Megalith dolmens, cromlechs. Megalithic structures: types and types Megalithic structures menhirs dolmens cromlechs drawings

Cave in China

• Megaliths(from Greekμέγας - large, λίθος - stone) - structures made of huge stone blocks, characteristic mainly of the final Neolithic And Chalcolithic(IV-III millennium BC in Europe, or later in Asia and Africa)

megaliths

The term was proposed in 1849 by the English researcher A. Herbert in the book Cyclops Christianus, and in 1867 officially adopted at the congress in Paris

The first includes the most ancient architectural structures of prehistoric (preliterate) societies ( temples islands of Malta, menhirs , cromlechs , dolmens). For them, stones were either not processed at all or with minimal processing.

The second category consists of structures of more developed architecture, largely consisting of very large stones, which are usually given a geometrically correct shape

Dolmen in Burren , Ireland

Dolmen in Brittany

• Purpose of megaliths of the first category:
• served for burials
• were associated with the funeral cult, the cult of stone, the cult of rebirth
• performed temple and ceremonial functions
• use as observatories, where the most important astronomical events were observed and ritually played out, such as solstice , equinox and others
• could be boundary markers and other landmarks could be cattle pens or the remains of fences for other purposes.
• Megaliths of the second category are simply elements of "large block construction" and were used to solve engineering or aesthetic problems.

Dolmen from Monte Bubbonia , Sicily

Megaliths mountain Shoria

Megaliths found in:

Russia(Gelendzhik, Sochi, Tuapse, Sayan Mountains, Baikal region, Khakassia, etc.)

Ukraine(Crimea, Transcarpathia)

Abkhazia(Sukhumi)

England

France(Brittany - Carnac)

Italy(Biseglie, Lecce)

Ireland, Spain, India, Iraq, Syria, Korea, Japan, North America

North Africa(Algeria).

Megaliths Lemurian giants - Ollantaytambo

• Megaliths

Cromlechs

Dolmens

Menhirs of the Siberian region

Dolmens

Gelendzhik

• Menhirs

vertically placed stones of various sizes, standing alone or forming entire alleys. The sizes of menhirs range from 1 to 20 meters. Menhirs can be either barely hewn stones or made in the form of monumental sculpture

Le Menec (Meneck Alley menhirov)

Currently, all the largest menhirs in France are located in Brittany:

menhir in Kerloas (Finistère) - 12 m.

• KARNAK includes 3 megalithic systems:
• Menek- western part of the Karnak complex. It includes 1,099 menhirs in eleven lines, approximately 1,200 meters long.
• Kermario- about 1,000 menhirs in ten lines 1 km long. In the southwestern part, the ensemble is complemented by a dolmen.
• Kerlescan- 555 menhirs in thirteen lines, the length of which is 280 meters. In the west these lines are preceded by a cromlech of 39 stones. The highest height of the largest menhir in Kerleskan is 6.5 meters.

Kermario

Kerlescan

Skelskie menhirs

Northern side of Elbrus. Glade Jalı -su.

Two megaliths of Longstones are the remains of prehistoric standing stones near Beckhampton in the English county of Wiltshire.

• DOLMENS

structures made of two vertically placed raw stones, covered with a third. The design of these structures already contains load-bearing and non-supporting parts.

The first cairn (A) was built around 4350 BC, and the second (B) around 4100 BC. The cairn paintings at Barnenez are classic ancient spiral designs.

Composite dolmen from a river valley Janet

Dolmen under

Novosvobodnaya

• Cromlechs - stone slabs or pillars placed in a circle. This is the most complex megalithic structure. Sometimes cromlechs surrounded the mound, sometimes they existed independently and consisted of several concentric circles.

Scottish cromlech Easter Achortis

Cromlech Broughgar or Sun Temple, Orkney. Originally had 60 elements, but now consists of 27 rocks

Avebury (English Avebury) - relating to the eras of the late Neolithic and early bronze cult object consisting of megalithic tombs and sanctuaries. Located in the county Wiltshire, V England, and got its name from a nearby village.

The image shows:

1 - Altar stone, six-ton ​​monolith of green mica sandstone from Wales

2-3 - mounds without graves

4 - fallen stone 4.9 m long ( Slaughter Stone- scaffold)

5 - Heel stone ( Heel Stone)

6 - two of the original four vertical stones (on the plan of the early 19th century their position is indicated differently)

7 - ditch (ditch)

8 - internal shaft

9 - external shaft

10th Avenue, that is, a parallel pair of ditches and ramparts leading 3 km to the River Avon

11 - ring of 30 pits, so-called. Y wells; in the 1930s the holes were marked with round posts, which have now been removed

12 - ring of 30 pits, so-called. Z holes

13 - circle of 56 holes, known as holes Aubrey (Aubrey holes)

14 - small southern entrance

Stonehenge before and after restoration. View from the northwest

Early 19th century

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In many countries of the world and even on the seabed there are mysterious structures made of huge stone blocks and slabs. They were called megaliths (from the Greek words “megas” - large and “lithos” - stone). It is still not known exactly who and for what purpose carried out such titanic work in very ancient times in various places on the planet, because the weight of some blocks reaches tens or even hundreds of tons.

The most amazing stones in the world

Megaliths are divided into dolmens, menhirs and trilithons. Dolmens are the most common type of megaliths; these are peculiar stone “houses”; in Brittany (province of France) alone there are at least 4,500 of them. Menhirs are vertically mounted elongated stone blocks. If a third is placed on top of two vertically mounted blocks, then such a structure is called a trilith. If the trilithons are installed in a ring ensemble, as in the case of the famous Stonehenge, then such a structure is called a cromlech.

