At Stonehenge in England stand huge stones, some as high as 24 feet, arranged in three circles, one inside the other.
They seem to be in that pattern for a reason, but until only recently, no one knew that reason. People could only guess that it was an ancient temple, which, according to radiocarbon tests, was built in 2200 B.C.
Then in 1966, Gerald Hawkens, an astronomy professor, fed the pattern of the stones into a computer and found the purpose of Stonehenge. It is not, as many believed, an ancient temple.
By checking the rising and setting of the sun at different times of the year through various openings in the circles of stones, Hawkens discovered that Stonehenge was a kind of seasonal calendar by which to calculate the rising and setting of the sun and moon, and even to predict eclipses of the moon.
He found that every June 24th, Midsummer’s Day, a person could stand in the exact center of the circle and know that the rising sun would shine directly on him through a line of stone pillars. As a calendar, this stone structure is amazingly accurate, a tribute to ancient astronomers who lived more than 4,000 years ago!
Professor Hawkens estimated that it took 1,500,000 man workdays to construct Stonehenge!
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2 Comments
i never thought about it that way
wooooowww – i never knew tht i have learmt something nu 2day – fanxx