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Martyn Shuttleworth 89.2K reads 3 Comments

The Ancient Greeks were the driving force behind the development
of western astronomy and science, their philosophers learning
from the work of others and adding their own interpretations and
observations.

In many older textbooks, the Ancient Greeks are often referred to as the fathers of ancient
astronomy, developing elegant theories and mathematical formulae to describe the wonders
of the cosmos, a word that, like so many others, came to us from the Greeks.

In fact, this assumption is incorrect and, whilst the Ancient Greek astronomers made huge
contributions to astronomy, their knowledge was built upon the solid foundations laid by
other great cultures. The Mesopotamian and Zoroastrian astronomers and astrologers, in
the Fertile Crescent and the empty deserts of Persia, made many sophisticated
observations and devised complex theories to describe cosmological phenomena.
This ancient wisdom passed into the hands of the Greek philosophers, greedy for
knowledge, when Alexander the Great conquered the region, in 331 BCE. Greece also lay
at the crossroads of many trade routes, so ancient knowledge from the Indian Vedas and
the Chinese astronomers further contributed to the store of insight accumulated by the
Greeks.
Ancient Astronomy and the Hellenistic Revolution
The Ancient Greek philosophers refined astronomy,
dragging it from being an observational science, with an
element of prediction, into a full-blown theoretical science.
The ancient astronomers used astronomy to track time and
cycles, for agricultural purposes, as well as adding
astrology to their sophisticated observations. They did not
really generate any theories concerning astronomy, and
were more concerned with what was happening and when, Solar Epicycle (Public Domain)

without addressing the why, other than vague attributions to Gods and astrology.

The Greeks kept the idea of Gods and omens, but began to theorize about the underlying
structure of the universe, pondering why the Sun, planets, and stars moved. Ultimately,
many of their ideas were based upon theology and heavenly perfection, so were incorrect,
but the keen minds of the Greek philosophers were the first to attempt to find a Grand
Universal Theory. They tried to uncover the hidden laws of creation long before Einstein,
Hawking, and the great theoretical physicists, who are the distant descendents of the Greek
astronomers, and certainly speak the same language of mathematics.

Greek Ancient Astronomy and Mathematical

Precision

The Ancient Greeks encountered the great civilization of Mesopotamia as early as the 11th
Century BCE, as they settled along the coast of Turkey. They also encountered the
Persians and the Egyptians, absorbing customs and knowledge from these great cultures.
As a maritime people, the Greeks understood the value of reading the stars as an aid to
navigation and, by the 6th Century, Ancient Greek seafarers of the Ionian culture could read
the stars like a map, and understood the patterns and motions of the celestial sphere.
Greek astronomy might have ended there were it not for the rise of the Greek philosophers.
Their insatiable quest to understand the undercurrents that drove the universe, and read the
ebb and flow of natural cycles governing the earth and heavens became an obsession. The
Greeks developed a pantheon of Gods, mainly because of cross-fertilization from Eastern
cultures, but they were not satisfied with purely theological explanations for phenomena,
and wanted to understand how and why things worked.

Perhaps they saw their theories as reading the mind of the gods and revealing what they
believed to the perfection of nature. To the Greeks, the universe was a machine that ran
upon mechanical and mathematical principles, which could be deduced through logic and
reasoning.

Ancient Astronomers: Thales of Miletus (624 - 548

Bce)

One of the first Greek ancient astronomers, and the first notable Greek philosopher, was
Thales, who lived at the beginning of the 6th Century BCE. Few written records exist and
information about his work must be pieced together from the writings of later
philosophers.However, it is believed that he successfully predicted an eclipse, in 585 BCE,
although he probably referred to Babylonian records for this.

He is also credited with inventing trigonometry, in an early example of the strong link
between astronomy and mathematics.Other discoveries attributed to him are measuring the
apparent diameter of the sun and recognizing the importance of the star constellation Ursa
Minor (The Little Bear), as a guide to navigation for seafarers. Whilst difficult to ascertain
from the scattered records, it seems that he believed that the earth was flat.
Ancient Astronomers: Anaximander of Miletus (C.
550 BCE)
Anaximande
r, another
great early
philosopher,
better known
Aniaximander's Universe. On the left, daytime in summer; on the right, night time in winter. (Creative Commons)
for his ideas
about evolution, was the first Greek philosopher to create a cosmological model. He
proposed a theory explaining how the universe worked and revealed what he felt were the
hidden processes guiding the movement of the planetary bodies.

His major contribution was to imagine the earth as hanging in space, with the other
heavenly bodies describing circles around it. He also brought the idea of depth to the
model, for the first time proposing that the heavenly bodies occupied three-dimensional
space, envisaging them as lying different distances away from the earth.

Anaximander believed that the earth was cylindrical in shape, about 1/3 as high as its
diameter, and imagined it to be surrounded by air and then fire, 'like the bark of a tree.' The
inhabited portion lay on top of the cylinder, surrounded by an ocean, and it is suggested that
he believed the other flat surface of the cylinder contained land, although he did not specify
whether he believed it to be inhabited.

All of this was surrounded by a ring of air, followed by rings of fire shrouded by mist. He
described these as like chariot wheels; the rims were hollow and filled with fire, and the light
from the heavenly bodies emanated from openings in these wheels, which allowed people
to see the fire. In his model, the sun and moon were further away than the stars, and
eclipses were accounted for by these holes becoming blocked.

