Questions About Expert Project

1) How well did the ancient Egyptians know their astronomy?

Ancient Egyptians used astronomy to find out how long a year was, by the movement of the sun and how often the Nile River flooded. First civilization to create an accurate calender based on the sun and stars due to the Nile River. Even on their calender they had seven days a week to match the quarter cycles of the moon, and twelve months to match the twelve complete cycles of the moon. They used astronomy to help build pyramids and use the shafts inside to match the cardinal directions.
 http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/pre20th_ancients.html

2) Why did they build their pyramids and sphinxes, and how?

They built pyramids as tombs for pharaohs and their queens. There are about eighty different pyramids in Egypt. They also built them for religious beliefs. The sides of the pyramids were smooth to symbolize the rays of the sun to help the pharaoh ascend to the sun god RA. The Sphinx was built to keep people out of cities. They were built to resemble the head and breast of a women, body of a lion, and wings of a falcon. It is said the people who wanted to pass had to answer a riddle, "What is it that has four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?" if they did not answer it correctly they were killed, but one man did, and his name was Oedipus. Because he answered it correctly the Sphinx killed herself. If you still can't figure out the answer to the riddle it is, "Man, who crawls on four limbs as a baby, walks upright on two as an adult, and walks with the aid of a stick in old age"
 http://library.thinkquest.org/20176/egypt.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/the-egyptian-pyramids