The megalithic complex in the south of Armenia called Karahunj is perhaps not only the most interesting structure in Armenia, but also one of the most mysterious stone compositions in the world.
How is it different from other megaliths?
Firstly, almost all of them date back to the 4th-3rd millennium BC, while the age of Karauj is at least 7,500 years (some researchers, in particular, Graham Hancock, suggested that the complex has a 12-thousand-year history).
Secondly, the holes existing in the stones make the Armenian megalith unique. Geographer Nicholas Howard, one of the members of the 2010 expedition to Carahunj organized by the University of Oxford in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, said: "… The presence of holes in the rocks makes her stand out from the general row of such objects."
All the researchers who studied Karahunj, including Paris Herouni, Graham Hancock, Nicholas Howard, Vachagan Vahradyan, Vazgen Gevorkian and others, came to the conclusion that the complex is the oldest observatory.
Sounding stones
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The very name of the megalith, located in the Syunik region of Armenia, can tell a lot.
Karunj or Karahunj consists of two roots: "kar", which in Armenian means stone and "unj" - sound, voice. That is, sounding or speaking stones. (Here it is interesting to recall the name of the megalithic complex in France, which also has the root "car" - Carnac).
Carahunj
Other names of the complex are Zorats Karer - stones of power, Karegandz - stone treasures.
Thus, on the one hand, “treasures”, on the other, “sound”. What did these boulders tell about and why was it so valuable?
Our ancestors brought menhirs for construction from the nearby gorge of the Dar River - one of the tributaries of the Vorotan. There are 222 stones in total. 84 of them have 4-5 centimeter holes of regular shape. How much time and effort did it take to drag menhirs weighing 50 tons or more for several kilometers?
Carahunj
This says only one thing: the installation of boulders was necessary for our ancestors. Apparently, the complex gave knowledge, which they actively used in their life. This can be due to both human health problems and the harvest. Thus, by means of megaliths, people made certain calculations …
Stone observatory
“Today there is no longer any doubt that Karahunj is really the oldest observatory. During our visits in recent years, we have made important astronomical observations and are fully convinced of this,”he says.
As it was already mentioned in the previous materials of the “Lost Knowledge” series, the Hayk-Orion belt, which in Armenian is called “Shampruk-kshirk” (balance axis), reaches the celestial equator on August 11. That is why Gevorgyan conducted his observations on this day.
“Through the hole in the stone one can observe that culminating point of the celestial equator, which the Hayk-Orion belt reaches once every 25920 years and marks the end of the old and the beginning of the New sidereal year. This is the point on the celestial equator, with the help of which ancient scientists calculated the time and made a calendar,”the researcher notes.
The earliest astronomers, observing through the holes, could calculate the appearance of certain celestial bodies, monitor their progress across the sky (fix angular changes), and also fix the point of sunrise and sunset, the days of the equinox and the solstice.
Vazgen Gevorgyan's team observed the starry sky through stone telescopes in Karahunj on August 11, 2012 (remember, this year the Mayan calendar ended). The data were so amazing that in 2015, at the invitation of Gevorgyan, the world famous researcher of ancient civilizations Graham Hancock visited Armenia.
Then he wrote: "The constellation of Orion rises before dawn over the megaliths of Karahunj and you can see how the three stars of Orion's belt line up vertically above the tip of the menhir."
After the statement of such an authoritative researcher, the popular scientific geographic magazine National Geographic in 2016 included the Karahunj complex, which is also called the Armenian Stonehenge, in the list of the oldest observatories in the world. The journal emphasized that our ancestors made observations of Orion and Sirius here.
How the stars "tied" Karahunj and the pyramids
The constellation Orion and the star Sirius were so important to ancient astronomers that the main pyramid of Cheops has star pointers. This is reflected in Egyptian myths and legends.
Karahunj / VAZGEN GEVORKYAN PERSONAL ARCHIVE / ru.armeniasputnik.am
The mines of the king and queen are directed precisely at the culminating points of these stars. The king's shaft is located at an angle of 45 degrees and is directed to the Orion belt, and the queen's chamber is directed to the star Sirius at an angle of 39.5 degrees.
Pyramids of Giza
According to Vazgen Gevorgyan, we have an amazing "coincidence": the ancient observatory Karahunj, which was built long before the Egyptian pyramids, is located at a latitude of 39.5 degrees N. (This was noticed by Paris Heruni). And if we draw an azimuth of 45 degrees from the Giza plateau to the northeast, and this is exactly how the location of the three main pyramids of Giza indicates, then the intersection of these two lines falls exactly on the area where the “Armenian Stonehenge” and the Tatev monastery complex of the 9th-10th centuries are located …
Lilit Harutyunyan
