The Helios Biblios Hour : Ptah Seeker Asar ,What time is it ????

The Egyptians improved upon the sundial with a 'merkhet', one of the oldest known astronomical instruments. It was developed around 600 BCE and uses a string with a weight as a plumb line to obtain a true vertical line, as in the picture. The other object is the rib of a palm leaf, stripped of its fronds and split at one end, making a thin slit for a sight.

A pair of merkhets were used to establish a North-South direction by lining them up one behind the other with the Pole Star. Viewing the plumb lines through the sight made sure the two merkhets and the sight were in the same straight line with the Pole Star. This allowed for the measurement of night-time events with a water clock when certain stars crossed the vertical plumb line.

Water Clocks

The water clock, or clepsydra, appears to have been invented about 1,500 BCE and was a device which relied on the steady flow of water from or into a container. The oldest image of a star pattern, the constellation of Orion, has been recognised on a piece of mammoth tusk some 32,500 years old. The constellation Orion is symbolized by a man standing with his right arm raised and a sword at his belt and can be seen throughout the world at different times of the year. Orion was the sun god of the Egyptians and Phonecians and called the 'strong one' by the Arabs. In parts of Africa, his belt and sword are known as 'three dogs chasing three pigs.nd the Borana people of East Africa based a sophisticated calendar on observations of star clusters near Orion's belt. Orion