Of course, to modern eyes, this seems to be a very backward way of looking at the
universe, but we have to remember that Anaximander had no concept of gravity, and could
think of no other model that would prevent the sun, moon, and stars from plummeting to the
ground! He never fully explained why the heavens did not move around the earth perfectly
and went around at an angle, giving us the seasons.

Anaximander's other great contribution was the idea of infinity and the tantalizing possibility
that the universe could be unbounded. He also created the idea of 'balance' to explain how
the earth floated in space, using equilibrium. His model created more questions than
answers, but that is what philosophers feed upon!

Pythagoras (572 - 492 BCE)

Pythagoras, another philosopher better known

for mathematics, also contributed to the knowledge of the
Greek philosophers by postulating that the earth was
spherical, a huge departure from Anaximander's model.
Famously, he proposed this idea because he noticed that
ships disappear below the horizon when they sail away,
implying that the surface of the earth is curved.
He also proposed that, if the moon and other celestial
bodies were spherical, then it made sense that the earth
would be too; Pythagoras saw spheres as the perfect Bust of Pythagoras (Public Domain)
shape. Pythagoras was the first ancient astronomer to
suggest that there was a harmony of the spheres, and that the movement of the planets,
sun, moon and stars could be described by whole numbers and mathematical precision. His
other discovery was that the morning and evening star are the same thing, the planet
Venus.

Anaxagoras (C. 500 BCE) and Heracliedes of Pontus

(born C. 388 BCE)

Anaxagoras is one of the first Greek philosophers that we know a little about, as he is
mentioned in Greek history. This philosopher was admired by many in Athens and counted
the great Socrates amongst his disciples. He proposed various solutions to celestial
phenomena and the structure of the universe, explanations that would eventually see him
banished from Athens for heresy.

He believed that the sun was a huge mass of blazing metal, much larger than the
Peloponnese. Anaxagoras also proposed that the heavenly bodies were rock torn from the
earth and set aflame by rapid rotation, also suggesting that they were a long way from
earth, the reason why we cannot feel their heat.

Finally, he believed that the moon was a world much as our own, with valleys, mountains,
and ravines, and hinted that it may be inhabited. He reverted to the old idea of a flat earth,
proposing that strong winds blowing under it caused it to ripple and give rise to
earthquakes. Brilliantly, he suggested that the moon reflected the sun's light, a true stroke
of genius.Heracliedes was the first to suggest the sun as the center of the universe, a
concept that would not be accepted until Copernicus, nearly 2000 years later. These two
ancient astronomers would influence one of the most famous of Greek philosophers, Plato.

Ancient Astronomers: Plato and the Crystal Spheres

As a philosopher who believed that explanations could be deduced, through reason, Plato
believed that the entire cosmos was constructed with precision and that circles and
spheres, as the most perfect objects, were the key to understanding the universe. His
contribution to ancient astronomy was the idea that the stars, sun, and moon were fixed to
concentric crystalline spheres, rotating inside one another. Plato proposed that the stars
formed the outermost crystal sphere, followed by the planets, the sun, the moon, and the
spherical earth at the center. These rotated and gave rise to the motion of the heavens
around the fixed earth.However, records and observations soon showed that this model
could not fully explain the complicated movement of the planets, sun, and moon. These
move across the sky at varying rates, often appearing to move backwards relative to the sky
in a retrograde direction. Plato, ever one to complicate matters, decided that this movement
was still circular, but his model needed a slightly more sophisticated explanation.
Plato's pupil, Eudoxus, envisioned the universe as containing the static earth at the centre,
with the stars occupying the outermost crystal sphere. The sun, inside this sphere, rotated
around the earth at the same speed as the stars, but was attached to the astral sphere and
also rotated about this axis once per year. If this solar sphere were connected at a 231/2
degree inclination, this would also explain why the stars do not circle the earth on the same
plane.The problem with this is that it did not fully describe all of the nuances of the sun's
rotation, so more spheres were added to Plato and Eudoxus' model. To account for the
motion of the moon and planets, the model required at least 55 concentric spheres. Try to
build a model of that one!

Ancient Astronomers: Aristarchus, Eratosthenes and

Celestial Distance

Aristarchus, teacher of the better-known Archimedes, was the first astronomer to make a
reasonable estimate of the distances of the sun and moon from the earth. He proposed that
the universe was far greater in size than suggested by earlier philosophers, believing that
the earth, lying at the center of the universe, was tiny compared to the sphere of the stars.
Accordingly, this vast distance explained why the stars do not appear to move relative to
each other.Along with Eratosthenes, he also proposed that the stars and sun did not move
in the sky, instead believing that the earth rotated about its axis, although this particular idea
was not widely adopted.
Ancient Astronomers: Hipparchus, Ptolemy and
Epicycles

The problem with the idea of concentric spheres was that

it did not explain the full complexity of planetary motion,
and the model could not explain how the moon and
planets varied in size and brightness. Hipparchus (2nd
Century BCE) was the first to suggest a new model to
explain this and suggest why the seasons varied in length. Ptolemy's Geocentric Model (Public Domain)
Hipparchus believed that the earth did not lie at the very center of the universe, but lay
slightly off center. Ptolemy took this idea further and expanded upon the idea, proposing the
famous theory of epicycles.