Until now, no one can say for sure for what purpose these impressive structures were built. There are a lot of hypotheses on this matter, but none of them can comprehensively answer all the questions posed by these silent, majestic stones.

For a long time, megaliths were associated with an ancient funeral ritual, but archaeologists did not find any burials near most of these stone structures, and those that were found were most likely made at a later time.

The most widespread hypothesis, supported by many scientists, connects the construction of megaliths with the most ancient astronomical observations. In fact, some megaliths can be used as sights, allowing one to record the rising and setting points of the Sun and Moon on the solstices and equinoxes.

However, opponents of this hypothesis have quite fair questions and criticisms. Firstly, there are a lot of megaliths that are difficult to associate with any astronomical observations. Secondly, why did the ancients at that distant time need such a labor-intensive method of understanding the movement of the heavenly bodies? After all, even if they set the timing of agricultural work in this way, it is well known that the start of sowing depends much more on the condition of the soil and weather than on a specific date, and can shift in one direction or another. Thirdly, opponents of the astronomical hypothesis rightly point out that with such an abundance of megaliths, as, for example, in Karnak, you can always pick up a dozen stones allegedly installed for astronomical purposes, but what were thousands of others intended for then?

The scale of work carried out by the ancient builders is also impressive. Let's not dwell on Stonehenge, a lot has already been written about it, let's remember the megaliths of Karnak. Perhaps this is the largest megalithic ensemble in the whole world. Scientists believe that at first it numbered up to 10 thousand menhirs! Now only about 3 thousand vertically installed stone blocks have survived, in some cases reaching a height of several meters.

It is believed that this ensemble originally stretched for 8 km from Saint-Barbe to the Crash River; now it has survived for only 3 kilometers. There are three groups of megaliths. To the north of the village of Karnak there is a cromlech in the form of a semicircle and eleven ranks, in which there are 1169 menhirs with a height of 60 cm to 4 m. The length of the row is 1170 m.

No less impressive are the other two groups, which, most likely, once, together with the first, formed a single ensemble, back at the end of the 18th century. it was more or less preserved in its original form. The largest menhir of the entire ensemble was 20 meters high! Unfortunately, now it has been toppled and split, however, even in this form, the megalith inspires involuntary respect for the creators of such a miracle. By the way, even with the help of modern technology it is very difficult to cope with even a small megalith if it needs to be restored to its original form or moved to another place.

Are dwarfs “to blame” for everything?

Megalithic structures have been discovered even at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and the oldest megaliths date back to the 8th millennium BC. Who was the author of such labor-intensive and mysterious stone structures?

Many legends in which megaliths are mentioned in one way or another often feature mysterious, powerful dwarfs who can effortlessly perform work that is beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. So, in Polynesia such dwarfs are called menehunes. According to local legends, they were ugly-looking creatures, only vaguely reminiscent of people, only 90 cm tall.

Although the menehunes had a look that made your blood run cold, the dwarves were generally kind to people and sometimes even helped them. Menehunes could not stand sunlight, so they appeared only after sunset, in the dark. Polynesians believe that these dwarfs are the authors of megalithic structures. It is curious that menehunes appeared in Oceania, arriving on the large three-tiered island of Kuaihelani.

If the Menehunes needed to be on land, their flying island would descend into the water and float to the shore. After completing the intended work, the dwarfs on their island again rose into the clouds.

The Adyghe people call the famous Caucasian dolmens houses of dwarfs, and Ossetian legends mention dwarfs who were called the Bitsenta people. The bicenta dwarf, despite his height, had remarkable strength and was capable of knocking down a huge tree with one glance. There are also references to dwarfs among the aborigines of Australia: as is known, megaliths are also found in large numbers on this continent.

In Western Europe, where there is no shortage of megaliths, there are also widespread legends about powerful dwarfs who, like the Polynesian menehunes, cannot stand daylight and are distinguished by remarkable physical strength.

Although many scientists still maintain a certain skepticism towards legends, the widespread dissemination in the folklore of peoples of information about the existence of a small powerful people must be based on some real facts. Maybe a race of dwarfs actually once existed on Earth, or were aliens from outer space mistaken for them (remember the flying island of the Menehunes)?

The mystery remains a mystery for now

Megaliths may have been created for purposes that are still unclear to us. This conclusion was reached by scientists who studied the unusual energy effects that are observed in the locations of megaliths. Thus, in some stones the instruments were able to register weak electromagnetic radiation and ultrasounds. In 1989, researchers even detected inexplicable radio signals under one of the stones.

According to scientists, such mysterious effects can be explained by the fact that megaliths were often installed in places where there are faults in the earth's crust. How did the ancients find these places? Maybe with the help of dowsers? Why were megaliths installed in energetically active places in the earth’s crust? Scientists do not yet have clear answers to these questions.

In 1992, Kyiv researchers R. S. Furduy and Yu. M. Shvaidak proposed a hypothesis that megaliths could be complex technical devices, namely generators of acoustic or electronic vibrations. Quite an unexpected assumption, isn't it?

This hypothesis was not born out of nowhere. The fact is that English scientists had already established that many megaliths emit ultrasonic pulses. As scientists at Oxford University have suggested, ultrasonic vibrations arise due to weak electrical currents induced by solar radiation. Each individual stone emits a small amount of energy, but as a whole, a megalithic stone complex can create a powerful burst of energy at times.

It is curious that for most megaliths, their creators selected rocks containing large amounts of quartz. This mineral is capable of generating a weak electric current under the influence of compression... As is known, stones either shrink or expand due to temperature changes...

