A people entering Egypt from this region, then, would satisfy one condition of the problem. But is there any evidence that this people built their solar temples and temple walls east and west, and that they also built pyramids?
There is ample evidence (referred to in Chapter IX.)—although, alas! the structures in Babylonia, being generally built in brick and not in stone, no longer remain, as do those erected in Egypt. Still, in spite of the absence of the possibility of a comparative study, research has shown that in the whole region to the north-east of Egypt the temenos walls of temples and the walls of towns run east and west; and though at present actual dates cannot be given, a high antiquity is suggested in the case of some of them. Further, as has been already pointed out, the temples which remain in that region where stone was procurable, as at Palmyra, Baalbek, Jerusalem, all lie east and west.
But more than this, it is well known that from the very earliest times pyramidal structures, called ziggurats, some 150 feet high, were erected in each important city. These were really observatories; they were pyramids built in steps, as is clearly shown from pictures found on contemporary tablets; and one with seven steps and of great antiquity, it is known, was restored by Nebuchadnezzar II. about 600 B.C. at Babylon.
STATUE OF CHEPHREN, FOUND IN THE TEMPLE NEAR THE SPHINX.
A careful study of the historical references to the various pyramids built in Egypt, leaves it beyond doubt that the step pyramids are the oldest. They could, then, most easily have been constructed on the Babylonian model, and in this fact we have an additional argument for the intrusion of the pyramid builders into Egypt from Babylonia.
But did this equinox-worshipping, pyramid-building race live at anything like the time required?
There is no doubt now in the minds of scholars that the evidence is conclusive that among the kings of Babylonia were the following:—[151]
| B.C. | |
| Entenna | 4200 |
| Naram-Sin | 3800 |
| Sargon I. | 3750 |
The date of the earliest known pyramid in Egypt may perhaps be put down as about 3700 B.C. (Brugsch), or 4200 B.C. (Mariette).