Ancient Egyptians change the orientation of their temples from True East （during the old kingdom） to the Winter Solstice （during the new kingdom）, because of the cultic change from a rather pure solar to a mixed s...Ancient Egyptians change the orientation of their temples from True East （during the old kingdom） to the Winter Solstice （during the new kingdom）, because of the cultic change from a rather pure solar to a mixed solar religion （R^a to Amfin-R^a）. The traditional methods for measuring the orientations and alignment, the axis of ancient Egyptian constructions like field survey are usually time consuming and costly. Remote sensing techniques are becoming powerful tools for archaeologists in their discovery and exploration ancient sites. Many researchers have considered very high resolution sensors, especially IKONOS with 1.0 m resolution, QuickBird with 0.61 m resolution and Geoeye-1 with 0.50 m resolutions as possible substitutes of the classical aerial photos used for multi purposes such as cartographic at large scales. Research objectives is to establish a practical methodology for calculation the orientation of the main axis of the ancient Egyptian temple based on very high resolution QuickBird images as alternative for traditional methods. Five sites have been selected to perform our research lies in Luxor city, Egypt： Luxor, Karnak, Hatshepsut, Ramesseum temples and Madinat Habu. Analysis of the obtained results has been done to explain the type of orientation of Luxor temples. Previous archaeologist＇s studies classified the orientation of ancient Egyptians constructions into astronomical orientation （solar, moon and stars） or topographical orientation （Nile direction and hills） or both. A comparative study has been done between the results obtained from traditional methods （field survey and Google Earth images） and from very high resolution QuickBird satellite images. From the obtained results, error in the main axis azimuth of Luxor, Karnak, Madinat Habu, Hatshepsut and Ramesseum temples range about minutes of are. One can concluded that using VHR （Very High Resolution） QuickBird satellite images in calculation the azimuth of ancient sites is the accurate method.展开更多
文摘Ancient Egyptians change the orientation of their temples from True East （during the old kingdom） to the Winter Solstice （during the new kingdom）, because of the cultic change from a rather pure solar to a mixed solar religion （R^a to Amfin-R^a）. The traditional methods for measuring the orientations and alignment, the axis of ancient Egyptian constructions like field survey are usually time consuming and costly. Remote sensing techniques are becoming powerful tools for archaeologists in their discovery and exploration ancient sites. Many researchers have considered very high resolution sensors, especially IKONOS with 1.0 m resolution, QuickBird with 0.61 m resolution and Geoeye-1 with 0.50 m resolutions as possible substitutes of the classical aerial photos used for multi purposes such as cartographic at large scales. Research objectives is to establish a practical methodology for calculation the orientation of the main axis of the ancient Egyptian temple based on very high resolution QuickBird images as alternative for traditional methods. Five sites have been selected to perform our research lies in Luxor city, Egypt： Luxor, Karnak, Hatshepsut, Ramesseum temples and Madinat Habu. Analysis of the obtained results has been done to explain the type of orientation of Luxor temples. Previous archaeologist＇s studies classified the orientation of ancient Egyptians constructions into astronomical orientation （solar, moon and stars） or topographical orientation （Nile direction and hills） or both. A comparative study has been done between the results obtained from traditional methods （field survey and Google Earth images） and from very high resolution QuickBird satellite images. From the obtained results, error in the main axis azimuth of Luxor, Karnak, Madinat Habu, Hatshepsut and Ramesseum temples range about minutes of are. One can concluded that using VHR （Very High Resolution） QuickBird satellite images in calculation the azimuth of ancient sites is the accurate method.