Using trigonometry, Hipparchus and Ptolemy devised the idea of epicycles, where the sun,
moon, and planets moved around the earth in circles, but rotated in smaller circles within
this cycle. This perfectly explained the sometimes retrograde motion of the moon and
planets, and elucidated why the sun and moon were sometimes closer to the earth and,
subsequently, larger.

Ptolemy has become something of a byword for stubborn scientists because, as

observations began to demand more complex theories, he developed circles within circles
within circles, his model eventually becoming as complex as Plato's crystalline spheres. By
modern standards, this epitomizes a scientist clinging to an old paradigm and refusing to
entertain other explanations.This is an unfair criticism because, considering the knowledge
that he had at the time, it was a decent explanation for the structure of the heavens. He
tenaciously clung to the paradigm, failing to make the intuitive leap that would be left to later
astronomers such as Copernicus.

Ptolemy's observations were meticulous and his work, the Almagest, built upon the work of
Hipparchus, was used by sailors and navigators for centuries afterwards when they wanted
to know the position of the sun, moon and stars at any time of the year. His theoretical
science was suspect but, as an observational scientist, his diligence and accuracy was truly
immense.Ptolemy deserves better treatment than he receives; apart from proving beyond
doubt that the earth was spherical, he also has some justification for his belief. He pointed
out that, if the world rotated, then how could people survive if it was revolving at high speed;
he had no concept of General Relativity!

The Ancient Greek Astronomers: A Blessing and a

Curse
The Ancient Greek philosophers were both a blessing and a curse to astronomy. On the
one hand, they made accurate measurements and moved the idea of the structure of the
universe away from gods and superstition. Ancient mathematicians used geometry to create
models and the philosophers used the idea of harmony and balance to describe the
underlying motions of the universe.This idea of perfection would influence astronomers for
centuries, with the Muslims and Renaissance philosophers seeking to understand the
balance of the divine, universal perfection.

Newtonian physics is built upon this idea of precision, and it was not until quantum physics,
Einstein, and Chaos Theory that this idea was seriously challenged, and people began to
accept that the universe might not be perfect or contain a universal harmony.

On the negative side, the geocentric model and epicycles of the Greek ancient astronomers
persisted for another 15 centuries, certainly influencing later theoretical cosmologists to take
the wrong path. After the decline of Rome, the wisdom of the ancient astronomers would
pass into the hands of the Islamic scholars, who preserved the knowledge of the Greeks
and added their own ideas.

Bibliography

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast121/lectures/lec02.htm

History of Astronomy:

Early Man -> little recorded information on early man's impression of the
heavens, some drawings of eclipses, comets, supernovae such as the Pueblo
Petrograph. Early man was frightened/overwhelmed by the sky.
Early man also believed that the heavens held power over earthy existence
(psychology of the unknown) -> origins of astrology as an attempt to
understand, predict and influence events

The earliest written records (i.e. history) were astronomical observations -

Babylonians (~1600 B.C.) recorded position of planets, times of eclipses, etc.
- also evidence from early Chinese, Central American and North European
cultures such as Stonehenge, which is a big computer for calculating the
position of planets and the Sun (i.e. when to have that big blowout Solstice
thing)

-> thus, Astronomy was the 1st science

Hellenistic Culture (~500 B.C.):

The ancient Greeks inherited astronomical records from the Babylonians and
applied the data to construct a cosmological framework. Data was not just
used for practical goals, such as navigation, but also to think
of new experiments = natural philosopher.

Thales (~480 B.C.) used this data to predict eclipses.

Eratosthenes (220 B.C.) - The early Greeks knew the Earth was a sphere
based on the shadow of Earth on the Moon during lunar eclipses.
Eratosthenes proceeded to use this information to measure circumference of
Earth in the following manner; he knew that on a certain date that a stick
placed in the ground at Syene cast no shadow. Whereas, a stick at Alexandria
has a small shadow. Using simple ratios he showed the following:

Hipparchus (100 B.C.) produced first star catalog and recorded the names
of constellations.

Heraclides (330 B.C.) developed the first Solar System model, beginning of
the geocentric versus heliocentric debate
Note that orbits are perfect circles (for philosophical reasons = all things in
the Heavens are "perfect")

Aristarchus (270 B.C.) developed the heliocentric theory

Problems for heliocentric theory:

 Earth in motion??? can't feel it

 no parallax seen in stars
 geocentric = ego-centric = more "natural"
Ptolemy (200 A.D.) was the Librarian of Alexandria who resurrected
Heraclides geocentric theory and combined with centuries of data on
planetary motions -> formulated complete description of the Solar System
that explained/predicted the apparent motions. The Ptolemic system began
the 1st paradigm or framework for our understanding of Nature
Unfortunately, the Ptolemy framework was extremely complicated in order to
explain retrograde motion.
The solution to retrograde motion was to use a system of circles on circles to
explain the orbits of the planets called epicycles and deferents. The main
orbit is the deferent, the smaller orbit is the epicycle. Although only one
epicycle is shown in the figure below, over 28 were required to explain the
actual orbits of the planets.
In the Ptolemaic system, deferents were large circles centered on the Earth,
and epicycles were small circles whose centers moved around the
circumferences of the deferents. The Sun, Moon, and planets moved around
the circumference of their own epicycles. In the movable eccentric, there was
one circle; this was centered on a point displaced from the Earth, with the
planet moving around the circumference. These were mathematically
equivalent schemes.
Although Ptolemy realized that the planets were much closer to the Earth
than the "fixed" stars, he seems to have believed in the physical existence of
crystalline spheres, to which the heavenly bodies were said to be attached.
Outside the sphere of the fixed stars, Ptolemy proposed other spheres, ending
with the primum mobile ("prime mover"), which provided the motive power
for the remaining spheres that constituted his conception of the universe. His
resulting solar system model looked like the following, although the planets
had as many as 28 epicycles to account for all the details of their motion.
This model, while complicated, was a complete description of the Solar
System that explained, and predicted, the apparent motions of all the planets.
The Ptolemic system began the 1st mathematical paradigm or framework for
our understanding of Nature.

