Akhet - The Horizon

The purpose of this calendar is to give an overview of how the ancient Egyptian calendar worked and how it would correspond to modern ones. It´s purpose is not to state a correct calendar.

The Egyptian year was divided into three seasons (Inundation/Autmn, Growing/Winter and Harvest/Summer) Each season was divided into four months of each thirty days making a total of 120 days in each season. Each month was further divided into three decans to become three weeks of ten days each. At the end of the year, five extra days were thrown in to compensate for the year being 365 days. This ocurred in antiquity late June, due to the progression of the stars nowadays late July, when the inundation of the Nile began. As the inundation never ocurred on a fixed date, the rising of the Dog Star (Sirius), which had a fixed date was used as a sign that the inundation was near.

I have used several sources when composing this calendar. The Julian times given are an estimation, but they are not correct and sources give different info. Dates has to be calculated anew each year by the rising of the star Sirius, and the result varies according to where on the planet you are.

According to James P. Allen - 'Middle Egyptian; An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs', the names of the months go back to at least the Middle Kingdom and probably used primarily in the area around MenNefer (Memphis). They were names for festivals occurring in them or in the month after. Around the New Kingdom, the names of the months changed to reflect the festivals held in the Waset (Thebes) area. This page gives both names and many of the later ones survived into Coptic. Not everyone agrees to his theory however. More research is surely needed.

The names of the deities for each month are given in ancient Egyptian with a link to info about them and in Greek within parenthesis when applicable.

MK: Middle Kingdom. NK: New Kingdom