What is menhir? Boulders placed vertically. The age of the menhirs. The main menhirs of Crimea Where are the menhirs

As the book of Genesis narrates, Jacob, fleeing the wrath of his deceived brother - Esau, fled, hoping to find shelter with his uncle Laban. After spending the night on the way in a desert area, laying his head on a stone, he woke up in great fear: God appeared to him in a dream ... As a token of memory of this event, Jacob set up a stone that served as his headboard and poured oil on its top. He called the whole place Bethel (Russian transcription of the word bet-el, "house of God"); later a city with this name was founded here.

From this episode, we can judge that erect elongated stones bearing traces of rough processing were revered in ancient Palestine as dwellings of gods or spirits. The ancestors of the Semitic peoples (and most likely, and much more ancient peoples) tried to appease them, offering sacrifices in the form of aromatic oils. Indeed, bet-ales are widespread in southern Palestine, in Syria, and date back to the local Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, i.e. to the VII - III millennia BC. The tribes that replaced those who erected these primitive obelisks maintained a respectful attitude towards them and tried not to anger the spirits of their predecessors, who (as it was believed) went into the stones.

But these first megaliths got their most famous name from the Breton language: menhirs (from menhir - "long stone"). And this is no coincidence - after all, it is Western Europe that is especially replete not only with single stone pillars, but also with whole compositions of them - many kilometers of rectilinear rows (often several, parallel to each other), circles (cromlechs) and other more complex groups. The largest of the European menhirs is Er Grah in Brittany, the "great split menhir" erected around 5000 BC. NS. and collapsed during an earthquake in 4300 BC. e., split into several pieces. This block once reached 20 m in height and weighed 380 kg; it was carved from gneiss, the nearest exit of which to the surface is 10 km from Er-Grah. The destroyed menhir stood in a line with 18 other, smaller stones.

The construction of menhirs has often been attributed to the Celts. Allegedly, the Celtic priests of the Druids made their bloody sacrifices near these stones. But the settlement of Western Europe by the Celts was completed only by the beginning of our era; menhirs are several millennia older. It is not excluded, of course, that the Druids used for their religious purposes the buildings, already in their era, were considered erected in ancient times. So it was in other places where similar objects are found - in Europe, Africa and Asia, in Altai, in the Sayan Mountains, in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Everywhere the peoples who replaced others, left in the intact the cult artifacts, reminiscent of the previous population.

However, one can only speculate about the appointment of the menhirs. Whether they were really centers for the performance of unknown rituals and rituals, or served as just boundary marks dividing the territories of various tribes, or some kind of viziers on the ground, marking some directions important for ancient people (including astronomical objects), this is not for sure. found out. At least, it has been established that all menhirs belong to the Neolithic era, when a person first passed from an appropriating economy (hunting, fishing, gathering) to a productive one - cattle breeding and agriculture. It was a tremendous breakthrough in human history - for the first time, small roaming groups of people wandering in search of food were replaced by more sedentary communities that provided themselves with an abundance of food. As a result, naturally, in the regions where the "Neolithic revolution" took place (this name is accepted in science to designate this giant shift), the population has grown many times over; people had more free time, which they could devote not only to feeding; increased human resources and, accordingly, the ability to use them for large-scale work. It has been calculated, for example, that it took at least several tens of man-years to fill the parallel earthen ramparts characteristic of Neolithic Europe or to erect menhir alleys. Apparently, the organization of society has become more complicated, in any case, the class of shamans, priests, in a word - clergymen, has probably already emerged. It was they who kept and passed on from generation to generation those ideas that prompted people to create structures that seemed to have no economic purpose.

Nevertheless, it is quite possible that menhirs served many purposes at once - both religious and practical. In a still primitive society, any activity was of an undivided, syncretic nature. So, art was not divided into genera and types - song, dance, even plastic art and graphics constituted a single complex. Only later, with the emergence of the first state formations, professional singers, sculptors, and artists appeared. Such specialization, of course, contributed to the improvement of each of the types of artistic creation, but something of the primitive integrity was lost.

Apparently, the menhirs, representing initially something holistic, multifunctional, then began to develop in different directions. On the one hand, the compositions of menhirs - ranks, alleys, cromlechs, as well as more complex megaliths (triliths in Britain, tauls in the Balearic Islands) - probably became the rudiments of architecture. And the appearance on at first only roughly hewn blocks of drawings, carved signs, carvings, later - attempts to give them an anthropomorphic appearance meant the birth of monumental sculpture.

Menhirs are monuments of that distant era when a person, having achieved some independence from nature for the first time, ascended to another level of awareness of himself and his place in the universe.

In them, we tried to figure out what these ancient structures are, how they are arranged and work, what they are intended for. Maybe someone will consider these articles not so important for spiritual seekers, distracting attention from the main goal, as they say, "the master's business." It seems to me, by virtue of our capabilities, together we are trying to restore history, lost knowledge and traditions, for the sake of, let's say, a more holistic perception of reality, collecting puzzles in a single picture. It is difficult to say how well it works.

In this article I would like to propose to consider other megaliths, which, along with pyramids and dolmens, can also be part of a great architectural plan. And at a certain moment, perhaps, they will help the salvation of mankind or the transition to some new round of civilization. It will be about menhirs and cromlechs. Of course, there is a lot of information on the Internet, but it turned out to be hard to put it together. Taking into account the experience of the above articles about dolmens, in order to reduce the amount of "water" in the article, so as not to confuse you and myself completely, I will try to display it concisely, in fact, with a breakdown into several parts.

Megaliths(from the Greek μέγας - large, λίθος - stone) - prehistoric structures made of large blocks. In the extreme case, this is one module (menhir). The term is not strictly scientific, therefore, a rather vague group of structures falls under the definition of megaliths and megalithic structures. As a rule, they belong to the "preliterate" era. Megaliths are common all over the world, mainly in the coastal regions. In Europe, they mainly date back to the Eneolithic and Bronze Age (3-2 thousand BC), with the exception of England, where the 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, on the southern coast of Sweden. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was widely believed that all megaliths belonged to the same global megalithic culture, but modern research and dating methods refute this assumption.

Types of megalithic structures.

• menhir - a single upright stone,
• dolmen - a construction of a huge stone, set 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 stone block, installed on two vertically standing stones,
• seid - including a structure made of stone,
• cairn - a stone mound with one or more rooms,
• covered 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 whole alleys. Some are directed straight up, others are tilted, and seem to fall. But this "fall" has been going on for five, or even six thousand years: this is exactly how long, as it is assumed today, the most ancient of them have existed. The Bretons call them pelvans, which means "pillar-stones", and the British call them standing stones. Science considers them to be the first authentically man-made structures that have survived to this day.

Menhir (there is also a peylvan) - from the Lower Breton (France) maen - stone and hir - long - a worked or wild rock, set by a man, in which the vertical dimensions noticeably exceed the horizontal ones. In the English-speaking tradition, the term "standing stones" is often used. In Scandinavia, such monuments are called "Bautasteine" (Bautasteine).

Menhir- This is a free-standing stone considered sacred. A working menhir, that is, a stone that gives 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 just a huge freestanding boulder, strongly elongated upward. And in Egypt, for example, it was specially hewn out so that it was much higher in height than in width, and made flat. All ancient menhirs are placed in the right places. Sometimes whole complexes are formed from menhirs - circles, semicircles, spirals and other forms from menhirs. They are called cromlech (but more on them later).

Menhirs are found among a wide variety of peoples, from northern latitudes to 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 standing stones of Brittany and the British Isles. But there are many more of them on our planet. Today menhirs with heights from one to 17 meters and weighing up to several hundred tons can be seen in Greece and Italy, in 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. They are in Syria, in Palestine.

It is believed that the tallest menhir was the Fairy Stone, which stood near the village of Locmarijaker in French Brittany. It towered 17 meters above the ground and went into the ground by more than three, and weighed about 350 tons! The fairy stone was supposedly installed 4000 years ago, but 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 in the same place, in Brittany, in Karnak - grandiose stone alleys of more than 3,000 rough stones (it is assumed that there were about 10,000 of them before!) Stretching for several kilometers. They are about 6,000 years old. From the air, it can be seen that some large and small megaliths form huge circles and triangles.

How not to recall the megalithic complex Akhunovo, mentioned earlier in the articles of 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.

In the arrangement of the stone "alleys" of the menhirs, a clear geometric plan can be traced, some stone rows, stretching for kilometers from west to east, gradually approach each other according to a complex mathematical law described by a parabolic function.

Menhirs are a fertile theme for fantasies, including scientific ones. According to researchers, menhirs were used for a variety of purposes, incl. at the moment unknown and often already undetectable. Among the known appointments of menhirs are cult (ritual fencing of other structures, the symbolism of the center, ritual definition of the boundaries of possessions, elements of rituals of passage, phallic symbols), memorial, solar-astronomical (sightings and sighting systems), boundary and even informational. The opinion that menhirs are ancient observatories is very attractive. Indeed, Stonehenge (straight mega complex of menhirs, 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 most simple and ancient objects, however, over time, drawings, ornaments, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs begin to appear on the standing rocks.

And what are the images on the menhirs of Göbekli Tepe:

Often, subsequent peoples reused the menhirs for their cult and other purposes, making additions, corrections, inscribing their own inscriptions and even changing the general form, transforming them into idols. On the other hand, the menhirs functionally adjoin single untreated stones, both specially installed and lying in their original places, as well as systems of specially placed stones.

Menhirs were installed both singly and forming complex systems: oval and rectangular "fences", semi-ovals, lines, incl. many kilometers, rows of lines, alleys. Despite the fact that the tradition of placing stones vertically is one of the oldest, it is also one of the most stable. Humanity puts stone steles in honor of any events or intentions so far. For example, the largest "menhir" - a monolith stands in St. Petersburg and is well known as the Pillar of Alexandria (for now, let's not run into the front and pay much attention to this, since this is a topic for a separate subsequent article and separate conclusions). On the other hand, the tradition of proud of its tallest towers and broadcasting towers also has its roots in the tradition of menhirs.