They tried to unravel the mystery of the megaliths based on the fact that their creators were primitive people of the Stone Age, but this approach turned out to be unproductive. Why not assume the opposite: the creators of megaliths had a very developed intellect, allowing them to use the natural properties of natural materials to solve technical problems still unknown to us. In fact - a minimum of costs, and what a disguise! These stones have stood for thousands of years, fulfilling their tasks, and only now people have some still vague doubts about their true purpose.

No metal could have withstood so much time, it would have been stolen by our enterprising ancestors or eaten away by corrosion, but the megaliths still stand... Perhaps someday we will reveal their secret, but for now it is better not to touch these stones. Who knows, maybe these structures are neutralizers of some formidable natural forces?

Both of them, and the third (in addition to dolmens and menhirs, there are also cromlechs) are megalithic structures. Many scientists compare them to stone books, which contain encrypted data about the development of the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe itself. The name menhir is of British origin: men - stone, uhir - long or "peilvan" (from also the British "pelvan") - the simplest megalith in the form of a processed wild stone installed by man. Moreover, its vertical size exceeds the horizontal. Another comparison can be given to the megalith - an ancient obelisk. Or closer to our days - a stele. True, in our time it is most often crowned with some artistic sculptures made of the same stone or processed metal. For example, at the All-Russian health resort for family and children's recreation and treatment of the resort city, the Great Caucasus Mountains begin. And the place where they began is marked by the “Soaring Eagle”. And he spread his wings on a kind of modern menhir - a pedestal skillfully made by the sculptor in collaboration with the architect. There is no mystery in “The Soaring Eagle”: the monument appeared consciously and with a specific purpose. The same can be observed in Kyrgyzstan, where on the shore of the blue pearl of Issyk-Kul there is also a kind of menhir, on the top of which a mighty eagle has also opened its wings wide. The grandiose monument is dedicated to the great Russian scientist, ethnographer and historian, naturalist, traveler Przhevalsky. As for the ancient menhirs, like dolmens and cromlechs, they still remain a big mystery to humans. The secrets around them are just being revealed.

In different parts of the world

Surprisingly, the fact remains that megalithic structures, including menhirs, are common in various parts of the world. As, indeed, dolmens and cromlechs. Therefore, it can be assumed that even ancient people somehow communicated with each other. And perhaps, for some reason, megaliths were installed in different parts of the planet by aliens from other worlds?! Some scientists are confident that in distant past eras global catastrophes occurred on Earth. World floods. Meteorite falls, which are believed to have even caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Entire nations disappeared from the face of the Earth. And megaliths, dolmens, cromlechs and other stone structures, grayed by time and climatic violence, stand firmly to this day, forcing us to puzzle over their origin and purpose.

Menhirs, archaeologists and other specialists are sure, are the first man-made structures that have survived to this day. They are found alone or dug into the ground in groups, or sometimes stretch for kilometers, resembling alleys. They vary in height - from four to five meters and up to twenty. The largest menhir weighs about three hundred tons. Their appearance dates back to the late Neolithic, Bronze Age, approximately between the third and second centuries BC. The use of menhirs, as evidenced by ancient sources, could have been associated with the Druids, who are considered the priests of the Celtic peoples, a rather closed autonomous class that performed the role of judges, and was engaged in healing and to whom the basics of astronomy were available. The sages who preferred to live in the forest could make accurate predictions. They were the keepers of mythological poems and heroic legends. It is also assumed that the Druids used menhirs as places near which human sacrifices were performed for cult rituals. This kind of megaliths could also serve them as boundary posts. It is possible that they also acted as defensive structures. As for their distribution, they are found in fair numbers in Europe, Africa, and Asia. And most often in Western Europe, especially in Great Britain, Ireland, and French Brittany. They also exist in Russia. In particular, in the southern Trans-Urals, Altai, Sayans, Baikal region, Tuva. In Khakassia, the gigantic “cemeteries” of menhirs are generally registered. Their area is measured in tens of square kilometers, many are installed on the tops of mounds. In Southern Siberia, clusters of menhirs are considered a sacred place, steeped in mysteries and legends. On the Crimean peninsula, the Bakhchisarai menhir is known, which scientists consider to be part of an ancient observatory. In Ukraine, boundary stones are known in the Kirovograd region near the village of Nechaevka.

Among scientists studying menhirs, the so-called Skel megaliths in the Baydar Valley near the village of Rodnikovskoye are well known. The megaliths were discovered in 1907 by N. Repnikov, a Russian archaeologist, a brilliant expert in monumental painting, icon painting, and applied art. And they were studied in detail by Askold Shchepinsky in 1978. The great Russian scientist is a talented archaeologist, historian, researcher of Crimean antiquities, creator of the Archaeological Museum of Crimea. Author of a number of unique books. So he noted the similarity of menhirs around the world. Some in Western Europe, some in Siberia, some in Crimea. And there was also a supporter of the point of view that megaliths appeared precisely between the third and second centuries BC, during the late Neolithic, during the Bronze period of human development. By the way, at first there were four Skel menhirs. Unfortunately, two of them were dug up and abandoned due to the laying of water pipes. But thank Bor, they left them safe and sound nearby. Then local authorities and enthusiasts installed them in place. The menhir, according to the conclusion of local archaeologists, is a large boulder dug separately into the ground, scientifically precisely oriented to the cardinal points. The largest of the four is about 2.8 meters high and weighs six tons. Others are a little shorter and lighter in weight. But surprisingly, there is no quarry nearby. Where did the menhirs come from and with such great difficulty?! From afar! By the way, two menhirs are located in the fence with the grave of Soviet soldiers and partisans. Megaliths stand from north to south. And their flat sides look from east to west. It seems like for observing nature, the celestial sphere. There is an assumption that they are part of an ancient observatory. They were also used as stone age watches. Similar stones at Carnac in Brittany are positioned in such a way that they show the sunrise at certain times of the year. There are menhirs in the form of images of people wearing masks of birds and animals - symbols of religious worship. Or even with two heads - an animal and a human - a symbol of the ancient Toltec teaching about the nagual and tonal. Where the naguale is the true reality, and the tonal is the result of perceptual “doing”. This is a complex philosophical system of views, and for those familiar with it, it evokes an association with Kant’s ideas about the “thing-in-itself.” To understand it, it is best to turn to the primary sources. The most amazing thing is that the existence of menhirs is also associated with this philosophical system. The origin of which, and the places of their accumulation on Earth, were briefly described. Let us now move on to the megaliths called dolmens.