Alexandria burns, Roman culture collapses, Dark Ages... but the Roman
Catholic Church absorbs Aristotle's scientific methods and Ptolemy's model
into its own doctrine. Thus, preserving the scientific method and Ptolemy's
Solar System until the...

The Renaissance, where new ideas were more important than dogma.

Copernicus (1500's) reinvented the heliocentric theory and challenged

Church doctrine. The heliocentric model had greater depth than simply an
improvement to solve retrograde motion, it also had social and political
consequences. For example, the Bible states (Psalm 93, addressing God)
"Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm", which implies a geocentric
model. Also, Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still, not the Earth.
Heliocentric theory questioned the authority of the most revered wise men of
the ancient world and the outcry over his ideas had little to due with the
impersonal concern for truth. By placing the Sun at the center of the Solar
System, Copernicus forced a change in our worldview = paradigm shift or
science revolution.
However, Copernicus also used circular orbits and had to resort to epicycles
and deferents to explain retrograde motions. In fact, Copernicus was forced to
use more epicycles than Ptolemy, i.e. a more complicated system of circles
on circles. Thus, Copernicus' model would have failed our modern criteria
that a scientific model be as simple as possible (Occam's Razor).

Tycho Brahe (1580's) was astronomy's 1st true observer. He built the Danish
Observatory (using sextant's since telescopes had not been invented yet) from
which he measured positions of planets and stars to the highest degree of
accuracy for that time period (1st modern database). He showed that the Sun
was much farther than the Moon from the Earth, using
simple trigonometry of the angle between the Moon and the Sun at 1st
Quarter.
Tycho's measurements were used to show that there was no detectable
parallax with the naked eye, in support of the geocentric theory. So, even
though his observations were the best for his time, his result was wrong, a
lesson in how science is done.

Kepler (1600's) a student of Tycho who used Brahe's database to formulate

the Laws of Planetary Motion which corrects the problems of epicycles in the
heliocentric theory by using ellipses instead of circles for orbits of the
planets.
The formulation of a highly accurate system of determining the motions of all
the planets marks the beginning of the clockwork Universe concept, and
another paradigm shift in our philosophy of science.

Galileo (1620's) developed laws of motion (natural versus forced motion, rest
versus uniform motion). Then, with a small refracting telescope (3-inches),
destroyed the the idea of a "perfect", geocentric Universe with the following
5 discoveries:

spots on the Sun

mountains and "seas" (maria) on the Moon

Milky Way is made of lots of stars

Venus has phases

 Jupiter has moons (Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede)

Newton (1680's) developed the law of Universal Gravitation, laws of

accelerated motion, invented calculus (math tool), the 1st reflecting telescope
and theory of light.

... off to the 18-20th century, with discovery of the outer planets and where
astronomy moves towards discoveries in stellar and galactic areas, next
paradigm shift occurs in early 1960's with NASA deep space probes

Astronomical
Alignments
of
Ancient Mystic Places
Structures

Ancient Surveyors Archaeoastronomy

PRECESSION Finding Cardinal Points

Alignment of ancient sites Obelisks

Orienting Egyptian Pyramids Examples

Rebuilding Ancient Monuments

Links and Resources

I have grasped the stake... I take the measuring cord in the company
of Seshat. I consider the progressive movements of the stars. My eye
is fixed upon the Bull's Thigh [Ursa Major]. I count off time ..... and
establish the corners of the Temple'.

Inscription from the Temple of Horus at Edfu

Great is the recital, the history of the time when all the corners of
the sky and earth were completed, and the quadrangulation, its
measure, the four points, the measuring of the corners, the
measuring of the lines, in heaven, in earth, at the four corners'

From the Mayan text of The Popul Vuh

The majority of ancient sites exhibit amazingly precise astronomical

alignments.
In the following articles we present examples of such alignments, reveal
reasons behind them, and suggest the most likely methods used by
ancient builders to orient their pyramids and temples.

Introduction

Many ancient ruins demonstrate that the people who constructed them had
not only a special regard for celestial bodies and mathematics, but also a
spot-on accuracy. From Egypt to Mexico, there is no doubt that past
civilizations were involved in incredibly complex space calculations,
mathematics and architectural endeavors. Although many historians and
archaeologists debate exactly what these civilizations did intentionally and
what they did by mere chance, here are a few examples of how ancient
architecture was created with mathematics and the cosmos in mind.

