History of the Carnac Stones

It’s unclear precisely when the stones arrived here: they date back to 4500 BC, but some believe they were moved here over a thousand years after this, around 3300BC. The stones themselves are hewn from local(ish) granite, but some are thought to have been moved here from as far away as 50km – a huge feat in such an era.

No-one knows exactly what these stones were used for, although a variety of theories have been pushed forward, including that they have some form of astronomical alignment or were used in religious or cultural practices of the time. There is little evidence for that, and any astronomical alignment is not clear enough for historians and archaeologists to have reach a consensus on.

Rumours about the stones’ origins date back to around the 1st century AD, when Brittany was occupied by the Romans. One story says the stones were once pagan soldiers, turned to stone by Pope Cornelius, whilst others say the stones were Roman soldiers, turned to stone by Merlin.

Over the years, the stones have been used for all sorts of things, including as chicken sheds, sheep shelters and building materials for local farmers. Today they are managed in a more controlled manner, although they remain deeply mysterious

The Carnac Stones today

The stones are free to access between October and March, but in the summer months you’ll need to pay to join a guided tour. Get there early or late in the day as the site can get extremely busy in peak season as it remains one of Brittany’s most popular tourist attractions. Much of the area is roped off to protect the stones from erosion and the perils of overtourism – certain areas are available to walk through.

Carnac is far from the only megalithic site in the area. Explore the history of the area at the nearby Maison des Mégalithes, drive the Route des Alignements to experience the landscape and climb the Moulin de Kermaux to get the best view of the landscape. If you have the time, walk or cycle around the area, and particularly between the Ménec and Kerlescan groups, to understand exactly how vast the area is.

Getting to the Carnac Stones

The stones are located just off the D196, a kilometre north of Carnac-Ville. Carnac itself is about 30 minutes from the city of Vannes. Public transport is scarce – you’re best off walking up there from Carnac-Ville. There’s ample parking on site.

History of Drizzlecombe

Drizzlecombe is rich with prehistoric remains and was clearly a focus of activity during the Bronze Age. Standing on a spur of land between the stream of Drizzle Combe and the River Plym, the area contains 5 enclosed settlement sites and huts, cairns and a cist, but it is the 3 principal stone rows, each with an associated barrow and terminal menhir, that dominate the landscape today.

All 3 rows run uphill in a roughly southwest/northeast direction with their terminal stones at the southern end and a cairn marking their northern limits. The tallest menhir (at 4.3 metres high – the largest on Dartmoor) is on the eastern row – known as the ‘Bone Stone’ due to its thin shape. At some point this must have fallen, as it was re-erected in 1893.

Nearby is the large cairn known as Giant’s Basin (a huge rubble mound), with a diameter of 22 metres and around 3 metres tall. It’s slightly out of place with the surrounding area with the stone rows not aligned to it – possibly indicating it was a founding monument or a later addition.

The Giant’s Basin was clearly a tempting target for early excavators as a large crater extends into the centre which has removed nearly a metre from its height. It is not known if anything of significance was found.

Drizzlecombe today

Today the site is much unchanged, as to be expected. With any luck, you may see Dartmoor ponies wandering among the stone rows.

Getting to Drizzlecombe

Drizzlecombe is located on the western side of Dartmoor, about 4 miles east of the village of Yelverton. The easiest way to reach Drizzlecombe is to take the lane leading east out of Sheepstor village. There is a parking area at the end of the lane. From here, a footpath leads east, then forks – take either branch.

As with all excursions on Dartmoor, an Ordnance Survey map is very useful.

History of Easter Island

‘Discovered’ by Dutch explorers in 1722, Easter Island – so named because the explorers landed on Easter Sunday – is thought to have been inhabited since 700AD and perhaps even as early as the fourth century AD. This is still disputed, as is the origin of the people of Easter Island. Most scientists now believe that the first inhabitants were of Polynesian descent.

Perhaps the most famous aspects of Easter Island are its almost 900 head shaped statues, known as moai. Originally known as the “living faces of our ancestors”, the moai are incredibly large and heavy stone statues which are thought to have been built in around 1000AD to protect the islanders. When they were found, the moai were not standing and a large number have since been erected upright.

Much of the reason behind the mystery of Easter Island is due to the vast reduction in its population over the years. When found, Easter Island had around 12,000 inhabitants, but by the late 19th century, this had diminished to around 110 people, through a combination of emigration, the arrival of new European diseases, and slavers raiding the island repeatedly. In 1888, Chile annexed Easter Island. Today, the population has recovered significantly, returning to between 7000 and 8000 inhabitants at any one time .