The afterlife abodes of the souls of priests and leaders?

Dolmens sound differently in different languages ​​of the planet - among the Abkhazians, psaun, the house of the soul; among the Circassians - ispun, ispyun, a house for life in the afterlife; among the Kobardians - isp-une, house of ispa; among the Migrels - mdishakude odzvale, sadzvale, houses of giants, receptacles for bones: among the Russians - heroic huts, didov's huts, devil's huts. And the names of dolmens in different dialects in different parts of the world can go on and on. In general, the word "dolmen" is of British origin - taol maen? Which literally means “stone table” is an ancient structure related to megaliths, like menhirs and cromlechs, for cult and funerary purposes. According to the assumption of some scientists, dolmens were indeed in a number of cases used as abodes for the souls of priests and leaders, who during their lifetime had great knowledge of the surrounding world and even the Universe, communicated with their ancestors who had passed on to another world and even the Cosmos, and were able, being dead, to communicate with the living, passing on to them the acquired precious knowledge and giving useful advice.

Each dolmen has its own highlight

Let's start with Germany and France. In these countries there are entire galleries of processed rectangular stone slabs placed close to each other.

In Portugal and Spain, which are neighbors, dolmens are in the form of inclined flat stone blocks standing in a circle, with roofs (antos).

In Denmark, dolmens consist of huge boulders, and the largest one crowns them.

In Great Britain and Ireland, dolmens, so to speak, are assembled from processed stone rectangular slabs, without manholes and with at least four walls.

In Korea, North America and Europe with a large upper stone relative to the lower ones and without holes, with a roof sometimes curved in the manner of a pagoda.

In Abkhazia, dolmens in the local dialect are called atsanguars - above-ground burial structures made of huge slabs hewn from limestone. In this case, four are installed on the edge, the fifth weighs more on top, and all this as a whole forms, as it were, a room. In the front wall there is a hole with a diameter of forty centimeters. The hole was closed with a stone plug. The largest dolmen in Abkhazia is located in the Sukhumi Local History Museum. Its height is 2.7, width 3.3 and length 3.85 meters. The roof weighs as much as twelve tons.

If we take the average parameters of dolmens, then their classic side is four meters long, 0.5 meters thick, each weighing up to ten tons, and the top is a couple of times heavier than the sides. It is noteworthy that other dolmens are made from a single stone monolith. And then there are those whose side walls and roofs are cast from a mixture reminiscent of modern cement. They are collected directly on site. Most of the dolmens are assembled from stones delivered from God knows where. There are suggestions that they were processed in quarries located at a considerable distance from the sites of future installation. In this case, rollers made of huge logs and draft power were used - people and animals. It is also noteworthy that research has shown that the dolmens are much older than the Egyptian feasts!

Where did dolmens come from?

Most scientists are inclined to conclude that dolmen culture originated in India. And in two branches it spread throughout the world. The first branch went towards the countries of the Mediterranean coast to the Caucasus and Northern Europe. The second - to the north of Africa and Egypt, where the people who built the megaliths had already switched to a sedentary lifestyle, were engaged in agriculture, raising livestock, that is, they could produce material goods and earn food for themselves. And these were the times of the Bronze Age, the late Neolithic, between the second and third millennia BC. In the West, dolmens became widespread in France, England, Germany, Portugal, Spain, including Corsica, and Palestine. But most of all there are dolmens along the Black Sea coast - from Taman to Abkhazia. And on the northern side of the foothills of the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea. The strip of dolmens stretches for 500 kilometers and is 75 kilometers wide. They are counted here as 2300. By the way. At one time, Korea had the most dolmens in the world - about eighty thousand. Three tens of thousands left. The rest were destroyed by the war. Unfortunately, the murderous confrontation between South and North Korea continues. And if it is not stopped, a sad fate will befall other dolmens on the peninsula.

Dolmens of Russia

They are found in many places in our Fatherland. In particular, in Crimea. With the light hand of the ancient Greeks they were called “Taurian stone boxes”. There are especially many of them within the borders of Sevastopol, Simferopol, Feodosia, Koktebel, Alupka and Alushta. According to research, at first they were used as technical structures, and then as places of worship or burial grounds. Those who went to Heaven and were buried in them left their spirit, their knowledge of the Earth, Space, and the Universe inside the dolmens. Share changers - they were called by adherents of ancient Vedic traditions. Tourists show great curiosity about dolmens near Gaspra, Massandra, Oreanda (Big Yalta), near the village of Pionerskoye in the Simferopol region. On Mount Koshka (Simeiz), near Bakhchisaray in the Third Balka (Bogaz-Sala) at the Second Cordon, the Alimova Balka tract and the village of Lesnikovo in the same Bakhchisaray region. Near the village of Krasnoselovka, Belogorsky district, the village of Petrova, Zuysky district, near the village of Chamly-Ozenbash (Balaklava) - you can’t list all the addresses, and it will take a lot of time to examine all the dolmens of Crimea. More than one vacation or vacation trip will be required here. But so many discoveries! After all, dolmens, it seems, are houses and are intended for offering gifts to the spirits of ancestors; they are places of honorable burials of tribal elders; holy places of sun worship:

