Theme: Ancient Egypt
In what follows we shall not deal with the history of mathematical or theoretical astronomy as a natural science, which is hard to trace in ancient Egypt, but rather with the cultural aspects of the discipline. These are the main focus of archaeoastronomy, an interdisciplinary subject in which the powerful tools of spherical and positional astronomy are brought to bear on anthropological and historical questions that could be difficult to address in other contexts: questions such as how people measured time; how they created calendars, sacred or profane; how they orientated sacred structures appropriately according to religious requirements; and how they mapped the sky for suitable guidance, whether for eschatological reasons or for simpler, more prosaic needs.
All such questions are intrinsically related to several important aspects of any culture, whether ancient or modern. Ancient Egypt is no exception and this fact is reflected in its heritage. Setting aside a few outdated commentaries on the development of ancient Egyptian mathematical astronomy, it has become clear in the last decade and a half that sky-watching, and sky-watchers, played a highly significant role in various aspects of the civilization of the pharaohs right through from the proto-dynastic period, when we encounter the first evidence of a lunar calendar probably governed by the Nile regime, to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, when one of the last masterpieces of Egyptian astronomy, the Zodiac of Dandara, was created. Thus, for a period of more than 3000 years, Egyptian sky-watchers scrutinized the firmament in a serious attempt to find accurate answers to the questions stated above.
The astronomical/archaeoastronomical context
The ancient Egyptians were keen sky-watchers, as archaeology, epigraphy and history demonstrate. They developed a remarkable time-keeping system that finally produced one of the most sophisticated calendars ever invented by humankind. They completely mapped the skies using a series of evocative constellations, asterisms and individual stars. Their motivations were both prosaic, for example stellar clocks, and highly metaphysical, with the idea of developing a superb and everlasting astral eschatology. They aligned their temples in perfect agreement with the perceived cosmic order, choosing selective patterns of astronomical orientation that differed according to the place, the epoch, and the characteristics of the relevant divinity or divinities. They even invented a ceremony, ‘the stretching of the cord’, to fulfil their expectations. And finally, they may well have selected certain sites within their homeland where cosmic order would be manifested in landscapes reflecting both earthly and celestial aspects of reality.
All this can be easily traced in the material evidence scattered along the Nile Valley and in the nearby oases that has been diligently uncovered from the sands by a legion of dedicated Egyptologists. Essentially, this heritage can be categorised as follows:
- Papyri including astronomical texts or religious writings from which astronomical information can be extracted. The astrological papyri of the Greco-Roman period could also be included here.
- Diagonal (decanal) clocks found among religious items, mainly coffins, dating from the late Old Kingdom onwards. The related ‘coffin texts’ may also contain relevant information. These items are mostly held in museums away from their original context.
- The pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom, where one finds the earliest stellar references within the context of a complex astral eschatology. The coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom and the various religious books of the New Kingdom and the Late Period (Am-Duat, Book of Day and Night, Book of Caverns, Book of Gates, etc.) continue some aspects of this tradition.
- Feast calendars found in religious contexts, either in tombs or temples (sometimes in papyri, but mostly in monumental inscriptions) from the Old Kingdom onwards. Those containing Sothic dates have been critical in establishing ancient Egyptian chronology. Some individual dates found in other documents could also be included in this category.
- Astronomical ceilings of the New Kingdom onwards with more or less sophisticated celestial diagrams. These can include lists of decans, names and representations of constellations and planets, calendars, and stellar clocks.
- Astronomically aligned temples or sacred buildings of different epochs and regions. It has recently been established that a number of astronomical patterns were followed in Egypt. The dominant astronomical targets for orientation were the northern constellation of Meskhetyu; Sirius (Sopdet or Sothis), the brightest star in the Egyptian sky; and the stations of the sun, namely the winter solstice and the spring equinox, or Wepet Renpet (Egyptian New Year’s Eve).
- Cosmic landscapes, where the term is taken to mean the location of important sites (of ancient Egypt and beyond) at places where astronomical alignments and the local topography combined so as to reproduce on Earth the cosmic order for which the Egyptians were constantly searching.
The historical and cultural context
Ancient Egyptian history has been divided into great periods or great kingdoms for more than 2000 years and this custom is universal within modern Egyptological studies. However, the ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their rulers according to such criteria. Instead, they seem to have developed the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The exact length and definition of the periods is not agreed. A typical schematic chronology is shown in Table 1.
Dates before the New Kingdom are approximate and should be treated with caution. Astronomical ‘monuments’ were erected during all the periods from the early dynasties onwards. (The first evidence of the ‘stretching of the cord’ ceremony is dated to the 1st Dynasty, according to the Palermo stone.) However, the vast majority of the remains are dated to the three ‘kingdoms’, particularly the Old and the New, and during the Ptolemaic period. It was during these epochs that the impressive pyramids were built, the pyramids texts written, the best astronomical ceilings created, and the huge astronomically aligned temples erected. A notable exception to this rule is the decanal clocks found in coffins of the 1st Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom.
It has been suggested that the astronomical tradition in Egypt started several millennia before the historic period, on the shores of a long-extinct lake at an enigmatic site in the middle of the Western Egyptian Desert: Nabta Playa. In this spot—now deserted, barren and far from any human habitation—a group of cattle-herders erected a number of small monoliths. Some are in long alignments and one set forms a small stone circle or cromlech. Some appear to be astronomically aligned but whether this was intentional, and how the site should be interpreted, is highly controversial.
Ancient Egyptian ‘astronomy’ was intrinsically related to social, economical, political, and religious aspects of the culture. Astronomical ceilings, with their sophisticated celestial diagrams, seem to have been maps or guides to the afterlife but also helped the living to orientate themselves in time and space. Feast calendars, and the civil calendar itself, governed the religious and economic, and consequently the political, life of the country. Stellar clocks were probably developed for timekeeping at night and used in the context of temple administration and cult practices, but they were also offered to the dead kings as guides to the celestial ‘netherworld’. Astronomical orientations in sacred buildings produced impressive and suggestive hierophanies, possibly for practical reasons, but certainly for cult practices related to the display of power.
It is not easy to say how much of the heritage of Egyptian astronomy has reached the present. The civil calendar has certainly left a lasting mark, not only through its direct Coptic descendant but also through its apparent influence on the Gregorian calendar. However, tracing Egyptian influences in other Middle Eastern cultures, the classical world and early Christian astronomical practices is difficult and remains a matter of debate.
Table 1. A typical schematic chronology of ancient Egypt.
Late Predynastic c. 3000 BC Early Dynastic Period (1st -3rd Dynasties) 2920-2575 BC 1st Dynasty 2929-2800 BC 2nd Dynasty 2800-2650 BC 3rd Dynasty 2650-2575 BC Old Kingdom (4th - 8th Dynasties) 2575-2134 BC 4th Dynasty 2575-2465 BC 5th Dynasty 2465-2323 BC 6th Dynasty 2323-2150 BC 7th/8th Dynasties 2150-2134 BC First Intermediate Period (9th - 11th Dynasties) 2134-2040 BC 9th/10th Dynasties 2134-2040 BC 11th Dynasty 2134-2040 BC Middle Kingdom (11th - 14th Dynasties) 2040-1640 BC 11th Dynasty 2040-1991 BC 12th Dynasty 1991-1783 BC 13th/14th Dynasties 1783-1640 BC Second Intermediate Period (15th/17th Dynasties) 1640-1532 BC New Kingdom 1532-1070 BC 18th Dynasty 1550-1319 BC 19th Dynasty 1319-1196 BC 20th Dynasty 1196-1070 BC Third Intermediate Period 1070-770 BC 21st Dynasty 1070-945 BC 22nd Dynasty 945-712 BC 23rd Dynasty c. 828-712 BC 24th Dynasty (Sais) 724-712 BC 25th Dynasty (Nubia and Theban area) 770-712 BC Late Period (25th Dynasty-2nd Persian Period) 712-332 BC Ptolemaic Period 332-30 BC Roman Period 30 BC-384 AD
Geographical limits
Fig. 1. Maps of ancient Egypt (left/top) and Kush (right/bottom) showing the relevant sites, including the locations of the Case Studies: Western Thebes (orange triangle), Karnak (green triangle), Dandara (yellow triangle) and Giza (purple triangle) in ancient Egypt and the sector of Napata in ancient Sudan. © Juan Belmonte
Figure 1 illustrates the geographical extent of our theme. It includes the entire territory occupied today by the Arab Republic of Egypt, including the valley of the Nile plus the Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, where the impressive temple of Serabit el Khadim is located, the Oases of the Western Desert (Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga), isolated complexes in the Eastern and Western desert, and the Mediterranean coast.
The area also extends further south within the present frontiers of Sudan to the area occupied by the ancient Kingdom of Kush, to the south of the Nubian region today inundated by the waters of Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia in Sudan). This area includes monuments of purely Egyptian origin together with those erected over a period of more than ten centuries (roughly from the 7th century BC [Egyptian 25th Dynasty] to the 4th century AD) by the sovereigns of Kush, governing first from the city of Napata and later from the city of Meroe. This area is virtually unexplored from the archaeoastronomical point of view, although some preliminary results suggest that the same trends evident in ancient Egypt are reproduced in Kush with a few intrinsic peculiarities.
There are also a handful of Egyptian monuments scattered outside the frontiers of Egypt. A nice example is the temple of Hathor at Timna, in the Negev Desert, Israel.
Main sites and evidence
A number of monuments in Egypt and Sudan are included in the World Heritage List. Some of these are related to ancient Egyptian civilization, namely (from north to south):
- Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur;
- Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis;
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; and
- Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region.
