The simplest of megalithic structures. Secrets of ancient megaliths. Megaliths and folk tales

Megaliths (from the Greek μέγας - large, λίθος - stone) are structures made of huge stone blocks. Everyone knows about such stone structures as Stonehenge, Easter Island statues, Egyptian or Mayan pyramids, etc. But there are a lot of similar stone structures around the world. Let's talk about some of them.

Kalasasaya and Puma Punku (Tiahuanaco). The Incas believed that it was in this place that the creation of the world took place

Puma Punku is a complex of megalithic buildings located in Bolivia near the ancient site of Tiwanaku.

Puma Punku is a terraced hill covered with megalithic blocks. The size of the base is 167.36 m from north to south and 116.7 m from west to east. In the north-eastern and south-eastern corners of the complex there are 20-meter-wide projections extending 27.6 m from the rectangular embankment to the north and south. To the east is the Stone Platform (Plataforma Litica), which consists of a stone terrace measuring 6.75 m by 38.71 m and many huge stone blocks. One of the building blocks of the Stone Platform is the largest stone block found at Puma Punku and Tiwanaku. This red sandstone block is 7.81 m long, 5.17 m wide, and has an average thickness of 1.07 m. Its weight is estimated at 131 tons.

A notable feature of the Puma Punku is the I-shaped construction brackets made from a unique copper-arsenic-nickel alloy. These staples were also used on one of the canal sections found at the base of the Akapana pyramid at Tiwanaku. They were used to hold the blocks that made up the walls and bottom of stone channels. I-shaped brackets of unknown composition were used to hold together the massive slabs that make up the 4 large platforms

Terraces in Sacsauman, Cusco, Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, Tambo Macaya (Peru).

The colossal fortress is made of huge stone blocks, fitted to each other practically without gaps, and so skillfully that for many centuries they have stood unshakably without the slightest maintenance or repair. The Incas built this complex for protection from enemies. Here you can see three parallel powerful stone walls of a zigzag shape (there is a hypothesis that Sacsayhuaman was dedicated to the god of lightning). They are built from stone blocks, the largest of which is 8.5 m high and weighs about 200 tons. The longest wall is 400m and 6m high.

The purpose of the megalithic wall of Sacsayhuaman is a mystery, but it is not the only one left by ancient architects. No less mysterious is the question of the technique of such construction itself. Many researchers believe that cyclopean stone structures were erected by a more developed and more ancient culture, which existed here long before the arrival of the Incas.

Ollantaytambo

The scattering of stones here is also surprising - the stones scattered everywhere are more reminiscent of the fact that Ollantaytambo was once attacked by an enemy equal in strength to him. And the explosion scattered the megaliths around the area. And only one wall remained standing. And their huge size defies any logic, and even the fact that narrow stone layers are inserted between the stones, the purpose of which is not entirely clear. And even if we assume that they only hold the giants together so that they come closer to each other and do not fall apart, then the next question will be: how were they connected so precisely?
The giants stand with a slight slope; they are also supported from below by rather small stones. Scientists have suggested that previously the stones were lined with gold or quartz and, by reflecting the sun's rays, could be a powerful weapon against enemies, or a powerful source of energy.
The official version says that the Incas built this complex for a very long time, and that is why “tired” stones are scattered around in such quantities. It was as if they were not brought to the building site. But they carried them up the hill. And local historian Inca Garcilaso de la Vega reports that one day one of the rulers (Inca) tried to repeat the achievements of the past and took twenty thousand slaves to carry one of the stones up. People were unable to do this; moreover, the stone fell and crushed three thousand people. And even if the numbers lie, then, having reduced them by a factor of two, we still see: people cannot move megaliths with their own strength. It was some other technology.

In Ollantaytambo there are giant building blocks of andesite and pink porphyry scattered in the “sacred area” and the first row of terraces

A fantastic hypothesis was put forward on the website “Living Ethics in Germany” - the ancient builders of South American megalithic structures softened rocky matter to a jelly-like state with the help of their psychic energy. Then they cut it into huge blocks of arbitrary shape, transported them through the air to the building site using telekinesis, and there they laid them in the walls, fitting one to another through the same method of softening rock blocks into a plastic substance, giving them the desired shape on the spot. There is no other way known to us to build something like this today.

Baalbek in Lebanon

Most interesting buildings Baalbek has huge terraces. They are laid out from huge stone blocks weighing from 300 to 1000 tons (for example, the average weight of stone blocks in the Cheops pyramid is 2.5 tons), and they are laid without any binding composition and so precisely and neatly that you can even insert a needle between them very problematic.

The Temple of Jupiter did not survive to this day; it was destroyed by a powerful earthquake. All that remains of it are 6 columns 22 meters high

The three walls of this terrace are made of nine rows of monolithic blocks, each measuring 11 x 4.6 x 3.3 meters and weighing more than 300 tons. The fourth wall is special; it was made from three of the largest processed stones in the world. The weight of each of them is about 1000 tons, the dimensions are no less impressive - 29 x 4 x 3.6 meters. This wall is better known as Trilithon.

And this is the southern stone - in fact, the largest processed block of stone in the world, or rather, almost processed - part of it was never separated from the rock. The southern stone was found in a quarry a kilometer from the city. The weight of the monolith is more than 1000 tons.
Besides the fact that scientists argue over the question of who built Baalbek, it is also unclear how. Only one thing is known - all the stones were processed manually with a chisel, but how they were delivered there is unclear. The version about wooden rollers does not stand up to criticism; stones of such weight would turn a tree into dust and it would take about 50,000 people to move one such stone, which is incredible for that time, because There were even very few cities with such a population. In addition, the blocks had to be lifted and placed accurately. Today there are only a few cranes in the world capable of lifting such a weight. And then?

Megaliths in Asuka Park, Japan

One of the largest in the park is the Masuda Iwafune monolith, which is 11 meters long, 8 meters wide, and 4.7 meters high.
This huge stone, which was clearly hand-carved from a single piece of granite, weighs at least 7 tons. Surprisingly, the age of the monolith is more than 2.5 thousand years. Another amazing fact is that the granite rock from which the megaliths were made is incredibly strong, even with the use of modern equipment it is extremely difficult to leave even a scratch on its surface.

Residence of the Emperor of Japan - the styling is amazing

The city of Shravanabelagola, India, is famous for its carved columns, with a unique shape, the method of processing of which is still unclear to scientists

The ideal polished surface of the columns and intricate patterns amaze with perfection - how they did this with the help of chisels, chisels and other hand tools is difficult for researchers to answer.

The world's largest obelisk, weighing 500 tons and 32.9 m high, is located in Ethiopia, in the town of Axum.

Made of bluish granite and covered with mysterious carvings, the monolith has now fallen and split into several parts
The question of how and with what help this structure was made remains open. Moreover, scientists discovered that the obelisk goes deep underground - Beta Giorgis Hill, on which the so-called “Field of Steles” (Axum Stelae Field) is located, is a huge, 115-meter-long platform made of hewn basalt slabs. The largest slab on a rectangular platform is 33.5 m high and weighs about 500 tons. The remaining blocks are slightly smaller - 20-24 m. During excavations, scientists found that the stele is just the upper part of a structure, truly fantastic in size, hidden underground.

And here are our Russian mysterious buildings - Khabarovsk megaliths

Mount Vottovaara

Geologists believe that the cracks and faults were formed as a result of a strong earthquake about 9 thousand years ago. The even planes of the stones are the result of the properties of the local rock - quartzite, the structure of which determines such even planes when split.

But other researchers do not give this version a go - the stones are cut as if by a laser and some angles are exactly 90 degrees, in addition, stone balls were found under the stones - how quartzite could split and roll at the same time is not clear

The masonry is clearly visible here. Or is the split due to nature?