The receptacle of the spirits of great ancestors; places of imprisonment of priests and oracles; acoustic devices, means of transmitting information at a resonant frequency of 2.8 Hz. There is a hypothesis that the priests, anticipating death, hid in dolmens. The entrance hole was closed with a stone plug. Inside the stone houses they left their spirit, their knowledge. And anyone who wanted to hear advice on this or that pressing problem from the deceased priests could approach the dolmen. Mentally convey your request. And also mentally get the answer. But it was impossible to approach the megalith with bad thoughts; this could have backfired on the questioner.

In Adygea, surrounded on all sides by the Krasnodar Territory, dolmens are found in whole groups of ten to twelve in a row. The Republic considers itself the center of dolmen culture. There are thousands of megaliths here. It is believed that dolmens helped civilizations contact God. And God, according to the priests, is the highest mind, the highest intellect, the mind of the Universe. Therefore, the right to die in a stone house was granted only to the most worthy - leaders, thinkers with secret knowledge, and possessing extrasensory abilities. From the outside they were covered with a thick stone lid. And, as we already mentioned above, when priests or sages departed for another world, they left in dolmens the knowledge and wisdom of the universe accumulated over a lifetime, confirming a continuous connection with divine energy. For dolmens, in their understanding, were a powerful information field, they were the connecting link of humanity with the cosmic mind. By the way, the priests attributed the same power to the Egyptian pyramids under their care. Not only the resting place of the pharaohs, but channels of communication with the Universe!

The peoples disappeared - dolmens and menhirs remained

Tourists specially participating in excursions to dolmens and other megaliths are shocked by the appearance of religious buildings. They truly reek of thousands of years of antiquity. It’s as if they were scorched by merciless fire, worn out by stormy waters, and pretty battered by hurricane winds. Only memories remain of the peoples who lived near them: they disappeared from the face of the Earth, and the megaliths stand as if nothing had happened. Indeed, where are the Polovtsians, Scythians and other peoples who inhabited the same Adygea?! Of course, some of them assimilated among other tribes - Sarmatians, Alans, Goths, and so on and so on in order. But in principle, these peoples disappeared from the face of the Earth in an unknown way. Like the ancient state formations themselves - Meotia, Zachia, Scythia. Why? This question is convincingly answered by Professor Bari Cordon from Ohio University, a luminary on lost civilizations. According to him and a number of other scientists, the flourishing Earth, in particular, the Adygea region, was destroyed by a meteor shower. The same conclusion was reached by Benny Peyser, an anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University, who made more than half a thousand excavations in places of ancient civilizations and conducted a lot of climatological studies. And his discovery was confirmed by Oxford University astrophysicist Viktor Kloba, who pointed out that clusters of meteorites are observed in the orbit of Jupiter. Every three millennia they collide with the Earth. It was they who caused the ice age and scorched the earth in 2350 BC. Already in the 500th year of our era, having fallen to Earth, they caused a flood in the Middle East. By the way, Professor Bari Cordon, calling the discovery amazing, predicted that the next catastrophe will occur in 3000. By the way, in Adygea there are many traces of the disaster - craters, craters. But they are not studied. But at the same time, the conclusions of scientists say that some tribes of Adygea disappeared precisely in the Bronze Age. The cosmic catastrophe of 2350 led to terrifying consequences - Greece and India were flooded. The Egyptian kingdom, which created the sphinxes, was destroyed by fire and water. The Dead Sea area has been burned to the ground. The cities and lands of China and Mesopotamia have been turned into ruins. The meteor shower raised the temperature on Earth to 1000 degrees Celsius or more. An impenetrable giant cloud covered the Earth from the sun. It became sharply cold. There is also evidence that 66 million years ago, an asteroid also fell on Earth, leading to the death of the dinosaurs. And became the reason for the onset of night on our planet, which lasted for eighteen months. The impact of the asteroid led to the extinction of 75 percent of all living organisms on our blue planet. But the megaliths survived! These include dolmens and menhirs. Scientists managed to lift a piece of the veil about their origin and purpose. But there are still many secrets and mysteries around them. Unraveling them is the task of current and future generations.

"Temples" in the open air

Since we talked in detail here about dolmens and menhirs, the differences between one and the other, and in order to get the most complete picture about megaliths, let’s briefly add a few words about cromlechs, which we also mentioned above. Their purpose is not entirely clear. However, some scientists consider them to be ritual enclosures of some sacred space, in other words, “open-air temples.” Cromlechs are one of the oldest structures of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. These are vertically placed stones, forming several concentric circles. In the center of others there may be other objects - the same mengurs, dolmens and even entire megalithic complexes. From the Breton Celtic language crom - circle and lech - stone. Some digression is appropriate here - in post-Soviet archeology, cromlechs were traditionally called dolmens, and in the English-speaking tradition - stonecirchle (circular stone structures). There are suggestions that cromlechs were also used as observatories for observing and recording the position of the sun and, possibly, the moon for different, but also ritual, purposes. Cromlechs were also used from a purely technical point of view - they were used to line mounds to prevent landslides. Cromlechs, by the way, are also found in wood. But for the most part they are stone monoliths. On the British Isles, for example, there are over a thousand of them. There are also on the Brittany Peninsula. The most famous clusters are the cromlechs of Avebury and Stonehenge. In Russia, poorly preserved cromlechs of the Kemi-Oba culture and the lining of mounds of the Maykop culture are known. And in its European part there are the looped structures of Mount Vottovaary in Karelia.
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In them we tried to figure out what these ancient structures are, how they are structured and work, and what they are intended for. Perhaps someone will consider these articles not so important for spiritual seekers, diverting attention from the main goal, as they say, “the master’s business.” It seems to me that, to the best of our ability, together we are trying to restore history, lost knowledge and traditions, for the sake of, let’s say, a more holistic perception of reality, putting together puzzles into a single picture. How well this is working is still difficult to say.

