The main types of megalithic structures and their characteristics. Giant ancient megaliths

The origins of architecture go back to the late Neolithic period. It was then that the stone was already used for the construction of monumental buildings. But the purpose of most of the surviving monuments of that period is not known.

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

The second category is represented by buildings of more advanced architecture. These are mainly structures of very large stones, which are given a geometrically correct shape. Such megalithic architecture is characteristic of early states, but was built in later times. These are the monuments of the Mediterranean Pyramids of Egypt, structures of the Mycenaean civilization, Temple Mount in Jerusalem. V South America- some structures in Tiwanaku, Ollantaytambo, Sacsayhuaman. Tiwanaku, Sacsayhuamane, Ollantaytambo.

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

Cromlech - it is a circle of standing stones, with different degrees of preservation and with different orientations. The term henge has the same meaning. This term is commonly used in relation to structures of this type in the UK. Nevertheless, similar structures existed in the prehistoric era also in Germany (Goloring, Gosek circle) and in other countries.

Dolmen is something like a stone house.

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

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

Some megalithic structures were important ceremonial centers associated with the cult of the dead. For instance, complex of more than 3000 stones in Carnac (Brittany), France. Megaliths up to four meters high are arranged in slender alleys, the rows run parallel to each other or fan out, in some places they form circles. The complex dates back to the 5th – 4th millennium BC. In Brittany, there were legends that the great Merlin made the ranks of the Roman legionaries petrified.

Megaliths at Carnac (Brittany) France

Other megalithic complexes have been used to time astronomical events such as the solstice and equinox. In the area of ​​Nabta Playa in the Nubian Desert b A megalithic structure was found that served for astronomical purposes. This archaeoastronomical monument is 1000 years older than Stonehenge. The location of the megaliths allows you to determine the day of the summer solstice. Archaeologists believe that people lived here seasonally, when there was water in the lake, so they needed a calendar.

Nabta Observatory, Nubia, Sahara

Stonehenge is a structure of 82 five-ton megaliths, 30 stone blocks weighing 25 tons and 5 huge so-called triliths, stones weighing up to 50 tons. The stacked stone blocks form arches that once served as an impeccable indicator of the cardinal points. Scientists suggest that this monument was built in 3100 BC by those who lived on British isles tribes to observe the sun and moon. The ancient monolith is not only a solar and lunar calendar as previously suggested, but an accurate cross-sectional model of the solar system.

Stonehenge, UK, Salisbury.

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

There is also an interesting version about the appointment of Stonehenge. Excavations of the path, along which ritual processions went in ancient times, confirm the hypothesis that Stonehenge was built along the relief of the Ice Age, which found itself on the axis of the solstice. The place was special: the amazing natural landscape was located on the very axis of the solstice, as if connecting the earth and the sky.

Cromlech Brougar or the Temple of the Sun , Orkney Islands. It originally had 60 elements, but now it consists of 27 rocks. Cromlech Brougar or Brodgar's ring archaeologists date back to 2500 - 2000 BC. The area where the Brodgar monument is located is ritual, sacred, communicative. It is literally packed with burial mounds, group and individual burials, even a "cathedral", as well as dwellings and villages of Neolithic people. All these monuments are united into a single complex protected by UNESCO. Archaeological research is currently underway on the Orkney Islands.

Cromlech Brogar or Temple of the Sun, Orkney Islands

Dolmens. Scientists believe that the approximate age dolmens are 3–10 thousand years old. The most famous dolmens are found in Scandinavia, on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe and Africa, on Black sea coast Caucasus, on the Kuban region, in India. However, most of them are in the Caucasus - about 2.5 thousand! Here, along the Black Sea coast (megaliths generally gravitate towards the seas), one can find "classic" slab dolmens, monolithic dolmens entirely carved into the rock, dolmen structures made of a combination of stone slabs and blocks placed in two or more rows. They also talk about the spiritual stuffing of these amazing structures, their energetic charges.

Dolmen in the Janet Valley

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

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

Temples of Ggantija in Shara(Xaghra - "giant") are located in the center of the island of Gozo and are one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. The temples of Ggantija are believed to have been built around 3600 BC today.