Mountain Shoria (Western Siberia, Mezhdurechensky district, Kameshki village)

The size of the blocks is impressive; according to one version, the find is a man-made structure over 100 thousand years old

Scientists have come to the unequivocal conclusion that these megalithic structures are man-made. But how they were raised to such a height, in the middle of the taiga, and most importantly why, is a mystery.

By the way, a huge block was found in Shoria; according to researchers, it is the brother of the block from Baalbek

Among the listed ruins, the ruins of the three walls (“fortress”) of Saxauman, about 600 m long, are of greatest interest. The first and second walls reach a height of 10 m, the third – 5 m. The lower (first) wall consists of andesite and diorite blocks weighing from 100 to 200 tons The largest of them measures 9 x 5 m x 4 m. The blocks of the second and third walls are slightly smaller than the blocks of the first tier.

But both of them are so precisely fitted to each other that it is impossible to insert even a knife blade between them. In addition, all blocks are polyhedra of rather complex shape. They were cut down in a quarry located 20 km from Sacsahuaman. Throughout these 20 km there areseveral gorges, steep ascents and descents!

Cusco
In Cusco there are remains of cyclopean walls made of huge stone blocks, also filigreely fitted to each other. One of these buildings is the Inca Palace.

Ollantaytambo
At Ollantaytambo, giant building blocks of andesite and pink porphyry are found in the base of the Temple of the Sun, the surviving fragments of the back wall and gate of the Temple of the 10 Niches, the "sacred area" (in scattered form) and the first row of terraces. They are also found in various hard-to-reach places in the river valley. Urubamba. Locals they call them “tired stones” (Spanish: piedras cansadas).

The website “Living Ethics in Germany” presents a truly fantastic hypothesis that the ancient builders of South American megalithic structures softened rocky matter to a jelly-like state with the help of their psychic energy. Then they cut it into huge blocks of arbitrary shape, transported them through the air to the building site using telekinesis, and there they laid them in the walls, fitting one to another through the same method of softening rock blocks into a plastic substance, giving them the desired shape on the spot. Only in this way can one explain the strange shape of the giant buildings of Ollantaytambo, the Inca Palace in Cusco, the walls of Sacsahuaman, the ruins of Tiahuanaco, the ahu pedestals on Easter Island and other similar buildings.

Read my work"Siddhi powers and reasons for the superhuman abilities of human predecessors"

Giant monolithic sculptures South America and Easter Island

In addition to the ruins, an important part of the megalithic culture of South America are giant monolithic sculptures in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, on the island. Easter, as well as "Olmec heads" in Mexico. The height of such sculptures reaches 7-10 m, and their weight is 20 tons or more. The height of the heads ranges from 2 to 3 m and weighs up to 40 tons.

Moai and ahu - megalithic structures of Easter Island

A particularly large number of sculptures - moai - are located on the island. Easter. There are 887 of them. The largest of them stand on a slopeRano Raraku volcano. They are neck-deep in sediments that have accumulated on the island over its long history. Some moai used to stand on stone pedestals - ahu. Total ahu exceeds 300. Their size ranges from several tens of meters to 200 m.
The largest moai “El Gigante” has a height of 21.6 m. It is located in the Rano Raraku quarry and weighs about 150 tons (according to other sources, 270 tons). The largest moai, Paro, standing on a pedestal, is located on the ahu Te Pito Kura. Its height reaches 10 m, and its weight is about 80 tons. The height of the moai scattered along the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano is also about 10 m.

Sculptures of human and animal heads on the Marcaguasi plateau

On a par with the ruins and giant sculptures you can put huge sculptures of human heads with features of Europeans and blacks, as well as images of monkeys, turtles, cows, horses, elephants, lions and camels on the Marcaguasi plateau in Peru, located at an altitude of about 4 km. At least two facts indicate the ancient age of these images. Firstly, the animals “engraved” on the plateau never lived at such a height. Secondly, most of them disappeared from the American continent long before Europeans appeared there - from 10-12 to 150-200 thousand years ago.

Stone balls made of granite and obsidian Central America and Mexico

Further evidence of the existence of highly developed civilizations in pre-Columbian America are stone balls made of granite and obsidian in Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the USA (New Mexico). Among them there are real giants with a diameter of up to 3 m.The determination of the absolute age of the Mexican obsidian balls showed that they were formedin the tertiary period "even before man appeared" (no later than 2 million years ago). Trying to find an explanation for this, the American scientist R. Smith hypothesized that they arose naturally from volcanic ash.

Megalithic structures of the Middle East

Baalbek in Lebanon
The ruins of megalithic structures and other ancient archaeological sites are known far beyond the borders of the American continent. The most magnificent of them are the ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon. The weight of each of the three stone blocks in Trilithon, located at the base of the Temple of Jupiter built by the ancient Romans, is 750 tons. The surfaces of the blocks are perfectly processed, and their dimensions are simply amazing: 19.1 x 4.3 x 5.6 m. Moreover, these monoliths are located... at an eight-meter height! They rest on slightly smaller blocks.

Half a kilometer south of the Temple of Jupiter from the earth at an angle of 30 hail sticks out the world's largest processed stone - Southern or Mother - weighing about 1200 tons and measuring 21.5 x 4.8 x 4.2 m
The author of the books “Gods of the New Millennium” and “The Way of the Phoenix,” Alan Alford, asked heavy-duty crane specialists whether it was possible to lift such a huge thing. They answered in the affirmative, but added that it would be possible to move with the block only if you put the crane on a crawler track and make good road. This means that the builders of the foundation of Baalbek had a similar technique?

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

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

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

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

History of the appearance of megalithic structures and types

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

Definition 1

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

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

Definition 2

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

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

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

Note 1

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

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

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

Definition 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Magical architecture of megalithic structures

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

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

The most beautiful megalithic structures in the world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1) Menhirs (from the Celtic word menhir) - one of the types of megalithic monuments in the form of individual vertically placed stones, sometimes forming parallel rows several kilometers long; found in Brittany (France), England and Scandinavia; on the territory of the USSR - in the Caucasus and Siberia.

2) Dolmens (from the Breton words tol - table, and men - stone) - structures of the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron Ages * in the form of huge stones, placed on edge and covered with a massive slab on top; found in Europe, India and other countries; in the USSR - in the Caucasus and Crimea; they had not only funeral, but also religious and magical significance.

*) Neolithic era - the last era of the Stone Age: 6-5 millennium BC. - 2nd millennium BC Characterized by a settled population, the emergence of cattle breeding and agriculture, and the invention of ceramics; stone tools are well polished; a variety of products made of bone and wood; spinning and weaving appear. Ancient bronze is an alloy of copper and tin; deposits of these metals are rare in nature, therefore bronze was highly valued and was accessible to few - along with bronze products, people continued to use stone tools, until the 7th century BC, when they began to mine iron from bog and other ores widely distributed in nature. Iron turned out to be an inexpensive and widely available metal of high quality; it soon replaced bronze products and became firmly established in the life of the peoples of the Old World. The Iron Age began.

3) Cromlechs (from the Breton words crom circle and lech - stone) are structures of the Neolithic era and mainly of the Bronze Age in the form of round fences made of huge stone blocks and pillars (up to 6-7 meters in height); found in Europe, Asia and America; most of them are in Western France (Brittany) and England; they certainly had religious and magical significance.

In the southern Russian steppes, until recently, cromlechs were preserved, encircling many mounds of the Yamsk culture of the 3rd millennium BC. This is a belt of large stone blocks or slabs placed on edge, with a diameter of up to 20 meters. According to academician A.A. Formozov, slabs of such a cromlech near the village of Verbovka in the Dnieper region, dragged 60 kilometers from near Chigirin, were covered with various geometric patterns. Once upon a time, a wooden tent rested on this stone ornamental frieze, and the earthen and turf foundation of the entire structure was hidden in the depths."

