Giant ancient megaliths. History: History. Megaliths: who built them? Megaliths names

The so-called megalithic structures (in Greek “big stones”) began to appear in the late Neolithic period, and in the Bronze Age they became a fairly common phenomenon. Megaliths include dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs, alinemans, covered passages, etc. All these structures are built from very large stone slabs or blocks. Their geography is very vast - they are found in the Caucasus, Crimea, northern and western Europe (England, France, the Netherlands, Denmark), the Balkans, India, Iran, North Africa, Korea and many other places.
Megaliths served as cult places for the ancestors: dolmens and menhirs for honoring ancestors, cromlechs for worshiping the sun and fire, etc. For the hard work of moving and installing giant stones, primitive people were required to unite the efforts of significant groups. Most of the dolmens have survived to this day.

1. Stonehenge (UK)

130 km southwest of London there is a unique megalith - Stonehenge, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986, and within the country is under the care of English Heritage.
According to scientists, this structure is about 5,000 years old. Its appearance is widely known - a circle of stones, around which there are 56 burial holes. In the center of the megalith there is a stone altar weighing about 6 tons. In total, Stonehenge counted 82 stone blocks weighing 5 tons, 30 - 25 tons each, and 5 arches of three stones (triliths) - 50 tons each. The arches are precisely oriented to the cardinal points. To create Stonehenge, stones were used from different places, some of which were located 210 km from the megalith.

2. Puma Punku and Kalasasaya (Tiwanaku)

Near the Bolivian village of Tiwanaku, located 20 km from Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 4000 m above sea level, are the famous megaliths Puma Punku and Kalasasaya. In the distant past, they were cyclopean structures, the outer walls of the large Kalasasaya Sun Temple had a length of 130x1500 m. Next to it was the Akapana pyramid with dimensions of 200x220 m. Constructed of giant stone blocks of andesite, sandstone or diorite, weighing up to 120 tons, the walls -where they were more than 3 meters thick.
The ruins of Puma Punku, lying just 300 m from Tiwanaku, amaze with their grandiose scale - huge slabs weighing up to 500 tons are scattered over several hectares. They are hewn from diorite and andesite, mined in the mountains 17 km from here.
In addition to their enormous size and weight, the Kalasasaya and Puma Punku stones surprise with their filigree processing using a technology unknown to us. There are suggestions that ancient builders worked with these rocks like plasticine, perhaps even melting them and pouring them into molds.
In the ancient quarries here, there are no traces of crushing or drilling, only smooth niches remain, as if someone had cut the blocks with a giant knife from “plasticine” rock. The blocks often have a very complex shape, with various cutouts with ideal geometry. They fit so tightly that even a thin blade cannot be inserted between them.

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3. Sacsayhuaman

There are other megalithic structures in South America - they make up the remains of Cyclopean walls, the lower tier of the most ancient terraces and buildings in Machu Picchu, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Tambomachay (Peru). The age of some of them is determined to be 14,000-17,000 years. Similar ruins are located in dozens of regions of Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Colombia near the villages of Vinay Vaina, Taraco, Llactapata, Copacapana, Lokvepaia and others. But those are much less studied.
Particularly interesting are the ruins of 3 walls about 600 m long in the “fortress” of Sacsayhuaman. The height of two walls is 10 m, and the third - 5 m. The first (lower) wall is made of diorite and andesite blocks weighing 100-200 tons, the largest dimensions are 4x5x9 m. The second and third walls are built from slightly smaller blocks. Moreover, all the blocks are perfectly matched to each other, the gaps between them are simply not visible. Polyhedral blocks have a rather complex shape. They were mined in a quarry located 20 kilometers from Sacsayhuaman, and at this distance there is very uneven terrain (steep descents, ascents, gorges).

4. Ahu and moai - megaliths of Easter Island

Lost in the Pacific Ocean, Easter Island is home to 887 famous moai sculptures. The largest idols are located on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano. They have already sunk up to their necks into the ground for many millennia. Some originally stood on ahu - stone pedestals, of which there are about 300 on the island. The dimensions of the pedestals range from tens of meters to 200 m. The height of the largest moai “El Giante” (that is, the “giant”) is 21.6 m, and the weight is from 150 to 270 t. It is located in the Rano Raraku quarry. The largest moai standing on a pedestal, “Paro,” weighs 80 tons and is 10 m high. Other moai scattered along the slope of the volcano also have a height of about 10 m.