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

Scientists today believe that such a trinity symbolizes the past, present and future, or birth, life and death. According to the common version temple complex was a sanctuary for the worship of the goddess of fertility. This conclusion is helped by the finds discovered in the course of archaeological work. But there is another version, according to which Ggantija is nothing more than a tomb. People of the megalithic era really devoted too much time and effort to the observance of traditions. Honoring their ancestors, they erected grandiose tombs, and only later, these places were used as sanctuaries where they worshiped the gods.

On the surface of the globe, with the exception of Australia, there are many mysterious and ancient buildings. Contemporary research showed that they were erected in the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Previously it was believed that they all represent one common culture, but today more and more scientists are questioning this theory.

So, by whom and why were such megalithic structures created? Why do they have this or that form and what do they mean? Where can you see these monuments of ancient culture?

Before considering and studying megalithic structures, you need to understand what elements they can consist of. Today it is considered to be the smallest unit of this type of megalith structure. This term was officially introduced into scientific terminology in 1867, at the suggestion of the English specialist A. Herbert. The word "megalith" is Greek, translated into Russian it means "big stone".

An exact and comprehensive definition of what megaliths are does not yet exist. Today, this concept refers to ancient structures made of stone blocks, slabs or simple blocks of various sizes without the use of any cementing or binding compounds and mortars. The simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of only one block, are menhirs.

Main features of megalithic structures

In different eras, various peoples erected huge structures from large stones, blocks and slabs. The temple in Baalbek and the Egyptian pyramids are also megaliths, it's just not accepted to call them that. Thus, megalithic structures are various structures created by different ancient civilizations and consisting of large stones or slabs.

However, all structures considered to be megaliths have a number of features that unite them:

1. All of them are made of stones, blocks and slabs of gigantic dimensions, the weight of which can range from several tens of kilograms to hundreds of tons.

2. Ancient megalithic structures were built from solid and resistant to destruction rocks: limestone, andesite, basalt, diorite and others.

3. No cement was used during the construction - neither in the mortar for fixing, nor for the manufacture of blocks.

4. In most buildings, the surface of the blocks from which they are folded is carefully processed, and the blocks themselves are tightly fitted to each other. The accuracy is such that a knife blade cannot be inserted between two megalithic blocks of volcanic rock.

5. Quite often, the surviving fragments of megalithic structures were used by later civilizations as a foundation for their own buildings, which is clearly visible in buildings in Jerusalem.

When were they created?

Most of the megalithic objects located in Great Britain, Ireland and other countries of Western Europe date back to the 5th-4th millennia BC. e. The most ancient megalithic structures located on the territory of our country date back to the 4th-2nd millennia BC.

All the variety of megalithic structures can be conditionally divided into two large groups:

• funeral;
• non-burial:
• profane;
• sacred.

If with the funeral megaliths everything is more or less clear, then scientists are building hypotheses about the purpose of profane structures, such as various gigantic calculations of walls and roads, battle and residential towers.

There is no accurate and reliable information about how the ancient people used sacred megalithic structures: menhirs, cromlechs and others.

What are they like?

The most common types of megaliths are:

• menhirs - single, vertically installed stele stones up to 20 meters high;
• cromlech - the union of several menhirs around the largest, forming a semicircle or circle;
• dolmens - the most common type of megaliths in Europe, represent one or more large stone slabs laid on other boulders or boulders;
• covered gallery - one of the varieties of dolmens connected to each other;
• trilith - a stone structure consisting of two or more vertical and one, horizontally laid on top of them, stones;
• taula - a construction of stone in the shape of the Russian letter "T";
• cairn, also known as "guriy" or "tour" - an underground or above-ground structure, laid out in the form of a cone of many stones;
• stone rows are vertically and parallel blocks of stone;
• seid - a stone boulder or block, installed by one or another people in a special place, usually on a hill, for various mystical ceremonies.

Only the most famous types of megalithic structures are listed here. Let's dwell on some of them in more detail.

Translated from Breton into Russian it means "stone table".

As a rule, it consists of three stones, one of which lies on two vertically set, in the form of the letter "P". When constructing such structures, the ancient people did not adhere to any single scheme, therefore there are many options for dolmens carrying different functions. The most famous megalithic structures of this type are located on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe, India, Scandinavia, and the Caucasus.

