In the summer of 1798, thirty thousand French soldiers, under the command of a 28-year-old Napoleon, landed in Egypt. I imagine there were tons of things in this daring move that we now call geopolitical interests, but we’re dealing with something very specific: there were about 150 experts (mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, engineers, archaeologists, geographers, historians) with them. …) what thoroughly analyzed the mysteries of the land of the pyramidshieroglyphs and ancestral gods.

There, “Egyptian fire” was reintroduced to modern Europe. There are many mysteries around the pyramids. Since then thousands of people devoted their lives to solving some of the greatest riddles ancient history. Most of the time** without finding an answer**. A perfect example is the alignment of the pyramids.

Today, it may seem relatively easy to align structures of this size. However, doing without modern technology is a complete mess. Again, Each side of the Great Pyramid of Giza is almost perfectly aligned. with cardinal points. And when I say “almost perfectly aligned” I mean “better than four minutes of arc, or better than a fifteenth of a degree.”

And that’s no coincidence: This happens in at least the three largest Egyptian pyramids. In fact, as Glen Dash explains in ‘The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Architecture’, all three structures show the same type of error:rotated slightly counterclockwise from the cardinal points.

How could they do this? Well, like I said, it’s a mystery. It’s a mystery in the sense that we couldn’t find any codex or documentation describing the methodology they followed. Therefore, guessing the mechanism is quite ‘reverse engineering’: trying to reproduce the same results with technology we believed was available at the time.

looking for answer

Gaurav D Lathiya

Many explanations have been made: from the use of the pole star, from the Sun’s shadow, or from aliens. But none of these explanations gained much traction among experts: they were either too complex or did not produce good results. The one about aliens explains the simple and accurate of course; but hey he needs aliens.

Glen Dash decided to explore another idea:** What if the autumnal equinox allows for this kind of alignment?** Not that the idea was completely original, but quite the contrary. It has been endlessly studied, but no clear way has been found to achieve the necessary precision. His methodology used a gnomon (that is, a stick or stiletto stuck in a fixed position on the floor or wall).

Using the gnomon and periodically recording the path of the shadow, Dash an almost perfect line running east to west.

Wilma Wetterström

The interesting thing about this methodology is that it is not perfect as Dash states: it produces a small error counterclockwise. An insect of the same species that the pyramids have. This is exactly what makes the system worth examining. And it will take a lot of work because unless an architectural “Rosetta stone” turns up, it’s hard to be clear. So far we have a very good candidate.

Image | osama explained