The age of megalithic building lasted anywhere from the ninth millennium BC to
1500 BC and as far back as records go there has been speculation as to the
origins and meanings of these strange prehistoric structures in medieval times
the colossal megaliths of western europe were regarded as the work of demons of
sorceress or of giants who walked the earth before the flood in the 18th and
19th centuries they were associated with druids the priests of the Celts then
science progressed and investigations became more focused it became clear that
the megaliths had been built centuries before the celts reached western europe
the prehistoric monuments instead belonged to an ancient and unknown
civilization far from being the caricature of bands of howling
half-naked savages who painted their bodies and ate their cousins those who
constructed the gargantuan megaliths of Western Europe possessed powers of
construction and organization far greater than previously thought possible
when discussing megaliths the impressive ring of standing stones of Stonehenge in
England comes to mind however there are other stone structures
in Western Europe which are far older far more extensive and far more dramatic
built some 2,000 years before the pyramids of Egypt are the stones of
Karnak
comprised in its current form of over 3,000 colossal granite stone blocks the
alignments are Carnac stretch along the front North Atlantic coast in the
historic region of Brittany France arranged in a seemingly deliberate and
precise fashion the megaliths formed alleys circles and tombs from the town
of Carnac west idli the lines of granite blocks may be traced with some intervals
a great length of eight miles the arrangement scale cannot be understated
and is hard to appreciate not only that with the passage of time many stones
have been lost the victims of nature and humanity it is thought that there were
once as many as 10,000 stones within this megalithic complex the stones are
known as mineus which means long stone in the Breton language and they range in
size in some places they are of a towering height up to 13 feet tall and
in other places they are small Brittany is well known for its abundant
prehistoric veneers but nowhere in Europe do they appear in such scale as
they do at Carnac it has been said that there are as many legends about the
stones of Carnac as there are stones themselves
one of the most popular stories associated with the structures origin
has to do with st. Cornelius who was Pope in the third century although far
later than the alignments known age in popular history for many centuries it
was said that the manias at Karnak were Roman Legionnaires sent after Cornelius
by the Emperor after he fled Rome with his back to the sea trapped between the
waters and the army Cornelius appealed to God praying for help it is said that
God aided the successor of Peter by turning the soldiers into stone the
stones of Karnak in another variant of the story it is Merlin the wizard of the
legendary King Arthur who turned the Roman legion into stone in the early
20th century the archaeologist Zachary LaRue zyc set himself the task of
gathering the various legends associated with the monoliths several of the
stories presented them as either living beings or stones guarding a great secret
the disclosure of which would result in death in the Maneka arrangement located
to the west of Karnak a particularly tall mania is known in local legend as
mineral cripple it is sad to be a young man changed into stone a moralistic
story of sorts the tale tells of a very rich only son who spent all of his
inheritance on frivolity as punishment for his foolishness God changed him into
ammonia condemning his soul to remain trapped within the granite the young
man's pitiful grounds were long said to have been heard emanating from the stone
there are also stories of Corrigan's which means small dwarf in Breton these
goblin like creatures are said to haunt the megaliths living in the hollows of
rocks and dolmens which are Stone chambers covered by heavy tablets for
all their folkloric charm none of these stories help to illuminate who actually
constructed the stones of Carnac this is the great mystery there has long been
speculation as to the age of the arrangements in the 19th century it was
fashionable to associate Carnac and other similar megalithic structures such
as Stonehenge with the Celts in particular their priests the Druids
described as Celtic monuments in 1871 by the Illustrated London News the stones
of Carnac were thought of as serving ceremonial and religious functions for
the Celts contemporary scholars saw links between the name Carnac and the
celtic words for a heap of stone and serpent suggesting that the snake-like
alignment served as a temple to the god Bell under the symbolic form of the
serpent these controversial cults of the serpent theories were put to bed once
and for all in the latter half of the 20th century with the development of
absolute dating methods in the 1950s artifacts found at the base of manias
and within Dolman structures at Carnac were able to be radiocarbon dated pieces
of charcoal axe heads and other objects uncovered by archaeologists
revealed that the alignments date back much further than had previously been
believed it can now be stated with certainty that the stones of Carnac are