Trilith

Scientists consider trilite to be one of the subspecies of a dolmen consisting of three stones. As a rule, this term is applied not to separately located megaliths, but to monuments that are components of more complex structures. For example, in such a famous megalithic complex as Stonehenge, the central part consists of five triliths.

Another type of megalithic buildings is the cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped mound of stones, although in Ireland this name is understood as a structure of only five stones. They can be located both on the surface of the earth and under it. In scientific circles, cairn most often means megalithic structures located underground: labyrinths, galleries and burial chambers.

The oldest and simplest type of megalithic structures are menhirs. These are single, upright massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary natural stone blocks by their surface with traces of processing and by the fact that their vertical size is always greater than the horizontal one. They can be either stand-alone or part of complex megalithic complexes.

In the Caucasus, menhirs were shaped like fish and called vishap. On the territory of modern France, in the Crimea and the Black Sea region, there are quite a few anthropomorphic magalites - stone women.

Runestones and stone crosses created much later are also post-megalithic menhirs.

Cromlech

Several menhirs, set in the form of a semicircle or a circle and covered with stone slabs on top, are called cromlechs. The most famous example is Stonehenge.

However, in addition to round ones, there are cromlechs and rectangular ones, as, for example, in Morbihan or Khakassia. On the island of Malta, cromlech temple complexes are built in the form of "petals". To create such megalithic structures, not only stone was used, but also wood, which was confirmed by finds obtained during archaeological work in the English county of Norfolk.

"Flying stones of Lapland"

The most common megalithic structures in Russia, oddly enough, are seids - huge boulders mounted on small stands. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or several small stones, stacked in a "pyramid". This type of megalith is widespread from the shores of Onega and Ladoga lakes up to the coast Barents Sea, that is, throughout part of Russia.

On and in Karelia there are seids ranging in size from several tens of centimeters to six meters and weighing from ten kilograms to several tons, depending on the rock from which they were made. In addition to the Russian North, quite a few megaliths of this type are found in the taiga regions of Finland, northern and central Norway, and the mountains of Sweden.

Seids can be single, group and mass, including from ten to several hundred megaliths.

Stone structures dating back thousands of years are scattered all over the world. Many of them appeared even before the invention of writing, so there is no evidence of the builders and the purpose of the construction of these structures. However, despite the lack of written historical sources, the specifics of the structure of ancient megaliths allows scientists to make fairly solid assumptions about the purpose for which these structures were built and what function they performed.

In the north-west of Ireland, not far from the town of Raffa, there is a simple-looking circle, which in the past could fulfill a variety of functions - from ritual to scientific. Around the embankment, in a circle with a diameter of 45 meters, there are 64 stones, the average height of which is two meters. According to scientists, the stone circle was built around 1400-1800 BC. According to the testimony of Oliver Davis, who took up research ancient monument in the 30s, in the area of ​​the stone circle, there were signs that someone tried to excavate in a handicraft way, but suddenly, perhaps out of fear, left this place.

Despite the study of Beltani's stone circle, its purpose has not yet been clarified. According to one version, the clue lies in the name of the megalith. The word Beltani is possibly related to the name of the pagan festival Beltane, during which bonfires were lit on the top of the hill, symbolizing the renewal of the forces of the sun. Other hypotheses link the Beltani stone circle to those in Carrowmore Cemetery, suggesting that Beltani's circle was used in burial rituals. Some believe that the whole complex of stones and a mound, which they frame, hides something like a tomb beneath it, but what is really there, no one has yet been able to figure out.

Megaliths of the Bad Valley

In Indonesian, you can see interesting megaliths that resemble moai statues and are distinguished by high sculptural skill. Scientists can not name either the exact age of the stone statues, or their purpose. Inquiries of local residents did not help to shed light on the mystery of the megaliths, the natives claim that "they have always been here." However, a number of legends are associated with these stone statues among local residents.

Some argue that the megaliths were established at the sites of mass human sacrifices. Others say that the stone statues are guarded by evil spirits. There is also a belief that these statues are petrified villains, and some even believe that they are able to move. Baffles and one more amazing fact associated with the megaliths of Bada: the fact is that the statues are made of stone that is not mined in the area.