Prior to the arrival of the explorers, evidence suggests that, in the seventeenth century, Easter Island underwent a period of civil war, even cannibalism. During this time, the moai were pulled down. However, the people of Easter Island were found to be healthy and at peace when the Dutch arrived. It was only afterwards that disease and natural disasters took their toll.

Today, Easter Island makes up the Rapa Nui National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Easter Island today

Easter Island is famously remote – 3700km west of Chile, it’s a dot in the middle of the South Pacific – but many make the trek each year to visit this mysterious speck in the ocean.

Once there, you can explore a variety of sites, including the moai heads and the quarry at the Rano Raraku volcano.

The landscape is also phenomenal: whether you like hiking, diving, snorkelling, horseback riding, or simply pristine hills and beaches, there’s pretty much nowhere left like Easter Island, so make the most of it. Having said that, it’s not huge, so depending on how much you pack into your itinerary, you could spend a day or two, or several weeks.

Whilst Easter Island is technically part of Chile, it’s culturally more Polynesian. Summer in the northern hemisphere is winter for Easter Island, so expect winds and showers – head over December-February for the best weather, and the most expensive prices. Bring cash just in case – ATMs on the island are limited.

Getting to Easter Island

Unless you’re planning on an epic boat journey, you’ll be flying in and out of Easter Island. There are daily flights from Santiago (Chile) to Easter Island by LATAM – the journey takes about 5 hours. Less frequent are flights to Tahiti. Routes to and from Lima (Peru) previously existed, and may well restart depending on demand.

History of Gal Vihara

The site is located in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa in North Central Province, Sri Lanka. It was created during the 12th century by the king Parakrama Bahu I.

Originally part of the king’s Northern Monastery, the Gal Vihara is comprised of four such carvings, each with an individual pose – thought to each represent a different stage in Buddha’s life – and of different sizes. Carved into the face of a large granite gneiss rock, the images are considered to be some of the best examples of ancient Sinhalese sculpting and carving arts, and make the monument the most visited at Polonnaruwa.

The largest one is 46 feet high and depicts a reclining Buddha, while the oldest of the group, which shows Buddha standing, is 23 feet high.

The site was also where Parakramabahu I gathered a congregation of monks in order to purify the Buddhist priesthood, and later drew up a code of conduct for them. This code of conduct is recorded in an inscription on the same rock face containing the images of the Buddha.

Gal Vihara Today

Today, the large site is hugely popular with tourists and Buddhist worshippers alike. The Gal Vihara statues are contained within an unsightly metal structure, but are still well worth seeing due to their historical importance and detailed craftsmanship.

It is also recommended that you take a guide around the whole site of Polonnaruwa, as there are many stunning sites to see which require detailed explanation.

Appropriate clothing is expected, and no shoes are allowed to be worn at the site.

Getting to Gal Vihara

From the centre of Polonnaruwa, the site is reachable in around 10 minutes via the A11 road. There are also a number of buses – the 48-1, 48-3, 48-13, 48-16, and 48/218-1 – which depart from Jayanthi Film Hall every 15 minutes or so and take around 50 minutes. It is possible to walk – though it might be a long and hot journey, although the routes are mainly flat – and takes around 50 minutes via the Gallambarawa Road.

History of Göbekli Tepe

Thanks to this sensational 12,000 year old discovery by a team from the German Archaeological Institute led by Professor Klaus Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe is regarded as a find of profound importance. Göbekli Tepe is one of the first manifestations of human-made monumental megalithic structures, constructed using innovative building techniques by communities who lived during one of the most momentous transitions in human history, transforming the hunter-gatherer lifestyle into one of the first farming communities.

Academics are calling Göbekli Tepe the ‘world’s first temple’ and it’s an example that huge complexes were well within the capabilities of early hunter-gatherers, an assumption never previously considered. Göbekli Tepe may very well be the very first thing human beings every built. It pre-dates pottery, domesticated animals, and agriculture and Professor Schmidt postulates that Göbekli Tepe was the catalyst for these things to follow. He called it ‘the Rome of the Ice Age’.

There are at least 20 installations each enclosed by a wall as well as T-shaped pillars between three and six metres high weighing 40-60 tonnes, some with human-like appendages and some with carvings of animals such as foxes, snakes, boars and ducks.

Similarly to Stonehenge, questions remain as to how the huge monoliths got to their locations, how intricate carvings were made when even rudimentary hand tools were rare, how they were stood up on end when complex engineering of that type was centuries away, as was farming, the ability to create blueprint for construction, and even permanent settlements. The next temples of this size and complexity date from five thousand years after Göbekli Tepe. The significance of this site cannot be understated.

Göbekli Tepe Today

Only a small percentage of the site has been excavated, with only 4 circles having been exposed in the main excavation site out of over 20 in total.