Read more >>

Contents

1. Surveyors of the Ancient World

2. Mysterious alignment of ancient sites of the world
3. Archaeoastronomy
o Archaeoastronomy - Introduction
o Mesoamerican Archaeoastronomy
  Calendars: Using the summer solstice
to calibrate the secular calendar
o Egyptian Archaeoastronomy
 The astronomical ceiling from Senenmut's tomb
 Dendera's Zodiac
o Appendix 1: Angular Coordinates

4. Astronomically aligned ancient structures - Examples

o Nabta in the Nubian Desert
o Stonehenge, England
o Egyptian Pyramids
o Teotihuacán, Mexico
o Edzná, Mexico
o Chichen-Itza, Mexico
o Zempoala, Mexico
o Tikal, Guatemala
5. Methods of Finding Cardinal Points:
o the stars
o the sun (using obelisks)
o magnetic compass
o Northern Star
6. PRECESSION and other fluctuations in Earth's Orbit
7. Orienting Egyptian Pyramids
o Solar and Stellar methods of finding Cardinal Points
o Stretching the cord ceremony - Goddess Seshat
o How the ancient Egyptians aligned their pyramids?

8. Obelisks
9. Links and Resources

Surveyors of the Ancient World

I have grasped the stake... I take the measuring cord in the

company of Seshat. I consider the progressive movements of the
stars. My eye is fixed upon the Bull's Thigh [Ursa Major]. I count
off time ..... and establish the corners of the Temple.

The above text is an inscription from the Temple of Horus at Edfu

accompanying the relief showing "Stretching the Cord" Ceremony.
 The Pharaoh and the Goddess Seshat, planting stakes linked by
a looped rope, participate in the 'Stretching the Cord' ceremony.

A Great Circle drawn through the celestial poles divides the sky,
marking out a point on the celestial equator from which
measurement can begin. This is what is meant by 'Stretching the
Cord', creating the first path across the trackless waste.

The Mayan celebration of the establishment of creation is a

description of the process of surveying the world:

'Great is the recital, the history of the time when all the corners of
the sky and earth were completed, and the quadrangulation, its
measure, the four points, the measuring of the corners, the
measuring of the lines, in heaven, in earth, at the four
corners' (From the Mayan text of The Popul Vuh)

A more recent translation makes this even clearer; 'The fourfold

siding, fourfold cornering, measuring, fourfold staking, halving
the cord, stretching the cord in the sky, on the earth, / the four
sides, the four corners as it is said '

The pillars which support the sky are to be regarded as benchmarks,

boundary stones put down to enable an order to be imposed upon
chaos, and a measure to be made of the earth. However, it should be
apparent after all this discussion of the 'corners of the earth', that it is
not the earth we walk about on that is of concern here. This
particular 'earth' is not only square but flat. Exactly what this means
will soon become clear. We should recall that it is the matter of
Time that is being measured in this surveying process. This is the
process that the prophet Enoch describes when, during his vision he
asks his guide to explain the actions of the angels they see:

'Wherefore have they taken those long ropes and gone forth? He
said 'They are gone forth to measure. These measures shall reveal
all the secrets of the depths of the earth' (Book of Enoch ch. LX v.
2-6)

The process these Angels were going forth to conduct must have
been similar to that ceremony which in Egypt was known as
'stretching the rope' and which accompanied the commencement of
any building project, thus relating its construction to the original
founding of the earth.

In the Old Testament Book of Job, God challenges Job to answer:

'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? ..Who
decided the dimensions of it... or who stretched the measuring line
across it? What supports its pillars at their bases? (Jerusalem
Bible tr.)'

This process of surveying the foundations of creation reappears in

the verses of the Rig Veda which tell how Varuna made fast the
earth and heaven, and here we are told specifically that he did so by
using the sun as a measure, and as a commentary on these verses
points out, 'we must take this measure as a measuring line'.

As if to emphasise the importance of this role of surveying, the

Chinese deities responsible for creation come equipped with
compass and plumbline.

What all this means is that the 'bindings' which hold heaven and
earth together are to be taken also as plumblines which stretch out
the measures of creation across the circle of the stars. It is a
particular state of order that is being held fast.

Representations of the cosmos constructed in this way appear again

and again, often in unlikely places.

An elemental one is the rectilinear cross which appears on the

English flag ( the Royal Orb is a more complete image, including as
it does the spherical universe bounded by the cross). Another more
detailed example from China comes in the form of a series of
mirrors known as the TVL mirrors, because of their decorative
patterns, described as follows:

'The four T's that stand around the square earth are the four
cardinal points. These lie at the extremities of the two cosmic lines
or ropes which cross the universe and hold it together; the T's
comprise a vertical prop which supports a horizontal beam; the
four V's mark the four corners of heaven. The four L's represent
devices used by carpenters to set a straight line...thus they
symbolize the ends of the two cosmic lines as if they had been
drawn with the help of such an instrument.'
[Related link: http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/ATAM/archaeometallurgy/chimir.html ]

Bronze Mirror, 7th Century

For the Maya people today this kind of creation is still repeated as
part of ceremonies to restore the correct balance of the world. David
Freidel describes a ceremony he witnessed to bring to an end a
prolonged drought. The officiant (referred to as h-men, 'a do-er')
constructed an altar known as a 'sky-tree'. A table is overarched by
four saplings bent to intersect above its centre. From this
intersection is hung a circular platform referred to as the 'the sky-
platform' .

'Sturdy vines of a kind called xtab ka'anil, 'the 'cords of the sky',
completed the arches to form the 'sky tree'. In the Yukatek language,
the words for 'sky' and the number 'four' are near homophones and
frequently substitute for each other in the ancient writing system'.