In this article I would like to propose considering other megaliths, which, along with pyramids and dolmens, can also be part of a great architectural plan. And at some point, perhaps, they will help save humanity or transition to some new stage of civilization. We will talk about menhirs and cromlechs. Of course, there is a lot of information on the Internet, but it turned out to be difficult to put together. Taking into account the experience from the above articles about dolmens, in order to reduce the amount of “water” in the article, so as not to completely confuse you and myself, I will try to present it concisely, broken down into several parts.

Megaliths(from the Greek μέγας - large, λίθος - stone) - prehistoric structures made of large blocks. In the limiting case, this is one module (menhir). The term is not strictly scientific, therefore a rather vague group of buildings falls under the definition of megaliths and megalithic structures. As a rule, they belong to the “pre-literate” era. Megaliths are distributed throughout the world, mainly in coastal areas. In Europe, they mainly date from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (3-2 thousand BC), with the exception of England, where megaliths date back to the Neolithic era. Megalithic monuments are especially numerous and varied in Brittany. Also, a large number of megaliths are found on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, in Portugal, part of France, on the west coast of England, in Ireland, Denmark, and on the southern coast of Sweden. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was widely believed that all megaliths belonged to one global megalithic culture, but modern research and dating methods refute this assumption.

Types of megalithic structures.

• menhir - a single vertical standing stone,
• dolmen - a structure made of a huge stone placed on several other stones,
• cromlech - a group of menhirs forming a circle or semicircle,
• taula - a stone structure in the shape of the letter “T”,
• trilith - a structure made of a block of stone mounted on two vertical stones,
• seid - including a structure made of stone,
• cairn - a stone mound with one or more rooms,
• indoor gallery,
• boat-shaped grave, etc.

In many European countries, in the middle of fields and meadows, on high hills, near ancient temples, in forests, often right in the middle of roads and on lawns near houses where people live, huge long stones rise - menhirs (menhir is translated as “long stone”) "). Sometimes they stand alone, sometimes they line up in rings and semicircles, or form long rows and entire alleys. Some point straight up, others are tilted and appear to be falling. But this “fall” has been going on for five, or even six thousand years: that is exactly how long it is assumed today that the most ancient of them have existed. The Bretons call them pelvans, which means “pillar stones,” and the English call them standing stones. Science considers them the first authentically man-made structures that have survived to this day.

Menhir (also known as peilwan) - from Low Breton (France) maen - stone and hir - long - processed or wild rock, installed by man, whose vertical dimensions are noticeably larger than the horizontal ones. In the English-speaking tradition, the term “standing stones” is more often used. In Scandinavia, such monuments are called “bautasteine”.

Menhir- This is a free-standing stone that was considered sacred. A working menhir, that is, a stone that provides a connection with other megaliths, was usually located either in special zones (at the intersection of force fields, on faults) or above the sacred graves of ancestors. This is usually a tall stone, often in the form of a stele, or simply a free-standing huge boulder, strongly elongated upward. And in Egypt, for example, they specially carved it so that it was much larger in height than in width, and made it flat. All ancient menhirs are placed in the right places. Sometimes entire complexes are formed from menhirs - circles, semicircles, spirals and other shapes from menhirs. They are called cromlechs (but more on them later).

Menhirs are found among a variety of peoples, from the northern latitudes to the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere, and are found in different parts of the planet. There are especially many of them in Europe, Russia and the Caucasus.

The best studied and well known are the standing stones of Brittany and the British Isles. But there are many more of them on our planet. Today, menhirs ranging in height from one to 17 meters and weighing up to several hundred tons can be seen in Greece and Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, in the south of France, in Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic, in Spain and Portugal, in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany and southern Scandinavia. They are found along the entire Mediterranean coast from Libya to Morocco and further south, all the way to Senegal and Gambia. There are them in Syria, in Palestine.

It is believed that the tallest menhir was the Fairy Stone, which stood near the village of Lokmariaker in French Brittany. It rose 17 meters above the ground and went more than three meters into the ground, and weighed about 350 tons! The Fairy Stone was supposedly erected 4,000 years ago, but was unfortunately destroyed around 1727. It now lies destroyed at the entrance to the village of the same name.) The most grandiose ensemble of menhirs is located there, in Brittany, in Carnac - grandiose stone alleys of more than 3,000 uncut stones (it is believed that there used to be about 10,000 of them!) stretch for several kilometers. They are about 6000 years old. From the air you can see that some large and small megaliths form huge circles and triangles.

How not to recall the megalithic complex of Akhunovo, mentioned earlier in articles on the site, or the Bakhchisarai menhir in Crimea, considered a very powerful place of power (by the way, the coordinates are still the same 43-44 degrees N. N44.76506 E33.90208) and many others.

A clear geometric plan can be traced in the arrangement of the stone “alleys” of the menhirs; some stone rows, stretching for kilometers from west to east, gradually move closer to each other according to a complex mathematical law described by a parabolic function.