Of course, many legends are associated with menhirs. It is said that dwarfs living underground turn into pelvans when they are exposed to sunlight. And since this people is considered the guardian of treasures, legends claim that untold 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 on Easter, they come to life - they walk, dance, turn on their axis or run to the nearest river to drink water or swim, and then return to their place and turn to stone again.

Menhirs are believed to be tombstones. Possibly lighthouses. Or the viziers. There are known groups of menhirs standing in such a way that one can see the second from the second, the third from the second, the fourth from the third, and so on - very similar to the signal system. True, pelvans also stand far from the sea coast, where it is strange to speak of them as lighthouses, and not all long stones find traces of burials.

According to Ivan Mackerle, according to one of the theories, these places of worship accumulate the energy of the Earth. “Scientists have found that when the sun rises, especially at the solstice, menhirs scream, 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 appeared that menhirs are the 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 currents 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 four-sided pillars with the sculpted head of the god Hermes - Herma. In ancient Rome, Terminalia was celebrated in honor of the god of borders, Terminalia. On this day, the boundary stones were rubbed with oils, decorated with garlands of flowers, sacrificial gifts were brought to them: honey, wine, milk, grain. Anyone who dared to move such a border stone was considered cursed forever - the borders in Rome were sacred. And the stone, representing the god Terminus himself, was in the Capitol Temple and guaranteed the inviolability of the borders of the entire empire. Perhaps the menhirs were the same boundary stones. Only they did not share neighboring possessions, but rather something else. Now a very popular hypothesis is that all these stones were placed on the fractures of the earth's crust, where the Earth's energies were concentrated and emerged 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 the gods lived. So, in the Irish sagas it is said that standing stones marked the entrance to the Sids, the dwellings of the wonderful magical people of the Celts. And in Brittany, the belief was preserved that thanks to pelvan it was possible to meet the dead: in ancient times, people erected stone thrones somewhere in a conspicuous place, kindled a fire and waited for the souls of their ancestors to sit on them to warm themselves by the fire. And just like the stone of Termin, some menhirs, while standing, guarantee the existence of entire villages, postponing the end of times ...

And such versions were caught:

Menhirs are temples near which sacrifices were performed. Menhirs are an astronomical clock of the Stone Age. The stones of Karnak (Brittany) are located so that they show the position of the Sun at a certain time of the year.

Menhirs of Indians with images of people in masks of animals, birds are symbols of religious cults.

The menhirs of the Indians with two heads (human and animal) are symbols of the ancient Toltec teachings about nagual and tonal. Perhaps our ancestors used dolmens - menhirs for the practice of the art of stalking - "recapitulation of 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 also look closely at the moai of Easter Island, these are also menhirs in their purest form.

In general, there is something to ponder at your leisure.

Prepared by: Alexander N (Ukraine)

What is menhir

Menhir is a high monolithic stone structure, which literally translates from the Lower Breton as "high stone". "Elongation" is the main feature of the menhir, which is usually longer than wide. This is not always required, though. It does not matter whether the stone has undergone additional processing. In the descriptions of menhirs, scientists, first of all, pay attention to their solitary arrangement. Although, sometimes whole complexes are formed from menhirs (for example, such as Stonehenge).

There are menhirs of various forms, including (in some cultures) anthropomorphic or animalistic.

Circles, semicircles, spirals and other forms from menhirs are called cromlechs. ... There are cromlechs on the territories of different countries, and they are not only concentric. For example, some ensembles of menhirs in Khakassia have rectangular outlines. Cromlechs often include both single megaliths and simple structures of several stones. A structure similar to an arch or a gate of two vertical and one horizontal stone is called trilith. , construction in the shape of the letter "T" - tauloi. One large stone that rests on several others is a dolmen.

Legends of Menhirs

Not only in the surviving traditional cultures, but also in modern times, the idea that menhirs, dolmens and cromlechs have mystical properties is still alive. Many eyewitnesses talk about unusual conditions that arise in their vicinity of ancient stone structures. Some of them experience special excitement and excitement from contact with the menhir, which is accompanied by rapid breathing and an increased pulse. Others, on the contrary, note in themselves previously uncharacteristic asthenic states: pacification, drowsiness, dizziness, weakness.

Some scientists believe that the impact on humans of geomagnetic anomalies or simply an unusual geological environment near menhirs is quite possible. But there are also those who “blame” the “placebo” effect for the miraculous properties. Self-hypnosis is fueled by the stories of previous eyewitnesses and "horror stories" from guides and residents of local villages. There are also many beautiful mystical legends about menhirs.

For example, the Czech menhir "The Enchanted Monk" in Dragomyshl is a supposedly petrified priest who made an attempt to escape with his beloved. For a misdemeanor, he was cursed by the abbot of the monastery and turned to stone. And the moving "Horse-stone" near one of the Tula rivers, according to the tales of local residents, appeared when a huge horseman came down from the sky to the shore and froze. The mystical halo around the menhirs is natural, considering that these stone structures have existed for many thousands of years and were created for funeral rites, sacrifices, cult and, possibly, astronomical purposes.

Where are the oldest menhirs located

The oldest megalithic complex known to scientists is located in the southeast of Turkey. This is the mysterious man-made hill of Göbekli Tepe, the name of which literally translates as "pot-bellied mountain". Archaeologists began to explore it back in the sixties of the last century. And the first unusual discovery for them was the excavation of several T-shaped taul perfectly hewn shape. Such tauls, as well as single menhirs, were decorated with figures of animals, which were quite perfect from an artistic and technological point of view. It was then revealed that the hill itself is an artificial embankment. And soon scientists learned that the age of the chronologically the earliest layers of the complex is almost 12,000 years, which was several millennia ahead of all the oldest structures known by that time.

Interestingly, representatives of many later cultures could have envied the architectural skills of the builders of Göbekli Tepe. The smoothly hewn monolithic columns of this temple reached a height of up to three meters. Nearby were not erected, but processed columns up to nine meters long. But even this "miracle" on the site of the mountain was not the only one. Geodetic studies have shown that Göbekli Tepe hides in itself more than a dozen similar structures, which for some reason were deliberately artificially covered with a layer of 300-500 meters of sand back in the VIII millennium BC. Later, a new religious building appeared on the site of the embankment, which existed until 6000 BC.

The representatives of this culture did not leave any written artifacts, but judging by the graffiti on the walls, they had a system of sacred pictograms. From the murals on the menhirs of Göbekli-tepe, scientists found out that animalistic beliefs and the custom of decapitating the dead were widespread among the keepers of this place. The bodies of the dead were left to be eaten by vultures. At the same time, there are no traces of settlements near the temple itself, which additionally testified to scientists about the cult, not economic purpose of the complex.

Later, menhirs appeared in many other places - in the North Caucasus and the Middle East, in the south of the Urals in Russia, on the territory of modern Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, France in Europe. But almost all of them date back to the III-II millennia BC. However, even these relatively "young" dolmens are mysterious for historians. leave no less than the difference of several thousand years between Göbekli Tepe and Stonehenge. And in order to unravel them, scientists, apparently, will have to explore more than one megalithic structure.

Ksenia Zharchinskaya

There are many mystical places on our planet, where a colossal number of mysteries lurk, exciting the minds of not only scientists, but also ordinary people. Our ancestors left a unique cultural heritage that keeps many secrets, and for several centuries researchers have been studying high boulders that rise above the ground. Some of them stand alone, others are built in a closed ring or semicircle, and still others form whole alleys of massive pillars.

Some are directed upward, while others are leaning to the ground, and it seems that they are about to fall, but for five or six thousand years this has not happened yet.

Types of megaliths

First of all, it must be said that prehistoric structures made of stone blocks dating back to the preliterate era are divided into several groups: these are dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs. Scientists are familiar with stone mounds, boat-shaped graves and covered galleries.

Let's figure out what the ancient megaliths are. Menhir is a single, upright stone, and when there are many such blocks and they form a circular shape, then this is already a whole group called cromlech.

A dolmen is a structure made of one stone, which is placed on other slabs. Most often it resembles the letter "P", and the most striking representative of the megalith is English Stonehenge. Such stone houses were erected near the kurgans, but structures far from burials are also known.

Sacred stone

So what is a menhir? Scientists consider it the first man-made structure that has survived to this day. It is a man-made sacred stone dating back to the Eneolithic era (the transition period from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age). Science does not know the true purpose of these colossi, many of which are well studied by scientists.

It is believed that the menhirs of Brittany are best explored, but such architectural complexes are scattered throughout the earth, but there is no evidence of the people who established them. We have no material evidence at our disposal, and all we can rely on are ancient legends, as well as unconfirmed hypotheses.

Cult building

According to one version, the stone pillars of the earth served as beacons, and their location is very similar to the signal system. According to the other, it is believed that these are ancient gravestones, but not all scientists support this theory, because not every menhir found traces of burials.

Whatever their function, one thing is clear - they all served the cult, and the traditions of veneration of stone deities among ancient peoples known today shed some light on age-old secrets. It is known that in Greece, huge tetrahedral pillars at the crossroads were dedicated to Hermes, and in Rome, the columns, to which gifts were brought in honor of the god of borders, were rubbed with oils and decorated with flowers. Anyone who accidentally moved such stones was considered cursed forever.

Helping ancient agronomists?

There is another theory according to which megalithic monuments with healing energy were used to correct soil imperfections. The earth, permeated by currents, needed their balancing, and the menhirs helped the ancient agronomists in this. After equalizing the energy in ways unknown to us, people achieved high yields, restoring the lost balance.

Here the hypothesis about a living organism - nature, to which our ancestors respected and tried to help her sick body in their own ways - was reflected here.

Rocks at places of geological faults

It is possible that the menhirs, photos of which convey the special power of ancient structures, were border stones that did not separate neighboring territories, but something else. Therefore, there is another hypothesis, according to which the stones were placed in places where tectonic faults of the earth's crust occurred and the energy released from the interior came out to the surface. They stood in and, as our ancestors believed, in such places two worlds met - people and gods.

The revered pillars of the earth have always been considered the focus of energy - the very power that is designed to protect from all adversity and keep the world from death. It happened that peoples who came to replace others took care of artifacts and reused stones, put their own inscriptions on them and even changed their shape, turning tall columns into idols for worship.