Cromlechs are structures of great antiquity, from various countries and peoples. H. P. Blavatsky in her "Secret Doctrine" mentions "a mysterious people who built circles of stones in Galilee and covered Neolithic flints in the Jordan Valley."

Both Western European and Russian researchers worked thoroughly on the study of megaliths, all of them have long been registered and described in detail in the scientific literature; a map of dolmens around the world has even been compiled. But little is still known about the occult significance of megaliths, and this information is often contradictory. It is impossible to use all the existing literature for a short article, so we must give preference to just a few serious fundamental works that deserve the greatest confidence. Such a work for us, esotericists, is, first of all, the “Secret Doctrine” of H. P. Blavatsky, in the second volume of which a thorough description is given of the most outstanding megalithic structures in many countries ancient world and their occult significance is explained. Therefore, we will use the material collected by H. P. Blavatsky and supplement it with information from other also reliable and trustworthy sources. Here is what H. P. Blavatsky writes about megalithic structures:

"The modern archaeologist, although he will speculate ad infinitum about dolmens and their builders, actually knows nothing about them or their origin. Nevertheless, these strange and often colossal monuments of rough stones, usually consisting of four or seven gigantic blocks, placed side by side, scattered in groups or rows throughout Asia, Europe, America and Africa. Stones of enormous size are placed horizontally and variously on two, three or four blocks, and in Poitou on six or seven. the devil", druidic stones and the graves of giants. The stones of Carnac at Morbigan, Brittany (France), stretching for almost a mile and numbering up to 11,000 stones distributed in rows, are twin brothers of the stones at Stonehenge (England). The conical menhir at Loch Mariaker at Morbihan it measures 20 yards in length and about two yards across. The menhir at Champ Dolen (near Saint-Malo) rises thirty feet above the ground and goes fifteen feet underground. Similar dolmens and prehistoric monuments are found at almost every latitude. They are found in the Mediterranean reservoir; in Denmark among the local mounds from twenty to thirty-five feet in height; in Scotland, in Sweden, where they are called Ganggriften (or graves with corridors); in Germany, where they are known as the graves of giants (Günen-greb); in Spain, where the Antiguera dolmen is located near Malaga; in Africa; in Palestine and Algeria; in Sardinia, together with Nuraghi and Sepolture dei Giganta or tombs of giants; in Malabar, in India, where they are called the graves of Daityas and Rakshasas, demon people from Lanka... in Peru and Bolivia, where they are called Chul-pa or burial places, and so on. There is no country in which they are absent."

In this passage from The Secret Doctrine, let us pay attention to the fact that people call megaliths thrones of the devil and Druid stones. Of course, megaliths have never had and have nothing to do with evil, dark forces, and if people call them “thrones of the devil,” this only indicates that in ancient times they were associated with religious and magical actions and ceremonies, because under influence christian church all pre-Christian beliefs and rituals began to be considered pagan, devilish. As for “Druidic stones,” then, of course, not all megaliths are called such, but only those erected on the territory of ancient Gaul, spiritually nourished by the Druids. All megalithic structures that have survived to this day in France were once erected by the hands of the ancient Gauls, and in England by the hands of the ancient Britons, under the instructions and guidance of the Druids.

It has been established that most of the surviving megalithic structures such as dolmens, both in Europe and on other continents, are related to the funeral cult: during excavations in or near the dolmens, human bones or urns with ashes are found. But E.P. Blavatsky also drew attention to the fact that not all megalithic (or in her terminology, Cyclopean) structures were intended for tombs. According to her, "it is certain that the two famous mounds, one in the Mississippi Valley and the other in Ohio, respectively known as the Alligator Mound and the other as the Great Serpent Mound, were never intended for graves. The following is a description from one scientific work: “The first of these animals (the alligator) is drawn with considerable skill, and it is no less than 260 feet in length... The interior is a pile of stones, over which a form has been sculpted from thin, hard clay. The Great Serpent is depicted with open mouth at the moment of swallowing the egg, the diameter of which was 100 feet at its widest part, the body of the animal bends in grandiose convolutions and the tail is coiled into a spiral. The entire length of the animal is 1100 feet. This is a masterful creation, one of a kind... and there is nothing on the Old Continent that would represent any analogy to it,” however, with the exception of its symbol of the Serpent (Cycle of Time) swallowing an egg (Cosmos).

E.P. Blavatsky is certainly right: in ancient times, megalithic structures were erected not only as tombs of ancestors, but also had a higher purpose, for example, religious and religious-magical, as occult centers, a kind of “radio station” (for international communication initiates, for performing cosmic mysteries, etc.). We must not forget that in ancient times, not only in the Paleolithic, but also in the Neolithic era, man was closer to nature than now, he was in a living, indissoluble connection with it, then the mineral kingdom stood closer to the human world, between man and stones there was contact and even a kind of mutual understanding.

H.P. Blavatsky in the second volume of her “Secret Doctrine” refers to the extensive work of De Mirville: “Memoires adressees aux Academies”, which contains historical evidence that in ancient times, in the days of miracles, both pagan and biblical stones moved, spoke, uttered prophecies and even sang... In “Achaica” we see how Pausanias admits that at the beginning of his work he considered the Greeks very stupid for their “worship of stones.” But when he reached Arcadia, he adds: "I changed my mind." Therefore, without any worship of stones or stone idols and statues, which is one and the same thing - a crime for which the Catholics of the Roman Church foolishly reproach the pagans - one can be allowed to believe in what so many great philosophers and holy men believed in, without deserving the nickname "idiot" from modern Pausanias.

The reader is invited to contact the Academie des Inscriptions if he wishes to study the various properties of flints and stones from the point of view of magical and psychic powers. In the poem about the Stones, attributed to Orpheus, these stones are divided into ophites and siderites, into the “Snake Stone” and the “Star Stone”.

“The Ophite is rough, hard, heavy, black and has the gift of speech: when thrown, it makes a sound like the cry of a child. It was through this stone that Helenius predicted the death of Troy, his homeland.”

Sanchuniathon and Philo of Byblos, speaking of these “betyles,” call them “animate stones.” Photius repeats what Damascius, Asclepiades, Isidore and the physician Eusebius asserted before him. In particular, Eusebius never parted with his ophite, which he wore on his chest and received prophecies from it, transmitted to him “in a quiet voice, reminiscent of a light whistle.” Of course, this is the same as the “still small voice” heard by Elijah after the earthquake at the entrance to the cave.

Arnobius, a holy man who “from a pagan became one of the lights of the church,” as Christians tell their readers, confesses that when he encountered one of these stones, he could never resist asking him a question, “to which he sometimes received answer in a clear and distinct voice." Where, then, is the difference between a Christian and a pagan ophite, we ask?

The famous stone at Westminster was called Liafail, the "speaking stone," and it raised its voice only to name the king to be chosen. Cambree, in his work "Celtic Monuments," says that he saw it when it still had the inscription:

Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocumque locatum Invenient lapidem, regnasse tenentur ibidem. Rocking stones or "logan" have various names: such as clacha-brath among the Celts, "stone of fate or judgment"; the prophecy stone or "test stone", and the stone oracle; the moving or animate stone of the Phoenicians; grumbling stone of the Irish. The Bretons have their "swinging stones" in Huelgoat "e. They are found in the Old and New Worlds; in the British Isles, France, Italy, Russia, Germany, etc., as well as in North America. (See " Letters from North America" Hodson, vol. II, p. 440). Pliny mentions several of these in Asia. ("Natural History", vol. I, p. 96). And Apollonius of Rhodes expands on rocking stones and says that they are "stones set on the top of the Mound, and so sensitive are they that thought can set them in motion" (Ackerman, "Art. Index", p. 34), no doubt referring to the ancient priests who moved such stones by will at a distance.

