China Pyramids

Why the 10 Degree Misalignment of SOME Chinese Pyramids?

It appears that about half of the Chinese pyramids visible on Google Earth are aligned ten degrees East of true North.

While half of them are aligned with what we know today as true North (or to pilots, 090), the other half are aligned with 080.

How long ago did true North change? Since Dangun's Pyramid is aligned with true North now, it must have been built much

later than these misaligned Chinese pyramids were.

Sanseongha Tomb Complex

http://www.goguryeo.org/photos/p_tomb_sanseongha.php

http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/thuban.html

THUBAN (Alpha Draconis). Fourth magnitude (though just barely) Thuban is one of the fainter stars that carries a proper name, almost certainly because of its immense historical role as a result of its position in the northern sky. Its importance is further highlighted in that it is the Alpha star of Draco (the Dragon) even though it not close to being the brightest of this long and rambling constellation, easily exceeded in visibility by Gamma, Beta, and even Eta Draconis. Among the most famed stars of the sky is Polaris, the north star, its prominence the result of its position close to the north celestial pole, the star showing the way north to within about half a degree. It was not always so, however. The Earth's rotational axis undergoes a slow, 26,000 year wobble around the perpendicular to its orbit around the Sun. As a result, the position of the sky's rotational pole, around which all the stars seem to go, constantly changes. Around the time of the Greek poet Homer, Kochab in Ursa Minor was a (rather poor) pole star. Among the best ever, however, was our Thuban, which was almost exactly at the pole in 2700 BC. It remained better than Kochab up to around 1900 BC, and was therefore the pole star during the time of the ancient Egyptian civilizations. Even though the star is in the Dragon's tail, its name confusingly derives from an Arabic phrase meaning "the Serpent's head," having been borrowed from the name for another star. Thuban is among a fairly rare class of hot giant stars, its temperature of 9800 Kelvin near that of Vega. It is, however, over five times as luminous as Vega (and 300 times more luminous than the Sun), its fourth magnitude status the result of its rather large distance of 310 light years. Its relative brightness tells us that the star, unlike Vega, has ceased hydrogen fusion in its core and has begun to die. Thuban has an faint unseen companion in an orbit with a 51 day period and, unlike many stars of its class, has no particular abundance anomalies. It is in fact somewhat poor in metals as compared with the Sun.

http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/35115?&print=yes

A long–standing problem relating not only to the Great Pyramid but also its smaller cousins is the question of how the builders managed to orient such colossal structures to the cardinal points with surprisingly high accuracy. The eastern side of the Great Pyramid, for example, points only three arcminutes away from a true north–south line, and other pyramids in the group are not much worse. This makes it virtually certain that some astronomical method was used to establish the local meridian. At first thought this does not seem too difficult a problem, even without a bright star close to the north celestial pole during the millennia of interest. (Even today, Polaris is some 43 arcminutes from the pole, and during this time it was about 25 degrees away.)

http://www.bautforum.com/general-science/56761-great-pyramid-alignment-question.html

No, it was not close enough. Polaris was as much as 25° away from the celestial pole at the time. The nearest bright star was Draco's Thuban (see this image).

And why would they have used Polaris? Kochab (Beta UMi) has almost the same brightness and it was much closer to the pole.

http://interoz.com/EGYPT/cheops.htm

Not much is known about Cheops (Khufu). The tomb had been robbed long before archeologists came upon it. Any information about him was taken with the objects inside the tomb. He is thought to have been the ruler of a highly structured society and he must have been very wealthy. He was buried alone in this massive tomb. His wives may have been buried nearby in smaller mastabas.

The encasing marble which covered the outside of the pyramid has eroded or been removed over time. With this casing off, the pyramid lost 33 feet (11m) of all of its dimensions. The top platform is 10m square. The base of the pyramid is 754 feet and covers 13 acres. The original entrance to the pyramid was about 15m higher than the entrance that is used today. Apparently Al Mamum, who opened up the new passage, could not find the original opening. The new passageway leads straight across and joins in with the original passage, the descending passage. The descending passage led only to a subterranean chamber. This descending passage that leads down is set at a 26 degree angle that descends down 345 feet (105m) into the earth under the pyramid. The passageway is only 3'6" (1.1m) wide and 3'11" (1.2m) high. The chamber is closed to the public. The chamber itself is room that measures about 46' x 27'1" x 11'6" (14 x 8.3 x 3.5m). There is a passage that leads 100 feet horizontally to the western side. The purpose of the pit is uncertain. It is possible that it could have been the burial chamber, but after a change of plan, it was abandoned.

The left side of the following two frames shows part of China which has been blocked out by Google which is the case with almost half of China. The resolution is not clear enough to see pyramids which are even bigger than the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt. If the Chinese government objected for some reason, it's not clear yet why Google would heed that objection. Certainly China does not run Google. If what's in the blocked out portion is as important archeologically, scientifically, historically, and religoiusly as what's in the visible portion, this would be an EGREGIOUS act on Google's part.

China Pyramids

Why the 10 Degree Misalignment of SOME Chinese Pyramids?

See also, Pyramid Condos Slideshow