What are ancient megaliths and who built them? Megalithic structures - erected before the Flood - Earth before the Flood: disappeared continents and civilizations What distinguishes megalithic structures from others

So called megalithic structures(Greek for “large stones”) began to appear in the late Neolithic period, and in the Bronze Age they became quite common. Megaliths include dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs, alinemans, covered passages, etc. All these structures are built from very large stone slabs or lumps. Their geography is very vast - they are found in the Caucasus, Crimea, northern and western Europe (England, France, the Netherlands, Denmark), the Balkans, India, Iran, North Africa, Korea and many other places.
Megaliths served as cult places for the ancestors: dolmens and menhirs for honoring ancestors, cromlechs for worshiping the sun and fire, etc. For the hard work of moving and installing giant stones, primitive people were required to unite the efforts of significant groups. Most of the dolmens have survived to this day.

When a tourist is going to travel to any country, it is useful for him to think about his travel plan in advance and choose those attractions...

1. Stonehenge (UK) , hotels nearby

130 km southwest of London there is a unique megalith - Stonehenge, included in the UNESCO list in 1986 World Heritage, and domestically under the care of English Heritage.
According to scientists, this structure is about 5,000 years old. Its appearance is widely known - a circle of stones, around which there are 56 burial holes. In the center of the megalith there is a stone altar weighing about 6 tons. In total, Stonehenge counted 82 stone blocks weighing 5 tons, 30 - 25 tons each, and 5 arches of three stones (triliths) - 50 tons each. The arches are precisely oriented to the cardinal points. Stones from stones were used to create Stonehenge different places, some of which were located 210 km from the megalith.

2. Puma Punku and Kalasasaya (Tiwanaku) , hotels nearby

Near the Bolivian village of Tiwanaku, located 20 km from Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 4000 m above sea level, are the famous megaliths Puma Punku and Kalasasaya. In the distant past, they were cyclopean structures, the outer walls of the large Kalasasaya Sun Temple had a length of 130x1500 m. Next to it was the Akapana pyramid with dimensions of 200x220 m. Constructed of giant stone blocks of andesite, sandstone or diorite, weighing up to 120 tons, the walls -where they were more than 3 meters thick.
The ruins of Puma Punku, lying just 300 m from Tiwanaku, amaze with their grandiose scale - huge slabs weighing up to 500 tons are scattered over several hectares. They are hewn from diorite and andesite, mined in the mountains 17 km from here.
In addition to their enormous size and weight, the Kalasasaya and Puma Punku stones surprise with their filigree processing using technology unknown to us. There are suggestions that ancient builders worked with these rocks like plasticine, perhaps even melting them and pouring them into molds.
In the ancient quarries here, there are no traces of crushing or drilling, only smooth niches remain, as if someone had cut the blocks with a giant knife from “plasticine” rock. The blocks often have a very complex shape, with various cutouts with ideal geometry. They fit so tightly that even a thin blade cannot be inserted between them.

3. Sacsayhuaman , hotels nearby

IN South America there are other megalithic structures - the remains of cyclopean walls, the lower tier of the most ancient terraces and buildings in Machu Picchu, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Tambomachay (Peru) are composed of them. The age of some of them is determined to be 14,000-17,000 years. Similar ruins are located in dozens of regions of Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Colombia near the villages of Vinay Vaina, Taraco, Llactapata, Copacapana, Lokvepaia and others. But those are much less studied.
Particularly interesting are the ruins of 3 walls about 600 m long in the “fortress” of Sacsayhuaman. The height of two walls is 10 m, and the third - 5 m. The first (lower) wall is made of diorite and andesite blocks weighing 100-200 tons, the largest dimensions are 4x5x9 m. The second and third walls are built from slightly smaller blocks. Moreover, all the blocks are perfectly adjusted to each other, the gaps between them are simply not visible. Polyhedral blocks have a rather complex shape. They were mined in a quarry located 20 kilometers from Sacsayhuaman, and at this distance there is very uneven terrain (steep descents, ascents, gorges).

4. Ahu and moai - megaliths of Easter Island , hotels nearby

On Lost in Pacific Ocean Easter Island is home to 887 famous Moai sculptures. The largest idols are located on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano. They have already sunk up to their necks into the ground for many millennia. Some originally stood on ahu - stone pedestals, of which there are about 300 on the island. The sizes of the pedestals range from tens of meters to 200 m. The height of the largest moai “El Giante” (that is, the “giant”) is 21.6 m, and the weight is from 150 to 270 t. It is located in the Rano Raraku quarry. The largest moai standing on a pedestal, “Paro,” weighs 80 tons and is 10 m high. Other moai scattered along the slope of the volcano also have a height of about 10 m.