Source: http://www.mythofcreation.co.uk/CreationText/Creation4_1text.htm
Related Links (this section):

 Ancient ritual ceremony and Geometry

 http://www.crystalinks.com/seshat.html
 http://www.crystalinks.com/thoth.html
 http://www.crystalinks.com/pyramidegypt2.html
 http://www.seshat.ch/home/egypt1.htm
 http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/karnak5.htm
 http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/karnak10.htm
 http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi70.htm
 http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/ATAM/archaeometallurgy/chimir.html
 http://www.recoveredscience.com/const201seshathempmath.htm
 http://www.mythofcreation.co.uk/CreationText/Creation4_1text.htm

Ancient Finding
Alignment of Archaeoastronomy Examples
Surveyors Cardinal Points
ancient sites

Orienting Links and

PRECESSION Obelisks
Egyptian Pyramids Resources

Mysterious Alignment of Ancient Sites of

the World

The sites: Giza, Siwa, Tassili n'Ajjer, Paratoari, Ollantaytambo,

Machupicchu, Nazca, Easter Island, Aneityum Island, Preah Vihear,
Sukhothai, Pyay, Khajuraho, Mohenjo Daro, Persepolis, Ur, Petra
are shown clockwise from Giza on the equal azimuthal projection.
below. The projection is centered on the axis point in southeastern
Alaska. Distances to any location from the center of an equal
azimuthal projection are equally scaled. Since all of the sites on the
great circle alignment are equally distant from the axis point at one
quarter of the circumference of the earth, the alignment forms a
perfect circle halfway between the center and the outer edge of the
projection.
The locations of world's ancient sites on a global scale is puzzling on
its own. However, our discussion is focused on astronomical
alignments of these sites and their monuments.
 Ancient Aliens and Astronomical
Alignments
 5 Comments
 October 9, 2014
 Andrew May

Advocates of the “Ancient Alien” theory point to numerous different types of evidence that
the Earth was visited by extraterrestrials in the distant past. One of their most compelling
arguments is based on the apparent alignment of certain ancient structures with stars and
constellations. After all, if the alignments are real – and not just the result of random
chance, as the skeptics claim – then what other explanation could there be? Stars mean
outer space, and outer space means extraterrestrials. It’s a straight choice between
believing in aliens and denying the evidence. Or is it really that simple?
Few people would deny that one particular subset of “astronomical” alignments does occur,
namely those associated with the sun rather than the night sky. Even mainstream
archaeologists can grasp the fact that seasonal movements of the Sun were relevant to
ancient cultures. Hence they have no problem with things like the solar alignment of
Stonehenge at sunrise on the summer solstice, or the creeping shadow serpent of Chichen
Itza at the equinoxes.
It’s a different matter when it comes to night-time astronomy – things like stars, planets and
constellations. That’s where the big divergence of opinion sets in. Mainstreamers have no
difficulty accepting that Newgrange – a Neolithic site in Ireland that is older than
Stonehenge – is aligned with the rising sun on the winter solstice. But to claim that the
same site is patterned after the constellation of Cygnus – as some non-academic
researchers have suggested – strikes them as preposterous. What possible interest could
Neolithic people have had in stars that are hundreds of light-years away from Earth?
Cygnus is one of a number of constellations that seemingly crop up again and again in the
design of ancient structures around the world. Another is Draco, which appears to be
reflected in the layout of the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia and the Serpent
Mound of Ohio, both dating from around a thousand years ago. An even more famous
example is the constellation of Orion. The three stars of Orion’s belt are reflected in the
arrangement of the three pyramids of the Giza plateau, and also in the Thornborough
Henges of northern England, which date from a similar period – around 2500 BC.
 Alignment of pyramids with the stars of Orion’s Belt (public domain image captioned in Italian)
An important factor that has to be taken into account when analysing astronomical
alignments is the phenomenon of precession. This occurs because the direction of the
Earth’s north-south axis oscillates relative to the inertial frame of the stars with a period of
approximately 26,000 years. As a consequence, while the constellations would have had
the same shape thousands of years in the past, they would have appeared in a different
orientation in the sky at a particular time of year.
The remarkable thing about the Giza pyramid alignment is that – taking precession into
account – the match was most perfect around the year 10,500 BC. At the same epoch,
another artifact at Giza, the Great Sphinx, would have been aligned with the constellation of
Leo at dawn on the spring equinox – and the Sphinx’s lion-shaped outline is also
reminiscent of the constellation Leo.
Conventional wisdom dates the construction of the pyramids and the Sphinx around 2500
BC, eight millennia after the period at which the alignments make most sense. There are a
number of ways this discrepancy can be interpreted. Mainstream academics say there is
nothing to be explained, because the whole idea of astronomical alignments can be
dismissed as pseudoscience. Other theorists contend that the artifacts are actually much
older than archaeologists believe. Another possibility is that the existing structures are
correctly dated, but they were built on the site of earlier ones. Most intriguing of all is the
possibility that the ancients understood the concept of precession – either through
interaction with extraterrestrials, or simply from their own human intelligence.
The idea of ancient astronomical knowledge seems ridiculous to many people –
professional academics and the general public alike. But this is an erroneous view,
originating from the modern cultural perception of space and the stars.
Today, an interest in outer space is virtually synonymous with geekdom. The stars are
associated almost exclusively with oddball preoccupations – science fiction, ufology, space
travel, astrophysics, cosmology. The modern world sees such interests as strange and
slightly pathetic. Even if proto-geeks with such interests existed in ancient cultures – so the
argument goes – they wouldn’t have had the influence or resources to build vast stone
structures based around their rather weird hobby.