Finally, Svid speaks of a certain Herescus, who could, at one glance, distinguish motionless stones from those that were endowed with movement. And Pliny mentions stones that “ran away when a hand touched them” (See Abbot Bertrand’s “Dictionary of Religions”).

H. P. Blavatsky draws attention to the ruins of Stonehenge, where, according to her, there are real forests of rocks - huge monoliths, some of them weigh about 500,000 kilograms. There is an assumption that these "hanging" stones in the Salisbury valley represent the remains of a Druid temple. They are distributed in such a symmetrical order that they represent a planisphere. They are set on such a remarkable point of balance that they seem to scarcely touch the ground, and although they can be set in motion by the slightest touch of a finger, yet they would not yield to the efforts of twenty men if they attempted to move them.

H. P. Blavatsky considers most of these monoliths to be relics of the last Atlanteans and disputes the opinion of geologists who claim their natural origin: as if the rocks were weathered, i.e. under atmospheric influences they lose layer after layer of their substance and take on this form; these are the "mountain peaks" in Western England. All scientists believe that all these "swaying stones owe their origin to natural causes, wind, rain, etc., causing the destruction of rocky layers" and strongly reject the statement of H. P. Blavatsky, especially for the reason that according to their observation, “This process of changing rocks continues around us to this day.” Therefore, this issue needs to be thoroughly studied.

Geologists admit that often these gigantic blocks of stone are completely alien to the places where they are now located and belong to rocks that are found only far beyond the seas and are completely unknown in the places where they are now found.

"William Tooke, discussing the huge blocks of granite scattered in Southern Russia and Siberia, says that where they are now there are no rocks or mountains, and that they had to be brought “from afar with the help of fabulous efforts.” Charton speaks of a sample of such rock from Ireland, which was analyzed by a famous English geologist, who determined its origin was foreign, perhaps even African.

This is a strange coincidence, for Irish tradition attributes the origin of its round stones to a sorcerer who brought them from Africa. De Mirville sees in this sorcerer the “damned Hamite.” We see in him only an Atlantean, or perhaps even one of the early Lemurians who survived before the birth of the British Isles.

"Dr. John Watson, speaking of the moving rocks or "swinging stones" placed on the slope of Golkar ("Sorcerer"), says: "The amazing movement of these blocks, set in balance, caused the Celts to equate them with gods." Flinders Petrie's work "Stonehenge" states that: "Stonehenge is built of stone located in the area of ​​​​red sandstone or sarsen stone, locally called "gray rams." But some of the stones, especially those said to be of astronomical significance, were brought from afar, probably from Northern Ireland."

In conclusion, it is worth citing the thoughts on this issue of one scientist in an article published in 1850 in the Archaeological Review: “Each stone is a block, the weight of which would test the most powerful machines. In a word, there are blocks scattered throughout to the globe, blocks, at the sight of which the imagination is confused and the designation of which by the word materials seems meaningless; they should be called names corresponding to these communities. Moreover, these huge, swinging stones, sometimes called Pouters, placed at one end on a point of such perfect balance that the slightest touch is enough to set them in motion... reveal the most positive knowledge of statics. Mutual opposition, surface and plane, convex and concave in turn - all this connects them with Cyclopean structures, about which it can be said with sufficient grounds, repeating the words of De la Vega, that “apparently demons worked more on them than people ".

And further H. P. Blavatsky writes: “We do not intend to touch upon the various traditions associated with swinging stones. However, it may not be a bad idea to remind the reader of Giraldus Cambrenzis, who mentions the same stone on the island of Mona, which returned to its place, despite to all efforts to keep it in another. During the conquest of Ireland by Henry II., Count Hugo Sestrenzis, wanting to personally verify the truth of this fact, tied the stone of Mona to a much larger stone and ordered them to be thrown into the sea. The next morning the stone was found in its usual place. place. The scientist William Salisbury confirms this fact, testifying to the presence of this stone in the church, where he saw it in 1554. This reminds us of what Pliny says about the stone left by the Argonauts in Sizicum and which the inhabitants of Sizicum placed in the Prytheneum. , “from which he escaped several times, so that they must have weighed him down with lead.” But here we are dealing with huge stones, attested by all antiquity as “living, moving, speaking and self-moving.” They also apparently could put people to flight, for they were called "routers", from the word "rout" or "to put to flight." De Musso points out that they were all prophecy stones and were sometimes called "mad stones."

The rocking stone is recognized by science. But why does it swing? One would have to be blind not to see that this movement was another means of divination and that for this reason they were called “stones of truth.” (De Mirville, ibid., p. 291).

Richardson and Barth are said to have been amazed to find in the Sahara Desert the same trilithons and raised stones that they had encountered in Asia, the Caucasus, Circassia, Etruria and throughout Northern Europe. Rivett-Carnac of Allahabad, a renowned archaeologist, expresses the same amazement after reading the descriptions given by Sir J. Simpson of cup marks on stones and rocks in England, Scotland and other Western countries, "showing an extraordinary resemblance to the signs on the boulders that surrounded the mounds near Nagpur - the City of Snakes. The outstanding scientist saw in this "another and very unusual addition to the whole mass of evidence that a branch of nomadic tribes, which in an ancient era passed through Europe, also penetrated into India." "We say, Lemuria, Atlantis and its Giants and the earliest races of the Fifth Root Race, all had a hand in the construction of these betyls, litas and generally "magic stones." The bowl-shaped marks noted by Sir J. Simpson, and the "recesses cut into the surface" of rocks and monuments found by Rivett-Carnac, "of various sizes from six inches to one and a half inches in diameter and from one to one and a half inches in depth, usually placed along perpendicular lines, showing numerous variations in the number and size and distribution of cups" - are simply the recorded records of the most ancient races. Whoever carefully examines the drawings made from the same signs in the "Archaeological Notes on Ancient Inscriptions on Rocks in Kumaon, India", etc., will find in them the most primitive style of notes or recordings. Something similar was adopted by the American inventors of the Morse telegraph code, which reminds us of the Ogham letter, a combination of long and short lines, as Rivette-Carnac describes it, “carved into sandstone.” Sweden, Norway and Scandinavia are full of similar recorded records, for Runic letters resemble signs, in the form of a bowl and long and short lines. In the Tome of Johannes Magnus one can see the image of a demigod, the giant Starhaterus (Starkad, a student of Hrosaharsgrani, a magician), who holds under each hand a huge stone with runic inscriptions on it. This Starkad, according to Scandinavian legends, went to Ireland and performed wonderful feats in the North and South, East and West. (See "Azgard and the Gods", pp. 218-221).

This is history, for the past of prehistoric times testifies to the same fact in later centuries. Dracontia, dedicated to the Moon and the Serpent, were the most ancient “rocks of fate” of the oldest peoples; and their movement or swing was a completely clear code for the initiated priests, who alone possessed the keys to this ancient method of reading. Vormius and Olaus Magnus show that it was by order of the oracle, whose voice spoke through “those huge blocks of stone, raised by the colossal power of the (ancient) giants,” that the kings of Scandinavia were elected. So, Pliny says:

“In India and Persia, it was from her (the Persian Otisoe) that the magicians had to seek advice when electing their rulers.” (Pliny - “Natural History”, 37, 54). And further Pliny describes a block of stone over Kharpasa in Asia, and installed in such a way that “the touch of one finger can set it in motion, while it cannot be moved from its place by the entire weight of the body.” (Ibid., 2, 38). Why, then, could not the rocking stones of Ireland, or at Brimham, in Yorkshire, serve for the same methods of divination and prophetic messages? The largest among them are obviously relics of the Atlanteans; the smaller ones, like the rocks of Bringham, with rotating stones on their tops, are copies of older stones. If in the Middle Ages the bishops had not destroyed all the plans of Dracontia that only they could lay their hands on, science would have known more about these stones. But nevertheless we know that they were in general use throughout many prehistoric centuries, and they all served the same purpose, for divination and magical purposes. E. Biot, a member of the Institute of France, published an article in the "Antiquites de France" (Vol. IX) proving the identity in the location of Chatamperamba ("Field of Death" or ancient burial places in Malabar) with the ancient tombs at Karnak; that is, that they have "an elevation into the central grave."

