{"id":59622,"date":"2025-11-02T05:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/?p=59622"},"modified":"2026-04-12T14:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T13:35:08","slug":"zodiac-dendera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/zodiac-dendera.html","title":{"rendered":"The Zodiac of Dendera"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Bonaparte in front of Sphinx of Giza<\/a>, very degraded and half buried. Only its head is preserved…<\/h5>\n

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During Bonaparte\u2019s expedition to Egypt, the French general Desaix pursued the Mamelukes. Exhausted by the ride in the desert, Desaix takes shelter to catch his breath. Lying in the chapel of Osiris<\/a> at Dendera, he saw an incredible bas-relief emerge from the penumbra of the ceiling, its zodiac signs, stars, planets. Shortly after, Chastel and Vivant Denon drew up surveys and sketches.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThe Zodiac was discovered by General Desaix, Louis Pierre Aim\u00e9 Chastel and Dominique Vivant Denon during Bonaparte\u2019s campaign in Egypt on 24 January 1799. At the beginning of October 1820, S\u00e9bastien Louis Saulnier sent Jean-Baptiste Lelorrain to Egypt in order to bring him back to France. With the authorization of M\u00e9h\u00e9met Ali (firman of January 27, 1821), it was extracted in April-May 1821 from the temple of Dend\u00e9ra, left Alexandria on July 18, 1821, arrived at Marseille on September 9, 1821, then arrived in Paris in January 1822, where it was finally bought by Louis XVIII in April 1822. Exhibited at the Louvre from 29 June 1822 and at least until 10 November 1823, it was then sent to the Royal Library at the end of 1823 (see letter dated 10\/11\/1823 mentioning the upcoming removal of the Zodiac), before returning to the Louvre in early April 1919. (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre<\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1799, Dominique Vivant Denon who had discovered the temple of Dend\u00e9rah with the army returns to draw for the first time the zodiac. Later in the same year, the engineers of the Ponts et Chauss\u00e9es Prosper Jollois and \u00c9douard de Villiers du Terrage made a more precise survey, which would be used for subsequent studies. The mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier will interpret the zodiac.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1821, King Louis 18 bought the zodiac from the pasha M\u00e9h\u00e9met Ali. It is cut by the master mason Claude Lelorrain, brought back to France where it is displayed at the royal library (the current national library) then transferred to the Louvre in 1922. (wikipedia)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Today at the Louvre Museum, the planisphere zodiac is depicting the vault of heaven and its constellations. It was placed on the ceiling of a chapel dedicated to Osiris, located on the roof of the temple of Hathor in Dendera.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The zodiac from a sketch by Dominique Vivant Denon in 1799<\/span><\/h5>\n

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\u00a04800 Years Old<\/h4>\n

“The temples of Dend\u00e9rah and Esn\u00e9 are the most recent constructions, and the zodiaques that decorate their ceilings represent the state of the sky at a distance of 4800 years from the time when we see them. What people have ever served astronomy so powerfully, and paid it a more solid tribute, preserving the results of their observations?”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Among ancient civilizations, we know the astronomy of the Mesopotamians<\/a>, their predictions of eclipses, and their calculations by interpolation. Concerning the Egyptians, it is reasonable to expect at least, similar achievements. They also knew mathematics; and even, if we believe Herodotus<\/a>, it is in Egypt that geometry would have been born.<\/p>\n

I would also add the Celts and the Vikings<\/a>, but we have no trace of them, these two cultures being reluctant to write. The druids indeed favored oral transmission<\/a>. We therefore know very little about these very ancient peoples, other than that the Greeks and the Romans considered them as their masters: they sent their children to learn History. A knowledge that, alas, has disappeared. Hence my constant efforts to reconstruct it…<\/p>\n

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Creation For Celts<\/h2>\n