[120] Jensen, Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 147.
[121] Dawn of Astronomy, p. 215.
[122] Ibid., p. 214.
CHAPTER XXIX
A SHORT HISTORY OF SUN TEMPLES
The Original Cult
I have given detailed evidence showing that the first circle builders in Britain worshipped the May-year sun, whether they brought it with them or not. This year was used in Babylon, Egypt, and afterwards in Greece. In the two former countries May was the harvest month, and thus became the chief month in the year. The dates were apt to vary with the local harvest time.
The earliest extant temple aligned to the sun at this festival seems to have been that of Ptah at Memphis, 5200 B.C. I have already referred to this temple in relation to the clock-star observations carried on in it.
This approximate date of the building of the temple is obtained by the evidence afforded (1) by the associated clock-star (see [p. 298]), and (2) by the fact that the god Ptah represented the star Capella, since there is a Ptah temple at Thebes aligned on Capella at a later time, when by the processional movement it had been carried outside the solar limit. There was also a similar temple at Annu (Heliopolis, lat. N. 30° 10′), but it has disappeared. The light of the sun fell along the axis when the sun had the declination N. 11°, the Gregorian dates being April 18 and August 24.
Another May-year temple was that of Menu at Thebes, Az. N. 72° 30′ W. (lat. N. 25°; sun’s declination N. 15°; Gregorian date, May 1).