when contrafted 
with the ordinary remains of human ef- 
forts, and the uniform effect of human’ ex- 
Pp perience, 