5. Baalbek (Lebanon) , hotels nearby

The Middle East also boasts its megaliths, for example, in Lebanon there are the ruins of Baalbek. There are three stone blocks there, each weighing 750 tons, and the Romans once used them as the foundation for the Temple of Jupiter. The dimensions of the blocks are amazing - 4.3x5.6x19.1 m, while their surfaces are perfectly processed. These giant blocks are raised 8 meters, resting on slightly smaller blocks.
500 m south of the Temple of Jupiter sticks out of the ground Southern Stone, weighing approximately 1050 tons and considered the largest processed stone in Baalbek (4.2 x 4.8 x 21.5 m). Modern engineers estimate that only a mighty crawler crane could lift such a colossus and transport it along a good road. What kind of equipment did the builders of Baalbek use?

6. Temple Mount in Jerusalem , hotels nearby

When archaeological work was carried out under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem at the end of the last century, the remains of megalithic structures were found. Made up of them South part fragment of the foundation of the western supporting wall of the Temple of Solomon built before our era. The masonry rows of this wall were hidden by the ground for several millennia, and since 1996 they have become visible in the Western Wall Tunnel, which is about 500 meters long, which stretches from Via Dolorosa to Wilson's Arch. At the level of the ancient street, 4 huge stone blocks were exposed here, the lengths of three of which are 8.5, 13.5 and 14 meters, and the weight is 355, 570 and 600 tons. Just like in Baalbek, these huge blocks were laid on smaller stones. All of them were moved here from a quarry located west of Jerusalem.

7. Megaliths of Ethiopia , hotels nearby

Each of powerful of the world this, who lived on the sinful earth, tried to immortalize himself in history through the construction magnificent palace. To the residence, as...

The basalt steles that either lie on the ground or stand in the city of Axum in Ethiopia near the shores of the Red Sea also pose a mystery. The largest obelisk has a rectangular outline with a height of 33.5 meters, and it weighs approximately 500 tons. Other stones are noticeably smaller - from 20 to 24 meters. Their surfaces are carefully processed and dotted with ornaments. The stones are in disarray and many are broken. Local residents have a legend about the giant Cyclops who built them and could melt stones. Allegedly, they poured the molten mass into molds, and after the workpieces cooled, they trimmed and polished them.
Excavations in Axum showed that previously the steles stood on pedestals, one of which was a three-tiered platform made of large basalt slabs and found itself under the Bete Georgis hill. The stone for the blocks was mined in quarries located several kilometers from this place.

8. Yonaguni Underwater Megaliths , hotels nearby

Pyramids and megalithic structures of unknown antiquity exist in a variety of places:

• at the bottom of the Bahama Bank near the islands of Andros and Bimini;
• on the island of Ponape and 92 artificial islands Nan Madol, as well as in the shallow waters near them - in the Pacific archipelago Caroline Islands;
• at the bottom of Rock Lake in Wisconsin (USA);
• at the bottom of the sea near the Japanese island of Yonaguni, etc.

The latter deserve special attention, because multi-meter blocks with regular outlines were discovered there, resting at a 6-meter depth near the coast of Yonaguni Island from the Okinawa archipelago. In 1985, they were discovered by Japanese scuba diver K. Aratake. He told marine seismologist from Okinawa University M. Kimura about his discovery. The scientist conducted a detailed study of them for 10 years, after which he concluded that this was nothing more than a sunken prehistoric city. In 1997, underwater video filming was carried out here by the film crew of G. Hancock, and at the same time geology professor R. Schoch from the University of Boston worked. They were able to confirm that the stone blocks near the shores of Yonaguni Island are of artificial origin.

9. Zorats-Karer , hotels nearby

In Armenian, Zorats-Karer means “stone army,” but this ancient megalith, located at an altitude of 1770 m on a mountain plateau in the Sinyuk region of Armenia, 3 km from the city of Sisian, has another name: “Karahunj” - “singing stones.” This complex contains many huge upright stones, some of which have round holes at the top. This structure with an unknown age (from 4000 years to 7700 years) was declared a historical and cultural reserve in 2009.
The place is a field strewn with stones. In the structure, they were able to number 223 andesite (basalt) slabs weighing up to 8.5 m and 1.5-2.8 m long. Some stones form a not very even row, stretching from southeast to northwest. In the central part of the row there is an oval made of stones, and on its opposite sides there are corridors-passages. Next to the mound there is a stone box - a tomb.
Most of all, the mystery is represented by through holes made in the upper part of 80 stones with a diameter of 40-50 mm. They are made rather crudely, some of them are bent at an angle - the result of conical drilling from opposite sides. The stone inside the holes is better preserved than on the surface of the monolith. Now 37 stones with 47 holes remain standing.

