~To all regular readers of this science blog, this is a treat just for you!
~ The culmination of many discoveries, no pun intended, as you might read below
~This portion of a paper to be peer reviewed, the rest having much more details, is my way to celebrate all this work. So many discoveries, some small some much bigger than what follows below;
Note to the Egyptologists who I have corresponded with; improving the ancient chronology is not a scandal nor a failure in Egyptology, it is something grand to celebrate! Some of the following could not be done without your efforts.
From the paper:
Sunrise microdot horizon positioning, Great Pyramid construction years by Hb Sb festivals, allowing very accurate astronomical back dating, confirmed by 51.84 degree side inclination
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Horizon observations are complex, atmospheric refraction “mirages” often confuses matters greatly. However rudimentary tools, such as a plumb line, or ancient
Merkhet (7), suffice. Even if having multiple generations of priests observing the Goddess Nut giving birth to the sun God RA every day, while equally having no idea that the Earth was round orbiting the sun, does not mean that they were incapable of perfect time keeping. Once established without too much perturbations, having the ability to pass on knowledge for centuries, Egyptian priest observers learned that sea level horizons may be problematic. Higher elevation ones far less. Very early on, at inception of their first observations, they realized that the winter solstice sun shadow at noon, matched Sirius transit elevation perfectly particularly after the beginning of the growing season. With skill and a curtain of Merkhets in front of the hand held one, the local return of Sirius can be mapped year by year with great accuracy. But there was a major problem to overcome with ancient sunrise observations, the sunrise was blinding white bright, impossible to survey, or even not healthy to look at especially for measurement purposes. A way was devised from the experience learned from thousands of observations passed on from one generation of RA priests to the next. To prove this, there is another but modern day problem, it may be more rare to replicate accurate horizon star mapping over Egyptian landscapes today. For this we must go where there is no pollution with limestone hills, the Polar regions. The desert and Arctic have no trees, both places are ideal for horizon mapping.
Cornwallis Island’s Resolute Bay Nunavut Canada High Arctic air offers excellent clear pollution particulate free air to study what it was like to look at the horizon during ancient times:
(A) 16 Km away top of Sheringham hill sun disk microdot, jagged limestone hills help create them.
Resolute Bay top of Cape Sheringham March 30 sunsets 0.29 degree Elevation:
Zenith Azimuth
2016 90.83 289.58
2020 90.88 289.83
3 Km away Cape Martyr hill sun microdot, high horizon filming
Top of Cape Martyr February 25 near 2 degree Elevation
Zenith Azimuth
2004 88.79 227.49
2016 88.75 227.48 {sun flash Microdot}
2020 88.75 227.52
( Notice the Azimuth literally being equal)
March 24, Katimavik reverse pyramid sunset with raised sea ice, made strange by many thermal layers. Below astronomical horizon refraction effects, higher altitude observer view.
Top of Sea ice March 24 sunsets
Zenith Azimuth
2004 92.09 284.97
2008 91.63 283.24
2012 91.84 284.09 (notice the Azimuth variations)
Same day microdot examples, leap years sunset comparisons were chosen to eliminate standard calendar astronomical sidereal disparities. It is rare to get same day sunsets year to year, even in the Arctic, which is dry but often cloudy.
Cape Sheringham and Cape Martyr hills consist of mainly limestone and are often wind swept, partially covered with snow during winter, less so during spring.
Top of sea ice horizon heights can vary enormously, observed sunrises or sunsets can be seen with sun disk lower than 5 degrees (1) below the horizon along with huge Azimuth displacements, sometimes many degrees Azimuth.
Egypt’s desert has very similar top of land inversions in the morning as per Upper air records, since warmer desert air is less dense, the refraction height boosts are roughly half as found in the High Arctic.
Of interest, are micro sun flashes, which are partial sun rise dots, some as narrow as 1 to 2 arc seconds in width, observable just above extreme top of the sun’s middle upper limb. The clear pollution free air of antiquity sun was unobservable without specialized filters even at end of dawn or beginning of dusk, by the known rudimentary observation means, impossible. To demarcate a sun position on a precise horizon spot, microdots from limestone or otherwise rough hilltops were necessary. Seen through pollution free air bright stars or planets were easier to observe especially above hills with less atmospheric thickness, resulting in a reduction in scattering of light enhancing their brightness.
Ancient horizon observers with Merkhet lines precisely mapped Sirius small horizon drifts, with great skill done likewise with sun microdots, particularly visible on limestone hill scape, especially if the top plateau’s are jagged by different small peaks or with large rock aggregates. An observer can demarcate by memory a microdot appearing next to a dip or small rise of the higher horizon. In a matter of a few years, a priesthood studying both Sirius and Eastern microdot sunrises can map positions to be integrated with any given temple or pyramid plan.