Menhirs are a fertile topic for fantasy, including scientific ones. According to researchers, menhirs were used for a variety of purposes, incl. currently unknown and often already indefinable. Among the well-known purposes of menhirs are cultic (ritual fencing of other structures, symbolism of the center, ritual determination of the boundaries of possessions, elements of rituals of passage, phallic symbolism), memorial, solar-astronomical (sights and systems of sights), boundary and even informational. The idea that menhirs are ancient observatories is very attractive. Indeed, Stonehenge (a mega complex of menhirs and dolmens) became a place of pilgrimage for tourists after it turned out that at the time of the summer solstice the main axis of the entire structure points to the northeast, exactly where the Sun rises on the longest day of the year.

There is nothing on the simplest and most ancient objects, but over time, drawings, ornaments, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs begin to appear on the standing rocks.

And just look at the images on the menhirs of Göbekli Tepe:

Often, subsequent peoples reused menhirs for their own religious and other purposes, making additional drawings, editing, applying their own inscriptions and even changing the general shape, transforming them into idols. On the other hand, menhirs are functionally adjacent to single unprocessed stones, both specially installed and lying in their original places, as well as systems of specially placed stones.

Menhirs were installed either singly or forming complex systems: oval and rectangular “fences”, semi-ovals, lines, incl. many kilometers long, rows of lines, alleys. Despite the fact that the tradition of setting stones vertically is one of the oldest, it is also one of the most sustainable. Humanity still erects stone steles in honor of certain events or intentions. For example, the largest “menhir” - a monolith stands in St. Petersburg and is well known as the Pillar of Alexandria (let’s not get ahead of ourselves and pay much attention to this for now, since this is the topic of a separate subsequent article and separate conclusions). On the other hand, the tradition of being proud of one's tallest towers and broadcasting towers also has its roots in the tradition of menhirs.

Of course, there are many legends associated with menhirs. They say that dwarfs living underground turn into pelwans when sunlight hits them. And since these people are considered the keeper of treasures, legends claim that countless riches are hidden under the standing stones. However, the stones vigilantly guard them, and not a single person has yet managed to get them. According to other legends, menhirs are, on the contrary, petrified giants. And on the day of the summer and winter solstices, on Christmas Eve and Easter, they come to life - they walk, dance, spin around their axis or run to the nearest river to drink water or swim, and then return to their place and turn into stone again.

It is believed that menhirs are tombstones. Perhaps lighthouses. Or sights. There are known groups of menhirs that stand in such a way that from one you can see a second, from a second a third, from a third a fourth, and so on - very similar to a signaling system. True, the pelvans also stand far from the seashore, where it is strange to talk about them as lighthouses, and traces of burials are not found under all the long stones.

According to Ivan Matskerle, according to one theory, these religious buildings accumulate the energy of the Earth. “Scientists have found that at sunrise, especially during the solstice, menhirs scream and emit sound, but in an area inaudible to humans. Measurements have shown that ancient menhirs have a powerful magnetic field. This is how the hypothesis arose that menhirs are points of concentration of the Earth’s energy. They, like acupuncture points on the human body, are the intersection points of invisible vein-tunnels, magnetic flows passing along the surface of the Earth.”

It is known, for example, that in India, rough, upright stones are still considered the abodes of deities. In Greece, a huge rough stone pillar once represented Artemis. At the crossroads there were tetrahedral pillars with the sculpted head of the god Hermes - herms. In ancient Rome, Terminalia was celebrated in honor of the god of borders, Terminal. On this day, boundary stones were rubbed with oils, decorated with garlands of flowers, and sacrificial gifts were brought to them: honey, wine, milk, grain. Anyone who dared to move such a boundary stone was considered forever damned - borders in Rome were sacred. And the stone, representing the god Terminus himself, was located in the Capitoline Temple and guaranteed the inviolability of the borders of the entire empire. Maybe menhirs were the same boundary stones. Only they did not share neighboring properties, but rather something else. Nowadays a very popular hypothesis is that all these stones were placed on faults in the earth’s crust, where the Earth’s energy was concentrated and came to the surface. If you believe the myths, menhirs stand on the border of two worlds - the world where people lived and the world where gods lived. Thus, the Irish sagas say that standing stones marked the entrance to the Sides, the dwellings of the wondrous magical people of the Celts. And in Brittany, the belief remained that thanks to the pelvan one can meet the dead: in ancient times, people erected stone thrones somewhere in a prominent place, lit a fire and waited for the souls of their ancestors to sit on them to warm themselves by the fire. And just like the Termina stone, some menhirs, while they stand, guarantee the existence of entire villages, pushing back the end of times...

And these versions came across:

Menhirs are temples near which sacrifices were made. Menhirs are astronomical clocks from the Stone Age. The stones of Carnac (Brittany) are arranged in such a way that they show the position of the Sun at certain times of the year.

Indian menhirs with images of people in masks of animals and birds are symbols of religious cults.

Indian menhirs with two heads (human and animal) are symbols of the ancient Toltec teachings about the nagual and tonal. Perhaps our ancestors used dolmens - menhirs to practice the art of stalking - “recapitulating personal history” - one of the paths leading to the main goal of the Toltecs - freedom?

And take, for example, the ancient obelisks of the Egyptians:

Or take the ancient Slavic temples:

And if you look closely at the moai of Easter Island, these are also menhirs in their purest form.

In general, there is something to think about in your spare time.

Prepared by: Alexander N (Ukraine)

On the surface of the globe, with the exception of Australia, there are many mysterious and ancient buildings. Modern research has shown that they were erected in the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Eneolithic periods. Previously, it was believed that they all represented one common culture, but today more and more scientists are questioning this theory.

