A Brief Egyptian Module

Themed Module 1 - Under Egyptian Skies

It is a leap of many years from our own backyard skies to those of the ancients, yet here is a time machine like no other available to us. Though the skies change slowly, we can still see the stars mostly as our ancient human ancestors saw them, linking us to them. And among those who left monuments and writings behind so that we may see what they saw, none may be better than the ancient Egyptians. For what monuments have stood the test of time like the Great Pyramids? Behold the pyramid of Khufu, largest of the three outside Cairo that hold so many mysteries of the ages. Mysteries of burial customs yes, for the pyramids were tombs, burial chambers for Egyptian royalty .. The pyramids were engineering marvels - we find evidence of whole towns housing laborers, who may have been slaves but may have been paid workers.. who seemingly somehow built these enormous lasting structures. But prolonged study of the pyramids provide many clues of the skywatching practices of the ancient Egyptians, who literally merged earth with sky for all eternity/

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is part of a three pyramid chain of lesser tombs on the plain of Giza, guarded by the famous Sphinx. The resemblance of their layout to the three belt stars of Orion is well documented, Orion represented one of Egypts most powerful gods, Osiris, god of death, rebirth and the afterlife. It is easy to see why, since Orion is such an imposing celestial figure then and now. But there is more ... two thin shafts connect Khufu's actual burial chamber with the outside of the structure ... originally thought to be airholes, they roughly align with Orions belt, and the then pole star Thuban in the Constellation Draco. In 2550 BC when Khufu ruled, the earths skies appeared to revolve around Thuban as they do today around Polaris, our own North Star. The building of these shafts is an engineering marvel in itself given the huge size of the stones .. how they were aligned so precisely to important stars compounds the wonder!

The most famous star in ancient Egyptian skies was Sirius, the dog star, brightest still in our heavens of today. Sirius would rise in the dawn at the beginning of the Nile River flooding season - the Nile was vitally important to Egyptian life, agriculture, and trade. Egptian priests who learned to site Sirius first appearance in the dawn sky could predict the flooding, giving them considerable power and influence. Sirius follows Orion in the sky, and first appears at dawn during late summer. When we view our sun rising with Sirius gleaming fitfully on the horizon, think back about what it must have meant to these ancient, intelligent people.

The Egyptians had many star myths and legends just as we do today. In addition to Orion being Osiris, the Milky Way represented the sky goddess Nut, giving birth to the sun god Re. The stars were represented by the goddess of writing, Seshat, and the moon by Thoth, the god of wisdom. Even the horizon, something we today never think of, had significance to the ancient Egyptian skywatchers. The rising sun was associated with Horus, child of Osiris and Isis. Re was the strong noontide sun - think of the incredible heat and light of the noonday sun in the Egyptian desert and its easy to see why this was their most powerful god. The setting sun however was named Atum, the creator god. It was he that lifted the pharohs from their Pyramid tombs into the stars - the redness of the setting sun was his blood as he died. Egyptian immortality was tied together with this daily birth and rebirth of the sun and sky.

They Egyptians called the northern circumpolar stars 'the Imperishable Ones', for they never set .. but in truth their entire culture is Imperishable for us since they preserved so much legacy and history. Like the stars, their monuments, writings, and memory seem to linger on into eternity.