The first two of these World Heritage Sites include a large number of different monuments. Group (i) includes the majority of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom plus a handful from the Middle Kingdom, including the famous Giza group, the pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara and the pyramids with texts of the 6th and late 5th Dynasties. It also incorporates the beautifully decorated mastabas of the Old Kingdom, with their lists of festivals, and the scattered ruins of ancient Memphis. Group (ii) covers a large and extremely impressive area that includes the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens, the Million Year Temples of New Kingdom pharaohs, and several groups of tombs of the nobles. This is one the largest concentrations of archaeological remains anywhere on Earth and astronomical connections are ubiquitous. Group (iii) comprises the marvellous temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, famously penetrated by a shaft of sunlight on just two dates in the year, and the temple of Isis at the island of Philae, together with several other temples along the shores of Lake Nasser. All of these temples have been moved from their original location. Group (iv) includes all the monuments built in the area of ancient Napata by the Egyptian pharaohs and their successors in the region, the Kings of Kush. Napata was the first capital city of that kingdom and an important cult and pilgrimage centre for the god Amun at the foot of the mountain Djebel Barkal. The World Heritage Site includes also the famous pyramid fields of El Kurru, Barkal itself, and Nuri.
Table 2 contains a preliminary list of sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. The list has been prepared following geographical criteria and entries have been classified according to the seven categories defined above. Those sites that fall within one of the four groups above, i.e. are included within an existing World Heritage Site, are shown in italics. The preliminary nature of the list must be emphasized. It is by no means exhaustive, nor is it complete. New monuments or objects may be proposed or identified in the future, as may different and new categories: for example, the scant remains of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Serapeum in the same city are not included in any of the suggested categories but must certainly be included in our list.
Table 2. A preliminary list of ancient Egyptian sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. Those that are included within an existing World Heritage Site are shown in italics. The categories are those listed in the section ‘Astronomical/archaeoastronomical context’ above.
Location Site Category Period Brief description NILE VALLEY (EGYPT) Alexandria Bibliotheca Library Ptolemaic Scant remains, including possible lecture hall Alexandria Serapeum Sanctuary Ptolemaic Foundations and crypts Buto Uadjet temple 4 & 6 New Kingdom In situ Festival List of Thutmose III Behebit el Haggar Iseum 6 Ptolemaic Huge building in ruins San el Haggar Ancient Tanis 6 & 7 Late Period Precinct of the Amun temple Giza Pyramids 6 & 7 4th Dynasty See Case Study Abu Ghurob Solar temples 6 5th Dynasty Earliest temples dedicated to the Sun Saqqara Zoser precinct 6 3rd Dynasty Pyramid, sanctuaries and ‘serdab’ Saqqara Pyramids 3, 6 & 7 5th & 6th Dynasties Pyramid texts in burial chambers Saqqara Noble tombs 4 Old Kingdom Festival lists. Calendar dates. Dashur & Meidun Pyramids of ... 6 4th Dynasty Earliest true pyramids built by King Snefru El-Fayoum Seila pyramid 6 4th Dynasty Earliest building cardinally oriented El-Fayoum Various sites 6 Ptolemaic/Roman Temples oriented to New Year’s Eve El-Fayoum Qsar Qarum 6 Ptolemaic Solar hierophany at Sobek temple Hermopolis Area Various sites 6 & 7 Various epochs Lunar God city. Lunar alignments? Tell el Amarna Atun temples 6 & 7 18th Dynasty Solar temples with cosmic landscape Athribis Ancient site 5 (6?) Ptolemaic Zodiacs. Stretching-of-the-cord images Abydos Umm el Qab 6 Early dynastic Earliest astronomically aligned structures Abydos Temples 4, 5 & 6 New Kingdom Cosmology of Nut; List of the Kings Dandara Hathor temple 4, 5, 6 & 7 Ptolemaic/Roman See Case Study Luxor (Thebes) Karnak temple 4, 6 & 7 Several periods See Case Study Western Thebes Valley of the Kings 3 & 5 New Kingdom Several celestial diagrams and stellar clocks Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 6 & 7 11th & 18th Dynasties Temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 3 & 5 18th Dynasty Senenmut’s tomb Western Thebes El Assasif 3 &5 Late period Tombs of Mentuemhat and Padamenope. Western Thebes Ramesseum 4, 5 & 6 19th Dynasty Impressive celestial diagram Western Thebes Medinet Habu 4 & 6 20th Dynasty Festival calendar; well-preserved temple. Esna Khnum temple 5 Roman Hypostyle hall with astronomical ceiling Kom el Ahmar Hieraconpolis 6 Early dynasties Earlier-period monuments Edfu Horus temple 4 & 6 Ptolemaic The best preserved temple in Egypt Aswan Elephantine 6 Several periods Legendary origin of the Flooding. Nilometers Philae Island Isis temple 6 & 7 Ptolemaic Impressive grouping of temples Abu Simbel Main temple 6 19th Dynasty Solar-illumination phenomenon NILE VALLEY (SUDAN) Kerma Ancient site 6 Several periods Earliest astronomical relationships in Sudan Kawa Amun temple 6 & 7 25th Dynasty A possible local twin of Karnak; dais room Area of Napata Barkal & Nuri 5, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush See Case Study Meroe Ancient site 4, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush Temples and pyramids; ‘observatory’ Butana Region Musawwarat 6 (7?) Kingdom of Kush Huge sacred precinct; still to be studied OASES & DESERTS Timna Hathor temple 6 New Kingdom Egyptian tradition far away from home Sinai Serabit 4, 6 & 7 MK and NK Temple of Hathor; several steles Siwa Oasis Oracle temple 6 Late Period Temple of Amun Dakhla Oasis Deir el Haggar 5 Roman Latest celestial diagram Kharga Oasis Hibis temple 6 Late Period Peculiar stretching of the cord image Nabta Playa Ancient site 6 Early Neolithic Hypothetical solar and stellar alignments
Fig. 2. Sunrise hierophanies at the sanctuaries of the temples of Abu Simbel (left/top) and Qsar Qarum (right/bottom), produced at the beginning of the Going Forth and Draught seasons of the civil calendar, and the winter solstice, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 3. The stretching of the cord ceremony, as beautifully represented in the walls of the temple of Horus in Edfu and the related texts of the temple of Dandara mentioning the orientation of sacred buildings to the constellation of Meskhetyu, the Egyptian equivalent of Ursa Major. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 4. Celestial diagrams of ancient Egypt showing cosmic texts and constellations or stellar clocks in the astronomical ceilings of the Million Year Temple of Ramses II in Western Thebes and the Valley of the King tomb of Ramses IX, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 5. Two fine examples, at Elephantine (left) and Edfu (right), of the so-called feast calendars of the ancient Egyptians, which contain a great deal of astronomical information. The Elephantine calendar shows an example of the rare Sothic dates, which have proved extremely useful in fixing the ancient chronology of the Middle East. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.
In what follows we shall not deal with the history of mathematical or theoretical astronomy as a natural science, which is hard to trace in ancient Egypt, but rather with the cultural aspects of the discipline. These are the main focus of archaeoastronomy, an interdisciplinary subject in which the powerful tools of spherical and positional astronomy are brought to bear on anthropological and historical questions that could be difficult to address in other contexts: questions such as how people measured time; how they created calendars, sacred or profane; how they orientated sacred structures appropriately according to religious requirements; and how they mapped the sky for suitable guidance, whether for eschatological reasons or for simpler, more prosaic needs.
All such questions are intrinsically related to several important aspects of any culture, whether ancient or modern. Ancient Egypt is no exception and this fact is reflected in its heritage. Setting aside a few outdated commentaries on the development of ancient Egyptian mathematical astronomy, it has become clear in the last decade and a half that sky-watching, and sky-watchers, played a highly significant role in various aspects of the civilization of the pharaohs right through from the proto-dynastic period, when we encounter the first evidence of a lunar calendar probably governed by the Nile regime, to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, when one of the last masterpieces of Egyptian astronomy, the Zodiac of Dandara, was created. Thus, for a period of more than 3000 years, Egyptian sky-watchers scrutinized the firmament in a serious attempt to find accurate answers to the questions stated above.
The astronomical/archaeoastronomical context
The ancient Egyptians were keen sky-watchers, as archaeology, epigraphy and history demonstrate. They developed a remarkable time-keeping system that finally produced one of the most sophisticated calendars ever invented by humankind. They completely mapped the skies using a series of evocative constellations, asterisms and individual stars. Their motivations were both prosaic, for example stellar clocks, and highly metaphysical, with the idea of developing a superb and everlasting astral eschatology. They aligned their temples in perfect agreement with the perceived cosmic order, choosing selective patterns of astronomical orientation that differed according to the place, the epoch, and the characteristics of the relevant divinity or divinities. They even invented a ceremony, ‘the stretching of the cord’, to fulfil their expectations. And finally, they may well have selected certain sites within their homeland where cosmic order would be manifested in landscapes reflecting both earthly and celestial aspects of reality.
All this can be easily traced in the material evidence scattered along the Nile Valley and in the nearby oases that has been diligently uncovered from the sands by a legion of dedicated Egyptologists. Essentially, this heritage can be categorised as follows:
- Papyri including astronomical texts or religious writings from which astronomical information can be extracted. The astrological papyri of the Greco-Roman period could also be included here.
- Diagonal (decanal) clocks found among religious items, mainly coffins, dating from the late Old Kingdom onwards. The related ‘coffin texts’ may also contain relevant information. These items are mostly held in museums away from their original context.
- The pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom, where one finds the earliest stellar references within the context of a complex astral eschatology. The coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom and the various religious books of the New Kingdom and the Late Period (Am-Duat, Book of Day and Night, Book of Caverns, Book of Gates, etc.) continue some aspects of this tradition.
- Feast calendars found in religious contexts, either in tombs or temples (sometimes in papyri, but mostly in monumental inscriptions) from the Old Kingdom onwards. Those containing Sothic dates have been critical in establishing ancient Egyptian chronology. Some individual dates found in other documents could also be included in this category.
- Astronomical ceilings of the New Kingdom onwards with more or less sophisticated celestial diagrams. These can include lists of decans, names and representations of constellations and planets, calendars, and stellar clocks.
- Astronomically aligned temples or sacred buildings of different epochs and regions. It has recently been established that a number of astronomical patterns were followed in Egypt. The dominant astronomical targets for orientation were the northern constellation of Meskhetyu; Sirius (Sopdet or Sothis), the brightest star in the Egyptian sky; and the stations of the sun, namely the winter solstice and the spring equinox, or Wepet Renpet (Egyptian New Year’s Eve).