Wheel of spirits

Rujm el-Hiri or "wheel of spirits", is a megalithic structure located in the territory Golan Heights, on the border of Syria and Israel. The structure consists of four concentric circles and a central cairn. The largest outside diameter is 158 m (520 ft). The circles are made of basalt stones. The rings are connected with jumpers. There were suggestions that the place in the center was intended for burial, but when studying the building, no burial was found below. There is a version that in the distant past, jewels were kept here, which were plundered by marauders.

Scientists believe that the stone wheel was not built as a fortress or a place where people could live. Judging by the structure of the building and how the sunrise and the solstice are related to the “spokes” of the wheel, ”a version was put forward, according to which this structure served as a calendar.

Some researchers believe that rituals were held in the circle to free the dead from all carnal, involving the separation of flesh from bones. After the ritual, the bones moved to another place, this can explain the absence of buried remains in the circle. However, no evidence of such events was found in Rujm el-Hiri. Whatever the purpose of the "wheel of spirits", it is clear that a lot of time and effort was spent on its construction, and this object was very important for the people who used it.

The Radston Monolith is the tallest single stone in Britain. Such stone monoliths are called menhirs. This menhir is located in the churchyard of the village of Radston and is 7.6 meters high. The monolith is dated back to 1600 BC. Considering the size and venerable age of the monolith, it is not surprising that local people from generation to generation pass on the traditions and legends associated with this stone. According to one of them, this stone was previously a spear that the devil threw into the church, but fell into the ground of the church cemetery. Another story tells that a stone spear was thrown from above, aiming at graveyard vandals.

Sir William Strickland has excavated the entire area in search of any archaeological evidence of the stone's true history. According to his data, half of the monolith is deep underground, respectively, its real height is twice as high as the known figure. The researcher also found many human skulls, hinting that this place could be used for human sacrifice and religious rituals. Be that as it may, the skulls and local folklore do not shed light on what actually happened at the stone in Radston.

Stand-alone megalithic monuments in Cornwall are called the Pipers and the Merry Virgins. Pipers are two separate stones, and the Merry Maidens not far from Pipers form a stone circle of perfect shape. There is an entrance on the east side of the structure, which could theoretically indicate the use of megaliths for astronomical purposes. There are many burial grounds in the vicinity of the megalithic complex, which in turn allows scientists to assume that the stones were related to spiritual rituals or funeral rites. It is possible that the stones installed in a strict order performed several functions at once.

Despite the fact that Pipers and the Merry Virgins stand apart from each other, these structures are invariably mentioned in a single context. According to one of the local legends, two pipers played for the dancing girls one Sunday, but since such behavior was prohibited on such a day, the musicians and cheerful dancers turned to stones. Sounds beautiful, but is it true?

In County Galway, Ireland, everyone can admire the amazing stone, which at one time was placed in the area of ​​the ring fort Firvor. Later, the stone was moved to the vicinity of the Turua house. The stone has a rounded shape and is decorated with patterns made in the ancient Celtic technique "la tené". The Turua Stone is the most striking and best-preserved example of this decorative stone work in Europe.

However, what purpose did this stone serve? Nobody knows the exact answer to this question. Given the characteristic, close to phallic shape of the stone, some experts suggest that the stone was used in rituals aimed at increasing fertility in all its forms.

Another version connects the English spelling of the name Turoe with the phrase "Cloch an Tuair Rua", which means "stone of the red wasteland." The presence of the word "red", according to the researchers, may hint that sacrifices were practiced at the stone, including human sacrifices. It is believed that this stone was originally located in France, and came to Ireland later.

On the territory of the high-mountain plain in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the north of Portugal and Galicia, you can find more than 400 granite, rather rough, but realistic sculptures of animals - most often, wild boars, therefore the Spaniards call them "verraco" (from the Spanish verraco - wild boar ), as well as bears and bulls. Scientists date them to the 4th-1st centuries. BC e. It is believed that the creators of the Verraco were the Vettons, an ancient Celtic people of Spain.