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5. Baalbek (Lebanon)

The Middle East also boasts its megaliths, for example, in Lebanon there are the ruins of Baalbek. There are three stone blocks there, each weighing 750 tons, and the Romans once used them as the foundation for the Temple of Jupiter. The dimensions of the blocks are amazing - 4.3x5.6x19.1 m, while their surfaces are perfectly processed. These giant blocks are raised 8 meters, resting on slightly smaller blocks.
500 m south of the Temple of Jupiter, the South Stone sticks out of the ground, weighing approximately 1050 tons and considered the largest processed stone in Baalbek (4.2 x 4.8 x 21.5 m). Modern engineers estimate that only a mighty crawler crane could lift such a colossus and transport it along a good road. What kind of equipment did the builders of Baalbek use?

6. Temple Mount in Jerusalem

When archaeological work was carried out under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem at the end of the last century, the remains of megalithic structures were found. The southern part of the fragment of the foundation of the western supporting wall of the Temple of Solomon, built before our era, is composed of them. The masonry rows of this wall were hidden by the ground for several millennia, and since 1996 they have become visible in the Western Wall Tunnel, which is about 500 meters long, which stretches from Via Dolorosa to Wilson's Arch. At the level of the ancient street, 4 huge stone blocks were exposed here, the lengths of three of which are 8.5, 13.5 and 14 meters, and the weight is 355, 570 and 600 tons. Just like in Baalbek, these huge blocks were laid on smaller stones. All of them were moved here from a quarry located west of Jerusalem.

7. Megaliths of Ethiopia

The basalt steles that either lie on the ground or stand in the city of Axum in Ethiopia near the shores of the Red Sea also pose a mystery. The largest obelisk has a rectangular outline with a height of 33.5 meters, and it weighs approximately 500 tons. Other stones are noticeably smaller - from 20 to 24 meters. Their surfaces are carefully processed and dotted with ornaments. The stones are in disarray and many are broken. Local residents have a legend about the giant Cyclops who built them and could melt stones. Allegedly, they poured the molten mass into molds, and after the workpieces cooled, they trimmed and polished them.
Excavations in Axum showed that previously the steles stood on pedestals, one of which was a three-tiered platform made of large basalt slabs and found itself under the Bete Georgis hill. The stone for the blocks was mined in quarries located several kilometers from this place.

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8. Yonaguni Underwater Megaliths

Pyramids and megalithic structures of unknown antiquity exist in a variety of places:

• at the bottom of the Bahama Bank near the islands of Andros and Bimini;
• on the island of Ponape and 92 artificial islands of Nan Madol, as well as in the shallow waters near them - in the Pacific archipelago of the Caroline Islands;
• at the bottom of Rock Lake in Wisconsin (USA);
• at the bottom of the sea near the Japanese island of Yonaguni, etc.

The latter deserve special attention, because multi-meter blocks with regular outlines were discovered there, resting at a 6-meter depth near the coast of Yonaguni Island from the Okinawa archipelago. In 1985, they were discovered by Japanese scuba diver K. Aratake. He told marine seismologist from Okinawa University M. Kimura about his discovery. The scientist conducted a detailed study of them for 10 years, after which he concluded that this was nothing more than a sunken prehistoric city. In 1997, underwater video filming was carried out here by the film crew of G. Hancock, and at the same time geology professor R. Schoch from the University of Boston worked. They were able to confirm that the stone blocks near the shores of Yonaguni Island are of artificial origin.

9. Zorats-Karer

In Armenian, Zorats-Karer means “stone army,” but this ancient megalith, located at an altitude of 1770 m on a mountain plateau in the Sinyuk region of Armenia, 3 km from the city of Sisian, has another name: “Karahunj” - “singing stones.” This complex contains many huge upright stones, some of which have round holes at the top. This structure with an unknown age (from 4000 years to 7700 years) was declared a historical and cultural reserve in 2009.
The place is a field strewn with stones. In the structure, they were able to number 223 andesite (basalt) slabs weighing up to 8.5 m and 1.5-2.8 m long. Some stones form a not very even row, stretching from southeast to northwest. In the central part of the row there is an oval made of stones, and on its opposite sides there are corridors-passages. Next to the mound there is a stone box - a tomb.
Most of all, the mystery is represented by through holes made in the upper part of 80 stones with a diameter of 40-50 mm. They are made rather crudely, some of them are bent at an angle - the result of conical drilling from opposite sides. The stone inside the holes is better preserved than on the surface of the monolith. Now 37 stones with 47 holes remain standing.

