Abstract
After the step pyramids of the Third Dynasty and before the true pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty, seven mysterious minor step pyramids were built by King Sneferu1 and a predecessor. None of them were tombs. Clues as to why they were built emerged from analyzing their orientation to objects in the sky worshiped by the ancient Egyptians and hinted at a renewed preoccupation with measuring time and the flow of the Nile. The first of the seven was built on the Island of Elephantine, Egypt. Its orientation suggests that an aspect of the star Sirius was being enshrined. This paper proposes that this aspect pertained to the different timings of its annual invisibility period observable from either the capital at Memphis in Lower Egypt or from Upper Egypt at Elephantine. I argue that these periods, measured in days, were converted to dimensions in cubits, and consequently these numbers and the resulting geometric relationships between them became important. The evidence presented shows that this original design principle of expressing astronomic periods as dimensions was then expanded to encode the relationship between the period of invisibility of Sirius and the sidereal orbital period of the Moon within the exterior of several of the most prominent pyramids of Egypt including the Great Pyramid. The geometry of this relationship and even the method of the expansion itself can be understood from a religious context plausibly prevailing during the peak of the Pyramid Age.
Highlights
On Elephantine Island (Yebu/Abu) by Aswan, Egypt lie the ruins of a peculiar Third Dynasty step pyramid Egyptologists call “cultic” (Figure 1)
This paper proposes that this aspect pertained to the different timings of its annual invisibility period observable from either the capital at Memphis in Lower Egypt or from Upper Egypt at Elephantine
The few cultic pyramids discovered along the Nile (Dreyer, 1980; Swelim, 2017), known as Minor Step Pyramids (MSPs), resemble the many “cult” pyramids next to bigger main pyramids built for the deceased kings of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (Lehner, 1997); cult pyramids were usually placed in the southeast corner (e.g. G1-d; Hawass, 1996) of the funerary complex
Summary
On Elephantine Island (Yebu/Abu) by Aswan, Egypt lie the ruins of a peculiar Third Dynasty step pyramid Egyptologists call “cultic” (Figure 1). The few cultic pyramids discovered along the Nile (Dreyer, 1980; Swelim, 2017), known as Minor Step Pyramids (MSPs), resemble the many “cult” pyramids next to bigger main pyramids built for the deceased kings of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (Lehner, 1997); cult pyramids were usually placed in the southeast corner (e.g. G1-d; Hawass, 1996) of the funerary complex. They did not serve as a tomb for the body of the dead king, but as a symbolic tomb for the king’s life-spirit (ka) according to prevailing consensus. This somewhat contradicts the theory that MSPs were only built with the intent to serve as Nile monitors to time the floods (discussed by Belmonte et al, 2005)
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