Guards of borders and souls of the dead

And when the conversation comes about what a menhir really is, many are sure of its protective purpose. In Brittany, there was a tradition to establish a stone throne, kindle a fire and wait for the souls of deceased relatives to sit on the headboard to warm themselves by the fire. Such ensembles, built by human hands, served as a guarantee that the world would continue to exist, and if they stand, then the end of time is postponed.

It was believed that the ancient obelisk would work when it is in a special zone, at the intersection of force fields or over the burials of ancestors. Strongly elongated boulders are found among different peoples. For example, in Palestine, such stones were revered as dwellings of spirits, and people treated them respectfully and tried not to anger their departed predecessors living in slabs.

Riddles of megaliths going deep into the earth

Sacred stones are monuments of a bygone era, when ancient people began to realize themselves and their place in the world around them. Scientists are studying them, and the famous traveler, Professor Ernst Muldashev has repeatedly investigated megaliths, concealing many mysteries. Menhirs, scattered throughout Europe, are not always high, but go deep into the ground.

Muldashev says that in Central Asia, in places inaccessible to people, he saw stone pillars, more reminiscent of periscopes, and according to the testimony of Tibetan lamas, these are not just sacred slabs, but antennas of Shambhala, with the help of which the underworld observes the living. They allow energy to pass through them in the same way as heat, thanks to their crystalline structure.

Stone - energy accumulator

For several millennia, a huge stone block has accumulated natural magnetism. The northern peoples believed that the plates absorb energy from the environment and give it to those who worship natural giants. The stones seemed to be a kind of accumulator that amplifies vibration and allows a person to be introduced into an altered state, awakening the dormant abilities in him.

Menhirs of Akhunovo village

One of the largest groups of menhirs is located in the village of Akhunovo (Bashkiria), which attracts the attention of specialists studying anomalous zones. In a small village, all the religious buildings of the prehistoric era are collected. And the mysterious natural monuments, near which flying objects appear at night, immediately disappearing into the stones, clearly have a special energy.

Muldashev, who studied dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs, explained that such formations connect the ground and underground worlds, but it is very far from a complete clue of the true purpose of the sacred artifacts.

Bashkir Stonehenge

What are the famous Akhunov pillars? Thirteen stone giants, the oldest megalithic complex in the world, bear the unofficial name "Bashkir Stonehenge". Many researchers are inclined to believe that this is an ancient observatory oriented to the cardinal points. It allowed astronomers who lived in the Neolithic era to determine the dates of the equinox, as well as keep a calendar. Scientists who deciphered the location of the stones stated that the menhirs (a photo of the ancient complex confirms this) is a miniature diagram of the solar system.

In addition, rituals were performed here that allowed the priests to change their consciousness, as a result of which they acquired new knowledge and power.

Menhirs of Khakassia

In the Askiz district of Khakassia, local residents themselves can tell what a menhir is, since there are 50-ton boulders in this territory, reaching a height of three meters. The mysterious atmosphere of this corner attracts tourists and scientists who have established the age of the pillars - four thousand years. It is curious that human faces were carved on some of the stones.

After numerous studies, tectonic zones have been identified that have an impact on the human body. In Soviet times, the menhirs were dug up and are now in the museum, and when the question arose of returning them to where they had stood before, it turned out that the data on the exact location had been lost.

Two stone pillars have survived, near which sacrifices were made, and now people believe in the healing properties of megaliths.

Bakhchisarai menhir

A tall stone found in Crimea was once part of a whole complex, the purpose of which is still debated today. The Bakhchisarai menhir with a height of about four meters was artificially installed several millennia ago, but its exact age is still unknown. A wave of interest in the megalith arose at the end of the 20th century after an observatory worker put forward a version of the astronomical orientation of the stone pillar.

Research continues, and when the question of what a menhir is, modern scientists are unlikely to give an unambiguous answer.

Menhir translated from the Lower Breton means men - stone and hir - long - "long stone" and is a roughly worked wild stone in the form of a pillar. The stones can stand either alone or represent a whole group of menhirs located close to each other.

A great many legends are associated with Menhirs, they say that dwarfs living underground turn into pelvans when sunlight hits them. And under these stones countless treasures are allegedly hidden. Well, it's over, it's all myths.

Menhirs who scream

Many legends and romantic stories are told about menhirs - stone pillars scattered in different parts of our planet. According to legend, the druids arranged their sacred rituals near these stone monoliths. It was believed that a night spent at such a stone can heal a woman from infertility. And about the largest Czech menhir, they say that, in fact, it is not even a stone, but a petrified shepherd who every night comes a step closer to the local church. The secrets of Czech menhirs could not leave indifferent our interlocutor, publicist and traveler Ivan Mackerle.
You can now admire the menhirs in the Czech Republic in more than 20 places, mainly in the north-west of the country - an area that was formerly inhabited by the Celts. Czechs usually give these stone structures nicknames. Menhir in Klobuki near Prague is called a "petrified shepherd", a stone near the village of Dragomyshl is an "enchanted monk", while Slavetin has a "baba". Not everyone knows that one of the sacred stones supports the fence of a private house in Prague's Habry district.

“The owners of the site where the menhir stands have specially set up their fence so that it would go around the stone. They are accustomed to the fact that people come to the menhir, put their hands on it, and then talk about their strange sensations - some have numb hands, some feel warmth, some feel nauseous, ”
- says Ivan Matskerle.
Geologists have proven that many Czech menhirs were brought from somewhere to the Czech Republic, but the age of the stone blocks is still a mystery. At first, archaeologists attributed the installation of megaliths to the Celts, who appeared in Europe 3 thousand years ago, but then they came to the conclusion that the real creator of the menhirs was an ancient people who lived in the Stone Age. According to Ivan Mackerle, according to one of the theories, these places of worship accumulate the energy of the Earth.

“Scientists have found that when the sun rises, especially at the solstice, menhirs scream, 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 appeared that menhirs are the 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 currents passing along the surface of the Earth. "
Pan Mackerle also tried to solve the riddle of the magnetic field of one of the Czech menhirs.

“In the Czech Republic, the largest menhir in our country is located in Klobuki, a village about 30 kilometers from Prague. There, a physicist and I conducted experiments during the Summer Solstice. The physicist recorded the parameters of the magnetic field at the menhir during sunrise and sunset. We were amazed at the results. The magnetic anomaly, discovered in one place before sunrise, moved one meter to the west after sunrise, although the stone did not budge. "

Two years later, the researchers repeated their experiment using ultrasound and infrasound techniques, but nothing strange was recorded.
- By the way, what is this story about the menhir moving towards the church?
“As the legend about the menhir in Klobuki says, every night, when the bell rings at midnight in the nearest village, the menhir approaches the church one step long as a grain of sand, and when it reaches the church, the world will end.”

Seeing us off to the Breton town of Locmariacker, our friends admonished:
- The town, of course, is small, but you will not be bored around only dolmens and menhirs. There will be something to do.

Indeed, literally at every step, as soon as we left the city (and it ended before it began), we found huge stones: some stood like pillars, others piled one on top of the other, like giant tables, and from the third whole galleries were folded ... Legends have been made about these stones for centuries, if not millennia, and, what is most amusing, are still being formed, however, under the guise of allegedly unconfirmed scientific hypotheses.

For a long time it was believed that all these structures (they are found in Western Europe, as well as in some places in the Caucasus) were erected by the Celts - a stern and warlike people. These stones, they say, served as temples in the open air, and the druids, priests of the Celts, made bloody sacrifices near them. Well, many still think so, although it has been proven that the mysterious stones have been on the earth for more than three thousand years, and some are even older - archaeologists say the date is 4800 BC. And many tribes, which we call Celts, appeared much later - in the middle of the first millennium BC.

In addition, if we talk about those gigantic stones that are in the territory of Great Britain and France, then they, most likely, were really used by the Druids, who replaced the more ancient priests unknown to us; after all, these structures were built like pagan temples, and a holy place is never empty, and each new religion uses it in its own way.

But here's the bad luck: in the Caucasus, for example, there were no druids, where did such stones come from? However, in fantastic and unscientific-popular books one can find the most unexpected explanations for everything. For example, that druids are aliens sent to us or miraculously surviving inhabitants of Atlantis. If so, everything is possible ...

But real scientists courageously admit their own ignorance: we do not know, they say, what were the names of the peoples who built these structures, we do not know why and how these buildings were used. We can only establish their age and assume that they are somehow connected with cult performances. It's not as interesting as the hypotheses of the romantic pseudoscientists, but at least it's fair.

In fact, no one even really knows how to correctly name these monuments of deep antiquity. Standing stones are called menhirs. Those that look like tables are dolmens. The stones arranged in a circle, like the English Stonehenge, are cromlechs. Any guidebook says that these words are Breton, the first means “long stone”, the second “table-stone”, and the third means “rounded place”. This is true and not true.

Yes, the word "menhir" came to French, and after it to all others from Breton. But in the Breton language there is no such word, and a standing stone is denoted by a completely different word "pelvan" - "pillar-stone". How did it happen? The point is this: when scientists, and just lovers of antiquities, first became interested in these outlandish structures (and this was at the beginning of the 19th century), they decided to ask the local population what these strange things are called. The local population in those days could hardly speak French.

So from the very beginning there were continuous misunderstandings and misunderstandings between the bearers of the local tradition and researchers.

Further more. Those "new legends" that romantic writers created in their works - about druids and bard singers who drew their inspiration from the shadow of the menhirs - have nothing to do with the legends that the Breton peasants passed from mouth to mouth. The peasants simply believed that these stones were magic.

And how else, because at first they served the pagans, and when Christianity came to Brittany, the old stones did not disappear along with the old religion. The first priests were smart people and understood that since the locals got used to worshiping idol stones for more than one thousand years, it was foolish, if not dangerous, to try to convince them overnight that it was a sin. And instead of fighting the pagan stones, the priests decided to "tame" them, as the priests of other religions once did more than once. The springs, which were considered magical in antiquity, have become sacred. Most often it was enough to carve a cross on the top of the menhir. Sometimes they didn't even do this: just some old ceremony with a procession to the stone turned into a procession of the cross. And the wolves are fed, and the sheep are safe. And what the people tell about the strange stones of a fairy tale and legend is natural.