- Cosmic landscapes, where the term is taken to mean the location of important sites (of ancient Egypt and beyond) at places where astronomical alignments and the local topography combined so as to reproduce on Earth the cosmic order for which the Egyptians were constantly searching.
The historical and cultural context
Ancient Egyptian history has been divided into great periods or great kingdoms for more than 2000 years and this custom is universal within modern Egyptological studies. However, the ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their rulers according to such criteria. Instead, they seem to have developed the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The exact length and definition of the periods is not agreed. A typical schematic chronology is shown in Table 1.
Dates before the New Kingdom are approximate and should be treated with caution. Astronomical ‘monuments’ were erected during all the periods from the early dynasties onwards. (The first evidence of the ‘stretching of the cord’ ceremony is dated to the 1st Dynasty, according to the Palermo stone.) However, the vast majority of the remains are dated to the three ‘kingdoms’, particularly the Old and the New, and during the Ptolemaic period. It was during these epochs that the impressive pyramids were built, the pyramids texts written, the best astronomical ceilings created, and the huge astronomically aligned temples erected. A notable exception to this rule is the decanal clocks found in coffins of the 1st Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom.
It has been suggested that the astronomical tradition in Egypt started several millennia before the historic period, on the shores of a long-extinct lake at an enigmatic site in the middle of the Western Egyptian Desert: Nabta Playa. In this spot—now deserted, barren and far from any human habitation—a group of cattle-herders erected a number of small monoliths. Some are in long alignments and one set forms a small stone circle or cromlech. Some appear to be astronomically aligned but whether this was intentional, and how the site should be interpreted, is highly controversial.
Ancient Egyptian ‘astronomy’ was intrinsically related to social, economical, political, and religious aspects of the culture. Astronomical ceilings, with their sophisticated celestial diagrams, seem to have been maps or guides to the afterlife but also helped the living to orientate themselves in time and space. Feast calendars, and the civil calendar itself, governed the religious and economic, and consequently the political, life of the country. Stellar clocks were probably developed for timekeeping at night and used in the context of temple administration and cult practices, but they were also offered to the dead kings as guides to the celestial ‘netherworld’. Astronomical orientations in sacred buildings produced impressive and suggestive hierophanies, possibly for practical reasons, but certainly for cult practices related to the display of power.
It is not easy to say how much of the heritage of Egyptian astronomy has reached the present. The civil calendar has certainly left a lasting mark, not only through its direct Coptic descendant but also through its apparent influence on the Gregorian calendar. However, tracing Egyptian influences in other Middle Eastern cultures, the classical world and early Christian astronomical practices is difficult and remains a matter of debate.
Table 1. A typical schematic chronology of ancient Egypt.
Late Predynastic c. 3000 BC Early Dynastic Period (1st -3rd Dynasties) 2920-2575 BC 1st Dynasty 2929-2800 BC 2nd Dynasty 2800-2650 BC 3rd Dynasty 2650-2575 BC Old Kingdom (4th - 8th Dynasties) 2575-2134 BC 4th Dynasty 2575-2465 BC 5th Dynasty 2465-2323 BC 6th Dynasty 2323-2150 BC 7th/8th Dynasties 2150-2134 BC First Intermediate Period (9th - 11th Dynasties) 2134-2040 BC 9th/10th Dynasties 2134-2040 BC 11th Dynasty 2134-2040 BC Middle Kingdom (11th - 14th Dynasties) 2040-1640 BC 11th Dynasty 2040-1991 BC 12th Dynasty 1991-1783 BC 13th/14th Dynasties 1783-1640 BC Second Intermediate Period (15th/17th Dynasties) 1640-1532 BC New Kingdom 1532-1070 BC 18th Dynasty 1550-1319 BC 19th Dynasty 1319-1196 BC 20th Dynasty 1196-1070 BC Third Intermediate Period 1070-770 BC 21st Dynasty 1070-945 BC 22nd Dynasty 945-712 BC 23rd Dynasty c. 828-712 BC 24th Dynasty (Sais) 724-712 BC 25th Dynasty (Nubia and Theban area) 770-712 BC Late Period (25th Dynasty-2nd Persian Period) 712-332 BC Ptolemaic Period 332-30 BC Roman Period 30 BC-384 AD
Geographical limits
Fig. 1. Maps of ancient Egypt (left/top) and Kush (right/bottom) showing the relevant sites, including the locations of the Case Studies: Western Thebes (orange triangle), Karnak (green triangle), Dandara (yellow triangle) and Giza (purple triangle) in ancient Egypt and the sector of Napata in ancient Sudan. © Juan Belmonte
Figure 1 illustrates the geographical extent of our theme. It includes the entire territory occupied today by the Arab Republic of Egypt, including the valley of the Nile plus the Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, where the impressive temple of Serabit el Khadim is located, the Oases of the Western Desert (Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga), isolated complexes in the Eastern and Western desert, and the Mediterranean coast.
The area also extends further south within the present frontiers of Sudan to the area occupied by the ancient Kingdom of Kush, to the south of the Nubian region today inundated by the waters of Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia in Sudan). This area includes monuments of purely Egyptian origin together with those erected over a period of more than ten centuries (roughly from the 7th century BC [Egyptian 25th Dynasty] to the 4th century AD) by the sovereigns of Kush, governing first from the city of Napata and later from the city of Meroe. This area is virtually unexplored from the archaeoastronomical point of view, although some preliminary results suggest that the same trends evident in ancient Egypt are reproduced in Kush with a few intrinsic peculiarities.
There are also a handful of Egyptian monuments scattered outside the frontiers of Egypt. A nice example is the temple of Hathor at Timna, in the Negev Desert, Israel.
Main sites and evidence
A number of monuments in Egypt and Sudan are included in the World Heritage List. Some of these are related to ancient Egyptian civilization, namely (from north to south):
- Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur;
- Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis;
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; and
- Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region.
The first two of these World Heritage Sites include a large number of different monuments. Group (i) includes the majority of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom plus a handful from the Middle Kingdom, including the famous Giza group, the pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara and the pyramids with texts of the 6th and late 5th Dynasties. It also incorporates the beautifully decorated mastabas of the Old Kingdom, with their lists of festivals, and the scattered ruins of ancient Memphis. Group (ii) covers a large and extremely impressive area that includes the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens, the Million Year Temples of New Kingdom pharaohs, and several groups of tombs of the nobles. This is one the largest concentrations of archaeological remains anywhere on Earth and astronomical connections are ubiquitous. Group (iii) comprises the marvellous temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, famously penetrated by a shaft of sunlight on just two dates in the year, and the temple of Isis at the island of Philae, together with several other temples along the shores of Lake Nasser. All of these temples have been moved from their original location. Group (iv) includes all the monuments built in the area of ancient Napata by the Egyptian pharaohs and their successors in the region, the Kings of Kush. Napata was the first capital city of that kingdom and an important cult and pilgrimage centre for the god Amun at the foot of the mountain Djebel Barkal. The World Heritage Site includes also the famous pyramid fields of El Kurru, Barkal itself, and Nuri.
Table 2 contains a preliminary list of sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. The list has been prepared following geographical criteria and entries have been classified according to the seven categories defined above. Those sites that fall within one of the four groups above, i.e. are included within an existing World Heritage Site, are shown in italics. The preliminary nature of the list must be emphasized. It is by no means exhaustive, nor is it complete. New monuments or objects may be proposed or identified in the future, as may different and new categories: for example, the scant remains of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Serapeum in the same city are not included in any of the suggested categories but must certainly be included in our list.
Table 2. A preliminary list of ancient Egyptian sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. Those that are included within an existing World Heritage Site are shown in italics. The categories are those listed in the section ‘Astronomical/archaeoastronomical context’ above.
