page_title: The Indestructibles
section_title: Pyramid design
hierarchical_section_title: The Indestructibles / Pyramid design
caption_attribution_description: Statue de Djéser dans le serdab de son temple funéraire - Saqqarah - IIIe dynastie égyptienne
context_page_description: The Indestructibles was the name given by ancient Egyptian astronomers to two bright stars which, at that time, could always be seen circling the North Pole. The name is directly related to Egyptian belief in constant North as a portal to heaven for pharaohs, and the stars' close association with eternity and the afterlife. These circumpolar stars are now known as Kochab, in the bowl of Ursa Minor or, the Little Dipper, and Mizar, in Ursa Major, at the middle of the handle of the Big Dipper.
context_section_description: As the Egyptians believed that the unmovable area the stars circled was heaven, the pyramids were built to align north with a single, perfectly aligned vent. In King Khufu's Pyramid, the shaft itself, built into the structure, started at the chamber of King Khufu and ends at the outside. The shaft was built at an angle, so it could always sight The Indestructibles. The Egyptians built this vent in the pyramids in order to ensure a perfectly aligned path towards heaven (although recent researches have shown them not to be completely perfect). Hancock and Bauval claim these inaccuracies mean that the Great Pyramid and by extension the Sphinx were built c. 10,500 BC, a suggestion not widely accepted.
  The entrances to all the Fourth Dynasty pyramids at Giza (the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure) are in their north faces and the corridors are sloped down from the entrances in such a way that both the circumpolar stars and the pole star were visible. The positioning of the pyramids is such that they do not block each other's views of these stars.
  A pyramid was a resting place, rather than a tomb, providing the occupant with all the requirements both physical and mystical for the journey of the ka to the afterlife to become an akh. Because of this, as David Warburton puts it, "In this sense... the entrance is in fact the exit".
  The North Shaft of the Kings chamber is also believed to have aligned with Beta Ursae Minoris to facilitate the King's journey as Horus to the stars.
  Dr. Kate Spence of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Cambridge University argues that the alignment of the Great Pyramid of Giza was performed by waiting for a "simultaneous transit" of the circumpolar Indestructibles, and therefore, that by charting the precession of the stars a relatively accurate start date (+/- 5 years) for its construction can be given, namely 2480 BC.  Previous Egyptian chronology for the Old Kingdom could only be considered accurate to within 100 years either way.
  The ka statue of Djoser in the tombs at Abydos was in a serdab (a type of chamber) in the northern base of his pyramid, tilted at 17 degrees to enable it to observe the circumpolar stars through two holes.
caption: Djoser's ka statue in its serdab
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD.", "Image Model": "EX-S500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "1.00", "Image DateTime": "2005:08:17 10:59:20", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "410", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "Low gain up", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 16, 132, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "786", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4018", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "27/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:08:17 10:59:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:08:17 10:59:20", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}