10. American Stonehenge , hotels nearby

This is the name of the archaeological site, consisting of several stone structures and large boulders scattered over 120 square meters. m in the city of Salem (New Hampshire, USA). There are different versions of its origin: it could have been built by settlers from Europe in pre-Columbian times, by local farmers in the 18th-19th centuries, or by the owner of the site, W. Goodwin, in the 30s of the last century. Radiocarbon dating of local sediments showed dates from 2000 to 173 BC. e., which corresponds to one of the archaic Indian cultures or the early Woodland period.
In 1982 director local restaurant D. Stewart-Smith began excavating a megalith found in a quarry north of the monument. A team of researchers and archaeologists found a quarry and hundreds of fragments of stones, which were mistaken for waste from the production of primitive stone tools.

The term is not exhaustive, so a rather vague group of buildings falls under the definition of megaliths and megalithic structures. In particular, large-sized hewn stones, including those not used for the construction of burials and monuments, are called megaliths.

A separate group is represented by megalithic structures, that is, objects largely consisting of megaliths. They are distributed all over the world. In Europe, for example, this is Stonehenge, structures Cretan-Mycenaean culture or Egypt. In South America - Machu Picchu, Puma Punku, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, Sacsayhuaman, Tiwanaku.

Their common characteristic feature is stone blocks weighing sometimes more than a hundred tons, often delivered from quarries located tens of kilometers away, sometimes with a large difference in height relative to the construction site. In this case, the stones are processed in such a way that it cannot enter the joint between the blocks. razor blade .

As a rule, megalithic structures did not serve as housing, and from the period of construction to the present day no records have survived about the technologies and purpose of construction. The lack of reliable written sources and the fact that all these structures have suffered significantly under the influence of time make the task of exhaustive research almost impossible, which, in turn, leaves a vast field for various guesses.

The purpose of megaliths cannot always be determined. For the most part, according to some scientists, they served for burials or were associated with the funeral cult. There are other opinions. Apparently, megaliths are communal buildings (the function is socializing). Their construction represented primitive technology a daunting task and required the unification of large masses of people.

Some megalithic structures, such as complex of more than 3000 stones in French Brittany), were important ceremonial centers associated with the cult of the dead. Other megalith complexes have been used to determine the timing of astronomical events such as solstices and equinoxes.

Megalithic structures are subject to a specific architectural design. By appearance researchers divide them into three groups: menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs. These words themselves came to us from ancient Breton language. It was the language of the people of Brittany, a peninsula in Northwestern France.

MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN BRITTANY

Brittany is, of course, a country of megaliths. It was from the words of the Breton language, at the end of the 17th century, that the names of the main types of megalithic buildings were compiled (dolmen: daol - table, men - stone; menhir: men - stone, hir - long; cromlech: cromm - rounded, lec'h - place). In Brittany, the era of megalithic construction began around 5000 BC. and ended around 2500 BC. The builders of the megaliths were not the autochthonous population of Armorica. They came from the shores of the Mediterranean, gradually moving northwest from the southern and western shores of the Iberian Peninsula, densely populating first the coast of Morbihan, between the rivers Vilaine and Ethel, and then other lands of what is now Brittany, rising deep into the peninsula along the rivers and moving along the coast...

DOLMENS

Dolmens are usually “boxes” made up of stone slabs, sometimes joined by long or short galleries. They were collective burial chambers, as evidenced by bone remains and votive treasures (ceramics, jewelry, polished stone axes). Dolmens could be either free-standing structures or part of more complex structures. Let's look at some of them.

Cairn

Cairn is an ensemble of galleries and chambers covered with earth on top, that is, in in this case dolmens formed their skeleton, as it were. Relatively many cairns have survived in Brittany, but I would like to dwell on two of them, which are masterpieces of megalithic architecture of the West.

Built around 4,700 BC, this prehistoric necropolis could have been destroyed in our time: it was deliberately turned into a stone quarry for construction tourist road in l955 and only the intervention of one of the most famous Breton archaeologists, Professor Pierre-Roland Giot, stopped this technocratic barbarism.
To be precise, the monument at Barnenez is a structure of two cairns. It has a total of 72 meters in length and from 20 to 25 meters in width and includes eleven dolmens (in this case representing separate chambers) from each of which a gallery stretches from 7 to 12 meters in length towards the exit. The first cairn (A) was built around 4,350 BC, and the second (B) around 4,100 BC.