Location Site Category Period Brief description NILE VALLEY (EGYPT) Alexandria Bibliotheca Library Ptolemaic Scant remains, including possible lecture hall Alexandria Serapeum Sanctuary Ptolemaic Foundations and crypts Buto Uadjet temple 4 & 6 New Kingdom In situ Festival List of Thutmose III Behebit el Haggar Iseum 6 Ptolemaic Huge building in ruins San el Haggar Ancient Tanis 6 & 7 Late Period Precinct of the Amun temple Giza Pyramids 6 & 7 4th Dynasty See Case Study Abu Ghurob Solar temples 6 5th Dynasty Earliest temples dedicated to the Sun Saqqara Zoser precinct 6 3rd Dynasty Pyramid, sanctuaries and ‘serdab’ Saqqara Pyramids 3, 6 & 7 5th & 6th Dynasties Pyramid texts in burial chambers Saqqara Noble tombs 4 Old Kingdom Festival lists. Calendar dates. Dashur & Meidun Pyramids of ... 6 4th Dynasty Earliest true pyramids built by King Snefru El-Fayoum Seila pyramid 6 4th Dynasty Earliest building cardinally oriented El-Fayoum Various sites 6 Ptolemaic/Roman Temples oriented to New Year’s Eve El-Fayoum Qsar Qarum 6 Ptolemaic Solar hierophany at Sobek temple Hermopolis Area Various sites 6 & 7 Various epochs Lunar God city. Lunar alignments? Tell el Amarna Atun temples 6 & 7 18th Dynasty Solar temples with cosmic landscape Athribis Ancient site 5 (6?) Ptolemaic Zodiacs. Stretching-of-the-cord images Abydos Umm el Qab 6 Early dynastic Earliest astronomically aligned structures Abydos Temples 4, 5 & 6 New Kingdom Cosmology of Nut; List of the Kings Dandara Hathor temple 4, 5, 6 & 7 Ptolemaic/Roman See Case Study Luxor (Thebes) Karnak temple 4, 6 & 7 Several periods See Case Study Western Thebes Valley of the Kings 3 & 5 New Kingdom Several celestial diagrams and stellar clocks Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 6 & 7 11th & 18th Dynasties Temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 3 & 5 18th Dynasty Senenmut’s tomb Western Thebes El Assasif 3 &5 Late period Tombs of Mentuemhat and Padamenope. Western Thebes Ramesseum 4, 5 & 6 19th Dynasty Impressive celestial diagram Western Thebes Medinet Habu 4 & 6 20th Dynasty Festival calendar; well-preserved temple. Esna Khnum temple 5 Roman Hypostyle hall with astronomical ceiling Kom el Ahmar Hieraconpolis 6 Early dynasties Earlier-period monuments Edfu Horus temple 4 & 6 Ptolemaic The best preserved temple in Egypt Aswan Elephantine 6 Several periods Legendary origin of the Flooding. Nilometers Philae Island Isis temple 6 & 7 Ptolemaic Impressive grouping of temples Abu Simbel Main temple 6 19th Dynasty Solar-illumination phenomenon NILE VALLEY (SUDAN) Kerma Ancient site 6 Several periods Earliest astronomical relationships in Sudan Kawa Amun temple 6 & 7 25th Dynasty A possible local twin of Karnak; dais room Area of Napata Barkal & Nuri 5, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush See Case Study Meroe Ancient site 4, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush Temples and pyramids; ‘observatory’ Butana Region Musawwarat 6 (7?) Kingdom of Kush Huge sacred precinct; still to be studied OASES & DESERTS Timna Hathor temple 6 New Kingdom Egyptian tradition far away from home Sinai Serabit 4, 6 & 7 MK and NK Temple of Hathor; several steles Siwa Oasis Oracle temple 6 Late Period Temple of Amun Dakhla Oasis Deir el Haggar 5 Roman Latest celestial diagram Kharga Oasis Hibis temple 6 Late Period Peculiar stretching of the cord image Nabta Playa Ancient site 6 Early Neolithic Hypothetical solar and stellar alignments
Fig. 2. Sunrise hierophanies at the sanctuaries of the temples of Abu Simbel (left/top) and Qsar Qarum (right/bottom), produced at the beginning of the Going Forth and Draught seasons of the civil calendar, and the winter solstice, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 3. The stretching of the cord ceremony, as beautifully represented in the walls of the temple of Horus in Edfu and the related texts of the temple of Dandara mentioning the orientation of sacred buildings to the constellation of Meskhetyu, the Egyptian equivalent of Ursa Major. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 4. Celestial diagrams of ancient Egypt showing cosmic texts and constellations or stellar clocks in the astronomical ceilings of the Million Year Temple of Ramses II in Western Thebes and the Valley of the King tomb of Ramses IX, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 5. Two fine examples, at Elephantine (left) and Edfu (right), of the so-called feast calendars of the ancient Egyptians, which contain a great deal of astronomical information. The Elephantine calendar shows an example of the rare Sothic dates, which have proved extremely useful in fixing the ancient chronology of the Middle East. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.
The astronomical/archaeoastronomical context
The ancient Egyptians were keen sky-watchers, as archaeology, epigraphy and history demonstrate. They developed a remarkable time-keeping system that finally produced one of the most sophisticated calendars ever invented by humankind. They completely mapped the skies using a series of evocative constellations, asterisms and individual stars. Their motivations were both prosaic, for example stellar clocks, and highly metaphysical, with the idea of developing a superb and everlasting astral eschatology. They aligned their temples in perfect agreement with the perceived cosmic order, choosing selective patterns of astronomical orientation that differed according to the place, the epoch, and the characteristics of the relevant divinity or divinities. They even invented a ceremony, ‘the stretching of the cord’, to fulfil their expectations. And finally, they may well have selected certain sites within their homeland where cosmic order would be manifested in landscapes reflecting both earthly and celestial aspects of reality.
All this can be easily traced in the material evidence scattered along the Nile Valley and in the nearby oases that has been diligently uncovered from the sands by a legion of dedicated Egyptologists. Essentially, this heritage can be categorised as follows:
- Papyri including astronomical texts or religious writings from which astronomical information can be extracted. The astrological papyri of the Greco-Roman period could also be included here.
- Diagonal (decanal) clocks found among religious items, mainly coffins, dating from the late Old Kingdom onwards. The related ‘coffin texts’ may also contain relevant information. These items are mostly held in museums away from their original context.
- The pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom, where one finds the earliest stellar references within the context of a complex astral eschatology. The coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom and the various religious books of the New Kingdom and the Late Period (Am-Duat, Book of Day and Night, Book of Caverns, Book of Gates, etc.) continue some aspects of this tradition.
- Feast calendars found in religious contexts, either in tombs or temples (sometimes in papyri, but mostly in monumental inscriptions) from the Old Kingdom onwards. Those containing Sothic dates have been critical in establishing ancient Egyptian chronology. Some individual dates found in other documents could also be included in this category.
- Astronomical ceilings of the New Kingdom onwards with more or less sophisticated celestial diagrams. These can include lists of decans, names and representations of constellations and planets, calendars, and stellar clocks.
- Astronomically aligned temples or sacred buildings of different epochs and regions. It has recently been established that a number of astronomical patterns were followed in Egypt. The dominant astronomical targets for orientation were the northern constellation of Meskhetyu; Sirius (Sopdet or Sothis), the brightest star in the Egyptian sky; and the stations of the sun, namely the winter solstice and the spring equinox, or Wepet Renpet (Egyptian New Year’s Eve).
- Cosmic landscapes, where the term is taken to mean the location of important sites (of ancient Egypt and beyond) at places where astronomical alignments and the local topography combined so as to reproduce on Earth the cosmic order for which the Egyptians were constantly searching.
The historical and cultural context
Ancient Egyptian history has been divided into great periods or great kingdoms for more than 2000 years and this custom is universal within modern Egyptological studies. However, the ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their rulers according to such criteria. Instead, they seem to have developed the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The exact length and definition of the periods is not agreed. A typical schematic chronology is shown in Table 1.
Dates before the New Kingdom are approximate and should be treated with caution. Astronomical ‘monuments’ were erected during all the periods from the early dynasties onwards. (The first evidence of the ‘stretching of the cord’ ceremony is dated to the 1st Dynasty, according to the Palermo stone.) However, the vast majority of the remains are dated to the three ‘kingdoms’, particularly the Old and the New, and during the Ptolemaic period. It was during these epochs that the impressive pyramids were built, the pyramids texts written, the best astronomical ceilings created, and the huge astronomically aligned temples erected. A notable exception to this rule is the decanal clocks found in coffins of the 1st Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom.
It has been suggested that the astronomical tradition in Egypt started several millennia before the historic period, on the shores of a long-extinct lake at an enigmatic site in the middle of the Western Egyptian Desert: Nabta Playa. In this spot—now deserted, barren and far from any human habitation—a group of cattle-herders erected a number of small monoliths. Some are in long alignments and one set forms a small stone circle or cromlech. Some appear to be astronomically aligned but whether this was intentional, and how the site should be interpreted, is highly controversial.
Ancient Egyptian ‘astronomy’ was intrinsically related to social, economical, political, and religious aspects of the culture. Astronomical ceilings, with their sophisticated celestial diagrams, seem to have been maps or guides to the afterlife but also helped the living to orientate themselves in time and space. Feast calendars, and the civil calendar itself, governed the religious and economic, and consequently the political, life of the country. Stellar clocks were probably developed for timekeeping at night and used in the context of temple administration and cult practices, but they were also offered to the dead kings as guides to the celestial ‘netherworld’. Astronomical orientations in sacred buildings produced impressive and suggestive hierophanies, possibly for practical reasons, but certainly for cult practices related to the display of power.
It is not easy to say how much of the heritage of Egyptian astronomy has reached the present. The civil calendar has certainly left a lasting mark, not only through its direct Coptic descendant but also through its apparent influence on the Gregorian calendar. However, tracing Egyptian influences in other Middle Eastern cultures, the classical world and early Christian astronomical practices is difficult and remains a matter of debate.
Table 1. A typical schematic chronology of ancient Egypt.
Late Predynastic c. 3000 BC Early Dynastic Period (1st -3rd Dynasties) 2920-2575 BC 1st Dynasty 2929-2800 BC 2nd Dynasty 2800-2650 BC 3rd Dynasty 2650-2575 BC Old Kingdom (4th - 8th Dynasties) 2575-2134 BC 4th Dynasty 2575-2465 BC 5th Dynasty 2465-2323 BC 6th Dynasty 2323-2150 BC 7th/8th Dynasties 2150-2134 BC First Intermediate Period (9th - 11th Dynasties) 2134-2040 BC 9th/10th Dynasties 2134-2040 BC 11th Dynasty 2134-2040 BC Middle Kingdom (11th - 14th Dynasties) 2040-1640 BC 11th Dynasty 2040-1991 BC 12th Dynasty 1991-1783 BC 13th/14th Dynasties 1783-1640 BC Second Intermediate Period (15th/17th Dynasties) 1640-1532 BC New Kingdom 1532-1070 BC 18th Dynasty 1550-1319 BC 19th Dynasty 1319-1196 BC 20th Dynasty 1196-1070 BC Third Intermediate Period 1070-770 BC 21st Dynasty 1070-945 BC 22nd Dynasty 945-712 BC 23rd Dynasty c. 828-712 BC 24th Dynasty (Sais) 724-712 BC 25th Dynasty (Nubia and Theban area) 770-712 BC Late Period (25th Dynasty-2nd Persian Period) 712-332 BC Ptolemaic Period 332-30 BC Roman Period 30 BC-384 AD
Geographical limits
Fig. 1. Maps of ancient Egypt (left/top) and Kush (right/bottom) showing the relevant sites, including the locations of the Case Studies: Western Thebes (orange triangle), Karnak (green triangle), Dandara (yellow triangle) and Giza (purple triangle) in ancient Egypt and the sector of Napata in ancient Sudan. © Juan Belmonte
Figure 1 illustrates the geographical extent of our theme. It includes the entire territory occupied today by the Arab Republic of Egypt, including the valley of the Nile plus the Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, where the impressive temple of Serabit el Khadim is located, the Oases of the Western Desert (Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga), isolated complexes in the Eastern and Western desert, and the Mediterranean coast.