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10. American Stonehenge

This is the name of the archaeological site, consisting of several stone structures and large boulders scattered over 120 square meters. m in the city of Salem (New Hampshire, USA). There are different versions of its origin: it could have been built by settlers from Europe in pre-Columbian times, by local farmers in the 18th-19th centuries, or by the owner of the site, W. Goodwin himself, in the 30s of the last century. Radiocarbon dating of local deposits showed dates from 2000 to 173 BC. e., which corresponds to one of the archaic Indian cultures or the early Woodland period.
In 1982, the director of a local restaurant, D. Stewart-Smith, began excavating a megalith found in a quarry north of the monument. A team of researchers and archaeologists found a quarry and hundreds of fragments of stones, which were mistaken for waste from the production of primitive stone tools.

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

So, who and why were such megalithic structures created? Why do they have one shape or another 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 may consist of. Today it is generally accepted that the smallest unit of construction of this type is a megalith. This term was officially introduced into scientific terminology in 1867, at the suggestion of the English specialist A. Herbert. The word “megalith” is Greek and translated into Russian means “big stone”.

An accurate 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 or solutions. The simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of just one block, are menhirs.

Main features of megalithic structures

In different eras, different 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 customary 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 megaliths have a number of features that unite them:

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

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

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

4. In most buildings, the surface of the blocks from which they are made is carefully processed, and the blocks themselves are tightly fitted to each other. The accuracy is such that it is impossible to insert a knife blade between two megalithic blocks of volcanic rock.

5. Quite often, later civilizations used the preserved fragments of megalithic buildings as foundations for their own buildings, which is clearly visible in the buildings in Jerusalem.

When were they created?

Most megalithic sites located in Great Britain, Ireland and other Western European countries 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.

The entire variety of megalithic buildings can be conditionally divided into two large groups:

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

If everything is more or less clear with funerary megaliths, then scientists are making hypotheses about the purpose of profane structures, such as various giant layouts of walls and roads, military and residential towers.

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

What are they?

The most common types of megaliths are:

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

Only the most famous types of megalithic structures are listed here. Let's take a closer look at some of them.

Translated from Breton into Russian it means “stone table”.

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

Trilith

Scientists consider trilith to be one of the subspecies of 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 trilithons.

Another type of megalithic building is the cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped mound of stones, although in Ireland this name refers to a structure of only five stones. They can be located both on the surface of the earth and under it. In scientific circles, a 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, vertically mounted massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary natural stone blocks in their surface with traces of processing and in the fact that their vertical size is always larger than the horizontal. They can be either free-standing 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, quite a lot of anthropomorphic magalites - stone women - have been preserved.

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

Cromlech

Several menhirs, installed in the form of a semicircle or 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 also rectangular cromlechs, as, for example, in Morbihan or Khakassia. On the island of Malta, cromlech temple complexes are built in the shape of “petals”. To create such megalithic structures, not only stone, but also wood was used, 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, strange as it may sound, are seids - huge boulders mounted on small stands. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or more small stones arranged in a “pyramid”. This type of megaliths is widespread from the shores of Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga to the coast of the Barents Sea, that is, throughout all parts of Russia.

On and in Karelia there are seids ranging in size from several tens of centimeters to six meters and weighing from tens of kilograms to several tons, depending on the rock from which they were made. In addition to the Russian North, quite a lot of 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 or massive, including from a dozen to several hundred megaliths.

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 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.

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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 are located 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. The total number of 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 from 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 the appearance of man" (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 the crane was put on crawler tracks and a good road was made. This means that the builders of the foundation of Baalbek had a similar technique?

4 950

In many countries of the world and even on the seabed there are mysterious structures made of huge stone blocks and slabs. They were called megaliths (from the Greek words “megas” - large and “lithos” - stone). It is still not known exactly who and for what purpose carried out such titanic work in very ancient times in various places on the planet, because the weight of some blocks reaches tens or even hundreds of tons.