The Gisando bulls are perhaps the most famous of the verraco. It is a sculptural complex of 4 statues, dating from around the 2nd century BC. e. It is believed that once these bulls had horns, but they collapsed under the influence of precipitation and wind. Some historians believe that the stone figures of the bulls were made separately from each other, and were assembled together much later.

Scientists are not sure of the true purpose of the stone bulls, but it has been noticed that verraco are located in places where they can be clearly seen by others. Perhaps the sculptors simply wanted to draw attention to their work. The location of the bulls in a well-visible place could also be associated with some religious moments. Some believe that Verraco protect villages and farms from evil spirits.

Gray rams are a unique megalithic structure. Its originality lies primarily in the fact that this structure consists of two circles located next to each other. Each circle contains 30 stones, the diameter of the stone circles is 33 meters. Excavation of stone circles revealed a thin layer of charcoal, which may indicate extensive fires in the area. It is obvious that something was happening inside the circles, but what exactly is unknown.

There is a version that connects circles with spiritual concepts. That is, one circle is associated with the world of the living, and the other represents those who have departed to another world. The rituals performed in the "circle of the living" were aimed at creating portals between the two worlds. Another theory does not emphasize the spiritual nature of the stone circles, but connects them with the gender of their visitors: one circle was intended for men, the other for women. There are also those who believe that representatives of different tribes met in this place, here they traded, feasted and solved pressing issues. And where does the sheep, you ask.

A local legend explains the name of the megaliths as follows: once a farmer came to Dartmoor and immediately began to criticize the quality of sheep in the local market. After a couple of glasses, the locals managed to convince the visiting farmer that they had a product that could satisfy his exquisite taste. The drunken farmer was taken to a field where sheep were supposedly grazing. The weather was foggy, and the farmer, seeing indistinct silhouettes in the fog, believed the sellers. After paying, the next morning the poor man discovered that he had bought not real sheep, but stones that stood in the field.

Locals call this megalithic complex the "Altar of the Druids". Dromberg consists of 17 menhirs, the origin of which is unknown. But certain assumptions can be made about the purpose of these stones: one of the stones is oriented at the point of sunset at the time of the winter solstice. Perhaps it was a calendar.

In addition, another interesting find was discovered in Dromberg: the remains of a cremated person were found in a broken vessel, and the vessel was deliberately broken during the burial. The age of the burial dates back to 1100-800 BC. Archaeologists have established that in the vicinity of the stone circle there once lived people who, for some reason, came to Dromberg and were forced to stay there for some time.

In the north of Mongolia, you can see megaliths covered with amazing carvings, which were installed at the burial sites of warriors or at the site of sacrifices, and served as a kind of monuments to the buried. In total, 1,200 detached stones were found, the height of which ranges from one to five meters. They date back to the late Bronze and early Iron Ages.

Almost all stones have images of deer, both realistic and fantastic. In addition to deer, on the stones there are images of horses, the sun, birds, weapons, various geometric shapes.

Some historians believe that such an interaction of natural elements - a deer, the sun and a bird, can symbolize the path that the soul takes when passing to another world. The spirit leaves the earth (deer), goes to heaven (bird), and then to heaven, that is, to that light (sun). Perhaps the images of deer on boulders provided protection from evil spirits.

Used materials from the site:

Megaliths are the most ancient structures, consisting of blocks or single modules. The definition of megalith is not clear-cut and includes groups of various structures. An example of this are such structures as menhir, cromlech, dolmen, taula, trilith, seid, cairn. And since most of the underwater surfaces of the oceans remain unexplored to this day, it would be rash to claim that we know at least a small part about these buildings and their creators. After all, it is in salt water that buildings of this type are best preserved. But the cost of such scientific research is prohibitively high, so while archaeologists are forced to be content with ground-based research.

The purpose of the megaliths

Megaliths are widespread in paralytic territories. According to scientists, the purpose of megalithic structures is very diverse. So, in some areas they served for burials, in others - to unite capacious communities, thirdly, they were ceremonial buildings that cultivated the spirits of the dead, and they could also be used for astronomical purposes. However, there is no general picture, scientists argue to this day and cannot come to one solution. On the this moment there are more than a dozen conflicting theories, and all of them are equally likely and unreliable.

