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"The Egyptian priests revealed to the Greeks the secrets of the full year, whom the latter ignored as with many things"
Strabo.
As the year rushes to a conclusion--we remember that the calendar as we know it was perfected in Ancient Egypt. The Julian calendar now used in the West was but a very slight variation on the original.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I believe it's during the Badarian era (4250 B.C.) that the Egyptians begin using the 365-day Solar Calendar. For centuries, Egyptians employed two separate calendars: a lunar calendar that spanned 12 lunar cycles (and thus was about 11 days shorter than our solar year) and a 365-day solar calendar that included 12 months, each with three 10-day weeks. The 365-day calendar was the world's first calendar based on the true length of the year. I believe it is in 46 BC, Julius Caesar used the Egyptian solar calendar as the basis for a reformed Roman calendar; this calendar is still used today. The solar year began with the appearance of Sirius, around the time of the summer solstice and the onset of the annual flood. Believed to the embodiment of the goddess Isis, Sirius was viewed as a feminine sun that coaxes the Nile out of its source hole to provide life to living people.
Posts: 6572 | From: N.Y.C....Capital of the World | Registered: Jun 2008
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Don't forget the five(?) days they appended to each year. Aays, they had a yearly stellar/solar/riverain correction based on the heliacal rising of Sothis coupled with the Nile's inundation.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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