The area also extends further south within the present frontiers of Sudan to the area occupied by the ancient Kingdom of Kush, to the south of the Nubian region today inundated by the waters of Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia in Sudan). This area includes monuments of purely Egyptian origin together with those erected over a period of more than ten centuries (roughly from the 7th century BC [Egyptian 25th Dynasty] to the 4th century AD) by the sovereigns of Kush, governing first from the city of Napata and later from the city of Meroe. This area is virtually unexplored from the archaeoastronomical point of view, although some preliminary results suggest that the same trends evident in ancient Egypt are reproduced in Kush with a few intrinsic peculiarities.
There are also a handful of Egyptian monuments scattered outside the frontiers of Egypt. A nice example is the temple of Hathor at Timna, in the Negev Desert, Israel.
Main sites and evidence
A number of monuments in Egypt and Sudan are included in the World Heritage List. Some of these are related to ancient Egyptian civilization, namely (from north to south):
- Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur;
- Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis;
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; and
- Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region.
The first two of these World Heritage Sites include a large number of different monuments. Group (i) includes the majority of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom plus a handful from the Middle Kingdom, including the famous Giza group, the pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara and the pyramids with texts of the 6th and late 5th Dynasties. It also incorporates the beautifully decorated mastabas of the Old Kingdom, with their lists of festivals, and the scattered ruins of ancient Memphis. Group (ii) covers a large and extremely impressive area that includes the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens, the Million Year Temples of New Kingdom pharaohs, and several groups of tombs of the nobles. This is one the largest concentrations of archaeological remains anywhere on Earth and astronomical connections are ubiquitous. Group (iii) comprises the marvellous temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, famously penetrated by a shaft of sunlight on just two dates in the year, and the temple of Isis at the island of Philae, together with several other temples along the shores of Lake Nasser. All of these temples have been moved from their original location. Group (iv) includes all the monuments built in the area of ancient Napata by the Egyptian pharaohs and their successors in the region, the Kings of Kush. Napata was the first capital city of that kingdom and an important cult and pilgrimage centre for the god Amun at the foot of the mountain Djebel Barkal. The World Heritage Site includes also the famous pyramid fields of El Kurru, Barkal itself, and Nuri.
Table 2 contains a preliminary list of sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. The list has been prepared following geographical criteria and entries have been classified according to the seven categories defined above. Those sites that fall within one of the four groups above, i.e. are included within an existing World Heritage Site, are shown in italics. The preliminary nature of the list must be emphasized. It is by no means exhaustive, nor is it complete. New monuments or objects may be proposed or identified in the future, as may different and new categories: for example, the scant remains of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Serapeum in the same city are not included in any of the suggested categories but must certainly be included in our list.
Table 2. A preliminary list of ancient Egyptian sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. Those that are included within an existing World Heritage Site are shown in italics. The categories are those listed in the section ‘Astronomical/archaeoastronomical context’ above.
Location Site Category Period Brief description NILE VALLEY (EGYPT) Alexandria Bibliotheca Library Ptolemaic Scant remains, including possible lecture hall Alexandria Serapeum Sanctuary Ptolemaic Foundations and crypts Buto Uadjet temple 4 & 6 New Kingdom In situ Festival List of Thutmose III Behebit el Haggar Iseum 6 Ptolemaic Huge building in ruins San el Haggar Ancient Tanis 6 & 7 Late Period Precinct of the Amun temple Giza Pyramids 6 & 7 4th Dynasty See Case Study Abu Ghurob Solar temples 6 5th Dynasty Earliest temples dedicated to the Sun Saqqara Zoser precinct 6 3rd Dynasty Pyramid, sanctuaries and ‘serdab’ Saqqara Pyramids 3, 6 & 7 5th & 6th Dynasties Pyramid texts in burial chambers Saqqara Noble tombs 4 Old Kingdom Festival lists. Calendar dates. Dashur & Meidun Pyramids of ... 6 4th Dynasty Earliest true pyramids built by King Snefru El-Fayoum Seila pyramid 6 4th Dynasty Earliest building cardinally oriented El-Fayoum Various sites 6 Ptolemaic/Roman Temples oriented to New Year’s Eve El-Fayoum Qsar Qarum 6 Ptolemaic Solar hierophany at Sobek temple Hermopolis Area Various sites 6 & 7 Various epochs Lunar God city. Lunar alignments? Tell el Amarna Atun temples 6 & 7 18th Dynasty Solar temples with cosmic landscape Athribis Ancient site 5 (6?) Ptolemaic Zodiacs. Stretching-of-the-cord images Abydos Umm el Qab 6 Early dynastic Earliest astronomically aligned structures Abydos Temples 4, 5 & 6 New Kingdom Cosmology of Nut; List of the Kings Dandara Hathor temple 4, 5, 6 & 7 Ptolemaic/Roman See Case Study Luxor (Thebes) Karnak temple 4, 6 & 7 Several periods See Case Study Western Thebes Valley of the Kings 3 & 5 New Kingdom Several celestial diagrams and stellar clocks Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 6 & 7 11th & 18th Dynasties Temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 3 & 5 18th Dynasty Senenmut’s tomb Western Thebes El Assasif 3 &5 Late period Tombs of Mentuemhat and Padamenope. Western Thebes Ramesseum 4, 5 & 6 19th Dynasty Impressive celestial diagram Western Thebes Medinet Habu 4 & 6 20th Dynasty Festival calendar; well-preserved temple. Esna Khnum temple 5 Roman Hypostyle hall with astronomical ceiling Kom el Ahmar Hieraconpolis 6 Early dynasties Earlier-period monuments Edfu Horus temple 4 & 6 Ptolemaic The best preserved temple in Egypt Aswan Elephantine 6 Several periods Legendary origin of the Flooding. Nilometers Philae Island Isis temple 6 & 7 Ptolemaic Impressive grouping of temples Abu Simbel Main temple 6 19th Dynasty Solar-illumination phenomenon NILE VALLEY (SUDAN) Kerma Ancient site 6 Several periods Earliest astronomical relationships in Sudan Kawa Amun temple 6 & 7 25th Dynasty A possible local twin of Karnak; dais room Area of Napata Barkal & Nuri 5, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush See Case Study Meroe Ancient site 4, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush Temples and pyramids; ‘observatory’ Butana Region Musawwarat 6 (7?) Kingdom of Kush Huge sacred precinct; still to be studied OASES & DESERTS Timna Hathor temple 6 New Kingdom Egyptian tradition far away from home Sinai Serabit 4, 6 & 7 MK and NK Temple of Hathor; several steles Siwa Oasis Oracle temple 6 Late Period Temple of Amun Dakhla Oasis Deir el Haggar 5 Roman Latest celestial diagram Kharga Oasis Hibis temple 6 Late Period Peculiar stretching of the cord image Nabta Playa Ancient site 6 Early Neolithic Hypothetical solar and stellar alignments
Fig. 2. Sunrise hierophanies at the sanctuaries of the temples of Abu Simbel (left/top) and Qsar Qarum (right/bottom), produced at the beginning of the Going Forth and Draught seasons of the civil calendar, and the winter solstice, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 3. The stretching of the cord ceremony, as beautifully represented in the walls of the temple of Horus in Edfu and the related texts of the temple of Dandara mentioning the orientation of sacred buildings to the constellation of Meskhetyu, the Egyptian equivalent of Ursa Major. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 4. Celestial diagrams of ancient Egypt showing cosmic texts and constellations or stellar clocks in the astronomical ceilings of the Million Year Temple of Ramses II in Western Thebes and the Valley of the King tomb of Ramses IX, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 5. Two fine examples, at Elephantine (left) and Edfu (right), of the so-called feast calendars of the ancient Egyptians, which contain a great deal of astronomical information. The Elephantine calendar shows an example of the rare Sothic dates, which have proved extremely useful in fixing the ancient chronology of the Middle East. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.
The historical and cultural context
Ancient Egyptian history has been divided into great periods or great kingdoms for more than 2000 years and this custom is universal within modern Egyptological studies. However, the ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their rulers according to such criteria. Instead, they seem to have developed the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The exact length and definition of the periods is not agreed. A typical schematic chronology is shown in Table 1.
Dates before the New Kingdom are approximate and should be treated with caution. Astronomical ‘monuments’ were erected during all the periods from the early dynasties onwards. (The first evidence of the ‘stretching of the cord’ ceremony is dated to the 1st Dynasty, according to the Palermo stone.) However, the vast majority of the remains are dated to the three ‘kingdoms’, particularly the Old and the New, and during the Ptolemaic period. It was during these epochs that the impressive pyramids were built, the pyramids texts written, the best astronomical ceilings created, and the huge astronomically aligned temples erected. A notable exception to this rule is the decanal clocks found in coffins of the 1st Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom.
It has been suggested that the astronomical tradition in Egypt started several millennia before the historic period, on the shores of a long-extinct lake at an enigmatic site in the middle of the Western Egyptian Desert: Nabta Playa. In this spot—now deserted, barren and far from any human habitation—a group of cattle-herders erected a number of small monoliths. Some are in long alignments and one set forms a small stone circle or cromlech. Some appear to be astronomically aligned but whether this was intentional, and how the site should be interpreted, is highly controversial.
Ancient Egyptian ‘astronomy’ was intrinsically related to social, economical, political, and religious aspects of the culture. Astronomical ceilings, with their sophisticated celestial diagrams, seem to have been maps or guides to the afterlife but also helped the living to orientate themselves in time and space. Feast calendars, and the civil calendar itself, governed the religious and economic, and consequently the political, life of the country. Stellar clocks were probably developed for timekeeping at night and used in the context of temple administration and cult practices, but they were also offered to the dead kings as guides to the celestial ‘netherworld’. Astronomical orientations in sacred buildings produced impressive and suggestive hierophanies, possibly for practical reasons, but certainly for cult practices related to the display of power.
It is not easy to say how much of the heritage of Egyptian astronomy has reached the present. The civil calendar has certainly left a lasting mark, not only through its direct Coptic descendant but also through its apparent influence on the Gregorian calendar. However, tracing Egyptian influences in other Middle Eastern cultures, the classical world and early Christian astronomical practices is difficult and remains a matter of debate.
