and the Origins of Astronomy - Nr. 14
[This material on Akhet is very speculative since the only source at my disposal shows only ONE mountain as the north celestial pole in ancient Egypt. It is also not critical to the main discussion.]
Aakhut [=Egge?, =Achu? Akhet] is possibly mistranslated by Egyptologists as "horizon" whereas it actually seems in the Old Kingdom to mark the domicile of RA at night. Budge first translated akhet as horizon in the context of the Sun revolving around it, but the Sun does not revolve around the horizon. That is astronomically false. The sun revolves around the north celestial pole (as all stars do). (See Gerald S. Hawkins, Stonehenge Decoded, p. 96.) Akhet is thus originally possibly the heavenly mountain domicile of the Sun - it is not the Sun alledgedly rising between two mountains, which is how the appropriate later hieroglyph is interpreted. Why in Egypt where there are no mountains would the horizon possibly be so portrayed? We have the similar symbol widely found also on Minoan Crete. These two summits at midheaven would be:
1) the North Ecliptic Pole (which never changes), and
2), the North Celestial Pole, the changeable pole we call the Pole Star, which is not always marked exactly by a particular star and where the position of the pole star is determined by precession.
I have been able to find an ancient representation from Egypt of the heavenly throne in the center of the heaven, guarded by one or more falcons. However, it has only one mountian.
The artefact below was found in the year 1995 in the western desert of Egypt and is shown here as deciphered by this author in 2005.
The assignment of the individual symbols to the respective stars manifests my unequivocal interpretation of the meaning of the symbols.
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SKY MAP (PLANISPHERE)
Figure 8: Sky map, Western Desert, Ancient Egypt
Above, one can clearly see that the center of heaven is represented as a mountain-like or stool-like summit or throne, guarded by falcons.