Despite being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2018, the site has not yet been ‘discovered’ by tourists.

For an introduction to the site, visit the impressive Sanliurfa museum, which displays artefacts discovered at the site, including the oldest full size stone sculpture of man in the world.

Getting to Göbekli Tepe

The temple is only 12 kilometers outside the ancient city of Sanliurfa which is the perfect base to visit the site.

The cheapest way to get there is by public transport. The Sanliurfa city council have put on a bus that leaves 3 times a day to and from Sanliurfa. The first bus of the day leaves from the Museum at 9.45 and the Abide bus station at 10.00 The bus costs 5 TL each way and you pay the driver on the bus. It returns at 12pm, 3pm and 6pm.

History of the Ingá Stone

The archaeological site of the Ingá Stone, also known in the Tupi-Guarani language as the Itacoatiara do Ingá and Pedra do Ingá in Portuguese, is near the town of Ingá in northeast Brazil. The meaning of the carvings remain uncertain, but may allude to astronomy, animals and fruits.

The site was one of the first monuments of protected rock art in Brazil, exceptionally recognised for its artistic and historical importance. The Ingá Stone site consists of multiple basalt stones covered with glyphs. The main outcrop, featuring the three main rock art panels, forms a wall 24 metres long and 3.5 metres high at its highest point.

The engravings are generally non-figurative, and created using a technique of pecking at the stone and then polishing the grooves. Some of the figures also retain traces of pigment, suggesting they may have been coloured.

The first reports of rock art in the state of Paraíba were made by European settlers in the 16th century. The rock art at Ingá are the most representative group of a particular type of engraving tradition in Brazil.

Ingá Stone today

The Ingá Stone is located on the riverbed in the open air, which exposes it to a wide array of natural degradation processes in addition to human disturbance. Environmental risks include wind, rain, flood and temperature changes. The stone retains symbolic significance for the descendants of the indigenous population of the region.

Getting to the Ingá Stone

The Ingá Stone site is 5 km from the town of Ingá along a road. It is 96 km from the state of Paraíba’s capital city of João Pessoa. The site is protected by the Brazilian agency responsible for cultural heritage, and there is a visitor sign-in book though no entry fee.

Jelling history

Gorm and his son, Harald I Bluetooth, erected several monuments at Jelling including a pair of enormous grave mounds, which are the largest in Denmark. These are still incredibly well-preserved and can be viewed at the site. Gorm was buried in the larger one, although the second one is not thought to have been used.

There are also two runic stones at Jelling, the larger one thought to have been built by Harald and the smaller by Gorm before him. The runic stones known as the Jelling Stones stand before Jelling Church or ‘Jelling Kirke’ which dates back to around 1100.

Jelling Kirke was the third such church to have been built on the site, a former wooden version having been built by Harald who converted to Christianity. This conversion is also evidenced by a figure of Jesus on one of the stones.

Jelling today

Visit the home of the Viking kings and see the incredible monuments including runic stones, a church and the largest burial mounds known from the Nordic Viking period. The Jelling site has a visitor centre – Kongernes Jelling – with a series of exhibits telling the story of the monuments.

Getting to Jelling

Located between the 18 and 30 highways, Jelling is an easy drive from Vejle (20 minutes) or a slightly longer journey from Copenhagen (2 and a half hours).

Karlsstenen history

The tomb Karlsstenen is from around 3,500-3,300 BC, the legend being it was thrown by a giant from Jægerspris towards nearby Torup Church, a 12th century Romanesque church in the Viking age town. During the Neolithic period, Denmark had contact with other farming communities in Europe, but it was later, around 3,900 BC, that people began tilling the land and keeping animals.

Tombs or dolmans such as Karlsstenen were constructed all over Denmark as grave monuments for farmers. Inside, relatives would also leave polished flint axes and amber beads left to the gods in exchange for a good harvest.

Karlsstenen likely gained its name due to Count Carl of Hesse, who owned the estate where Karlsstenen is located between 1792-1804. Afterwards, the land passed to Carl’s son-in-law. Crown Prince Frederik VI, who in 1808 became the last king of Norway and Denmark. Under Frederik, Denmark entered a period of ‘enlightened despotism’ in which serfdom was abolished and various reforms following the French Revolution were implemented.

In the late 19th century, Denmark became part of the Scandinavian money union with Sweden, but member countries still issued their own currencies. In 1908, Karlsstenen was chosen to be the main motif on the new Danish five-krone banknote issued by Dansmarks Nationalbank.

Karlsstenen today

Today, you can visit the one-metre high, two-metre long stone tomb which is incredibly well preserved and lies in the scenic Grønnæssegård woodland. Visitors can really appreciate the immense age of the burial chamber consisting of several upright megaliths and covered by one or two larger stones. The chamber is partly hidden by a surrounding mound of large stones.

