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

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STONEHENGE RESTORED.

Hence, just as surely as the temple of Karnak once pointed to the sun setting at the summer solstice, the temple at Stonehenge pointed nearly to the sun rising at the summer solstice. Stonehenge, there is little doubt, was so constructed that at sunrise at the same solstice the shadow of one stone fell exactly on the stone in the centre; that observation indicated to the priests that the New Year had begun, and possibly also fires were lighted to flash the news through the country. And in this way it is possible that we have the ultimate origin of the midsummer fires, which have been referred to by so many authors.[17]

We have thus considered solstitial temples scattered widely over the earth's surface far from the Nile Valley.

We may now return to the equinoctial temples which can still be traced to the N.E. of that valley—the chief ones being those, remains of which still exist at Jerusalem, Baalbek, and Palmyra, where stone was available for the temple builders. These temples were apparently as perfectly squared to the equinox as the Pyramids at Gîzeh. I will take the temple of Jerusalem first, as its history is more complete than that of the others.