The necropolis at Barnenez is one of the most ancient architectural structures on Earth. Older than Stonehenge, New Grange, Egyptian pyramids…

Karin on the island of Gavrinis

This monument of megalithic art, built around 4,000 BC, is remarkable for its interior design. The cairn itself is not complicated: a thirteen-meter corridor leads to the burial chamber. However, its walls are painted with amazing drawings, more abstract than concrete, carved on stone. Among the elements of the fancy ornament there are spiral, cross-shaped and other elements.

Covered alley

There is a type of dolmens called covered alleys. A covered alley is a series of dolmens that make up a gallery, which can end in a chamber not exceeding the width of the gallery, or at a blind end. It looks like this:

Dolmen with gallery

In contrast to a covered alley, a dolmen with a gallery, such as the famous Table de Marchands at Lokmarieker (pictured), is a round or square burial chamber, to which a long corridor leads, which is, so to speak, a passage from the world of the living to the world of the dead (and back probably :)). The plan of this type of dolmen can be supplemented by side rooms (the dolmen at Keriaval, near Pluarnel).

So, nothing is as different from a dolmen as another dolmen. Moreover, not all types of such structures are described here. There are also knee dolmens, transept dolmens (cruciform) and some others. Frankly speaking, some names had to be invented in the process of working on the article, since they simply do not exist in Russian, and literal translations from other languages ​​usually do not reflect the essence of the objects described here.

As we already know, dolmens are both crypts and funerary monuments, as evidenced by the bones and votive deposits (jewelry, polished axes, ceramics, etc.) found there. We are talking about traces of burials, mostly collective, small or colossal, initially covered with stones (cairns) or earth (mounds), and undoubtedly equipped with additional wooden structures. Breton variations of dolmens are very numerous, and their architecture has changed over time. The most ancient ones were large in size, but the burial chambers in them were reduced; this suggests that they were intended for some of the most important figures of the tribe. Over time, the volume of dolmens decreased, while the size of the burial chambers increased, and they became real collective graves. In the town of Chaussée-Tirancourt, in the Paris Basin, during the study of a similar burial, archaeologists discovered about 250 skeletons. Unfortunately, in Brittany, the acidity of the soil often leads to the destruction of bones. In the Bronze Age, burials again became individual. Later, during Roman rule, some dolmens were adapted to satisfy the religious needs of the conquerors, as evidenced by the numerous terracotta figurines of Roman deities found in them.

How were dolmens built? If you compare the heaviness and bulkiness of these stone structures with the technical arsenal of their creators, then you can only take off your hat to their tenacity and resourcefulness. It was something like this...

Step 1	Step 2
Step 3	Step 4
Step 5	Step 6

Bottom line

Thus, we already know something about one type of megalithic architecture. It's time to move on to the next, no less interesting.

MENHIRS

A menhir is a stone pillar dug vertically into the ground. Their height varies from 0.80 meters to 20. Free-standing menhirs are usually the tallest. The “record holder” was Men-er-Hroech (Fairy Stone), from Lokmariaker (Morbihan), which was destroyed around 1727. Its largest fragment was 12 m, and in its entirety, it reached 20 m in height, with an approximate weight of 350 tons. Currently, all the largest menhirs in France are located in Brittany:

- menhir in Kerloas (Finistère) - 12 m.

- menhir in Kaelonan (Cote-d'Armor) - 11.20 m.

- menhir in Pergal (Côtes d'Armor) - 10.30 m.

There are also menhirs lined up (let's call them rows of stones), sometimes in several parallel rows. The most grandiose ensemble of this kind is located in Karnak, and has about 3,000 (!) menhirs

Carnac (Morbihan department)

CARNAC is, of course, the most famous megalithic ensemble in Brittany and one of only two (along with Stonehenge) in the world. Brittany, and even France, would not be surprised by menhirs, but Carnac amazes the imagination with the unimaginable concentration of these monuments in a relatively small area. Initially, there were about 10,000 (!) monuments of various sizes in the Karnak complex. In our time, there are approximately 3,000 of them left. This complex of megaliths (mainly cromlechs and menhirs) from the late Neolithic - early Bronze Age (late third - second millennium BC) includes 3 megalithic systems:

Menek - West Side 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.

Kerleskan - 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.

By 5000 BC, sites located on the island of Hoedic in Morbihan show the existence of small human groups living mainly by hunting, fishing and collecting shellfish. These human groups buried their dead, in some cases using a special ritual. The deceased was supplied for the journey not only with items made of stone and bone, and jewelry made from shells, but was also crowned with something like a “crown” made of deer antlers. During this era, called the Mesolithic, sea levels were approximately 20 meters lower than today. Starting around 4,500 BC, the first megaliths appear in Carnac (which was also observed in other areas of what is now Brittany by that time).

