Menhirs (menhir is translated as “long stone”) (one of the types of megalithic structures) are vertically placed large uncouth oblong stones of different sizes, standing separately or making up long alleys or ring fences.
Description
Menhirs range in size from 1 to 20 meters or more (a menhir with a height of 21 meters and weighing about 300 tons is located in France). Menhirs can be either barely hewn stones, or made in the form of monumental sculptures to which they gave a human appearance, carved out the chest, shoulders, eyes or weapons. They, usually, were not associated with funeral rites, but performed an independent function (for example, they designated the place where certain rituals were performed).
During the excavations carried out around many buildings, as a rule, animal bones, small vessels and shards, sometimes ash spots were found. Menhirs often accompany dolmens.
Energy storage
For several millennia, huge blocks of stone have accumulated natural magnetism. The northern peoples believed that the plates absorb energy from the surrounding world and give it to those who worship natural giants. Stones were considered a kind of accumulator that enhances vibration and allows you to enter a person into an altered state of consciousness, awakening the sleeping abilities in him.
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Geography. History
In many European countries, in the midst of fields and meadows, on hills, near ancient temples, in forests, often right in the middle of roads and on the lawns near houses where people live, huge long stones - menhirs - rise. Some are directed straight up, others are tilted, and it seems that they are falling. However, this "fall" has been going on for 5,000 or even 6,000 years: this is the age, presumably, of the most ancient of them. Science considers them to be the first authentically man-made structures that have survived to this day.
The standing stones of Brittany and the British Isles are better studied and well known. But there are largely more of them on our planet. Today menhirs in height from one to 17 meters and weighing up to several hundred tons can be seen in Greece and Italy, in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, in the south of France, in Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic, in Spain and Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany and southern Scandinavia. They are found all over the Mediterranean coast from Libya to Morocco and further south, up to Senegal and Gambia. They are available in Syria, in Palestine.
Previously, it was believed that the tallest was the Fairy Stone, which stood near the village of Locmarijaker in French Brittany. 17 meters high, it went into the ground for more than three, weighing about 350 tons! Presumably this stone was installed 4000 years ago, but, unfortunately, it was destroyed around 1727.
It is found that on two vertically standing blocks lies the third; such a structure resembling a gate is called triliths.
One of the most grandiose ensembles of menhirs is located in the same place, in Brittany, in Karnak - stone alleys of more than 3000 rough stones (presumably there were about 10 thousand of them before!) Stretch for several kilometers. They are about 6,000 years old. From the air, you can see that some large and small menhirs form huge circles and triangles.
Iconic stones
There is no historical or material evidence of the people who placed mighty stone pillars on our planet. There is an assumption that menhirs are tombstones. Maybe lighthouses, or sightings. But although the practical function of menhirs is not clear, it is obvious that these are cult stones. It is not known what kind of cult it was, but the preserved traditions of venerating stones among ancient peoples reveal the secret of the menhirs.
It is known, for example, that in India rough, upright stones are still considered the abodes of deities. In Greece, a huge, rough stone pillar once represented Artemis. At the crossroads of the roads towered four-sided pillars with the sculpted head of the god Hermes - Herma. In ancient Rome, Terminalia was celebrated in honor of the god of borders, Terminalia. On that day, boundary stones were rubbed with oils, decorated with garlands of flowers, sacrificial gifts were brought to them: honey, wine, milk, grain. Those who dared to move such a border stone were considered cursed forever - the borders in Rome were sacred. And the stone, representing the god Terminus himself, was in the Capitol Temple and guaranteed the inviolability of the borders of the entire empire.
On the faults of the earth's crust
Perhaps the menhirs were the same boundary stones. But they did not share the neighboring possessions, but rather something else. Now the version is quite popular that all these stones were placed on the fractures of the earth's crust, where the Earth's energies were concentrated and raised to the surface. They stood in geopathogenic zones.
On the border of two worlds
According to myths, menhirs stand on the border of two worlds - the world where people lived, and the world where the gods lived. So, in the Irish sagas it is said that standing stones marked the entrance to the Sids, the dwellings of the wonderful magic people of the Celts. And in Brittany, they still believe that thanks to pelvan you can meet the dead: in ancient times, people erected stone thrones somewhere in prominent places, kindled a fire and waited for the souls of their ancestors to sit on them to warm themselves by the fire. And just like the stone of Termin, some menhirs, while standing, serve as a guarantee for the existence of entire villages, postponing the end of times …
These legendary stones have always been considered the focus of energy - a force designed to protect from all adversity and keep the world from death. It happened that the peoples who came to replace others took care of artifacts and reused the stones, inscribing their inscriptions on them and even changing their shape, remaking tall columns into idols for worship.