In Europe, megaliths belong to the time period from the third to the second millennium BC. In England, the peculiarity is that the megalithic buildings date back to the New Stone Age. The current analysis of pundits refutes earlier attempts to tie megaliths to a single large megalithic culture.

Megaliths and folk legends

In many countries of the world, legends are made about megaliths, to be more precise, they mostly tell about the creatures who were engaged in this titanic work. According to the Polynesians, the creatures were dwarfs, no more than ninety centimeters tall. The extraordinary power that overwhelmed them helped them topple huge trees with just one glance. They were distinguished by their extreme benevolence towards human beings and therefore helped them in their energy-consuming work.

Hawaiian megaliths
Photo: http://earth-chronicles.ru/Publications_9/17/5/SamosirMegalith.jpg

According to popular beliefs, the megalithic structures of the Menehuna, as they were called in Polynesia, were built at night, since the sunlight was unbearable for them, and sometimes destructive. The ubiquitous folklore does not allow skeptical pundits to completely refute these speculations.
Therefore, while this mystical origin of the megaliths remains the deepest secret of the ancestors. Or rather, their legends, since there is no evidence or preservation of reliable facts in folklore either.

Classification of megaliths

Menhir appears to be the simplest representative of megaliths before archaeologists of various times. Menhir is an inelegantly worked pillar, wide at the base and tapering towards the top.

Most often there are menhirs installed in groups; in some areas they are exposed in whole alleys. It is also customary to refer cromlechs to menhirs. The term cromlechs took root only in continental Europe. Cromlechs, in turn, are structures erected up to the early Middle Ages.

Cromlech with menhir.
Goncharsky Arboretum named after P.V. Boukreeva: Goncharka, Giaginsky district, Adygea
By BubukaGala - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49107361

The term characterizing this construction originated from the Celtic dialect and vaguely resembled dolmens, therefore, on the territory of Russia, archaeological communities often call them that, which creates some confusion in the wording. In Great Britain, not far from the town of Salisbury, there is the most popular cromlech for tourists and more than mysterious for researchers called Stonehenge.

The dimensions of menhirs are also very diverse and can reach twenty meters in height with a weight of about three hundred tons.

The riddle of the megaliths

On younger megaliths, over time, not only images, but also carved ornaments begin to be found, which makes them compare favorably with more ancient structures.
Almost until the 19th century, without the proper opportunities for full-fledged research, it was assumed that the Druids used these structures for sacrifices.

By Alexandr frolov - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57324831

Today, structures of a mystical nature still leave beyond the understanding of modern man the purpose of their installation. And also it remains to be seen how such bulky and heavy structures could have been erected, taking into account that the more developed a civilization is, the more traces of its existence remain on the planet. And we are dealing with rare, albeit extremely interesting traces of a lost civilization.

Location of megaliths

Menhirs are most often found in Western Europe, they are also widely represented in Asia and Africa. They can also be found on the territory of the Russian Federation, for example, in the Baikal region, the Caucasus and the Crimea.

Author: Rost.galis - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48934260

The horizontal installation of stones is less durable, because modern society, using the wisdom of the ancients, and to this day resorts to more durable and more durable vertical practice in structures, for example, wishing to perpetuate an event in a specific area.

The history of these buildings has yet to be unraveled. Or maybe it will remain an intriguing secret of antiquity.

The study of megalithic structures will reveal the technologies of the past. How many civilizations existed in antiquity and can we find their traces that will complement our understanding of the history of our world?

Who built the huge megalithic structures, the age of which scientists cannot always accurately determine? What technologies were used in their construction and what secrets of stone processing have we lost? What are modern scientists hiding, deliberately destroying many ancient artifacts? Alexander Koltypin, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, is sure that the answers to these questions can be provided by a new approach to the study of ancient monuments.

Alexander Koltypin: A single underground-terrestrial megalithic complex, as a foundation, the foundation of some previous world destroyed by the catastrophe. I'm not even sure that this is one world, because if we compare the geological and folklore legends of catastrophes destroying the former worlds, then there were at least 4 of them, because, for example, according to the Aztec legends, according to Mayan legends, there were 5 or 6 Indian legends , and according to Jains almost 7 religious texts, and they were destroyed by global catastrophes.