Let's try to reconstruct the method of erecting menhirs:

	Step 1
	Step 2
	Step 3
	Step 4

The purpose of menhirs, which are not funerary monuments, remains a mystery. Due to the lack of instructions for use left by the builders for future generations, archaeologists are carefully juggling several hypotheses. These hypotheses, which are not mutually exclusive, vary from case to case and depend on a variety of factors: whether the menhirs are isolated or not; rows of stones are composed of one row or several, more or less parallel; menhirs oriented in a readable way, etc. Some could mark territory, indicate graves, or refer to the cult of waters.

But the hypothesis most often expressed relates to several large rows of stones oriented between east and west. There is an assumption that these are attributes of the solar-lunar cult, coupled with agricultural methods and astronomical observations, and large crowds of people gathered near them, for example, during the winter and summer solstices. “The direction of certain blocks according to privileged directions is amenable to analysis,” emphasizes Michel Le Goffi, a Breton archaeologist, and when cases are repeated, sometimes according to a clearly traceable system, one can rightfully think that this is not accidental. This is almost certain in many cases, as at Saint-Just and Carnac. But doubts will always exist due to the lack of direct evidence. Archaeological finds among the rows of stones - very vague indeed, some pottery and processed flints were found, but the remains of ritual fires, dating from the same time as the construction of the megaliths, suggest that they were outside the habitation zone.

CROMLECHES

An example of a cromlech is such a well-known building as Stonehenge.

Cromlechs are called ensembles of menhirs standing, most often, in a circle or semicircle and connected by stone slabs lying on top, however, there are menhirs collected in a rectangle (as in Crucuno, Morbihan). On the small island of Er Lannic, in the Gulf of Morbihan, there is a “double cromlech” (in the shape of two touching circles).
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Comparative table of the number of megalithic structures in France and Brittany.

The origins of architecture date back to the late Neolithic. It was then that stone was already used for the construction of monumental buildings. But the purpose of most of the monuments that have come down to us from that period is not known.

Megaliths(from Greek - big stone) - structures made of huge stone blocks, characteristic of the late Neolithic. All megaliths can be divided into two categories. The first includes the most ancient architectural structures of prehistoric (preliterate) societies: menhirs, cromlechs, dolmens, temples of the island of Malta,). For them, stones were either not processed at all or with minimal processing. The cultures that left these monuments are called megalithic. Megalithic culture also includes labyrinths (structures made of small stones), and individual stones with petroglyphs (footprints). Also considered megalithic architecture are the structures of more advanced societies (tombs of Japanese emperors and dolmens of the Korean nobility).

The second category consists of structures of more developed architecture. These are mainly structures made of very large stones, which are given a geometrically correct shape. Such megalithic architecture is typical of early states, but was also built in later times. These are monuments of the Mediterranean - Egyptian pyramids, buildings of the Mycenaean civilization, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In South America - some buildings in Tiwanaku, Ollantaytambo, Sacsayhuaman. Tiwanaku, Sacsayhuamane, Ollantaytambo.

Menhir– it is usually a free-standing stone with traces of working, sometimes oriented in some way or marking a particular direction.

Cromlech – it is a circle of standing stones, in varying degrees of preservation and with different orientations. The term henge has the same meaning. This term is usually used in relation to structures of this type in the UK. However, similar structures existed in prehistoric times also in Germany (Goloring, Goseck Circle) and in other countries.

Dolmen is something like a stone house.

All of them are united by the name “ megaliths”, which simply translates to “big stones”. For the most part, according to some scientists, they served for burials or were associated with the funeral cult. There are other opinions. Apparently, megaliths are communal buildings with a socializing function. Their construction was a very difficult task for primitive technology and required the unification of large masses of people.

Gobekli Tepe, Türkiye Complex on the Armenian Highlands It is considered the oldest of the largest megalithic structures (approximately X-IX millennium BC). At that time, people were still hunting and gathering, but someone was able to erect circles of huge steles with images of animals. The shape of the temple resembles concentric circles, of which there are about twenty. According to experts, the complex was deliberately covered with sand in the seventh millennium BC, so for more than nine thousand years the temple was hidden by the Gobekli Tepe hill, whose height was almost fifteen meters and its diameter was about three hundred meters.

Some megalithic structures were important ceremonial centers associated with the cult of the dead. For example, a complex of more than 3,000 stones in Carnac (Brittany), France. Megaliths up to four meters high are arranged in slender alleys, the rows run parallel to each other or fan out, and in some places form circles. The complex dates back to the 5th–4th millennium BC. There were legends in Brittany that the great Merlin turned the ranks of Roman legionnaires to stone.

