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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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What is a Henge?
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Steve Gray
Steve Gray
931 posts

Round Pyramids
Oct 27, 2003, 22:40
Now then Nigel, you've set me off on my pet subject - pyramids.

Pyramids evolved from more basic rectangular burial chambers known as mastabas, built from stone blocks or mud bricks. AFAIK the ancient Egyptians never made any circular structures (though they did use round columns). Perhaps it was the nature of the building materials or the fact that they had a well defined sense of the cardinal directions. N-S being the axis about which the heavens appeared to rotate and E-W being the alignment of the rising and setting sun and also the entrance and exit of the underworld through which the sun was thought to pass during the night time. Alignment of structures to these directions had great significance, so rectalinear construction was the norm.
In reply to:
Re: An ignorant pedant speculates.... (nigelswift)
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