Ancient Pyramids and other structures, astronomical alignment & similarity.

[JoeTheJuggler]

Personally I think the gods connection to mountains may have originated with volcanos, but that far back without any written evidence thats just speculation on my part.

My guess is that it's because it's one of the most stable structural shapes (in nature and man-made).

Plus there's the fact that many of these cultures worshipped sky-gods and considered high places to be holier at least in part because they were closer to the sky.

 

[Akhenaten]

My guess is that it's because it's one of the most stable structural shapes (in nature and man-made).

Plus there's the fact that many of these cultures worshipped sky-gods and considered high places to be holier at least in part because they were closer to the sky.

The ancient Egyptians believed that ½ of the Universe consisted of Neter-khertet (or Tuat) - teh Underworld™.

The other ½ was the sky.

Mountains certainly weren't a major feature of the cosmology, and a far more important geographical feature appearing in religious themes was the Big River.

 

[Marduk]

Mountains certainly weren't a major feature of the cosmology,

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/horizon.htm
please read

 

[The Fallen Serpent]

Plus there's the fact that many of these cultures worshipped sky-gods and considered high places to be holier at least in part because they were closer to the sky.

I thought it was because two mountains vaguely resembled breasts and there is nothing more holy to man. (exceptions abound but we don't count them because they screw up the theory)

 

[Marduk]

I thought it was because two mountains vaguely resembled breasts and there is nothing more holy to man. (exceptions abound but we don't count them because they screw up the theory)

Don't get Akhenaten started on breasts

 

[Brainache]

I recall seeing a documentary that said that the pyramid shape was meant to symbolise a road to heaven. That if you stand at a certain point near the base of the great pyramid there is an optical illusion that makes it look like a straight path to the sky. The bit about Khufu's horizon would seem to bear this out. Could this be true?

It also seems possible to me that the Egyptians may have used the pyramids to symbolise more than just one thing at a time. I suspect they were symbols of the power of the Pharoh, the ingenuity of Egyptian culture, the wonder of mountains and the way to paradise (amongst other things), all at once.

Would a society devote so much time, effort and resources to something that had only one symbolic purpose? That would seem a little silly to me, but I suppose it wouldn't be the first time people had devoted a lot of time and effort to something silly.

Any response from the experts would be appreciated.

 

[Akhenaten]

The ancient Egyptians believed that ½ of the Universe consisted of Neter-khertet (or Tuat) - teh Underworld™.

The other ½ was the sky.

Mountains certainly weren't a major feature of the cosmology, and a far more important geographical feature appearing in religious themes was the Big River.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/horizon.htm
please read

I've read most of that site several times.


Here's a quote from the linked page.

While this sign could depict two individual peaks in any mountain range, it approximated the mountain ranges which rose on either side of the Nile valley.

The picture that appears next to the quoted text seems to be some kind of body of water.

I think my main dispute with the quote would be in describing the side walls of the Nile Valley as a mountain range.

 

[Akhenaten]

I thought it was because two mountains vaguely resembled breasts and there is nothing more holy to man. (exceptions abound but we don't count them because they screw up the theory)

The Lady of the Two Lands: Nepher-nepheru-Aten Nephert-iti, subscribes to this view.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

By the way, King of the Americas, why don't you talk about the similarities between Monk's Mound in Cahokia (a site near St. Louis which is known here as the "Mound City" because of these structures)?

Its base is closer in size to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza than is that of the Pyramid of the Sun.

Of course it was built less than 1000 years ago and is mostly dirt.

 

[Akhenaten]

I recall seeing a documentary that said that the pyramid shape was meant to symbolise a road to heaven.

'Heaven' only represents ½ of the Aten's daily trip. The other ½ is under the Earth. Where is the start of a circle?

That if you stand at a certain point near the base of the great pyramid there is an optical illusion that makes it look like a straight path to the sky. The bit about Khufu's horizon would seem to bear this out. Could this be true?

I'm not sure I understand the nature of this 'illusion'. Pretty much anything matching the description of 'up' could be considered a straight path to the sky.

It also seems possible to me that the Egyptians may have used the pyramids to symbolise more than just one thing at a time. I suspect they were symbols of the power of the Pharoh, the ingenuity of Egyptian culture, the wonder of mountains and the way to paradise (amongst other things), all at once.