Table 1. A typical schematic chronology of ancient Egypt.
| Late Predynastic | c. 3000 BC |
| Early Dynastic Period (1st -3rd Dynasties) | 2920-2575 BC |
| 1st Dynasty | 2929-2800 BC |
| 2nd Dynasty | 2800-2650 BC |
| 3rd Dynasty | 2650-2575 BC |
| Old Kingdom (4th - 8th Dynasties) | 2575-2134 BC |
| 4th Dynasty | 2575-2465 BC |
| 5th Dynasty | 2465-2323 BC |
| 6th Dynasty | 2323-2150 BC |
| 7th/8th Dynasties | 2150-2134 BC |
| First Intermediate Period (9th - 11th Dynasties) | 2134-2040 BC |
| 9th/10th Dynasties | 2134-2040 BC |
| 11th Dynasty | 2134-2040 BC |
| Middle Kingdom (11th - 14th Dynasties) | 2040-1640 BC |
| 11th Dynasty | 2040-1991 BC |
| 12th Dynasty | 1991-1783 BC |
| 13th/14th Dynasties | 1783-1640 BC |
| Second Intermediate Period (15th/17th Dynasties) | 1640-1532 BC |
| New Kingdom | 1532-1070 BC |
| 18th Dynasty | 1550-1319 BC |
| 19th Dynasty | 1319-1196 BC |
| 20th Dynasty | 1196-1070 BC |
| Third Intermediate Period | 1070-770 BC |
| 21st Dynasty | 1070-945 BC |
| 22nd Dynasty | 945-712 BC |
| 23rd Dynasty | c. 828-712 BC |
| 24th Dynasty (Sais) | 724-712 BC |
| 25th Dynasty (Nubia and Theban area) | 770-712 BC |
| Late Period (25th Dynasty-2nd Persian Period) | 712-332 BC |
| Ptolemaic Period | 332-30 BC |
| Roman Period | 30 BC-384 AD |
Geographical limits
Fig. 1. Maps of ancient Egypt (left/top) and Kush (right/bottom) showing the relevant sites, including the locations of the Case Studies: Western Thebes (orange triangle), Karnak (green triangle), Dandara (yellow triangle) and Giza (purple triangle) in ancient Egypt and the sector of Napata in ancient Sudan. © Juan Belmonte
Figure 1 illustrates the geographical extent of our theme. It includes the entire territory occupied today by the Arab Republic of Egypt, including the valley of the Nile plus the Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, where the impressive temple of Serabit el Khadim is located, the Oases of the Western Desert (Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga), isolated complexes in the Eastern and Western desert, and the Mediterranean coast.
The area also extends further south within the present frontiers of Sudan to the area occupied by the ancient Kingdom of Kush, to the south of the Nubian region today inundated by the waters of Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia in Sudan). This area includes monuments of purely Egyptian origin together with those erected over a period of more than ten centuries (roughly from the 7th century BC [Egyptian 25th Dynasty] to the 4th century AD) by the sovereigns of Kush, governing first from the city of Napata and later from the city of Meroe. This area is virtually unexplored from the archaeoastronomical point of view, although some preliminary results suggest that the same trends evident in ancient Egypt are reproduced in Kush with a few intrinsic peculiarities.
There are also a handful of Egyptian monuments scattered outside the frontiers of Egypt. A nice example is the temple of Hathor at Timna, in the Negev Desert, Israel.
Main sites and evidence
A number of monuments in Egypt and Sudan are included in the World Heritage List. Some of these are related to ancient Egyptian civilization, namely (from north to south):
- Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur;
- Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis;
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; and
- Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region.
The first two of these World Heritage Sites include a large number of different monuments. Group (i) includes the majority of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom plus a handful from the Middle Kingdom, including the famous Giza group, the pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara and the pyramids with texts of the 6th and late 5th Dynasties. It also incorporates the beautifully decorated mastabas of the Old Kingdom, with their lists of festivals, and the scattered ruins of ancient Memphis. Group (ii) covers a large and extremely impressive area that includes the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens, the Million Year Temples of New Kingdom pharaohs, and several groups of tombs of the nobles. This is one the largest concentrations of archaeological remains anywhere on Earth and astronomical connections are ubiquitous. Group (iii) comprises the marvellous temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, famously penetrated by a shaft of sunlight on just two dates in the year, and the temple of Isis at the island of Philae, together with several other temples along the shores of Lake Nasser. All of these temples have been moved from their original location. Group (iv) includes all the monuments built in the area of ancient Napata by the Egyptian pharaohs and their successors in the region, the Kings of Kush. Napata was the first capital city of that kingdom and an important cult and pilgrimage centre for the god Amun at the foot of the mountain Djebel Barkal. The World Heritage Site includes also the famous pyramid fields of El Kurru, Barkal itself, and Nuri.
Table 2 contains a preliminary list of sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. The list has been prepared following geographical criteria and entries have been classified according to the seven categories defined above. Those sites that fall within one of the four groups above, i.e. are included within an existing World Heritage Site, are shown in italics. The preliminary nature of the list must be emphasized. It is by no means exhaustive, nor is it complete. New monuments or objects may be proposed or identified in the future, as may different and new categories: for example, the scant remains of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Serapeum in the same city are not included in any of the suggested categories but must certainly be included in our list.
Table 2. A preliminary list of ancient Egyptian sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. Those that are included within an existing World Heritage Site are shown in italics. The categories are those listed in the section ‘Astronomical/archaeoastronomical context’ above.
Location Site Category Period Brief description NILE VALLEY (EGYPT) Alexandria Bibliotheca Library Ptolemaic Scant remains, including possible lecture hall Alexandria Serapeum Sanctuary Ptolemaic Foundations and crypts Buto Uadjet temple 4 & 6 New Kingdom In situ Festival List of Thutmose III Behebit el Haggar Iseum 6 Ptolemaic Huge building in ruins San el Haggar Ancient Tanis 6 & 7 Late Period Precinct of the Amun temple Giza Pyramids 6 & 7 4th Dynasty See Case Study Abu Ghurob Solar temples 6 5th Dynasty Earliest temples dedicated to the Sun Saqqara Zoser precinct 6 3rd Dynasty Pyramid, sanctuaries and ‘serdab’ Saqqara Pyramids 3, 6 & 7 5th & 6th Dynasties Pyramid texts in burial chambers Saqqara Noble tombs 4 Old Kingdom Festival lists. Calendar dates. Dashur & Meidun Pyramids of ... 6 4th Dynasty Earliest true pyramids built by King Snefru El-Fayoum Seila pyramid 6 4th Dynasty Earliest building cardinally oriented El-Fayoum Various sites 6 Ptolemaic/Roman Temples oriented to New Year’s Eve El-Fayoum Qsar Qarum 6 Ptolemaic Solar hierophany at Sobek temple Hermopolis Area Various sites 6 & 7 Various epochs Lunar God city. Lunar alignments? Tell el Amarna Atun temples 6 & 7 18th Dynasty Solar temples with cosmic landscape Athribis Ancient site 5 (6?) Ptolemaic Zodiacs. Stretching-of-the-cord images Abydos Umm el Qab 6 Early dynastic Earliest astronomically aligned structures Abydos Temples 4, 5 & 6 New Kingdom Cosmology of Nut; List of the Kings Dandara Hathor temple 4, 5, 6 & 7 Ptolemaic/Roman See Case Study Luxor (Thebes) Karnak temple 4, 6 & 7 Several periods See Case Study Western Thebes Valley of the Kings 3 & 5 New Kingdom Several celestial diagrams and stellar clocks Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 6 & 7 11th & 18th Dynasties Temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 3 & 5 18th Dynasty Senenmut’s tomb Western Thebes El Assasif 3 &5 Late period Tombs of Mentuemhat and Padamenope. Western Thebes Ramesseum 4, 5 & 6 19th Dynasty Impressive celestial diagram Western Thebes Medinet Habu 4 & 6 20th Dynasty Festival calendar; well-preserved temple. Esna Khnum temple 5 Roman Hypostyle hall with astronomical ceiling Kom el Ahmar Hieraconpolis 6 Early dynasties Earlier-period monuments Edfu Horus temple 4 & 6 Ptolemaic The best preserved temple in Egypt Aswan Elephantine 6 Several periods Legendary origin of the Flooding. Nilometers Philae Island Isis temple 6 & 7 Ptolemaic Impressive grouping of temples Abu Simbel Main temple 6 19th Dynasty Solar-illumination phenomenon NILE VALLEY (SUDAN) Kerma Ancient site 6 Several periods Earliest astronomical relationships in Sudan Kawa Amun temple 6 & 7 25th Dynasty A possible local twin of Karnak; dais room Area of Napata Barkal & Nuri 5, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush See Case Study Meroe Ancient site 4, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush Temples and pyramids; ‘observatory’ Butana Region Musawwarat 6 (7?) Kingdom of Kush Huge sacred precinct; still to be studied OASES & DESERTS Timna Hathor temple 6 New Kingdom Egyptian tradition far away from home Sinai Serabit 4, 6 & 7 MK and NK Temple of Hathor; several steles Siwa Oasis Oracle temple 6 Late Period Temple of Amun Dakhla Oasis Deir el Haggar 5 Roman Latest celestial diagram Kharga Oasis Hibis temple 6 Late Period Peculiar stretching of the cord image Nabta Playa Ancient site 6 Early Neolithic Hypothetical solar and stellar alignments
Fig. 2. Sunrise hierophanies at the sanctuaries of the temples of Abu Simbel (left/top) and Qsar Qarum (right/bottom), produced at the beginning of the Going Forth and Draught seasons of the civil calendar, and the winter solstice, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 3. The stretching of the cord ceremony, as beautifully represented in the walls of the temple of Horus in Edfu and the related texts of the temple of Dandara mentioning the orientation of sacred buildings to the constellation of Meskhetyu, the Egyptian equivalent of Ursa Major. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 4. Celestial diagrams of ancient Egypt showing cosmic texts and constellations or stellar clocks in the astronomical ceilings of the Million Year Temple of Ramses II in Western Thebes and the Valley of the King tomb of Ramses IX, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 5. Two fine examples, at Elephantine (left) and Edfu (right), of the so-called feast calendars of the ancient Egyptians, which contain a great deal of astronomical information. The Elephantine calendar shows an example of the rare Sothic dates, which have proved extremely useful in fixing the ancient chronology of the Middle East. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.
