A FURTHER APPLICATION OF GOOGLE EARTH¹ IN STUDYING THE ORIENTATION OFANCIENT GREEK MONUMENTS (original) (raw)

Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage

In this paper we use Google Earth images to investigate the orientation of ancient Greek monuments. We examine the accuracy of the derived azimuth values, and we discuss the capabilities, advantages and restrictions of using Google Earth images. A comparison with the two earlier methods used for such investigationsthe prismatic compass and astrogeodesy-shows that Google Earth is more accurate than a compass in the majority of the cases, but it is also one order of magnitude less accurate than the astrogeodetic method. Our azimuth measurements indicate that the orientation of the Olympian Zeus temple (the Olympieion) in Athens may have been associated with the equinoxes, since according to the traditional cultural values of the Greek world the east-west line is a fundamental celestial axis of symmetry that is supposed to comply with the will of Zeus and to represent his criterion of beauty.

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