An alley of dolmens, which is located in Upper Brittany, not far from the town of Essay - called "fairy stones", has always been surrounded by special reverence. It is said that in order to build it, the famous Merlin with the power of his magic transported heavy stones from afar. Interestingly, archaeologists are surprised to confirm that the multi-ton slabs that make up the alley really covered many kilometers before they were installed near Essay. But how did they do it? And who, and most importantly, why did it need it?

According to another legend, fairies built this stone alley. Each of them had to bring three huge stones for construction at one time - one in each hand and one on the head. And woe to the fairy who does not hold at least one stone. Having dropped it to the ground, she will no longer be able to pick it up and continue on her way - she had to go back and start all over again.

They say that those who built this alley are not averse to joking with people even now. Many try to count how many stones there are in the building, and each names his own number - some forty-two stones, some forty-three, and some forty-five. Even if one and the same person undertakes to count them several times, he will not succeed - each time the number of stones will be different. “Don't joke with devilish power,” they used to say in the old days, “no one has ever been able to count these stones. You can't outsmart the devil. "

But the lovers believed that fairies would help them choose their destiny. In the old days, young men and women came to the alley of ancient stones on the night of the new moon. The young man walked around them on the right, and the girl on the left. Having made a full circle, they met. If both counted the same number of stones, then their union should have been happy. If one of them counted one or two more stones, then their fate was far from cloudless, but, in general, happy. Well, if the difference between the two numbers turned out to be too large, then, according to legends, it was better not to think about the wedding. However, the lovers were not even stopped by the warnings of the fairies.

Menhirs were also legendary. In the old days it was believed that treasures were kept under standing stones. For example, under a menhir near the city of Fougeres. It was said that every year on the night of Christmas a thrush flies to the stone and lifts it, so that louis d'or can be seen lying on the ground. But if someone wants to take advantage of this moment and grab the money, then the huge menhir will crush him with its weight.

And there are also menhirs, which on Christmas night, while mass is being served in churches, go to the stream for a watering hole, and then return to their place. Woe to the one who finds himself on the road of a stone that rushes with great speed and can crush everything in its path. However, as the legends say, there are those who like to take risks: after all, in the pit left by the absent menhir, there can easily be a treasure. If you manage to pick it up while the menhirs are at the watering hole, you will live comfortably the rest of your life. True, few people managed to survive: an angry menhir usually chased the thief like an angry bull, and crushed the poor man into a cake.

We, of course, were not going to look for treasures, especially since it was still a long way before Christmas. It was just curious to look at the stones, about which they talk and write so much. First of all, we went to a small open-air museum, where for a modest fee one could contemplate the largest menhir in Brittany - 20 meters in length, weighing about 280 tons. True, the giant did not stand, as it should be for a decent menhir, but lay on the ground, split into several parts. This happened, most likely in antiquity, and from what - no one knows. Maybe the ancient builders were let down by gigantomania, and they simply could not install the miracle stone and dropped it. Perhaps the stone still stood for a while, but then collapsed due to an earthquake. Local residents claim that it was broken by lightning. Who knows how it really was?

By the way, not all menhirs and dolmens are giant. Once, when I was a student (I studied in the Breton city of Rennes), a funny incident happened to me. It was in the town of Pont-Labbe, where my friend and I were invited by a classmate, a native of this town. Among other attractions, he decided to show us a whole clearing of dolmens. Together we plunged into his old Ford and drove a distance that we could easily master on foot. Leaving the car, I began to look around in bewilderment: where are the promised dolmens?
- Yes, here they are, - prompted me, - look around.

Indeed, the clearing was dotted with dolmens. Small: the tallest one reached my knee. I involuntarily laughed, but my guide began to defend the dwarf dolmens, claiming that they are no less ancient than those many-meter giants that are so fond of showing tourists. I did not deny this, but nevertheless the clearing made a somewhat depressing impression on me and not at all because of the size of the dolmens. I remembered the Moscow forest parks after the May holidays: under the dolmens lay candy wrappers, cigarette butts and a myriad of empty bottles, which indicated that not ritual libations were regularly performed here.

- Yes, - my guide sighed, - dolmens with menhirs are not preserved here, they do not protect us ... This is nothing, you can remove it, but twenty or thirty years ago we saw enough films about your virgin lands and also began to unite small fields, destroy boundaries ... Menhirs turned under the hot hand: imagine, standing in the middle of a field a menhir, it seems, does not bother anyone. It is not included in the list of monuments due to its small stature. Of course, you can carefully drive around it every time on a tractor, only this requires time, attention, and waste of fuel. But what about the savings? So menhirs were uprooted, which scientists had never heard of. How many of these stones were lost, no one knows.

Big menhirs with dolmens are really lucky. They are heavily guarded by the state. You can't get close to them in Lokmariaker; they are fenced in with ropes, and dozens of visitors roam the narrow paths in droves, staring left and right. Outside the city, however, there are underground galleries, through which you can freely climb. Near each of them there is an index and a panel explaining the history of the monument in four languages: French, Breton, English and German.

The most beautiful gallery seemed to me in the town of Kerer, near Cape Kerpenhir, two kilometers from Lokmariaker. We went there early in the morning to enjoy the beauty of the ancient monument, without colliding with our heads. Outside, the view is not so hot: stone slabs on the top of a small hill, a kind of burrow, at the entrance to which there is a small - slightly taller than a human being - menhir. We go down to the gallery. It smells of salt and dampness - no wonder, because the sea is very close. You have to walk on all fours: for several millennia, huge slabs have managed to thoroughly grow into the ground. Although, most likely, the arches of the gallery were not initially very high; people were much smaller: just remember the knightly armor in museums - not every thirteen-year-old boy will fit into them. What can we say about people five thousand years ago! They probably thought such galleries were tall and spacious. Be that as it may, but we, people of the twentieth century, have to take care of our heads.

In full growth, you can straighten only at the end of the gallery, in a small room. And then if your height is not above average.

On a panel installed nearby, a plan of the gallery is drawn and two slabs are marked, on which mysterious drawings are carved. However, it is impossible to see them; darkness reigns in the gallery, and only now and then a ray of sun breaks through the gap between the ceiling tiles. You have to make your way by touch, which makes the gallery seem even more mysterious: it suddenly turns, just as unexpectedly ends. However, I managed to find the slabs with drawings. Moreover, we managed to photograph them with a flash. And only when the photographs were ready, we were able to see the message left to us by the ancient artists.

It is not known what the ornaments from the Kerere gallery mean, but one of them is very reminiscent of the traditional motif of Breton embroidery. Presumably, local artisans from time immemorial have repeated the ornament, once seen by the light of a torch in underground galleries. Amazing things are said: for example, half of an animal is depicted on one of the dolmen slabs in Lokmariaker. The second half is located on the dolmen slab of the island of Gavriniz (which in translation from Breton means "Goat Island"), which is four kilometers from Lokmariaker. Scientists suggest that these are two parts of one stone stele, once split by fourteen metro howling, which was divided between two temples. Only it is not known how it was possible to carry such a weight on the sea to the very island of Gavriniz?

... After pitch darkness, the summer sun is blinding. It seems that we have made a journey into the darkness of the centuries - in the literal sense of the word.

Sevastopol menhirs are boulders of stones placed vertically in the form of obelisks, one of the most famous monuments of primitive man. We can say that this is a kind of Sevastopol Stonehenge, although the number of stones, of course, is much less than the "original" version.

To date, two menhirs have survived. The dimensions of the first of them are as follows: height 2.8 m, cross-section - 1x0.7 m. The second menhir is slightly lower, its height is 1.5m, in the section 1.2x0.55m. The larger stone weighs more than 6 tons, which is surprising, since there are no quarries nearby. This means that the blocks were delivered from the Crimean mountains.

Menhir Stonehenge: Heel Stone

Stonehenge is an area on the swampy plain of Salisbury in southwestern England that fans of the detective genre have heard of. It was there that the chilling events of Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles unfolded. Sherlock Holmes's attention was absorbed by another, otherwise the shrewd sleuth would have turned the full power of his deductive method to unraveling the mystery of the monolithic boulders that dotted the marshes of Stonehenge. And not randomly, but, as it turned out, in the strictest mathematical sequence.

Stonehenge is a megalithic structure belonging to the cromlechs - ring structures consisting of stone monoliths dug into the ground. In England and Scotland, several hundreds of such structures with a diameter of 2 to 113 meters have been found. Although, as you know, the remains of cromlechs are found in many other countries of the world, the ruins of Stonehenge are striking in their grandeur and mystery. This is a unique structure, erected several centuries before the fall of Homeric Troy, i.e. almost four thousand years ago. It would be no exaggeration to say that there is nothing like these harsh ruins in the whole world.

Let's at least mentally take a tour of the stone structure ... In the center of Stonehenge there is a stone measuring 4.8x1.0x0.5 meters. Five triliths rise around it in the form of a gigantic horseshoe about 15 meters in diameter. Trilith is a structure of two vertical stones on which the third is laid. The height of the triliths varies from 6.0 to 7.2 meters and increases towards the center of the horseshoe.

The Triliths were once surrounded by thirty vertical stones about 5.5 meters high. On these supports lay, forming a ring, horizontal slabs. The diameter of this ring, which is called sarsen ring, is about 30 meters. Several more ring structures were located behind the sarsen ring. One of them had a diameter of about 40 meters and had 30 holes. The other - a ring with a diameter of about 53.4 meters - also had 30 holes. The next ring, which is 88 meters in diameter, got its name in honor of the first explorer of Stonehenge J. Aubrey, who lived in the 17th century. Aubrey's ring forms 56 holes. Further, behind this ring was an internal chalk shaft. Its diameter is about 100 meters, the width of the embankment is about 6 meters and the height is just under two meters. And finally, the entire complex of structures was surrounded by an external earthen rampart with a diameter of 115 meters, the width of the embankment was 2.5 meters, its height was 50-80 centimeters. The entrance to Stonehenge is made from the northeast, it was in this direction that the horseshoe of the triliths opened. In the same direction, at a distance of about 85 meters from the center of the complex, there is a stone pillar - a menhir up to 6 meters high and weighing about 35 tons. It is often called the "Heel Stone", although there is no heel-shaped depression on the menhir.