Geographical limits
Fig. 1. Maps of ancient Egypt (left/top) and Kush (right/bottom) showing the relevant sites, including the locations of the Case Studies: Western Thebes (orange triangle), Karnak (green triangle), Dandara (yellow triangle) and Giza (purple triangle) in ancient Egypt and the sector of Napata in ancient Sudan. © Juan Belmonte
Figure 1 illustrates the geographical extent of our theme. It includes the entire territory occupied today by the Arab Republic of Egypt, including the valley of the Nile plus the Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, where the impressive temple of Serabit el Khadim is located, the Oases of the Western Desert (Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga), isolated complexes in the Eastern and Western desert, and the Mediterranean coast.
The area also extends further south within the present frontiers of Sudan to the area occupied by the ancient Kingdom of Kush, to the south of the Nubian region today inundated by the waters of Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia in Sudan). This area includes monuments of purely Egyptian origin together with those erected over a period of more than ten centuries (roughly from the 7th century BC [Egyptian 25th Dynasty] to the 4th century AD) by the sovereigns of Kush, governing first from the city of Napata and later from the city of Meroe. This area is virtually unexplored from the archaeoastronomical point of view, although some preliminary results suggest that the same trends evident in ancient Egypt are reproduced in Kush with a few intrinsic peculiarities.
There are also a handful of Egyptian monuments scattered outside the frontiers of Egypt. A nice example is the temple of Hathor at Timna, in the Negev Desert, Israel.
Main sites and evidence
A number of monuments in Egypt and Sudan are included in the World Heritage List. Some of these are related to ancient Egyptian civilization, namely (from north to south):
- Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur;
- Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis;
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; and
- Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region.
The first two of these World Heritage Sites include a large number of different monuments. Group (i) includes the majority of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom plus a handful from the Middle Kingdom, including the famous Giza group, the pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara and the pyramids with texts of the 6th and late 5th Dynasties. It also incorporates the beautifully decorated mastabas of the Old Kingdom, with their lists of festivals, and the scattered ruins of ancient Memphis. Group (ii) covers a large and extremely impressive area that includes the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens, the Million Year Temples of New Kingdom pharaohs, and several groups of tombs of the nobles. This is one the largest concentrations of archaeological remains anywhere on Earth and astronomical connections are ubiquitous. Group (iii) comprises the marvellous temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, famously penetrated by a shaft of sunlight on just two dates in the year, and the temple of Isis at the island of Philae, together with several other temples along the shores of Lake Nasser. All of these temples have been moved from their original location. Group (iv) includes all the monuments built in the area of ancient Napata by the Egyptian pharaohs and their successors in the region, the Kings of Kush. Napata was the first capital city of that kingdom and an important cult and pilgrimage centre for the god Amun at the foot of the mountain Djebel Barkal. The World Heritage Site includes also the famous pyramid fields of El Kurru, Barkal itself, and Nuri.
Table 2 contains a preliminary list of sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. The list has been prepared following geographical criteria and entries have been classified according to the seven categories defined above. Those sites that fall within one of the four groups above, i.e. are included within an existing World Heritage Site, are shown in italics. The preliminary nature of the list must be emphasized. It is by no means exhaustive, nor is it complete. New monuments or objects may be proposed or identified in the future, as may different and new categories: for example, the scant remains of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Serapeum in the same city are not included in any of the suggested categories but must certainly be included in our list.
Table 2. A preliminary list of ancient Egyptian sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. Those that are included within an existing World Heritage Site are shown in italics. The categories are those listed in the section ‘Astronomical/archaeoastronomical context’ above.
Location Site Category Period Brief description NILE VALLEY (EGYPT) Alexandria Bibliotheca Library Ptolemaic Scant remains, including possible lecture hall Alexandria Serapeum Sanctuary Ptolemaic Foundations and crypts Buto Uadjet temple 4 & 6 New Kingdom In situ Festival List of Thutmose III Behebit el Haggar Iseum 6 Ptolemaic Huge building in ruins San el Haggar Ancient Tanis 6 & 7 Late Period Precinct of the Amun temple Giza Pyramids 6 & 7 4th Dynasty See Case Study Abu Ghurob Solar temples 6 5th Dynasty Earliest temples dedicated to the Sun Saqqara Zoser precinct 6 3rd Dynasty Pyramid, sanctuaries and ‘serdab’ Saqqara Pyramids 3, 6 & 7 5th & 6th Dynasties Pyramid texts in burial chambers Saqqara Noble tombs 4 Old Kingdom Festival lists. Calendar dates. Dashur & Meidun Pyramids of ... 6 4th Dynasty Earliest true pyramids built by King Snefru El-Fayoum Seila pyramid 6 4th Dynasty Earliest building cardinally oriented El-Fayoum Various sites 6 Ptolemaic/Roman Temples oriented to New Year’s Eve El-Fayoum Qsar Qarum 6 Ptolemaic Solar hierophany at Sobek temple Hermopolis Area Various sites 6 & 7 Various epochs Lunar God city. Lunar alignments? Tell el Amarna Atun temples 6 & 7 18th Dynasty Solar temples with cosmic landscape Athribis Ancient site 5 (6?) Ptolemaic Zodiacs. Stretching-of-the-cord images Abydos Umm el Qab 6 Early dynastic Earliest astronomically aligned structures Abydos Temples 4, 5 & 6 New Kingdom Cosmology of Nut; List of the Kings Dandara Hathor temple 4, 5, 6 & 7 Ptolemaic/Roman See Case Study Luxor (Thebes) Karnak temple 4, 6 & 7 Several periods See Case Study Western Thebes Valley of the Kings 3 & 5 New Kingdom Several celestial diagrams and stellar clocks Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 6 & 7 11th & 18th Dynasties Temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut Western Thebes Deir el Bahari 3 & 5 18th Dynasty Senenmut’s tomb Western Thebes El Assasif 3 &5 Late period Tombs of Mentuemhat and Padamenope. Western Thebes Ramesseum 4, 5 & 6 19th Dynasty Impressive celestial diagram Western Thebes Medinet Habu 4 & 6 20th Dynasty Festival calendar; well-preserved temple. Esna Khnum temple 5 Roman Hypostyle hall with astronomical ceiling Kom el Ahmar Hieraconpolis 6 Early dynasties Earlier-period monuments Edfu Horus temple 4 & 6 Ptolemaic The best preserved temple in Egypt Aswan Elephantine 6 Several periods Legendary origin of the Flooding. Nilometers Philae Island Isis temple 6 & 7 Ptolemaic Impressive grouping of temples Abu Simbel Main temple 6 19th Dynasty Solar-illumination phenomenon NILE VALLEY (SUDAN) Kerma Ancient site 6 Several periods Earliest astronomical relationships in Sudan Kawa Amun temple 6 & 7 25th Dynasty A possible local twin of Karnak; dais room Area of Napata Barkal & Nuri 5, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush See Case Study Meroe Ancient site 4, 6 & 7 Kingdom of Kush Temples and pyramids; ‘observatory’ Butana Region Musawwarat 6 (7?) Kingdom of Kush Huge sacred precinct; still to be studied OASES & DESERTS Timna Hathor temple 6 New Kingdom Egyptian tradition far away from home Sinai Serabit 4, 6 & 7 MK and NK Temple of Hathor; several steles Siwa Oasis Oracle temple 6 Late Period Temple of Amun Dakhla Oasis Deir el Haggar 5 Roman Latest celestial diagram Kharga Oasis Hibis temple 6 Late Period Peculiar stretching of the cord image Nabta Playa Ancient site 6 Early Neolithic Hypothetical solar and stellar alignments
Fig. 2. Sunrise hierophanies at the sanctuaries of the temples of Abu Simbel (left/top) and Qsar Qarum (right/bottom), produced at the beginning of the Going Forth and Draught seasons of the civil calendar, and the winter solstice, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 3. The stretching of the cord ceremony, as beautifully represented in the walls of the temple of Horus in Edfu and the related texts of the temple of Dandara mentioning the orientation of sacred buildings to the constellation of Meskhetyu, the Egyptian equivalent of Ursa Major. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 4. Celestial diagrams of ancient Egypt showing cosmic texts and constellations or stellar clocks in the astronomical ceilings of the Million Year Temple of Ramses II in Western Thebes and the Valley of the King tomb of Ramses IX, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 5. Two fine examples, at Elephantine (left) and Edfu (right), of the so-called feast calendars of the ancient Egyptians, which contain a great deal of astronomical information. The Elephantine calendar shows an example of the rare Sothic dates, which have proved extremely useful in fixing the ancient chronology of the Middle East. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.
Main sites and evidence
A number of monuments in Egypt and Sudan are included in the World Heritage List. Some of these are related to ancient Egyptian civilization, namely (from north to south):
- Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur;
- Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis;
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; and
- Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region.
The first two of these World Heritage Sites include a large number of different monuments. Group (i) includes the majority of the pyramids of the Old Kingdom plus a handful from the Middle Kingdom, including the famous Giza group, the pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara and the pyramids with texts of the 6th and late 5th Dynasties. It also incorporates the beautifully decorated mastabas of the Old Kingdom, with their lists of festivals, and the scattered ruins of ancient Memphis. Group (ii) covers a large and extremely impressive area that includes the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens, the Million Year Temples of New Kingdom pharaohs, and several groups of tombs of the nobles. This is one the largest concentrations of archaeological remains anywhere on Earth and astronomical connections are ubiquitous. Group (iii) comprises the marvellous temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, famously penetrated by a shaft of sunlight on just two dates in the year, and the temple of Isis at the island of Philae, together with several other temples along the shores of Lake Nasser. All of these temples have been moved from their original location. Group (iv) includes all the monuments built in the area of ancient Napata by the Egyptian pharaohs and their successors in the region, the Kings of Kush. Napata was the first capital city of that kingdom and an important cult and pilgrimage centre for the god Amun at the foot of the mountain Djebel Barkal. The World Heritage Site includes also the famous pyramid fields of El Kurru, Barkal itself, and Nuri.