from 4000 BC as such we can be certain that neither the Romans nor the Gauls
nor the Celts set up these stones the megaliths at Carnac are related to an
unknown people who expended unimaginable effort to erect these monuments one of
the more curious aspects related to the Carnac alignments was advocated by the
Scottish engineer Alexander Tom who surveyed Carnac and over 600 other
neolithic sites across europe he theorized that there was a standardized
unit of measurement which he dubbed the megalithic yard which was used in the
construction of several megalithic structures in different locations Tom
received heavy criticism at the time but his theories have gained integrity with
investigations into sites in Malta seeming to parallel the units of
measurement used in the Carnac alignments in fact similar measurements
and architectural styles have been found in neolithic sites in Sweden Denmark
Britain Ireland France Spain and it some investigators continue in Toms
legacy have gone even further theorizing that this homogeneous Neolithic culture
even reached Japan with a site discovered in the 1990s displaying stone
circles with an estimated date of around 2500 BC placing it within the range of
when Stonehenge was built does this mean that the builders of carnac were part of
a distinct and highly developed culture active in different places across the
globe it has been speculated that these architectural masterpieces found all
over the world including the stones of Karnak are related to a lost Atlantis
civilization and their descendants indeed recent aquatic surveys of the
coast of Karnak have shown that the manias near the coast about a small
piece of the puzzle in 2002 a stone axe discovered on the Breton coast near
Karnak was found to have originated from mines in the highest mountain of Italy
this peculiar chance discovery led to divers and surveyors uncovering a large
number of granite many years arranged along the seafloor
the scale of the underwater megalithic stones is thought to be similar to those
on land the now sunken alignment dates back to 4500 BC and gives fuel to the
theory that the alignments were constructed by members of a widespread
culture the team of French scientists who discovered the underwater stones at
Carnac have also suggested that the immense megalithic complex was
constructed to serve as a cognitive barrier for the Neolithic inhabitants
given the proximity of the sea and the prevalence of sunken islands in Breton
legend the stones of Carnac may very well have served as some sort of magical
protection from the wrath of the sea a visible line of division between home
and danger this becomes all the more interesting when one considers the
proposed Atlantean link however one of the more popular theories as the purpose
of the stones of Carnac is that they served a funerary function during the
1950s and 1960s local children still chanted the legend of the manias -
visitors to Carnac as follows all these stones were once upon a time an ancient
cemetery for each dead person a stone was raised if it was someone rich it was
a large stone if someone pour a small one the manner in which the stones are
aligned into alleys it has been suggested was to create a ceremonial
pathway for funeral processions bordered by manias these pathways would lead to a
place of worship marked by an enclosure as the system is orientated in such a
way that the Rays of the Rising Sun bathe the proposed place of worship in
the last of its light an atmosphere of divinity does seem to have been created
on purpose another ceremony associated with the
stones of Karnak or fertility rites until very recent
times it was still custom for young married couples to visit a particular
Minea at Karnak by moonlight there at the special stone and under the watchful
eyes of their parents the newlyweds ran naked around the stone to assure
themselves of offspring similar fertility rites are known across
brittany suggesting a deep-rooted association between the megalithic
stones and fertility the stones of karnak are also proposed to have an
astronomical significance whilst surveying the stones in the 1970s
alexander tom stated that the precise orientation of one of the alignments
could correspond with the summer and winter solstices according to this
theory the megalithic structure at Carnac may have been constructed to
serve as a seasonal calendar of ceremonies related to rural activities
which trace the rising and setting of the Sun throughout the year these
diverse theories for all their differences do tend to agree on
something whosoever built the stones of Karnak had an advanced knowledge of
engineering construction methods organization and quite possibly
astronomy this stands in contrast with what we currently accept as being true
of cultures and civilizations active some 6,000 years ago
ultimately the stones of Karnak are a pure enigma thousands upon thousands of
colossal stones erected upon a piece of coastline for no discernible reason as
technology advances and new discoveries are made the mystery of the manias only
deepens it may be that as time progresses we will discover that the
site we are presently aware of is but a fragment of a much bigger secret that
will reveal a lost chapter in the history of humanity thank you for
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