Читать книгу The dawn of astronomy. A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians онлайн

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Let us for the moment accept the truth of the various traditions relating to them, and suppose that they left traces of their worship; what, in the light of the last chapter, should we expect to find? The thing most likely to remain would be ancient shrines in all probability serving for the foundation of nobler structures built in later times.

This brings us to the question as to the probabilities of temple-building generally in relation to the heavenly bodies; but before I deal with it, it is important to consider a view first put forward, I believe, by Vitruvius, and repeated by all since his time who have dealt with the question, that the temples were built purely and simply to face the Nile.[5]

The statement is so far from the truth that it is clear that those who have made it had not studied the larger temple-fields. Indeed, we have only to note the conditions at Karnak alone to determine whether there is any truth in the view that the temples face the river. We see at once that this idea cannot be true, because we have the chief temples facing in four directions, while the Nile flows only on one side.