47. The Circles and Avenues at Stanton Drew 169 48. The Carro, Florence 194 49. Cresset-Stone, Lewannick 257 50. First Appearance of May Sun in British Latitudes 263 51. Azimuths of the May Sunrise 264 52. The Merry Maidens 269 53. 25-inch Ordnance Map of Merry Maidens showing Alignments 275 54. The Eastern Circle at Tregaseal 279 55. Photograph of Ordnance Map showing Sight-lines 281 56. Plan of the Mên-an-Tol 283 57. Photograph of the Mên-an-Tol 284 58. The Mên-an-Tol. Front View and Section 285 59. Photograph of the Ordnance Map of Boscawen-un 288 60. Diagram showing Azimuths of Sunrise 1680 B.C. and 1905 A.D. 290 61. Arcturus and Capella as Clock-Stars in Britain 300 62. A Night-Dial 303 63. Layard’s Plan of the Palace of Sennacherib 305 64. Layard’s Plan of the Mound at Nimrood 306 65. The Temples at Chichen Itza 307 STONEHENGE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY In the book I published ten years ago, entitled “The Dawn of Astronomy,” I gave a pretty full account of the principles and the methods of observation which enable us to trace the ideas which were in the minds of the ancient Egyptians when they set out the line of a temple they proposed to build. Numerous references to the ceremonial of laying the foundation-stones of temples exist, and we learn from the works of Chabas, Brugsch, Dümichen[1] and others, that the foundation of an Egyptian temple was associated with a series of ceremonies which are repeatedly described with great minuteness. Amongst these ceremonies, one especially refers to the fixing of the temple-axis; it is called, technically, “the stretching of the cord,” and is not only illustrated by inscriptions on the walls of the temples of Karnak, Denderah and Edfu--to mention the best-known cases--but is referred to elsewhere. During the ceremony the king proceeded to the site where the temple was to be built, accompanied mythically by the goddess Sesheta, who is styled “the mistress of the laying of the foundation-stone.” Each was armed with a stake. The two stakes were connected by a cord. Next the cord was aligned towards the sun on some day of the year, or a star, as the case might be; when the alignment was perfect the two stakes were driven into the ground by means of a wooden mallet. One boundary wall parallel to the main axis of the temple was built along the line marked out by this stretched cord.