The Orientation of Greek Temples¹

Abstract

THIS investigation is supplementary to Mr. Lockyer's examination of the orientation of the Egyptian temples, in the course of which he has cited passages translated from hieroglyphics, showing most distinctly that there was a connection between the foundation of those temples and certain stars. He has also shown that the structure of the temples demonstrates that the light from these stars must have been admitted at their rising or setting along the axis of the temples through the doorways, and that in certain temples the doorways have been altered in such a way as to follow the amplitude of the star as it changed, owing to the precession of the Equinoxes, and that in some cases a new temple had been founded alongside of an older one for the same purpose.