Therefore, this is this complex, which consists of underground structures, underground cities, from ruins and some megalithic structures, passing smoothly through the underground structures, and sometimes you cannot even see some joints, fasteners between them, as it were, megalithic the blocks, as it were, were themselves cut out of the rocky base and continued it further. Perhaps this is a single last world destroyed, the previous one preceding ours, possibly in different places different worlds, that is, not only the penultimate world, but also the worlds preceding this penultimate one. It is difficult to say, because these complexes are mute, they do not contain any minerals, and to determine its absolute age, I see only one possibility so far, this is to scrape off monomineral fractions from the crusts of the re-altered rocks of underground cities and isolate there, for example, potassium minerals, to carry out the analysis by the potassium-argon method, we will not determine the age of the construction of these structures, but only the time when this crust of the secondarily altered rocks was formed.

At least, to determine its age by the coals of rocks found in them, as is done now, by scraps of clothing, there, the remains of some baskets, skeletal remains that could have got there, say, 50, after 10 million years, here , this is completely wrong. It turns out that these megalithic structures, although they constitute, in my opinion, one complex around the world, which is globally distributed throughout the world, covers the entire globe, it is also developed at the bottom of the oceans. It is represented in the master plan by 3 different entities. These are underground structures, moreover, some underground structures, they simply stagger with the precision of execution, obviously neither chisels nor any handicraft tools worked here, absolutely perfectly carved dome-shaped caves, with completely flat walls, that these are obviously some kind of machines, machining ... In the region of Israel, Gavrin, in bell caves, 30 meters high and about a hundred meters in diameter, traces of drilling are visible, moreover, from above there was some kind of drill of expanding diameter, they are clearly visible. Which civilization did all this? On many structures, for example, the same structures in Mareshi and even in Israel, pyramidal or trapezoidal holes are carved along the perimeter. For what purpose? For what? The acoustics in these rooms are usually stunning and operas are held there. Or, for example, as this year we saw in Bulgaria on the outside of such structures, on the contrary, trapezoidal holes are often visible, which are also located according to a certain system, but there is no acoustics at all, there simply is no echo, they are called "deaf stones" , concerning.

That is, this is also, probably, not an accidental coincidence, in one case there is an echo that is simply difficult to withstand, in the other there is no echo at all, so, that is, ancient civilizations built these structures, taking into account the obvious use of some then the acoustic properties. The second this complex we are just megalithic, the ruins of some megalithic buildings, castles, structures, most often they are often composed of basalts, indesites, limestones, completely different stones, moreover, different blocks are also square in shape, there are also complex carved completely, here as, for example, in Khattushash, and some in the form of stairs, there, ledges are carved. Sometimes there are rectangular blocks, there are 500, 600, 1000 even tons, as in Levan there is such a colossus that leaned against. And the third type is on the tops of the mountains that we saw, I call them Perfey fortresses, along the periphery there are megalithic blocks, sometimes they are several tones, sometimes there are tens of tones, and many tens of tones. As a rule, there are round wells on the site, some kind of arches that go down, which, in our opinion, were filled up by someone, completely deliberately, so that they would not be studied.

As a rule, excursions are not led there, in reference materials, for example, in tourist guides nothing is said about them at all. For example, when I started talking about Khattushash, I forgot to say that when describing Khattushash, the fact that there are megalithic structures, not a word is said in any tourist guide, not in any description on the Internet, not in any archaeological material about this that I read, not a word is said either. We just went there, assuming that we could meet such blocks, because there was Sklyarov's expedition there before us, which described here that there is a megalithic masonry, moreover, in a nearby place in Alaki-Khaya, and we saw such an abundance. Either there is a silence, or they do not know, or really the archaeologists who work, they understand that this complex does not fit into this dating, which they are conducting, and are simply trying to shut up about its presence. This also applies to stone statues, for example, in the museums of Ankara, in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, there are stone sphinxes and stone lions, they also exist in a place that also dates from the Hittite era. When we compare these destroyed sphinxes, which with torn off ears, heads, eaten by erosion, a powerful crust of secondary changes, when we compare them with a perfectly preserved ceramic vase, well, that they are of the same age, a very big, to put it mildly, doubt arises. These structures were built by completely different people or creatures, that is, these are the structures that are stacked in blocks that weigh under a hundred, tens and hundreds of tons, are loaded onto a mountain, or somewhere we see in such, well, not quite on a mountain, in mountainous areas, but which previously occupied a large territory. Here one gets the impression that they were really built by some giants, and, moreover, there are many legends about giants who, with the help of their psychic energy, with the help of levitation, moved these stones, not even spending their efforts on it, but possessing some kind of superhuman abilities. ...

