Although, however, these matters can be discussed in a way that will indicate that the inquiry is raised, I do not wish for one moment to speak of it as being settled, because the observations which have been made already in Egypt with regard to the orientation of these temples have not been made from such a very special point of view; and, further, considerable alteration in the amplitude would be made by the presence of even a low range of hills miles away in the case of stars rising or setting not many degrees from the north or south. No one would care to make the assertion with absolute definiteness until it was known whether or not the horizon in each case was interfered with by hills or any intervening objects—was or was not one, in fact, which might be regarded as a sea horizon from the point of observation; if there were impediments, the angular height of them must, of course, be exactly known; but this information is almost entirely lacking.
Now, however, that the question has been raised by observations of the temples themselves, it becomes interesting to ask of the inscriptions if there are records that these temples were directed to stars?
It will be seen in the next chapter that the inscriptions give out no uncertain sound on this point.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE BUILDING INSCRIPTIONS.
Numerous references to the ceremonial of laying the foundation-stones of temples exist, and we learn from the works of Chabas, Brugsch, Dümichen,[45] and others, that the foundation of an Egyptian temple was associated with a series of ceremonies which are repeatedly described with a minuteness which, as Nissen has pointed out,[46] is painfully wanting in the case of Greece and Rome. Amongst these ceremonies, one especially refers to the fixing of the temple-axis; it is called, technically, "the stretching of the cord," and is not only illustrated by inscriptions on the walls of the temples of Karnak, Denderah, and Edfû—to mention the best-known cases—but is referred to elsewhere.
Another part of the ceremony consisted in the king proceeding to the site where the temple was to be built, accompanied mythically by the goddess Sesheta, who is styled "the mistress of the laying of the foundation-stone."
Each was armed with a stake. The two stakes were connected by a cord. Next the cord was aligned towards the sun or star, as the case might be; when the alignment was perfect the two stakes were driven into the ground by means of a wooden mallet; there was no difference of procedure in the case of temples directed to the sun. One boundary wall parallel to the main axis of the temple was built along the line marked out by this stretched cord.
If the moment of sun—or star-rise or—set were chosen, as we have every reason to believe was the case seeing that all the early observations were made on the horizon, it is obvious that the light from the body towards which the temple was aligned would penetrate the axis of the temple thus built from one end to the other in the original direction of the cord.
THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION-STONE CEREMONIAL.