At Denderah, if such a N.W. temple ever existed it has disappeared, but as the monument stands there are still two temples at right angles to each other, but the second one faces S.E. instead of N.W.
This premised, I will now give, in anticipation of another one dealing with the British monuments, a list of the most ancient star temples in Egypt, with their azimuths and the first-magnitude clock-stars which could have been observed in them at different dates. These dates have been approximately determined by the use of a precessional globe, an horizon of 1° elevation being assumed. As I have shown, the present views of Egyptian chronology and the inscriptions carry us back to α Ursae Majoris, at Denderah. But there is a suggestion at Luxor, and perhaps also at Abydos, that Vega was used before that star, though there are, so far as I know, no temple traces of Arcturus.
| Temple. | N. Lat. | Az. N.E. | N. Decl. | Vega. | Arc- turus. | α Ursae Majoris. | γ Draconis. | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annu | 30 | ° | 10 | ′ | 14 | ° | 0 | ′ | 57 | ° | 25 | ′ | 6250 | 5550 | * | 5200 | * | 2500 |
| Memphis | 29 | 50 | 12 | 45 | 58 | 20 | 6450 | 6000 | 5000 | 2850 | ||||||||
| Denderah | 26 | 10 | 18 | 30 | 58 | 52 | 6550 | 6200 | * | 4950 | * | 3100 | ||||||
| Thebes (Mut) | 25 | 40 | 17 | 30 | 59 | 46 | 6700 | 6700 | 4800 | * | 3500 | |||||||
| Tell-el-Amarna | 27 | 40 | 13 | 0 | 60 | 12 | 6800 | 6800 | 4750 | 3700 | ||||||||
| Nagada | 26 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 61 | 16 | 7000 | 7400 | 4600 | 4000 | ||||||||
There is a very great difference between determining the date of a temple erected to the rising or setting of a particular star, and of one erected to the rising or setting of the sun on a particular day of the year. In the latter case no date can be given unless we have reason to believe that both the sun and a star rose or set at the same point of the horizon at the same date; in other words, the sun and star had the same declination, and the rising or setting of both could be seen in the same temple.
I assumed, without historical data, that this view was acted on in Egypt, at the temple of Menu; Mr. Penrose found, with historical data, that it was actually acted on in Greece at the Parthenon. To show that we are at all justified in this view we must study the association of gods with temple worship, and look for temples in different azimuths erected at different times if the god is a star; and we can run the star home if the dates fall in with the star’s precessional change. Thus there is reason for supposing that the god Ptah and the star Capella were associated. There is a temple of Ptah at Memphis, Az. N. 77° 15′ W., hills 50′, decl. N. 11°, star Capella, date 5200. In the rectangular system at Memphis, then, α Ursae Majoris was watched in one temple and Capella in the other at that date. There is also evidence that the god Menu was associated with the star Spica. In the temple system of Mut at Thebes, in 3200 B.C., γ Draconis was used as a clock-star in one temple, while the setting of Spica was watched in the other.
If a temple is erected to the sun with no specially named cult, it may be a sun-temple pure and simple, not connected with star worship because there was no star with the proper declination at the time.
In Greece temple-building was carried on at a much later time, so late that perhaps water clocks were available, so that we should not expect to find many clock-star temples in that country. As a matter of fact there is only one, of which the data, according to Mr. Penrose, are as follows:—
| N. Decl. | Star. | Date. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thebes, The City of the Dragon | +54° 28′ | γ Draconis | 1160 |
It will be seen that the star used in Greece was the last clock-star traced in the Egyptian temples.