SAH ORION

"It is generally known that the inclination of the earth's axis of rotation to the plane if its orbit (ecliptic) at an angle of 23.5 degrees combines with the nonspherical of the earth and the gravitational force of the sun, moon, and planets to produce a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. The effect of the sun and moon is to change the direction to which the earth's axis of rotation points relative to the fixed stars. The effects are known as lunisolar precession and planetary precession respectively. It is evident that both factors will change the position and identity of the stars visible from a given point on the earth and that we must take them both into account when determining how the sky looked to the ancients. "In this scheme of moving stars, pole stars are a rather rare occurrence. In fact , after Polaris ceases to mark the pole in a few hundred years, there will not be another good one until alpha Draconis returns around AD 2300. It happens, however, that the last visit of alpha Draconis to the neighborhood of the pole occurred from about 3000 to 2500 BC. This means that the Egyptians of the pyramid age were more aware than might otherwise have been the case of the apparent daily journey of the stars from a fixed point in the sky. It thus seems highly probable that they would have chosen to build a shaft that would allow the soul of the dead king to ascend directly to the central point. "Non-circumpolar stars were also of considerable importance to the Egyptians. They measured time at night by means of decans-stars which rose or culminated (reached their highest elevation above the southern horizon) at one hour intervals during the night. Many of these decans were parts of constellation pictures (though different from ours which are derived from the Babylonian one) and were identified with various gods. Very few of these have been identified with particular stars with any degree of certainty. There are, however , four of the standard decans and five variants thereof which are part of the constellation 'Sah'--'The god who crosses the sky '--whose identification with Orion 'must be taken as likely in the highest degree.' He is depicted as a man standing looking back over his shoulder holding a scepter in one hand and an 'nh' (ankh) sign in the other. One of the five variants is probably the belt of 'Sah'. Three of the decans intended for use in the epagomenal [5 days at end of ancient Egypt's 360 calendar day year] days also appear to have been part of this constellation. We may note as evidence for the identification the ceiling of the tomb of Senmut, in which the column dedicated to 'Sah' includes three large stars arranged vertically and bearing a striking resemblance to the three stars we call Orion's Belt (delta, eta and zeta Orionis) which they probably represent." P. 238-239, "Appendix 1. Astronomical Investigation Concerning the So-Called Air-Shafts of Cheop's Pyramid by Virginia Trimble," THE ORION MYSTERY by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert (1994)