The ancients all that was alive, including stone, had a sacred content as a bearer of life, and in this they, from the philosophical point of view, were more "advanced" than we are.
Louis Charpentier.
In the Late Paleolithic era, architecture is emerging, which leads to a new aesthetic understanding of construction activities. The buildings are given figurative content.
And after metal tools appeared in the Bronze Age that allow you to process stone blocks, megalithic structures: dolmens, menhirs and cromlechs are widely used. These are the oldest monuments shrouded in a mystical halo and scattered throughout the planet.
Megaliths causing many questions
The structures with which people designated important places for them were built until the Middle Ages. Our ancestors owned information inaccessible to the majority of the uninitiated, and often built stone objects in geopathic zones.
For many centuries, archaeologists have been arguing about the origin of artifacts, putting forward a variety of versions. And the townsfolk are sure that they were not erected by humans, but by alien creatures or giants who previously lived on the earth.
It is believed that the era when megaliths appeared preceded ancient civilizations that left hundreds of riddles to descendants. The numerous dolmens of the Caucasus and the famous Stonehenge were built by the skillful hands of people who, by then, had vast experience in creating such artifacts.
What is cromlech
Interest in megalithic architecture does not subside to this day. It is believed that cromlechs are the most complex type of structures, which are several placed vertically oblong or shapeless stones forming a circle. Sometimes inside the structure is some other object.
In Breton, the word cromlech is translated as "a circle of stones." The shape of megaliths is most often oval or round, but there are rectangular structures and structures resembling flower petals.
Several versions of scientists
There is fierce debate over the purpose of cromlechs, and so far one thing is clear: stone blocks surround the place that people thought was important. And it was for his sake that they built monuments.
Scientists put forward several versions. Some believe that the artifact is a stone temple in the open. Primitive people thus ritually protected the sacred space.
Others put forward the theory that the buildings were used as observatories, where they watched the luminaries and recorded their positions.
Still others claim that cromlechs are a means of helping to prevent the destruction of artificial hills, and people deliberately stone high mounds.
And in some artifacts, several of these functions appear immediately.
Peculiar dance floors
There is another version to which many researchers are inclined. According to them, cromlechs are a kind of "dance halls", where people joined the rhythms of the universe. Dance, which is a religious means of communication, established between man and nature, in geopathic zones opened new horizons, filling the body with the energy of the Earth.
Therefore, scientists suggest that circular cromlechs played the role of dance floors, while rectangular ones performed all other functions.
The most famous cromlech of the world
The most famous megalith on our planet, collecting more than one million tourists a year, is Stonehenge, located in the UK, near the city of Salisbury.
There are many rumors around the ancient building, and many believe that extraterrestrial civilizations are involved in the construction of the UNESCO-protected landmark. Now scientists are sure that this is the oldest observatory in the world, which appeared around 2300 BC.
Mystical Monument of Great Britain
Cromlech Stonehenge, the most famous megalith, is a temple associated with the cult of the Sun, which most likely was built by ancient tribes living in Britain.
The stone structure in the south of the country was originally a ring-shaped rampart surrounded by a deep moat, along the inside of which archaeologists have discovered more than fifty holes.
Later, two circles were erected from powerful stones of a blue-gray hue, and in the heart of the ring was a multi-ton block, called the "altar". After several decades, the bluish slabs of Stonehenge cromlech were replaced by sand monoliths.
On June 21, a mystical monument gathers an incredible number of tourists and pilgrims hurrying here to celebrate the summer solstice festival. When the star rises above the gigantic ring, a motley audience dances and thanks the Sun in different languages.
Artifacts of the North Caucasus
Those who want to join the monuments of megalithic culture do not have to go to England to take a look at ancient Stonehenge with their own eyes. No less interesting artifacts are literally at our side - on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.
In the area of Tuapse, Gelendzhik, Sochi granite structures resembling houses with a round hole are scattered. Moreover, the hole is so narrow that an adult cannot get into it. Often near the buildings they find peculiar traffic jams that exactly fit the manhole.
Such different megaliths
Dolmens of the Caucasus are monolithic and composite, consisting of several stone slabs. Scientists believe that they were built about ten thousand years BC. The structures are oriented to the cardinal points, and each place of construction was not chosen by chance.
The Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory is recognized as the largest accumulation of megaliths on earth, containing ancient knowledge.
Near the village of Krasnaya Polyana, in the Achishkho gorge, ten dolmens rise. And about 20 are deep underground.
Mamedovo Gorge in the Lazarevsky District of Sochi is famous for its amazing trough-shaped dolmen, which was created in order to point to the point of sunrise at the equinoxes. Moreover, in shape it is very similar to a pyramid, in which the top was cut off.
The monolithic Volkonsky dolmen, which has become a popular tourist attraction, is perfectly preserved. Located in the Sochi National Park, it was a funeral and religious building. The chamber shrouded in legends of the monument is carved through a small hole in the rock.
In addition, about 500 stone giants with traces of processing were found in the Krasnodar Territory. Plates lying on the ground with bowl-shaped recesses or holes can hardly be called astronomical instruments, and scientists are still puzzling over what cromlechs were built for.
Zaporizhzhya megaliths
Archaeologists claim that the cradle of many ancient civilizations is the territory between the Dnieper and Volga rivers - the ancestral home of the Indo-European peoples. An incredible number of archaeological sites have been preserved here, from Scythian mounds to sacred steles and cromlechs.
In the Dnieper region, archaeologists study pagan structures - very complex structures that are vaguely reminiscent of Stonehenge. In the Zaporozhye region, on the island of Khortytsya, there are several dozen artifacts. Scientists have discovered a cult complex consisting of 12 cromlechs in which the remains of the sanctuary are found. It turns out that several millennia ago at this place was a single sacred complex of gigantic proportions - the oldest structure on the planet. After restoration, it is available to all guests of the island visiting the historical and cultural complex "Zaporizhzhya Sich".
Nikolsky cromlech
Surprisingly, archaeologists claim that the famous cromlech, located in the village of Nikolskoye-on-Dnieper, was built at a time when the creators of the English Stonehenge had not yet been born.
The oval-shaped structure was most likely the habitat of the ancestral spirit and a source of powerful strength. An interesting design, called the “Temple of the Seven Gates,” was a sacred place of the pagans who communicated here with the dead and sacrificed to them.
Discoveries just around the corner?
Perhaps in the near future archaeologists will discover new traces of civilizations that have disappeared from the face of the earth, and people will learn a lot of interesting things about past eras. Future great discoveries will help to know exactly the construction technology of unique structures, whose weight exceeds ten tons. And how did people who lived in times when there were no cars and good roads transported stone blocks? And the most famous megaliths, built as astronomical observatories, do not fit in with the image of a primitive man living in a cave and hunting for a mammoth.
While we ask a lot of questions, which, unfortunately, have no answers.