Contemporary society sees the subject of outer space as inextricably linked to UFOs and science fiction
It’s a mistake, however, to apply modern values to ancient cultures. Why is astronomy, in
the modern world, seen as such a fringe interest? There are two reasons. First, it’s
irrelevant to daily life, dealing as it does with objects that are hundreds or thousands of light
years away, without any possibility of influencing human affairs. Secondly, it’s a notoriously
difficult and boring subject, being based on abstruse branches of science such as
nucleosynthesis, radiative transfer and orbital dynamics.
Neither of those things was true in the ancient world – in fact it was quite the opposite. In
the days before street lighting and built-up cities, the night sky was ablaze with stars that
looked almost close enough to touch. Many stars and constellations were given names
based on the best-loved characters of mythology, so it’s ridiculous to suggest the ancients
didn’t take an intimate, personal interest in them.
In the ancient world, too, the motion of the stars was the most predictable aspect of the
natural world. Down-to-earth things like droughts, famines and plagues were totally
unpredictable – and hence mysterious. The movement of the constellations, on the other
hand, could be predicted with mathematical certainty. Nowadays people say “it’s not rocket
science”, implying that anything to do with space is too difficult for an ordinary person to
understand. But in ancient times the opposite was true. Space science was the only kind of
science people could hope to grasp.
It doesn’t take a knowledge of advanced physics to track stellar motions. It just requires
careful observation of the night sky, year after year, and for information to be passed down
from one generation to the next. Even the mystery of precession would be within the grasp
of meticulous observers. To suggest the ancients weren’t capable of this – as the
mainstream archaeologists insist – is a double insult. It’s an insult to the intelligence of
ancient people, and it’s an insult to astronomers for treating their subject as if it was a trivial
irrelevance.
I don’t know if the Ancient Alien theorists are right or wrong – I’ve got an open mind on the
subject. But there’s one thing I’m certain of – the debunkers who flatly deny the possibility of
ancient astronomical alignments are dead wrong.

The night sky away from modern civilization is a very different sight (image: European Southern Observatory)
You know those big stone structures out in Egypt? The ones which were supposedly
built to house the remains of dead pharaohs??? The ones you thought were built by
the Egyptians?
Well, you are wrong!
THEY WERE BUILT BY ALIENS!
Let's take a look at some undeniable evidence....

First, look at this diagram:

The pyramid is highlighted in red, and its two

diagonals are extended beyond the end of the
pyramid to the north-east and north-west. The mass
of squiggly lines above the pyramid is the Delta of
the Nile River, and, as you can see the two
diagonals encase the Nile neatly and entirely. IS
THAT A COINCIDENCE???

Yes, I'm sure that the way the Egyptians did this was to have someone walk hundreds
of miles to the end of the delta and hold a really, really long piece of string while
someone walked all the way back to the site of the pyramid. Then, those two people
stood there while two more people repeated the process on the other side of the
Pyramid. Just so that they could build a big building in such a way that its diagonals
lie on those two lines.
NOW THAT IS LIKELY????

Here is what really happened: A couple of aliens, flying high enough over the earth to
be able to see where the Nile Delta's origin is, easily saw what orientation the pyramid
would need to be in order to have its diagonals lie on those two lines.

Second piece of evidence:

The big dark shape on the upper left of this diagram is the
great pyramid. If you look at the compass rose in the
bottom right, you can see that the pyramid is lined up
exactly with the magnetic North Pole, a difference of
only 16 minutes, or some absurdly small number like that
(there are 60 minutes in one degree). COINCIDENCE?
How could the Egyptians possibly have built their
pyramid facing the exact magnetic North Pole without
even having a compass? FYI, a compass was not
invented for a few thousand years after the ancient Egyptians were long gone? IS
THAT LIKELY????

This is how it really worked: Those aliens, abundant in their knowledge and
drowning in technology, came along and using their compasses, they landed on earth
and found the actual magnetic north and south poles. THEN THEY BUILT THE
PYRAMIDS!

Now look at this:

This is a photograph of the Great Pyramid of Giza,
and its neighbor, as seen from the Sphinx, on the
evening of the summer solstice. As you can see,
the sun is setting in the exact center of the two pyramids. COINCIDENCE???

For the Egyptians to be able to do this, they must have known the day of the summer
solstice, and they therefore, must have known the exact length of the year, or 365.25;
once again, a fact not discovered until long after the Egyptians were gone. HOW
LIKELY IS THAT???

The real story goes like this: Those meddling aliens, in all of their infinite wisdom,
saw the earth upon entering the solar system, and by calculating the size of its
revolutions around the sun, the velocity it was at which it traveled and the angle of its
axis of rotation, they were able to easily calculate the longest day of the year or the
length of the year.
THEN BUILT THE PYRAMIDS!

Here is another photo:

This is a photograph taken on the day of the winter solstice
from the entrance of the Great Pyramid. The Big shape
silhouetted in the middle of the photograph is the Sphinx.
Since this is only a photograph, and not a movie, you can't
get the full effect. But even in the photo, you can see that the
sun is tracing around the Sphinx's head. In actuality, the sun
rises exactly at the left side of the base of the Sphinx's head.
Then it traces it all the way around until it sets on the right
side of the Sphinx's head. COINCIDENCE???

