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

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Other archæologists who have endeavoured to investigate the orientations of these buildings have found that they practically face in all directions; the statement is that their arrangement is principally characterised by the want of it; they have been put down higgledy-piggledy; there has been a symmetrophobia, mitigated perhaps by a general desire that the temple should face the Nile. This view might be the true one, if stars were not observed as well as the sun.

With regard to all the temples of the ancient world, whether they are located in Egypt or elsewhere, we must never forget that if astronomy is concerned in them at all, we have to deal with the observations of the rising or setting of the heavenly bodies; whereas the modern astronomer cares little for these risings or settings, but deals only with them on the meridian.

The place of rising or setting would be connected with the temple by the direction of the temple's axis.

Now, the directions towards which the temples point are astronomically expressed by their "amplitudes"—that is, the distance in degrees from the east or west point of the horizon. For instance, a temple facing east would have an amplitude of zero from the east point. If we suppose a temple oriented to the north, it would have an amplitude of 90°; if half-way between the east and north, the amplitude would be 45° north of east, and so on. So that it is possible to express the amplitude of a temple in such a way that the temples in the same or different countries or localities, with the same or equivalent amplitudes, may be classified; and the more temples which can be thus brought together, the more likely is any law relating to their structure to come out.