Esotericists know that in ancient times initiates of all nations, including the Slavic Magi, traveled a lot and visited occult and religious centers of other, often very distant countries. H. P. Blavatsky writes about such travels of Egyptian priests - initiates; According to her, there are records that they “traveled northwards overland, along a path that later became the Strait of Gibraltar, then turned north and passed through the future settlements of the Phoenicians in southern Gaul; then further north until they reached Karnaca (Morbigan), and then they turned West again and arrived, continuing to go overland to the northwestern cape of the New Continent,” to that land “that is now the British Isles, which were then not yet separated from the main continent of the Ancients. residents of Picardy could cross to Great Britain without crossing the canal. British Isles were connected to Gaul by an isthmus, which has since been covered by waters."

H. P. Blavatsky poses the question: what was the purpose of the long journey of the Egyptian priests? And how far back should the time of such visits be taken? According to her, “archaic records indicate that initiates of the second sub-race of the Aryan family moved from one country to another for the purpose of overseeing the construction of menhirs and dolmens, colossal Zodiacs made of stones, as well as tomb sites that were to serve as receptacles for the ashes of future generations. When did this happen? The fact of their passage from France to Great Britain by land can give an idea of ​​the time when such a journey could be made by land."

This was when "the level of the Baltic and North Seas was 400 feet higher than at present. The Somne Valley did not yet exist to the depth that it has now reached; Sicily was connected to Africa, the Barbary possessions to Spain, Carthage, the pyramids of Egypt, the palaces of Uxamala and Palenque did not yet exist, and the brave sailors of Tire and Sidon, who in later times were destined to make their dangerous journeys along the coast of Africa, have not yet been born. We only know with certainty that European man was a contemporary of the extinct species of the Quaternary era.

"The above-mentioned journeys of the Egyptian initiates, namely, had to do with the so-called Druidic remains, like Karnak in Brittany and Stonehenge in Great Britain. And all these gigantic monuments are symbolic records of world history. They are not Druidical, but universal. Also, it was not the Druids who built them, for they were only the heirs of the legends about the Cyclops, bequeathed to them by generations of powerful builders and “magicians, both good and bad.”

This is what H. P. Blavatsky writes. It also recalls the striking similarities between the ancient colossal buildings in Peru (for example, at Kuenlap) with the architecture of the archaic European peoples. According to her, the similarity between the ruins of the Inca civilization and the Cyclopean remains of the Pelasgians in Italy and Greece is not a mere coincidence - there is a certain connection between them, which can be explained simply by the origin of the groups of peoples who erected these structures from one common center on the Atlantic continent.

The above information about ancient megalithic structures from the “Secret Doctrine” of H. P. Blavatsky is very interesting and significant, but not complete. Therefore, let us supplement them with some data on the megaliths that have survived to this day in the eastern and south asia and on the territory of the USSR.

In eastern Indochina, in Upper Laos on the Channing plateau, megalithic structures - concentric rows of monolithic stones - are still preserved. According to M. Kolani, the Puok people living on this plateau claim that these megaliths served as a meeting place for the Kha Tuongs, and the central stone was occupied by the supreme leader. About who the Kha-Thuongs were, Kolani cites a legend widespread in Upper Laos:

"The Kxia-tuongs were the ancestors of the kings of the country. Having been defeated by the Thais, descending from Tibet, they went south and ended up in the region between Bandon and Annam. Their descendants became the kings of water and fire. The first lives in Patao-Ya, the second in Patao -Lum.* All Kha consider these kings to be the descendants of the ancient Jarai kings and revere them.

This legend tells about events of ancient times. It is significant that the myths about the kings of water and fire are supplemented by the peoples of eastern Indochina with a whole series of legends about migrations from the distant North, during which the people were led by sorcerers armed with magic swords and who brought with them the foundations of the megalithic cult and ideas of power. Similar legends about the arrival from the distant North were preserved among other Indonesian peoples of eastern Indochina: the Rade, the Jarai and others. Unfortunately, the legends do not contain precise instructions about the route of these migrations; only the arrival from the north along the Mekong is mentioned.

*) The etymology of the Jarayan term “patao” is significant. According to the scientist S. Meyer, this word means not only “king”, but also “stone”. Therefore, the Jarai kings are primarily the guardians of the sacred stone in which the spirit of Yang Patao resides. The word "Yang" actually means "spirit".

In her work on the megaliths of Laos, M. Kolani did not resolve the issue of the ethnicity of the builders of the megaliths, but this is not of significant importance for us; the main thing is that she rightly considers the megaliths of Laos to be one of the stages of megalithic migration and, based on the finds of iron objects accompanying them, dates them to the first centuries of our era, i.e. a time somewhat preceding Indian influence in Indochina.

Ancient megaliths, and all the main types of these structures known to modern scientists, have been preserved to this day in Tibet, a country that has been relatively little explored and is fraught with many surprises. In 1928, the Central Asian expedition of Nicholas Roerich discovered typical menhirs, dolmens, and cromlechs in the Trans-Himalayan region. N.K. Roerich writes:

"You can imagine how wonderful it is to see these long rows of stones, these stone circles, which vividly transport you to Carnac, to Brittany, to the ocean shore. After a long journey, the prehistoric Druids remembered their distant homeland... In any case, this discovery completed our quest for the movement of peoples."

Thus, according to the highly authoritative opinion of N.K. Roerich, the ancient Celts, the builders of the Karnak megaliths, came to Europe from Tibet (or one of the countries adjacent to it) and on the new lands they developed, on the territory of modern France and Belgium, began to build according to tradition , under the leadership of their spiritual leaders the Druids, the same megalithic structures as in their distant Asian ancestral home.

Very unique megalithic structures were discovered in Tibet by Yuri Nikolaevich Roerich (the eldest son of Nicholas Konstantinovich). Northeast of Lhasa, he discovered a whole group of megaliths, of which the outermost stone has the shape of an arrow and, in his opinion, should be considered as a symbol of lightning, and in general this entire area with megaliths is a reflection of the cult of nature and, as it were, represents a stage for cosmic rituals.

Other researchers hold a similar opinion: Z. Hummel, G. Tucci and A. Franke; they believe that Tibetan megalithic structures are labyrinthine sites for cosmic mysteries.

A similar interpretation is given by the English astronomer J. Hawkins to the famous megalithic structure of Great Britain - Stonehenge. He compared his observations with the stories of the descendants of the Celtic priests (Druids) and then processed all the data obtained using an electronic computer. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the seemingly strange arrangement of the stones of Stonehenge accurately reflects the position of the rising and setting sun on certain days of the year and that with the help of this structure it is even possible to predict eclipses.

Most of the megalithic structures scattered throughout the face of the earth are a reflection of the idea that found its most vivid embodiment in ancient Gaul, in the Druid megaliths. However, not all megaliths are related in spirit to the Druid ones and are related to the telluric and cosmic mysteries. For example, in eastern India, in the densely forested valley of the Dhansira River, amazing stone monoliths have been preserved to this day, which are 16 huge blocks of sandstone arranged in four rows. Images of peacocks, parrots, buffaloes, and various plants are carved on them. Judging by their shape (these monoliths are shaped like male and female fertility symbols), they belong to the phallic cult. Führer-Haimendorff calls this group of monoliths "a stone orgy of fertility symbols."

