Many ancient ruins demonstrate that the people who constructed them had not only a special regard for celestial bodies and mathematics, but also a spot-on accuracy. From Egypt to Mexico, there is no doubt that past civilizations were involved in incredibly complex space calculations, mathematics and architectural endeavours. Although many historians and archaeologists debate exactly what these civilizations did intentionally and what they did by mere chance, here are a few examples of how ancient architecture was created with mathematics and the cosmos in mind.
In Giza there are many examples of attention to spatial coordinates. For instance, the Great Pyramid’s faces are aligned with the four cardinal directions almost perfectly. In fact, they are less than 0.2 of a degree off. The pyramid is very precise, with the corners as little as two seconds of a degree (with 60 seconds in a minute of a degree, and 60 minutes in a degree) off of a 90-degree angle. In addition to this (although contested), the pyramids at Giza seem to match the stars of Orion’s belt with a certain precision.