Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

astronomical function for the Bagnold Circle.
Figure 4.15. Bagnold Circle north–south alignment
Another clue are twenty-eight stones that form the circumference of the circle, which is not only implicit of the
lunar phase cycle of 29.5 days but, more important for us, also brought to our attention a clear connection to the
Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa, which also had twenty-nine stones around its circumference. We also noted that north of
the circle there was an elongated low hill that suggests observation of the low northern sky, possibly for marking the
passage of a circumpolar constellation or star. *35
One of the most nagging questions that constantly comes to mind in this totally desolate and extremely remote place
of the Egyptian Sahara is this: Why build anything here at all? What could have influenced the ancient people who
roamed the deep desert to go to the trouble of constructing a stone circle in the middle of nowhere and, furthermore, to
align it to the four cardinal directions? The answer, ironically enough, may actually be that they did so because of the
location itself—or, to be more specific, of the latitude of the place. Today Bagnold Circle is approximately 23.5 degrees
north and just a fraction north of the Tropic of Cancer. †36
Using the circle’s precise latitude and checking the earth’s ancient obliquity at various epochs, we found out that
from 13,110 BCE to 1490 BCE, the circle was located just south of the Tropic of Cancer. This means that within that
range of epochs the sun passed directly overhead exactly at the zenith a few days before and a few day after the summer
solstice. This time of year was when the monsoon rains started drenching the desert and may be a reason—though perhaps
not the only reason—for locating the stone circle here. We can recall from chapter 2 that in 1999 Carlo Bergmann
discovered the Abu Ballas Trail, an ancient donkey trail that ran across the 500 kilometers (311 miles) of waterless desert
between the Dakhla oasis and Gilf Kebir. Although anthropologists and Egyptologists have agreed that this trail was used
by ancient Egyptians of the late Old Kingdom, Bergmann believes it was used as early as the Late Neolithic, about 5500–
3400 BCE. Bagnold Circle is located a bit west of this trail, and it is quite possible that it served as a point for a shortcut
route to Gilf Kebir, perhaps by the same Neolithic people who once populated Gilf Kebir and Jebel Uwainat.
We also found more evidence of prehistoric astronomy in the region when southwest of Bagnold Circle, 250
kilometers (155 miles) away in the wadi Karkur Talh region on the north of Jebel Uwainat at a latitude of 21.98 degrees
north, we found an apparent solstice sunset marker. At a large rock face with western exposure, which contains glyphs of
giraffes and human figures, there is an outcrop or mound on the cliff face about twelve feet high. Scrambling up the rock
mound, we found on it a number of skillfully engraved marks, including an obvious arrow pointing toward the northwest
horizon. Returning with our electronic compass we measured the arrow as pointing approximately 26 degrees north of
west, for an azimuth of 296 degrees, which marks the sunset on the day of summer solstice. This type of skillfully
engraved rather than painted art tends to be on the more ancient end of the spectrum of rock art in the region. Given that
the rock face also contained images of giraffes, we estimate that this solstice marker may predate 6000 BCE. In addition,
when we were en route from Bagnold’s Circle to the Gilf Kebir region, traveling not far from the Libyan border, we
came across a large, isolated standing stone that protruded more than 1 meter (3 feet) out of the ground. Located in the
middle of a long, narrow, flat basin, or wadi, that was convenient for our jeeps to drive on because of its featureless
flatness, this stone was smooth, cylindrically shaped, and standing only a few degrees off vertical. It appeared likely to