So, who and why were such megalithic structures created? Why do they have one shape or another and what do they mean? Where can you see these monuments of ancient culture?

Before considering and studying megalithic structures, you need to understand what elements they may consist of. Today it is generally accepted that the smallest unit of construction of this type is a megalith. This term was officially introduced into scientific terminology in 1867, at the suggestion of the English specialist A. Herbert. The word “megalith” is Greek and translated into Russian means “big stone”.

An accurate and comprehensive definition of what megaliths are does not yet exist. Today, this concept refers to ancient structures made of stone blocks, slabs or simple blocks of various sizes without the use of any cementing or binding compounds or solutions. The simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of just one block, are menhirs.

Main features of megalithic structures

In different eras, different peoples erected huge structures from large stones, blocks and slabs. The temple in Baalbek and the Egyptian pyramids are also megaliths, it’s just not customary to call them that. Thus, megalithic structures are various structures created by different ancient civilizations and consisting of large stones or slabs.

However, all structures considered megaliths have a number of features that unite them:

1. All of them are made of stones, blocks and slabs of gigantic size, the weight of which can range from several tens of kilograms to hundreds of tons.

2. Ancient megalithic structures were built from strong and resistant to destruction rocks: limestone, andesite, basalt, diorite and others.

3. No cement was used during construction - neither in the mortar for fastening, nor for the manufacture of blocks.

4. In most buildings, the surface of the blocks from which they are made is carefully processed, and the blocks themselves are tightly fitted to each other. The accuracy is such that it is impossible to insert a knife blade between two megalithic blocks of volcanic rock.

5. Quite often, later civilizations used the preserved fragments of megalithic buildings as foundations for their own buildings, which is clearly visible in the buildings in Jerusalem.

When were they created?

Most megalithic sites located in Great Britain, Ireland and other Western European countries date back to the 5th-4th millennia BC. e. The most ancient megalithic structures located on the territory of our country date back to the 4th -2nd millennia BC.

The entire variety of megalithic buildings can be conditionally divided into two large groups:

• funeral;
• non-funeral:
• profane;
• sacred.

If everything is more or less clear with funerary megaliths, then scientists are making hypotheses about the purpose of profane structures, such as various giant layouts of walls and roads, military and residential towers.

There is no accurate and reliable information about how ancient people used sacred megalithic structures: menhirs, cromlechs and others.

What are they?

The most common types of megaliths are:

• menhirs - single, vertically installed stelae stones up to 20 meters high;
• cromlech - a union of several menhirs around the largest, forming a semicircle or circle;
• dolmens - the most common type of megaliths in Europe, are one or more large stone slabs laid on other blocks or boulders;
• covered gallery - one of the types of dolmens connected to each other;
• trilith - a stone structure consisting of two or more vertical stones and one laid horizontally on top of them;
• taula - a stone structure in the shape of the Russian letter “T”;
• cairn, also known as “gury” or “tour” - an underground or above-ground structure, laid out in the form of a cone made of many stones;
• stone rows are vertically and parallelly installed blocks of stone;
• seid - a stone boulder or block installed by one or another people in a special place, usually on a hill, for holding various mystical ceremonies.

Only the most famous types of megalithic structures are listed here. Let's take a closer look at some of them.

Translated from Breton into Russian it means “stone table”.

As a rule, it consists of three stones, one of which lies on two vertically installed ones in the shape of the letter “P”. When constructing such structures, ancient people did not adhere to any single scheme, so there are many options for dolmens with different functions. The most famous megalithic structures of this type are located on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe, in India, Scandinavia, and the Caucasus.

Trilith

Scientists consider trilith to be one of the subspecies of dolmen, consisting of three stones. As a rule, this term is applied not to separately located megaliths, but to monuments that are components of more complex structures. For example, in such a famous megalithic complex as Stonehenge, the central part consists of five trilithons.

Another type of megalithic building is the cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped mound of stones, although in Ireland this name refers to a structure of only five stones. They can be located both on the surface of the earth and under it. In scientific circles, a cairn most often means megalithic structures located underground: labyrinths, galleries and burial chambers.

The oldest and simplest type of megalithic structures are menhirs. These are single, vertically mounted massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary natural stone blocks in their surface with traces of processing and in the fact that their vertical size is always larger than the horizontal. They can be either free-standing or part of complex megalithic complexes.

In the Caucasus, menhirs were shaped like fish and called vishap. On the territory of modern France, in the Crimea and the Black Sea region, quite a lot of anthropomorphic magalites - stone women - have been preserved.

Rune stones and stone crosses created much later are also post-megalithic menhirs.

Cromlech

Several menhirs, installed in the form of a semicircle or circle and covered with stone slabs on top, are called cromlechs. The most famous example is Stonehenge.

However, in addition to round ones, there are also rectangular cromlechs, as, for example, in Morbihan or Khakassia. On the island of Malta, cromlech temple complexes are built in the shape of “petals”. To create such megalithic structures, not only stone, but also wood was used, which was confirmed by finds obtained during archaeological work in the English county of Norfolk.

"Flying Stones of Lapland"

The most common megalithic structures in Russia, strange as it may sound, are seids - huge boulders mounted on small stands. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or more small stones arranged in a “pyramid”. This type of megalith is widespread from the shores of Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga to the coast of the Barents Sea, that is, throughout all parts of Russia.

On and in Karelia there are seids ranging in size from several tens of centimeters to six meters and weighing from tens of kilograms to several tons, depending on the rock from which they were made. In addition to the Russian North, quite a lot of megaliths of this type are found in the taiga regions of Finland, northern and central Norway, and the mountains of Sweden.

Seids can be single, group or massive, including from ten to several hundred megaliths.