In the small American town of Elberton, a gigantic structure of granite rises on a hill. These are the Georgia Tablets, stone slabs 19 feet high (over six meters) with a post-apocalyptic message to humanity.
The monotonous sound of his wooden didgeridoo pipe is enhanced by the reciprocal vibration of the granite. “Not that I know when the world is going to end,” he says, lifting his lips from the mouthpiece and pointing at the gray six-meter slabs a few yards away. "But whenever it came, I would prefer to be right here at this moment."
Anthony and I met at the Georgia Tablets. This is a mysterious monument of six granite slabs, installed on a hilltop in the city of Elberton, Georgia, USA.
Anthony hitchhiked here from North Carolina; the next point of his journey is Coral Castle, another megalithic structure, but already in Florida, in a place called Homestead.
And I stopped in Elberton because I am a great hunter of all sorts of unusual sights "on the side of the road," as they say.
“It is not surprising that this particular place was chosen for the Tablets. It is not for nothing that Elberton is called the “granite capital of the world,” says Anthony.
"There is a huge deposit of granite right below us - a deposit 35 miles long, six miles wide, and three miles deep," he continues. - If there is an earthquake or some other natural disaster, I would like to be in this very place where six million tons of stone lie in the bowels of the earth. This is where people could be saved."
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It was these granite deposits that attracted a well-dressed gentleman who called himself Robert Christian to the city of Elberton in June 1979.
He approached Joe Fendley Sr., president of construction firm Elberton Granite Finishing Corporation, about the potential cost of building a decent-sized monument.
He said to himself that he was a representative of a small group of Americans (but not from Georgia) who are working on the project of the monument, conceived as a message to future generations.
Fendley immediately put him in touch with his banker Wyatt Martin, and he was appointed mediator in the affairs of the project. Both men took an oath not to disclose secrets.
In March 1980, the Georgia Tablets were four giant slabs with rough edges set around a central slab; another slab is located on top of these five (the total mass of the monument is 119 tons) - were opened for public viewing.
The opening ceremony was attended by about 100 people. One of them, a local priest, immediately announced that the monument resembled Stonehenge, and therefore was built for satanic pagan cults.
On each side of the upper slab, the following words were engraved in four ancient languages: "May these tablets serve as a testament to the Age of Reason."
The vertical slabs bear inscriptions in eight modern languages (English, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili, Spanish and Hindi), which represent some commandments to humanity for harmonious development in the post-apocalyptic era.
After meeting with Fendley and Martin, Christian left the city, and was never seen here again.
There was only a stone tablet with a commentary, which was installed a few yards from the monument.
The commentary contains information about the location of the megaliths from the point of view of astrology: four plates are oriented along the celestial poles; in the central slab at eye level there is a circular hole oriented to the North Star, as well as a slot made in accordance with the position of the sun during the solstices and equinoxes.
The upper plate acts as an astronomical calendar: through the hole in it, sunlight enters at noon and, hitting the central tablet with a beam, indicates the day of the year.
It is obvious that a tremendous intellectual and spiritual work preceded the construction and installation of the Tablets. However, the reason for the appearance of this monument and the true meaning of its messages have not yet been understood.
“What happens if a person is born in excess of the prescribed 500 million?” - asks, laughing, an elderly cashier at a local gas station (the lady is about 70 years old, and she asked me not to name her in the publication).
The cashier punches me a can of spiced peanuts. She has a tuft of gray hair on her head; strands that come out of the bundle fall to the neck, decorated with a pendant in the shape of the American flag; she speaks with a charming southern accent, sipping Coca-Cola from time to time from a tin can with traces of lipstick.
“People from everywhere come here to look at the Tablets. Many come for emanations: some think that they [emanations] are beneficial; others say it takes horror from them. And there are those who don't know what to think."
My interlocutor straightens the chain around her neck. “When I saw them for the first time, I just shuddered. They reminded me of Stonehenge. And we all know what happened at Stonehenge,”she says, and her pale cheeks, tinted with pink blush, solemnly fall off.
I, cracking another nut, ask: "What are you talking about?" - "Yes, it's clear what - about human sacrifices!"
Although the link between the Georgia megalithic monument and the occult and sacrificial rituals has yet to be confirmed, a gas station cashier told me about an amateur drone video filming in March 2015; a camera built into it allegedly recorded bruising spots on the upper tablet.
“Most of the locals don't care, but the priests in the area say that these are occult matters. Our sheriff did not start an investigation, but I personally would not be surprised if I find out that such rituals really took place …”- says the cashier.
"Then somehow a whole group of visitors came and wrote the plates up and down -" ISIS "and all sorts of other inscriptions. And my aunt alone arranged a wedding ceremony for herself [at the Tablets], and it turned out that she was a witch," revives.
“But in a good way, a witch,” she adds.
Thousands of people come to see the Georgia Tablets every year. Among skeptics, adherents, adherents of conspiracy theories and simply onlookers, there are a number of versions as to who this Christian really is, and what is the true purpose of the monument built under his leadership.
Some famous people -
Yoko Ono and John Lennon.
Yoko Ono, for example, hailed the Georgia Tablets as a call to living life intelligently, while others considered the new testament to be the words of the Antichrist.
Some have argued that the megalithic monument in Georgia "predicted" the height of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Burj Khalifa.
as early as 30 years before this tallest structure in the world was built.
But my casual acquaintance Anthony (and not he alone) believes that Christian is a member of the Rosicrucian order, engaged in the study of the metaphysical laws of the universe, and that he, Christian, was given the elixir of immortality.
“In my opinion, the initials 'R' and 'C' are the first letters of 'Rosy Cross', which is the symbol of the Rosicrucian Order,” he explains. "Their mission is to completely transcend the astral, mental and physical planes and to comprehend the essence of all these three states of being."
“But it takes lifetime after lifetime," says Anthony. "In my opinion, Christian is one of the ascended masters who has this knowledge, and he shares it with us through these stone tablets."
“Do you think he's still here?” I ask.
Anthony brings his pipe to his lips again. “Of course. But who he is and where he is - we are unlikely to ever know."
The lingering singing of the didgeridoo is heard. “But will these tablets help us all after the end of the world? It seems to me that we will not know this before it comes - whenever this happens."