How Did Astronomy Affect Ancient Egyptian Culture

Egyptian science and mathematical practices, particularly astronomy, were highly impacted by religion and therefore highly impacted people's daily lives and cultural practices. From architectural masterpieces such as the great pyramids of giza to items and ideas practiced by almost every ancient egyptian such as the calendar, astronomy impacted people’s daily lives and cultural practices by being at the root of every important thing the Egyptians thought of. Egyptian astronomer- priests practiced astronomy by taking many accurate measurements of the stars using a market, a small instrument that used a plumb line in order to focus on stars. These measurements would then be used to align important structures such as the pyramids and many important

Additionally, many historians think that the pyramid complex, consisting of 3 pyramids, the Sphinx and the nile river, was a mirror of the Duat, a place that Egyptians thought the gods lived. Infact, this type of worshipping of gods was not too uncommon in ancient civilizations. The Egyptians believed that by aligning grand structures with the cardinal points, divine energy was brought to Earth and therefore prevented the world from falling into chaos. A product of the Egyptian study of astronomy, one with more common use to the people of the ancient Egyptian society, was the calendar. The ancient Egyptian calendar had many similarities and differences to our own. For example, the ancient Egyptian calendar was based on 365 days with 12 months, just like our own, modern day calendar. The differences however, were that the ancient Egyptians only recognized 3 seasons and did not use leap years. The 3 season had a lot of significance and practical use for the Egyptians. New Years day was on July 19th and marked the beginning of the season Akhet. During Akhet, the nile flooded and allowing farmers to plant crops in the newly irrigated soil. Akhet lasted until November 16th when the next season, Peret