Would a society devote so much time, effort and resources to something that had only one symbolic purpose? That would seem a little silly to me, but I suppose it wouldn't be the first time people had devoted a lot of time and effort to something silly.

Any response from the experts would be appreciated.

They aren't symbols of anything. They are resurrection machines.

 

[Marduk]

I think my main dispute with the quote would be in describing the side walls of the Nile Valley as a mountain range.

then you need to stop using a modern scientific definition of mountain

 

[Brainache]

'Heaven' only represents ½ of the Aten's daily trip. The other ½ is under the Earth. Where is the start of a circle?

I thought it was about the Pharoh's journey to the eternal stars, but I am open to the possibility that I am totally wrong. I didn't know it had anything to do with the Sun's daily journey across the sky.

I'm not sure I understand the nature of this 'illusion'. Pretty much anything matching the description of 'up' could be considered a straight path to the sky.

Like a road or straight river vanishing into the distance.

They aren't symbols of anything. They are resurrection machines.

Resurrection machines that also happen to scream out: "Look at me, I'm enormous! You'd have to be pretty bloody great to organise this many big heavy rocks one on top of the other, bet you couldn't do it..."

 

[tsig]

The Lady of the Two Lands: Nepher-nepheru-Aten Nephert-iti, subscribes to this view.

So the pyramids are just a pair of hard knockers?

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

When I lived in Quito, I once visited a pre-Columbian site near the Mitad del Mundo just outside of the city. I took a guided tour since we were entertaining some visitors. The tour was incredibly disappointing since our "guide" had virtually no real information about the site. He had lots of silly stories. For example, he told of a psychic who visited the site just that year--1999--who used shaman magic to put an end to the devastating El Niño.

At any rate, the masonry was impressive, and there were several obvious astronomical alignments in the structures there. (And the site was an extremely close approximation of the sun's path at the equinox--probably spot on for the time period when it was constructed.)

Also the site seemed to align with a few nearby mountains--in particular 3 that looked to the eye like very nearly perfectly symmetrical pyramid shapes (as many young mountains formed by composite volcanoes are). The guide told a story similar to what Brainache was saying.

ETA: Oh yeah--I'd forgotten the reason for this post. There was a central corridor formed by a couple of walls (that great, Incan mortarless stones--where each wall was composed of two walls with rubble from dressing the stones dumped in the dead space in between) that lined up with a "pyramid" mountain. The walls were actually not parallel--such that it slightly exaggerated the normal perspective illusion that the two lines would converge at the apex of the pyramid-mountain.

Of course, the guide also repeated the story that a shaman recently recreated an old shaman feat: starting a fire by putting some kindling material in an indentation in one of these rocks. They always say this feat can be accomplished with no magnification of the sun's rays only at noon on the equinox at this high-altitude site so near the equator.

And his best friend's sister swears she saw it with her own eyes!

 

[Brainache]

So the pyramids are just a pair of hard knockers?

But there are three of them.... OMG the triple breasted whore of Eroticon Six visited ancient Egypt!

 

[Akhenaten]

I thought it was about the Pharoh's journey to the eternal stars, but I am open to the possibility that I am totally wrong. I didn't know it had anything to do with the Sun's daily journey across the sky.

The Aten, you mean?


Although back in grandpa Khufu's day:

Khufu strengthened this divine link. He proclaimed himself the incarnation of Re, the sun god. He called his pyramid the Akhet Khufu — the Horizon of Khufu. He expected to rise as the Sun each day from his own horizon — the Great Pyramid.

Like a road or straight river vanishing into the distance.

I guess so. Cool pic. Not even remotely like the Nile though.

Resurrection machines that also happen to scream out: "Look at me, I'm enormous! You'd have to be pretty bloody great to organise this many big heavy rocks one on top of the other, bet you couldn't do it..." Pharaoh.

FTFY

 

[Akhenaten]

So the pyramids are just a pair of hard knockers?

Trio.

 

[Akhenaten]

But there are three of them.... OMG the triple breasted whore of Eroticon Six visited ancient Egypt!

Winner. I was too slow drawing that cartouche up there ^

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

They aren't symbols of anything. They are resurrection machines.

If you haven't yet read it, you've absolutely got to read Pratchett's Discworld novel called Pyramids.

 

[The Fallen Serpent]

If you haven't yet read it, you've absolutely got to read Pratchett's Discworld novel called Pyramids.

Seconded.