Map of the starry sky in Egyptian tomb: a ridiculous mistake or secret knowledge?
Ancient Egypt is a world full of secrets and mysteries. The incredible accuracy of the construction of the pyramids, structures of colossal size, legends, and myths of the afterlife – all this has been exciting for archaeologists and historians for several decades. However, there is a mystery that truly “turns” our understanding of the world.
A few years ago, archaeologists discovered the tomb of one of the most famous builders of Ancient Egypt, who built the Jeser necropolis, built numerous obelisks of the twins of Karnak, and built many more architectural monuments of that time.
In addition, Senenmut, the designer’s name, was wealthy and close to the pharaoh Egyptian, which means that he himself was supposed to have his own richly decorated tomb. But it was not Senenmut’s biography that attracted modern scientists, but the mysterious map of the starry sky engraved in one of the rooms of the builder’s tomb. To get the latest stories, install our app here
This map really accurately depicted the stars and planets that could be seen while being in Egypt at that time. However, the key figures of the map were two space objects: the constellation Orion and Sirius, the location of which greatly confused scientists. Orion was drawn to the west of Sirius, while its present position is the opposite, it is in the east.
Scientists put forward many hypotheses, some of which were large-scale and incredible. One theory suggested that about 10,000 years ago, the Earth was hit by a meteorite of incredible size, which literally turned it around, and therefore the ancient Egyptians saw Orion and Sirius differently than we do today. However, although it sounds beautiful, this theory does not stand up to scrutiny.
A rational explanation for this phenomenon was given somewhat later. The fact is that in ancient Egypt, the orientation to the North was not according to the magnetic pole of our planet (the Egyptians did not know what a magnetic belt was), but according to the position of the Sun in the sky. Its sunrise pointed to the East and its sunset to the west, just as it does today.
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However, if a modern person in another country of the northern hemisphere looks at the Sun at its zenith, it will point to the South. But European and American scientists did not take into account that, due to the country’s location in the Southern Hemisphere (in accordance with the ancient map), the luminary at its zenith will point to the North. That is why the ancient Egyptians inverted the star map and the Orion-Sirius pair.
Even though this riddle has been solved, the history of Ancient Egypt is still full of myths and secrets. Can we solve them all? Only time will show. To get the latest stories, install our app here