Within the estate, you can also visit Grønnessegaard Gods, a heritage site which allows you to explore the estate as it was in the 17th-18th century.

Getting to Karlsstenen

You can reach Karlsstenen by heading to Grønnessegaard Gods, which is located just off the Amtsvejen 16, a one-hour drive from Copenhagen, and has car-parking. The nearest bus stop is Vink – Sverkilstrupvejen (Amtsvejen) on the 326 bus route, from which Karlsstenen is a 850m walk.

History of Kilmartin Glen

Kilmartin Glen holds a multitude of cairns, standing stones, carved rock, stone circles, forts and castles – spanning approximately 5,000 years.

In the 1980’s, it was believed there were more than 350 ancient monuments within a 6 mile radius of the village of Kilmartin, 150 of which are prehistoric. That number has now grown to around 800 as more have been discovered. Monuments include standing stones (such as those at Ballymeanoch), a stone circle (at Temple Wood), a henge monument, numerous cists, and a ‘Linear Cemetery’ (at Nether Largie South), comprising 5 burial cairns.

Several of these, as well as many natural rocks, are decorated with cup and ring marks. (In 2021, rock art depicting animals was discovered inside Dunchraigaig Cairn, estimated to date to between 4,000-5,000 BC – the earliest found in Scotland).

The remains of an Iron Age fortress of the Scots at Dunadd, a royal centre of Dal Riata, are located to the south of the glen, on the edge of the Moine Mhòr (Great Moss) which covers 1,200 acres. Dunadd was the capital of the Ancient Kingdom of Dalriada, and legend has it that the Stone of Destiny was used here in the crowning of the first Kings of Scotland. At the summit, there is a footprint carved into the stone – according to Irish tradition, the King of Dalriada was crowned by placing his foot into this imprint.

All this certainly shows this part of Scotland had a strong concentration of activity back in prehistoric times. There’s been little evidence in the glen with regard to any domestic use, indicating that Kilmartin Glen was potentially largely a ceremonial and perhaps spiritual place.

Kilmartin Glen today

The Kilmartin Glen covers a large area. Generally it’s worth starting at the Kilmartin Museum (which has a model of the glen and an atmospheric audio-visual presentation), but this is closed until 2023. However, there is still a handy cafe nearby and volunteer-led guided walks are available every Wednesday.

Almost next to the museum is Kilmartin Parish Church and graveyard – home to over 23 fine sculptured stones, ranging from 900-1600s. The collection is possibly connected to the nearby medieval power centre at Dunadd Fort.

A mile south of Kilmartin village along the A816, there is a car park from where you can visit the group of sites at Nether Largie South. From here it is a short walk to Temple Wood and its stone circle with a cairn at the centre. Nether Largie South cairn is a short walk away, believed to have been built around 3,000-2,500 BC.

Getting to Kilmartin Glen

Kilmartin Glen is located between Oban and Lochgilphead, surrounding the village of Kilmartin, on the west coast of Scotland. It is part of The Dalriada Heritage Trail walk, which starts at Carnasserie Castle, around 2 miles north of Kilmartin.

It’s easiest to get here by car. Kilmartin is situated close to the A816, about 29 miles south of Oban. Glasgow is 92 miles away – about a 2.5 hour trip.

History of Lewis Chessmen

The Isle of Lewis was the most densely populated Viking colony in the west of Scotland, with the number of Scandinavian village names being evidence of many Viking settlements – 99 out of 126 still exist today.

In 1831, 93 chessmen were found on the beach at Uig. They had been skillfully carved out of walrus and whales’ teeth, and were likely made in Norway some time between 1150 and 1200. They can be dated by the artistic style of the designs on the chair backs of the kings, queens, and some of the bishops.

It is unclear why the Lewis Chessmen were concealed in the sand, and the specifics of how they were discovered. What they have become, however, is one of the most famous and well-loved images of the Viking Age.

Lewis Chessmen Today

Today, 11 of the 93 Lewis Chessmen are housed at the National Museum of Scotland, while the other 82 are at the British Museum in London.

Visitors can see the knights mounted on small horses, carrying spears and shields. Three of the rooks are shown as the legendary savage berserkers, with wild eyes and teeth sunk into their shields in battle fury. In spite of this, it is the appearance of the kings, queens, and bishops that provide a more accurate image of life in the 12th century.

Getting to Lewis Chessmen

In Scotland, the Chessmen are best visited at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. From Edinburgh Waverley Station, and thus Princes Street, the museum is a quick 10 minute walk via South Bridge/A7 and Chambers St. A number of buses also stop at South Bridge, from where the museum is a 3 minute walk.