Page 429 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
P. 429

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS



                      other two. This pattern is mimicked on the ground where we see that the Pyramid
                      of  Menkaure  is offset by  exactly the right amount to the  east of the  principal
                      diagonal formed by the  Pyramid of Khafre (which represents the middle star, Al
                      Nilam) and the Great Pyramid, which represents Al Nitak. It’s really quite obvious
                      that all these monuments were laid out according to a unified site plan that was
                      modelled  with  extraordinary precision on  those three stars. ...  What  they did at
                      Giza was to build Orion’s Belt on the ground.’
                                                                  6
                   There was more to come. Using a sophisticated computer programme
                                                                                                         7
                   capable of plotting the precessionally induced changes in the declinations
                   of all the stars visible in the sky over any part of the world in any epoch,
                   Bauval found that the Pyramids/Orion’s Belt correlation was general and
                   obvious in all epochs, but specific and exact in only one:

                      At 10,450 BC—and at that date only—we find that the pattern of the pyramids on
                      the ground provides a perfect reflection of the pattern of the stars in the sky. I
                      mean it’s  a  perfect  match—faultless—and  it cannot  be  an accident because the
                      entire arrangement correctly  depicts two  very  unusual  celestial events that
                      occurred only at that time. First, and purely by chance, the Milky Way, as visible
                      from Giza in 10,450  BC, exactly duplicated  the meridional course of  the Nile
                      Valley; secondly, to the west of the Milky Way, the three stars of Orion’s Belt were
                      at the  lowest altitude  in their precessional  cycle,  with Al  Nitak, the  star
                      represented by the Great Pyramid, crossing the meridian at 11° 08’.
                                                                                       8

























                                          Precession and the stars of Orion’s belt.
                   The reader is already familiar with the way the earth’s axial precession
                   causes sunrise on the vernal equinox to migrate along the band of the
                   zodiac over a cycle of about 26,000 years. The same phenomenon also
                   affects the declination of all visible stars, producing, in the case of the
                   Orion constellation, very gradual but significant changes in altitude. Thus



                     Personal communications/interviews.
                   6
                   7  Skyglobe 3.6.
                   8  Personal communications/interviews.


                                                                                                     427
   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434