The Orion Correlation Theory was first put forward by writer Robert Bauval in 1995. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the 3 largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and the 3 middle stars of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the builders of the pyramids.
Using planetarium equipment, astronomer Ed Krupp of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, investigated these proposed correlations.
“In “The Orion Mystery”, Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert identified the three main pyramids at Giza as a symbolic representation of the three stars in the Belt of Orion. They fortified this conclusion by pairing an aerial photograph of the three pyramids, which appear as a diagonal line across the page, with a telescopic photograph of Orion’s Belt. Those stars follow a similar diagonal across the page. In pondering the two photographs, I realized the image of Giza is presented with south at the top of the page.”[1]
Indeed, this is what was done in the original book by Bauval and Gilbert (The Orion Mystery), which compared images of the pyramids and Orion without revealing the pyramids’ map had been inverted (Image 1).
Image 1. The Orion Mystery, R. Bauval & A. Gilbert
Normally, Egypt’s Giza Necropolis (or Giza Plateau), including the three pyramids known as the Great Pyramids in Egypt, is pictured as Image 2 (below). The Great Pyramids consist of the Great Pyramid of Giza (known as the Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu), the Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren), and the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos) a few hundred meters further south-west.
Image 2. Egypt Google Map & Giza Plateau
The picture of Orion’s Belt in “The Orion Mystery” is taken looking towards the south at Giza. You can, then, match Orion to Giza by looking south, but Krupp pointed out that the angle of Orion’s “Belt” (Image 3) compared to the Giza Plateau pictured in “The Orion Mystery” (Image 1) is okay, but this is equivalent to inverting the cardinal directions of Giza to do it.
Image 3. Orion in the south at Giza. Software by Stellarium.
For example, the map of Giza is normally presented with north at the top of the page (Image 4). The map of the stars of Orion cannot produce the pattern of pyramids on the ground at Giza because the “Belt” of pyramids is angled the wrong way.
Image 4. Giza Plateau and Orion Looking South at Giza
To achieve the concordance in “The Orion Mystery” (Image 1), the pyramids have been rotated to suit. But Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval reject Krupp’s analysis. They point out that Orion can only be seen by looking in a southward direction.
“So you’re looking south and the natural tendency is to draw what you see in that direction and you would come up with looking at three stars in that pattern and three dots, or three pyramids, or three marks in the same direction.”[2]
When looking south at Giza, there is an apparent match of Orion and the pyramids, and “The Orion Mystery” (Image 1) seems convincing, but the cardinal directions are inverted on these maps by Bauval, Gilbert, and Hancock to achieve the Orion mapping on Giza, and also direction is not indicated. Ed Krupp asked the question, “Does this matter?” He believes it does, because there are shafts built through the north and south sides of the great pyramid which point directly to stars in the north and south of the sky indicating that the Egyptians clearly linked directions on the ground and in the sky.
“That locks the pyramids north side and south side to the north side of the sky and the south side of the sky. That means the Egyptians, in building and laying out the pyramids, said we know where north is and we care about it because we’ve incorporated it into the architecture. The Egyptians were perfectly capable of drawing the pyramids right if they wanted to. If they wanted Orion’s belt to look like Orion’s belt on the ground and match up with the north and south sides of the pyramid they could have done that.”[2]
And so, subjecting “The Orion Mystery” to the rules of evidence and then coming to a conclusion, Ed Krupp stated that the evidence doesn’t fit the hypothesis. Bauval and Gilbert, and later Hancock and Bauval, have said when an observer at Giza looks southwards from the Giza complex the angle of the belt of the pyramids matches Orion in the southern sky. “And in fact there is no reason to fix north as a main direction.”[3] However Krupp arues that this kind of mapping (just face south) is flawed because north is mapped to the south on the ground.
I personally believe this design was intended as such by the builders of the pyramids.
Melinda Laidlaw
www.melindalaidlaw.com
References:
- Astronomical Integrity at Giza by Dr E.C. Krupp
- Atlantis Reborn Again BBC2 TV Programme
- The Mystery of the ‘Upside-Down’ Pyramids by Robert Bauval