Dimapur was located in the valley of the Dhansira River in the 16th century - ancient capital Kachari state, which in the XIV-XVII centuries. extended its power to a significant part of modern Assam. But the possibility cannot be ruled out that the monoliths were created not by the Kachars, but by the vanished civilization that preceded them, as some researchers are inclined to think (this issue has not yet been finally resolved).

Finally, it should be noted that in South-East Asia, the Malacca Peninsula had its own special civilization in ancient times, the development of which was stimulated by constant ties with India, China and the countries of the Arab East. One of the foundations of this peculiar civilization was “an ancient cult of stones, now hardly accessible to direct observation, but once the most important component of natural, in particular cosmological Cults, as can be judged by Skeet’s remark: “... some Malays imagined that the firmament is something like a stone or rock, which they call “batu hampar”, i.e. flat stone, and the appearance of stars is explained (as they thought) by the fact that light penetrates through holes made in this stone."

Let us now consider the megaliths of the Caucasus, based on the work of academician A.A. Formozov: “Monuments of primitive art on the territory of the USSR”, Moscow, 1966, p. 128; The fourth chapter of this study (pp. 76-87) is devoted to Caucasian dolmens.

On Black Sea coast In the Caucasus, significant groups of dolmens have survived to this day near Gelendzhik, Dzhubga, Lazarevsky, Esheri and some other places. These tombs of the primitive era are strange stone houses, built from five huge hewn slabs. The earliest of them were built more than four thousand years ago, and the latest date back to the middle of the first millennium BC. It was then (about five hundred years BC) that real dolmens stopped being built in the Caucasus, but crypts similar in shape, built not from monoliths, but from small stones, were erected until the 11th-12th centuries. new era.)

Once upon a time, before the conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, there were thousands of dolmens there, standing untouched for 3-4 thousand years. But after the annexation of the Caucasus to Russia, their number began to quickly decrease, because the newly arrived Russian population did not spare these alien and “orphan” ancient monuments.*

The dolmens of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus are, indeed, cyclopean structures, although they were erected not by giants, but by ordinary people. For example, one of the dolmens on Esheri is made of slabs 3.7 meters long and up to half a meter thick. Its roof alone weighs 22.5 tons. It is not easy to lift such a weight to the level of the walls, and this is by no means the only problem. Stones were often delivered many kilometers away. Far from the mountains in the steppe Kuban region, a dolmen was found covered with a slab, which was thrown with difficulty by ten people. Undoubtedly, it would be necessary to try many variants of funeral structures in order to arrive at the classic design: four slabs placed on an edge, carrying a fifth slab - a flat ceiling... The entire complexity of this matter can only be comprehended through personal experience.

*) Academician A.A. Formozov writes: “The most dolmens were in the Kuban region - in the upper reaches of the Belaya River and along the valleys of Pshekha, Fars, Gubs and Khodzi. At the “heroic glade” near the village of Novosvobodnaya, at one time there were 360 ​​dolmens. in rows, they resembled the streets in a small village. It was not for nothing that the Adyghe people called the dolmens “syrpun” - the houses of dwarfs, and the Kuban Cossacks - “heroic huts”. Then, over the course of three to four decades, the Cossacks destroyed the ancient tombs, sometimes to obtain stone for paving roads and roads. the foundations of dwellings, or even just for fun. Now in Bogatyrskaya Meadow only the teeth of broken slabs stick out from the ground; they were destroyed before archaeologists had time to take them seriously. Even where the roofs and walls were preserved, everything inside was dug up by treasure hunters. the bones of the buried and the clay vessels were broken and thrown out. Therefore, our information about the dolmens is very incomplete.”

However, archaeologists did not find traces of such architectural experiments on the Caucasian coast; dolmens of the classical type immediately began to be built here. According to A.A. Formozov, dolmens, very similar to those in the Caucasus, were built in the same era in Syria, Palestine in North Africa, Spain, France and England, Denmark and the southern regions of Scandinavia, Iran, India and south-east Asia. At the same time, they were built by “different tribes and not always in the same era, but the idea of ​​such a construction undoubtedly must have had a common origin... There is no doubt that dolmens are drawn to coastal areas, indicating the role of maritime relations in the spread of these unique tombs.”

Where did the idea of ​​building dolmens come to the Caucasus? Archaeologists do not give an accurate and substantiated answer to this question, but based on logical conclusions, we believe that this idea came to the Caucasus from ancient Gaul - from the Druids, with whom the builders of the Caucasian dolmens were in spiritual communication.

Caucasian dolmens were undoubtedly erected as funeral structures. But it is also certain that during the construction of these tombs and funerals, special rites were performed, and then periodically repeated sacrifices were made. Researchers noticed that there is usually a flat area in front of dolmens standing on a mountain slope. Near the village of Kamennomostskaya, large pillar-shaped stones - menhirs - are dug around the site. There are similar sites or “courtyards” in other countries - in Spain, England and France.* There is no doubt that some religious and religious-magical ceremonies were performed on these sites. It is also possible that, like the Druid megaliths, these Caucasian structures were erected at places where telluric currents crossed, where there was particularly strong electromagnetic voltage. According to Paul Boucher, the Druids used these structures as a kind of wireless telegraph stations, thus maintaining regular communication with very distant countries. In this way contact was established between initiates of different tribes and peoples. It is possible that the initiates of the Caucasus were also included in this chain.

*) A.A. Formozov notes that on the top slab of the dolmens or on special stones in front of them, in some places there are cup-shaped recesses for sacrifices and libations. The Adyghe tribe of Shapsugs brought sacrificial food to the dolmens back in the 19th century. This ritual has been preserved since ancient times, when relatives of the buried came to the cemetery with food.

Similar sacrifices also existed among the steppe people of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. So near Simferopol in the village. A large rectangular slab was found in Bakhchi-Eli; on its upper end there are two rows of round recesses. The same bowl-like depressions were hollowed out on stones in various eras for both cultic and practical purposes. Stones with pits were found even at the Mousterian site of La Ferrassie. In the 19th century, ethnographers unexpectedly discovered similar indentations on recent peasant tombstones in Brittany, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland and began asking questions about their purpose. The Bretons poured water into these immobile vessels “to cool the souls of the dead.” Often water was replaced with milk. In the Scandinavian countries, offerings were placed there “for children” and for “dwarfs,” in other words, food for the little soul of the deceased. From century to century these rituals were performed in old cemeteries, and they were transferred to new burials.

In Azerbaijan, where there are many ancient cup stones, in villages to this day cups are knocked out on gravestones. Similar monuments existed in the Northern Black Sea region. There is information about a stone covered with pits that stood among the mounds near the village of Rozmaritsina in the Kherson region.

Some archaeologists think that the dolmen reproduces the shape of an Egyptian tomb - a mastaba. And according to A.A. Formozov, “solidity and indestructibility make the Caucasian tombs similar to the Egyptian pyramids. The similarity is natural. Both were supposed to serve as eternal dwellings for people who considered this life only a temporary refuge and embodied the belief in another life in monumental stone tombs."

Which tribes built the Caucasian dolmens? According to A.A. Formozov, settlements of tribes who buried their dead in dolmens were discovered both on the Black Sea coast and in the Kuban region. Traces of dwellings revealed during excavations do not at all resemble burial houses. The dwellings have adobe floors, walls made of wattle fence coated with clay, and in rare cases, foundations made of small pieces of torn stone. The builders of the dolmens, the giants of Adyghe legends, who mowed quadrangular blocks on their shoulders, actually lived in miserable shacks. Moreover. On the Belaya River and in the vicinity of Adler, in several caves, sites with the same pottery as in the mounds near the station were studied. Newly free. People huddled there in caves, like Neanderthals.

