Pyramids in the Boyne valley

Approximately 40 km north of the capital of Ireland, Dublin, in the county of Meath, in the valley of the Boyne River, there are huge pyramids. These pyramids in the Boyne valley are a thousand years older than the famous Stonehenge and for five hundred years - the Egyptian pyramids in Giza. And they are no less impressive than Stonehenge.

These pyramids in the Boyne valley are a thousand years older than the famous Stonehenge

Thirty-seven small mound mounds surround in the valley of Boyne three huge pyramids - Newgrange, Daut and Naut. All of them belong to the type of so-called corridor tombs: a burial chamber located under the embankment leads a long, narrow corridor built of massive stone blocks. Researchers calculated that the construction of each such pyramid ancient inhabitants of the valley Boyne took at least fifty years. Their age is about 5 thousand years. The pyramids were built in the Neolithic, when the first farmers of Ireland settled in the valley of the Boyne River. Despite the external simplicity of life, these people were skilled builders and astronomers, they were well organized and, apparently, lived in a relative world, because for centuries nobody prevented them from building their giant pyramid-tombs. They did not leave behind any written evidence, and we can not say anything about the organization of their society. Some researchers believe that they used slave labor, while others believe that the pyramids in the Boyne valley were created by the hands of free people. Be that as it may, but by 2750-2250 BC inhabitants of the valley of Boyne built pyramids, which are considered today the largest and most important monuments of megalithic art in Europe.

Three thousand years after the construction of the pyramids in the valley of Boyne came celts. By this time, the Newgrange Pyramids, Daut and Naut probably looked like huge natural hills, and it is no wonder that Celtic leaders chose the largest of the pyramid tombs, Naut, as the site for the construction of the castle.

The last phase of the history of the pyramids in the Boyne valley is associated with the Normans. In 1175 this land, on which the pyramids are located, belonged to the Cistercian monks. Having somehow settled the matter with the monks - whether by force, or by agreeing, the Normans rebuilt the castle on the summit of Nauta and turned it into their stronghold.

In 1699 on the hills of Brune-on-Boyne came the workers, who needed rubble for the construction of the road. And what was their surprise when after several blows of picks from the ground fragments of huge ancient pyramids began to perform!

In the 18th century, the English explorer Charles Wallansi defined one of the three pyramids in the Boyne-Newgrange Valley as the "Sun Cave". Vallancey was convinced that its construction is associated with the ancient calendar rites, and in particular with the holidays of the spring and winter solstice.

The full-scale study of the Newgrange pyramid, begun in 1967 by Professor Michael J. O'Kelly, showed that Newgrange is really oriented in such a way that on the morning of December 21, the day of the winter solstice, the rays of the sun rising above the horizon penetrate through the entrance and illuminate for 17 minutes the interior of the burial chamber. The ancient builders carefully planned this huge structure in such a way that sunlight on the day of the winter solstice could illuminate the graves of their ancestors, resting in the burial chamber of Newgrange.

The ancient builders of the pyramids in the valley of Boyne were also excellent engineers. From a technical point of view, the Irish pyramids are even more complex constructions than the Egyptian pyramids. The diameter of the tomb of Newgrange, for example, is 90 m, the height is about 15 m. The corridor leads to the funerary chamber, which is based on 20-40-ton vertically placed monoliths. The device of the burial chamber is somewhat reminiscent of Stonehenge, only here the stone ring is covered from above with a bulk of earth and rubble. Inside the burial chamber of the pyramid there is a large bowl of ritual purpose, and in the walls are broken niches, where once the cremated ashes of the people buried here were rested.

The entrance to the pyramid marked a circle of stones from 1,5 to 2,5 m in height. Another circle of 97 vertically standing stones surrounded the perimeter of the pyramid tomb. All these stones, as well as the walls of the corridor and funeral chamber are covered with ornamentation, consisting of zigzag lines, triangles, concentric circles.

The largest pyramid in the Boyne Valley and the largest artificial structure of ancient Europe is Naut. The circumference of his embankment is 914 m - almost a kilometer! The central embankment is surrounded by a ring of 127 vertically standing stones (the weight of some of them reaches 5 tons) and 15 smaller graves of various types.

Archaeological research of the Naut pyramid is associated with the name of Professor George Yogan. Having begun excavations in 1962, he led them for 24 seasons, and during this time only one third of the monument was examined. But what was found was enough for a sensation: it turned out that in the depths of this huge round mound, consisting of layers of peat, stone, clay, slate and earth, there are two whole funeral chambers, to which are two corridors each extending more than 30 m!

Fifteen years of hard work, Professor Johan entered a completely untouched funerary chamber (western), in which the last time a man visited five thousand years ago. And on July 30, 1983, another discovery was made: archaeologists discovered a second (eastern) burial chamber. Just like the first, it was completely untouched.

Like Newgrange, Naut is also oriented in such a way that sunlight can get inside the funeral chambers at certain times of the year. These days are the days of the spring and autumn equinox: one of the corridors of Nauta is illuminated by sunlight on March 21, the other on September 23. We do not know why the people who built Naut wanted the ashes of their ancestors to be illuminated by the sun precisely these days, but it is clear that the reason for this was serious enough.

Perhaps the light on many secrets of the pyramids in the Boyne Valley will shed the research of the third pyramid - Dauta, to the excavation of which the archaeologists have just begun.

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