Because of these microdot flashes, near perfect horizon sun position mapping was achievable, like with bright stars, recordable. Proficient Ancient Egyptians spotters could have used poles or rock cairns likewise, either on distant or near by hills, to set surveying markers
Akhet Khufu
The name of the Great Pyramid is Khufu Akhet, as documented by Red sea papyrus recently discovered by Pierre Tallet “diary of Merer”. This apt name suggests looking at the horizon as the Sphinx does. Continuing on the juxtaposition of Sirius and sunrise, the Great Pyramid architecturally incorporates their positional geometry very deeply. This can be also backdated precisely because we have 3 dimensional coordinates built in the Great Pyramid Southern shafts. The first shaft, meant to be used as an exact calendar clock, in yearly chronological sequence, is at 45 degrees elevation, built step by step at 45 degrees starting from the King’s chamber. Gantenbrink Upuaut project measured its floor having an “average” slope, explainable by the brightness of the sun disk at noon. Building a shaft with a very bright 45 degree sun disk midday as a guide can be froth with mistakes, the sun diameter size and intense brightness might have prompted less care to piece together a perfect smooth shaft floor. However, this 45 degrees corresponds to a religious and significant agricultural moment, a precise yearly astronomical mark, the first day of Hb Sb, always exactly 50 days before the winter solstice, the beginning of the kings jubilee along with the start of the Nile’s growing season. Gradually from Khufu’s time onwards, this day was also dedicated to Osiris when its worship gained prominence, it became this Gods resurrection day.
The Southern Shaft of the Queen’s chamber, apparently with the smoothest or most precise floor slope, was built, layer by layer, year by year from observing Sirius at Southern transit especially on a unique coronation day, the last day of Hb Sb or modern day Coptic Khoiak, “the joining of souls”. During construction of the Great Pyramid, Sirius at transit with the sun on December 9 kept immediately above the shaft floor as a precise slope guide, Gantenbrink’s 39.6 degrees, from this work we can date the start of shaft construction to 2371 BCE. When visible, Sirius transit altitudes varied a little from 39.6 degrees on other days, certainly easing the difficulty in achieving a perfect stone angle.
Long before, Sirius and the Sun had identical transits at the winter solstice.
This dates back close to 3400 BCE. From then, with Earth precession and obliquity changing downwards, Sirius drifted upwards, this change was known by RA priesthood. From inception of this celebrated, mythical or not, first ascendance, from the ceremony of Pharaoh “0” onwards, Sirius and sun transit elevation equivalence was a sacred date of the year. The sun shadow matching Sirius elevation at transit is a precise astronomical day, not depending on the imperfect Egyptian 365 day calendar. Sirius elevation angle was set in stone for Khufu’s first coronation day, likely December 9 2371 BC, if he lived another 30 years after, jubilee ascendance day, the last day of the 30 year jubilee Hb Sb was December 9 2341 BC. Exceptionally on that sidereal star and sun position day, and for every jubilee Hb Sb coronation day, for all RA pharaohs, the sun rose exactly on the same horizon Azimuth as Sirius, to then both transit at the same location due South at noon for the sun and about midnight for Sirius, all during this one exceptional day. Sirius and the sun were considered joined on the same plane of existence.
Additionally, there is no coincidence, the slopes of the Great Pyramid were designed to match same day dawn horizon azimuth position difference between Sirius and the sun on July 11 2371, astronomical program makes this difference 51.98 degrees, compared to the modern consensus Great Pyramid inclination of 51.84 degrees. The inspiration of the smooth pyramid was memorialized exactly to match the yearly heliacal sun and Sirius rise horizontal positions whence traced on limestone rock, sand or papyrus.
From the centre of the planned Great Pyramid prior to construction:
Sirius Rise July 11 2371 BCE 4:21:01 0 0’ 33” elv 113 25’ 4” Az 113.42
Sunrise July 11 2371 BCE 4:45:06 -0 57’ 06” elv 61 26’ 31” Az - 61.44
51.98
Refraction r =0.4 for Sirius matches its horizon 0.4
Refraction r= 0.4 for the sun upper limb to match 0.1 horizon
While there is no way to reconstruct an atmospheric profile of so long ago, Egypt July morning air would easily bring up Sirius and a microdot at both respective horizons without an expected significant deviation from the results above. ...............................................................
>_>_>_>_>_>_>_>......... More to come upon publication....
The very first reason for smooth sided pyramids was the horizontal tracing of the observations of Sirius rising the first day upon its long 70 days absence, appearing in the Southeast, 30 to 40 minutes later with the sun rising to the Northeast. The slope angle of the Great Pyramid was taken from the horizon, as given by Sopdet and RA, the very year of Pharaoh's Khufu first coronation, his ascent, should naturally come along with the inauguration of the construction start of the 7th wonder of the Ancient world . Therefore there are two ways to back date this great monument, to the day, since Sirius position changed upwards quite a lot and the horizontal sacred triangle formed by the heliacal return of Sirius and sunrise changed in time as well. There was also this fantastic equal positional rise and culminations of these two favorite Egyptian stars, on the very coronation day of Khufu, the celestial and terrestrial day of joining.
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So here you have it, I say hello to you, with smile and hope that the science provided here was inspirational and encourages to become curious in your field of endeavour. Remember, you become master of your practice, not in a day, may be after 25 years.... However, if you do science `every day, surely some wonders of this Universe will be in sight to explore contemplate and write about ...
WD March 21 2026