In the 2nd millennium BC. e. Very rich leaders have already emerged among the population of the Caucasus. The grave with a canopy and other treasures in the Maykop mound is even older than the dolmens. Yet, until the Iron Age, the foundations of the primitive community in the Caucasus were not shaken. Probably the entire family worked on each stone crypt. Fifteen hundred people spent their energy and time to adequately arrange the transition of their fellow man to another world, and none of them thought that it would be better to use this energy and time on cultivating the fields, improving tools or artistic creativity.

"The people who built the dolmens sculpted the dishes by hand, although the potter's wheel spread in the southern regions of Transcaucasia from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The inhabitants of the northwestern Caucasus hoeed the ground, not thinking about the plow, long known in Mesopotamia, they used many bone and stone tools of purely Neolithic forms and hunted with such primitive weapons as slings (balls for slings were found more than once during excavations of dolmens. And with all this technical poverty, the same people moved twenty-two-ton monoliths, which were not approached by later tribes familiar with the plow). and the potter's wheel, who mastered iron and rode a horse. A characteristic example of the one-sided development of society, a phenomenon that has amazed us in history from ancient times to the present day. In the 20th century, it seems absurd to dedicate our lives to the creation of monumental tombs, but you never know. less strange ideas took hold of humanity for centuries, or even millennia. And these false premises were not always fruitless for culture, for art. So here too - excessive, hypertrophied concern for the afterlife and the eternal houses of their ancestors led primitive man to architecture."

The construction of dolmens was extremely difficult and complex, taking into account the primitive technology of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. This is clearly proven by a case cited by A.A. Formozov. In 1960, it was decided to transport (I emphasize: not to build a new dolmen, but only to transport the old one a relatively short distance by truck along a good highway) to Sukhum, to the courtyard of the Abkhazian Museum, one dolmen from Esheri. We chose the smallest one and brought a crane to it. No matter how they fastened the loops of the lifting steel cable to the cover plate, it did not budge. The second tap was called. Two cranes removed the multi-ton monolith, but they were unable to lift it onto a truck. For exactly a year the roof lay in Esheri, waiting for a more powerful mechanism to arrive in Sukhum. In 1961, using this mechanism, all the stones were loaded onto vehicles. But the main thing was ahead: to reassemble the house. Before this was achieved, a fair amount of time passed, the trees of the museum garden were stripped, and one wall of the dolmen was broken. Still, the reconstruction was only partially completed. The roof was lowered onto four walls, but they could not rotate it so that their edges fit into the grooves on the inner surface of the roof. In ancient times, the plates were fitted so close to each other that a knife blade could not fit between them. Now there is a big gap left here.

How were dolmens built in ancient times with extremely limited technical means? Reconstructing mentally the successive stages of their construction, A.A. Formozov writes that “the material was dragged from the quarry on oxen. Obviously, they used the simplest rollers, levers, adding earth, temporary supports that supported the slabs in a vertical position until the ceiling pressed on them. But in the foreground was the muscular labor of many, many dozens of people. According to B.A. Kuftin’s calculations, the upper slab of the Esher dolmen was lifted by at least 150 people.

Now about the size of the Caucasian dolmens. If we look at the table with this data, we will notice that the further from the sea, the smaller and smaller their dimensions. In Asheri, the height of the front slab is about 2.5 meters, and the length of the side walls is 3-3.5 m. Equally massive stones were used in the ancient cemeteries of Gelendzhik, Dzhubga, Lazarevsky. The walls of the Pshad dolmen reach a length of even 4 m. The Kuban “heroic huts” of Bagovskaya, Novosvobodnaya, and Dakhovskaya villages are much smaller: their façade is no higher than a meter, and the total length on average is 1.8 m. More eastern regions there are no real dolmens, but here on Kafar and Teberda medieval crypts imitating them in shape were found. They are rectangular in plan, with a round entrance hole, but are already made up of many small stones.

So A.A. Formozov comes to the conclusion that “according to archaeological sites one can judge the very process of spreading the idea of ​​a dolmen from the coast to the more remote corners of the Caucasus. We see that another process was going on in parallel: people gradually made their task easier: first they reduced the size of the tombs, and then began to build them from the same material as the huts, abandoning the stones of the monoliths."

By placing massive slabs with precise construction calculations, the creators of dolmens proved themselves to be “skillful architects. Almost everywhere, the side slabs and roof protrude somewhat above the front wall. The result is a U-shaped portal. The back wall is usually lower than the front, and the roof lies inclined. All this allows highlight the structural elements in the building - the supports supporting the arch and express the feeling of strength and inviolability of the dolmen. It was the desire for strength that required the construction of dolmens from five large slabs, and not from paving stones or torn stone. Monolithicity and indestructibility make the Caucasian tombs similar to the Egyptian pyramids." These are the Caucasian megaliths. We can only talk about their sad fate. Here is what A.A. Formozov writes:

“Caucasian tribes of the Iron Age took care of ancient cemeteries. A hundred years ago, Russian Cossacks who settled in the Kuban region came across completely intact dolmens. Most of them were plugged with (stone) plugs. Local population still vaguely remembered the worship at ancient graves, and in some places continued to perform these rituals. The Adyghe people were sure that damage to the dolmens would lead to pestilence and misfortune. The feeling of respect for distant ancestors and the fear of disturbing their peace for forty centuries was passed on from grandfathers to fathers, from fathers to children, and even to peoples alien by origin.

This phenomenon is observed wherever there are megalithic monuments. In Brittany, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the sick were brought to them in the hope of healing, and girls who dreamed of getting married went to pray. French ethnographers described round dances around menhirs. There are known church messages from the Middle Ages that prohibited pilgrimages to these pagan buildings. But in the fight against millennia-old beliefs, the church was powerless. Then the “Christianization” of megaliths began. Crosses were installed on them, and churches were erected above some dolmens.

The same thing happened in Transcaucasia. Here the menhirs had sanctuaries, they sacrificed roosters and rams, and stone pillars on their knees slid down a certain number of times. Christianity legalized these rituals. And here we find chapels above the menhirs.

Protected by popular worship, the megaliths of Brittany and Transcaucasia have safely survived to this day. The dolmens were out of luck. In 1897, the founder of the Ekaterinodar Museum E.D. Felitsyn complained: “The highlanders, our predecessors in the Trans-Kuban region, generally treat ancient monuments with great respect, no matter what they are. Unfortunately, the Kuban Cossacks, having inherited their places, do not imitate this commendable trait of the mountaineers." (E.D. Felitsyn. - Kuban antiquities. Ekaterinodar, 1879, p. 13). Even before the revolution, hundreds of dolmens were destroyed. Often they were broken without a purpose, just to “test their strength.” Even intelligent engineers contributed to the destruction of monuments by ordering their slabs to be used as crushed stone for the Black Sea Highway. As sad as it may be, our tractor drivers also like to try on dolmens “who will take whom” - whether the tractor will break the stone house or break down. And here are the results. In 1885, there were 360 ​​dolmens in Bogatyrskaya Polyana, and in 1928 - 20, and now there are none at all.

So, the dark, illiterate Adyghe people did not damage the dolmens in any way, and the people with a higher culture wiped them off the face of the earth. The solution to the paradox is that for the Adyghe people “syrpun” was something sacred, but for the Russians it was alien, unusual and unnecessary.

Now the fate of the silent witnesses of the past worries not only archaeologists and art historians. The losses from the destruction of monuments became too obvious. Let us draw a lesson from the history of dolmens. In our opinion, it is formulated as follows: monuments can be preserved by those who love them, who value them, but not by those who wonder “why is all this necessary.” In the old days, religion protected them, now culture protects them. In a period when religion lost its former role, and understanding of the value cultural heritage not yet, archaeological objects and works of ancient art usually perish. It was under such circumstances that the dolmens of the Kuban region perished.

