The arrow in Lepsius' plan is so wrongly placed that the plan is very misleading. It follows from Captain Lyons' observations and my own that the longest mound heads 14° N. of W. to 14° S. of E. within a degree; the condition of the mounds renders more accurate measures impossible.[9]
It is to be gathered from the inscriptions that the temple within these mounds, now only represented by its solitary obelisk, was styled a sanctuary or temple of the sun.[10]
As the orientation of the N. and S. faces of the obelisk is 13° N. of W., the sun's declination must have been 11° N. The times of our year marked by it, therefore, were 18th April and 24th August. But it must not be forgotten that the temple may have been built originally to watch the rising or setting of a star which occupied the declination named, and possibly, though not necessarily, at some other time of the year. I shall return to this subject.
If Maspero and the great authorities in Egyptology are right—namely, that the Annu temple was founded before 4000 B.C.—the above figures drive us to the conclusion that we have in this temple a building which was orientated to the sun, not at a solstice, some 6000 years ago.
So much for two of the places known to be of the highest antiquity in Egypt. There remains another locality supposed to date from more modern times—I refer to Thebes. It is here that evidence of the most certain kind with regard to the solstitial temples is to be found.
At Karnak itself there are several temples so oriented, chief among them the magnificent Temple of Amen-Rā, one of the wonders of the world, to which a special chapter must be devoted. Suffice it to say here that the amplitude of the point to which the axis of the great temple of Amen-Rā points is 26° N. of W., which we learn from the table already given is the amplitude of the place of sunset at the summer solstice in the latitude of Thebes. The amplitude of the point to which the axis of an attached small temple points is 26° S. of E., exactly the position of sunrise at the winter solstice.
It must not be forgotten in this connection that the Colossi of the plain on the other side of the river, and the associated temple, also face the place of sunrise at the winter solstice.
The list of solar solstitial temples, so far probably traced, is as follows:—
| Place and Temple. | Amplitude. | Declination. | Date. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.E. Temples. | Kasr Kerun | 27° S. of E. | S. 23¼° | |
| Karnak (O) | 26½° S. of E. | S. 23¾° | ||
| Memnonia (Avenue of Sphinxes) (orientation not to ½°) | 27½° S. of E. | S. 24½° | ||
| S.W. Temples. | Erment | 27½° S. of W. | S. 24½° | |
| N.W. Temples. | Karnak (Q. K) | 26½° N. of W. | N. 23½° | |
| Karnak (U) | 27½° N. of W. | N. 24½° |