Megaliths at Carnac (Brittany) France

Other megalith complexes have been used to determine the timing of astronomical events such as solstices and equinoxes. In the Nabta Playa area in the Nubian desert b A megalithic structure was found that served for astronomical purposes. This archaeoastronomical monument is 1000 years older than Stonehenge. The location of the megaliths makes it possible to determine the day of the summer solstice. Archaeologists believe that people lived here seasonally, when there was water in the lake, and therefore needed a calendar.

Nabta Observatory, Nubia, Sahara

Stonehenge is a structure of 82 five-ton megaliths, 30 stone blocks weighing 25 tons and 5 huge so-called trilithons, stones weighing up to 50 tons. Folded stone blocks form arches that once served as a perfect indicator of the cardinal directions. Scientists suggest that this monument was built in 3100 BC by tribes living in the British Isles to observe the Sun and Moon. The ancient monolith is not only solar and lunar calendar, as previously assumed, but also represents an accurate cross-sectional model of the solar system.

Stonehenge, UK, Salisbury.

Mathematical comparison of parameters of different geometric shapes Cromlech made it possible to establish that all of them are a reflection of the parameters of various planets of our system, and model the orbits of their rotation around the Sun. But the most amazing thing is that Stonehenge depicts the orbits of 12 planets of the solar system, although today it is believed that there are only 9 of them. Astronomers have long hypothesized that beyond the outer orbit of Pluto there are two more planets unknown to us, and the asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits Mars and Jupiter are the remains of the once existing twelfth planet of the solar system. How could the ancient builders know about this?

Is there some more interesting version about the purpose of Stonehenge. Excavations of a path along which ritual processions walked in ancient times confirm the hypothesis that Stonehenge was built along the Ice Age relief, which ended up on the solstice axis. The place was special: an amazing natural landscape was located on the very axis of the solstice, as if connecting earth and sky.

Cromlech Brougar or Temple of the Sun , Orkney Islands. Initially it had 60 elements, but now it consists of 27 rocks. Archaeologists date the Cromlech of Brodgar or the ring of Brodgar to 2500 - 2000 BC. The area where the Brodgar monument is located is ritual, sacred, and communicative. It is literally stuffed with mounds, group and individual burials, even a “cathedral,” as well as the dwellings and villages of Neolithic people. All these monuments are united into a single complex, protected by UNESCO. Archaeological research is currently being carried out in Orkney.

Cromlech Broughgar or Sun Temple, Orkney

Dolmens. Scientists believe that the approximate age dolmens are 3–10 thousand years old. The most famous dolmens are located in Scandinavia, on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts Europe and Africa, on Black Sea coast Caucasus, Kuban region, India. However, most of them are in the Caucasus - about 2.5 thousand! Here along the Black Sea coast (megaliths generally gravitate towards the seas) you can find “classical” tiled dolmens, monolithic dolmens, entirely hollowed out in the rock, dolmen structures made from a combination of stone slabs and blocks laid in two or more rows. They also talk about the spiritual filling of these amazing structures, their energy charges.

Dolmen in the valley of the Zhane River

Maltese temples were built long before the Egyptian pyramids - in the Bronze Age. Their age is more than 5000 years. It is curious that all these structures were built without the use of iron tools. The scale of all megaliths is so grandiose that local residents They were believed to have been built by giant giants. The question still remains open of how ancient people managed to build such tall buildings from huge stones up to 7 meters in size and weighing up to 20 tons, without using a binding solution, if we remember that temples were built even before the invention of the wheel. Scientists have established that the cultures of prehistoric Malta are largely related to Sicily, so it is possible that Malta was the cult center of the Sicilian Neolithic peoples.

There is not a single temple that has survived in its original form to this day. It is believed that only four of them have survived relatively intact - the temples of Ggantija, Hadjar Kvim, Mnajdra and Tarshin. Although they too suffered the sad fate of a not entirely reliable reconstruction.

Temples of Ggantija in Šara(Xaghra - “giant”) are located in the center of the island of Gozo and are one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. Today, the Ggantija temples are believed to have been built around 3600 BC.

The structure consists of two separate temples with different entrances, but a common back wall. Each of the temples has a slightly concave facade, in front of which there is a platform of large stone blocks. Most ancient temple The complex consists of three semicircular rooms arranged in the shape of a trefoil.

Modern scientists believe that such a trinity symbolizes the past, present and future or birth, life and death. According to the popular version temple complex was a sanctuary for the worship of the goddess of fertility. Findings discovered during archaeological work help to draw this conclusion. But there is another version, according to which Ggantija is nothing more than a tomb. People of the megalithic era really devoted too much time and effort to observing traditions. Honoring their ancestors, they built grandiose tombs, and later, these places were used as sanctuaries where they worshiped the gods.