The most amazing stones in the world

Megaliths are divided into dolmens, menhirs and trilithons. Dolmens are the most common type of megaliths; these are peculiar stone “houses”; in Brittany (province of France) alone there are at least 4,500 of them. Menhirs are vertically mounted elongated stone blocks. If a third is placed on top of two vertically mounted blocks, then such a structure is called a trilith. If the trilithons are installed in a ring ensemble, as in the case of the famous Stonehenge, then such a structure is called a cromlech.

Until now, no one can say for sure for what purpose these impressive structures were built. There are a lot of hypotheses on this matter, but none of them can comprehensively answer all the questions posed by these silent, majestic stones.

For a long time, megaliths were associated with an ancient funeral ritual, but archaeologists did not find any burials near most of these stone structures, and those that were found were most likely made at a later time.

The most widespread hypothesis, supported by many scientists, connects the construction of megaliths with the most ancient astronomical observations. In fact, some megaliths can be used as sights, allowing one to record the rising and setting points of the Sun and Moon on the solstices and equinoxes.

However, opponents of this hypothesis have quite fair questions and criticisms. Firstly, there are a lot of megaliths that are difficult to associate with any astronomical observations. Secondly, why did the ancients at that distant time need such a labor-intensive method of understanding the movement of the heavenly bodies? After all, even if they set the timing of agricultural work in this way, it is well known that the start of sowing depends much more on the condition of the soil and weather than on a specific date, and can shift in one direction or another. Thirdly, opponents of the astronomical hypothesis rightly point out that with such an abundance of megaliths, as, for example, in Karnak, you can always pick up a dozen stones allegedly installed for astronomical purposes, but what were thousands of others intended for then?

The scale of work carried out by the ancient builders is also impressive. Let's not dwell on Stonehenge, a lot has already been written about it, let's remember the megaliths of Karnak. Perhaps this is the largest megalithic ensemble in the whole world. Scientists believe that at first it numbered up to 10 thousand menhirs! Now only about 3 thousand vertically installed stone blocks have survived, in some cases reaching a height of several meters.

It is believed that this ensemble originally stretched for 8 km from Saint-Barbe to the Crash River; now it has survived for only 3 kilometers. There are three groups of megaliths. To the north of the village of Karnak there is a cromlech in the form of a semicircle and eleven ranks, in which there are 1169 menhirs with a height of 60 cm to 4 m. The length of the row is 1170 m.

No less impressive are the other two groups, which, most likely, once, together with the first, formed a single ensemble, back at the end of the 18th century. it was more or less preserved in its original form. The largest menhir of the entire ensemble was 20 meters high! Unfortunately, now it has been toppled and split, however, even in this form, the megalith inspires involuntary respect for the creators of such a miracle. By the way, even with the help of modern technology it is very difficult to cope with even a small megalith if it needs to be restored to its original form or moved to another place.

Are dwarfs “to blame” for everything?

Megalithic structures have been discovered even at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and the oldest megaliths date back to the 8th millennium BC. Who was the author of such labor-intensive and mysterious stone structures?

Many legends in which megaliths are mentioned in one way or another often feature mysterious, powerful dwarfs who can effortlessly perform work that is beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. So, in Polynesia such dwarfs are called menehunes. According to local legends, they were ugly-looking creatures, only vaguely reminiscent of people, only 90 cm tall.

Although the menehunes had a look that made your blood run cold, the dwarves were generally kind to people and sometimes even helped them. Menehunes could not stand sunlight, so they appeared only after sunset, in the dark. Polynesians believe that these dwarfs are the authors of megalithic structures. It is curious that menehunes appeared in Oceania, arriving on the large three-tiered island of Kuaihelani.

If the Menehunes needed to be on land, their flying island would descend into the water and float to the shore. After completing the intended work, the dwarfs on their island again rose into the clouds.

The Adyghe people call the famous Caucasian dolmens houses of dwarfs, and Ossetian legends mention dwarfs who were called the Bitsenta people. The bicenta dwarf, despite his height, had remarkable strength and was capable of knocking down a huge tree with one glance. There are also references to dwarfs among the aborigines of Australia: as is known, megaliths are also found in large numbers on this continent.

In Western Europe, where there is no shortage of megaliths, there are also widespread legends about powerful dwarfs who, like the Polynesian menehunes, cannot stand daylight and are distinguished by remarkable physical strength.