For what purpose did the oldest monument, created by people, of whom no other material evidence of existence remained on Earth? What is this - the Temple of the Sun? A place for ritual ceremonies? The strange structure has given rise to many legends. Hundreds of scientific expeditions (including in our time) have explored the mysterious ruins. When asked when? radiocarbon helped scientists find the answer. The radioactive analysis of the human remains burnt during the burial has reliably established the most probable date for the construction of the complex - this, as already reported above, 1900-1600 BC.

To the question "how?" - how these huge stones were transported and installed - so far no definite answer has been found, but a lot of interesting material has been revealed for archaeologists, engineers and all those who are interested in the abilities and capabilities of prehistoric people ... In this regard, the works of the Czechoslovak engineer P. Paul, who revealed the secrets installation of statues of Easter Island. The researcher has long been interested in the question of how the ancestors of the British thousands of years ago managed to perch five-ton stone slabs on menhirs? Paul was convinced that the original inhabitants of Britain, without cranes and other modern devices, could lift such weights to significant heights. He wanted to conduct an experiment on site, but the British refused. Then at the end of 1990, a fragment of Stonehenge appeared in the Czech city of Strakonice: two concrete pillars - an exact copy of those that have stood for thousands of years in foggy Albion. And next to it lay a concrete slab of five tons. With the help of the ropes, Paul's 18 volunteers, who were by no means bogatyrs, were able to lift this slab up. So, after thousands of years, a 35-year-old engineer may have discovered a completely safe and simple method of the ancient builders of Stonehenge ...

As for the main question "why?" - for what purpose Stonehenge was built - it was quite difficult to decide. It has long been suggested that Stoneheidge was not only a temple, but also a kind of astronomical observatory. Indeed, the observer, being on the central platform of the complex, could see through one of the arches of the sarsen ring, how on the day of the summer solstice the daylight rises directly above the menhir. On all subsequent (like previous) days, the sunrise point lies to the right of the menhir.

Exposing the Epiphany Menhir

Today observatories of the Stone and Bronze Ages are known on all continents, excluding Antarctica. They were erected from the 5th-6th to the 2nd millennium BC inclusive. Europe turned out to be extremely rich in astronomically oriented structures. The oldest stargazing sites in the Old World are found in Malta and Portugal. At the same time, not all megaliths (structures made of stone or stone blocks) have an astronomical reference, although the total number of observatories is impressive.

Academic scholars are of the opinion about the utilitarian purpose and independent origin of stone structures in different cultures: with the transition from the primitive communal system to agriculture and cattle breeding, people began to everywhere observe the movement of the luminaries in order to know when to plow, sow and drive cattle. Romantically inclined researchers have put forward a theory about the remains of an unknown highly developed civilization, whose representatives "left" across the globe, setting up cyclopean observatories.

Russia has always tried to be the homeland of elephants. Naturally, sooner or later, its own Stonehenge should appear in its vastness.

Back in the 70s, the first reports of domestic "astronomical" megaliths appeared. Near Nalchik, they found a stone with a bowl-shaped depression, supposedly repeating the pattern of the constellation Ursa Major. Repeated mentions of the revered stones, according to some parameters, suitable for astronomical observatories, fell on the pages of the regional press or in popular science books on history.

The breakthrough came in late Soviet times. Tula ethnographer Alexander Levin came to the idea of ​​the astronomical orientation of some stones of unusual shape located in the south of the Tula region. Then the Tula publicist Valery Shavyrin wrote the book "Muravsky Shlyakh". One of the chapters of a work that does not pretend to be historical accuracy just told about Levin's research and the stones he found, allegedly serving in ancient and not very ancient times as stone observatories and even sacred solar calendars of the ancestors of the Slavs, and then of the Russian Middle Ages.

This was enough to give birth to the legend of the "Tula Stonehenge". Local historians were not at all embarrassed by the fact that in central Russia, ancient sanctuaries made of stones are unknown to science. And if they did exist, then, due to the shortage of stone, they would have been taken away long ago for economic needs - just as in the 19th century and in Soviet times, for the construction of roads or buildings, the foundations of former churches and medieval graves with stone lining - zhalniki - were dismantled.

Stonehenge in the homeland of samovars and gunsmiths continued to delight the imagination of impressionable citizens. From year to year legends grew more and more. Already ubiquitous aliens began to be recorded in the authors of stone observatories. But for some reason, almost no one, even visiting the stones, did not bother to check the initial information about their astronomical orientation.

The hour of reckoning came last year. The "Labyrinth" group unites lovers of scientific tourism who are fond of finding and introducing into scientific circulation little-known natural and historical objects from all over Russia. There are cavers, physicists, and zoologists, whoever is not there. They not only search for themselves, but also check the information of colleagues. The inspiration for the detachment of pundits with backpacks was Andrey Perepelitsyn from Kaluga.

"Labyrinth" made the first attempt at a comprehensive field study of the megaliths of the Tula region: they traveled around the stones and interviewed the local population. The results were quite unexpected.

The first victim of the experts was the so-called Epifan menhir. The uniqueness of the stone, according to Levin and Shavyrin, as well as a number of authors who repeated their conclusions, is in a vertical position. Menhir in the classification of megaliths just means a stone stuck vertically into the ground. If the data on the ancient origin were confirmed, then the sensation would be obvious - there are no more menhirs on the territory of the Russian Plain.

The members of the Labyrinth expedition immediately doubted the authenticity of the stone. Menhir is clearly visible from the road, you can drive up to it by car, it is located not in the middle of swamps and swamps, as Levin wrote, but almost on a collective farm field. Traces of active human activity of recent years were visible around the menhir. The stone has clearly become a local tourist attraction.

The Epiphany miracle is oriented along the north-south line; it also has a facet located in the plane of the celestial equator. At the same time, not only vodka corks and cigarette butts, but also other stones of a similar structure lay near the stone. People with a geological education who were on the expedition determined the natural outcropping of sandstone, which is typical for the forest-steppe zone of the Tula region.

The final exposure took place in the nearest settlement. Local residents, not without pride, told how ten years ago a tractor driver put a stone upright on a bet. The daring collective farmer won a bottle in a dispute and went to enjoy life. (Another part of the natives claimed that the collective farmer tried to rip a stone out of the ground for the foundation, but something did not work out there.) And after a while, passers-by were frequenting the “stone guest” looking from the road. This is how the legend about the first Russian menhir was born. Now the villagers really like to watch the “city fools” who go to the stone “to worship”.

After breaking off with the menhir, the expedition headed to the neighboring area, to the Gypsy Stone. According to preliminary information, there were drilled holes in it, pointing directly to the North Star, to the point of sunrise on the summer solstice on June 22, and so on.

The geographic location of the stone was disappointing again. Megalith lies on the slope of a ravine. It turns out either a deception, or a world sensation - the first observatory in the ravine, and not at the top of the area. But why to suffer and follow the luminaries from below is completely incomprehensible. The survey showed that there is only one through hole on the stone. There are, however, a few more shallow deaf "holes", but all of them with a high degree of probability are of natural origin. Such depressions are formed at the site of the roots of ancient plants in the process of weathering. After all, sandstone is a sedimentary rock, the cemented sand of the "beaches" of the Carboniferous period. It was permeated by the roots of plants, which, when rotting, left "holes from a donut" ...

It is not excluded that the "hole" in the Gypsy-stone was slightly worked by people. Residents of the surrounding villages reported that a gypsy camp once stood by the stone. Its inhabitants have adapted the holes for mini-ovens for cooking. Hence the name of the object.

The main goal of the expedition was the Stone Horse on the banks of one of the Tula rivers. More precise coordinates "Labyrinth" asked not to give due to the popularity of stone hills and rock gardens among Russian summer residents.

According to local historians and the local press, the Stone Horse is an impressive multi-ton boulder on an artificially paved site. The stone rests on three supports, so cleverly constructed that, they say, the ancients could naturally turn it after the luminaries! And on top of the stone there is a groove for "aiming". The moving megalith is one of the only ones.

As they approached the stone, the "labyrinthians" perked up a little. Unlike the "collective farm menhirs" and observatories in the ravine, the Stone Horse rises majestically above the bend of the river. The indigenous people told a legend about a horseman who appeared from heaven and turned to stone. And as if their grandparents went to the Horse-Stone on Trinity.

A detailed examination of the megalith refuted the assumption of an artificial origin. First, there is no platform under the stone. The stone horse actually stands on three supports - stones from a natural outcrop on the shore, one of which has already practically collapsed - this is the question of the movement of the megalith. The supports, like the stone itself, are of a purely natural origin, no one has worked them. Instead of a groove at the top, there is a small cruciform groove.

Perepelitsyn assumed the natural character of the deepening, while another member of the expedition, Ilya Agapov, admits that it is man-made and may be associated with the attempts of the Orthodox Church in the Middle Ages to baptize the pagan symbol. Astronomically, neither the groove nor the stone itself is oriented in any way. However, the greatness of the Stone Horse is striking.

At the end of June this year, Andrei single-handedly made another attempt to study the Tula megaliths. After his return from the expedition, we contacted a Kaluga explorer.

"How are the Old Russian observatories?" - I ask Andrey. “The final defeat of the megaliths near Tula,” he laughs back. - On the night of June 21-22, I specially watched the sunrise at the Gypsy Stone with measuring instruments. Alas, the hole does not indicate sunrise, not only on the solstice, but never at all - it is directed into the dead zone of the horizon, where the sun does not exist. "

Unfortunately, no one has yet systematized information about Russian megaliths. Therefore, the Labyrinth group - and the guys believe that there will still be astronomical observatories in Russia - calls on every Russian to take the problem of finding stone observatories seriously. “If you have seen something similar to megaliths, be sure to let us know,” says Andrei, “we will come and we will definitely figure it out. We must hurry with this work, because villages are dying out, legends are forgotten, and stones are lost and overgrown ... "

Menhir Bakhchisarai

The Bakhchisarai menhir is located at the southern cliff of the Inner ridge of the Crimean Mountains near the village of Glubokiy Yar. In the middle ages there was a settlement of Balta-chokrak. Chokrak is a Crimean Tatar source, and balta is an ax or a hammer.
Menhir, according to the generally accepted international classification, is a single, upright stone pillar, representing a monument of megalithic culture (from the Greek megas-large and lithos-stone).