Had the Egyptians done this, since this occurs only on the day of the winter solstice,
they would have had to have known the exact length of a year.
IS THAT LIKELY???

It's those aliens, who after finding the length of the year, found the shortest day of
the year, and then built their Sphinx and Pyramid accordingly.

Consider this:
This above image is a diagram of the stars of the
Belt of Orion. Now look at the diagram of the
pyramids below.
Though this fact is not as remarkable, the positioning of the three Pyramids of Giza
are exactly aligned with the position of the three stars in the belt of Orion, both in
position and in size. While it is possible, it would create many difficulties for the
Egyptians in terms of measuring huge distances. Not only this, but in fact, at the
time that the pyramids were supposedly built (about 3000 BC), the stars that make up
the Belt of Orion were not exactly at the correct angle to match up with the
pyramids. If the location of the stars is traced back over thousands of years, the time
at which the belt is exactly aligned with the pyramids is in fact 10,500 BC. A time
when there were supposedly no
civilized humans living on the earth. Another fact to support
this is, if you consider the Sphinx, a lion with a human head
and then look at the size of the body, you can see that the
body is perfectly proportioned for the head of a lion, not the
human head. This human head looks tiny and silly sitting on
top of the body. This is because the Sphinx was actually built
in 10,500 BC, around the same time as the pyramids, with a
real head of a lion. Evidence to support this is that there are
signs of water erosion all over the Sphinx. The last time that
there was any water nearby, aside from the Nile is around
10,000 BC. Also, the constellation of Leo the Lion (thus
closely related to the Sphinx), was in fact rising directly
behind the sun in 10,500 BC.

Are they saying that the Egyptians built their pyramids to be in the exact shape of
Orion's Belt, but purposely aligned them differently from what was actually in the
sky? That after they built the Sphinx, they purposely made the head look small and
funny? Then, they broke their backs carrying water from the Nile just so that they
could put water erosion lines all over the body?????

In fact, no Egyptian did it at all. The aliens, with their plethora of wisdom, came
down in the year 10,500 BC and built the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They built it with
a head of a lion to match the Belt of Orion, as well as the constellation of Leo.
Thousands of years later, Ramses, the egomaniacal dictator-pharaoh of Egypt,
decided that he didn't like having the head of a lion on top of the statue in his land.
So, he had a head in his own likeness constructed instead. But the Egyptians, not
being very skilled at huge masonry, built the head somewhat too small.

Why is it that the great Pyramids of Giza, built in 3,000, are perfect, and still standing
as tall as the day they were built? (Aside from the capstone and the polished stones,
which were stripped by humans in the building of Cairo) The other Pyramids, which
were supposedly built about 500 years later, all have shoddy masonry, and are
crumbling down. An example of this is the famous 'bent' pyramid, which started out
with the sides being built at one angle, then suddenly shifts in the middle to a
shallower angle. This is because the angle at which it was started was much too steep
for it to stand when finished. It is because the Egyptian pharaohs saw the great
pyramids standing on their land and decided that they wanted pyramids of their own.
But they found that it was much harder to do than was expected and ended up building
silly looking structures that don't even come close to comparing with the magnitude of
elegance emanating from the great pyramids.

Other startling evidence:

If you take the perimeter of the pyramid and divide it by two times the height, you get
a number that is exactly equivalent to the number pi (3.14159...) up to the fifteenth
digit. The chances of this phenomenon happening by sheer chance is remarkably
small. Did the ancient Egyptians know what the number pi was? Not likely, seeing
as it was a number not calculated accurately to the fourth digit until the 6th century,
and the pyramids calculate it to the fifteenth.

What about the fact that even though the sides of the base of the pyramid are some
757 feet long, it still forms an almost perfect square? Every angle in the base
is exactly 90 degrees. In fact, the sides have a difference in length of something like
two centimeters, which is an incredibly small amount.

What about the fact that although the Egyptians kept very careful records about
everything they ever did; every king they had, every war they fought, and every
structure they built, there were no records of them ever having built the pyramids?

What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the
blocks that they had to carry to build the pyramids weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000
lbs.? What did they do... use cement? In fact, they used so much stone, that if you
took all of the stone they used and cut it into 1 foot square blocks, it would extend 2/3
of the way around the earth!!!

If you take the line of longitude that the pyramid lies on and the latitude that the
pyramid lies on, 31 degrees north by 31 degrees west (the fact that they are the same
number is a coincidence???) they are the two lines that cover the most combined land
area in the world. In essence, the pyramid is the center of all of the land mass of the
whole earth!!!!

How about the fact that a group of modern scientists attempted to build a pyramid
out next to the real one using modern technologies, and after something like 100 days,
succeeded in building one about 1/40 of the size of the real one????

Did you know that the height of the pyramid (481 feet) is
almost exactly 1/1,000,000,000 of the distance from the earth to the sun (480.6 billion
feet)?

What about all of that fungi that was found in King Tutu's chamber? Fungi which
has never before been seen on earth? What about the Pharaoh's curse????? You
decide, who built the Pyramids?????

Much of the information and the photographs on this page are from Mystic Places, Time-Life books, 1990