Although many scientists still maintain a certain skepticism towards legends, the widespread dissemination in the folklore of peoples of information about the existence of a small powerful people must be based on some real facts. Maybe a race of dwarfs actually once existed on Earth, or were aliens from outer space mistaken for them (remember the flying island of the Menehunes)?

The mystery remains a mystery for now

Megaliths may have been created for purposes that are still unclear to us. This conclusion was reached by scientists who studied the unusual energy effects that are observed in the locations of megaliths. Thus, in some stones the instruments were able to register weak electromagnetic radiation and ultrasounds. In 1989, researchers even detected inexplicable radio signals under one of the stones.

According to scientists, such mysterious effects can be explained by the fact that megaliths were often installed in places where there are faults in the earth's crust. How did the ancients find these places? Maybe with the help of dowsers? Why were megaliths installed in energetically active places in the earth’s crust? Scientists do not yet have clear answers to these questions.

In 1992, Kyiv researchers R. S. Furduy and Yu. M. Shvaidak proposed a hypothesis that megaliths could be complex technical devices, namely generators of acoustic or electronic vibrations. Quite an unexpected assumption, isn't it?

This hypothesis was not born out of nowhere. The fact is that English scientists had already established that many megaliths emit ultrasonic pulses. As scientists at Oxford University have suggested, ultrasonic vibrations arise due to weak electrical currents induced by solar radiation. Each individual stone emits a small amount of energy, but as a whole, a megalithic stone complex can create a powerful burst of energy at times.

It is curious that for most megaliths, their creators selected rocks containing large amounts of quartz. This mineral is capable of generating a weak electric current under the influence of compression... As is known, stones either shrink or expand due to temperature changes...

They tried to unravel the mystery of the megaliths based on the fact that their creators were primitive people of the Stone Age, but this approach turned out to be unproductive. Why not assume the opposite: the creators of megaliths had a very developed intellect, allowing them to use the natural properties of natural materials to solve technical problems still unknown to us. In fact - a minimum of costs, and what a disguise! These stones have stood for thousands of years, fulfilling their tasks, and only now people have some still vague doubts about their true purpose.

No metal could have withstood so much time, it would have been stolen by our enterprising ancestors or eaten away by corrosion, but the megaliths still stand... Perhaps someday we will reveal their secret, but for now it is better not to touch these stones. Who knows, maybe these structures are neutralizers of some formidable natural forces?

Megaliths are the oldest structures consisting of blocks or single modules. The definition of megaliths is not clear and includes groups of different structures. An example of this is such structures as the 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 reckless to claim that we know even 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 for now archaeologists are forced to content themselves with ground-based research.

Purpose of megaliths

Megaliths are widespread in paralyzed areas. According to scientists, the purpose of megalithic structures is very diverse. So, in some areas they served for burials, in others - to unite large communities, and 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 are arguing to this day and cannot come to one solution. At the moment, there are more than a dozen conflicting theories, and all of them are equally probable and unreliable.

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

Megaliths and folk tales

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

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

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

Classification of megaliths

The simplest representative of megaliths appears to archaeologists of different times, the menhir. The menhir is an inelegantly crafted pillar, wide at the base and tapering towards the top.

Most often there are menhirs installed in groups; in some areas they are displayed in entire alleys. Cromlechs are also commonly referred to as menhirs. The term cromlechs was established only in continental Europe. Cromlechs, in turn, are structures erected until the early Middle Ages.

Cromlech with menhir.
Goncharsky Dendrological Park named after. P.V. Bukreeva: Goncharka, Giaginsky district, Adygea
Author: BubukaGala – own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49107361

The term characterizing this construction comes from the Celtic dialect and vaguely resembles dolmens, which is why archaeological communities in Russia often call them that, which creates some confusion in the wording. In the UK, 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 mystery of the megaliths

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

Author: 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 the purpose of their installation beyond the understanding of modern man. And one can only guess how such bulky and heavy structures could be erected, taking into account the fact 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. You can also find them on the territory of the Russian Federation, for example, in the Baikal region, the Caucasus and Crimea

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

Horizontal installation of stones is less durable, therefore modern society, using the wisdom of the ancients, to this day resorts to a stronger and more durable vertical practice in structures, for example, wanting to perpetuate an event in a particular area.

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