Giza: causes and concepts

To find the three pyramids at Giza geometrically coordinated makes it clear that their location, individually and collectively, is not accidental but determined by specific considerations. Under this premise the author attempts to answer the question why the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus were constructed on the Giza plateau, 20 km north of Saqqara and Memphis, and not at any other place. With the help of the established three points a straight line extended eastward leads exactly to the obelisk of Matariya, i.e. ancient Heliopolis. This sanctuary of Re was dedicated to the sun-god in his specific name of Horakhte. Under this aspect a number of conceptual features underlying the 4th Dynasty royal tombs becomes transparent. The so-called Harmakhis Temple north of Chephren's Valley Temple was a cult sanctuary, but not attached to the Sphinx, which was shaped under Chephren from a hard rock protrusion. It appears that, in the earlier periods, this protrusion attracted attention as a counterpart of the benben-stone at Heliopolis. (OEB)