Why do pyramids face north

Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including NYmag. Ask Smithsonian A Smithsonian magazine special report.

Post a Comment. If you mark the tip of the pole's shadow as it moves across the sand during the day, the marks should create a line that points perfectly east and west. To minimize error, it's best to have an extremely tall gnomon.

Then, you can align the corners of your pyramid to match the line in the sand. The theory is enticing, but there is still much that is unknown about how the pyramids were built and whether ancient Egyptians used this technique. No one has ever found records detailing their methods for orienting their pyramids, nor has an ancient Egyptian compass been found.

The Egyptians could have determined the day of the fall equinox by counting forward 91 days after the summer solstice , Dash said. The recent experiment shows that the fall equinox could have been used to align the three pyramids, Dash said.

However, whether the ancient Egyptians used this technique is unknown. Experiments conducted over the past few decades suggest that several methods that make use of the sun or stars could also have been used to align the pyramids, Dash said. No engineering documents or architectural plans have been found that give technical explanations demonstrating how the ancient Egyptians aligned any of their temples or pyramids," Dash wrote in the article. Now Dash has another, simpler idea.

His latest research suggests that the Egyptians roughly 4, years ago could have used the autumnal equinox to achieve perfect alignment. The equinox is regarded as the moment twice a year when the plane of Earth's equator passes through the centre of the Sun's disc, and the length of day and night are pretty much equal.

Previously equinox measurements had been overlooked as a possible alignment method, as it was assumed it wouldn't provide enough accuracy.