Today, people look at giant skyscrapers and consider them the pinnacle of human engineering. At the same time, many are not even aware of the technological wonders of ancient history - buildings and temples that would seem impossible to build in that distant time. This review contains little-known examples of amazing ancient buildings.

1. Pueblo Bonito

2. Chatal

3. Lokmarak

4. Colossi of Memnon

5. Pillar of Pompey

6. Dolmen Menga

7. Quirigua

8. Dur Sharrukin

9. Hajar Kim

10. Tiwanaku

Megalithic structures appeared and spread widely during the Bronze Age. Megaliths include the following structures:

• menhirs;
• dolmens;
• alinemans;
• cromlechs;
• covered walkways;
• and other buildings made of large stone blocks and slabs.

Megalithic structures can be found in every corner of the globe: in the Caucasus, Crimea, Western and Northern Europe(England, France, Denmark, Holland), in India, Iran, on the Balkan Peninsula, North Africa and other countries.

Figure 1. Megalithic structures. Avtor24 - online exchange of student works

History of the appearance of megalithic structures and types

Appearance various types megalithic structures are often associated with cults of veneration of ancestors, the sun or fire, and totems. Large-scale work on processing and moving stone blocks was carried out with the help of a huge number of people under the primitive community of labor organization. The most common monuments of this type are dolmens.

Definition 1

Dolmens are burial structures that consist of several slabs arranged vertically and covered with a horizontal slab.

The weight of the slabs reached several tens of tons. Initially, dolmens reached a length of two meters, their height did not exceed 150 centimeters. However, over time, their size became larger; the approach to them was arranged in the form of a stone gallery. The length of such galleries could reach 20 meters. Another type of megalithic structures are menhirs.

Definition 2

Menhirs are vertically installed stone pillars that have a rounded cross-section, a height of up to 20 meters, and a weight of about 300 tons.

Menhirs are located near dolmens, so there is an assumption that funeral rites connect them. Menhirs can often be found in small groups that are arranged in parallel rows. It happens that the length of such rows reaches 30 kilometers.

An example is Carnac in Brittany, where the number of menhirs reaches 3000. It is believed that each menhir is a monument to a deceased person.

Note 1

Menhirs did not arise out of vital necessity, when a person needed to build a home or warehouses. The creation of menhirs was based on an idea that is not related to the struggle for existence. But, despite this, considerable efforts were made to extract, deliver and hoist these blocks, which reached impressive sizes and considerable weight.

The fact of such a rapid spread of this type of megalithic structure indicates that menhirs were a kind of expression of ideas that were the same for the people of that era, regardless of their actual location.

It is no coincidence that these stones were enormous in size and weight. If we take into account their historical relationship with subsequent structures that had architectural features, then a menhir is a funerary monument or monument that is similar in its memorial column, but a dolmen is a crypt, tomb or sarcophagus. The cromlech at Stonehenge is already a kind of temple, albeit a very primitive one.

Definition 3

Cromlechs are large groups of menhirs that are arranged in closed circles. Sometimes circles consist of several rows of vertically placed stones.

An example of a complex megalithic structure is Stonehenge. This is a circle with a diameter of 30 meters, which consists of vertically placed stones. From above they are covered with horizontal slabs. In the middle of the structure there are two rings of low stones, and between them there is a third ring of tall blocks arranged in pairs. In the center is a single stone, which is believed to be an altar. Stonehenge is a famous megalithic structure that already has such architectural elements, like center, rhythm, symmetry.

In this type one can see a structure in which a technical problem not only found a certain type of solution, but also received an aesthetic embodiment, which indicates the architect’s mastery of a sense of rhythm, space, form, scale and proportions. Other megaliths do not possess such qualities, since according to all the above characteristics, they are all closer to amorphous natural creatures than to the work of human hands.

Despite this, the cromlech located in Stonehenge also cannot be called an architectural structure. It is too massive in relation to the horizontals, its verticals are too heavy. The technicality of the appearance in this case prevails over its artistic composition. Exactly the same as in all other structures that preceded the formation of the cromlech:

• dugouts;
• semi-dugouts;
• huts;
• above-ground adobe structures that had a utilitarian purpose.

The artistic form arose only when the utilitarian form reached perfection. It was also at the final stage of the Bronze Age, when crafts and the artistic industry actively emerged.

A huge number of megalithic structures have been collected in the Caucasus. Stone alleys, which in Armenia were called the stone army, became widespread here. There are also stone images of fish, which were the personification of the deity of fertility.

