The message of the Sphinx: a quest for the hidden legacy of mankind Read Online Free PDF Page B

This system of measuring by degrees is not a modern convention but rather an inheritance of scientific thinking, connected to ‘base 60’ mathematics, that dates back to the remotest antiquity. [85] Nobody knows where, or when, it originated. [86] It seems, however, to have been employed in the geodetic and astronomical calculations that were used to locate the Great Pyramid—for the monument is positioned barely a mile to the south of latitude 30, i.e. almost exactly one third of the way between the equator and the north pole. [87]

    5. Geodetic location of the Great Pyramid of Giza on latitude 30 degrees north (one third of the way between the equator and the north pole) and at the centre of the world’s habitable landmasses.
    It is unlikely that this choice of location could have come about by chance. Moreover, because no suitable site for such a massive structure exists a mile or so to the north, it would be inadvisable to assume that the fractional offset from the thirtieth parallel could have been caused by a surveying error on the part of the Pyramid builders.
    This offset amounts to 1 arc minute and 9 arc seconds—since the Pyramid’s true latitude is 29 degrees 58’ 51”. Interestingly, however, as a former Astronomer Royal of Scotland has observed:
    ‘If the original designer had wished that men should see with their bodily, rather than their mental eyes, the pole of the sky from the foot of the Great Pyramid, at an altitude before them of 30 degrees, he would have had to take account of the refraction of the atmosphere; and that would have necessitated the building standing not at latitude 30 degrees, but at latitude 29 degrees 58’ 22”.’ [88]
    In other words the monument turns out to be situated less than half an arc minute to the north of astronomical latitude 30 degrees, uncorrected for atmospheric refraction. Any ‘error’ involved is thus reduced to less than half of one-sixtieth of one degree—a hair’s breadth in terms of the earth’s circumference as a whole.
    The same obsessive concern with accuracy is found in the orderly evenness of the Pyramid’s base: [89]

Length of West side: 
755 feet 9.1551 inches 
Length of North side: 
755 feet 4.9818 inches 
Length of East side: 
755 feet 10.4937 inches 
Length of South side: 
756 feet 0.9739 inches 

    The variation between the longest and shortest sides is therefore less than 8 inches—about one tenth of 1 per cent—quite an amazing feat when we consider that we are measuring a distance of over 9000 inches carpeted with thousands of huge limestone blocks weighing several tons each.
    There is no sign that the ancient Pyramid builders were in any way daunted by the task of maintaining such fastidious standards of symmetry on such a grand scale. On the contrary, as though willingly seeking out additional technical challenges, they went on to equip the monument with corners set at almost perfect right-angles. The variation from 90 degrees is just 0 degrees 00’ 02” at the north-west corner, 0 degrees 03’ 02” at the north-east corner, 0 degrees 03’ 33” at the south-east corner, and 0 degrees 00’ 33” at the south-west corner. [90]
    This, it must be conceded, is not just ‘atomic clock’ accuracy but the Rolex, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Rolls-Royce and IBM of building engineering all rolled into one.
    And there is more.
    It is fairly well known that the Pyramid was aligned by its architects to the cardinal points (with its north face directed north, its east face directed east, etc., etc.). Less well known is just how eerily exact is the precision of these alignments—with the average deviation from true being only a little over 3 arc minutes (i.e. about 5 per cent of a single degree). [91]
    Why such meticulousness?
    Why such rigour?
    Why should even the most megalomaniacal of Pharaohs have cared whether his massive ‘tomb’ was aligned within 3 arc minutes of true north—or indeed within a whole degree of true north? To the