The earthen mounds and standing stones of Karnak are the oldest man-made monuments in Europe and the largest megalith on the continent, the purpose of which remains a mystery to this day.
These iconic monuments are scattered throughout Europe in a vast area stretching from Italy in the south to Scandinavia in the north and encompassing the British Isles. But the largest of these megaliths, Karnak, is located in the heart of the pine forests and heathers of Brittany in western France. There are many more stones here than anywhere else in Europe, and they cover a vast area about 8 km long.
Little is known about the people who erected the stones of Karnak, but they were probably skilled engineers with vast labor resources, and they undoubtedly worked according to a premeditated plan.
The Karnak complex consists of three large concentrations of menhirs (in Welsh taep - "stone" and hir - "long", meaning any tall, lonely standing stone), located north of the town of Karnak: Le Menek, Kermario and Kerlescan. In Le Meneque, 1,099 stones stand in 11 rows on an area 1 km long and 100 m wide. To the east of it there are 10 more stone rows of Kermario, which stretches for 1.2 km. Farther to the east, the almost square outlines of Kerlescan are visible: 540 stones arranged in 13 short rows and ending 800 m later in a semicircle of 39 large menhirs. The fourth, much more modest collection - Maly Menek - consists of only 100 stones.
All these iconic monuments are similar in many ways. They are laid out in rows from west to east, the distance between which is not the same: it narrows towards the outer northern and southern ends. The further east the observer looks, the closer to each other they seem and the higher. In some places the stones are set not in rows, but in parallel arcs. The size of the menhirs is also different: the height of the smallest stones at the western end of Le Menek is 90 cm, the largest - at Kermario - 7 m.
It is possible that the 3000 menhirs of the Karnak complex represent only half of the original number of stones. Some of them have crumbled under the influence of erosion, and even more have been dismantled by local farmers or amateur archaeologists. During the vibrations of the earth's crust and the earthquake of 1722, many stones were tumbled down and destroyed, making it even easier to pull them apart.
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The stone complexes were built between 3500 and 1500 BC. BC, so that their age is comparable to the age of Stonehenge in England and the Egyptian pyramids. It still remains a mystery who were the architects of Karnak and how they managed to install the stones. Geologists agree that many, if not all, menhirs appeared before Europe got acquainted with the wheel, the first mention of which dates back to about 1000 BC. e., although it is possible that it was used earlier. The stones were hewn from granite, a material quite common in these places, and, probably, were dragged from the quarries to Karnak, where they were installed in the desired position. Since some of the largest stones weighed in excess of 350 tons, a huge number of workers had to be involved in this ambitious project. In timeswhen the average life expectancy for men was 36 years and women - 30, hardly any of the participants lived to see the completion of construction.
The rows and circles of menhirs are not the only and not the earliest historical monuments of Karnak. In these places, earthen mounds, or burial grounds, were also discovered, at least two of which were built no later than 4000 BC. e. The very location of Kermario points to an upright stone that marks the entrance to the Kercado through burial. It is a vast grassy mound topped with a stone. Inside it is a stone-lined passage that leads to a square stone tomb, where several generations are buried. This mound was erected around 4700 BC. e. Its entrance points to the point of sunrise in winter. Perhaps this is the oldest surviving structure of this kind in Europe.
The burial grounds and especially the standing stones of Karnak have attracted thousands of visitors for centuries, many of whom have tried to interpret the meaning of the stone avenues. Even Gustave Flaubert noted that "more nonsense has been written about Karnak than there are standing stones in it." One of the more popular theories is that it was a religious center and the stones were set by ancient Breton pilgrims. Much later, the same stones "passed" to the Romans, who supposedly carved the names of their gods on them. With the advent of the era of Christianity, crosses and other Christian attributes appeared on the stones. According to local folklore, menhirs are Roman soldiers turned into stones by local saints and former Pope Cornelius for driving him from Rome to Brittany.
According to one of the beliefs (existing at least since the Middle Ages), stones are capable of conferring fertility if a childless woman spends several nights on a cromlech (a flat stone laid horizontally on several standing ones), anointed with wax, oil and honey. Or maybe the stones are just monuments to the dead? After all, the very word "karnak" in Breton means "cemetery of the dead."
A later theory ascribes a special purpose to stones. The study of Karnak and other megaliths led Alexander Thom to the conclusion that the people who erected the rows of menhirs were well versed in astronomy and installed stones either to study the movement of celestial bodies, especially the Moon, the Sun, and other planets, or as a giant astronomical clock, according to which could determine the timing of the start of plowing and sowing.
Perhaps we will never know what the huge stones of Karnak mean, but this does not detract from their attraction, attracting thousands of visitors here every year. And although the stones are covered with lichens, and many are completely absent, in Karnak there is an exciting sense of involvement in the birth of civilization. on the European continent.
The name Karnak comes from the Breton word “carn”, literally “pile of stones”. It is a mysterious village in the northwest of France, on the southern coast of Brittany, famous for its many megaliths: menhirs, dolmens and mounds. It is estimated that there are about three thousand of them, three groups, although it is believed that at one time they were all one.
The main group, the so-called Menek system, is located northwest of the village. It contains 1099 granite monoliths, built in the form of eleven parallel rows about 1000 m long. They end in an arch that reaches the end of the outer rows. The Kermario system consists of ten such rows and 982 menhirs, and the third group is called the Kerleskan system - there are thirteen rows and 540 menhirs in it. Free-standing mysterious menhirs and dolmens were carved from local granite. Some of the stones are over 6 m high. Kermario's lines run in the direction of the tomb of Kercado, with a mysterious mound above it. This burial was investigated in 1863.
The purpose and origin of these Neolithic monuments remain a mystery. Until recently, they were worshiped by the inhabitants of Brittany. The Romans once used them for religious purposes. Some of the stones depict Roman gods. The spread of Christianity in this area is also reflected in the reliefs on the stones - there are images of the Christian cross and other mystical symbols.
In 1990, a fence was erected and a security system was deployed to protect the mystical megaliths from damage from an increasing number of tourists. Over the next ten years, a program of restabilization of the mysterious stones was carried out. Entry restrictions existed until 1999, after which work on some sites was completed and visitors were again allowed to roam freely between the stones.