We are used to the fact that all sorts of mysterious megalithic structures are located in Europe, South America, and the Middle East. But it turned out that they are also available in Japan. 100 km west of the town of Takasago, there is an object that is a megalith attached to a rock measuring 5.7x6.4x7.2 m and weighing 500-600 tons. It is called Ishi-no-Hoden.
There is no scientific data on who and for what purpose the megalith was made.
The dimensions of the megalith are impressive. It is difficult to photograph it in its entirety, and the two-storey Shinto temple standing next to it seems to be just an aerial structure next to this stone mass.
The temple was built here because the megalithic block is considered sacred - it has been worshiped since ancient times.
In accordance with Shinto traditions, Ishino-Hoden is tied with a rope with tassels hanging on it.
On one of the vertical faces there is a protrusion in the form of a truncated prism. Therefore, there is a stable feeling that the object is lying on its side.
Promotional video:
Ishi-no-Hoden was made quite simply - on the edge of the rock mass around a large piece of the mountain, a rock was selected, and this piece of the mountain itself was given the non-trivial geometric shape described above.
According to rough estimates, the volume of the excavated rock is about 400 cubic meters. and weighing about 1000 tons.
The grooves on the side surfaces are somewhat similar to technical details along which something had to move. Or vice versa - the stone itself had to move in some kind of even larger structure.
3D model of the mysterious monolith Ishi-no-Hoden.
And if the assumption is true that the megalith lies on its side, then it should have moved horizontally in such a structure. It is possible that this monolith was supposed to serve only as one of the supports of the huge structure.
Under the megalith is a large stone reservoir in the form of a tray filled with water. As follows from the temple records, this reservoir does not dry up even during long droughts.
Because of the water under the megalith, the supporting part in the center of the stone - the bridge that still connects the megalith with the rocky base - is not visible, and it seems to be floating in the air. Therefore, Ishi-no-Hoden is also called the Flying Stone.
The top of Ishi-no-Hoden is covered with gravel and earth, and even trees grow there. The megalith is sacred, and therefore its top cannot be cleared.
According to available sources, Ishi-no-Hoden is not made of granite, but from the so-called. hyaloclastite, formed during the eruption of liparite lava into the water about 70 million years ago.
And its "bottom" or the lower edge of Ishi-no-Hoden is generally perplexing - there are absolutely no traces of processing.
The face of the megalith farther from the mother rock looks as if some giant in one fell swoop simply tore off the part of the mountain that was located outside from it.
But even more puzzling is the absence of tool marks on the rock around Ishi-no-Hoden. There are no traces of any machine tools or hand tools. The chisel and pick were noted only in one place - at the very bottom on the rock opposite the wedge-shaped protrusion of the megalith.
However, to all appearances, here they only widened the passage for people bypassing the megalith. And this was done much later than the creation of Ishi-no-Hoden, when he had already turned into an object of worship.
The rest of the rock is literally pristine clean from any traces.
The official version says that the megalith was planned to be used as a kind of tomb. However, this completely falls out of local traditions, where only sarcophagi were performed as monolithic ones, and even then the lid of the sarcophagus has always been a separate element.
But even under the sarcophagus Ishi-no-Hoden does not fit - the size is too large.
Historians have no other versions of the purpose of the megalith.