Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure Pyramids and the Sun

The second pyramid that had been built was that of Khafre. In fact, Khafre had probably the same desire to admire sunrise and sunset from its pyramid. But its horizon was not free because constrained by his father's pyramid. It is probable that Khafre's architects decided the position of the new pyramid, in order that the king could see the points of the horizon where the sun was rising and setting thorough the year, maintaining the same possibility for Khufu. And in fact, if we use SucCalc (see Figure 1), we can see that Khufu sees the point of the horizon where the sun is setting on the Winter Solstice and therefore he can see the same on each days of the year. This happens because Khafre's architects have considered a proper place for the new pyramid. No problems for sunrise, because horizon is free. Of course, the Khafre's architects have considered that their king would like to observe the sunrise on each day of the year. Using SunCalc (see Figure 2) we can find that Khafre can see the point of the horizon where the sun is rising on the summer solstice, and then he can see the same on each day of the year. No problems for sunset, because horizon was free. After, a third pyramid was added. This is the Menkaure's pyramid. It is smaller. If we consider the point at the North-West corner of this Pyramid, we have that, from it, we can see the point of the horizon where the sun is rising on summer solstice. If we imagine a larger pyramid (red square), and the corner as it center, we could repeat the same discussion we made for the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre, in the Figures 2 and3. In this paper, we have proposed a simple approach to the planning to the Giza pyramids. Using SunCalc we observe that, from each pyramid, the king's soul, imagined at the center of his pyramid, could see the points of the horizons where the sun was rising and setting thorough the year.

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