Perhaps there are few megaliths that are as impressive as the Carnac Stones in Brittany, France. They stand upright in a group numbering close to three thousand near Carnac. The stones are of varying heights, there are stones as high as eighteen feet. Like many megalithic groups, many Carnac Stones are arranged in a pattern, in this case, neat rows.

There are three main groups that can be seen with respect to arrangement. One group has over thousand large stone arranged in a pattern of eleven lines that stretch upto three thousand five hundred feet. This is the largest of the three groups. There is a second group that has nine hundred and eighty two stones lined in ten rows. The third group has five hundred and forty stones lined in thirteen and extending to about a hundred miles.

Over centuries, Carnac Stones were either removed or destroyed in thousands. Historians figure that the all three groups of megaliths were part of a single arrangement.

The exact purpose for which the megaliths were put up is still unknown. One popular legend says that these megaliths are actually an entire roman army turned into stone by a Saint. This is why all these stones are in neat rows, just like marching roman soldiers in formation. There were many such legends that people who lived in the vicinity in the past used to have.

Historians say that perhaps these rows were used to show the route of a procession of some sort. Some others say that these could have been some sort of complex way of observing the path of the heavenly bodies. Carnac Stones is still a mystery though.

Tiwanaku is considered by many scholars and Andean experts as one of the major cultures that existed prior to the Inca Empire, and it flourished as the administrative capital as well as where the main religious rituals took place. The major state power had its capital at Tiwanau for well over five centuries.

The ancient city state of Tiwanaku has its remains in the south eastern shore of Titicaca Lake in the La Paz Dept of the Ingavi Province. The area comes under the Tiwanaku Municipality, which is located close to forty four miles (seventy two miles) to the west of La Paz.

Pedro Ciezo de Leon, who proclaimed himself as the first chronicler of the Indies, was a Spanish conquistador who was the first to document the existence of the site in written history. The site of Tiwanaku ruins was stumbled upon by Pedro Cieza de Leon in the year fifteen forty nine, when he was searching for the capital of the Incans – Collasuyu.

The name Tiwanuku is said to have its origins from the term “Taypiqala”, which means stone in the center in Ayamara language. This is in turn related to the fact that the town was situated at the exact center of the world. However, this is not the name the actual inhabitants of the city used to refer to the city. This has been lost, as there was no evidence or history in written form. This was because the people of Tiwanaku had no written script of language.

Cerne Abbas Giant is one of the two ancient figures on the hillside in England. The other figure is that of Long Man. The image is clearly male. It is carved by numerous trenches measuring one foot in width. The trenches criss-cross the hillside of the historic Cerne Abbas village.

The trenches, which had a depth of one foot, were carved out of the soil to reveal the chalk-like surface of the hill. The surface of the hill is snow white. Cerne Abbas Giant has a wonderful green background because of the grass on the hill.

There has been a lot of debate regarding the figure’s origin. Most individuals believe that the figure belongs to ancient times. Early Britons most probably carved the structure. Succeeding generations of the local community have preserved the structure painstakingly.

Similar to other figures of chalk in the country, Cerne Abbas giant was carved in the 1600s. Adjacent to the figure lies a hidden image, which is known as ‘trendle’ or ‘frying pan’. Scholars belonging to medieval times often mentioned its unique location. They popularly called it Trendle Hill.

It is highly unlikely that the monks of Benedictine created Cerne Abbas giant, which is un-Christian and offensive.

Numerous theories exist regarding the purpose of the giant’s creation. One popular notion is that Cerne Abbas Giant is the Greco-Roman god Hercules, who is often portrayed with animal fur and a club. Hercules’s worship was part of the early Roman invasion. It was then merged with a local Celtic deity. Most historians believe that the giant was created under Emperor Commodus’s reign. Commodus believed that he was the reincarnation of Hercules. He most probably revived the cult.

Other legends suggest that the nearby monastery’s monks created the giant as a joke on Thomas Corton, who was an abbot accused of malpractice. This may be unlikely. However, the giant’s close proximity to an ecclesiastical house is bizarre. Also unexplained is the fact that how could a pagan symbol have survived for such a long time. It may be likely that religious structures were constructed near the giant to achieve the pagan site’s amalgamation.