Table 2 contains a preliminary list of sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. The list has been prepared following geographical criteria and entries have been classified according to the seven categories defined above. Those sites that fall within one of the four groups above, i.e. are included within an existing World Heritage Site, are shown in italics. The preliminary nature of the list must be emphasized. It is by no means exhaustive, nor is it complete. New monuments or objects may be proposed or identified in the future, as may different and new categories: for example, the scant remains of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Serapeum in the same city are not included in any of the suggested categories but must certainly be included in our list.
Table 2. A preliminary list of ancient Egyptian sites that contain significant astronomical heritage. Those that are included within an existing World Heritage Site are shown in italics. The categories are those listed in the section ‘Astronomical/archaeoastronomical context’ above.
| Location | Site | Category | Period | Brief description |
| NILE VALLEY (EGYPT) | ||||
| Alexandria | Bibliotheca | Library | Ptolemaic | Scant remains, including possible lecture hall |
| Alexandria | Serapeum | Sanctuary | Ptolemaic | Foundations and crypts |
| Buto | Uadjet temple | 4 & 6 | New Kingdom | In situ Festival List of Thutmose III |
| Behebit el Haggar | Iseum | 6 | Ptolemaic | Huge building in ruins |
| San el Haggar | Ancient Tanis | 6 & 7 | Late Period | Precinct of the Amun temple |
| Giza | Pyramids | 6 & 7 | 4th Dynasty | See Case Study |
| Abu Ghurob | Solar temples | 6 | 5th Dynasty | Earliest temples dedicated to the Sun |
| Saqqara | Zoser precinct | 6 | 3rd Dynasty | Pyramid, sanctuaries and ‘serdab’ |
| Saqqara | Pyramids | 3, 6 & 7 | 5th & 6th Dynasties | Pyramid texts in burial chambers |
| Saqqara | Noble tombs | 4 | Old Kingdom | Festival lists. Calendar dates. |
| Dashur & Meidun | Pyramids of ... | 6 | 4th Dynasty | Earliest true pyramids built by King Snefru |
| El-Fayoum | Seila pyramid | 6 | 4th Dynasty | Earliest building cardinally oriented |
| El-Fayoum | Various sites | 6 | Ptolemaic/Roman | Temples oriented to New Year’s Eve |
| El-Fayoum | Qsar Qarum | 6 | Ptolemaic | Solar hierophany at Sobek temple |
| Hermopolis Area | Various sites | 6 & 7 | Various epochs | Lunar God city. Lunar alignments? |
| Tell el Amarna | Atun temples | 6 & 7 | 18th Dynasty | Solar temples with cosmic landscape |
| Athribis | Ancient site | 5 (6?) | Ptolemaic | Zodiacs. Stretching-of-the-cord images |
| Abydos | Umm el Qab | 6 | Early dynastic | Earliest astronomically aligned structures |
| Abydos | Temples | 4, 5 & 6 | New Kingdom | Cosmology of Nut; List of the Kings |
| Dandara | Hathor temple | 4, 5, 6 & 7 | Ptolemaic/Roman | See Case Study |
| Luxor (Thebes) | Karnak temple | 4, 6 & 7 | Several periods | See Case Study |
| Western Thebes | Valley of the Kings | 3 & 5 | New Kingdom | Several celestial diagrams and stellar clocks |
| Western Thebes | Deir el Bahari | 6 & 7 | 11th & 18th Dynasties | Temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut |
| Western Thebes | Deir el Bahari | 3 & 5 | 18th Dynasty | Senenmut’s tomb |
| Western Thebes | El Assasif | 3 &5 | Late period | Tombs of Mentuemhat and Padamenope. |
| Western Thebes | Ramesseum | 4, 5 & 6 | 19th Dynasty | Impressive celestial diagram |
| Western Thebes | Medinet Habu | 4 & 6 | 20th Dynasty | Festival calendar; well-preserved temple. |
| Esna | Khnum temple | 5 | Roman | Hypostyle hall with astronomical ceiling |
| Kom el Ahmar | Hieraconpolis | 6 | Early dynasties | Earlier-period monuments |
| Edfu | Horus temple | 4 & 6 | Ptolemaic | The best preserved temple in Egypt |
| Aswan | Elephantine | 6 | Several periods | Legendary origin of the Flooding. Nilometers |
| Philae Island | Isis temple | 6 & 7 | Ptolemaic | Impressive grouping of temples |
| Abu Simbel | Main temple | 6 | 19th Dynasty | Solar-illumination phenomenon |
| NILE VALLEY (SUDAN) | ||||
| Kerma | Ancient site | 6 | Several periods | Earliest astronomical relationships in Sudan |
| Kawa | Amun temple | 6 & 7 | 25th Dynasty | A possible local twin of Karnak; dais room |
| Area of Napata | Barkal & Nuri | 5, 6 & 7 | Kingdom of Kush | See Case Study |
| Meroe | Ancient site | 4, 6 & 7 | Kingdom of Kush | Temples and pyramids; ‘observatory’ |
| Butana Region | Musawwarat | 6 (7?) | Kingdom of Kush | Huge sacred precinct; still to be studied |
| OASES & DESERTS | ||||
| Timna | Hathor temple | 6 | New Kingdom | Egyptian tradition far away from home |
| Sinai | Serabit | 4, 6 & 7 | MK and NK | Temple of Hathor; several steles |
| Siwa Oasis | Oracle temple | 6 | Late Period | Temple of Amun |
| Dakhla Oasis | Deir el Haggar | 5 | Roman | Latest celestial diagram |
| Kharga Oasis | Hibis temple | 6 | Late Period | Peculiar stretching of the cord image |
| Nabta Playa | Ancient site | 6 | Early Neolithic | Hypothetical solar and stellar alignments |
Fig. 2. Sunrise hierophanies at the sanctuaries of the temples of Abu Simbel (left/top) and Qsar Qarum (right/bottom), produced at the beginning of the Going Forth and Draught seasons of the civil calendar, and the winter solstice, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 3. The stretching of the cord ceremony, as beautifully represented in the walls of the temple of Horus in Edfu and the related texts of the temple of Dandara mentioning the orientation of sacred buildings to the constellation of Meskhetyu, the Egyptian equivalent of Ursa Major. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 4. Celestial diagrams of ancient Egypt showing cosmic texts and constellations or stellar clocks in the astronomical ceilings of the Million Year Temple of Ramses II in Western Thebes and the Valley of the King tomb of Ramses IX, respectively. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Fig. 5. Two fine examples, at Elephantine (left) and Edfu (right), of the so-called feast calendars of the ancient Egyptians, which contain a great deal of astronomical information. The Elephantine calendar shows an example of the rare Sothic dates, which have proved extremely useful in fixing the ancient chronology of the Middle East. Photographs © Juan Belmonte
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.
Preservation and conservation
The Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter SCA) and the Archaeology Service of the Islamic Republic of Sudan (hereafter ASS) are making every effort to keep their monuments in the best possible state of preservation and to safeguard their precious heritage. However, this is not always an easy task considering the huge territory to be covered and the large quantity of monuments needing to be preserved. In many cases these monuments are either completely isolated or else located inside rapidly expanding urban areas. In neither case is protection an easy task.
For example, according to unofficial reports the site of Nabta Playa (see above) has been suffering acts of vandalism in the last few years. As a result, the Egyptian authorities recently decided to move the so-called calendar circle (a standing-stone circle with possible solar alignments) to the gardens of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. While this will protect the stones, it will change the status of the monument and perhaps the attributes of its value, raising questions of authenticity, integrity and conservation management.
However, ancient Egyptian monuments are, in general, well preserved and well protected by dedicated members and inspectors of the SCA. Only a few of the sites listed in Table 2 can be considered to be in significant danger. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are one example, since the fluctuations in temperature and humidity caused by the hundreds of daily visitors are starting to cause damage to the impressive decorations. For this reason, some of the splendid celestial diagrams, such as that of King Seti I, are no longer accessible to the general public. The water-table is also a potential problem in a few cases, one being the Osireion in Abydos, where the chamber with the Cosmology of Nut painted on its ceiling is occasionally inundated.
Fig. 6. The pyramids of Giza at a time of high flooding and the pyramid texts in the burial chamber of King Teti. Astronomy and topography as the nucleus of time keeping and astral eschatology, respectively. Photographs taken in the 1920s by Rudolf Lehnert and Ernst Landrock
On the other hand, the large temples and the pyramid fields are in a relatively good state of preservation considering their age. Sites are frequently fenced, entry is controlled, and even in tiny isolated places such as Serabit el Khadim, in the Sinai Peninsula, there are local guards taking care of the site, even at night (in this particular case, the robbing of stone stelae was frequent in the past). Excavation and conservation work is still carried out in most areas and interesting discoveries are often reported to the media. An example of recent conservation work is the cleaning and accessibility project that has been carried out by a Spanish Mission at the tomb of Senenmut during the last few years. Until now, the magnificent astronomical ceiling} of this tomb has been only open to a handful of specialists under strict regulations. The idea is to make it accessible to a wider public and even possibly to produce a replica of the tomb that could be visited by the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Deir el-Bahari every day.
An important characteristic of the astronomical heritage of the ancient Egyptian sites is the observation of phenomena such as the heliacal rising of Sirius or sunrise and sunset at particular points in the annual cycle. If modern atmospheric conditions prevent the possibility of actually observing these phenomena today, then they are detrimental to the appreciation of that heritage. For example, the smog created by the huge metropolitan area of Cairo prevents various rising phenomena being observable today from the pyramid fields of the vicinity such as those on the Giza plateau, although fortunately other relevant phenomena (mostly settings) remain clearly observable.
Some of the Sudanese sites, such as Kawa and the Meroe observatory, are covered by sand but the majority are in well-protected areas where the ASS, in collaboration with international teams, continues to carry out excavations and conservation work. At present, the relevant archaeological sites in Sudan attract a much smaller number of visitors than is generally the case in Egypt. This in itself affords a degree of protection and the immediate threats to these monuments are insignificant. However, this situation could change in the next few years depending on the political and social situation in the country.