Magical architecture of megalithic structures

The origins of architecture date back to the late Neolithic. At that time, stone was already used to create monumental structures. All megaliths of antiquity can be divided into two large groups:

• Ancient architectural structures of prehistoric societies: cromlechs, menhirs, dolmens, temples of Malta. Almost unprocessed stones were used to build such structures. Cultures that used such structures are called megalithic. This culture also includes labyrinths made of small stones, as well as individual stone blocks with petroglyphs. Megalithic architecture also includes dolmens of the Korean nobility and tombs of Japanese emperors.
• Megalithic structures of more developed architecture. These are structures made of large stone blocks that have a regular geometric shape. Such megalithic architecture is characteristic of early powers, which were not built in later times. This includes monuments of the Mediterranean: megalithic structures of the Mycenaean civilization, pyramids in Egypt, the temple mount located in Jerusalem.

The most beautiful megalithic structures in the world

Gobekli Tepe, Türkiye. The complex is located on the Armenian Highlands. This megalithic structure is considered the oldest in the world. According to historical data, it was formed in the 10th–9th millennium BC. People at that time were engaged in gathering and hunting. The shape of this megalithic temple resembles circles, of which there are more than 20 pieces. According to experts, this architectural complex was deliberately covered with sand. Its height reached 15 meters, and its diameter was 300 meters.

Megaliths in Carnac (Brittany) France. Many megalithic structures were represented as ceremonial centers in which cults for the burial of the dead were carried out. This includes the megalith complex in Carnac (Brittany), which is located in France. It contains about 3000 stones. The megaliths reached a height of 4 meters, they were arranged in the form of an alley, the rows ran parallel to each other. This architectural complex can be dated back to the 5th–4th millennium BC. There were legends that Merlin ordered the ranks of Roman legionnaires to be turned to stone.

Figure 8. Megaliths at Carnac (Brittany), France. Avtor24 - online exchange of student works

Nabta Observatory, Nubia, which is located in the Sahara. Some megalithic structures were previously used to determine astronomical events (equinox and solstices). At that time, a megalithic structure was found in the Nubian desert in the Nabta Playa area, which was used for astronomical purposes. Thanks to the special arrangement of the megaliths, it was possible to determine the day of the summer solstice. Archaeologists believe that people then lived seasonally, only when there was water in the lake. That's why they needed a calendar.

Stonehenge, UK, Salisbury. Stonehenge is a megalithic structure, which is presented in the form of 82 columns, 30 stone blocks and five huge trilithons. The weight of the columns reaches 5 tons, stone blocks - 25 tons, and huge stones weigh 50 tons. The stacked blocks form arches that previously pointed to the cardinal directions. According to scientists, this structure was erected in 3100 BC. The ancient monolith was not only a lunar and solar calendar, but was also an exact cross-section of the solar system.

Figure 9. Stonehenge, UK, Salisbury. Avtor24 - online exchange of student works

By comparing the mathematical parameters of the geometric figures of the cromlech, it was possible to establish that they all reflect the parameters of the various planets of the solar system, and also model the orbits of their rotation. What is surprising is that Stonehenge is a representation of the 12 planets of the solar system, although today it is believed that there are only 9 of them. Astronomers have long believed that there are two more planets beyond the outer orbit of Pluto, and the asteroid belt is the remains of a previously existing 12th planets. How could the ancient builders of the cromlech know about this?

There is another interesting version about the purpose of Stonehenge. During the excavation of the path along which ritual processions were carried out, the hypothesis that the cromlech was built along the relief of the Ice Age was once again confirmed. This place was special: the natural landscape was located along the solstice axis, connecting heaven and earth.

Cromlech Broughgar or Sun Temple, Orkney. Initially, this structure had 60 elements, but today only 27 rocks have been preserved. The place where the cromlech is located is ritual. It is “stuffed” with various mounds and burials. All the monuments here are united into a single architectural complex, which is preserved by UNESCO. Today, archaeological excavations are being carried out on the islands.

Temples of Ggantija in Šara. It is located in the central part of the island of Gozo and is one of the world's most important attractions. The megalithic structure is presented in the form of two separate temples, each of which has a concave façade. In front of the entrance there is a platform made of stone blocks. The most ancient temple architectural complex consists of several semicircular rooms arranged in the shape of a trefoil.

Figure 10. Ggantija Temples in Šara. Avtor24 - online exchange of student works

Scientists believe that such a trinity is a symbol of the past, present and future. According to historians, the temple complex is a sanctuary for worshipers of the goddess of fertility. However, there is a version that the Ggantija temple is a tomb, because the population of the megalithic era followed traditions. They revered their ancestors and erected tombs, and later these places became sanctuaries where they worshiped the gods.