Khafre and Senenmut Calendars
Behind Khafre’s pyramid at Giza is Area C. Named by Petrie as ‘workmen’s barracks’ it has been recently excavated by Mark Lehner who was unable to explain its purpose.
His conclusion was “It is difficult to imagine many practical functions for these bizarre edifices – nearly 100 feet long, but less than 10 feet wide . . . just long open yawning corridors.” He asks : was it “Built for the living or for the dead ?”.
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Fig 13 Conard and Lehner Survey of Area C
Lehner thought they were like the teeth of a comb. 73 identical and equally spaced walls (8.5c apart) were lined up behind the pyramid on a ridge. Plus one more wall separated to the north near the label ‘gallery 76’.
(The galleries he labelled -1 and -2 were not satisfactorily identified because a Modern Road was laid around the southern end of the structure.)
At right angles to these at the north end were 20 more little walls with spacing of 6c. This includes the two end walls. (The diagram above shows an assumption how the end walls looked as there are no remnants of them.)
If each of the 73 walls represented one day, and if each of the 20 walls at right angles to them represented one time span of 73 days, we have a calendar.
Because, 20 x 73 comes to 1460 which is 4 years of 365 days.
Imagine a 20 x 73 grid (in red) to cover the 1460 days.
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Add one day to four years - the single separated wall outside the red grid - to make 1461 for the 4 year cycle. That’s 365+365+365+366 days.
By this counting of the days over the 4 year cycle (by the deceased king) the timing of heliacal appearance of the star Sirius could be forecast.
How does this relate to Senenmut who lived about 1000 years later ?
On the ceiling of his tomb alongside the tomb of his queen Hapshetsut, a calendar was painted. The days could be counted in a similar way.
In the southern half there were borders comprised of stars. Down the left hand edge there were twenty stars.
Below the decans there were 36 + 37 which is 73 stars. (The right hand end was damaged but the numbers were the same as above)
20 x73 comes to 1460 which is 4 years of 365 day (the same as Khafre)
Imagine now a 20 x 73 grid to cover the 1460 days.
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The bottom band of 36 stars have half a star at each end left out of the grid. (for the missing part see the half star at the end of middle row of stars at the top). So one more day is to be added to the 1460 which makes 1461 days.
So, Sirius would have been forecast to rise heliacally 4 times in the cycle, the first on day one, and the fourth time on day 1461.
It is amazing that the same 20 x 73 grid of Khafre appears again about 1000 years later !
Behind Khafre’s pyramid at Giza is Area C. Named by Petrie as ‘workmen’s barracks’ it has been recently excavated by Mark Lehner who was unable to explain its purpose.
His conclusion was “It is difficult to imagine many practical functions for these bizarre edifices – nearly 100 feet long, but less than 10 feet wide . . . just long open yawning corridors.” He asks : was it “Built for the living or for the dead ?”.
Fig 13 Conard and Lehner Survey of Area C
Lehner thought they were like the teeth of a comb. 73 identical and equally spaced walls (8.5c apart) were lined up behind the pyramid on a ridge. Plus one more wall separated to the north near the label ‘gallery 76’.
(The galleries he labelled -1 and -2 were not satisfactorily identified because a Modern Road was laid around the southern end of the structure.)
At right angles to these at the north end were 20 more little walls with spacing of 6c. This includes the two end walls. (The diagram above shows an assumption how the end walls looked as there are no remnants of them.)
If each of the 73 walls represented one day, and if each of the 20 walls at right angles to them represented one time span of 73 days, we have a calendar.
Because, 20 x 73 comes to 1460 which is 4 years of 365 days.
Imagine a 20 x 73 grid (in red) to cover the 1460 days.
Add one day to four years - the single separated wall outside the red grid - to make 1461 for the 4 year cycle. That’s 365+365+365+366 days.
By this counting of the days over the 4 year cycle (by the deceased king) the timing of heliacal appearance of the star Sirius could be forecast.
How does this relate to Senenmut who lived about 1000 years later ?
On the ceiling of his tomb alongside the tomb of his queen Hapshetsut, a calendar was painted. The days could be counted in a similar way.
In the southern half there were borders comprised of stars. Down the left hand edge there were twenty stars.
Below the decans there were 36 + 37 which is 73 stars. (The right hand end was damaged but the numbers were the same as above)
20 x73 comes to 1460 which is 4 years of 365 day (the same as Khafre)
Imagine now a 20 x 73 grid to cover the 1460 days.
The bottom band of 36 stars have half a star at each end left out of the grid. (for the missing part see the half star at the end of middle row of stars at the top). So one more day is to be added to the 1460 which makes 1461 days.
So, Sirius would have been forecast to rise heliacally 4 times in the cycle, the first on day one, and the fourth time on day 1461.
It is amazing that the same 20 x 73 grid of Khafre appears again about 1000 years later !