There are stone structures are called stone rings that exist in the Isles of the UK. The number of these stone rings, two times of the existing count, was built originally. Rather than circles, these are called rings, since they are built in slightly non-circular, elliptical shapes. More than nine hundred of them exist. Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument, is located in Wiltshire, an English country. Stonehenge is one of the most famous sites, for its sacredness, in the world. Composed of earthworks that surround a set of large stones, standing in a circular arrangement, Stonehenge is surrounded by the most densely populated complex of monuments from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, which lasted from around 4000 to 2000 BC in southern England. There are about several hundreds of burial mounds also. The assumption of the antiquarians of 17th century was that the Druids constructed the Stonehenge (and other such megalithic structures), and this was before the times when the archeological dating methods were developed. The Driud, unfortunately, did not have anything to do with the construction or use of the stone rings, especially Stonehenge, since the Druid priesthood society, in Britain, came to existence after 300 BC. The Egyptian travelers were often attributed with the Stonehenge, since they were thought, by the 19th century historians, as the ones who had infused Europe with Bronze Age culture. Later, when the dating systems were resolved and re-invented, the stone rings seemed to predate even the Egyptian culture.

The stone rings in Stonehenge were assumed to be used for activities of sacred rituals, by the mid-20th century. The pioneers of astronomical study of ancient civilizations (aka archeoastronomy), Prof. Alexander Thom and Gerald Hawkins from Oxford University had conducted precise surveys at many stone rings and discovered alignments, celestially significant, and had discovered that the stone rings at Stonehenge were used for astronomical observation purposes.

Stonehenge was built during a two-thousand year period from 3100 to 1100 BC. Each stone of Stonehenge weighs about 25 tons, which were transported from far away locations of over hundreds of miles away. This massive structure was used for multiple purposes. This is a mystic of nearly imperishable nature and is located at a site, specifically rich in terrestrial energy and power and of course celestially significant. Stonehenge was used as an astronomical device, for predicting annual cycle periods when the energies of the earth were influenced by the sun, moon and stars. This occurrence was of most high duration, potential and importance during this particular period. It was regarded as the people’s temple, built by and for them and festivals of renewal used to be held at the energetic periods that were determined on the basis of the astronomical observations.  Certain types of stones were used to build a structure like the Stonehenge, and the stones were positioned in accordance with sacred geometry. The gatherings at this most popular stone ring acted as a battery, since the concentration and emanation of the earthly energies occurred at this site.

Easter Island was earlier called Te-Pito – Te-Henua (Land’s end). Easter Island today is inhabited by about 2,000 Rapa Nuis, mostly in and around Hanga Roa, the capital of Easter Island and its only town. Cooks Bay is the only port of Easter Island. The Spanish name of Easter Island is Isla de Pascua. Spanish and Rapa Nui are the main official languages spoken at Easter Island.

Easter Island is a special territory of Chile annexed under an agreement of September 1888.  Today, Easter Island is a World Heritage Site and much of its area remains protected under the Rapa Nui National Park. Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen was the first recorded European explorer at Easter Island.

Location:

Easter Island is situated about 3,510 km west off the Chilean coast and is also about the same distance from Tahiti. Pitcairn Island, located about 1400 miles away, is the nearest inhabited land. Isla Salas y Gómez is the closest island but is uninhabited.

Mysterious ‘Moais’ of Easter Island:

Easter Island is particularly famous for its monumental statues called Moais (about 900 of them) that were created by the early Rapa Nui people. However, presence of these giant statues (average weight 14 tons, height 13 feet), chiseled out of volcanic basalt, along the coast as well as in the interior of the island has raised many a puzzle that are yet to be resolved. First, how these statues were made, second, how were they transported to the coast land and third, why were they stationed in such position (facing the sea)? And most importantly, who were these moais? Were they ancestral spirits or people of high echelons? These are some of the answers that historians are desperately looking about. Paro is the biggest moai, which is 82 tons in weight and about 32 feet in height.

Other attractions:

Anakena Beach is a beautiful beach at the Easter Island featuring coconut palms and white sand. There is also an Ahu with 6 Moais guards.

Ahu Tahai (probably the earliest Ahu structures on the island dating back to 690 AD), Ahu Akivi and Ahu Vinapu are some of the Ahu structures.

Rano Rarku, looks like a virtual graveyard for the Moais today. Several half carved, broken and abandoned statues lie scattered here and there.

Reaching Easter Island:

• By air:
  Flight from Santiago in Chile (time taken is about 5 hours)
• By water:
  Cruise ship

Accommodation:

• Hotel Hanga Roa
• Taha Tai
• Iorana
• Tauraa Hotel

• Mantuara
• Hotel Gomero
• Te’ora