Menhir near the Gluboky Yar is one of the few surviving in Crimea where it was installed in antiquity. According to the calculations of scientists, this could have been around 1900 BC. Other Stone Age sites in the area confirm that the local population had very sophisticated stone-working skills and engineering knowledge to move multi-ton boulders over long distances. Higher in the mountains near the village of Vysokoe, for example, two diabase stelae were found, on which, with the help of hydrofluoric acid and bronze tools, ritual images that were quite complex in terms of plots and graphics were carved. One of these steles is exhibited in the Republican Museum of Local Lore in Simferopol, right in the lobby.

Thus, the Bakhchisarai menhir cannot be considered a random play of nature. This is a specially created astronomical structure. Along with other megalithic monuments, it testifies to the presence in those days of authoritarian leaders, wise priests, skilled craftsmen, and in general. a sufficiently high standard of living.
The menhir is 4 meters high and 2 meters wide.

In the rock to the east of the menhir, at a distance of about 400 m, there is an artificial through hole in a natural grotto. On the days of the vernal and autumnal equinox (March 21 and September 23), the sun rises from behind this rock, a ray of the sun passes through the hole in the grotto and hits exactly the top of the menhir.

Thus, in ancient times, this menhir served as an accurate astronomical calendar for the local population, similar to the famous Stone Henge in Great Britain.

It remains a mystery what kind of tribes they were, what language they spoke, how strong their spiritual and trade ties were with other tribes that left megaliths from Siberia to England.

Crimean menhirs

There is a lot of mysterious and mysterious things in Crimea. Take menhirs - large rough stones, placed vertically (from the Greek "megas" - large and "lithos" - stone). Why and when they were created - on this score, there are only assumptions and guesses. These ancient idols stand and are silent about some forgotten customs and aspects of the life of long-lost civilizations ...
Several menhirs are known on the peninsula: two - in the village of Rodnikovsky in the Baydar Valley, three - were discovered during excavations of a sanctuary in Scythian Naples, one more - the largest - is located in the Bogaz-Sala gully, 7 kilometers from Bakhchisarai.

The Bakhchisarai menhir is located in the upper reaches of the Bogaz-Sala tract, not far from the village of Glubokiy Yar. After the Bakhchisarai ring on the Sevastopol-Simferopol highway, take the first turn to the right and drive through the peach orchard. Soon the road climbs onto the right (orographically) side of the beam. At first there is no road there, just a field, and then suddenly it looms. Passing a pine strip, through a passage cut in the rock, we get ... no, not yet to the menhir.

Here we are interested in a grotto gaping in a monolithic rock. The walls of a small cave are smoked with the smoke of bonfires. It is clearly seen that the grotto and the surrounding area have been used for economic purposes for a long time. There are many different clearings in the limestone: steps, round and rectangular poles for posts, and a large opening that looks like a door. In terms of the technique of creating the felling, including the "door", it is attributed to the late Middle Ages - it was then that the creation of such structures was widespread.

It is obvious that at all times the grotto was used as a temporary shelter by shepherds grazing cattle on the slopes of the ravine. This assumption is supported by the fact that earlier the outer open side of the grotto was "sewn up" with boards, the grooves from which were well preserved in the floor and the stream of the grotto. The lonely figure of a shepherd with a small herd of cows still looms below.

The Bakhchisarai menhir turned out to be what it should have turned out to be - a roughly hewn rectangular stone block 4x2 meters. One glance is enough to make sure that this stone is not a random play of nature, but the work of human hands.

Back in the late 90s, a hypothesis appeared according to which a four-meter stone and a grotto with a hole on the opposite slope is a kind of solar calendar of the ancients. The menhir and the hole, located on the same east-west axis, are, as it were, parts of a colossal optical instrument. On the days of the spring and autumn equinox (March 21 and September 23), the sun rises from behind the rock, a ray of the sun passes through the hole in the grotto and hits exactly the top of the menhir. This was the starting point of time.

Menhirs are a fertile theme for fantasies, including scientific ones. The main version of the appearance of such stone steles is some cult goals. There is no need to convince esotericists that menhirs stand in special "zones of power" where energy flows that go into the Cosmos converge. Another assumption is that menhirs are ancient observatories. Stonehenge 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, where the sun rises on the longest day of the year. By the way, the involvement of the Bakhchisarai menhir in astronomy was established by the employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory A. Lagutin, who for many years carried out observations, meeting the sunrise at the menhir.

In general, there are many versions, you can choose to taste. In any case, the menhir is unusually attractive for its loneliness and mystery.

Skel menhirs

Skel Menhirs (III - II millennium BC) - a cult astronomical structure of the Stone Age. The most famous building of this kind in the world is Stonehenge. Preserved near the village of Rodnikovoye (Skela), at the entrance to the village, on the left, near the first stone house (club). Skel menhirs are stone blocks of marbled limestone placed vertically in the form of obelisks. There are two of them: a large one, 2.8 m high, the other is squat, its height is less than 1.2 m. There was also a third one, 0.85 m high, but in the 50s it was dug out during the construction of a water supply system. The local name of this place is Tekli-Tash ("set stone"). The larger one weighs more than 6 tons, but there are no quarries nearby, and the nearest rocks are visible only a few kilometers away. Menhirs are said to heal well. A lone menhir stands above an underground stream of water, and at the point where rivers intersect with each other. It is assumed that water is a concentration of accumulation and storage of energy and information. And in the place where the rivers are woven into a ball, the water acquires the properties of a magic crystal. Other studies have shown that menhirs, like a snake, are entwined with an upward energy ribbon. And they stand at the points of accumulation of negative energy, transforming it into positive. Such places are popularly called zones of Power. As soon as you touch the megalith, your hands seem to be washed by an invisible stream of water.

Baydar (Skel) menhirs

The most famous monument of primitive man in the vicinity of Sevastopol is located in the center of the Baydar Valley, in the village of Rodnikovskoe (formerly Skeli) - the oldest example of conscious human construction activity, the first example of architecture.

Menhir means "long stone" in Breton. This word denotes long stone idols, vertically dug into the ground, which are cult monuments of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. They are known in Western Europe, North Africa, India, Siberia. They exist in the Caucasus and Crimea. Skel Menhirs are the largest known in Southeast Europe. They were discovered near the village of Skela (now - the village of Rodnikovskoe, Bakhchisarai region) 85 years ago by the archaeologist N.I. Rennikov. In Tatar, these stone obelisks are called "temke-tash" ("set stone").

There are two menhirs, these are monolithic blocks of marbled limestone, covered with cracks, mosses or lichens. In 1978 they were examined by A. A. Schepinsky. He noted that the menhirs with their "facade" and "rear" are located almost along the north-south line, and the compacted sides are oriented to the east and west. And although such monuments are quite common in Europe and Asia (in Siberia, in the Caucasus, the largest menhir, more than 20 m in height, is located in France, in Brittany), the monuments of the Baydar Valley are the largest found in southeastern Europe. ... He believes that they had a cult significance, and attributes their appearance to the III - early II millennium BC. It is possible that the ancient inhabitants of these places who established them, like the creators of the famous English Stonehenge, which has the same four thousand years of age, were engaged in astronomical observations.

Simferopol historian and archaeologist A.A.Stolbunov came to the same conclusion. Skelsky menhirs rise on a flat ground near the building of the Rodnikovsky village club. One of them - Bolshoi - with an elevated height of about 2.6 m (up to 1 m across), the other - Small - has a height of 0.85 m (width up to 0.8 m). They are made of marbled limestone, which composes the main ridge of the Crimean mountains. There is nothing nearby that looks like a quarry - it was brought from the mountains and, apparently, from afar. Imagine the effort it took to transport the menhir and set it upright.
The top of the Big Menhir has a conical shape, the Small one is flattened. The site has not been fully studied. Only in the 1960s. The third menhir (fragment) was excavated in Rodnikovsky, and in 1989 the fourth, fallen menhir was discovered, about 2.4 m high (up to 0.8 m in diameter). Skelsky< менгиры охраняются в составе Байдарского ландшафтного заказника, созданного в 1990 г.

Alley of menhirs of Arkaim

Probably, in the modern world there is no person who would be interested in ancient history and did not hear about such colossi of the cult architecture of Eurasia as Stonehenge or the ranks of menhirs in Le Meneque. However, how many people know that in our Trans-Ural steppes in the Late Bronze Age a megalithic cult was highly developed? Alleys of menhirs and single menhirs of the Southern Trans-Urals do not differ in colossal size, but monuments of a megalithic nature were widespread, and the expressive features of their construction eloquently speak of the special sacred significance of these complexes in the culture of the population of the Late Bronze Age of our steppes. One of these monuments - the Simbirsk Alley of Menhirs - is currently represented among the objects of the historical park of the Arkaim Museum-Reserve.

The alley was excavated in 1990 by a detachment of the archaeological expedition of the Chelyabinsk State University under the leadership of I.E. Lyubchansky during archaeological research in the construction zone of the Ilyassky reservoir in the Kizilsky district of the Chelyabinsk region. After the research work, the alley was dismantled and transported to the reserve in order to preserve the monument, which was located in the zone of the planned flooding. The Simbirsk Alley of Menhirs is an example of an unknown cult widespread in the Trans-Ural steppes in antiquity.

The sites studied and discovered in the South Trans-Urals can be divided into 4 types:

* Single menhirs.
* Alleys of menhirs in the form of a straight line.
* Alley of menhirs in the form of an arc.
* Complexes of menhirs.

What particular culture of the Late Bronze Age did the menhirs and menhir alleys belong to? What cult were they dedicated to - solar-lunar, phallic? What did the menhir dug into the ground symbolize? From whom did the alley guard? What role did the megalithic monuments play in the development of the cultural space by the ancient population of the Eurasian steppes? Archaeologists are now trying to answer all these questions. Today, these mysterious stones have not been sufficiently studied, but in the course of research over the years, some interesting patterns have emerged.

