Calendar and pyramids
Many pages are written about the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Great attention was paid to studying their orientation to the sides of the world. It turned out that the pyramids in Giza are oriented so that their two sides point to the point of sunrise on the first day of spring. There is also a view of the stone Sphinx, built next to the pyramids.
Other major constructions of ancient Egyptians are definitely oriented. For example, as the mathematician and astronomer Gerald Hawkins( England) established, the axis of the temple of Amon-Ra in Karnak( in ancient Thebes) is directed to the point of sunrise on the shortest day of the year. It is difficult to agree with the idea that these and similar structures were not used by their architects for their calendar needs.
Famous for their towers( ziggurats), from the sites of which astronomical observations were conducted, and the cities of Ancient Babylon. Alas, the inexorable time did not spare these interesting monuments of ancient culture, and to say anything concrete about their use is very difficult.
Built pyramids and Maya in Central America. Approximately in fifteen cities, built from 500 BC.e.until 300 AD.e., found special sites for observers and a system of three temples or steles( horned with hieroglyphics of stone pillars).These last and fixed in relation to the site of the direction to the points of sunrise in the days of the equinoxes, summer and winter solstices.
There is also evidence that the Inca emperor Pachacutecu, who ruled before the Spanish conquest, built eight towers, which, if viewed from the midpoint of the throne, also indicated the points of sunrise on the days of solstices and equinoxes. It can hardly be doubted that these towers played the role of pointers of time. ..
It is not always, however, possible to establish with all certainty the purpose of one or the other structure that has survived to this day. This applies, for example, to a whimsical web of white stripes in the Nazca desert near the city of Cuzco( in Peru, latitude 14 ° South), observed from aircraft. A total of 93 straight lines are seen here;some of them have a length of about 26 m, others - 182 m, others - several kilometers. In this latter case, it is striking that, as J. Hawkins notes, they were carried out "more accurately than can be determined with the help of modern methods of aerial photography. ..", and these lines "remain straight beyond the limits of visibility confined to the ground by a dusty haze".You can notice such a line if you stand directly above it: "It is only necessary to step aside, and it seems to dissolve. ..".Twenty-three such bands diverge from the common center - from a square whose side is three meters. These lines are created by the selection of stones of various colors: the builders carefully moved the dark stones aside, while the bright ones were left in place.
Participant of one of the expeditions to this area, professor-historian Paul Kozok climbed to the top of the mountain on June 22, 1947 - the day of the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. The sun was rising. And P. Kozok discovered that one of the white bands leads directly to the point of sunrise. As one might have guessed, ancient desert dwellers( perhaps the Incas) used these mysterious lines for their calendar calculations.
But a few years later J. Hawkins arrived there. Having carefully determined the directions of all the lines, he carried out the corresponding analysis with the help of an electronic computer. The conclusion was very categorical: "No, Paul Kozok was wrong!" Of the 93 lines, only 10 could be calendar. J. Hawkins writes: "We sadly refused from the theory of the astronomical calendar. .. No, the mysterious desert lines could not serve as a reference for time and were not a calendar. .. These are pictograms! Too large to cover their eyes on the ground, but perfectly visible from the air. "
To all that said, we should add that, in addition to direct lines, the drawings of a flower, a spider( length of a figure of 45 m), lizards( 200 m), birds, fish, octopuses and other marine animals, are well visible on this dry,all these images are visible only from high altitudes! It is possible that the ancient inhabitants of the Nazca desert created them for their gods or souls of deceased relatives. This is quite plausible, since the same images of animals and birds are found on the vessels they put in the grave.
Apparently, discussions about the appointment of a complex of lines and drawings in the Nazca desert will continue for more than a decade. And yet, apparently, Hawkins vainly "sadly" refuses to admit that some of these lines served for time counting on the sole basis that "only 10 could be calendar."After all, in order to establish the beginning of astronomical spring and autumn, summer and winter, only three lines are needed. ..