Second, this is undoubtedly in Turkey, in the Phrygian Valley, we saw this when we traveled through a number of objects, many structures were built by people or creatures close to a human in constitution, and underground structures. Because, for example, the rooms that have survived, the windows have survived, the doors to these rooms have been preserved, you walk through them completely normally, you feel completely comfortable in them, these are all carved in stone. Here, that is, they built creatures, but the fact that they were pulling these blocks up the mountain, and these are not only blocks, this is a room in which we are comfortable, in which we sit, about this size, carved entirely of stone. There was a stone, there was such a lump, and a hole was cut out, then the windows were cut out, and so on, all this was dragged up the mountain. That is, these are, again, beings who possessed some kind of unthinkable superhuman ability. Likewise, many underground structures, because, for example, in Taklarin, I saw a preserved underground toilet, which was obviously for creatures of ordinary, normal human constitution, approximately, was built on a similar principle. And at the same time, some structures, such as in Cappadocia, were apparently built by some kind of dwarfs. I cannot give a better comparison than this Chud, which is in the Urals, and, by the way, that Chud was there, we were told about this even in the first year of the institute so informally that all copper deposits were found in the footsteps of this mysterious dwarf people, Chud. In fairy tales, this is called gnomes, that is, some kind of gnomish shelter, because many underground structures literally have to crawl almost on all fours. This is especially evident in Cappadakia, in Israel in underground cities, that their construction often took place in several stages.

That is, in the beginning, some kind of machines worked, mechanisms made halls, magnificent vaulted arches, columns carved in stone, sculptures, apparently, stood. I even found in one such hall some kind of free-form writing, and I showed it to specialists, knocked out writing, obviously from the time when it was being built. Their interpretation was different, one specialist from Serbia said that this is, approximately, the ancient Slavic date, which approximately corresponds to the third millennium BC. Here, and given the fact that this structure, since there are many bas-relief crosses carved there, officially dates back to the Byzantine era. Well, you know, already our Christian era. Other experts generally said that this was not a date, but was written, like, I do not literally remember now, "a legacy from past to future civilizations." So, that is, as it were, this we will die, or we will perish, but this will survive the centuries and remain forever, that is, this is the translation of this structure, but this is quite interesting. And, apparently, there were some statues, and, for example, in the Valley of Love in Cappadocia, I saw a place where the bas-reliefs of these statues were preserved. They are eroded by strong erosion, smoothed out, in the Great Yazilikaya plateau in Turkey in the Phrygian valley, it is between the city of Afinyonkarahisar and Shehir, to the west of Ankara about 200 kilometers. On the plateau Bolshoy Yazilikaya, there is also smoothed erosion, monuments of stone lions, elephants, birds of some and other mythical animals have been preserved and they are quite well visible in the photographs, their contours are hardly recognizable, but they are recognizable from different angles, because apparently , it has been millions of years since they were made. Preserved there are stone thrones, wells and so on, that is, all this is the legacy of ancient civilizations.

Civilizations, as I said, most likely were different, that is, giants, civilization, some of these built, some were built by creatures close to us in constitution, at least those cities that I call elven. Perhaps these are mythical elves who possessed superpowers. Dwarf, just ordinary people came further, who ... Every civilization that took place made changes in underground cities, finished building them. For example, if at first the machines worked, then they began to work with the help of some ordinary stone chisels, and this is often misleading. In addition, here, for example, in Turkey, again in the Cavushin region, we observed how some modern forces were driving and with the help of chisels spoil this stone, ideally carved these structures. Apparently, in order to also create an illusion among tourists, perhaps, among specialists, that this is not an old structure of some primitive savages, but some kind of high civilization.

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