Their fate is dramatic and surprising. Four thousand years ago, carried away by the doctrine of life and death borrowed from somewhere from outside, the tribes of the northwestern Caucasus began to build megalithic tombs designed to last for centuries. The oldest and largest dolmens appeared on the shores of the Black Sea. The creators of these tombs were not mythical giants. These were people who lived in caves or villages made of adobe and wattle, "turluch" houses, who became acquainted with metal relatively recently. Each tomb required many days of hard work, and yet one generation after another gave up their daily activities for its sake.

Gradually, the idea of ​​dolmens spread from the coast to the mountains and crossed the Caucasus ridge... Century after century flashed by, the world was transformed beyond recognition, and the old Shapsugs still carried food for the spirits to the dolmens. Then a foreign people came and destroyed the “heroic huts.” This is the history of dolmens. Really, standing in front of the last of them, there is something to think about." So writes academician A.A. Formozov.

Dr. A.M. Aseev
Asuncion, November 1972

Scientists argue no less about the purpose of megaliths than about who built them. But today there is still a consensus on this issue. Megaliths, as researchers suggest, had three main functions.

Single megaliths, menhirs, characteristic of the earliest period of this era, as some archaeologists believe, served as unique symbols that stood out against the backdrop of the agricultural landscape, and may have been boundary markers in conditions of a growing shortage of land suitable for arable land and pastures.

The most common European megaliths, dolmens, or stone boxes, were tombs for wealthy leaders or entire communities. Some of the earliest were simple tombs, consisting of vertically placed slabs covered with a horizontal slab. Access to such a grave was limited to a very narrow passage, which was blocked by a stone or earthen embankment. Even though the passage was often very low and narrow, it provided access to the grave for rituals. More complex structures consisted of entire alleys of stones. Under the long embankment there was a corridor with side stone chambers. Where there was not enough stone, the chambers were built from wood.

Many of these collective stone tombs were in use for decades, even centuries, and a large cemetery such as Bouton in Western France was used for more than 2 thousand years and contained the remains of hundreds of buried people.

The most complex stone structures, alleys and cromlechs, according to scientists, were a kind of astronomical observatories. These megalithic buildings were built collectively - by entire clans and tribes, because their construction required a huge expenditure of muscular strength.

The labor required to create even the smallest cromlechs and galleries was not comparable to the capabilities of an individual community. Digging ditches, transporting and installing huge stones involved cooperation between communities. Estimates of the man-hours required for the construction of these monuments show an interesting progression: the oldest megaliths in Wessex, judging by the calculations of the researchers, required about 50 - 70 thousand man-hours, while for later and larger structures about half a million man-hours were needed. And for the construction of Stonehenge at the third stage it took 2 million! The grandeur of such buildings and the colossal costs of their construction indicate the enormous importance of religion and ritual centers in the life of ancient Europeans. Although we know little about the religious beliefs of the megalith builders, there is no doubt that the celestial bodies played an important role in them: the Sun, the Moon, and the stars. Observations of astronomical and seasonal natural phenomena were the main functions of ancient observatories - ritual centers.

The Cromlech of Newgrange in Ireland is oriented so that sunlight enters the central chamber within the stone circle precisely on the winter solstice in midwinter. Stonehenge was oriented to the summer solstice. With the help of these structures, it is possible to record other astronomical phenomena, in particular the location of stars in the sky.

Megalithic tomb under a long barrow at West Kennet. England

Hundreds of different carved drawings that cover many megaliths also provide ideas about the lifestyle and worldview of the megalith builders. The earliest examples are simple axes and intersections, but over time more complex elements appear on them: spirals - symbols of the Sun, wavy lines - symbols water element. Entire galleries of such “engravings” have been opened in Scandinavia. There are images of human figures, hunting scenes, and fantastic creatures. They testify to how complex the religious ideas of the ancestors of Europeans were.

The old agricultural symbols of the Neolithic era, especially the female deity associated with abundance and the Earth, gradually gave way to a male mythology more consistent with the new order: wealth expressed in the number of livestock and metals, valuables captured in war. The old myth of the Mother Goddess has given way to new ones. Circles, wheels, spirals and similar elements reflect the endless movement associated with fire, the Sun and their opposite - water, the source of life. These elements became the main objects of veneration in Central and Western Europe.

Around the middle of the 6th millennium BC. e. the construction of stone circles and galleries in Spain, Portugal, North-West France and the British Isles ceases. Old cults are being replaced by new ones associated with the era of wars and enrichment. The objects of worship are the Earth and water. Gifts are dedicated to them - treasures buried in the ground or flooded in swamps and lakes. Collective tombs - dolmens - are being replaced by other forms of burial structures. A new era of warriors and heroes is dawning in Europe, the era of mounds under which ordinary community members and noble leaders were buried.

Megaliths of the River Valley

This small river flows in Ireland, in a coastal region located north of Dublin. In its valley, several burial mounds were discovered, as well as free-standing stone blocks belonging to the so-called massacre culture. Apparently, in ancient times this valley was considered a sacred place. The center of the entire local megalithic complex is, of course, Newgrange.

The Irish, who discovered Newgrange at the very end of the 17th century, long considered it the tomb of the Celtic kings.

Only later was it proven that this burial dates back to the 4th millennium BC. e., i.e. it is older Egyptian pyramids. The World Heritage List describes Newgrange as the largest and most important of Europe's megalithic structures of the period.

Indeed, this huge dolmen structure, 60-80 m long and 11 m high, is made of 200 thousand tons of stones, and is covered with earth and white quartz pebbles on top. An 18-meter corridor made of stone slabs leads from the entrance into the depths of the dolmen. It hides the path to the burial chamber itself with a ritual bowl and three niches decorated with stone carvings. Above the entrance, oriented to the southeast, there is an opening - a window through which the sun's rays can penetrate into the inner chamber, but only once a year - on the day of the winter solstice, and then only for 17 minutes. What is this connected with? Why are only five people buried at Newgrange? How were ancient people able to bring such huge stone blocks here? There are no answers to these questions yet.

An ancient observatory?

Perhaps the most famous megalithic monument in Europe is the giant cromlech Stonehenge (translated from Celtic, its name means “hanging stones”), near the city of Salisbury in southern England. Stonehenge has become a favorite object of study not only for archaeologists, but also for astronomers. It is estimated that the construction of Stonehenge took a third of a million hours in total. It turned out that the ring of giant boulders served as an astronomical observatory. 2 thousand years before Euclid and Pythagoras, the builders of Stonehenge used the mathematical laws they discovered in practice.

This structure has survived to this day in the form of a horseshoe of five pairs of vertical sandstone stones, covered on top with the same stone blocks (trilitles). This horseshoe was surrounded by a ring of 30 stone monoliths weighing 25 tons each and 4.5 m high. Inside it was a stone altar.

The Stonehenge stones clearly indicate the sunrise and sunset at different times of the year. It is obvious that this cult was most closely connected with observations of the cyclical changes of nature, the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars. Stonehenge served many functions. It was a monument that embodied the energetic power of the Earth. It was an astronomical observatory. And finally, it was a temple built for people who prayed and celebrated religious holidays here.

The megalith in Avebury, adjacent to Stonehenge, is also a giant cromlech. Modern researchers believe that the outer circle consisted of about 100 stone blocks and was surrounded by a very wide ditch. Together with the two inner circles and the road leading to the monument, the total number of stones reached 274. The stones were unhewn and not decorated with patterns. They are believed to have been installed around 2600 BC. e., although religious rites were performed here before. The secrets of the Avebury stone rings have also not yet been fully solved. It is possible that ancient people worshiped the Sun and Moon in this place.