Almost all the studied megalithic complexes are located in close proximity to the monuments of the Late Bronze Age. Most often these are settlements, less often - burial grounds. There are cases when a complex of monuments of the same time and located in the immediate vicinity is represented: a settlement - a communal cult object (megalith) - a communal necropolis (for example, the monuments of the Sistema microdistrict in the Kartalinsky district of the Chelyabinsk region, exploration and excavation of V.P. Kostyukov in 1989 and F.N. Petrova in 2001). Megalithic monuments are not only located near settlements, but occupy a strictly defined position relative to them. The monuments seem to be lined up along a certain semantic line: settlement - megalith - burial ground / hill. In the landscape, it looks like this: a river - a settlement (for example, on the first terrace above the floodplain) - then, along a smoothly rising terrain - a menhir or an alley of menhirs (in almost all cases this is the slope of the nearest, often quite low hill) - further, on the indicated line the top of the hill described above will be located. In some cases, when the settlements near the menhir or the menhir alley are not fixed, there is, as it were, a part of the above scheme: megalith - burial ground. In this case, the burial ground will also be located in the landscape above the megalith, as if replacing or anticipating the hill dominating the surrounding area (for example, the Peschanka menhir alley, excavations by S.S. Markov, 2002). Preferably, the specified line or axis runs along a north-south line, often with deviations. This is probably due to the general arrangement of the landscape, in which the alley must be located on the slope of a hill, for example, in the case of the Simbirskaya alley of menhirs, the alley was located to the east of the settlement, that is, the settlement was accordingly located to the west of the nearest hill. Apparently, the location of the cult megalithic complex precisely on the hillside played a particularly important role in its construction, even if (in very rare cases) no settlements or burial grounds were recorded near the megalith. For example, two menhir alleys investigated in the 2002 field season on the Cheka mountain massif in the Kizil district of the Chelyabinsk region (Cheka I and Cheka II). No settlements or burial grounds were found in the immediate vicinity of these monuments, however, both alleys, like most of the menhirs of the Southern Trans-Urals, were lined up along a west-east line and were located on a hillside.

Excavations of megalithic sites provide a wide variety of data. And this, in its own way, makes their analysis even more difficult. In fact, today researchers can only say with a certain degree of confidence that the chronological origin of most of the Trans-Ural megaliths is the Late Bronze Age. This is the time of close contacts on the territory of our region of the Alakul (eastern) and Timber (western) tribes.

The main results of excavations in the steppe zone are material traces of just such contacts. In addition, there is still a single case of obtaining materials from the Cherkaskul (forest) tribes during excavations (excavations of the Akhunovo megalithic complex in the Trans-Ural part of the Republic of Bashkortostan, FN Petrov, 2003). Also, as a result of these excavations, materials were obtained, presumably dated to an earlier period - the Eneolithic.

During the excavations of some megalithic monuments of the Southern Trans-Urals, the remains of burials (cremations and corpses) were discovered, which in itself speaks of different cultural traditions or a mixture of them. It is difficult to say whether they were traces of special burials. In the case of the cremations, neither the grave pit nor the corresponding implements (vessels or altars) were found. The only case of a complete burial rite encountered was recorded on a single menhir of Lisya Gora (excavations by FN Petrov, 2003). The burial was carried out according to the Srubnaya rite.

What did these burials, performed outside the traditional necropolis of the community, mean? Was there an abnormal death (such as a strange illness)? Or did the deceased have some special status during his lifetime? In the case of the Fox Mountain menhir, where the burial of a woman with two nursing babies was discovered, one can assume either death from natural causes, or ritual murder - the sacrifice of twins by the community, whose birth was probably considered a bad sign, and their mother. Also, burials on megalithic sites could be a “construction sacrifice” widely known in the cult practice of different peoples (Taylor, 1989).

There is one more relatively new direction in the study of ancient monuments, including megalithic ones - this is archaeoastronomy. Researchers working in this direction suggest that some astronomical rituals associated with agricultural cycles could have been performed on megalithic sites. For example, during the excavations of the Simbirskaya alley of menhirs, the remains of a cremation were found, located inside a certain wooden or stone structure. Their location emphasizes the north-east direction relative to the center of the alley. This direction is generally significant for near-horizon astronomy, since it marks the direction of the sunrise on the days of the summer solstice, and was of particular importance in the ritual (including funeral) practice of antiquity. It is also appropriate to mention the fact that during excavations at the most famous megalithic monument in Europe - Stonehenge (this is one of the most ancient observatories), traces of cremation were also found (J. Wood, 1981, pp. 227-228). A possible analogy in this case does not allow us to speak about some kind of kinship or continuity of cultures, but it can emphasize by the very presence of human sacrifice the special significance of the megalithic cult in the life of ancient societies.

A special place in the study of the megaliths of the Southern Trans-Urals is occupied by the question of artistic sidework found on stones - zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, extremely rare for menhirs of this territory. Why is this so? Researchers have no reason to believe that the people of the Bronze Age - the creators of amazingly beautiful dishes made of clay and small stone sculptures - did not know how to reproduce artistic images. Known more ancient in time, relative to the menhirs of the South Trans-Urals, Okunev steles, on which you can trace the achievements in stone processing, and extraordinary stylistics. In fact, all artistic creative skills were perceived by humanity at the earliest stage of its development - in the ancient Stone Age. “From XXX to X millennium BC. NS. all the basic principles of fine art have been mastered - in the ensemble and in its individual components, in compositions and in decor. Creation of the sacred space of the "temple"; the canon of a figure unfolded on a plane; frieze and heraldic construction of the stage; the relationship between a thing and its embodiment; interaction of the form of the object and the image. Whatever we touch, everything has its own post-types, post-images, everything is developed in the subsequent multi-thousand-year history of human art ”(Laevskaya, 1997, p. 23). However, among the menhirs of the Southern Trans-Urals, among which there was only a few cases of a hard-to-guess attempt to give the stone some not quite clear shape, there is only one reliable case of finding an image - this is one of the two central steles of the Akhunovo megalithic complex. Judging by the state of the image on this stone, and it is very deplorable, it can be assumed that time itself (geological weathering to which the stone was constantly exposed) erased the work of ancient masters from the monuments. But this is only a version.

It can also be assumed that no images were applied to most of the menhirs of the steppe Trans-Urals at all. The semantic load of complexes, alleys and single menhirs was completely different, not in any way tied to the morphology of individual stones. “The essence of ancient art, especially monumental art, was determined by its special function, which differs from the function of modern art. Not so much a reflection, copying of reality, but a recreation of the worldview foundations of being with the aim of influencing both the real and the illusory spheres of society's life - these ideas determined the specifics of the creation and functioning of ancient monuments of this kind. The art of creating a monument (stele, menhir, statues, etc.), thus, was thought and perceived as a demiurgic religious-magical process designed to ensure the normal interaction of the human world with the world of gods, ancestors and heroes "(Samashev, Olkhovsky, 1996. P. 218). Thus, we can assume that for the South Ural builders of megalithic monuments, the most significant could be both the structure itself, the “architecture” of the structure, and its position inside or outside the cultural “civilized” space of the community.

So, as we can see, the problem of studying megalithic monuments is very multifaceted. This is a relatively new direction in the study of the ancient societies of the Southern Trans-Urals. Here, broad prospects are presented for research in various fields, both archeology itself and searches in the field of mythology, religious studies, art history. In the field work of archaeologists, paleosol scientists and astronomers are already taking an active part, the data they obtained expand the possibilities of archaeologists in terms of clarifying the chronology and reconstructing the spiritual life of ancient societies.

Disputes about the correct naming of the monuments do not subside. Is it right to call them "megaliths"? Indeed, the bulk of the Trans-Ural menhirs are not so large, although there are individual stones of very impressive sizes. But we think that the main criterion is not at all the size of a particular stone. It is worth thinking about this cultural phenomenon more deeply. Neolithic steles with "masks", deer stones of different cultures and eras, Scythian "stone women", Turkic memorial sculpture and, finally, Er-Gra and Stonehenge. Ancient stones have been standing on the vast territory of the Eurasian steppe for thousands of years. Installing them was not always such a laborious task, but it required the efforts and intellectual potential of the entire community. So the use of the term "megalith" seems to us to be quite legitimate in the meaning of not "big stone", but "more than a stone."

The energy invested in the construction of menhirs' alleys or the installation of single stones was more of a spiritual nature than a physical one, and the traces of this spiritual culture, left to us by the ancient population of the South Ural steppes, are still waiting to be solved.

Menhir of the North Caucasus

In different countries of the world and on different continents: in Asia, in America, and in Europe, you can see megalithic structures called dolmens. In addition to dolmens on the territory of the Earth, both in the coastal parts of the world and in the interior of the mainland, you can see mysterious and rather strange pillars, which are called menhirs. These are huge pillars made of solid stone.
The dimensions and mass of menhirs are unusually large, for example, a stone pillar or menhir, which is located in the French city of Lokmariaker, reaches a height of twenty-three meters, and its mass is three hundred and thirty tons. Sometime in the distant past, it was destroyed, possibly at the hands of humans, perhaps from a natural phenomenon. And now this menhir is destroyed into 3 parts, each of which weighs several tons. Such megalithic structures as menhirs are one of the most common on Earth. So in some regions of Western Europe, you can find up to 100 menhirs. In addition, dolmens and cromlechs are often located next to menhirs, which indicates their relationship, which is not clear to modern people.

There are dolmens in Russia, which are located in the Caucasus, and there are quite a few of them, but there are practically no menhirs, or they are destroyed. Those who built these huge stone structures considered that menhirs did not belong here, which is quite likely. But still, in the North Caucasus there is one menhir, which is considered a classic representative of such structures. This menhir is located in a small settlement called Khamyshki. Menhir, which is a local attraction here, is visited by crowds of tourists from different cities of Russia and even other countries of the world. This menhir stands on the left bank of the river, which is called Belaya, and next to it there is a trough-shaped dolmen. Petroglyphs are written on this dolmen, and there is a stone bowl nearby. The dolmen was saved from destruction when it was moved one hundred and fifty meters from the construction of the highway connecting Guzeripl and Maikop, to the territory of a private park.

