As Bewel rightly points out, in the surviving ancient texts describing the ritual meaning of the pyramids, there is a lot of mention of the stars. These texts cover the walls of the internal chambers of the pyramids, beginning with the 5th and 6th dynasties (2450-2250 BC). Compared to the pyramid complex in Giza, they belong to a later period, but there is no reason to believe that the Pharaohs of the IV dynasty did not share the views of their successors. In the texts of the pyramids it is repeatedly said that the dead pharaohs rise to the stars or become stars themselves.
In 1964, Egyptologist Alexander Badawi developed this idea further. After studying texts of pyramids it has come to a conclusion that mines served as channels through which pharaoh could travel to stars - northern mine conducted to the Polar star, and southern - to constellation of Orion. His theory was supported by the calculations made by astronomer Virginia Trimble. The Northern mine, inclined at 31 degrees with respect to the horizon, points directly to the Alpha of the Dragon, which was the Polar Star between 3000 and 2500 BC. As for the southern mine, inclined at 44.5 degrees, it points to the position of the constellation of Orion at its climax between 2840 and 2480 BC. e., every 24 hours the "belt" of stars in the middle of this constellation passed directly above the mine.
Bewell and Gilbert took advantage of the work of Alexander Badawi and Virginia Trimble. But perhaps the most striking fact they noticed was the Egyptian names of the pyramids. Two pyramids, reflecting the location of stars in the constellation of Orion, had "star" names. The sky pyramid ("left leg" of Orion) was called the "star of the sky", and the pyramid of Jedefra ("right shoulder" of Orion) was called the "star of Sekhetu Jedefra". If the Egyptians perceived the pyramids as stars, they may have placed them to mirror the sky.
The reaction of Egyptologists, who usually had little understanding of astronomy and were suspicious of new ideas, was quite cool, but with some exceptions. Professor I.S. Edward, a recognized expert on pyramidology, made several approving remarks and agreed with the opinion that the southern mine of the Kheops pyramid was oriented to the Orion belt. Professor Jaromir Malek, Director of the Griffith Institute of Egyptology at Oxford University, also expressed interest in the new theory. In his letter to Bewell, he announced his readiness to "seriously consider the idea that the pyramids of Giza were located or designed to reflect the position of the three stars in the constellation of Orion.
We can rightly say that the significance of astronomy in the ancient Egyptian religion has long been underestimated and that we owe a lot to Bewell, who drew the attention of archaeologists on this important topic. Some of the evidence he presented on the connection between the pyramids and the stars looks very convincing, but in the small details of his "Orion theory" is difficult to prove. The coincidence of the Orion stars and the Giza pyramids is quite fascinating, but it does not give rise to any bolder claims. Two bright stars have no "analogues" on Earth at all, and Bewell had to do with the assumption that these pyramids have not been built or have not yet been found. Even two additional stars, which he managed to identify with the pyramids (apart from Orion's belt), do not fit well into the overall picture. Visual distances and angles between the stars are not really the same as on the ground. If we take the three pyramids of Giza and superimpose on them the belt of Orion, the other elements of the constellation of Orion, while maintaining the same scale will not coincide with the pyramids of Heaven and Jedefra, which are located too far to the north and south, respectively.
Similar problems arose when Bewell and Gilbert tried to expand their model to include other stars besides the three stars in the Orion belt. Professor Malek recommended that they look for constellation patterns in other pyramids of the same period, but this ended in failure. The best that Bewell and Gilbert could do was to compare the two pyramids in the Dashura area with the Stars in the Guiad cluster, which can be seen in the night sky above Orion. However, there are five other bright stars in the Hyadas that do not correspond to any buildings on Earth. It is clear that two correspondences do not indicate the existence of a pattern. Two adjacent pyramids can be compared to any two stars. Another attempt was to compare the pyramids of the 5th dynasty in Abusir with a cluster of stars, which was thought to form the "head" of Orion, but here too, there was no clear pattern.