Casta Tomb: The tomb is aligned with the winter solstice

“It is very likely to rituals for the winter solstice would take place within walking distance of the monument,” says Dimitrios Savvidis

The Casta Tomb in Amphipolis hides an astronomical secret: the monument’s burial chamber is aligned with the winter solstice, as a new study by independent researcher Dimitrios Savvidis reveals.

Inside the burial chamber were found bones of 5 people – from one woman, two middle -aged men and a newborn – and archaeologists were likely to be a family grave.

However, in 2015 it was announced that the monument was built by Alexander the Great for Hephaestion, his best friend, with the manufacturer being Dinocratis.

The researcher revealed to Live since that the burial chamber is aligned so that the sunlight enters it during the winter solstice.

According to him, ‘it is very likely rituals for winter solstice To do within walking distance of Casta. “

“On December 21, the sunlight would bathe the ward”

Dimitrios Savvidis created a three -dimensional tomb model and used Stellarium, an astronomical program that watches how the positions of the sun and stars change over time, to re -create how heaven looked around the grave in 300 BC.

He found that on December 21, the date of the winter solstice, the sunlight would have fully illuminated the burial chamber between about 10am. and 4 pm local time
The sunlight also reached other parts of the monument at different times.

Around the end of July, the sun would touch the entrance.

Throughout Autumn, the light would gradually travel up and near the two carved sphinxes of the monument and eventually pass between them, fully illuminating the burial chamber in the winter solstice.

Indeed, when the tomb was built, it was not orientated in the winter solstice. But during its construction, the plan changed to create alignment, which would symbolize “issues of renewal, life and secular class”.

“These themes are also depicted in the decoration of the tomb,” says Mr. Savvidis, citing the Mosaic of Persephone found at the monument and a possible depiction of Cybele, a goddess associated with birth and fertility.