The dolmen standing next to the menhir previously looked like a flower that rose from the ground, but the rock from which this flower was made split right where the hole is. Part of the dolmen lies on its side, namely the part that was at the very top. Near this place is a menhir, it is slightly smaller than the other, which was mentioned above. There is also a huge stone bowl, which may have functioned as a vessel for sacrificial blood or sacred water.
A private park, on the territory of which all these stone structures are located, is just beginning to be built. This park can already be visited, and it is quite cozy and pleasant to visit here. In addition, in the village of Goncharka there is a "Museum of Stones", where you can see the megalithic stone menhirs.

Let us turn to some of the peculiarities of the menhirs installation. These are not stone pillars dug into the ground, but a pillar made of a certain type of stone. Menhir was placed on a flat stone slab, which lay horizontally to the surface of the earth, and a special depression was made in it. This depression was equipped with a special insert on which the megalithic stone menhir itself was placed. The bottom of the stone was covered with soil, reinforced with stones and sod so that the menhir could stand for a long time.

Akhunov menhirs: message of the ancients

The last decades have been marked by an unrelenting growth of human interest in its distant past, a recapitulation of the fundamental foundations of Darwinism, the discovery of archaeological monuments that give new ideas about the ancient ways of life of the current human race. Among them are Stonehenge, Arkaim, Ryazan Spassky Luki, Tibetan pyramid mountain Kailash and ... Bashkir Stonehenge - Akhunov megaliths of the Uchalinsky region.

Intrigued by the stories about the Bashkir menhirs, we headed towards Akhunovo. We were met by the acting the head of the local administration, a historian by education Amir Kharisov.

In 2003, archaeologists from the Chelyabinsk Scientific Center "Arkaim" excavated the place where the menhirs were installed, found artifacts, took them, but on the condition that they return finds that are valuable for the history of Bashkortostan. They did not keep their word. The latest publications in newspapers say that representatives of the most ancient civilization, the Aryans, lived in our land many thousands of years ago, who then built Arkaim and went to the east. Our local historian Zhavdat Aitov, the discoverer and keeper of local historical monuments, is well aware of this. He did not study anywhere, he comprehends everything and can tell you a lot.

Amir Kharisov has no doubts that the Akhunovsky menhirs are a horizontal astronomical observatory. According to available information, as shown by the scientific research of the heads of the historical and archaeological center "Arkaim" F.N. Petrova, A.K. Kirillov, with the help of the megalithic complex, the priests observed the starry sky, the movement of the sun and moon, which made it possible to maintain a systematic calendar containing key astronomical dates: the days of the summer and winter solstices - June 22 and December 22, as well as the spring and autumn equinoxes. The obtained data, scientists say, make it possible to consider the Akhunovo megalithic monument as one of the largest ancient observatory in Eurasia in terms of the number of observed astronomical events. Based on the totality of archaeological and archaeoastronomical data, it can be assumed that it was built in the 4th millennium BC. Shards of clay pots and animal bones found at the complex date from the Late Paleolithic, that is, they are more than 10 thousand years old.

The only direct analogue of the Akhunovo megalithic complex currently known in Eurasia is the larger English megalithic monument Stonehenge, which has a fundamentally similar structure and reflects a similar level of astronomical knowledge.

And our Zhavdat, who is fifty years old today, while still a schoolboy, when the development of virgin lands was going on, suddenly declared, - continues Amir Iskandarovich, - that there is an ancient burial ground on the mound and should not be disturbed and destroyed.
We met Zhavdat Talgatovich riding a bicycle along the street of the village. He has been working as a plumber for a long time, fixing leaks. I got into the car from my bicycle to our place without further questioning, showing the way to the megaliths, just as then, in 1996, to the first Chelyabinsk archaeologists.

I went to the place of worship of these shamans when I was a boy, - first of all said Zhavdat, getting into the car. - My grandmother treated this place with great respect, went there to pray and considered it an ancient sanctuary, in our opinion: "awliya kabere". To some extent, she even guarded him. Apparently, the mission of the keeper of the secrets of the ages was inherited and passed on to me ...
Zhavdat Aitov knows his seven generations, and as long as he remembers himself, something always pulled him to the mysterious stones. Information about the religious uniqueness of the ancient temple was passed from one generation to another, the villagers bypassed it. Even when the garden of the Krasny Partizan collective farm was being built nearby in the 1930s, stones were brought from outside, and the ancient “calendar” was not disturbed. Until it's time to open it up to the world.
“It was I who showed the Chelyabinsk people the way to the stones,” continues Zhavdat, “and four years ago I gave them the bronze medallion I found - a shaman sign - it was worn by those who installed these menhirs. It is a cross enclosed in a circle. I thought that they would explain its meaning, but there is no information or a cross to this day.
Meanwhile, the car drove up to the bank of the Aykreelga rivulet and Zhavdat pointed to several hewn stones (menhirs) set vertically.
- I myself noticed that by the stones you can determine where the sun will rise, where the moon will appear. Especially during the full moon, - says Zhavdat Talgatovich. “But it seems to me that this“ calendar ”has a completely different purpose. Here the shamanic road began to their holy place, where they prayed to God. It passed between the "northern" and "southern" menhir to the east, towards the forests.
The "calendar" consists of 10 menhirs, but one more, according to Zhavdat, with mysterious drawings and signs, the priests and the wise men took with them or hid somewhere.

To the west of the object is Mount Uslutau with a height of 666 meters. Note that the top of the Tibetan Kailash, a world place of worship, is located at an altitude of 6666 meters. Weird coincidence! While at the Akhunovsky "Stonehenge", you can see that in the spring and autumn, on the days of the equinox, the sun sets just behind Uslutau. And this can no longer be a mere coincidence. Sluztau in translation from Bashkir means "peak peak", and some dreamers call Akhunovo the navel of the earth. This means that the locations of the menhirs and the sanctuary itself were carefully selected.
“In ancient times, this territory was revered as a great source and was considered sacred,” says Konstantin Bystrushkin, a Chelyabinsk resident, author of the books The Phenomenon of Arkaim, The People of the Gods. - The megalithic complex in Akhunovo is more than an observatory, more than Stonehenge. Why did the ancient builders erect a whole megalithic complex here?

The answer to this question was found after careful measurements. It turns out that the line passing through the two central menhirs deviates from the north-south magnetic direction by 13 degrees. In this case, the northern menhir points to the dominant peak in the area, Uslutau, located 14 kilometers from the object. And the southern menhir points to the hill separating Akhunovo from the Karagai pine forest. And this hill lies on the same meridian with ... Arkaim.
In addition, the Akhunov “stones” are located practically on the same latitude as the English Stonehenge and the Ryazan “Stonehenge” Spasskiye Luki.

Zhavdat Aitov believes that there are several similar "calendars" in the vicinity of Akhunovo, one of them was destroyed in 1947. All of them together represent some kind of complete ensemble, a sign that can be seen from a height, and maybe even from space. Since, according to the local historian, the ancient people studied the movement of stars, for example, the Big Dipper, they probably owned the secrets of astrology and knew how the arrangement of heavenly bodies affects earthly processes and people. After all, everything in space is interconnected.

By the way, ufologists who have raided Akhunovo believe that this megalithic complex is nothing more than a landing strip for UFOs, or a sign for the cosmic mind .. And a couple of tourists who come to bow to the "stones" really saw flying glowing balls over Akhunovo , and Zhavdat saw the "saucer" itself, hovering at night 900 meters from him with running lights along its circumference and about a hundred meters in diameter.

It's a shame that the people of Arkaim closed the bronze cross, - Zhavdat continues to be indignant, - they didn't show it, they didn't tell the world, but meanwhile it is a symbol of the Aryan belief. After all, the shamanic road also leads to the top of the mountain - a place of worship and rituals, where a stone wall 15 meters long was built by the Aryans. Such huge stones were raised, in what way is it interesting if the heaviest weighs one and a half tons? There are two circles there. I just showed the people of Arkaim this place, the next year I looked - everything was dug up there ... Well, you can't treat the sanctuaries like that ... I am very offended ... Here we go here.
Zhavdat Talgatovich brings me to a certain point of the sanctuary.

Here stood the chief shaman, the priest, and presided over the ceremony, while others stood around him. They sang, danced, beat a tambourine - they talked with the gods, the elements of nature. Yes, and the gods lived among them ...
The ancients knew that God is one and at the same time multiple; he has many faces as natural elements - fire, wind, earth, water. They knew the laws of nature and lived in harmony with them. Friendship with the elements and honoring the pagan God - Rod and deities - Veles, Perun, Mitra, Roof, Zhavdat believes, they cultivated wonderful harvests, controlled the weather, ensured peace and spiritual order in the village. The main deity of the Aryan-Slavs was the sun god - Ra - the god of fertility, light, Vedic knowledge, peace, prosperity. It was to him that the medallion given to the residents of Chelyabinsk was dedicated - a cross in a circle, denoting four solar signs a year.
“In addition, they deified the disappeared third stone, probably of alien origin,” Zhavdat surprises. - We drew strength and knowledge from him. Where is this stone?

The latest discoveries of scientists indicate that the famous teacher and prophet Zarathushtra was born and preached in the South Urals, near Mount Iremel. He was a kind of conductor of divine knowledge about nature, world order, spiritual laws, and one of the founders of the solar religion - Zoroastrianism and Mithraism, to which an unprecedented interest has flared up in society recently. And the ancient people, who took a liking to the vicinity of Akhunov, are none other than the Zoroastrians, who then left for Iran and India ...

Menhirs treat infertility?
One Ufa woman, who is fond of esotericism and everything unusual, told us that the megalithic complex in Akhunovo is famous as a healer of infertile women. What is the reason, it was not possible to find out. Maybe with the fact that the central menhir has a phallic shape ... Or maybe with the fact that the god of fertility was worshiped here ... But
Ufimka assures that women do come to Akhunovo and stand near the menhir for a long time.
- Yes, I heard about it, - confirmed Zhavdat Talgatovich. - Our "calendar" also has healing properties ...
... We were leaving, and Zhavdat continued:
- Akhunovo is located between the mountains, like in a plate. Where is its center, the main point of observation of the priests? It would be necessary to excavate all the objects, connect them mentally and try to decipher the information contained in them. But it seems to me that no one will ever succeed ...
And I thought that the megalithic complex carries the message of the ancients of our time. But what is it? Good or Bad?
The question remains open, we will come back here ...